What does Father's Day mean???

Deals, packages, razors, tents, tools purchase for dad. That is what the emails look like that take up about a third of my mail box. This year for some reason it really bothered me. Twelve years of deleting and skipping over adds wears on a person. 

Father's Day Eve was especially hard for me this year. It's funny, I sit her remembering the amazing father I was blessed with, how he would cut my hair, make my sandwiches for lunch, walk me to school (because it is a rough world out there),  and lay on his side with a pillow between his legs and watch t.v. in the family room with us. Going back and thinking about when he would stand on the side line and yell " Come on" with a head twitch when you missed the ball or the player or both. How he would kick or turn from the side line as if that would telepathically help you on the field. 

The dad that I remember most is the one who gave me my special day every year. On my birthday he would pick me up from school with flowers and balloons waiting for me. If we walked they would be waiting in my room for me when I got home. Dad would make the same funny faces I make, who would yell at the furniture if we got hurt to make us laugh and feel better. The one trusted me to know exactly how mom liked the house cleaned so that when she got home she could just relax. Who would let me go on his paper routes with him and we would throw papers and spit sunflower seeds like real men do. The dad who didn't realize I was hanging out onto the car door that I never fully closed until I started screaming. 

That was my dad, the one who showed me to fear Christ because He is with you everywhere you go. Who gave me morals and values that exist beyond this polluted world and all it's immorality and disrespect towards the living God. Who's input I still think of today as an adult and will pass on to my children. Family comes first and that I am never allowed to talk to my parents as if they are my friends.

Now when I think of Father's Day I have no ritual, no presents to give just the memories I have from the 16 years I got to spend with him. Now my Father's Day consists of thanking the Lord for a mother who was because of who Christ is in her has given everything to be the mother and father to her children.  Who has continued to love us unconditional as we have found our way these last 12 years. Who continues to give and give, without hesitation, her sacrifice has not gone unnoticed. God knew that when He took my father that He would be giving a HUGE calling to my mother's life. She has met that calling head on and has raised us well. 

Taking something of this magnitude for granted is foreign to me now. Every day I thank God  for the family I have been given, the love that I have been granted and the grace that only the Almighty Father can give. For the men that he has placed in my life to come along side me in my journey when I needed them. For the reality of how temporal this life is and how we can never take it for granted.  Thank you Father for this life that you have given me. The first 16 years and the last 12, they have all been truly amazing and I could not have asked for anything more.