Happy Father's Day!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!


I LOVE YOU DADDY!!!!!!!!!!

This is a blog I wrote back in 2006 for Father's Day. I guess I'm just being lazy, but I decided to repost it.

As Father's Day approaches I've been thinking about my dad and the very valuable wisdom he has imparted to me. Growing up I spent a lot of time in the car with my dad and in addition to an appreciation for Beatles music and talk radio, he also gave me three wise statements that I have always remembered.

1. (At age 11) "If you have sex, you have babies." Right about that one.

2. (Age 13) "Your credit is the most important thing in life. You have to have good credit." Well, I believe there are many more important things in life, but let's face it, you do need good credit.

3. (Age 14)"Life is all about choices. People just make choices." My dad shared this last statement with me when I innocently asked how someone could bomb a daycare building in Oklahoma City.

I'm finishing up my internship for my social work degree right now and everyday I encounter people who have made choices. Most of them are bad choices. Some make bad choices because the people don't know any better. Some have found that bad choices actually work better for them. Some make bad choices because they just can't break the cycle.

I've struggled a lot with handling cases where other people say, "It's their fault, they got themselves into that mess" or "How can you help someone who doesn't want to help themselves?" I've spent a lot of time asking myself that question and the only answer I can come up with is that I've made bad choices too. They may not even register on the same level as some other people's bad choices, but they were still bad choices. And despite my failures and disappointments I've been shown mercy.

I constantly wonder why I have the life I have and why I am not one of the people I see so often who has had a life of heartache and problems. I like to think that it's because I've mostly made good choices. But, I didn't get to choose the family I was born into or many of the opportunities given to me. Again, the only answer I know is that I've been shown mercy.

Yesterday I talked with a woman who is in a bad situation and has put her unborn child in a very bad, unfair position. She wanted help, but backed out when she didn't get it on her terms. There's nothing I can do now but pray for her. When I got home and had time to think about the situation I felt so frustrated that it seemed like such a hopeless situation. I knew there were other people who cared less and felt like she had done this to herself. I had to fight to not be one of those people. She had made some really bad choices.

It's true, we do make our own choices in life. I just thank God that His grace and mercy have covered so many of mine.

"not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit."

Titus 3:5