Happy Father's Day Dad!

My dad is a great man who I love dearly and am so thankful for his love and example. There are so many things I could say about my dad, and I'm not all that good with words, but I'll do my best to share a few things I appreciate about him.

• My dad has always done his best to be a Christian example. He did his best to instill in us kids the importance of serving God and living a holy life. One of my fondest memories as a boy was our nightly times of family devotions (which I resented at the time because dad always prayed for a long time... =) Now I remember with delight the times when dad prayed during our nightly devotions and he almost always prayed that us kids would "choose the holy joys that always last and reject sins pleasures that will soon be past."
• Dad instilled in us a work ethic. Despite having multiple sclerosis and being nearly completely blind he has never allowed these disabilities to slow him down. He could have very easily just collected disability all his life and not tried to work, instead he has always nearly worked himself to death.
• Dad has always been willing to do anything to help his kids. For example mom and dad just recently spent 10 days of their vacation with us here in Georgia. During their time here they worked themselves nearly to death. They purchased supplies for our bake sale we were having to raise money to send kids to youth camp. Then mom baked like crazy and dad helped me with finishing up some remodeling work I was doing on a trailer for Wesley and Janelle Deaton who just moved here to help us at the Church. On the day of the bake sale every time I turned around mom and dad were out at the street in 100 degree weather holding up our signs for the sale. The youth would be lounging in the shade but mom and dad were out in the hot sun - and its not good for dad to be out in the heat like this. Then they donated $150 they didn't have so the kids could have spending money at camp. Then when dad found out that we were going to have to spend $600 (we didn't have) to rent a van to take the kids to camp he and mom donated this as well. The reason I share this is to illustrate how my dad (and mom) will do most anything for others.

I could share much more but it's after midnight. Let me just say that I love my dad and I'm so thankful for a father who did his best to raise me to serve the Lord.