When I think about my father, the first thoughts and memories I have are that he was good and I learned a lot from him.
Probably the greatest memories I have of Dad, were how he introduced our family to boating and water skiing. He bought our first boat when I was 7 years old. That was the summer Sarah and I learned to water ski. We lived near a lake and he would trailer the boat to a friend’s boat ramp where we spent a lot of Saturdays skiing in Lake Coway in South Orlando.
One Saturday, after the boat had been launched, the battery was dead and the boat couldn’t start. Dad pulled the boat over to the bank of a canal where the car was parked. He then disconnected the car battery and connected it to the boat terminals. Our day of skiing was saved! Late in the afternoon he beached the boat near the parked car to transfer the battery back to the car. As he began to step on the bank of the canal he saw a water moccasin coiled and ready to strike. Dad grabbed a boat oar and whacked the snake til there wasn’t much left of the snake or the oar. At the time it was sort of funny to watch, but it was quite scary as well!
Later that summer, we took one of our trips to visit the Sprague farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts where Dad was reared. Most of the time Dad spent helping my Grandparents make repairs while Sarah and I played around the farm with our New England Cousins. We picked strawberries and took them to the roadside stand on 93 Bridge Street to sell. Grampy Sprague, your great, great grandfather would give us a cut of the profits.
While Dad was working on the farm, I was invited to come help my cousin Jim Liacos repair the roof on a tree house by the road leading to the house. We were having the best time, until I got too close to the edge and fell off and landed on the ground. As I landed, I braced my fall with my hands and arms. Getting up at first I felt fine. Then I began to feel a bit dizzy and both wrists began to ache and start to swell. My cousins took me into the milk room of the barn and began to run cold water on my wrist. I guess with all the commotion, my mom wandered out to the milk room and sensed something was wrong and the cold water wasn’t helping. Off we went to the hospital where the xray revealed I had cracked the bones of both arms just above my wrist. That event ended two things. Dad got a ladder and tore the tree house down (my cousins have never let me forget it) and, when we returned to Orlando, it ended water skiing for the summer. It was a very long, hot summer!
Sometimes we would trailer our boat to other lakes in Central Florida. One adventure was to launch our boat in Lake Eloise, near Winter Haven, Florida. The lake was the home of Cypress Gardens and they hosted a ski performance there. Dad was a little clueless and before we knew it we were almost part of the show. They began to send boats out to let us know we were too close to their beach. It was the closest I ever got to being a professional water skier. We still managed to do a lot of boating. Late in the day, the skies suddenly turned dark and cloudy. In just a matter of moments the clouds opened up with rain, lightning and thunder. We were all a little scared, but Dad got us back to shore. Presently, Lego Land owns the beach where the ski shows were at Cypress Gardens. I am sure we will visit there one day!
When I was 9, Dad and Mom bought a lot on lake Conway and built their dream home. We now had our own access to the water and boating and skiing became an even bigger part of my life. Sometime around 10 years old, Dad and I built a small row boat. I don’t remember how many nights and weekends it took to build, but the final product is still one of my best! So many afternoons after school and weekends I spent rowing around Lake Conway. It provided steps towards building my confidence and competency. It was my boat and I was the captain. I loved to row my boat around the lake by myself. It may be the first memories of my awareness of God’s Creation. Sometimes it was still and I just felt peace. When the wind blew it was like the breath God! As I paddled into shore, I would be following the Sun and as it set I would be in awe of God’s Creation. To this day, I still value solitude and being in nature makes me very aware of our Creator God. By the time I was 14, my parents trusted me enough to take the boat on the water by myself. Dad had taught we a lot about how to navigate the boat on the lake. A few years later, we salvaged a small sail boat and Dad taught me the rudimentary techniques for sailing that small dingy. It replaced the old row boat. It was great to feel the rush of an Outboard Boat Motor, but it was equally great to feel the power of the wind filling the sails of our little boat.
An important part of the memory of my father was you should do your work before you played. My dad never complained about hard work. The harder the task, the greater he would rise to the occasion. While sometimes I didn’t particularly like having to do the yard work before we got to play (particularly boat and ski), his work ethic is one I greatly value. Dad taught me how to use tools, how to do yard work, he wasn’t afraid to take something apart to try to fix it. This is largely due to the fact that he was reared on a farm and things had to be maintained and repaired. Even now, I love to see what makes things work. Though I don’t live on a farm and things are not as scarce as they were when my father as a child, it is still hard for me to just throw something away when it stops working. I love fixing things, though at times it does cause me some frustration. It does out weigh the frustration when I do acutally fix something or find a way to use something to accomplish a task. We live in a disposable world, but dad never gave up hope something could be repaired. Maybe that is why I believe so strongly in redemption! God doesn’t throw things away. God finds away to repair and redeem if we let Him. We will talk about that!
Later in life Dad was always available to help with projects around our house and to help with equipment for our traveling ministry. After mom died in June of 1985, I think it was therapy for him to come and visit Sassy and me and help with chores, repairs and projects. Dad and I remodeled a part of our garage to be used for practice and recording. He helped us retrofit an old 1959 former Greyhound bus used for our traveling ministry for about ten years. He also learned to drive the bus and drove it for many of the trips our retirees took at Lakewood UMC. The older I became, the more appreciation I grew to have for how great a father and person he was.
A memory I cherish, was a tour to Israel we took a few months after mom died in the fall of 1985. It was an emotional time for him. It was a trip mom and he had wanted to do, but her health prevented it. He mourned he hadn’t done it while she was in good health In the last 10 years before mom died, she had come into a wonderful personal relationship with Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. Mom had always been the one who was a little more interested in her faith. For dad, it wasn’t very personal, but faith was necessary. Over that ten year period, dad also began a very intimate, personal relationship with Jesus. Being in Israel helped all of us gain a greater insight into the faith of those in the Old Testament and the witness of the life, death, resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit contained in the New Testament. At one moment dad would be missing mom and then in the next moment so filled with Joy! I am teary eyed recalling these memories! Very special and heart warming!
As a child, Dad was always faithful to attend Woship and being a member of a church mattered. He wasn’t much of a singer and he knew it. He just went through the motions during Worship. Most of my memories were watching his head bob during the preaching. After his relationship with Jesus became personal, he would stand, lift his hands and sing as loud as he could his adoration and praise for his loving Heavenly Father, for the forgiveness of sin Jesus paid for on the cross and the outpouring of the living presence of the Holy Spirit he had learned to trust with his life. Over the years, he acutally got better at matching pitch as he sang! What a great memory!
These memories actually are just a small part of what I loved about my father. The important things I remember are he made me feel safe and secure. There was never a doubt his main mission was to take care of his family. My father’s generation did not say I love you on a regular basis, but I never doubted his love for me. Providing security and taking care of the family was how most men of that time expressed their love. Early in my life, I felt my Father’s love was conditional. Not that I had to earn it, but there were certain attitudes and actions I knew would please my mother and him, and actions that would not. At my core I wanted to please him, but sometimes I rebelled, sometimes I failed, sometimes it was just hard to know what to do! Later in life I came to understand how hard it is to show unconditional love. I gained an even greater understanding of how difficult it was to be a parent when I became a father to your mother. You want to love your child unconditionally, but you also need to teach and model boundaries! After he began his personal relationship with Jesus his love changed. He even let me know he was a bit sorry he hadn’t said it more to me when I was younger. There was never any doubt in my father was good, kind and loving and for the last years of his life he never missed a chance to tell me he loved me!
A part of the Good News that Jesus preached was God was Jesus’ Father. It was a concept at the core of the Old Testament. God sent Jesus into the world to reveal His amazing love for humanity. Jesus often spoke of God as His father.
As a child, on a visit to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, Jesus wandered off and his parents couldn’t find. “Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.” Luke 2:46-50 NKJV. Jesus knew at an early age His Father is acutally in heaven. He was perfectly comfortable in the Temple and displayed amazing personal knowledge of God because He knew Him as Father.
Mary and Joseph must have been quite perplexed. A parent’s worse nightmare is having their child wander from their care. As relieved as they must have felt, they still must have expressed their concern He had been abducted. On the other hand, they must have realized God really was Jesus’ Father and God had a plan for Him to reveal His Father!
When His followers asked Him how to pray this was His response. ““This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”. Matthew 6:9 NIV
After Jesus death and resurrection, Jesus’ followers became keenly aware of Jesus message and preached God was a Loving Father!
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,”. 2 Corinthians 1:3 NIV
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,”. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 NIV
“To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” 2 Timothy 1:2 NIV
When I began my relationship with Jesus Christ it was no trouble to understand God as my Heavenly Father. When I was taught that God was our Loving Heavenly Father, it was easy to accept because I already had a Good, Kind and Loving Father and it made me want to know and love my Heavenly Father and my earthly parents!
After 31 notes, you probably have started to understand how important my personal relationship with Jesus is! The memories of my loving parents made it easy to accept God as my loving Father and to want to Follow His Son.
If you haven’t already come to know Jesus in a personal way, it’s easy! Here’s a prayer that you can pray!
Father, I am thankful for my earthly parents (and Grandparents)! They have told me a lot about how You love me and You sent Jesus into the world to tell us of Your love. Without Jesus, I would never know Your love. Today, I am inviting Jesus into my heart to be my Savior and Lord. I know that without Jesus, without His Salvation I couldn’t know the Father’s love. Jesus, I am also bowing to you as Lord. I want to know your will, your plan, my purpose. I choose to follow you! In the Name of Jesus!
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20 NKJV