Today is my Dad's 75th Birthday, so I decided to give him a shout out by reminding him of why he is important to me.
1. Practice makes Perfect.
If
you want to be good at something, you need to practice. Whether it be shooting baskets, running
fast, remembering people’s names, or memorizing scripture, you can be skilled
at these things if you choose. All
it takes is a choice to practice them diligently. My dad always keeps a little note card in his pocket to help
him remember what he is “practicing”: people’s names, quotes he wants to
remember, Bible verses, or new jokes he wants to share. I love this quirky method of bettering
himself.
2. Always be Prepared.
When
I left for college as a wide-eyed freshman, my dad presented me with a map
(route to Ames highlighted with a marker) and an emergency car kit (extra
clothes, candles, crackers, aspirin, coins for a pay phone, candy, an ice
scraper, a reflective blanket) that would enable me to survive for days if I
got lost and/or had an accident in this barren wilderness called Iowa. This was in the days before cell phones
and my dad wanted to make sure I was ready if an emergency presented
itself. Once, when I was in high
school, because I hadn’t yet learned the value of forethought, I ran out of gas
while driving home from school. I
walked somewhere to call my Dad and he promptly showed up, handed me a gas can
and drove off. Needless to say, I
thought more carefully about preparation that day as I trudged to the nearest
gas station alone.
3. Stay Warm
I
know cold. I grew up in Minnesota
with winters that felt like they lasted forever. And though my sisters and I had to walk to school on these
arctic winter mornings, we were fully covered in snowmobile suits, snowmobile
boots, scarves, goggles, and mittens that tightened around our forearms. My dad also made sure we kept ourselves
toasty by investing in long underwear for all. In the 70’s, all thermal undergarments produced were for boys,
but this didn’t stop my dad; his three girls wore long johns. I often got heckled for the long
underwear band (that looked exactly like the band on men’s whitey tighty’s)
sticking out of my pants since I had tucked my shirt into my thermals to stay
warm. Recently, my dad made
himself a vest out of reflective insulation to wear under his winter coat to
help him stay comfy and cozy. He
figured if it was good enough for water heaters, it was good enough for him.
4. Be Resourceful
When
I was growing up, my pharmacist father owned and operated a drug store. Drug stores draw an inordinate amount
of old folks through their doors.
Many of these elderly folks needed hearing aids that required batteries,
and my dad would offer to change these.
For some unknown reason, he kept the used ones (they look like tiny
thick buttons). One Christmas, he
wanted to make his little girls a present, and he fashioned a type of table-top
shuffleboard game using the old batteries as the miniature pucks. Now he uses his ingenuity to create
armoires and cabinets from abandoned cupboards and lumber he finds in old
houses or buildings. These
resourceful and reinvented creations are a thing of beauty. I think this
resourcefulness/creativity is my favorite thing about my dad…and myself :)
5. Be Yourself
My
dad never really cared what people—even his daughters—thought of him. Now, I see this as an admirable thing; as
a kid, I was just embarrassed that he wore black socks with sandals and an old
blazer while watching TV. He even
carried this quality into his profession as a pharmacist. One might think that someone who owned
a drug store probably just dispensed and sold medicine (and hearing aid
batteries) to sick folks, but no, my dad sold wood stoves too. Yes, wood stoves in Arrow Drug. You see, my dad was sort of a wannabe
survivalist type who enjoyed heating his home with off-the-grid power. His heat of choice came from the wood
stove in our basement. Because he
believed that wood stoves could be just as prescriptive for people as could medicine,
he became a distributer of Ashley Wood Burning Stoves—sold in the comfort of
his very own pharmacy. Nowadays, my dad doesn’t sell wood stoves anymore, but
because he is fully himself, he has no trouble wearing his reflective vest or
heartily eating his specially designed lunch of instant mashed potatoes mixed
with green beans. Yum!
6. Take Care of Pets
Since
my birth I have been a pet lover.
And secretly, I think my Dad is too. One of my earliest memories is bringing home one of our
first pets, a cat that we named Tasha (my mom actually ran over this cat, but
we got another soon after which we also named Tasha). But because I was never allowed to house my cats indoors, my
dad made elaborate structures to help them survive the arctic-like winters of
my childhood (see #3 above). They
had little log-cabin-looking houses with carpet-lined interiors, and raised
platforms with heat lamps to warm them; my dog (who was actually my dad’s pet)
had a pretty fancy house too, built into our garage with a little ramp and a
swinging door. Even now, my dad
loves me by taking care of my pets.
My current three cats and a dog all have their own fully equipped animal
“penthouses” in our detached garage that they rarely leave because they are so
cozy and coddled.
7. Be Willing to Learn
My
parents amaze me in their still-unquenchable thirst for knowledge. After my dad retired, you could find him
reading, and reading, and reading; so much reading, so much learning. This truly inspires me to keep on
educating myself. And rather than
run from technology, my dad has embraced it, learning about woodworking,
science, theology, history, and sometimes cake-baking from websites, blogs,
YouTube, and yes, even Pinterest.
8. Respect Property
As
a kid, I was taught to respect property.
My dad said if we took care of things, they would last longer…and they
did. When I got a new softball
glove, my dad showed me how to write my name on it with a permanent marker (we
wrote our names on EVERYTHING in case we lost them), get a soft cloth and coat
the glove with mink oil to protect it.
Then when the oil sunk in, we put a baseball in the palm of the glove and
put rubber bands around the “hand” of the glove—as if the glove were grasping
the ball—to form it into the right shape for catching. When we weren’t playing catch, but
instead just hanging out indoors, we had to wear slippers or little “socklet”
things over our real socks so we wouldn’t wear them out, because you know how
many millions of miles you walk when you are in your own home laying on the
couch watching Brady Bunch.
9. Be Tough
Though
I am sure my dad would have liked to have a son, God saw fit that he got only
daughters. And my dad seemed
completely content with his three little girls. However, this did not mean that his daughters would be
weaklings…in fact, just the opposite, he taught us to be tough. When I would fall down as a kid, or my
sisters would tickle me until I cried, my dad would remind me that I was “tough
as nails”. When we moved to
another home (which we did often), his girls were expected to help move
washers, dryers, pianos, wood stoves, safes—whatever was on the truck was fair
game. When I was in a sport and
wanted to quit because I was uncoordinated and awkward, he reminded me that I
was “tough as nails” and that I would stay out for the season. Even now, when I have to scramble up
sheer cliffs in Texas on vacation with my family or when I get stuck in
elevators in Italy, I remember that I am “tough as nails” and I make it out
alive…so far at least.
10. Choose to Leave a Legacy
Though
always a church-goer, my dad became a true Christ-follower somewhere in his
forties (right, Dad?), and has since been on a mission to tell everyone he
meets about his faith, his church, his changed life, his God—just ask the
checker in HyVee…or the woman handing out samples at Sam’s Club…or the young gal
at 24 Hour Fitness…or the Executive Council that he coffees with several times
each week. My dad knows what he is
here for and where he is going.
The purpose for his life has become very clear to himself and to us, his
family. Whenever we gather for
holidays or reunions, it is my dad who says thank you (now, often with tears in
his eyes) for his family, his many blessings, and for Jesus. Even now, at 75,
he is a new creation.
I love you Dad, and I love
what you have become—a mighty, but gentle, man of God.
Happy Birthday!
Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26
