Fatherhood

I appreciate President Obama's push, throughout the campaign and especially this weekend, to encourage fathers to rise to the challenges that fatherhood requires, and I trust that those on the religious right will commend him for his efforts.

I was blessed to have a pretty wonderful father. He was an alcoholic for much of my life, and yet functioned with a presence of grace, patience, and wisdom that sustained me in a less-than-happy childhood. My Dad treated me as though I were the apple of his eye and taught me more about integrity and steadfastness than anyone else, and his sense of humor, unlimited affection and irrepresible pride in me kept me going, giving me hope when things looked bleak, which they too often did. My view of God as Father has always been greatly enriched because of the man whose passing four months ago feels like a ripping apart of my very heart.

God has blessed me with a husband who is a father even beyond anything I could have hoped, raising with me two sons who are strong, gentle, capable, humble, intelligent, funny and a delight to both of us every minute of every day. Jeff is a man who exemplifies the fruit of the Spirit in his dealings with his sons, and whatever my boys grow up to be, they will have a strong, rich bedrock of fatherhood from which to draw as they raise their own children. He, too, is a Biblical egalitarian who values women and has taught his sons to see the enormous giftedness and value, strength and courage, of the women they encounter.

Thank you, Lord, for my husband, and thank you, Jeff, for being the father I always wanted my children to have. It takes some of the sting out of what I already know will be a difficult day of both celebrating Jeff's fatherhood and grieving the loss of my own dad.