Twenty-fifth Monday

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass"; "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply.  "We're raising boys".   - Harmon Kilebrew

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope." - Bill Cosby

"One father is more that a hundred schoolmasters."  - George Herbert

"The kind of man who thinks that helping with the dishes is beneath him will also think that helping with the baby is beneath him, and then he certainly is not going to be a very successful father."  - Eleanor Roosevelt

I appreciated these quotes because...

We don't have grass in our front yard, but we do have plenty of bare patches put there this year by friscup;

I gave my dad soap-on-a-rope every year for Christmas - he always expressed happiness in receiving it;

My own husband is not only father - worth a hundred teachers - but teacher as well;

...and he has changed many, many, many, many, many, many diapers in his life and always loved taking care of our babies.  He has washed his share of dishes, too.

So, on this Monday, the day after Father's Day, I give thanks for:


The dads in my life...

-Coty - a thoughtful, wise, loving, game-playing, reading, teaching, tender father whose calm guidance and consistent example have shaped each of our six children.

-My own dad - so very generous, kind, funny, creative, caring -  feeling better after a stroke several weeks back.  In a little note he wrote to me years ago, he helped me to understand how the depth of parental love can overcome the frailty of human parenting.

-Luke, my son-in-law - a new dad who has stepped quite naturally and wonderfully into his role as a father and whose love for his wife and sweet baby girl give this mother and grandmother great joy.

-My father-in-law - also generous and fun loving, whose efforts have helped the cousins on that side of the family to know each other, not as distant relations, but as friends.

And I remember...

-Very dear grandfathers, both of whom died while I was in college, and memories of...
-early morning walks on the beach
-games of Rook
-an outdoor shower and a hammock between live oaks
-a stern rebuke and directive to walk by myself at the top of the beach - I'm sure I deserved it
-folded newspapers in the desk drawer with big news stories from the past
-playing the old pump organ in the church next door
-learning to drive on the road between the church, house, and cemetery
-a prayer to be a safe driver on the dashboard
-a patient quiet servant of a man who helped my grandmother who laid on the bed in traction each day
-Granddaddy Craig never failing to pray for the children, because Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me....


#1039-1053