(***Today is July 22 and I've just realized that this didn't post on Father's Day like it was supposed to! Yikes! Sorry husband!***)
I just don't know how to say what my heart bears so fully. It's the eve of Father's Day, and you're my husband and the father of our 5 children. I've bought gifts and cards, and the ingredients for your steak and cake dinner. I've done all the wifey things, but even as I type this, I'm sitting upstairs alone, and you're downstairs having a devotional time with our kids. How do I say thank you for that? How do I let you know that when you follow your many hours of work each week with ensuring quality time instilling the word of God in our babies, my heart overflows but my lips can't form the words?
You know that I love you, but this is an entirely different arena. This is our children, our reflection, our legacy. It matters, and you don't let it slide. You're consistent when I feel shaky. You're strength when I'm stumbling. You're wisdom and logic when all I can see and feel are chaos.
Our boys know that when it's time to talk about guns and woodwork and muscles and music, you're the man for the job. They always come to you first, confident that you'll have exactly the answers they seek.
Our girls know that you're willing to sing along to Coldplay or the My Little Pony theme song, and that whatever life is bringing them, you'll do your best to provide the answer, and that when they walk straight into your chest and bury their tear-stained faces, you'll be enveloping them in the embrace that matters most to a girl...the arms of their Daddy.
I watch you, day after day. I see the sacrifices. I see the protective nature. I've seen you when you've been ready to rage against those who've come against your kids. I've seen you talk for hours when it felt pointless, but eventually yielded holy fruit.
You are so careful to point our kids to 1 Corinthians 13. What you don't see is that you are pointing them to your example as well.
You are patient and kind. You are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. You do not demand your own way. You are not irritable, and you keep no record of being wronged. You do not rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out. You never give up, never lose faith, are always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance.
The example you set in our home is that of a man who is imperfect, but who never stops trying to be like Jesus.
These words feel like nothing compared to what I truly feel, but they are a start. They are true. They are all that I know to offer to you, the man who blesses his family abundantly every day of his life.
I love you,
me
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