Fathers. Mine in Particular

My dad. When I think back on my childhood and my dad, I can only remember the best parts of my childhood.


My dad, like most, worked a lot. He was dedicated to serving the Lord with a fervor and a servant's heart. Between the 'ranch' --a boy's home-- and his ministry as an evangelist, his time with us kids was sometimes only moments a day or a few hours on the weekends. But in those short times my dad seemed to pack in the best quality time with his kids.


My dad was imaginative and playful. I remember the shows, circus acts, and stories that would engage us kids and have us all diving heads first into my dad's creative world leaving us all full of grins and giggles.



My dad always had an idea. There was never a lack for things to do or time to be bored because if my dad was there he was building a tree fort or assembling one of us a new bike from spare parts that our neighbors had thrown away! We had the best bikes in the block because they were original and every bolt was tightened with the strongest love.


My dad loved us. As a child I can remember, my dad laying with us at night telling us stories about when 'he was a little girl'...he'd start every story time like that and we'd love it. He would get as far as 'once upon a time, when I was a little girl' and we'd laugh so hard that he never finished that particular story, but we'd ask for it every night and our reaction would be the same.


I love my dad. This year has been trying and difficult. I've watched him handle the news of having cancer, being cancer free, and then having to be told that it had reoccured just one year later. His journey has taught me a lot and changed me as a parent. As I recollect my childhood and have watched my dad travel down the road of unknowing what lies ahead, I've learned there are times when I only have moments with my children, I need to make them count. There are moments when I may be tired from a long week at work, but that moment may be the one that they remember as adults. There are hours that will slip away and vanish as if they were only minutes, if I'm not wary, and what in those hours have I taught my children that they'll use as parents someday.

My dad is a great dad. (And my mom claims I'm just like him...just the female version.)





My dad with his grandaughters, reading a story, of course!