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Happy Father's Day!

Fathers get a bad rap in TV sitcoms. They're usually just another child underfoot in the house and Mom has to take care of the kids and manipulate her husband into quasi-adult behavior. Study after study shows that dads are a big deal in the home. Daughters learn their value from the male perspective with a man who protects and loves her sacrificially. Sons learn how a real man behaves in this confusing world.

Real dads aren't wimps. They're men who aren't perfect and make plenty of mistakes, but they don't run out on their families. Ask any social worker and you'll find out that many of the problems with teens and younger children are because there is no father in the home.

"A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society." -- Billy Graham, Christian Evangelist
 "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." 
 -- Theodore Hesburgh, Catholic Priest and President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame
 I was blessed with a father who was and still is one of the good guys. He worked hard to support us, took us to church, played with us, taught us to shoot and fish, and some of our family adventures make great stories to tell to our grandchildren.

You appreciate your parents more when you're a  parent yourself. Kids don't come with an instruction manual and you can have days when being shipwrecked on a uninhabited island is ideal. Good dads gird up their loins and go home, get down on the floor and play with the kids.

I'm grateful for a husband who's also a great father and for a son-in-law who is as well. Now that we're sitting back from parenting duty, we're watching Steve and Megan raise our grandsons. Glad they got the twins and we didn't. Listening to Steve's testimony at their church a couple of weeks ago on their experience with the birth of the boys, makes a mother-in-law's heart just about bust.(I'll refer you to the December Miracles post for the story on their birth.)

L to R
Megan, Emily, Chris, Steve
Austin, Brayden
Steve is definitely one of the good guys. He's a godly example for his sons, loves his wife, and Steve is committed to his family for the long haul. It's not an easy job. It takes courage, commitment, and sacrifice. There are lots of good dads out there---more than there are bad ones I'd hazard to guess. I hope you've been blessed with a good one like mine.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! Thanks!




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