Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Father's Day Weekend: The Good (Part 1 of 3)

"The Good"

This Father's Day I went down to the country to visit my dad, like all the other Father's Days of recent years. I always figure, since it's so far down there, I just go down the day before and spend the night, sort of stretching it out to make the most of the gas it takes to get there LOL

On Sat. I made my way down to the country and met him for a cook out at my cousin's house (see part 2 of 3, "The Bad"). Visiting with family, especially one's I've never met or haven't seen in a long time is always nice. The food was great!!! I didn't have to buy it, prepare it or clean up after it!! That rarely happens after you become an adult. So that was very good.

Saturday evening we just went back to dad's and watched tv before calling it a night. On Sunday, we got up late and ended up taking the 4 wheeler and the boat to Clearwater Lake. It's no Outer Banks but it has always been a family favorite. It took us a while to get down there because we didn't get an early start. This made dad fussy. He's also trying to quit smoking (after 50 some odd years) so he is easily fussy these days. But I commend him for trying again! I pray he has luck and the Lord will help him.

On our way to the lake, I had an opportunity to witness to my dad again, reiterating the simplicity of the gospel to him. I like to show him the faith I have in God that He will take care of my needs and dad's as well. Our fiasco last year with the boat lended a perfect opportunity to show him first hand that God knows what we need. 3 times that day we were in a crisis and all 3 times, without waiting, God provided the exact help we needed! It's a great example and I like to remind him of it. This is good, very good.

Our boating trip on the lake was fun. We ventured way up and around to where Black River feeds into the lake. We had lunch on the boat. The outing was relatively uneventful until we were heading back to the dock. The boat motor kept dieing. He kept trying to fix it and was growing increasingly fretful and agitated. I simply said with every confidence, "The Lord knows what we need." Then the motor worked only on low gear but it was enough to get us back! Again, a perfect example of how faith pays off. I welcome these opportunities for flaws and trials. He's the kind of man who needs to learn the hard way and even then it usually takes more than once for him to learn a lesson!

We did some light fishing but of course did not get any bites due to the fact that the water level was up. We enjoyed cruising around the lake. We had dinner at the Cowgirl Cafe and I got to see my cousin Kathy who works there. After we got back to his house, we watched the movie "RV". I thought it was a nice clean family movie, a nice way to cap off the trip. It was environmentally the most tolerable trip to my dad's I've enjoyed in....well, forever since he didn't smoke while I was there. Stay tuned for "The Bad" and "The Ugly"

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