Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day, and what a great day it was.  A little boy was asked what the difference between Father's Day and Mother's Day was and he said you don't spend as much on the gift for dad!  That might be true for some, but I'm especially spoiled on Father's Day with my gifts...I have two with short blonde hair and one with slightly longer and darker colored hair.  The gift is they call me dad and husband and even after all of my screw ups they still tell me they love me every day.  Gifts don't come any better than that!

I've written on here, probably too many times, of how much I'm reminded of God's relationship with us when I sit back and observe my relationship with my boys.  Brace yourselves, because another reminder is coming your way.  I've been reading in the New Testament book of Ephesians, and in that book the author talks a lot about how we're supposed to act and reflect the image of Christ.  I can tell you that I wish I reflected the image of Christ more and that my boys reflected the image of me less!  How come they tend to pick up on the bad habits so quickly?  I can readily admit that I don't have a lot of patience for silly questions and not following directions (this lack of patience not one of my better qualities).  I had to stifle a giggle, or was it a tear, when I saw my oldest son reflecting that same quality when he was doing a project with his little brother.  It was like God had put up a mirror and I was looking at my interactions with Isaac sometimes.  Yikes...!  Do what I say boy not what I do!  Sometimes I wonder if God blessed me with these two boys to remind me of the things I need to work on in my own life.

I know God doesn't have any bad qualities that we can reflect, but I wonder if God shakes his head, as I do, when he sees his children not reflecting the image of Christ as they should.  I wonder if God says, "Do as I say and as I did through the life of Christ."  Is it easier to pick up and reflect the bad habits?  Is that why my kids seem to pick up on mine?  Or am I too quick to criticize and not quick enough to praise the good things I see?  I bet it's more of the latter...I don't praise them enough when they are taking after their mom and being little angels!

I wonder if we are like that with ourselves a little bit too.  I/We are very critical of ourselves.  We are very quick to point out all of our faults and the areas of our lives where we know we should be better.  Why aren't we as quick to highlight and emphasize the good qualities we have?  Is it because we've been raised not to brag about ourselves?  I bet if we took some time to emphasize our good qualities some of the not so good qualities would fade away a little bit.  I'm not saying we need to stop working on making ourselves better, but we need to stop being so hard on ourselves all of the time and acknowledge the good we do too.  I'm going to be better about doing that with my boys, and also with myself.  Will  you join me?