Mr. Fantastic kept the kiddos last week while I went out of town. The man lived up to his nickname. He took them to the pool, took them out for burgers, played Batman with them, and even had the house completely clean, laundry folded and put away, and the dishes done when I walked in at bedtime Saturday night. The man is a saint and a super hero all in one.
Later he told me about what happened at the burger place, which only served to increase my love for him.
After ordering, the girl asked him what his plans were for the night. (I’m sure this was because he is so handsome and she was hoping he would ask her out. What twenty-something girl isn’t looking for a hot guy with four small children?)
“I don’t know,” he said. “My wife is out of town so the kids and I will probably go to the park or play baseball or something.”
With a grave look on her face she gave him every bit of her sympathy and said, “I am SO sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” he told her. “I’m happy to get to be with my kids. It’s awesome.”
That’s one good daddy my children are blessed to have.
To salute him, my own dad, and great dads everywhere, here are ten reasons to celebrate Father’s Day:
10.Dads are fun. Most men I know turn into eight year-olds when in the presence of items such as: water balloons, whoopie cushions, dart guns, or remote control cars. They can’t help it, and the kids love this. Moms can make things fun, dads ooze fun from their pores. When we went to Disneyworld last year, I think Mr. Fantastic was more excited than the children. I was stressed about losing children, planning meals, and avoiding heat exhaustion. Mr. Fantastic grabbed some energy bars, a bottle of water and ran to Space Mountain excited to initiate his boys into the Roller Coaster Club. Sometimes, dads will be boys, and that is fantastic.
9.Dads see the big picture. In our house, I am the one bombarded with the minutia of daily care the family requires, but Mr. Fantastic is typically thinking beyond the essential care required for today. If the kids don’t like the sandwiches we fixed for them, he is not too worried as long as they are developing the skills required to fend for themselves later in life. In most families I know, the moms nurture now and the dads are focused on the future.
8. Dads come through in the clutch. It seems men are hard-wired to save the day. They love it. Knights in shining armor; superheroes flying in tho the rescue; firemen carrying children out of burning buildings; men love that kind of stuff. Whenever my dad comes to town, he makes a mental list of projects and gets to work on them. He cleans my iPad screen, fixes doors that stick shut, and researches questions I bring up about my children’s health. In so doing, he rescues me from all my problems. I love that.
7.Dads give the gift of definition. When a dad looks at a child and says, “In our family, we do not hit,” or “Daddy’s boys always say thank you,” or “Daddy’s girls never scream at Mommy,” a family’s identity is set. It is powerful for a father to walk in integrity and expect the same from his children. The world is certainly better because of men who do.
6.Dads teach how to love moms.Our children are watching us. They are learning how men are supposed to love women and how women are supposed to love men from our marriages. When Mr. Fantastic tells the children how much he loves me, or how they can win my heart (ie. by picking up their shoes/toys/dirty underwear, drawing me a picture, reading a book to me), those lessons will mark their own marriages and lives one day, and a father’s wisdom and love flow into future generations.
5.Dads affirm.A father’s approval is a powerful thing. I know far too many people who suffer as adults because their father didn’t or couldn’t tell them he was proud of them and he loved them. I don’t think a daddy can ever say those two things to a child enough times in a day. My heart was molded by my own father’s approval, and I am grateful that even in my adulthood he has continued to tell me he loves me and is proud of me. It is with enormous gratitude that I see my children’s hearts rise in joy when their own father says, “I love you with a STRONG love!!!” Go dads!
4.Dads make everything okay.I heard a story a few months ago of a friend who watched as her infant daughter was seizing and EMTs were working on her. Her father was thousands of miles away, but her brother rushed to her house when he heard what was happening. My friend grabbed her brother and bawled her eyes out because he was the closest thing she had to her dad in that moment. Dads are strong and brave and good and comforting. Just the thought of them can help us feel that everything will be okay.
3.Dads make good brick walls. Mr. Fantastic likes to stand in the middle of a room and let the kids run at him full-force to try to knock him down. They can’t and they think this is hilarious. Dads make good brick walls in fun games, and in life. Growing up, I knew that if my dad set a boundary, I better abide by it. His rules were a brick wall I did not want to run into. Those walls kept me safe, and I knew he was protecting me- even when I wished the walls were made of paper that I could run right through. When I moved away to college, it was the fear of an unprotected life without those walls that drew me to God’s protective grace.
2.Dads apologize and forgive.At the essence of the gospel is the beautiful message of forgiveness. To teach our children that we will love them and forgive them is to model God’s good news. A father who apologizes when his own selfishness has hurt his children gives them the opportunity to forgive others as God has forgiven them. God is our Father in heaven, and earthly fathers are the path to first understanding what that relationship should look like.
1.Dads love consistently. A good father is focused on loving and teaching his children. He is certainly never disinterested with their lives. No game, no project, no book is of more value than the relationship built between a dad and his child. When duty and responsibility call dads away, this can be difficult to explain. But dads who find ways to communicate their love despite their obligations outside the home win their children forever. Letters written on airplane boarding passes, favorite picture books read aloud before heading to the office, football games in the backyard after meetings are done, Saturday morning pancakes shaped like animals, encouraging texts sent at random moments of the day to older children, are all ways of telling a child that even though dad is sometimes busy, he is never too busy to love them. At the end of the day, a child needs to know that more than anything else in the world.
