A Father's Love

I grew up and spent the entire of my life up until now in a small town called Fair Oaks, which lies on the outskirts of Sacramento County in California. Both my mother and father were raised in Sacramento so a majority of my extended family lives in the area as well.

I wouldn’t consider my family to be extremely wealthy, with the fact that my dad has spent at least 5 days a week working at his glass business, since before I was born. He earns a decent salary to provide his wife and children with a  life they deserve. And in my eyes, he’s provided us with much more than we deserve. What fifteen year old has the opportunity to fly across the globe to spend her sixteenth birthday with her mom and her best friend in Paris? Or every summer at a beach house with her family? I didn’t get a new car when I was old enough to drive and paying a part of my cell phone bill has always been a responsibility of mine.

When I turned seventeen I got my first job at an ice cream shop called Cold Stone. I recall this one morning attempting to open the store, when my key to the front door wouldn’t work. I was sent to a co-worker’s house to retrieve his key, with no luck on that key working either. It took me calling my handy father and him taking out the front window of the store for me to open the shop that morning. I never told anyone what my dad had done for me and a few weeks later quit working there. I am confident they would have fired me had they known what he had done anyhow.

Working and earning my own money was an important concept my parents wanted to teach me and today I am glad they taught me that. I’m glad I have had to pay my own car insurance, my phone bill, and for anything I have wanted to spend money on. Surely my parents still spoil me, I’m not even going to try to deny it, but I do take responsibility of paying for most things that are required to be paid for.

My father is the bravest man I know and has taught me how to stand up for myself and of course all of the handy things I know today. Let me tell you, I sure as heck know how to hang wooden letters in a straight line on a wall, how to put an Ikea desk together, and even how to kill a spider if there truly is no one around to help; take a huge wad of toilet paper, hope you’ve captured the spider somewhere within and run screaming to the toilet where you throw the wad in and flush as quick as humanly possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s not the point. The point is, my father can show me how to capture a spider a million times, but I still will probably never listen because I just don’t want to face the spider.

When I think of my father I am reminded of my Heavenly Father. I have found that God has taught me many different lessons throughout my life. Some of these lessons I have learned, I use in my life on a daily basis and others I just don’t feel like using because I don’t want to. I question myself when it comes to these things I just don’t feel like doing. The fact is, I am absolutely terrified of spiders. But when it comes down to it, my father has taught me exactly how to tackle the spider situation and honestly, what is there really to be scared of? I don’t think the spider is big enough to eat me or anything.

God spends day after day teaching us exactly how to tackle certain situations and then finally gives us the opportunity to put what we have learned to good use. And we have the option to say yes or no. He’s told us what to do and has given us the necessary tools. If we have that, we really have nothing to fear. Next time I see a spider, I think I shall waste a tad less toilet paper, not fear it eating me alive, and walk to the toilet to flush the thing. Well okay, let’s be honest here, I will still probably make that mad dash to the toilet.

In life we shall face some tough situations, but we have had training on how to deal with those situations and we can either say yes and face the situation head on, or sit back and watch things either go downhill really fast or see someone else shine. I think I am going start saying yes a little more often to the things God has prepared me for.

And as for my earthy father, I am just as thankful for all he has taught me as I am for all my heavenly father has taught me. They have each helped mold me into who I am today and have set me up for success throughout my life. 

My family on Christmas before I returned to Uganda