love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 100:5
As long as Ican remember, my father has been the hardest working man I have known.
My father
has been a self-employed carpenter for 42 years. Although there have been times
he had other people working with him, he has often worked alone.
time I have “helped him” I am amazed at how hard the work is that he does. Last summer my husband and I had our garage
reroofed and my husband took a few days off of work to help him. My husband,
who also works very hard, said, “I cannot believe how hard your dad works and
he is twenty years older.”
I remember when
I was in school and was in algebra and geometry class I would always think my
dad could do all the equations. I would show him my work and he would kind of
laugh at it. He had no idea how to do equations in a math book.
dad could build an entire house from the ground up, regularly doing equations
in his head. Measurements, fractions, shapes, angles, and more, he could do in
his sleep. He could take a blank piece of paper and draw a diagram with
everything perfectly in place for building anything. It absolutely amazed me
that he was that brilliant. For us it was the book work we could do and to him
it was real life and he could duplicate it with actual results.
My dad has
always been there for our family. He has always put our family first and loved
us endlessly.
would say dads of the seventies were different than dads today. My mom likes to
tell people they had four kids and my dad changed four diapers. Maybe not so
hands on in the diaper changing area but my parents rarely left us and had
babysitters watch us. I remember very few
occasions that we were not with them.
Family was
very important. We went everywhere together. We sat down every night for dinner
together and to this day we go to my parents and sit down for meals together.
was growing up, his parents took them on family vacations and that was very
important to my dad. There is maybe one year growing up that I can remember not
going a family vacation. Those are very sweet memories I have of my parents and
my siblings.
We still
travel together, now it is just a larger group since all my siblings and I are
married and have kids. There have been years that friends and extended family
have even vacationed with us and we have had fantastic groups of 21 people. It
has been so much fun.
husband talked to my dad about marrying me, some of his fatherly advice was to make
sure to take your family on vacation. There is nothing like escaping your daily
life and just having a great time together as a family. It is time well
treasured.
Four weeks
before I got married my father had a tear in his intestines and became toxic.
He was very ill and spent a lot of time in the hospital. While in the hospital
he got blood clots and his life was threatened again.
would visit him in the hospital he would be working so hard walking up and down
the halls because he wanted to come home and he wanted to be able to walk me
down the aisle. I remember visiting him and he said I am trying to get strong so
I can be strong for your wedding.
strong, genuine, honest, self-sacrificing, generous, hard-working, supportive, funny, caring, and
passionate about life. We have never left his house without him walking us out and waving good-bye.
gift my father’s love has given me is helping me know the love my Heavenly
Father. Because of my father I can understand my Heavenly Father’s unconditional
love. I can understand my Heavenly Father’s sacrificial love. I can understand
my Heavenly Father’s unending love.
and read my Bible and read the life of Christ, I can believe Christ would do
what it takes to keep a relationship with me. I can believe God left his
heavenly splendor to sacrifice His life so that I could gain mine.
Christ is
real to me because the love I experienced in my own father. 1 John 4:19 says: We
love because He first loved us. God chooses to love us. It is not
anything that we did or could do.
Growing up,
I was always proud to be a part of my family. Most people didn’t know my name
but they knew whose kid I was. They knew what family I belonged to because of
the love of a mother and the love of a father.
As much as
my parents have lavished love upon us there is no greater love than that of our
Heavenly Father. I have been fortunate to have a little taste of heaven because
I have amazing parents.
that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the
world does not know us is that it did not know him.
tells us the kind of love our Father has lavished on us is one of honor. It is
beyond a love that we have ever known. Nothing could be greater than being
called children of God.
to be the daughter of a carpenter and I am eternally grateful to be The Carpenter’s
daughter.
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