Father’s Day is just a week away, and it got us thinking about the lessons that stay with us long after childhood. Some fathers taught us practical skills—how to change a tire, cast a fishing line, balance a checkbook, or work with our hands. Others taught us something less tangible but just as important: patience, kindness, perseverance, or how to treat people with respect.
The older many of us get, the more we realize how often those lessons show up in everyday life. Maybe it’s a phrase your father repeated so many times that you can still hear it today. Maybe it’s advice you didn’t fully appreciate until years later. Or perhaps it’s an example he set through his actions rather than his words.
Of course, fathers come in many forms. For some, it was a stepfather, grandfather, uncle, mentor, coach, or another father figure who made a lasting impact. Whoever filled that role, chances are they left you with a lesson you’ll never forget.
So we’d love to hear from you: What did your father—or father figure—teach you? Tell us in a few sentences below by filling out the form. We’ll publish a selection of your responses in next week’s issue as we celebrate the fathers and father figures who helped shape our lives. Thank you!
RVT1265
I like to think my father taught me to greet everyone with a smile because it just might be your new friend. On the other hand, he taught me to keep an eye on strangers, because you just never know.
My father taught me that they would have been happy to have had lima beans and liver when he was a kid. I’m not so sure…
Patriotism, the rewards of hard work, and treating people with the respect they have earned.
To always do your best…
He taught me that my preferred answer comes easier if I check with mother first and how to correctly hold a knife and fork just in case the queen shows up for supper, for which I am truly grateful.
😎✌️
My father taught me that I had a loving father in heaven and his son gave his life for me
that I may have an eternal life in him. My father often said and acted in away that goodness
and mercy shall follow all the days of my life, if I wood do unto others as I would do for my self, to respect other people and be a peace maker. My father was a carpenter, and tradesman, who show me what I could do for myself. We hunted and fished, traveled the USA so I could see and understand the world around me. He left me an inheritance that has lasted all my life, and the lives of all my children, and their children as well.