Fatherhood

I'll tell you, there are many days that I am in awe of how much God has blessed me when He gave me my husband. Today I will focus on what a great Dad he is. (Yes, I know yesterday was Father's Day, but I haven't had a quiet moment to write until today.)

When we got married, I never dreamed that we would actually be blessed with so many children. We knew we would have children, but I honestly thought 3 would probably be our limit. How blessed we are that, God has changed our hearts and gifted us with 7 children.

It takes an incredible man to be a good father to 7 children. And, through the years, God has grown Jim to be that wonderful father. First and foremost, he is a man of God. He strives to be obedient to our Creator and is a new Creation because of his openness to God. When a man is open to being molded by our Creator, he can't help but be a constantly better man. He is the leader of our home, leading us along the narrow path.

As a leader, he works very hard to support our family. And, trust me, to support a family of 9 in Southern California on a single income is no easy feat. But, with God's blessings, Jim has provided us a plentiful lifestyle. Now, with the recession, we are cutting back, like many others. And Jim is still out there working hard to make ends meet.

And, after working hard all day, he has plenty of projects around the home, too. He has built beds for our raised bed garden. He is remodeling our laundry room. He fixes all the things that break around here. We very rarely have to call a repair man. He always provides me the best of the tools I need to take care of my responsibilities.

And he loves those kids. He was right there at home with me as I delivered each one of them. Several of them he has "caught" as I delivered them. Other than diapers, he is great with the kids and has grown as a Daddy over the years. He loves to be entertained by the little ones and spend time with the big ones. He blesses me to stay home with and homeschool our children. He and I are the ones that are actually raising our children, instead of having values instilled in them by someone else for hours a day.

Since getting words out of teens is like pulling teeth, I thought I would just ask the younger set what they like about Daddy. And here is what I got:

He teaches us about flames. He teaches us stuff about Israel. He builds stuff for us like playhouses and he works really hard so we have enough money to buy lots of food. We don't use the special money to get little toys for us, we use it for food, cuz food is more important than toys. He teaches us what's right and wrong. He teaches us about God. He lets us get reservations at Jalama (camping). He lets us stay up late to have smarshmallows while we're camping. He lets us swim to the part with sand at the River. He trusts us with Uncle Taco at Shell island.

I thank God for blessing me with a wonderful man.