Father's Day

My Dad on his sailboat.

    A brief list of things Dad's say:

This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
 Get down before you kill yourself...never mind.
Who's paying the bills around here any way?
Don't forget to check the oil.
Didn't you eat your Wheaties today?
Always have enough money in your pocket to make a phone call.
I'm not sleeping, I'm just resting my eyes..
I don't know, ask your mother.
We don't need to ask for directions.  I know where we are going.

     This week we celebrate our fathers.  I learned a lot from my dad.  In fact, I still do.
      Dad taught me to swim.  I remember clinging like a monkey to his back, hanging on with my arms wrapped tightly around his neck as he swam.  He always warned me before he went under water so that I could hold my breath.  I'd quickly puff out my cheeks as we sank under the water and gasp when we surfaced.  I  learned to swim resting between my Dad's strong shoulders.
     Later, Dad taught me to drive.  On Sunday mornings we would get up about six am and hit the roads.  The day was new and more importantly, there weren't any other cars on the road for me to put in danger.  We drove the back streets of town.  Eventually, I graduated to being his chauffeur on the odd jobs he did in the evenings.  Dad repaired appliances.  He would pack his tools into the car and leave the driving to me.  I met a lot of different people that way.  In particular, I remember an elderly couple with very thick accents who raised rabbits.  They served me tea and a cookie, while Dad fixed their "ice-a-boxis." I listened to the old woman saying how "good" her rabbits were.  I was enchanted with how much she loved her pets.   I finally deciphered what she was saying and realized that she meant "Good to eat!"  Dad laughed at how appalled I was.  The couple didn't have a lot of money (obviously, they were eating rabbits).  Dad charged them enough that they would think they had paid for what he had done, but no where near would the actual cost should have been.
     Dad taught me how to drive, but he didn't teach me how to change a tire or how to check the oil.  When I asked, he firmly told me, "That's why you have me.  If you get in trouble, you call me."  He meant it.  Anytime I called, Dad would come out after me.  
     Now, my Dad always reminds me that I need to get the oil changed and the car lubed.  I don't know what lubed means exactly, and I don't really care.  I know that what my Dad is really saying is "I love you."
     Jesus followed the example of both His earthly father and His heavenly Father.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.   Now remain in my love.  If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  This is my command: Love each other.  ~John 15:9-17

       You can read more about my Dad here and here.
       What did your Father teach you?