by Rev Douglas Brauner

A Dad Is Always a Dad

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

In my last blog I wrote, I shared one of my baby pictures with you. As I prepared for that devotion, I discovered this picture of my dad and me on my third birthday.

I’ve been reflecting on my relationship with my father since I saw this picture. It sits in front of me as I write this devotion.

By the time that this picture was taken my dad had already fathered three children. He had served his country in World War II, fighting in the South Pacific. He was moving up at Guistina Brothers Lumber and Plywood Company, either already serving as assistant sales manager, or soon to be promoted.

There was a lot of life between this picture and the last image I have of my dad, an image capture in my mind just days before his death in 2008; a time span of nearly fifty years.

I’m not going to air any dirty laundry or my struggles with my “daddy issues,” but the older I get the more I empathize with my dad.

Being a dad is a 24/7 job from the moment our children are conceived to the day we die. I will not be my children’s best friend. I shouldn’t be their best friend. They need me to be dad.

That’s my struggle: knowing how to be dad to my grown sons.

Though my dad wasn’t perfect, he set an example for me in my parenting.

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
Proverbs 22:6 New Living Translation

This imperative doesn’t stop when they leave home, but it does change. I’m still finding my way as a dad as my sons try to find their way in life. When I look at this picture, I see God’s grace in the journey that my father and I were walking. I see the mercy of God in my role as dad to three grown men.

Thank God for the mercy of cross in this journey of parenting especially when our children have left home.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado