Your Favorite Veteran – Veterans Day 2009

Remember your Veteran

Once again this Veterans day I am providing a place for readers to tell the story of their favorite veteran.

Most of us had the unfortunate opportunity to have the ultimate sacrifice veteran have made over the years clearly broadcast and brought to mind through the Fort Hood attack and the resulting memorial service. Horrible as it is, it was a clear reminder to all Americans.

Before you go, take a moment to comment on this blog about Your favorite Veteran. My readers and I would be extremely grateful and proud to read about those who have and still are putting their country ahead of their personal ambitions to make our lives a little safer.

I will lift each one up in a prayer of thanksgiving for their sacrifice, and pray for their good health and protection. I further encourage everyone who reads these accounts to do the same. It is the least we can do on this Veterans Day 2009.

God Bless you all and God Bless the United States of America

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

Thanks to http://www.freerepublic.com for the Picture

Lesson of the Itsy Bitsy Spider

When my daughter was very small, she had a favorite song she would sing, very loudly, often for hours at a time.

 This song is one most, if not all, of us know very well. “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”. Just mentioning the song has many of you singing it right now.

 Like many children, my daughter, when she was first learning the song, replaced some of the correct words she could not remember, with something else so she could continue the song.

 In her case she added the words “whumpa whumpa”. Here is how it went:

 “The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

And the whumpa whumpa spider went up the water spout

Down came the rain…..”

The effect of this addition was, it created a closed loop that never reached an ending. On long road trips, this became quite annoying for her brothers who had to sit in the back seat and hear the never ending song. Eventually, eliciting a desperate plea to “make her stop!”

It’s funny how we now look back and cherish some of the annoying things our children do because it is part of what has made them uniquely who they are today.

As fathers we sometimes add a “whumpa whumpa” to how we live our lives.

Physically, emotionally, and spiritually we add a “whumpa whumpa” and get locked into a never ending loop of responses, actions, reactions, thoughts, and etc. This “whumpa whumpa” causes those around us, as well as us, to become frustrated with the way our lives are going.

We keep doing the same things over and over without seeing any change in our lives. In fact, like the siblings in the back seat on a long road trip, we find ourselves digressing into destructive or argumentative behavior and not growing in a positive way.

Many of the American Indian tribes believed that life is a great spiral beginning at birth and ending in the afterlife joined with the Great Spirit. The expectation was always that what you see today you will see again in the future. The trick is that as you complete each circle, in life, you should not be seeing things from the same perspective. You must see things from a higher vantage point or you are not moving closer to the Great Spirit.

If we use our Father God as our example of perfect fatherhood, we will find ourselves constantly searching for new pearls of wisdom to become better fathers. As we seek we will learn more about our Father God and be drawn closer to Him.  Thus we will spiral ever closer and as we complete each circle in life, we will see the past in a different way,

Like when we look back on the annoying actions of our children and cherish them as part of what makes them uniquely who they are, we will be able to look at the things we face today and cherish them, no matter how bad they seem today, as what is forming us into better fathers who are more aligned with the perfect Father God.

Do not allow the “whumpa whumpa”, in your life’s moments, to lock you into a never ending loop of immature fatherhood.

Break free and climb the water spout again.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

The Extraordinary Man

I was thinking about some things I learned a few years ago, back to February of 2005 to be exact. It was then I had the opportunity to hear a particular message from Rick Godwin.

Rick’s message was about taking risks and how important it is to be willing to take risks in your life. There was one statement he made that hit me so hard, it still impacts me today. He said, “you can change the world…start with yourself, by becoming extraordinary”.

One thing I have learned over the years is it is very difficult to become something unless you understand what it is.

Extraordinary [ik-strawr-dn-er-ee, ek-struh-awr-] adjective
1. beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established: extraordinary costs.
2. exceptional in character, amount, extent, degree, etc.; noteworthy: remarkable: extraordinary speed; an extraordinary man. (Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com)

In Hebrew, the word we translate for extraordinary is yotzai dofen; (lit. “go out from the wall.”) Balashan-Hebrew Language Detective, February 16, 2006; it is the word used in the Hebrew language for cesarean section.

Cesarean Section, as you know, is the act of opening the mothers womb and removing the child. Often this act is performed to save both the life of the child and the mother.

For fathers, this reference to an act performed on a mother takes on an even more significant note when we think of the world around us as having such a significant impact upon who we are. Both good and bad, the world around us has molded us into the person/personality we are today.

If we continue on in who we are now, with no change, we will not only continue to perpetuate the past, through our children, but we will never grow to a point that we can make a difference in our world.

Cesarean section is not without pain, danger, or complications. This is where the risk comes in. As fathers we must be willing to change the world through yotzai dofen. We must “go out from the wall”, for at the wall there is protection, security, even warmth, but we must move away from the wall. Away from the wall, away from the shadows cast, there the light can shine directly on us and things become much clearer. We will see things in a new light, the clarity of which has the potential to change the world.

As a society we have walled ourselves in to protect our children and not allow them the exposure to risk.

A wall we fiercely protect and sustain with every financial and physical advantage we can give. Our children have little opportunity to change the world. From birth to graduation from college, we maintain the wall and then turn them loose on a world that is in need of extraordinary people to save it. With few tools at their command, true change is not likely to happen.

Our ancestors did not have the luxury of walling in their children. They had to learn to adapt. They had no 401k, no social security, not pension, just extraordinary faith. Extraordinary faith is the basis for extraordinary risk and thus extraordinary acts. Extraordinary acts performed by extraordinary men creating extraordinary change that made this world great.

Today, we must “go out from the wall,” for if we do not, we can’t expect to change the world.

Become an extraordinary father

En servicio como padre
Dave

Your shoe size and success

Recently, as we were driving home from church, my son, sitting in the back seat, was contemplating his shoe size. Reading the tag under the tongue of the shoe, he observed that in Britain his shoe was a 6.5, in the US a 7.5, in Asia a 26, and in Europe it was a 40.5. For a second he was silent, then he commented “in Europe, my shoe is sure big.”

Although he knew it was the same size in all countries, he was attempting to say the European number sure is a different measure than here in the United States.

Sitting here recounting his observations, it strikes me that this little exchange has an application to us as fathers.

One of the basic things we need to know to be a good father is “who” we are.

When we were born we had all the DNA, physical as well as spiritual, we will ever have. Being born helpless, we were dependent upon our mother and father for everything. We had all the bodily functions we do as adults, but our perspective was ruled by our basic need to survive.

Who knew what we would become, especially us, being we only saw things from the measure of satisfaction for the moment.

We were us, and our measure of success was very simple.

As we grew, we entered into early childhood. Here we began to step out of helplessness and try out some of our independence. Given the choice between a red or a green truck, we would choose which to play with based upon our desires of the moment. We might, in that moment, prefer the color red over the color green, and we would exercise the power of choice without dependence upon our parents.

Although still dependent upon our parents for basic needs, we were given the freedom to choose, within some limitations. Most us us learned to recognize the benefits and consequences of our choices. Although more complexity was introduced into them, our measures of success were still relatively simple.

Our measures of success had changed, but we were still us and we had an idea who we were.

We flash forward; now to our teen years. Radical changes begin in our bodies. We grow hair in places we never had before, our height and weight seem to change overnight, our voices seem to be out of control most of the time, and we think we are ready to be independent of our parents.

Discovery of the opposite sex, suddenly complicates our lives and what was a measure of success just days before, now has no meaning at all. Success now has varying levels of attain ability.

Our measures of success now are determined largely by those who are our peers. We struggle to find ourselves in a sea of conflicting priorities, yet we are still us, albeit, we are harder for us to find.

We turn around and find ourselves in adulthood. We have found our mate and have begun to raise children of our own. Success now has multiple dimensions.

The stakes here are huge. If we fail in any one of them, those who have come to depend on us could be harmed. Our measure of success now has little to do with us. Others are now defining much of what success is for us. Or so we think.

After all, we are still us, but we have forgotten who we are.

This is the time we need to take a moment to peer inside and examine our definition of success. What are our measures and where have they come from?

The complications of life today threaten to bury us and hide our spiritual DNA forever.

If we take a few moments to assess our measures of success against the simplicity of who we were at the beginning, we will find that we are still us and that is all anyone wants us to be.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

The Salt Lick

I sat on the deck early one Saturday morning savoring both the strong cup of coffee in my hand and the quiet rustle of the trees as a morning breeze navigated its way through the leaves. It was a time with no distractions and was ripe for contemplation and stealing a moment of silence with my God.

In my eyes corner, I noticed a slight movement. I sat very still trying not to move and in the process frighten the gentle creatures that entered my bastion of contemplation.

It was a mama deer and two small fawns.

As I watched, the trio cautiously approached the salt lick, I placed under a tree several months earlier, each took their turn taking in the salt, minerals and vitamins the brick red block provides.

I contemplated the scene before me. What was it about the salt lick that drew these three, and countless other animals who share the rural Georgia land on which I live?

Salt is a basic mineral that is necessary to life. Without it there would likely be no intelligent life on this earth.

“Chloride and sodium ions, the two major components of salt, are necessary for the survival of all known living creatures, including humans. Salt is involved in regulating the water content (fluid balance) of the body.” (Wikipedia)

Salt is a preservative, a flavoring, and was so valuable in history, Roman solders were partially paid in salt, and ancient merchants traded salt ounce for ounce for gold.

Salt represents longevity and endurance. It is durable and lasts for centuries.

“Salt has played a vital part in religious ritual in many cultures, symbolizing immutable, incorruptible purity.” http://www.saltinstitute.org

Depending upon which resource you use, salt is mentioned 30-41 times in the bible. Once such reference is Numbers 18:19:

“All the holy offerings that the People of Israel set aside for God, I’m turning over to you and your children. That’s the standard rule and includes both you and your children – a Covenant-of-Salt, eternal and unchangeable before God.” The Message

Salt was to be added to every sacrifice made by the ancient Hebrews. Salt was a symbol of the everlasting covenant between God and His people.

For those of us today, we are a part of that ancient covenant through the shed blood of Jesus.

Salt is significant in both physical and spiritual life. Without it there is no hope and no life.

After several minutes the big doe raised her head and stopped her gaze directly on me. She did not panic, she wasn’t even startled, she knew I was there all the time. In her eyes was a look of trust and even thanksgiving.

As I watched; the trio slowly made their way through the trees in my back yard and casually disappeared in the forest. Leaving me alone with my thoughts and contemplations.

En servicio como padre
Dave

Natural Light

How many times have you heard someone say, “she has a glow about her” or “he just seems to radiate…”. Most of the time we say these things without much deep thought about what we are actually saying. It just seems like the right thing to say and it describes the feeling we are having at the time.

Over the past few years I have come to believe there is a much deeper connection between our words with the world, particularly the spiritual world, around us.

That being said, you can imagine how excited I was when I read the article in Yahoo News titled “Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light“. This article describes a study done by scientists in Japan. An excerpt follows:

“scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.” Charles Q. Choi; Special to LiveScience; LiveScience.com – Wed Jul 22, 10:32 am ET

Not only does the human body glow, but virtually all living creatures give off very weak light. Science is finally proving what we have known in spirit for many years.

Genesis 1:26 God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.” (The Message)

Exodus 34:29-30 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw his radiant face, and held back, afraid to get close to him. (The Message)

Proverbs 4:18 The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker- travelers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces. (The Message)

Fathers, are we not designed to reflect God’s nature? He has made us to follow his example. It is our responsibility to be what God has made us to be. No matter how weak we see our light, we must allow it to glow as the light of right-living people. If we do, we can live a long life showing brightly the love we have for our wives, our children, for others, and especially for our God.

Let your light shine. Glow with love, after all it is natural.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

H.O.P.E a Pathway to the Future

Over the past few days I have watched the world news with a new perspective. In the past it would just make me angry to see how the people of this world are being manipulated by a few people in high places.

How could the people of today so easily buy into the arguments that are so obviously tainted and presented in a way that supports the views of a few, while the world, as a whole, is in such pain?

Have we no hope? Then, it hit me; there must be a message in hope we are missing.

As I prayed about hope, a new perspective began to form in my spirit. Hope, although a state of mind is also a metaphor for a process each of us must go through. The world as a whole is in one of the steps of H.O.P.E., but each individual must seek to get through all steps if they can fully understand why they are here on this earth.

I will begin by explaining the four steps;

H – Hosea 10:3

“They go around saying, “Who needs a king? We couldn’t care less about God, so why bother with a king? What difference would he make?” (The Message)

In this step we believe we are capable of everything. We have all the knowledge we need and we are full of self love, self confidence, and pride. We believe we have most, if not all the answers and anyone who disagrees with us is ignorant or at least unenlightened. We are the masters of our lives and have full trust in our own ability to govern and direct our lives.

Many people throughout history have been is this step. I believe that is where America was just prior to the Great Depression. Laws had little meaning; authority of any kind was just a hindrance to what the people wanted to do. Spending was out of control and people thought the end of prosperity could never end. But it did.

The people of Germany were in this stage just prior to World War II. They managed to come out of the debt and demoralization of a loss in World War I and were now well on their way to becoming a world power. No one would ever step on them again. The Jewish people in Germany, and all of Europe for that matter, were some of the most prosperous people in the world. Their skills and influence were unrivaled anywhere, no one would lie to them, they were too aware of the world around them. And along came Hitler.

O – Obadiah 1:7

“All your old partners will drive you to the edge. Your old friends will lie to your face. Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back. Your world will collapse. You won’t know what hit you”. (The Message)

Human failings; those in whom you thought you could trust; let you down. They didn’t just let you down; they dropped you, and then turned against you. In this step you learn about treachery and betrayal. You found that you did not have all the answers as you thought in the earlier step, now you put your trust in someone who thinks like you. Perhaps it was a catchy campaign slogan, or maybe it was similarities in human endeavor. What ever the connection, you put your trust in another person or group. They turned against you like a jackal after a piece of meat.

I have seen a lot of people in this step in the Church. Even more lately in the business world, with the layoffs and the wild fluctuations in the economy. Putting your trust in another man is doomed to turn out badly and leave you hurting.

P – I Peter 1:22

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (NKJV)

In this step you enter into obedience. You finally come to the point that you no longer trust in your own ability to make the right choices. You recognize that there must be something more than what you have experienced in life to date. You have failed yourself, other people and theories have failed you, now you must recognize your weakness and turn to the power of a God who is never changing. Consistency and security are the major drivers for you to seek out some relationship with God.

You are looking for healing and you find it in the arms of a loving God.

E – Emanuel

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which being interpreted is, “God with us”). (KJ21)

This is the realization of hope. When you finally come to the realization that God is truly with us, when He becomes more than a great and terrible entity that no one can look on much less touch, when intimacy with Jesus becomes reality in you life. This is hope.

God with us means so much more than the name Mary gave a baby. God with us was the proclamation of the journey every man must make from that day forward. The journey through every step of HOPE ending with a personal and intimate relationship with the God of all creation. The journey that moves from love of self to real love.

Someone very close to me, who lives on the other side of our great country, must have been touched by the same spirit that encouraged this blog. In her blog, Joy In the Morning, she writes about the death of hope. But it is, in the end, the realization that “the death of Hope in reality is the death of what I thought should happen and the resurrection of what truly should be”.

There in lies the truth about hope; it is a journey from self dependence to complete dependence. This journey is the process called H.O.P.E.

En servicio como padre
Dave

Providence

Not too far from my home, here in the state of Georgia, is a beautiful canyon named Providence Canyon. The canyon is made up of several gorges that intersect, the deepest being about 150 feet. The canyon walls offer incredible views of soil layers colored in various reds, white, browns even black. The canyon is often called, by the locals, the Grand Canyon of Georgia.

Having grown up in Arizona, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when I first saw Providence Canyon because I expected something more vast. That being said, Providence Canyon offers a view that is hard to get in many parts of our great country.

What makes this such an awesome place is the history. Providence canyon is not the result of millions of years of erosion caused by a mighty river, it is not even the result of thousands of years of wind and rain erosion. Providence Canyon is just short of 200 years old.

Historical accounts indicate that the canyon began forming in the early 1800s as the result of poor soil-management practices. Most of the native forest had been cleared to allow for farming. Early-nineteenth-century farmers in this region took no measures to avoid soil erosion their attention being on farming the land. Small gullies formed and rapidly grew deeper by 1850 ditches three to five feet deep had been cut into the land, further concentrating runoff and increasing the rate of erosion. By the early 1900s, chasms had given way to gorges and homes and even the Providence Methodist church fell victim to the rampant erosion.

By contrast, in 1947, Cason Jewell Callaway purchased a 13,000 acre cotton farm that had been farmed to the extent that it had been stripped of it’s nutrients. Through selective agriculture and environmental management practices the Callaway family turned what could have been an environmental disaster into one of the most beautiful places in the United States, Callaway Gardens.

The contrast of these two stories is interesting enough in itself. But as a father, they point to a lesson for all of us.

Every family, at some time, is subject to circumstances that leave us vacant and stripped of all apparent value. Our actions and those of others often begin to cause small rivulets in the fundamental fabric of what is our family. If left unchecked, these small rivulets become gauges that eventually become irrevocable gorges.

It is our responsibility as fathers to correct the damage caused by societal pressures and put down and feed the roots of strong family values. Teaching and modeling stong Christian ethics and honesty will nourish a healthy and growing family.

It is not providence when a child or a whole family fails. Providence is just the opposite. The American Heritage Dictionary defines providence as:

prov·i·dence (prv-dns, -dns) NOUN: 1. Care or preparation in advance; foresight. 2. Prudent management; economy. 3.The care, guardianship, and control exercised by a deity; divine direction: “Some sought the key to history in the working of divine providence” (William Ebenstein). 4. Providence God. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.)

Like Cason Jewell Callaway, it is our providence to invest in what some would see as failure and turn it into something beautiful.

As fathers it is our calling, by a loving God, to use care, guardianship, and control to provide divine direction.

With His help we can not fail.

En Servicio Como Padre

Dave

True Warriors Wear Pink

A few days ago, I happened to wear a very nice pink shirt to the office.  As I settled in to begin the day, a coworker walked past my office; “Good morning Dave” was his greeting, to which I gave an equally cheery retort.  “I takes a real man to wear pink”, were his next words.

 I’ve heard those words before, most often in jest, a kind of friendly banter between men that seems to happen any time more than one man is present in the same place.  This time, though, the words pricked something in me that caused me to ponder the concept as a father.

 It’s not one of those macho things.  I’ve long ago learned there is little in that mind set that really helps a father be what he is meant to be.  It caused me to ask myself; what sets you, as a father, apart from other men?

 It is often in man’s nature to be competitive.  Competition is valued in society today.  The more competitive you are the better the chance to be successful in business.  It is the mantra of the millennial man.  Competition often defines who the world thinks we are. 

 It can’t be all bad.  After all, it is that competitive spirit that helped early man feed and protect his family, but competition only takes a father so far.  At some point, the competition, if too strong, begins to tear away at the relationships with a father’s children and even with his spouse. 

 I have known several men in my years who could rightly be described as a giant.  These men were all over 6 feet 9 inches tall and were imposing in their very presence.  Some were fathers others were married, with no children, and all were noticed when the entered any room.  Today, I still have contact with a couple of them but it is not their sheer size that would cause me to set them apart as a father.  An equally large woman would likely be just as imposing but probably could not be described as a father.  I have known great fathers who were as short as these men were tall.

 My position in life has given me the opportunity to meet many men who have been very successful in their selected career field.  These men are entrusted with large sums of money or large segments of a company.  They have shown their ability to understand business and to encourage others to follow the mission they have conveyed.  They are eloquent in their speech and adept at getting their point across in a manner that is accepted by their most ardent opposition.  Some lead hundreds, others thousands as they guide their company along the road to success.  They are successful by almost any standard but that alone doesn’t set them apart as a father.

 Fatherhood is by all accounts a battle.  When their child is born, a father begins to fight against everything that would attempt to harm or negatively influence his child.  Sometimes the battles are perceived and some are misinterpreted but others are very real.

 The warrior father stands between every potential danger and at the same time guards the pathways to a child’s heart.  He alone holds a secret entrance that can only be unlocked by the keys of influence.  As a child watches their father the influence key unlocks understanding and a child grows in knowledge and stature.

 Clarence Budington Kelland, the American writer of the 20’s, most noted for his fiction and short stories published in magazines of the time, explained it best when he described his father with the following:

 “He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it”. Clarence Budington Kelland

 Proverbs 4:1-4 describes the power of influence the warrior father has with his child;

1.Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice; sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live.2.I’m giving you good counsel; don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.3.When I was a boy at my father’s knee, the pride and joy of my mother,4.

He would sit me down and drill me: “Take this to heart. Do what I tell you – live!  (The message)

 The warrior father is differentiated by the tenacity by which he fights for what he loves and by the compassion which he metes upon his family.  The child of the warrior father learns by his example and in the long run recognizes that it really does take a real man to wear pink.

En servicio como padre

Dave

Honor your father

Ephesians 6:1-4

1 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. 2 ”Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, 3 ”so you will live well and have a long life.” 4 Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master. (The Message)

As this Fathers Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on many things.  I think of my own father, how in many ways he was distant and a man of few words.  He was hard working and was skilled in so many areas I only wish, today, that I had spent more time with him learning from him.  He was not a perfect father, no, far from it.  He was quick to temper and often disciplined out of temper rather than strategic learning.  He was not formally educated and did not encourage me to excel in school.  He was not rich and was not a master of financial investment or budgetary restraint.

No, my father was not perfect, but he loved his children.  No matter how much discipline he meted out, or how much he would yell at us when we pushed his buttons, we all knew he loved us.

My most vivid memory of my father was on the day I was leaving to go into the military.  It was during the Vietnam War, and I left a perfectly good job to sign up for the military.  I was certain I would be drafted and would have little control over the branch of service I would enter, so I chose to get ahead of the game and enlist.  When I told my parents, they were livid.  They could not understand why I would enlist and not take my chances on the draft.  My mother was so mad she would not talk to me.  My father, trying to keep the peace in his own way, went to his work shed and made himself scarce.  I felt my whole family was against my decision.

Early the next morning I boarded a Greyhound bus headed for the big city of Phoenix Arizona where I would go through my final activities before heading off to basic training.  I said my goodbyes to my girlfriend the night before so I was by myself at 6:00 a.m. as I looked around the town of my birth for what could be the last time. 

From the bus window I scanned the small Arizona town until my eyes fell upon a man standing in the shadows.  It was my father.  I hurried off the bus like a salmon swimming up stream against the flow of others boarding the same bus.  As I walked up to my father, he extended a hand shake, his way of saying goodbye.  

He then reached in his pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill.  It was all he ever carried.  To him it was his lifeline. He used that ten dollars to buy his tobacco and papers to roll his own cigarettes.  It was money he kept in case of an emergency.  With a family of eight kids and a janitors position, it was a lot of money to him.  With that he stuffed the bill in my pocked and said “thought you might need this”.

Those words though not eloquent or ground shaking in the least, were powerful to my soul.  My father took all he had and invested it in me, knowing I would not fail.  His few words were supportive in that he arose early and made his way to the bus stop in support of what I was doing.  In those few words he more than communicated his love to me.

I only saw my father a few times in the years that followed that night.  Life had taken me far from home and my visits were few and short.  One day as I arrived home from work my wife met me and said she just received a phone call that my father was gravely ill and the family was being called in to see him for the last time. 

I did not get home in time, my father died while I was in route, by train, to my home town.

Was my father a hero?  Was my father a master of fatherhood?  No, not in the eyes of any outsider who knew little of him.  But to me, and to my brothers and sisters, he was all of those things and more.  He was a man who sacrificed all to show his love.

En servicio como padre

Dave

Please take a moment to honor a father your have come to know as a hero.  Tell me and my readers about this father, in the comments below, and we will help you honor him this weekend in our prayers and thoughts.  Then email this link to others that they might also receive the promise of Ephesians 6:2.

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