Father's Day Thoughts

This morn I sent out a request via the net and asked people to think about what makes for a good father. Below are a few responses.

A father is someone you can count on. He will always be there for his family. He is a mixture of toughness & tenderness, depending on what the situation calls for. He must often make difficult decisions. A good Father is one who knows the Heavenly Father & has a personal relationship with him that shapes his character & life. It is a great responsibility to be a
father & responsible for a family.

A good father does not judge, loves unconditionally, gives "tough love" when needed.....someone who says they are proud of you...teaches you how to do the basics in life (check the oil in your car, change a flat tire, how to use a hammer and nail), but also teaches you the fun things (how to drive a car, a boat, how to skateboard, surf, and whatever else you want to learn....no matter how crazy it seems to be......a good father gives you the confidence to achieve anything...be it school or dropping in on a ramp:).....also, someone who will still love you no matter what your report card may reflect.

At my retirement party, my children were asked to say a few words about what they'd learned from me. I discovered a lot about what kind of Dad I'd been! For one thing, I realized again that life "lessons" from parents to children are often more caught than taught. Our lasting impact on our kinds is much more a matter of informal, day-to-day modeling than formal teaching.
Here's the most surprising item for me from the "What Daddy Taught Us" retirement party speech. My son has a dangerous job. One day he thought he was going to be killed. He just had time to send a two-line email to his mother, sister, fiancee, and me to say he loved us and owed all he was to us. It was a chilling note to read on the screen! Thank God, he survived. He said in those near-death moments, he asked, "What would Daddy do in this situation?" Then, he said he set about being the calmest person in the room...because I'd taught him to keep his head and values when the pressure is on. The big surprise in that lesson for me was simple: I never ever had a "calm" lesson in my Daddy teaching plan. He had caught it, but I hadn't consciously taught it.
Dads and Moms are always teaching...even when we don't intend to. Kids watch, learn, and become an awful lot like us, because our lives are contagious. One day we'll see what they've caught from us.