Who’s Your Daddy?

If your kids are anything like mine, Daddy trumps Mommy every time.

Perhaps it’s because Daddy doesn’t mandate a fruit and/or veggie at every meal.  Yeah, I said every.  I know. Lame.  Perhaps it’s because Daddy doesn’t use phrases like “too much screen time” or “for the umpteenth time, have you taken your medicine yet?” or “yes, you must comb your hair before leaving the house!”

Daddy knows how to work video games.  (Major secret:  I actually avoid knowing how to use electronics on purpose!  Yep.  If I don’t know, they can’t ask me to help. :-))

Daddy likes to watch shows like “Green Lantern” and of all things, the most redundant and asinine show on TV (at least according to “no fun” Mommy) – “Wipeout.”

In my heart of hearts, I’m really fine taking a back seat to Dad.  He is honestly cooler than me and I’m okay with it.  I’d rather to sit next to him at the dinner table too!

He’s not cool because of his strapping good looks, but let’s be honest — he is “ridiculously good-looking.”

No, he’s cool because he knows he’s not.  He knows anything he has or anything he is does not come from his own strength but by the power of the Spirit who guides his steps.  He knows the One who makes all things new, living into a spiritual “newness” each and every day.

The man I married sixteen years ago rarely shed a tear.  Today, he melts into a puddle just reading the handmade Father’s Day cards our children proudly produced.

The man I married sixteen years ago rarely looked “outside the box” when predicting his future.  Today, he hardly looks past today stating, “the future is in the Lord’s hands.”

The man I married sixteen years ago never thought twice about fathering more than two kids.  Today, he mercifully shepherds four little hearts with grace and integrity. Modeling stern boundaries, but never hesitating to seek forgiveness if he is in the wrong.

A more beautiful picture I have never seen than a little boy putting his arms around a Daddy, HIS Daddy (my hubby) for the first time.  As we nervously stepped through the gates of the orphanage courtyard, anticipating the long-awaited introduction to our children, my heart skipped as I witnessed the instant, abandoned love of a son to his father.  A father he had only seen in pictures.  A father he had only dreamt of under an Ethiopian sky.  In that moment my heart melted and I have never been the same.

 

Though our earthly Daddies are second to none, I am even more grateful the one with whom I share my life knows and follows his heavenly Daddy.

Now he shepherds five little hearts.  Mine is the first in line….