Happy Father's Day, Part 1

While I was at church today, the children's sermon was on fathers, As part of his point, the pastor asked each of the children what they liked most about their father. That got me thinking: if I were asked what I liked most about my father, or what first came to mind when I think of my father, how would I respond? What would I say?

Initially, I wasn't sure of what I would have said, or how to approach the hypothetical answer. After all, I didn't go fishing with my father. We never had a "guy's day" or a regular "father-son" time; we didn't often share emotional moments, and we hadn't played together (wrestling or baseball, etc.) since I was in middle school. However, one thing stood out in my mind, with another incident occuring later to me.

The second thing I thought of was an incident of character with my father. After I accidentally crashed my car, I called my father to let him know what had happened. Even though he was almost home, he insisted on coming all the way back to my college to look at the damage and see if I was fine. When he got to the parking lot, he didn't even raise his voice at me. All he said was, "There's no point in yelling; it's fine."

I was completely blown away by my father's suprisingly gentle response to the incident. In fact, I had seen him get more upset over scratching the bumper. I realized that my father was more concerned about my safety than the car's safety, but he didn't even glare at me for damaging the left side of my car. Overall, my memory of my father that day reminds me not just of the importance of being able to control and simply release my anger, but also of being able to keep my priorities straight in life.