Dear Dads, Dear Husbands

On a day that is sentimental for all Dads, we salute you, for so many reasons. Here are just 10 reasons, among hundreds, we are thankful for you:

10. Thank you for teaching your children the value of hard work by the way you work every day. Thank you for all the mornings you rose before the sun was up to till soil, plant corn, irrigate, feed livestock, and tend to the farm. It may have seemed I didn't notice the way your feet bled, the way your skin tore, or the way your hands blistered from the manual labor you did for our family. I didn't tell you I noticed, Dad. But I did. You gave me drive. You gave me a strong work ethic. Thank you. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

9. Thank you for sacrificing for your children, for putting yourself and your needs last. Thank you for choosing to wear tattered t-shirts and socks with holes because you are always thinking of your kids' needs first. Thank you for falling in to bed exhausted at day's end because you gave so much of yourself yesterday and today. You will get up tomorrow and do the very same thing again, because this is what dads do -- they put their families first.

8. Thank you for filling our tanks up with gas when they are empty -- both the car and our emotional tanks. We need both and we appreciate both.

7. We had no idea you were such a versatile man. Our family is grateful. You are the trusted family Repairman. You fix our TVs and our appliances (plus the malfunctioning garage door which allowed us to leave the house so you could work. We have never seen you so happy). Your toolbox overfloweth. (Except when it doesn't because your children have swiped all your tools because they want to be like you when they grow up). You are the most reliable and most cost-effective Plumber who should be listed on Kudzu but is not listed on Kudzu. You have plunged more toilets and rescued more floods than we can count. You don't even have to plug your nose anymore. You are the most over-worked, under-paid Chief Technology Officer we have ever met (you work for free). You solve all data crises at all hours of the day. You manage a host of ipads, Kindle devices, and computer printers (which your wife is always accidentally jamming). You explain to your wife that Apple is a form of technology, too, -- not just something you eat. You help her understand that tweeting is not just what birds do in nature, outdoors. "Yes, honey, 'tweeting' is for working professionals." Thank you, dear husbands and fathers, for holding our hands and helping us not feel stupid (except we don't say 'stupid' in this house, mom) when we really do feel 'stupid.'

6. Thank you for being a role model. You are someone we look up to. Thank you for showing us what it takes to build a business from 'nothing' and turn it in to 'something' ... and how important prayer is in that equation. Thank you for inviting us to pray with you and for you as you build and grow your business. Thank you for sharing your successes and your disappointments with us. We learn from your stories. Most of all, we learn from your leadership.

5. Dad, thank you for the gift of education. I have never taken my college degree for granted, as I saw the physical labor that paid for that degree. I always felt a strong burden to 'pay you back' for that degree through stellar grades, strong focus, and eventually securing a job that would make you proud after graduating (this explains my need to vacuum three times a day ... I have to make up for not having a job now ... it makes that degree worth it, right?). Thanks, Dad, for all you put in to ensuring I would have a college education. I learned so much about myself in those years (besides how to vacuum) and am grateful for your sacrifice.

4. Thank you for helping the pessimists in the house see the glass might actually be half full. You are an eternal optimist. Even in the worst circumstances. You inherited this trait from your dad, Papa G. Thank you, to my father-in-law, Craig, for your possibility-thinking. You taught your son to remind us of Psalm 118:24 each morning.

3. Thank you for teaching us to 'Grow for It.' In every way, in every single thing you do, there is no mediocrity. You do not do anything half-way. You continually stretch yourself. And, as a result, you stretch those around you - including your family. Thank you for stretching your children to be the best versions of who they were created to be. And thank you for encouraging me to stretch, as well, even though you know I love a good, deep, comfortable, cozy rut. My only wish is that you would, for once in your life, eat cake for dessert instead of celery. Just be human like the rest of us. Please?

2. Thank you for being a coach. We watch as you throw the football and basketball with your children in the front yard and draw countless 'plays' (which we will never fully understand) on napkins and scratch papers throughout the house. You invest your time in your children by pouring in to them. They are who they are because of you.

1. Thank you for choosing to love us every single day -- even when we are most unlovable. Thank you for choosing us over a million and one other people, places, and things that would be way more fun, entertaining, attractive, and lively (or rather, quieter) than we are. You come home to us (well, cancel that, you are actually trapped with us since you work in the basement and doubly trapped before you fixed the garage door), but in every way, you choose us first. And so do countless fathers across America and beyond.

Dads, today is for you. The work you're doing in the lives of your wives and children matters.

Take it from a small-town farm girl from Nebraska who didn't bother to thank her dad nearly as much as she should have. It mattered then and it still matters today. Tell the dads in your life how much they mean to you. Better yet, share this list with them. Thanks for reading.

I love you, Dad. I love you, T. Happy Father's Day.

Love,

Lauri

P.S. This weekend is an extra-special weekend, as not only is it Father's Day, it is also my sister-in-law, Sunny's, wedding weekend. Pretty ironic that on this weekend, she and Austin also get to make a choice to commit to each other forever - in good and bad. Happy days. Oh happy days.

I'd love you to check out Willamena Picklepants and a Case of the No Good, Really Mean Words, available on Amazon.com and tell me what you and your kids think. We love to hear how Willamena is speaking to children (and adults). Thanks for sharing your stories with us ... it matters! YOU matter!