Yesterday I posted on my son's facebook page- "Happy Birthday Son. I love you and I am proud of you." Scott turned 21 yesterday.
The words I posted stuck in my brain. "I love you and I am proud of you." They stuck because they took me back suddenly to the first time I heard my Dad say them to me. It was the afternoon of Easter Sunday 1995. We were sitting on the deck behind our house and it was sunny. My Dad randomly offered, "Son, I love you and I am proud of you." I was 38 years old. Time stopped. An brain imprint was made. I will remember the moment until the day that I die.
I am sure that it was difficult for those words to come out of his mouth. Men were raised differently in my Dad's generation. I know it was a gift from his heart to mine. I just wish I could have heard them a little sooner.
If there is someone that you love, tell them. Some of the world's most powerful words are, "I love you and I am proud of you."
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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I love your post today. So true of many dads, in your dad's time. I can almost assure you, Jeff, that your dad told you how much he loved you, before you even knew what words were for. Not to diminish the importance of your two sisters, but men in your Dad's time were unspeakably proud of their sons. It was a man thing of their time. So I have a feeling he told you with his eyes and his arms, at about 38 hours (not 38 years) the moment he held you, and the moment you opened those curious little eyes. I bet he marched to work with a photo in his billfold, the first one he had developed, with his Brownie Hawkeye Camera.
And the beauty of all this is that you were blessed with not one, but two fathers who love you deeply. I was reminded last night, in a devotion by Max Lucado, based on Matthew 10:10, of how God loves us more than we'll ever know. The devotional thoughts are from Lucado's book, "Gentle Thunder" and entitled "God is Crazy About You." ...one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because He is fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in awhile.
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, but He chose your hear.
Face it, friend. He's crazy about you."
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