HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!

"4Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

I love my Dad! In word, deed and in the atmosphere of my boyhood home he modeled Christ for me, and for his Godly example I am thankful. When we would go out to eat as a family I always kind of dreaded when my Dad would pray before the meal. Did he have to do that in public?!? ...and couldn't he abbreviate his prayer or talk more quietly?!? At the time I was ashamed, and I'm sorry to confess, I was ashamed of being associated with Christ under such circumstances. But my dad wasn't. He was totally and utterly unashamed, and that sort of devotion had a big impact on me. My Dad brought his Bible with him when I graduated from High School and when I graduated from the Police Academy. he carried that Bible with him as Mom and he came up to pin my badge on me at the graduation ceremony. Despite our glazed over expressions and silent (but no less visceral) protests he continued to conduct small family devotions every day before school. The world disapproves of such things, but my dad taught me that the approval of the world is not something to be sought after. Only the approval of the Most High matters. He helped me see myself and this world through God's eyes, and through him God opened my spiritual eyes. I am thankful also for a Father who loves my Mom, and who loves me. I am thankful for a praying Father who is also now a praying Grandfather. Someday my Dad and I will rise up and be ushered into the presence of the Most High. These will be forgotten days- days of battle, strife and ugliness- but they are not insignificant days. God has inspired me through my father's example to be bold and unashamed, purposeful and patient, loving and full of integrity in how I govern my home and live my life before my family. I will talk about God with my kids, and I will talk about my kids with my God. I will love my wife, and never, in word or deed, will I deny Christ.

Happy Father's day!