(This was meant to be posted on Sat. but no internet access while in MO)

I guess I find myself feeling pretty sentimental today. There are many things sort of colliding today and this weekend especially. Traveling and being gone from home and family for almost two weeks may have a lot to do with it. I love my job. I love being able to listen to, encourage, teach and train adults who work with students in their churches. It is a great joy. I am still overwhelmed that God allows me to do what I get to do in the Kingdom. I can hear my mom saying, “I just can’t get over the fact that a boy that grew up in a small town in Missouri gets to travel the world and encourage believers. I am with her on that one for sure.

Today is mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary, only mom is not here to celebrate it. She departed this “old, evil world” (her words not long before she died) in December 2007. Forty-eight and a half years of marriage to the greatest dad who ever lived (my father). I know that today is a tough day for my dad and so after I get off of this plane from Dallas to Nashville, I will board another one four hours later to go spend the rest of the weekend with my dad. What an amazing man.

Sondra will be spending her first Father’s Day without her dad. I have to admit that I have no clue how that must feel. I know that daddy’s and daughters have a special bond, because I have that kind of bond with Shelbi and Morgan. I will never forget looking at out Sondra during my time honoring her father in his celebration of his life service and thinking, “there sits the love of my life, who is a little girl who just lost her daddy.” I have intentionally tried to help ease some of her pain over these past few months, but know that God is the only One who can really do that for her. I sure do love that girl. She really does complete me. And, I have missed her terribly this past two weeks. It has been great to hear her voice each day, but there is nothing like being able to just be around her, to capture her smell, and to sit up close and just enjoy being in her presence. I am a blessed man.

Being dad to the most incredible daughters is another huge blessing that pretty much blows my mind. Each of our daughters has their own unique temperament and personality. Sondra and I have been committed together in helping our girls “love their Lord their God with all their heart, mind and strength.” In spite of my knuckle-headedness they have grown into beautiful, young women. I am not sure where the time has gone but the reality of having a sophomore in college and a senior in high school has hit me full force. I know it was only yesterday that we were chasing one another around the backyard; throwing balls way up in the air and learning to catch pop-flys; learning to read; learning to drive Ole Blackie; and laughing during family devotions while the crazy dog had to jump up in a lap and participate in prayer time. So many incredible memories and affirmation that God is Who He says He is.

So, in A Moment Like This, thank You God seems so inadequate, so incomplete. But, it is the cry of my heart. What a blessed guy I am. I have a loving, heavenly Father; a godly, earthly father; an amazingly, wonderful wife; two beautiful daughters who reflect Christ in their lives; and a crazy dog who loves me (I think) but only really likes me when I have a tennis ball or a leash in my hand. I am grateful. I am blessed. I am overwhelmed by His goodness. Lord, do not ever let me forget or forsake You: Not for what You have done for me, but because of Who You are.