Happy Father's Day To My 2 Dads.

Happy Father's Day to my 2 dads!

    My dad!

My dad is a man that brings a presence.  When my dad walks in a room, everyone knows it.
  My dad is large and in charge.
My dad is big and always looks and smells strong and amazing.

My dad is a living testimony of how God is gracious and pursues His children and loves them ferociously.
 My dad has lived a passionate life of all kinds of extremes and God always brings him back to Himself.
  I look at the relationship my dad has had with the Lord in his life and he has lived in total rebellion at times, and he has lived in total submission at times and Jesus
 NEVER NEVER NEVER
 let him go.
 He has loved him the same every single day.
There have been seasons of sweet communion with Jesus and times of harsh discipline and through it all Jesus LOVES my dad and holds him close, and my dad has fallen in love with Jesus over and over again.

This year I have watched my mom and dad sell everything and take a giant leap of faith to just let go of everything familiar and just seek and ask the Lord what is next for them.
 I have seen them live more humbly and with less worldly possessions than I ever have before and yet, I see them with more than I ever have seen them have.

More Love.
    More joy.
 More peace.
  More patience.
More kindness.
More goodness.
More faithfulness.
and
More self-control.

 My dad is a huge planner, by nature, and it has been crazy to watch him just let go of "his" plan and just walk in faith and tackle things as they come and make plans and change plans,
 and constantly look to the Lord for the next step.

My dad has had more than his share of health problems and so many surgeries, over the years....but this last surgery, a few months ago, was planned to be another big heart surgery.
  He came out of there with NOTHING.
  The surgeons did nothing.
  They put a scope in his heart and it looked CLEAN.
The Dr's got to see on the inside what we have witnessed on the inside.
Psalm 51:3-17

3 

For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is ever before me.

4 

Against you, you only, have I sinned

    and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

    and blameless in your judgment.

5 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

    and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 

Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

9 

Hide your face from my sins,

    and blot out all my iniquities.

10 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

    and renew a right[b] spirit within me.

11 

Cast me not away from your presence,

    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

12 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

    and sinners will return to you.

14 

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

    O God of my salvation,

    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

15 

O Lord, open my lips,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

The other dad in my life is the DAD of my kids.

Charlie.  

He is the DAD of my kids and so many many kids with no dad.

Charlie in Uganda working on Redeemer House.

This is Charlie in Kenya working at an orphanage.

 It seems no matter where we are or what we are doing, my man ends up on his knees.
His outside posture is an outward expression of his heart posture.
 .

He serves, he works, he prays, he is humble.

Psalm 95:6-7 (ESV)

6 

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

7 

For he is our God,

    and we are the people of his pasture,

    and the sheep of his hand.

The phrase that comes to mind when I think of my man is,
 "He is ALWAYS the clean-up guy."
He seems to come in late so many times because I have usually jumped in and thrown every kid we have in the mix and the whole time we are running around like a bunch of crazies, Charlie has been on his knees,
 serving, working, praying,  and humbling himself.

And then when the timing is right and I've worn myself and the kids into exhaustion,
 and we look to our leader on his knees, he
STANDS UP.........HE STANDS STRONG.

  All the humble time on his knees has given him a perspective that nobody else has seen and he is ready to
STAND UP, STAND STRONG
and
CLEAN UP AND FINISH STRONG.
  This has happened in so many situations of our lives throughout the years, and it always throws me for a loop.
I am flipping out and running on high, and he seems to not be seeing or feeling or doing anything, and then he
 STANDS UP and GIVES THE KNEE PERSPECTIVE.

He then gets back on his knees and 
cleans up and finishes strong.

Charlie is always the LAST to leave, last to leave the job, or the party.
  And he doesn't just hang out and leave last, he cleans up, finishes up, and makes sure everything and everyone is in order.

This is my man being the clean up guy last night.
  I was DONE, worn out, finished with kids for the day, so what does a clean up Dad do on Father's Day week-end, he sits in the recliner and puts his 2 youngest to sleep.
He has had a longer day than any of us, and yet he is the last one standing.