Its hard to know exactly where to start when it comes to my father. He is truly one of the most dynamic men that I’ve ever come across. He is an absolute people person. He’s very close to 100% extrovert, if not all the way there, & yet he is also an excellent thinker & logician. That’s a pretty rare combo. He is the most tenderhearted & passionately loving man, but he can also be very blunt & sarcastic. I once told him that he should write a book entitled Building Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Ridicule. It’d be a bestseller for sure!
I guess I’ll start with the fact that my dad was & is an amazing role model for how a man of God should love his wife. He was self-employed for a good deal of my childhood & formative years. He worked out of the house while my mother went to school to teach everyday. Because he was at home during the day, he did many of the household chores. He did the laundry, cooked, & occasionally cleaned. This is pivotal as I look back on it now. My father was showing me how to be the man of the house. What?! That’s what I said, the man of the house. He showed me how to love his wife as Christ loved the church, & to put her needs above his own. It would have been easy for a man of his generation to just wait until his wife got home & allow her to continue working even after she was off work. However, my dad (being the efficiency expert that he is) saw that he can put a load of laundry in & go back to work while it washes. He can put the lasagna in the oven & get back to his computer while it cooks. He maximized his time so that when we all got home from school, we could all, even my mother, go straight into family time. Truly, this is an excellent example of how to be the head of a household.
My dad was & is an excellent role model for how a man of God parents his children. He loves his children with all of his heart. I have never doubted it. When I was a child he loved on me, sang to me, prayed with me, & tucked me in every night. He would go on & on about how proud he was of me & how special I was to him. (As a counselor now I know that this is very good stuff for children to hear.) He never stopped telling me that he loved me as I grew older, as many fathers tend to do with their sons. He never stopped showing me physically that he loved me. He still hugs on me every time I come home. He never stopped telling me that he is proud of me. He is still telling me.
I love my father’s passion, sense of humor, & deep love for people. The lasting & deep impact that my father will have on my life personally, in addition to the lives of all those who have known him, are truly good. He is a man of God & I pray that I can be half the husband & father that he is. He certainly isn’t perfect, but he knows it & tries to stick with his strengths & rise above the weakness. He has shown me how to live & love with conviction & purpose. I love my dad & he loves me.
I know it isn’t Christmas, but I will leave you with two of my favorite Pete songs of all time “Sweet, Little Jesus Boy” & “O! Holy Night.” (After all, he is one of the top five male vocalists of all time.) From the smash hit album “Pete & Kids.”
