Happy Father's Day

This is a repost folks, so I'm sorry if you have already read it. However, it is Father's Day so it seemed appropriate. Here's a bonus song to ease your disappointment.

The most important job which any man or woman will ever hold is that of parent. Being a mother or father is an incredibly difficult and demanding job. Although the duties undergo significant changes along the way, parenting is a life long career. Once you have a child, you are committed until you die, or until they die. You will more than likely receive no financial reward, and at different stages perhaps not even much praise for your work. Your heart will be broken multiple times, you will suffer anguish and anxiety, you can expect sleepless nights, an overwhelming workload and a paucity of gratitude.

                                                

You will bear most of the heavy, heavy load of responsibility for the upbringing of a good person and a citizen. You will carry the weight of occasionally naive and unrealistic expectation. Your stomach will be twisted into knots which threaten to cripple you as you make decisions for another person.

I love being a dad. I have two children, teenagers now, and they are beautiful people who care about other people. They demonstrably love me and my wife, and each other. They live purposeful, busy lives, working, studying, playing and socializing, and they don't get into trouble. They don't get into trouble because they don't look for it. They are sensible and sensitive, and they make good decisions. They are forgiving and brave.

Are these awesome children my handiwork? Are they my legacy? Am I defined by what I have done for them, and to them, and who I am to them? Can I take full responsibility for the people they have become? Of course not, but as a father, a parent, I have played the role God assigned to me, and I have done my best to raise my children to love God and to love others.

The pain I have experienced for them, and at times because of them, is nothing at all compared to the joy they have given me. My life would be so shallow and meaningless without them. Through them, and through fathering them, I have learned so much about myself and the God who blessed me with them. To love is to suffer, but I suffer gladly because they are worth it: the happiness they bring, and the rich satisfaction I feel sharing their lives, the pleasure and fulfilment that comes from being a dad is the single greatest thing in my life.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on being a parent, even if you are not one.

In the arms of my father

I don't remember what it felt like as a child, to be hugged by my father. I know he did it and it must have felt good to be carried or just held in his strong arms. It must have felt safe and secure, and it must have made me feel important, but I don't remember the feeling itself.

I was in church one Sunday, more than ten years ago, standing and singing the song, In the Arms of my Father, while my daughter Alana slept in my arms. Undisturbed by the volume of the music or my loud singing right above her head, she slept peacefully. I had the full weight of her little body in my arms and I cried. I was happy.

As I held my daughter and sang to give thanks to my Father in Heaven, I had a fresh revelation of exactly what kind of love God has for us, his children. It's the kind of love I'm not sure I would have or even could have understood without the experience of being a father myself.

I can't remember what it felt like as a child to be in the arms of my earthly father, and it's unlikely Alana will remember when, God willing, she reaches my age and perhaps holds a child of her own. However, I do remember exactly what it felt like that day in church with Alana in my arms. I vividly recall being 'hugged' by my Father in Heaven that day, and I have felt it again since.

There is nothing in all of the universe that even comes close to the power of God's love for us, and I am so grateful to Him. So with Father's Day coming up, remember to thank your perfect supernatural Dad.