Father’s Day Favorite Five

My friend, Kelly, over at MrsDisciple started doing a Friday Favorites theme and asked other bloggers to join in. I wrote my first one last Friday, Five Things Near, and it was fun. Today, I’m branching out even more and opening up my first “link up” down at the bottom of this post so if anyone would like to link up with your Father’s Day tribute post, you are more than welcome! Click on the little blue frog and it should tell you what to do from there. This should be fun. To new adventures.

I was trying to decide which direction to go in for a Father’s Day post and had only written down a few scriptures that pertain to being a Father. Then Kelly invited us to participate in the Friday Favorites with her and her theme was Five Senses. I was inspired and it seemed that my verses fit quite well with the theme.

So let’s do this. We’ll start with a pic of my Dad and me because that’s a great place to start.

SEE
Proverbs 30:17 “The eye that mocks a father… will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.”

YIKES!! If there’s one thing my Dad taught me/us growing up, it was that he and all elders are to be respected. That sounds like a demand and it can be but somehow he taught us that by his “watch me do it” lifestyle. He respects others. He respected his bosses (He’s retired, so now he would say he respects my mom. heehee). He respects the pastor. He respects the physician. He respects his siblings. He respects his friends. He respects other people’s opinions. Superiority and position are undoubtedly earned (which is becoming a thing of that past) and are to be respected. Sometimes, though, we got a good thump on the head when we didn’t say “Sir” to him or “Ma’am” to our Mom or any of our elders. So I guess it wasn’t always by example. haha!

HEAR
Stories… You knew I’d go here right? My Dad is an incredible storyteller. He has countless stories to tell. He knows how to captivate his audience. I mean… captivate his audience’s attention. haha! And he knows how to keep it. He has a commanding voice, especially when he uses all three of my names in a row, although he hasn’t done that in a while. haha! My Dad is a firm disciplinarian and with four rowdy daughters, he had to be to keep us in line. Like E. F. Hutton, when my Dad talks, people listen.

Proverbs 1:8 “Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you…”

I have to add here that my Dad taught me how to love good, loud music. He likes all kinds of music as long as it’s good. 🙂 He is all about the best stereo, best equalizer, best speakers with the best bass thumpin’ output… my Dad’s got jam. More often than not my kids will get in the car after I’ve been driving alone and turn on the radio (in which the BOSE speaker system was mandatory) and the volume is on “hair raise” level. They’ll be like, “Mom, you were jammin’!” The legacy continues….

TOUCH
My Dad’s early growing up years included his dad but his parents divorced so he spent his older growing up years with his single mom, one sister and two brothers. I’m pretty sure there was some rough housing amongst those three boys. They are still so close today. They are also very protective of their sister as they were their mom. Fiercely so. I remember my Dad telling me once that he was extra careful about how he “handled” his daughters. He knew his capacity for roughness and never wanted to be rough with his girls. He never laid a hand on us in anger. Discipline, yes. But anger, never. My Dad did better than his dad. He did the best he knew.

I remember when we had our youngest daughter, Anna, a side of my dad came alive that I’d never seen before. Or maybe it was there but I hadn’t noticed. Either way, he loves this kid. She was only a year old when my 7 yr old nephew died in a tragic car wreck. That was a very hard season for our whole family. I watched my Dad love on my baby as if he had everything to lose. Because he knew he did. We all did.

A father’s loving touch is life-giving. A father’s loving touch is hope. A father’s loving touch brings comfort that no matter what else is going on in the world, Dad’s got you.

Hebrews 12:10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.

SMELL
My Dad has many smells. I didn’t say he smells. That would be disrespectful and I’m envisioning that thump on the top of my head. Nope, I’m smarter than that. My Dad has many smells as you might imagine most hard working men would. He works in his garage/shop a lot and it’s often hot in there, so there’s the sweat smell. When we were growing up and still lived at home, he worked on cars a lot, so there’s the gas, oil, mechanic smell. When we went camping, there’s either the catching fish smell (okay, maybe he did smell) or the sunscreen smell or the smoke from building a fire or the grilling smell. When he and my Mom would get dressed up for a work or church function or a fancy date he often wears cologne, so there’s the gussied up smell. It’s crazy how smells are so strongly tied to memories. All told, the good smells out smell the bad smells. Currently, my Dad helps my mom lead Bible studies in church and is incredibly and practically knowledgeable about the scriptures. This is not a  part of my dad that I grew up with, but it sure is a pleasing aroma now.

2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

TASTE
I remember growing up not liking fish. My Dad fished a lot and I enjoyed the fishing part but not the eating part. However, I can assure you that after being struck and hospitalized by a poisonous snake (or two), fish in any form is WAY more appealing. Tommy helped all of our kids catch their first fish. What fun memories! I love fish now, mostly in the form of grilled in a taco or sushi. Yum… My Dad was a stellar provider for his children as Tommy has been for ours. What a blessing it is to have father’s in my life who work hard to provide and want the best for their kids.

Luke 11:11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?

Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.

One of our kid’s favorite scriptures that they quote to their Dad is this one. Tommy has a bit of a sarcastic streak. He says it builds character. I tend to agree. God knew our kids would need to be tough and he gave them us to help them along in that. 🙂 When they quote this verse, it’s almost always sarcastic because, well, they are their father’s children.

Our girls love John Mayer’s song, Daughters. “Fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like you do.” They love it because their father has been good to them. Tommy has been a very good dad to all of our kids. He has taught them to see, hear, touch, smell and taste in all of the best ways. I say it often, but Tommy and I did some of our best work together in raising our three kids. Tommy, thanks for doing this parenting thing with me.

I have a theory, not proven, that our earthly fathers help us form our ideas and views of our Heavenly Father. This is not a positive for some, but it is for others. We all have issues of some sort to work through with our parents and our upbringing because, here’s the deal, no one is perfect. Shocker, I know! My Dad is not perfect. Tommy is not perfect. I don’t know a Dad on earth who is. But our Heavenly Father is! And for that, I am eternally grateful.

“There’s a Heavenly Father and He’s a really really good daddy. And when you choose Him, God adopts you into His family and he becomes not a pretend dad, or a partial dad, or anything less than your “really” dad. And you become His “really” child.”

Happy Father’s Day!

~Andrea

Do you have a Father’s Day blog post you’d like to share? Click on the cute blue frog to link up or to view the link ups. Share some Father’s Day love!! (This link up will only be open from June 19-21, 2015.)