Dad's Day

This year Father's Day falls on June 15. Dad always enjoyed years like this. Since he was born on June 15 and got married on June 15 (18 yrs later), on a year like this, he celebrated a triple-special day!

Son, Andy, & Joy had hoped to marry on June 15, but their close friends, Dave & Joyce, snagged the day before they did. Daughter, Faith, & Ken would have liked to marry on June 15, but our idea for a Monday evening wedding was shot down, and we weren't dedicated enough to the idea to wait four years for the 15th to be on a Saturday. Grandson, Paul Jr, & Belinda have the special honor of getting married on June 15 (1996)!

Coincidentally, several other things happened on June 15 in various years: Dad's mother passed away due to injuries sustained from a fall the day before; Dad's first dialysis treatment was given; and a dear friend was killed in a plane crash. (The last two were on the same day.)

Dad wondered if perhaps he might die on June 15 and expressed that wonder from time to time, especially on June 15. He thought that would be "neat." Needless to say, the dialysis nurses and Mom were nervous wrecks the years he had dialysis treatments on June 15!

Not that he told me (or anybody), but I have always thought that when Dad kept holding onto life longer than anyone thought possible, he was trying to make it to June 15. He made it to May 1--only 6 weeks short!

I remember Dad for lots of reasons on lots of days and I miss him on more days than anyone knows, but I realize that in a sense he is always with me. Ken especially hears his admonition and phrases and stories and punchlines continually. Not too long ago he declared that he now knows Dad as well as the rest of us! LoL (That didn't last real long tho. When he read my May 3rd post, he discovered several tidbits of new info about both of my parents.)

I couldn't tell Dad Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary, but I thought of him much today and thanked God for blessing me with such a wonderful father. I remember him speaking with awe of several Biblical parents, wondering how they constructed a spiritual foundation in their children in the few short years they had access to them that when those children were immersed in unGodly cultures and education they did not waver from their faith and loyalty to God: parents of Joseph, Moses, Daniel and the three Hebrew "children." They were Dad's heroes, and he wanted to know their methods!

Well, I don't know that any records of their precise methods exist, but Dad believed that Deuteronomy 6:7 figured in there. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Any job we worked on together that didn't require our complete concentration was opportunity for him to talk with me about spiritual things. Even the shortest trip provided a few minutes for this principle or that. Longer/Long trips, meal times, and family altar allowed for in-depth, intense discussions. He took his teaching responsibilities so seriously, and truthfully, convicted me so terribly (particularly in my teen years) that sometimes I would say, "Do we hafta only talk about spiritual stuff?!" If only I had realized the golden moments I was snubbing!! Notwithstanding my sporadic inattentiveness, however, the incredible amount of training he packed into our 23 years together is still impacting my life. Thank You, God, for my wonderful father!

Two particular principles he drilled into my life were these:

It was his duty to teach me to obey him because if I did not learn to obey him, I would not learn to obey God. Sometimes he would tell me why he wanted me to do this or that and other times not. Sometimes he would say, "This time you must obey me without knowing why I want you to do this simply because you need to learn to obey God even when He does not tell you why He is directing you to do something because that is just part of the reality of the Christian life." Truer words...

The other principle ties into that one--it's about the "mystery bag." When Peter said to Jesus (about John), "what shall this man do?" Jesus replied, "...what is that to thee? follow thou me." Growing up in a Christian ministry setting, I constantly encountered people and situations I could not understand, and I would fume, "How can Christians do that?!" "How can God let this situation be like that?!" "Why won't God do something?!" And Dad would say, "Faith, what is that to thee? Put it in the mystery bag."

(Just in case you have never heard of a "mystery bag," it is a bag that always stretches to hold at least one more item, and it is thrown over your shoulder to be carried behind you. Whenever you encounter a person or situation you can't understand, you put it in the mystery bag. When you get to heaven, you can open it up and ask Jesus whatever you want to about all those things... if they still matter then.)

I never liked Dad saying, "What is that to thee?" or telling me to "put it in the mystery bag" (and sometimes challenged that he just didn't want to discuss things with me), but what a valuable spiritual lesson he taught me!

Again I say, Thank You, God, for my wonderful father!