[Darris McNeely] Fifty years ago on a trip to Israel, summer adventure, I started to keep a journal of that summer, that trip to Israel, Greece, Europe, and all my travels and experiences. I still keep a journal. This is my current journal that I use just about every day to keep thoughts and notes and ideas in.

A few days ago, I pulled off of my shelf the journal that I started to keep 50 years ago, and I was paging through it. I wanted to know what was I thinking and what was I writing and what was I experiencing that day. One of the things that I read, an entry was a day in August, where I had a fishing trip with my father. And I didn't catch anything that day. In fact, my dad, I think, caught a five-pound bass on that day. But as I read through that entry, I could smell the lake, the old fishing boat that my dad had. And I could remember and think through an experience with my dad that I had more than 50 years ago. In fact, one that I had forgotten all about. I remembered it because I wrote it down, which is another point about keeping a journal, the importance of doing that. But I got to thinking about my dad, and the fatherhood.

You know, we've gone through Mother's Day and Father's Day here, as I do this daily here, but in one sense, every day should be a Father or a Mother's Day, in terms of our respect, love, and thoughts about our parents. But as I thought about my dad, and I thought about the experiences with him and all that I learned from him, and that one particular day, it made me realize just how valuable my family was and how valuable a father is to a family.

Now, I know that in today's society, we have begun to re-engineer the family and even begun to re-engineer sexuality and gender. And we're into the gender debates and the culture wars that we are on right now. And just recently, I noted that the United States Supreme Court at least made a ruling for the time that is good for this particular issue because they ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia. And the fact that they could still hold to their traditional values of not placing foster children in same-sex marriages, same-sex homes, and in other words, bowing the knee to the LGBTQ movement that is relentlessly moving its agenda in culture today. And so, it was a win for traditional families. And I got to thinking about that as I read my journal entry and the importance of fathers, and mothers, intact families, and what they do to us.

Study after study continues to show the value of having a family and a father in the family. It is a core feature of society that is good. And regardless of the trends, regardless of the ideas that are taking us in a different direction today, what Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew 19, regarding the fact that male and female created He them. And for this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and a wife, her father and mother, and the two come together to form one flesh. In Matthew 19, Jesus is reaffirming the traditional family, a man and a woman united in marriage, in a family in that relationship, where children can either be placed in those types of families, or we are born into those families and have them intact, we're going to be better off in spite of the flaws, the human problems that are also a part of family life.

My family wasn't perfect. My father wasn't perfect. I long ago made my peace with the issues in my family and the flaws of both of my parents and I remember them fondly with honor as the scriptures tell me to do, which I encourage you to do as well because that will bring blessing in your life. And you can bank it, you can count on it from the very word of God, that His word stands true to this day.

And so, as I remember a day with my dad, 50 years ago, this summer, and a fishing trip, and the experiences and it brought all that back to me because I happen to write it down and had the ability to pull it up, it was a warm and fulfilling moment for me. And I hope that you can have those as well. And I hope that you will think through very carefully what God's Word says about a father and a mother in a traditional family, in a biblical family. That's the way God designed it. And that's what's important.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.