FATHER'S DAY

As today we celebrate Father's Day in the US today, I am reminded of how thankful I am for wonderful parents. We are all a product of our past and our families. My parents met in late 1967 and married in 1968 after a very brief engagement. In just a few weeks, (July 13) they will celebrate 39 years of marriage. I am sure that when I came along the next year they had no idea that this life they brought into the world would be living thousands of miles away from them in another country. They could not have imagined having three kids with three different last names (it's a long, but beautiful story of God's grace - I'll save it for another Blog on another day!). They could not imagine a daughter with five kids, a son who is a pastor, and another daughter a missionary...and later seven of the most amazing grandkids that they could spoil (how come we never got treated that good?)!

But while they didn't imagine all of these things, God had it in mind all along. He gave mom & dad the wisdom they needed to raise us properly. They were not perfect, but they did teach us the value of hard work: that if we needed something, it would not kill us to work for it! We all started working at age 16, bought our own cars, and paid our own way through college. They also taught us morals & values, with freedom to make our own choices. Yes, it's true that we thought them too strict more often than not, but when we talk about it now, we realize that it wasn't harmful, but actually useful in realizing that life does have boundaries. Despite teenage rebellion and discovering our own way (sometimes the hard way!), in the end I see that mom & dad truly did as the Bible exhorts (Proverbs 22:6) "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Today we all love God (including the grand kids), follow His plan, and live lives that contribute to society and to something greater than we are.

As you celebrate Father's Day today, be thankful not only for the parents that God has given you, but to our heavenly Father, that made life happen. Maybe your earthly father has not been that great. Sometimes that is hard for me to understand because of the wonderful father I have in my dad. However, I do know that no matter the earthly parents we have been given, God is bigger than any pain or harm in our lives.

To all the father’s in the world – THANK YOU.

And to my daddy - I love you very much! (You too, Mom! – Thanks for being a great team!)