Dads and Daughters

A girl born near Father's Day grew up fatherless, dodged a date, every dance, and a kiss, and barely made eye contact with a male till she was 23. Astonishing me still today, I've been graced to marry Matthew Dale, my very own tall North Dakotan, strikingly handsome, Christ-loving man. A man whose character I admire, learn from daily and still roll my eyes in bewilderment over.... I'm married to him, Matthew who loves God with a solid trust and devotion that I don't get (it's not gooey emotional) but I know it's deep and strong and it forms the foundation in our home. I love his humor, his help, his tickling, his lovey kisses in the kitchen, his reading aloud, his desire for me, his spoken blessings over us. I love him.

As I reflect this morning- I think I could narrow a lot of my gratitude for him down to one essential, great thing: he is a giver. A regular giver to me and to our kids. A faithful giver, not perfect, but by God’s grace, faithful still. He serves and and fans flame in me to be a joyful wife. The unchanging foundation of my joy is Christ and what he has accomplished for me, but as a wife, I take great pleasure in being, and bringing joy to my man. So much for the ones who are sadly mistaken to think that monogamous must mean monotony. May it never!

Pure passion and pleasure and joy of friendship and faithfulness and mutual, overflowing delight is what we’re committed to, aiming for, and enjoying- at least pieces of - daily. And thats the stuff that not only makes the best of a lover husband, but also makes the best dad.

I can’t think of a way around it: to be a great dad, a man must honor daughters- his own and the one he's married too.  And a man can’t honor his own daughter or honor his wife or any other woman rightly without honoring their Maker, the Father who made us in his image and loved us first. We daughters first belong to God and you dads do well to honor him and love us servingly. You do so well, Matthew and may I ever be growing to love you well in return.

Happy Father's Day Darling.

My Love with our daughter, our eldest son, and our little guy...

More great dads in my life:

My Father in law: with his girl and with his firstborn and ours.

I'm so glad my husband and our firstborn have your name in the middle of theirs. An honor for them both. You are a blessing to each of us. I can't believe how good I have it marrying your eldest boy and getting you as the dad with the package. Thank you for leading your home as you have, for loving your wife, for blessing our clan of five and carefully tending to the wounds in your children's lives. I am so grateful for you as a dad for me and such an incredible grandpa for our kids.

My brother in law Greg-

No picture here is telling of the agony...

This is not at all what any one would want for you, for anyone's first father's day. Our hearts are broken as you are missing your daugther today. Greg, you already have been such a servant-hearted, fun-giving dad while Maelee was alive on the inside. I can just imagine those jumps that you felt on Heather's belly were for your daughter's complete delight in you. Maelee has the best mom imaginable, but I think- nothing taken from that amazing mama- she still would have been one completely smitten daddy's girl.

We miss her so badly for us and so soo badly for you and Heather. We are praying, crying, trusting, praying still... and looking ahead with Hope and Joy for that day when all this sorrow will be redeemed.

My brother in law Chris-

How fun a dad you are too! The way you love your Lilli girl, is admirable in so many ways Chris. You also serve your daughter very evidently- giving her your time and effort when I'm sure your terribly spent by the end of every day. We love you both so much and delight to pray for you and be family with you.

My dad-

I met you the day after I turned 22 and I’ve known since well before then that our lives stand for wildly different ways. Not quite a year ago we swabbed around in our cheeks and confirmed our DNA is a match, so there’s no squirming out of it, but there’s little else that matches up between you and I... except for our noses and eyes and the olive in our skin. The mismatch is at times puzzling, and maybe a bit funny, and has made for some bumps along the road, hasn’t it?

Some of your roles are indeed interesting and I know you always try to be charming and it seems you have the image down well, but I hope that your years and a hunger in your soul might expose some more wisdom and clarity to comprehend the cheapness and fleeting nature of all the world has to offer.

Our lives are all broken cisterns, craving to be filled but always flowing brokenly.  It seems abundantly clear that this is the story of humanity, you and I included.  We are broken and we need to meet the Potter... I am praying for you and I love you, my very interesting, definitely zany, hard to handle, totally different from me, father whose skin I wear. I pray you’ll know Jesus, the sin-Conqueror, "true God and eternal life".