A Father's Day Tribute

Our Father's Day service at our Church was really moving and emotional. It was a unique message that was titled "One Month to Live" based on the book One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life by Kerry and Chris Shook.


I haven't read the book, so I won't be able to say anything more about it than the mere mention of the title, but our Pastor based his Sermon around the premise of what if you were told that you only had One Month to Live. How would you live your life differently? How would your spiritual life change? What would you change about your life? Very thought provoking indeed!


His main message was regarding Love and the relationships in our lives. Why is it that our culture here in North America does not place as much emphasis on "family" (whether it be our church family or our biological family) as so many other cultures in the world do. We are consumed by materialism and the necessity to work around the clock and disengage ourselves from the people around us to make the almighty dollar! We base "SUCCESS" on how much money or "stuff" someone has, how big their house is, what kind of fancy car they drive, the title they have at their work place, the amount of electronic gadgets they have, not too mention all of the motorized or mechanized toys they have! Why don't we base "success" on how much time people devote to their marriages, to their kids, to the well-being of their family, to their spirituality and their desire to be an honest, God fearing Person.


This was a particularly moving message for me as it is something that I have thought so often about since Dad passed away. I heard a great message on the radio one day after Dad passed and I was driving into work. The message of course revoloved around relationships and how important they are. The speaker ( a Pastor) was with a man before he passed away. This man was "successful" in our societies view of successful. Lots of money, lots of possessions and worked long hours away from home. This man worked so hard and put in so many hours to acquire his beloved possessions, but on his death bed he was not thinking about these material things or about how many hours of work he could squeeze in before his time was up. No, he was thinking about the time that did NOT spend with his family or with those that he loved and cherished and really wished that he would have devoted more time to the relationships with his family and friends.


John and I made an agreement before God that our family (marriage and kids) would always come first! We would not let a job or any other distracting factor take away from the valuable time that we NEED to spend with our family. This has been extremely hard, but also so rewarding. John clearly states in any job interview now that he will not work Sundays as he is a church going man and this is the day that he takes his family to church. Yes he has missed out on some pretty decent job opportunities as a result, but there have been more people that respect his stance and honour it than not. When he is asked to work overtime, he always calls me to discuss it and if it is going to cut into any family time or activity that we had planned, he refuses. Do we need the money--ABSOLUTELY, but we need time, precious time more than money. We never know when God will decide that our time is up. I love that John is so devoted to his family and even though we struggle now, I know that God will Bless us and is blessing us with much more than financial gain!



So with this being said......I want to dedicate this post to all of the father's.



-To my Dad who I miss dearly and wish I had more time with!

-To my Father-in-law who is a true blessing in our lives and treats me like a daughter!

-To my wonderful, devoted husband who is an amazing father and husband!

-To the greatest Father, God our Father.



To end the sermon on Sunday our Pastor closed with this song "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman. It is beautiful, just listen to the lyrics. Sadly his young adopted daughter just recently passed away in a tragic accident. Our hearts and prayers go out to them in this difficult time!