Dads...

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 Tomorrow is Father's Day.  I have been thinking about the fathers in my life...my own dad, my step-dad, my dad-in-law....all men who I love and who I consider to be special...recently I have come to understand that aging is fragile and needs to be held with great regard.  I am now beginning to experience being the "sandwich generation" where we care for our parents and our children....which makes Father's Day even more significant.  I look to these three men and I am aware of how they have all molded and shaped me....their influence is significant.  I respond and live my life in ways that specifically relate to the relationship I have with each of them.  So Buzz, Ken, Rick....thank you for being my reason to know what Father's Day means.   

  I am also raising boys....who may become fathers one day....so I consider them and their strengths and weakness and what influence I can have on them now....before they are, in fact, fathers.  The weight of it is heavy because being a father matters so much.  Will they be attentive and responsive, will they be loving and kind?  Will they step up and parent and change diapers and pick out clothes and rock and soothe and feed and nurture?  Will they send a clear message to their children that they matter?  Will they do it right?  gosh I hope so.....they have had a good blueprint to follow.  The father in this house is one that did all of that....and also a man who shows up.  Every day.  

   My kids and their friends and the extra kids that come and go all get to experience what it is like to know the father of this house.  Roger is not a perfect or flawless father....but he is a good one.  He shows up over and over again.....to tuck little kids in bed, to re-string shoe laces that have broken and won't tie, to clip finger and toe nails....he goes to work every day whether he wants to or not....and he comes home when the work is done whether he wants to or not.  He.  Shows.  UP.  every day.  He goes on the hiking trip even though he feels like he can't succeed and he leaves work early to make sure he can be at every ball game....he shows up.  He helps with college loans and he helps with legal documents and he never, never, never.....ever....makes his children feel like what they need is a burden.  Ever.  Let me say that again.  He never makes our children feel like what they need is too much for him to give.  That is significant.  

   Here, in this house, the kids who call him dad get to see a reflection of what Father God is.  They will never question or wonder or not know what it means to know the love of a Father.  Their earthy one models the Heavenly one...every single day.  

   So Happy Father's Day to the best dad I know.  Roger Kredit.....you make it look easy and we all know it's not.  We don't have a big plan for the day....we will go to church and eat some yummy food and maybe swim or maybe not.....and I will do my best to keep the little minions out of your hair for a day...but if I don't I know you won't mind becuase that's the kind of dad you are.  Some day I hope they can understand how blessed and special they are to have been loved and parented by you.  They are all better because they did.  

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