The One About My Dad

This past Sunday was Father’s Day, the day we celebrate dear old dad.  In my family, I usually spend time at my parents house, we eat a meal together and I give my dad a card with some cash in it.  (I have been told that this is terribly impersonal and cheesy, but it’s what the man wants and I aim to please).  But this past Father’s Day took on a special significance for me.  It dawned on me that when I was 10 years old, it was on Father’s Day that my dad gave his life to Jesus.  It was June 21st to be exact.

It struck me how that one decision has changed my whole life and the course of my future.  Everything I am I owe to that one choice, because not long after my dad accepted the gift of salvation I followed suit.  My dad is not perfect, no one is.  I can tell you that we have butted heads many times throughout the years and driven each other up more walls than I can count.  Despite all of that, I will always be forever grateful for his mustard seed of faith that said that he can make a difference in his daughter’s life by raising her up in the truth of God.  I didn’t make it easy.  I kicked and I screamed, but my dad told me I was going to church once a week, whether I liked it or not.  Some parents are against forcing their kids to go to church.  They think that it will push their kids away.  I think it’s all in the attitude and spirit in which it’s done.  My dad didn’t yell or scream at me to go.  It was like we had an agreement.  The church had several services a week and I just had to go to one.  My parents always did alot for me and this was one thing I could do for my dad.  I couldn’t argue that, especially when I was asking for money on the regular.  

My dad told me that soon enough I would make friends at the church and I would be begging him to go to all the services.  He told me that some day church and ministry would be my whole life…the nerve.  He was right.  Soon, Sunday morning church turned into Sundays mornings, midweek youth service and Friday night youth-run outreach.  Now, youth ministry has become my calling and passion.  I spend the majority of my free time with teenagers.  This Father’s Day I ended my season at my old church to begin the journey of planting a church alongside the man and woman that have pastored me, encouraged me and really just been the best friends to me for the past two years of my life.  Now, no one has to drag me kicking and screaming.  I’m hungry to see people encounter God in a life-transforming way.

To make a long story short, dad was right.  Don’t you hate it when that happens?

To all the parents out there, the brothers, the sisters, the sons, the daughters, the friends, the teachers, whoever you are, you never know the impact that your choice to follow Christ in your day to day life can have on those that are around you.  You never know how one small choice to lay down your own plans to follow God’s plans for you can change somebody else’s future.  You will never fully realize the true impact of every prayer that you have prayed and every word of life that you have spoken to someone.  Keep making history.

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