FATHERS – True Treasures!

Father’s Day!   Today I would like to say Thank You to all of the many wonderful fathers in the world who are doing the amazing work of fathering!  And especially to those wonderful fathers in my own family.

Father’s Day has always been a bittersweet holiday for me because I grew up without a father.  You may not realize just how vital it is to a child to have a good father unless you grew up without one.  I had several step-fathers, but unfortunately they were not willing to be my “father.”  As a little girl, there was always a hole in my being that mourned the loss of a daddy in my life.   Today, I have a long-distance relationship with my real dad, which brings a small measure of healing, but nothing can replace having a dad when you're a child.  

Probably because I didn’t have a good example to go by, I also made a poor choice in my first husband, and consequently he was not a good father to our children.  So I had very few examples in my early life of what a good father was supposed to look like.  


But today it is the presence of other men fulfilling their roles as "Father" who bless my life so richly today.  

First, God gave me the gift of my husband, Don.

This is my sweet husband.  He is absolutely, without any doubt, the best father I have ever seen!!!  He has a true gift of fathering, and he loves being a father.  Fathering comes as naturally to him as breathing.  He even fathers our kitties :*)

Don and I both brought two children to our marriage 17 years ago.  It has been such a joy to me to witness him as he has fathered his children through the years.  They are beautiful, confident adults, and he gets a lot of the credit for that.

Don with his son Todd and daughter Renee

And my children have been so blessed to have his father influence in their lives!  Don has always been there to step in and help out when they need a father’s help and advice and support.  His huge father’s heart just steps up and engulfs them when they need it!

Two years ago, my adult daughter had to leave her marriage of 15 years and came to live with us.  Don has been there for her through all the time of healing and nurturing and restoring her sense of self and femininity.  Pouring into her a sense of hope and future and possibility.  She needed a father and he was there for her.  Today, she has a new relationship and is happy.  That would never have happened without his willingness to father her!

This is my son, Joshua, and his family.  What a joy it is to see him father his little ones!!!  He had so many choices he could have made in life, but he made two momentous choices that were the best possible ones for him!  He chose to give his life to Jesus. And he married his high-school sweetheart, Anna, right out of college.  He is such a good father!!!  Josh was a teen when Don came into our lives, but he was a quick learner and he began to watch as Don fathered his daughter who also lived with us.  He told me once that he wanted to be a father like Don.  And he is!!!

I can’t tell you what joy it is to me to see my grandchildren growing up with a wonderful Christian father who loves them and chooses every day to be the best father possible to them.  

There is no greater joy for me than to see my little granddaughter snuggled up contentedly on her daddy’s lap.  

Or to see my little grandson playing and wrestling on the floor with his daddy, his eyes alight with happiness and joy as he learns what it is to be a man by watching his daddy.

  

Josh loves being a father, and there is nothing I love better than watching him enjoy his children!!!

This is my brother Dave, who has chosen to fill the role of father in his grandson Ethan's life.  Tough job at his age and stage in life, but he is doing an amazing job and raising a fine young man!  Not every man would take on what he has chosen to do, but I am so very proud of him for doing what needed to be done and raising Ethan in a Christian home full of love and security!

Dave has also been instrumental in providing a father influence in my niece Raney's life.  It is so important to remember these "fathers" who step in when no one else is there to do the job.  Not because they have to, but because it is in their hearts to love on these children and provide a needed father influence.  Without them, so many would grow up without that necessary part of their lives being filled and tended.

And this is my father-in-law, Don’s father, George.  We spent the day with him and Don’s siblings yesterday in Kentucky, celebrating Father’s Day and his birthday.  George is also a wonderful example of what a good father should be.  I am very happy to call him my father-in-law!

I see all of these men that have come into my life and the lives of my children as my Father God's way of restoring the gift of fathering to me and my family.  Each new generation will be blessed because of these fathers, and I celebrate them today!!!

Most of all, I want to celebrate my own Father God, who took me up and fathered me when my own father chose not to do so.  Father, you have brought so many good fathers into my life to show me a picture of Your own Father Heart …. And I am delighted to celebrate You today as my true Daddy =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=