Ernest Istook: “I want to thank all the fathers who do it right. A good father should first be a good husband and show his children by…”

“I want to thank all the fathers who do it right. A good father should first be a good husband and show his children by example the love and respect that their mother should receive. A father is one who is there, who quietly and faithfully sees needs and fills them. From diapers to bicycles to homework to growing to adulthood, fathers must be powerful forces of leading by quiet example. Fathers keep things strong and solid, but they keep it simple. My father set an example for hard work. He came home for dinner. He stayed with the family in the evening, but he had his own business to build and he went back to work late and would work until midnight and then be back home. He set an example. My father helped me through college, the first to my knowledge in my whole family tree, to get a college degree. When I married, my wife's father took it on himself to stock our kitchen and our pantry with its first set of food and supplies for us. Simple but significant. I hope and pray that I will be as good a father to my five children as my father has been to his five children and someday my two sons will be to theirs. Fathers like it simple. So to mine and all of ours, I simply say, thanks, Dad.”