dadI can’t remember much of my childhood. I always tell people this is because I’m always looking toward the future, but I doubt that’s why. I’m pretty sure I just have a terrible memory. But as I look at the kind of person I have grown up to be, I begin to see things in myself that remind me of the things my dad taught me as I was growing up. I see character traits in me that are just like him; I think like him, I love like, I joke like him and I definitely got my love of computers and tech from him. Out of all the things that I believe I learned or inherited from my dad there are a few things that have shaped me the most.

I would like to share the 3 most important things that my dad taught me.

  1. Hard Work

    My dad loves to work with his hands. Actually he just loves to work. He works 50+ hours a week at his job and then comes home only to continue working on the house. Every house we have ever lived in we ended up doing something significant to it. Additions, foundations, roofs, doors, trenches, drywall, electrical, paint, mud, bricks, horse stalls and the list goes on. My dad did it all with the help of my brother and I. Almost every saturday and sunday for as long as I can remember I worked with my dad. We never had money to pay someone to do these kinds of things and even if we did we still would have done it ourselves. Which leads me to the next thing my dad taught me.

  2. I Can Do It

    Whenever I tried doing something that I didn’t know how to do my dad would tell me “If somebody can do it then so can you”. He lives by this statement and now so do I. To this day If I don’t know how to do something I learn how. I read about it, I find people that can teach me, I watch youtube videos. And then I try. This lesson never made me an expert at many things but it did show me that I could be.

  3. Who God Is

    momanddadThe most important thing my dad ever taught me was who God is. He taught me this by how he loved my mom. By how he always made sure our family was taken care of. How he disciplined me and corrected me.  He prayed for me and with me. He made me work with my hands and showed me that I could do anything that I put my mind to. He lived the word of God on a daily basis. He showed me who God is by his actions. He loved God in front of me.

Happy Fathers Day dad, I love you. Thank you for raising me to know God!

Proverbs 22:6 says

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

As fathers the only way we will ever truly teach our kids to know God and love Him is to love God right in front of them. We lead them by example not by words.

To all the dads out there, this is your call to love God openly and honestly in front of your children.

 

How has your dad shaped you?