fathers.

When I looked up the word "father" in my Apple Dictionary, the first thing I saw was this:

   

father |ˈfäT͟Hər|

noun

1 a man in relation to his natural child or children.

That really doesn't cut it for me.
See, there is a man who fits this description for me. I've never met him. I have about three full sentences to tell me about him. He really didn't want anything to do with me...

"knowing she was pregnant, he tried to avoid his responsibilities for the child, and quitted the coffee house [where my mother met and fell in love with him]."


There is another man who doesn't fit that description, but has been a provider, protector, leader, teacher and friend...my dad. As I mentioned when I bragged about my momma, I really am blessed to have hand-picked parents. :)

I guess you could say I'm a bit of a daddy's girl.Not because I've got him wrapped around my finger, but because we've always had a special bond, me and my dad.

He was the one who read  a chapter of Sideways Stories from Wayside School(and a slew of other books, I'm sure)  to me before bed. The one who always had Juicefuls(anyone else remember these?) in the driver's side door. The one who took me to The Coffee Shop to get a hot chocolate topped with a tower whipped cream. The one took me to the Six Flags water park and skipped all of the big slides because I was too scared to go on them. The  who I called when I totaled my car the second day of college. The one who cuts out the his favorite Pearls Before Swine funnies for me.

He works so hard, often out of town because that's where the work is, but his only complaint is that he's far from us. He's really the only person I know who could be "stuck" in Hawaii for two months and hate it. :)

But I know that the reason my dad is so great is because he loves our Father. The One who created both of us. Our Savior who loved us both first.

I know Father's day may have been difficult for many people because the man they know as father is nothing more than a "man in relation to his natural child". If that's who I was supposed to celebrate on Sunday, I would have probably wanted to skip it too. But praise God that He is the  Father who loves us best. 

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." -1 John 3:1a (ESV)