Category Archives: Father’s Day

My dad is turning the big 6-0 this coming Sunday. I have started to notice how much he has changed over the years. I look at his grey hair and wonder how much of it I caused. I know it is hard to believe I could cause stress to anyone, but I, too, was once a headstrong and stubborn teenager.

My dad would attempt to impart his wisdom on me. At first he knew everything, but then as I began to age and know everything, he seemed to know far less. It’s odd how that happens.

In all of my teenage years, he would try to share his wisdom but I “knew” better and would go off and make countless mistakes. When I returned, he would simply help me pick up the broken pieces. I knew right and wrong, he had taught me, yet I did my own thing.

My dad’s actions remind me of God’s. God has given us the Bible. In it are things that we should and should not do, yet I still find myself breaking them. Thankfully, in the Bible there is not just a bunch of rules, or commandments, I have to follow, but there is this wonderful thing called forgiveness. God helps me pick up the pieces and says to me, I love you son, you’re still my child, I forgive you.

Happy 60th birthday, Dad!

Published in Delta Optimist August 9 2013

Photo credit Tampa Band Photos

This Sunday, Father’s Day, is an important day in the lives of many. Everyone, like it or not, has a father. Some may have fond memories of their fathers, some may not. Some memories are distant and some are of step, foster or even grandfather-father figures.

My biological father was killed in a motorcycle accident when I was a year old. My mother later married my stepfather and he has always been known as Dad.

Now I would love to say my stepdad was the perfect dad. I would like to say that, but like all fathers, he made mistakes.

Despite his mistakes, there was never a doubt of how much he cared for my older brother and me, and when my two younger siblings came along, never once did he treat us as second-class children. Perfect or not, my dad showed me I was his son.

As a pastor and believer in Jesus Christ, I am reminded of God the Father’s love as well. The difference is God’s love is perfect.

He took a horrible and wretched sinner like myself and adopted me into His family. He washed my filthy sin in baptism, He clothed me in His righteousness and He forgives me when I, like a teenager, yell, back talk and defy Him. At times, He scolds me like a parent, but He continues to show me that I am His Son.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

Published in Delta Optimist June 14 2013

Photo Credit: disgustipado