THE LEGACY OF A GREAT FATHER

Father’s Day will be celebrated here in India on Sunday, 20th of June 2021.

At this moment I just want to thank God for my own father and such a blessing that he was to me, both in my formative years as well as my late teens, and also beyond.

Although I had so many ‘hassles’ as a young man…with Woodstock, the Hippie Culture, rock music, and drugs…my father had such a blanket of patience and love for me. I would be surprised that he was so ‘cool’ whenever I erred.

I became more stubborn than a farmyard donkey and madly rebellious as an alley cat. I also became an angry young man who did not care what people said but hung on to my own ideals and ideas. The cooler my dad was the more agitated I became.

During the teenage years, when the area of my prefrontal cortex was developing and constantly changing my thinking and judgment centre, I became opinionated and intolerant, and nobody would argue with me.

I suddenly saw the world more convincingly and my brain became able to synthesize information into ideas. I desperately began to exercise my skill – always practicing that newfound ability on my parents. I know I hurt them terribly at times. Especially my dad.

All teens go through similar phases. All teens have the need for independence, the need for a separate identity, especially to test authority. This was part of my growing up. I guess my dad understood me the best.

Mind you I was not tattooed and pierced and dressed in torn jeans, but many of my friends had sexually transmitted diseases and were involved with petty crime.

Those were my turbulent years.

And then one day I met Christ face to face.

I changed drastically. I began to honour my parents and got close to my dad as a friend. I began to realise that my dad was a wise man who knew how to run his household, and care for his children. I began to understand love.

I started travelling with him on his work tours whenever I had holidays. Sometimes we talked into the night, and sometimes I would just watch in awe how he conducted his business. I learned a lot through just spending time with this great man God had placed in my life.

And when I got married and shifted to another city…I missed him.

When he eventually became ill with Alzheimer’s, I had him come and stay with me. I cared for him. I washed him. I bathed him. I took him with me for slow walks, and we shared great times and stories together. My children would very often join as we shared laughs at his jokes and recollections of the old days which he remembered so well.

Soon his day came. A few days before that he had blessed me and my family. He died in my arms. I cried like a baby that day. I will miss him.

And this week on Father’s Day, I thank God for a Godly father. Full of loving care, full of fun and full of life.

Today, I am passing down the same things I gleaned from my own father. My four children, and seven grandchildren will be handed a legacy of truthfulness, integrity, faith, patience, prayer…and innumerable things I learned from my dad.

You do the same!