With a nod to the immortal Paul Harvey, the video above (if you have trouble with it try YouTube) is dedicated to the millions of men who have chosen to be faithful fathers by walking in partnership with their wives in bearing children, and raising them in love. Especially my dad, my father-in-law, my brothers, and brothers-in-law, my son, and our amazing sons-in-law.
So God Made A Father
And on the 8th day, God looked down on the Wonderful World He had made and said, "My children will need a protector." So God made a father.God said, "I need somebody willing to get up with a crying child in the middle of the night so her mother can get some well-deserved rest, then catch a few hours of sleep himself before waking up again to his 5:30 a.m. alarm so he can hurry off to beat the morning rush hour. Somebody who’ll work hard all day plus a little extra to get the job done, get stuck in the evening rush hour, eat a rewarmed supper, read the little ones a story and tuck them in bed, and then stay up until past midnight helping a 10-year-old with a science project." So God made a father."I need somebody tough enough to barely wince from the bloody knuckles he gets when his wrench slips while re-repairing the family car, but tender enough to push back tears when his shy 7-year-old reads a poem in her school assembly. Somebody to spend all-day Saturday unclogging toilets, searching the neighborhood for a lost kitten, mowing the lawn, getting zapped while replacing a dead light fixture, and cleaning up the paint spilled while the kids were playing hide-and-seek in the garage, and then hurrying to get cleaned up for a weekly date with his wife.” So God made a father.God said, "I need somebody who’s just as happy to listen patiently while his teenage daughter gives him the blow-by-blow of a conversation with her friends as he is to play rough-and-tumble on the floor with his boys. I need somebody to call his family together to pray every day, and then to thank Heaven for each one of them by name. I need somebody to be firm enough to be absolutely inflexible about his children respecting their mother, but who will quietly go back to the store one-more-time because a forgetful child remembers that she also needs poster-board for her school project.” So God made a father.God had to have somebody willing to keep wearing second-hand shoes and his old jeans with the hole in the knee for another few months so the family can afford a prom-dress for the oldest. So God made a father.God said, "I need somebody strong enough to apologize when he’s wrong and then to bite-his-tongue when he could have said ‘I told you so’. I need somebody who’ll look the other way when a pretty girl with a mini-skirt walks by but who will pay careful attention and intervene when a car full of ruffians tries to follow her home.”"Somebody who would gladly give his life defending his country but who is much more likely to spend his life keeping her strong. Somebody who'll love his children more than his own soul, and who’ll adore his wife even more than his children. Somebody who will laugh and then sigh, and then respond, with a tousle of hair and a grateful grin when his son says 'I want to grow up to be a daddy too.'" So God made a father.
--- by Joe Haynie @ http://PoPapaJoe.com ---
Amen.
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