My father

Since everyone is thinking about their fathers today . . .
A few years ago I started working on a devotional book, which I haven’t finished. I used some poems that I liked, Scripture and added my own commentary. Long story short, I wrote this the winter after my father passed away. I hope that you are blessed by it.

An Old Story
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Strange that I did not know him then,
That friend of mine!
I did not even show him then
One friendly sign;

But cursed him for the ways he had
To make me see
My envy of the praise he had
For praising me.

I would have rid the earth of him
Once, in my pride. . .
I never knew the worth of him
Until he died.

Scripture: Proverbs 1:8,9 (NIV)
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction
and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.

Once in a while, you receive the blessing of having someone come into your life that sees more than you see; someone that pushes you further than you believe is fair; and sometimes requires more of you than your best. The typical response is childish resentment, but time being the great equalizer that it is, one day you are faced with the exact same situation, only this time you are the old goat. You instantly realize what that horrible person meant to you, and how you would have never known that you had more to give, had it not been for someone who knew that you had more in you than what you had shown.
I recently lost someone like that in my own life, my father. I knew him all of my life, yet I still did not understand how deeply or how many ways he touched my life until he was gone. The man he was made me the man that I am, and I carry with me everywhere I go, the lessons learned from hard fought battles between a father and a son, and I am glad that he wasn't always so easy to please.