Happy Father’s Day!

June 21st, 2009

We’re spending a completely lazy day with Mike today… doing a little golf on tv, a little grilling on the back porch. I’ll make his favorite Oreo ice cream dessert, and we’ll all be exceptionally nice to him. Because he is, without a doubt, a really stellar father. We are all blessed to have him.

So today, I am grateful to Mike but also to my dad… and to Mike’s dad… and to Josh… and to my brother and Mike’s brother… to all of the really good dads out there who are vested in their families. Thank you.

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Daddy’s Day

June 15th, 2008

I got Mike the funniest card for Father’s Day today… the front says “Know why Father’s Day is in June?” and the inside says “Because about a month after Mother’s Day, a dad somewhere went…’heyyyy.’” It made me laugh because so often the daddies are overlooked.

My friend, LeeAnn, and I send gifts back and forth, and so often there’s something for each of us and for the kids but the daddies are never included. We tease that when Mandy and I send things, Mike and Josh are always overlooked.

I think that good daddies are overlooked all too often. Good fathers are strong and kind. They take care of business. They kill bugs (but not always spiders), and they calm irrational mama thoughts. They go out in the middle of the night to go to the drugstore to get Motrin for baby fevers. They know their kids’ schedules at school, and they know which subjects in which their kids excel.

Good fathers are emotionally available to their wives but not so much that they aren’t still frustratingly male. They grill. They watch Strawberry Shortcake over and over again with their little girls even though they’d rather be watching baseball. They read to their kids.

In the end, good fathers are overlooked because they’re so wonderfully stable. They are anchors in our lives.

Since I had children, I think of God so much more as a Heavenly Father than I did before because I see what all goes into being a good father… the love and patience and tenderness and strength … and I understand more (in my limited understanding) of what God must go through loving us yet having to guide and instruct us when we rebel and refuse and are obstinate. Knowing how I can love my children and be completely annoyed with them at the same time helps me to understand how God can love us and forgive us and instruct us at the same time.

Thinking of God as a Father has also reminded me of how blessed I am to have a good father here on Earth myself (along with a fabulous father-in-law). And I am overwhelmingly grateful to have Mike. I would have loved him forever if we hadn’t had kids, but in all honesty, having children and watching him with them and parenting alongside him has deepened my love for him in unimaginable ways.

We also also blessed to have brothers who are good fathers themselves. In the effort to be good parents, it’s so important to have good parents in it with you, and we have good fathers in our brothers. They love their children… they care for them… they discipline them… they inspire them.

Hillary may not have gotten everything right, but I do believe that it does take a village to raise a child, and we are so fortunate to have men like Chuck and John and Josh in our village.

So Happy Father’s Day… I love you, Mike.

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