I had to run a few errands today including a stop at the mall. So, I took Joey with me as a chance to spend some one-on-one time with her. WOW! It was a blast. We didn't do anything terribly exciting (although the cookie factory was pretty pleasant for both of us). As we were walking back to the car through Macy's she was unable to hold my hand due to needing both hands to eat the candy I bought her at the Hallmark store. Anyway, I looked down at her and was just amazed at how much she's grown and what a totally cool kid she has become. At 4 1/2 years of age, she can be downright silly most of the time. But, she has these moments when I look at her and see the glimpses of the incredible young lady she will become. In many ways I dread her growing up and facing the inevitable pain that she will face in her life. But, at the same time, it is an amazing gift to see this young flower unfolding right before our eyes.
Of course, that was a brief glimpse of who Joey is and who she is becoming and it does give me great pleasure and hope to witness it. But then again, as I was reading her a bedtime story tonight and she was insistent that she was a jaguar and not a human and spent most of the story time licking her "Paws" and growling, I see that we are still a long way off from full maturity. Still a joy none-the-less and it is moments like all of these that make fatherhood such a gift!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Another Goodbye
My father was buried this past week... In 43 years of life, I cannot remember a time that he ever told me that he loved me, or that he was proud of me. But, I heard other people tell me what a great person he was at the funeral. I hope and pray that my children do not have to hear from other people at my death how "good" I am.
I will not allow my children to go to bed at night without telling them that I love them, nor will I miss an opportunity to remind them how wonderful they are and how proud I am of them. My sadness is not so much for my own loss (you cannot lose what you never really had). My sadness is that my father never chose to have a relationship with me other than sharing a roof and a dinner table when I was growing up. My mother told me several years before she died that my father never loved anyone but himself. I actually doubt if he even loved himself. I cannot think of another reason why someone would be so totally focused on the accumulation of “things” and have so little regard for the people in his life.
We learn from our parents to be sure... either what TO DO or what NOT to do. I am thankful that I also had role models who taught me to love the Lord above all else and to share that love with others. The absence of a Godly father in my life has more than been compensated and I do my best to live up to a far higher standard for my own life. I fall short of that goal daily if not several times each day, but it does not excuse me from keeping up the attempts to do it right!
I will not allow my children to go to bed at night without telling them that I love them, nor will I miss an opportunity to remind them how wonderful they are and how proud I am of them. My sadness is not so much for my own loss (you cannot lose what you never really had). My sadness is that my father never chose to have a relationship with me other than sharing a roof and a dinner table when I was growing up. My mother told me several years before she died that my father never loved anyone but himself. I actually doubt if he even loved himself. I cannot think of another reason why someone would be so totally focused on the accumulation of “things” and have so little regard for the people in his life.
We learn from our parents to be sure... either what TO DO or what NOT to do. I am thankful that I also had role models who taught me to love the Lord above all else and to share that love with others. The absence of a Godly father in my life has more than been compensated and I do my best to live up to a far higher standard for my own life. I fall short of that goal daily if not several times each day, but it does not excuse me from keeping up the attempts to do it right!
Monday, September 28, 2009
just for fun...
I am constantly laughing at things the kids say and keep telling myself how I should write things down as they say them to document it. Yesterday we had a really nice family day after church. We went to the "Apple Festival" at Eckerts in Grafton and enjoyed the cooler temperatures and the sunshine. On the way home, we didn't want to end the relaxing day, so we stopped past a park in Godfrey to let the kids play for a while. We didn't tell the kids were we were going (in case the park was too crowded or closeed). Anyway, we went past the Godfrey McDonalds and Joey said, "Hey, that McDonalds has a playground, are you guys hungry"... It is sometimes hard to keep the lauighter in when she does that sort of thing (which by the way is several times a day). One of the hardest things I face as a father is disciplining my children. Joey has a GREAT sense of humor and Ian is fast developing one as well. They seem to know pretty well how to manipulate me by employing humor at just the right moment. I think it is something about having me wrapped pretty securely around their little fingers. Yeah, they do get frustrating at times with testing the limits, but for the most part, we realize how very blessed we are with our children.
Another playground episode that made me pretty proud was Joey making friends with another little girl named "Layla". After a few minutes of friendship with Layla, a little boy named David took one of Layla's shoes and took off running. Joey knew this wasn't right and chased David down and got the shoe away from him and took it back to Layla. I watched this from a distance initially thinking that Joey was in on the shoe stealing, but was very proud when she took it back to Layla. She does know injustice when she sees it and seems to choose the right path from time to time. We must be doing something right... YEAH!
Another playground episode that made me pretty proud was Joey making friends with another little girl named "Layla". After a few minutes of friendship with Layla, a little boy named David took one of Layla's shoes and took off running. Joey knew this wasn't right and chased David down and got the shoe away from him and took it back to Layla. I watched this from a distance initially thinking that Joey was in on the shoe stealing, but was very proud when she took it back to Layla. She does know injustice when she sees it and seems to choose the right path from time to time. We must be doing something right... YEAH!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Where is God?
Just last night, I found a YouTube video by Kevin Gerald that sparked me thinking and I am not finished thinking about it yet. But, Kevin said something in that video that resonated with me a bit. One of the most common questions I get as a pastor from people who are hurting or facing grief, brokenness, illness, divorce, etc. is "Where is God?"... Kevin said something that at first made me cringe and later got me thinking further that there is some truth in it. Kevin said... "The truth is God is not everywhere". I don't think he was talking about God being less than omnipresent, but rather that God is not in our stupid actions, or in our lack of faith, or in our doubt, or in our confusion, or in anything that is out of sync with his best for us. Rather, God is ever-present in the wise choices we make and in the loving things we do and in the peaceful and justice filled approaches we take towards people, even towards those we disagree with. God is always there, but not everything that happens in our lives is caused by God. In fact, for me, it really is as simple as the fact that we live in a world that is in general woefully out of sync with God's best intentions for creation. (Something about the fall in the garden of Eden...) and until Christ returns and sets things right, people will deal with pain and brokenness and loneliness and disease and distress and all manner of things. God may not be in the poor choices that we humans make, but he is certainly never far enough away from those moments that we can't fall into his arms and be lifted up by them! I'm still working on t his, but that is where it is for now... More later.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The trifecta
Yeah, it's a blurry Blackberry picture taken the first time that Joey and Ian met Will. But it made me really proud to see all three of my children together and to realize how VERY blessed we are. God has been far better to us than we deserve!
Then there were five
I won't make this post a long one, but it has been a long time since I posted anything at all. It just feels great to have a baby in the house again. I thought Ian was a little guy until we brought Will home from the hospital. Amazing how a baby changes your perspective on everything again. We are thankful for all of our blessings and really doing well with the baby home. Jenny is a GREAT mommy and the kids are all tolerating our new "normal" quite well. Thank God as well for a suportive and encouraging family. We are blessed in more ways than we can count! And here we go with number 3!
Friday, February 13, 2009
ultrasound pictures
Today we "met" the baby for the first time via ultrasound pictures. The sonographer was really nice and took plenty of time to explain what we were seeing. Not that the sonographers for the other two kids were bad, but this woman just took lots of time to explain everything she was doing and seeing. She saw no problems with the baby and it looks like we are on track for a July 14th delivery just as we had been told all along. Pretty exciting days again for thelohr family! God has blessed us in amazing ways and we are looking very forward to meting the baby face to face ina few short months. What a miracle this whole thing is... just amazes us every time.
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