Father's Day---Not Very Good Memories

My earth Father worked hard and played hard.

A farm boy with an 8th grade education, my father was very smart. He was a superb machinist, and could draw in 3D any machine design inside and out. If he had the right tools he could build it to any scale needed or build the tools needed to build the machine!...

He was a superb auto mechanic and metal body builder/customizer.

He dreamed big and wanted the best things.

Six feet tall, he was ruggedly handsome with shoulders and chest of a body builder. His hair was thick, black and wavy. He was a great dancer, even on roller-skates. His singing voice was a deep tenor. He could sit in on a 'red-neck' band, playing the spoons, mouth harp, harmonica, washboard and the saw blade. He was a wonderful cook.

He married a sweet, dark haired girl, who matched his wisdom. When she helped my brother Mike with a paper he had to write for school, his teacher failed him for it, stating it was obviously written by a college graduate and not a sixth grader. (Mother also an 8th grade graduate.)

Together they raised 5 very smart children.

*********

I hated my father.

My father was a pedophile who molested his own daughters, messed up the lives of his sons, and battered his wife.

I didn't attend his funeral and I have never been to my father's grave.

**********
If there was ever a dysfunctional family, we were it. But today, I have a great Christian family at Grace Bible Church.

I've had to learn to love. And I have found love.
God has shown me love and has helped me love Ivan as I have never loved anyone before.

I have forgiven my father. I do hope he asked Jesus to forgive him before he died. I would love to have my father greet me in heaven.

He was asking for a priest on the day he died in Togus but he died before the man came.

A priest cannot absolve anyone of their sins, only God can do that when you ask Him, so that information has little meaning, but if my father was thinking he needed forgiveness, he may have cried out to God at the end.

God is that loving and gracious and would have forgiven my father. God died on the cross for the sins of my father. All he needed to do was ask Jesus to save him.

Praise the Almighty Lord Father God!!!

*********

God is my Father in heaven. I am born into God's family through Jesus Christ. He has made me one of His daughters and loves me much more than any earthly father ever could.

"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15.

But.......

Father's Day doesn't have good memories.

##