Happy Father's Day, Part 2

Yesterday, while I was at church, the pastor's children sermon prompted me to ask myself a hypothetical question: if someone were to ask me what about my father I most remember and enjoyed, how would I respond? After a few moments of thinking, the answer occurred to me: how my father treated (and still treats) my mother.

I will be honest: my dad loves my mom. They have been married for almost twenty-three years, and nineteen of those have involved raising their children. Now, I have heard it said that of all the lessons that a parent will teach their child, the ones most likely to be absorbed and emulated are the ones that the child sees their parents doing over and over again; I really hope that that is true, considering what I have seen.

As I said earlier, my dad loves my mom. Whether he's trying to give her a kiss after eating a jalapeño (mom hates "spicy kisses") kissing her right in front of my siblings and I, or simply looking for an excuse to spend time with her after dinner, I can tell that my dad still deeply loves my mom. On nights where my siblings and I go to home bible studies, my dad will sometimes say "Alright, I'll take your mother out to eat, since it's just the two of us." While he doesn't do anything fancy, simply the fact that dad will occasionally use his time alone with mom to eat out shows me that he still likes getting to spend special time alone with her.

Something else my dad likes to do is to sit next to mom and rest together on the couch. Whether it's during the morning, afternoon, or evening, and whether it's during a movie, watching a sport, or something else, dad will sit next to mom, and the two of them will rest. Mom and dad both enjoy simply spending time with each other, and even just sitting next to each other, to the point that they consider it a tradition (or at least a regular activity). They will even be playful with each other; dad might sometimes pretend that he has other "manly" things to do, but that he will "sacrifice" his time to be with mom. Mom, of course, knows that dad is only being silly, and she says that "spending time with his wife is one of the most manly things he can do."

What was the most important lesson my father ever taught me? How to love my spouse and let her know that I consider her to be so special. I can't wait until I get married. Happy late Father's Day, Dad.

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.