Love Thy Father

Wanted: A Few Good Men.

• Must be able to be on call 24-7, forever.
• Must carry a cellphone and be fluent in text. Must be able to understand code for ‘laugh out loud and right now.’ 
• Must be able to provide funds for diapers, formula, books, dance lessons, karate lessons, prom dresses, dress suits and band camp fees. Must be able to instill good money management. Must be able to encourage his children working at an early age because life is about work first and play later. 
• He must be able to keep his mouth shut when needed.
• Must have basic relationship knowledge such as ‘going with’ someone when you’re 14 means simply that you’re talking on the phone with them and not picking out fonts for their wedding.
• MUST be able to say ‘no’, mean it and back it up. 
• Must be of good temperament  and realize that his kids will grow into adults and have their own lives and not always to what HE thinks is best.
• He must be able to love enough to stand by and watch a disaster unfold that he knew would but keep his mouth shut.
• He must be able to love them enough to pick them up, wipe them off and send them back out and keep his mouth shut. 
• Must be able to fish a Hotwheels out of a toilet or call down a group of boys shooting bottle rockets out of their butt cracks in his back yard.
• Must be able to read ‘If You Give A Moose A Muffin’ until he’s able to recite it in his sleep. 
• Must be able to go without sleep for several days in a row. 
• Must be able to be a spiritual guide.
• He must have a skill set that lends to being able to offer advise and constructive criticism without bringing down tears or squealing tires. 
• He must be able to keep his mouth shut when needed. (repeated for importance)
• Must be able to maneuver through pitfalls when ‘love’ begins and be able to help advise on which date needs to be encouraged because it’s their best choice. 
• Must be able to assist with the date that must be taken back and placed in the hole on the side of the road from where it was picked up. 
• Ability to travel required and highly recommended to get the best and well-rounded end results.
• MUST be able to have a love so intensely that the love permeates his being to the degree that the love surprises him. He also needs to be able to cope with the fact that love can bring tears to his man-eyes at any given moment.
• He must be able to perform other unspecified, and not always hygienic or fun, duties as needed.  

Starting salary for this position: $0.00

Top out salary for this position: $0.00

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Father’s come in all shapes and sizes. We work. We play. We spank. We hug. We fix. We mend broken hearts. We time out. We time in and we roll in the floor and tickle our toddlers or shoot guns with our adult kids.

To the dads out there with little ones at home, enjoy that quick time. In a very short time, you’ll get your sleep back. And then you do wake up, you’ll be walking her down the aisle to give her away to another man. Or you’ll see him hard at work and then have people come to you and volunteer to you about what a great young man that you have raised.

Being a father is the greatest challenge in a man’s life.

Being a father is the greatest reward in a man’s life.

But in the end, life will offer a man no other feeling that can duplicate those chubby little arms meeting tightly around his tired neck after a 12 hour work day when he opens the door to coloring books on the floor, 101 Dalmatians playing on the TV, and the screaming announcement that..

‘daddy’s home.’

Below are a few of my friends thoughts and memories of their dads for Father’s Day 2017.

Let’s encourage other fathers on their own wondrous and once in a lifetime journey.

That’s the best that I can tell about it.

~Mark

I knew that my Dad was quite an athlete in h.s. Captain of the football team. I recently found out that he had a scholarship offer to University ofWest Virginia, to play football. He passed it up to join the Navy in WW2. Anyway, when I was 12, and playing Junior League (East Shore Lions!) he showed me one of his favorite moves from when he was playing. The next game, I tried it, (after practicing it against the trees in the back yard!) and scored what the newspaper called “a twisting, sidelines romp!”. 3 touchdowns that day, all over 50 yards! And he was an even better baseball/softball coach!

~Gary Greene

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“I remember in the solitude of a moment when my father became my friend”
Happy Father’s Day James Keeling 

~Jason Keeling

 

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Back in ’76, when I was about to turn 18, we had a big party at the river. The trunk of my car was loaded with beer. And I locked my keys in the trunk! In my old faithful Pontiac Bonneville, the ONLY way to get in was with a key. No cell phones back then, so I had someone drive me to a house where I could use the phone. My dad said he would be right there. I knew he was going to kill me! But when he opened the trunk and looked inside, all he did was smile and say “Be careful.” It was never mentioned again.

~Ron Wortham

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I want to talk about a man that carries genuine charisma and selflessness with him wherever he goes. A song that has resonated with our families lately is always be “humble and kind” by Tim McGraw and I can truly say that this is the foundation in which we were raised in. How you respond through the good times, the toughs times and all in between is what reveals a persons character, and our fathers has always shown a good example of keeping a good balance of it all. One of the many examples of this is when our dad used all four of his generators to help several people in need during a power outage during and after a tornado, he ended up not even leaving one for himself. That same man always made it a point to follow through, He always shows up when we call regardless of the reason (even if we didn’t want him to at the time.. ha ) Our dad has always made it effortless to look up to him. From watching him teach our youth Sunday school classes, doing projects around the house, committing to the Jesus role in the Christmas play, to coaching our all girl softball team in high school. He does of it all whole heatedly. He’s a man that can fit into any crowd and adapt to any situations with confidence and humor. These qualities are the reasons that he will forever be our role model. He is still the first person we call from States away because of the compassion and problem solving he brings every time. Regardless of the situation we come to him with, he is always all in. As we learn life lessons he has continuously been there, invested in our dream or even to sternly tell us the reality. Dad has a way of revealing life’s answers, all the while helping us soften the hard realities that life brings. (maybe a couple of I told you so’s). This is a man that is driven by making people feel special. His positive energy is contagious. One of our favorites is all of the years that he set up to be DJ Marky Mark, to light up all of the the faces at Texas children’s hospital. He always accepts the challenge of putting a smile on every persons face. Even with unlikely strangers, he always finds a way. And as for his kids smiles, it could be something as simple as riding around to jobs with him that he can make memories out of. Watching a man with “energizer bunny ” work ethic in order to make all kids happy was fun. We were always impressed with the bobcat rides and exclusive play before the park opened. It makes it even more meaningful that he has passed down the exclusive trips to his grandchildren. Don’t even get us started on the amazing G-daddy qualities. He will continue to teach the generations to come with simply just being him. We will never stop learning from this man. We are so very lucky to have him as our Father.

Happiest of Fathers Day to you Dad! 

~Caley, Kelsey and Jacob Reynolds

For Mark Reynolds