In Memory of my Dad - Happy Father's Day!

Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;

 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

photo from zoom50.wordpress.com

I want to write this post in honor of my Dad. He had my greatest respect, trust and love and I will forever hold him dear in my heart. My Dad passed away in July 2004...I love you dearly Dad. It's been a while but we shall meet in heaven some sweet day.

My Dad

photo from funjooke.com

As I think about my Dad, I wonder how he became the gentle, kind and generous man that he was. I wonder if being a Dad to six little girls would help build those characteristics into a man.  He loved my mother , he could make my mom's eyes twinkle beautifully like nothing else except  his tender love ever could. He was fun to be around, joking around with us girls often times. But he was faithful to the calling of God on his life as a husband and father and a preacher of the gospel. We lived out in the country on a small farm milking cows and selling the cream and farming some land.

Now to start with a few special memories - I remember as a little girl oftentimes playing hair dressup with him. He would sit on the chair and allow me and my sister to give him a "hairdo".  We would comb his hair anyway we wanted and pin it up with bobby pins. Usually we would end off the hairdressing session by adorning him with a kerchief just like my mother would always wear. That was so much fun for us. Or he would sit on a chair in the kitchen and stretch out his legs and we would use his legs as a slide. - Climb up onto his lap and slide down over and over. Also very fun. One day I remember we had company over and my Dad and his guest were in the basement visiting.  I ( his little girl) decided to go downstairs also but I took a huge tumble down the stairs but guess what - Dad was right there at the bottom of the stairs ready to catch me before I got down too far and I didn't get hurt at all.  One time my Mom had her ironing board out and had been ironing clothes. I didn't know that the iron was still hot and I placed my whole hand flat on the iron. Why I would do such is beyond me but as I remember my Dad spent the rest of the evening tending to my hand, helping me to cool it and keep me comfortable. That is just the kind of man he was - always thinking of others.

His tender spirit would show up from time to time. I can still see him in my mind sitting on his favorite chair in the livingroom listening to a record on the old record player. ( Now we have CDs but back then we had records and eight track cassettes) I can see him sitting there listening to his record of Jim Reeves singing the song "Daddy, my Daddy teach me how to pray" The song was about a little boy coming and asking his Dad to teach him how to pray. The lines went something like -"........ You've taught me lots today, You brought me home a brand new kite and taught me how to fly, there ain't no other kid whose Dad can knock a ball so high, I want to thank God for you, but I don't know what to say - So Daddy, my Daddy, teach me how to pray......." It was a really nice gentle song and I saw my Dad fight back the tears every time he would hear that song play. It seemed that it touched his heart as a Father in a special way. 

Thank-you Heavenly Father for my Dad. Amen.