My Father Didn’t Tell Me How To Live; He Lived And Let Me Watch Him Do It.-Kelland

To a child, a father is often a towering figure, both physically and mentally. He has the opportunity to be not only an authority figure, but also a lover of our souls. I was blessed with a father who was my larger than life hero. When I was growing up, my mother did not work outside our home, whereas my salesman father was out of town on business more than he was in town. But when he walked through our front door on Thursday nights, the hero had returned.

 In my eyes, he could do no wrong, except when he spanked me. His warming my butt rarely happened, not because I had attained sainthood, but rather because it was my mother who most often doled out the punishment. Daddy was more reserved. Perhaps because his life work was sales he was happy not having to talk much in the sanctity of our home.

He spoke loudly, however, through his action, whether demonstrating his love for his wife or tucking his “twin-ies” into bed on his nights home and whispering in our ears how much he loved us or in his gentleness caring for our pets or as the hero to the neighborhood children who followed him like a Pied Piper as he worked in his beloved garden.

This gentle man of few words role modeled what it was to care for others by giving when someone needed help, reaching out and lifting up someone who had fallen, leaving our  neighborhood to enter neighborhoods of the less fortunate in order to bring relief  or even in doling out needed, but not wanted, discipline.

I was only sixteen when disease ended his young life in six short weeks. His final legacy not only taught me how to live, but also how to die…with dignity and faith and trust that Jesus awaited him for eternity. Decades later, he lives as vitally in my mind’s eye as he does in my heart. I know how to live an honorable life because I watched my father do it. I don’t remember many of his words, except “Your Daddy loves you very much”, but his actions were monumental. In all he did, he breathed life into lessons which were imprinted briefly, but eternally, on my soul. He didn’t talk much, but his walk spoke volumes.

If you are not blessed to have a father in your life, open your eyes and heart to the men around you and find an honorable one and latch onto him visually. The most profound lessons are in a person’s actions, not words. Often a person’s walk does not match their talk. Watch the walk!

 If you are a man not blessed to have children, be a blessing to the children around you. Role model being an honorable man to them: a man who perceives the needs of others and helps resolve them, a man who lifts up someone who has fallen and raises even higher a person who has succeeded.

 The child in all of us innately needs to watch an honorable man model father- like compassion and love. (And women! We aren’t off the hook! We too must role model such behaviors.)

 In the final analysis, it is in our observation of positive actions that we learn life’s best lessons.

Watch God in His Abba Father role. He has the behavior perfected!

Good comes from actions, not lip service!