june 15,2014 by nama

Disclaimer…I am posting this sitting outside with limited public wifi, swarmed by Mosquitos, on our tablet, it is not going to be pretty. But it is sincere, and I am having a ton of fun roughing it.

Happy Father’s Day to My Man

For years what i attempted to do for Tim on Father’s Day was create the Hallmark image of Father’s Day. This did not make for a “Happy” Father. Go-carts, mini-golf, child wrangling on a bluff high hike, dinner out = worn out exasperated Dad, not Happy.
As we sit in the woods this Father’s Day, Tim napping as much as his napping self wishes I reflect on the importance of setting aside my ideas and serving selflessly in earnest love, not just on Father’s Day.

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

By fleshly nature we are all self-focused, or as a professional counselor put it “selfish jerks”. We enter this world screaming for what we want when and how we want it.

You put a couple of “selfish jerks” together and things are bound to be messy, difficult and confusing. Leaving the working out of a happy marriage to chance, to instincts, to intuition or “what I feel like at this moment” is about as affective as placing a bunch of two year olds in a room unsupervised with a box of toys and expecting harmonious play.

My new obsessive read…This Momentary Marriage by John Piper talks about our broken nature in chapter two, Naked and Not Ashamed. Pastor John teaches that 1. We all fail. 2. We all fear the shame that follows that failure. 3. Fear and shame destroy our relationships and 4.Only our Lord’s Covenant Love can bring healing and hope to the brokenness we all bring to our marriages.

The first way to be shame-free is to be perfect; (not possible) the second way to be shame-free is based on the gracious nature of covenant love. In the first case, there is no shame because we’re flawless, (not happening). In the second case, there is no shame because covenant love covers a multitude of flaws.  ~By John Piper

We need a truck load of covering for our multitude of flaws over in the Fish Pond or since it is Father’s Day, I need a truck load of covering.

The most affective way I have found to combate the selfishness that fights to rule my every thought is to fix my heart and mind on the truth of my Lord’s word.

If I would commit to live this truth moment by moment how different my relationships would be. How happy Tim’s Father’s Days would be.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Happy Father’s Day My Man!
My prayer is that each day you feel more of His covenant Love and less of my selfishness as we traverse these unknown paths together.

Tim’s Father’s Day looked a lot like this

And this

While i did a whole lot of this……..       It was perfect!

If you have a daughter or granddaughter and you are not building girl Legos, get on it! You are missing out!

Lots of Love to dad Fischer, the man who has modeled our Heavenly Father’s love for us.

i miss my dad, fishing on sapphire waters for two years now.