Journeys
6-16-13
Today is Father’s Day. It is my first Father’s Day spent without my Dad. For years on Father’s Day we Karges sons would migrate home for a meal (usually dinner out at Misty’s in Lincoln). We’d give him the golf club or golf accessary we’d gone together to buy and he and Mom would wallow in the joy of having as many kids and grandkids around as possible.
This year, we’re all getting used to the new normal of not having Dad around anymore. As with all families after a loss, this first year of firsts without them is hard. So I find myself out of sorts this Father’s Day. I miss him. And Father’s Day has dredged up all these questions that I never got to ask him, like: “What was it about all those Norman Vincent Peale “Power of Positive Thinking” books that he had in his bathroom library that took him from the dairy to seminary?” or, “Why did he wait ‘til his Dad died before he did anything about his call to the ministry?”
This year, Father’s Day is processing me way to much to put much more reflection down on paper, so I leave you with bits and pieces of James Emery White’s list of what a good father is.
“...a good father is…
...one who knows that children have only one love language – time;…one who daughters want to marry, and sons want to emulate;…one you know will protect you and defend you;…one who provides everything you need (but not necessarily everything you want);…one who is brave when you are scared;…one who teaches you how to treat a woman, and what you should expect from a man;…one who cherished your mother;…one who is stronger, and taller, than you (at least, at first);…one who taught you how to swim, how to ride a bike, how to throw a ball, how to open a door for a woman, how to…you get it;…one who taught you how to drive;…one who set curfews;…one who didn’t make a big deal of the things you thought he would, but did of the things that you know, now, mattered;…one who took you out “trick or treating”;…one who drove you to your first day at school, your first day at college, and your first day at…;…one who paid the ticket;…one who introduced you to God;…one who, most of all, loved you so much he would have laid down his life for yours in a heartbeat. And still would. Happy Father’s Day. From all of us Dads. You’ll never know how much we love you. Or maybe, now, you will.”
Grace & Peace,
Rev. Kelly
