Thoughts on being a dad

I am forever grateful to God for the family he has given me. 

As each day passes I realise afresh how blessed I am to have a wonderful wife and and two incredible children by my side.  They bless me more than I can express.

In my opinion, I have the best family in the world, bar none.

Apparently I am not doing too bad myself in the dad department either.  This past Father’s Day I received notice that I was the best dad in the whole wide world, so my condolences go out to all runners up out there for snatching the title this year.

Now in the spirit of Father’s Day, let me recount some of the situations that make me realize just how wonderful being a dad really is.

1. laughing, laughing, and laughing some more with my daughters
2. bursting with pride at my daughters accomplishments
3. hearing “I love you daddy, with all my heart” from my daughters
4. carrying my daughters on my shoulders
5. holding hands with my daughters
6. cradling my daughters to comfort them
7. getting a good night kiss from my daughters
8. giving a nose rub to my daughters
9. tickle fights with my daughters
10. reading stories to my daughters
11. playing wedding and marrying my daughters over and over again
12. going for a bicycle ride with my daughters
13. swimming with my daughters
14. singing with my daughters
15. grocery shopping with my daughters
16. strawberry picking with my daughters
17. camping with my daughters
18. flying a kite with my daughters
19. carrying my sleeping daughters off the school bus
20. praying with my daughters

The human condition

Once again I have been reminded of the human condition. 

I was watching CNN a few days ago and Wolf Blitzer was interviewing a congressman about some purported indiscretion that had been made through his twitter account.  Honestly I didn’t give it much thought, I watched only a minute and the individual seemed quite genuinely shocked that someone had hacked into his account.  I had never heard of the politician before and truth be told the only thing I thought was “as a public figure you need to be more careful with your online accounts.”

You may be aware, but this past Monday the same politician admitted to being responsible for the lewd behaviour, and furthermore that it had been going on for some time with multiple recipients.

I really don’t want to dwell on the particulars of this case, but I want to make the observation that it proves once again that the human condition is inclined towards deceit, it is inclined towards lewdness and yes it is inclined towards evil. 

It is just so self-evident.

The day after these events unfolded, I heard one of my favourite songs on the radio.  Ponder the words with me.

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

The truth is that the the downfall of this politician didn’t begin at the keyboard of his computer last week, it began probably months or years earlier with a thought.  A thought that led to poor choices, poor choices that led to increasingly poorer choices, and finally a downward spiral into sin.

There I said it.  Sin.  For that is what it was. 

That is what it is; when we first deceive ourselves, and then deceive others.  All the while forgetting this; that we cannot deceive God.