Serve and Protect

This is Father’s Day weekend, and I know many of you are celebrating your dads by sharing photos of them on social media. So today, I am too.



Here is one of my very favorite pictures of my dad. As you can see, he is dressed for work as a deputy sheriff, but he is also trying to play my Mickey Mouse organ. What’s hilarious about this is that my dad is totally tone deaf. In fact when you look up “tone deaf“ in the dictionary, you will see his picture. This organ had color-coded notes so anyone could play it, and my dad was giving it his best shot.   

My dad was a deputy sheriff, so I thought he was the coolest thing ever. There were several kids in my age group that had dads in law enforcement, and we all thought we were special. We still do actually. We are very proud of our dads and their service to their community. 



Dad served and protected our community for over 20 years, but he has served and protected me as his daughter for 44 years. He taught me to love football, and we talk football all the time still. He took me on rides on Saturday mornings to check on his other job, which was building houses. We would stop at a local convenience store and get Sunkist orange soda and peanut butter crackers. It was one of my favorite things to do ever. He was in attendance at all my recitals and every Friday night in the fall he was in the stands to watch me perform on dance line. More than that, he paid for all of my education - 14 years of private school, four years of college, and three years of seminary. I never had to work an outside job. He just wanted me to get my education.    

Now that I am older, I appreciate him all the more. My boys love him, too, and he is crazy about them. Zach just said the other day that he is a really great Papaw. My dad is facing heart surgery in the coming days. Dad also has Parkinson’s, which will affect his recovery. We appreciate your prayers as he and my stepmom face a long journey ahead.

 In the Ten Commandments, God implores us to “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy‬ ‭5:16‬ ‭CSB‬‬) As many of you know, this is the only command with a promise, as Ephesians 6:3 points out. If we honor our parents, we will have a long life and things will go well for us. I have a friend whose mother would remind her of that command when she was not being respectful! ‬‬‬‬

God takes it seriously when we don’t honor our parents. The books of Proverbs mentions parents about 26 times, giving us such instruction as:

“My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭6:20‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“A foolish son is grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭17:25‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

“As for the eye that ridicules a father and despises obedience to a mother, may ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures eat it.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭30:17‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

That last one is pretty harsh, but as you can see, God is serious about us honoring our parents. 

I know that Father’s Day is hard for some of you, and I affirm you for that. Just know that your Heavenly Father is ready and willing to take those hurts, those burdens, and those wounds and bind them up for you. He wants to help heal you and show you what a Father’s love really looks like. He is the Father to the fatherless. His love for you is steadfast and unconditional. Go to Him today. He is ready to be your Father.

For the rest of us, we need to think of how we can best honor our dads today. There are many ways to do it, and you may just need to think of what he would like best. I know at our house Stewart is enjoying his new grill/smoker combo that he received as a gift this year! And our boys will shower him with hugs and kisses all day long, I am sure! For my part, I will leave Stewart alone so he can nap and then make him a cup of coffee. 

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there! May you be celebrated and honored this weekend by those who love you! 

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