My Dad...celebrating with our Heavenly Father!

[GraceReclaimed Full Blog Here, Promise it's worth the click]

 

Today would have been my Dad’s 88^th birthday...

  It is with overflowing emotion that I pen this entry. 
There are endless things to say about this man who rode like a knight in shining armor into my mother’s mid-life.

~ I know it sounds cliché ~

But had you been there, you would have heard the saving gallop as it approached!

 

And after he introduced himself and fell head over hills, he set out to fill her heart with all the love that should have been poured out to her the first 40 something years and loved her without ceasing for another 33 and more!

 

 He also, without hesitation, accepted her almost grown children, one who had a bit more growing up to do than the others shall remain unnamed!  

He blessed us all with his generous wisdom, unconditional love and support. 

But above all, his devotion to my oldest son Tyler was beyond measure.  
Don’t get me wrong, he was a wonderful “Pop” to all 10 grandchildren and 8.2 great grandchildren.   He loved them each in his own unpredictable way, but always set an example of strength, straightforward honesty, and faithfulness.

 There are so many lessons and attitudes he taught; some interesting, some funny, some helpful but most...essential.

He personified “what you see is what you get”. 

One of his favorite quips was “if they don’t put a penny in your pocket, don’t worry about them”, actually I think it was a dollar?(grin!)  Evidence of his strong work ethic and unshakable confidence!   He loved to be the boss and excelled at it, except where Mom was concerned; he claimed he had no choice, but we all knew better!  

 

I never knew him as a worrier, 
concerned but never worried.

Believe me, the girls in his life had the worry thing covered!

Maybe it's because he knew,
God's got this!

In this final year as he battled lung cancer, he made known to us on several occasions...

his favorite scripture, Matthew 6:25-34

 

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 

There were so many times in my life after he entered it, that I couldn’t have made it through without his constant and abiding presence.  He supported me when I came home to have Tyler and he loved that boy with a heart like no other. 

His lessons of love for family and faith will live on in all of my guys, because he was there for each of them in more ways than I can express.

   

 

I can only hope and pray that he knew the blessing he was to me throughout my life and to all of us throughout his 88 years…

So wish it could have been more, but so grateful for the years we had!

Happy Birthday to one extraordinary earthly Father!

I just know that God’s face is shining upon you and you are shining on all of us!

Gracefully blessed to call you Dad!