Here is something I wrote to my sons for today.
The Greatest Gift
Written to My Sons
Father’s Day 2008
Today I have been reminded just how much I have been blessed to be your Dad. So, while many fathers anxiously await their gifts today, I wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge mine.
The years have gone by so quickly! It seems like yesterday that each of you were born. I can still remember the ugly faces each of you made as you entered into our world, yet you were the most beautiful and handsome babies your mother and I had ever seen. It did not take long though for us to figure out that as perfect as you were, you could make a mess that left a cloud of poison in the room and tested the strength of our stomachs. And your mother would say “their just like their father.”
I remember the day each of you was dedicated to the Lord. The Pastor reminded your mom and I that God had entrusted us with great gifts, and the awesome responsibility that came with them. I wept for the joy of having you, and with fear for the responsibility of teaching, protecting, nurturing, and exampling you to maturity. I wasn’t sure if I wanted you to be like me.
Life brought its share of bumps, scrapes, and bruises, and I watched you grow from toddlers to boys who thought they were men. I refereed your fights and instigated a few just for the fun of it. Then I wept with joy as I witnessed each of you being baptized in the precious Name of Jesus Christ, and started your own personal relationships with God. I often prayed, “Lord let them know you more than I do,” because I wanted you to be like him.
The teen years found you trying to find your place in the world. As you struggled to establish your own identities you often resented mine. Each of you met the hand of revelation as it quickly tuned your head back to the right channel. Just as you struggled from time to time with me, you also struggled with yourself and God. Longing for more of him, yet not sure if you could follow his rules. And you often thought “When I grow up I’ll never be like my dad.”
Today each of you are adults, and while you respect my authority, we are more than father and sons, we are best friends. I have watched you as you worship and serve the Lord, and I am grateful. Life has not been easy, and I have not been the perfect father. Yet in spite of it all, I look at you and realize that you are what every father hopes his sons will be. You are young men who know the importance of hard work, but you have not lost sight of family time and laughter. You each have talents that supercede my own, and yet you applaud my success. Last but not least you each are serving the Lord, you love truth, and you will accomplish great things for the kingdom.
So on this Father’s Day, I am thankful for the greatest gifts a father could ever have. Three sons who have grown to love the Lord!
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
3 John 1:4
I love You
Dad
Threaded Mode
