IT IS SAID of James Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing…

The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experiences together.  After having heard of that particular expression so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell’s father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective.  Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: “Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted.”

Few have ever heard of Boswell’s father; many have heard of Boswell.  But in spite of his relative obscurity, he must have managed to set a pace in his son’s life which lasted for a lifetime and beyond.  On one day alone he inlaid along the grain of his son’s life ideas that would mark him long into his adulthood.  What he did not only touched a boy’s life, but it set in motion certain benefits that would affect the world of classical literature.  Too bad that Boswell’s father couldn’t appreciate the significance of a fishing trip and the pace-setting that was going on even while worms were being squeezed on to hooks.  No day is ever wasted in the life of an effective father.  Gordon MacDonald, “No Day is Ever Wasted,” The Effective Father, 79-80

“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”  Ephesians 6:4

Mike Benson