Father's day

Today at church a video was shown regarding Dads. In it was a clip of my dad playing with Gillian and George with my words laid over the scene.

I basically said that my dad is the most faithful person I know. He has raised 3 faithful children and all 7 of his grandkids are active in church life. He has one grandchild who has commited their life to Christ. I am sure that the others will follow because we have had that legacy passed down to us.

What I wanted to say was this...(this is his story as I know it...so some of it may be incorrect)

Most of you may not know that my dad was not raised by his parents. His dad was an alcoholic. His mother ran off and left he and his sister to be raised by the dad. The dad having some presence of mind knew he could not raise these children, so he gave them over the their maternal grandparents to raise.

From my experience with situations as this, kids need their mom and dads to be healthy people to pass on positive attributes. As much as my great grandparents did for my dad, they were NOT his parents. From what I understand, my grandfather would call and tell my dad that he was coming to take him out to dinner and then not show up.

That does something to a kid no matter how stable the home and loving the grandparents. There is still the inner conflict of "My own dad can't/won't....."

All of that to say that my dad learned how to be a father from his grandfather and INSPITE of his own dad. My dad learned how to be a faithful man without any positive help from his own father. My dad got married and made a career and had a stable life, even though his own growing up must have been pretty tumultuous.

So thanks Dad for overcoming and being the best dad you could be! That helped me with what I looked for in a husband, so he could be the best dad he could be.


Also a shout out to my fantastic husband, who is truly a wonderful dad!