When we come to the barn in the evening and you're working that difficult colt but the four-year-old is begging to ride, so you put everything on hold and saddle his gelding. Then you play a game with him to teach him how to neck rein and in the end he earns ice cream. But, it's after eight o'clock and the ice cream store is closed, so you drive us twenty miles to town to honor your promise, only to find that the little cowboy fell asleep and doesn't feel like ice cream anymore. I see you.
I hear you, too. When you walk up those stairs with two giggling, rambunctious boys at bedtime. I sit in the bedroom rocking our baby girl and I listen to you on the monitor as you read them a book, throwing your voice to make the perfect impression of each character. They ask you questions about nightlights and superheroes and prayers and monsters in the closet, and I hear the patience in your voice.
When Valentine's Day comes around and you get a babysitter and invite me and that girly on a special date with our best clothes and fancy dessert, I feel your effort.
You put in very long hours providing for these babies. I know sometimes it's almost more than you can muster to play and hold and converse. But you do it. With that same fierce determination that I fell in love with years ago, you invest in these children with all of your heart and your time and your strength.
Come to think of it, you remind me of another Father I know. That One who loaned us these sweet little humans. You've taken the responsibility of representing Him and poured your whole being into it, and I can just see Him beaming with pride.
I don't expect our children to realize the sacrifices you make for them. Or the energy you spend. Or the way you love in the real definition of the word. Really, none of us ever appreciate our parents until we are parents ourselves. But I want you to know that from this mother's heart -- the one you foster and pamper and shower with affection -- to me, every single thing you do for them matters. And if you accomplish absolutely nothing else in your entire life, I hope you are convinced to the very core of your blessed self that loving us has made a lifetime of difference.
Happy Fathers Day to my favorite person on earth.
