Father

For me, there is a certain amount of trust in the word father. This isn't to say that my dad has never let me down or broken a promise. But (to my knowledge) it's never been through anything more selfish than absent-mindedness. And I can't complain too much about that, since I'm rather heavily burdened with it myself!

I know that if I ever had serious problems, my dad would do what he could to help me out. No matter what.

It wouldn't necessarily mean bailing me out. But he'd try to help me pull through.

I love my dad. Sometimes he gets down on himself, and I don't like that. He's smart, but sometimes he has trouble expressing precisely what he means, and from his comments from time to time I get the idea that he doesn't think he's smart. (Mom and I are both pretty verbal!)

He's also really easy-going most of the time. "Passive" tends to have a negative connotation; maybe "patient" would be a better term for it. On the other hand, he doesn't like waiting! (Though, in fairness, who does?!) But my point is that his way of showing love is much more quiet than my mom's. She's very active. He just - is.

Sometimes he gets grumpy, and he can be a bit of a bear! He gets frustrated when things don't go the way he wanted them to, and especially when he feels like he's being interrupted or actively ignored.

When I think about my attitude toward my dad, I can see that my attitude toward God parallels it in a lot of ways. I don't go to God a lot in prayer. We don't chat. But I try to keep an ear to the ground. If things don't go as I planned, I try to think about why. Is it just an awkward situation, or is it God's guidance?

Likewise, I've lost my tension about doctrine and believing the right thing. I don't understand how or why salvation works; I just trust that it does. I'm more concerned about modeling "Be Kind No Matter What" for my students. I figure that God knows what to do and can take care of things. I'm okay with that. If I've got a particular part to play, God'll let me know. (And if I don't get the message the first time, I expect He'll just be a bit louder the next.)

I love my dad.