my dear father...

Our daughter stopped by for lunch yesterday...and had a chuckle about her dad's coffee mug. It happens to be one she gave him for Father's Day almost two decades ago...and it's still among his favorites. Here are the words on the side of the mug...

My Dear Father...

As a child, I'd run to you for comfort whenever I felt

unsure or afraid.

You would hold me on your lap and tell me that if I believed 

enough in my dreams and in myself, to reach them...

nothing would be beyond my grasp

--and you were right.

You seemed so wise and strong,

I thought I could never outgrow my love for you...

and that as I got older,

you'd be even more special to me.

And I was right.

I think I know why it's his favorite mug.  It has everything to do with the words on the cup...and the fact that it came from his daughter.

We will be celebrating Father's Day this weekend.

 I am most blessed to be able to spend some time with my dad and with the other four dads in my life...

...the fathers of my grands and the father of my children.  They are a special lot...entrusted with the awesome responsibility of fatherhood. 

Each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

 ~ Charles Swindoll

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

~George Herbert

And in the end, it's not the years

in your life that count.

It's the life in your years.

~Abraham Lincoln

Those words I leave for all of 'my dads'.

And these three...

I love you!