Happy Father's Day!

Hi there! Happy Father's Day! If you're not a Father you came from one, so happy day to you, too. (*wink!*) There are four Fathers I want to honor tonight ~ and in so doing I will hopefully honor more than the four I mention because every Father has laid foundational stones in the lives of their children. And that means, whether they think so or not, there were some positive stones laid as well. Of the four Fathers I mention tonight I would venture to say there are/were more positive than negative, but even friends who have heart-wrenching memories of the negative stones laid by their Father still can point to some positives they laid as well. So thank you for allowing me to publicly honor those I love and have the honor myself of knowing them as Fathers...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This past Tuesday night I was driving home from the music studio where I teach one day a week listening to a CD by Barbara Rainey (http://www.familylifetoday.com) about what being a Godly wife looks like and thinking about the kind of night Scott had with the boys. It never fails that I have similar visions as in "Twas the Night Before Christmas" where the children are snuggled sound in their beds with visions of a really great, fun and laughter-filled night of wrestling with Daddy dancing in their heads. Of course, that's what I pray & hope for ~ a night of mutual fun and laughter between Daddy & his boys, but it is rarely the case. Too often than not I come home to find a bedraggled Scott slumped in the corner of the couch gazing at Sports Center in a rather stupefied state while all around it looks like mayhem, chaos and a general disaster zone. As I walk inside I will sometimes hear from the (now) still, quiet southern corner of the house, "Mommy! You're Home!" and wonder why the boys are still awake at 10:00 at night...and when I ask Scott how his night was all I will get in return was, "it was a night." And as I'm driving down the street wondering what will greet me at the door tonight it dawned on me...the jobs I have, no matter how demanding, frustrating, and exhausting they may be, will never be as stressful and difficult as Scott's is as a Husband, Father, employee and child of God. It hit me smack dab between the eyes and it was if a light of understanding, no, make that a spotlight of understanding, was illuminated in front of me.

You see, as much as I envy Scott the ability to go to work and come home from work I will not understand the weight of responsibility that simple act carries with it. And as much as I sometimes complain about his unwillingness to "step up" and lead (or should I say, lead the way I would lead?) I will never have to stand before God and answer for the role I played in being the Spiritual head of my family. As the boys grow up and walk on the road to puberty and eventually manhood I will not be the one who will have the responsibility of modeling for them how a man should treat a woman in the way God has defined. (yes, I play a role within that area, but they will not look at how I treat other women and say, "oh! that's how I should treat my female friend/ date/ girlfriend/ fiancee/ spouse!) I do not carry the weight of having to "be a man" when I feel like crying over the losses I will experience in life. I do not carry the weight of tamping down my natural reactions to a girl on the street who has chosen to disregard her own self-respect by dressing a bit too provocatively in order to keep my life pure in an area all too easy to hide from the outside. I do not carry the weight of being a Godly Son, Husband, Father and Man in the year 2005 ~ nor will I ever. For that I am grateful, and because of that I am moved to a greater respect and admiration for the men in my life who do carry that weight and do it with a tremendous amount of humility.

It started with my Daddy ~ yes, at 35 he's still my Daddy. I remember walking down the corridors of the Sioux Empire Mall in Sioux Falls side by side when I was a bumbling 13 year old and he reached out and put his hand around the back of my neck as we walked. He made a joke about it and kind of "jerked" me around as we walked, but what it said to me was that no matter what changes I go through I'll always be his girl and he loved me no matter what. And, of course, it was in every time I did something he was proud of and he choked up (probably much like he's doing right now) and made some smart-aleck comment about me being a little turd (which, in Tooley-speak means "I love you, you little shit!" sorry if that offends you...it's truly a term of endearment and it makes me laugh just knowing I actually typed that in my blog! LOL!) Yeah, my Dad's the best Dad in the whole wide world!

Of course, if you were to ask Caleb & Micah who's the best Daddy in the world they wouldn't say PaPa T or PaPa Pete - nope, they'd say "DADDY!" And I'd have to agree with their answer, too. I remember the first time Scott thought he was going to be a Daddy. I wrote about it in my Mother's Day entry, but it truly is not a memory I will ever forget. The look of rapturous joy that crossed his face was absolutely priceless. It was similar to the look of pure, undefiled awe he wore the morning of November 25, 1999 when he looked at his drugged-out wife on the operating table in Whittier hospital and choked out, "honey, we have a little boy." Which, in turn, was somewhat like that moment on June 5, 2002 in the operating room at Mercy Medical Center when he gleefully grinned at me after seeing Micah for the first time. Scott, you are the kind of Father I want my boys to look up to. YOU are the right man for this job, and I am honored to stand beside you and help you be the Father God made you to be. I love you.

And, Pete, I can't write about great Fathers without saying thank you to you, too, for being the kind of Father who would raise a son like Scott. Your continual support and encouragement of him and of us is greatly appreciated and simply not taken for granted. I am thankful that Scott has not only a great Father in you, but a great Friend as well.

You've probably figured out who the fourth Father is ~ and, really, I have to say He is the perfect Father. As I open my Bible to the Psalm in today's reading I open it to Psalm 136 and I'm struck with just how awesome He is. You see, the fact that He knows everything about my past, present & future; knows every thought, word and deed I have ever had or did and still loves me for me is overwhelming in and of itself. However, when you put on top of it the fact that He knows I will never be fulfilled, content and complete outside of Him so He put on a robe of human-ness to give me the opportunity to be all of those things is completely mind-boggling. And not only that, but... He doesn't hold grudges, doesn't discipline in anger, allows the perfect consequence to teach the lesson every time, comforts when comfort is needed, strengthens when strength is called for, gives wisdom when asked for it, forgives without question, loves unconditionally, creates incredible things of beauty just for enjoyment's sake, laughs with and delights in those things He creates, consistently looks on His creation with patience and not irritation, freely gives grace & mercy to those who truly don't deserve it, takes vengeance when it is necessary, never gives up or leaves, and IS ALWAYS VICTORIOUS! Those who don't know Him may call Him a crutch. You may say He is more like an electric fence or bark-collar waiting to zap you when you've messed up. You may say He is many of the lies we hear regularly about Him, but it doesn't make it so.

If you want to know who The Perfect Father really is...read this: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20103&version=65,
this: http://www.anchorlife.org/html/chara_toc.htm
or this: http://www.needhim.org/

And so I come full circle - the reason the three earthly Father's are who they are is simply because they know they are made by The Perfect Father. My prayer for each of them, and for each of you, too, is that you will know the Perfect Father and find in Him the life He created you for - life eternal with Him.

Happy Father's Day! God bless!
(and here's a little bit of history for ya...)

(from the website holidays.net)

Father's Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. In fact when a "father's day" was first proposed there were no Father's Day cards!

Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd's mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.
The first Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington. At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a "father's day." In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.

Father's Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all honored on Father's Day.