How Would You Spend One More Day with Your Dad?

By Jim Daly , CP Contributor

June 17, 2012|10:09 am

Here's the scenario: If you could turn back the clock and spend one last day with your father, what would you do?

If your dad is still living, what would be the ideal way to enjoy his company?

Father's Day, which is this coming Sunday, doesn't receive nearly the same degree of attention as Mother's Day. Nevertheless, millions of dads will still be hailed as heroes, and rightly so.

Not everyone has a happy story or good memories of their upbringing. My own situation was less than ideal. My father broke promises with regularity and eventually broke my heart, too. But I have chosen to forgive him, choosing instead to remember one particularly glorious day by his side.

It was Saturday June 23, 1973. That was the day he took me to a doubleheader at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles lost the first game against the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1. Tommy John threw a complete game in the nightcap though, and we went home with a 5-1 victory.

That I remember so vividly two games that nearly everyone forgets, including those who played them, I believe, is a testament to the power of a dad in a child's life. All I wanted was to be "normal" – to be like all the kids who had a dad holding their hand. It rarely happened, but on June 23rd it did, and so it's seared in my memory. A golden day frozen in time.

Last week I shared about a touching story which was penned by John Strege, a friend and writer for Golf Digest.In case you missed it, I'm going to share it here again because it connects perfectly with this topic. But before I let you go, I'd be interested to know how you would respond to my initial question:

If you had the power to visit one more day with your dad, what would you say? What would you do?

Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame-honored daily broadcast, heard by more than 2.9 million listeners a week on more than 1,000 radio stations across the U.S.