To all you Dads... HaPpY FaThErS Day to you!

To all you dads: HaPpY Father's Day to you!

Fathers..... what would we do without them? We wouldn't be here, for one (*smile*); we'd have no life without them. So there's the first thing we can thank them for, regardless at what kind of father they've been.

Some didn't have the greatest fathers in the world. Many don't. Some fathers died short... or opted to leave early. Some disappeared before birth and their kids never knew them at all. I'm sorry for all those that have had to suffer without them... and for all those fathers who'll never know what all that they missed because of what they chose.

Mine?

My daddy was (and still is) the best! Perfect? No. But there's not a thing in this world that I would trade about him. He's supported me, provided for me, protected me, taught me, disciplined me, defended me, and loved me through a whole lot of stuff and a whole bunch of years. He's not a real talkative man, but when he's in the mood... Oh, at the stories that he has to tell! The times are fewer now and far between, but when my siblings and I and all of our kids go home and he starts telling his tales he has us rolling for hours! We laugh until our stomachs are sore! So hard that our faces are distorted to undignified ugly. Even at the things that a long time ago wasn't too pleasant or funny and not laughable at all the time it was first happening. Some of his stories that he tells came before we were... and some after we've been.

I love my dad. I'm thankful for who he was... and who he still is... and for who he's still yet to become.

We're told to honor them, you know. And it doesn't say if they are honorable. God simply tells us to honor our fathers. Wrong or right, mean or not, lovable or unlovable.... somehow we're told to honor them. Deuteronomy 27:16 warns us that we'll be cursed if we don't. If we dishonor them, disgrace them, despise them, treat them with contempt, or treat them shamefully.... then, evil or doom or misfortune or trouble or plague or affliction will fall upon us.

But what if they've treated us that way? What if they've dishonored us? treated us with contempt? treated us shamefully? despised and disgraced us?

Even then!

We're still called to honor.

Even then!

We'll still be cursed if we don't.

Cursed?

That seems rather harsh. That seems mean. Unfair. Undeserved.

Maybe it means it this way,.... maybe it's like when Jesus told His disciples that we're supposed to forgive seventy times seven,.... maybe it's like the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt 18:21-35) who was turned "over to the jailors to be tortured" because he wouldn't forgive after he'd been so lavishly forgiven? Maybe the curse is all the things that imprison and torture us because we still hold onto the hurt... we still resent the one that's hurt us... we hate them.... we've become embittered?

Don't think your father will get away with it. I'm sure he has his own prisons and torturers that he has to battle with each day, because of what he's done... or what he didn't do. But don't think your wrong is any righter (or acceptable to God) than his is. If you won't honor... then you and your father are both wrong... just differently.

Woe, I opened a blogged intending to write something positive about fathers. I'm not sure why I took such a detour or where that came from. Perhaps someone was struggling and this was very much needed? I will say this though, to those of you whose fathers were never ever much of a father at all, I haven't ever been there. There's no way I can relate. I know it's easier for me to have said what I just did because I don't feel your pain and can't imagine the feeling and don't know where you're coming from. But I am sorry though! I'm sorry for your pain. I'm sorry for your hurt. I'm sorry that you can... and that you've had to suffer and try to live through it. I hope you let God to take a bad thing (an evil thing) in your life and use it for good.

Psalm 68:5 and 6 talks about God being a father to the fatherless and how He "sets the lonely in families." Wow! If you've not got an earthly father.... you sure have a Heavenly One! If you're lonely.... is there a family that God Himself has set and placed you in? If not now?.... perhaps He's planning to and preparing you one? Regardless of what kind of earthly father you've got.... we sure have the Ultimate Father in our God! And a Savior that saves in His Son!

To all you fathers out there that fight the battle everyday... fighting FOR your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes (Neh 4:14), more power to ya! May God bless you greatly!

To all of you that are painfully laboring through the sweat of your brow over the thorns and thistles that your jobs produce daily (Gen 3:17-19), though it's tremendously hard and challenging, don't forget to be thankful for the "daily bread" that you are given each day... just enough manna for the day to sustain you. I know it gets hard. But your God is Faithful! And He's faithful to give us exactly what we need in the very time that we need it.... whether we get exactly what we think we need or not.... He is our Shepherd, we shall not want.

To the fathers that have failed your children, it's not too late to work to redeem it. God can help you ransom and redeem what the locust has eaten. He's mighty to save... even after we've mightly blown it.

HaPpY Father's Day to all you fathers out there... no matter where you are or you've been on your journey. May God reach you and teach you and mold you and make you into an earthly father that imitates and looks just like Him when done!

And to my Dad.... I'll never be able to thank you enough. Daddy. You've been the ultimate! You've loved unendingly and unfailingly. You've fought for us and sacrificed. You strove to raise us "right" and showed us our Heavenly Father... not only in words, but also by example. I've felt safe under your wings. You have been a stronghold that I've always felt comfortable running to. You are a pillar that is stable and strong in God's Word. Your wisdom astounds me. You've faced sickness for so long... and surely have longed to move on Home, and yet your love for us has given you determination to fight to still stay here on earthly soil so that you can help us in all of our needs. Wow, at all that you've done! You encourage me and inspire me. I want to be like you when I grow up!

I'll say one more thing and then hush. I got the greatest compliment the other day. A girl wrote to me and said, "You are your father's daughter." It made me cry! What a compliment! Your love for God and your want to spread God's word and love to others bled out through you to me. I caught it, dad! I caught your love for Him and your wonder! I am awed by you! I thank YOU for your love and tenacity for Jesus! You gave me the greatest gift! I treasure the gift that you've given!