Thank you Dawn at Drawing Closer to Christ, for nominating me for this June Honor The Father Tag. Thanks for sharing about your Dad. What a glory to God, and healing for you, that your Dad gave up alcohol and received Jesus as Savior! 🙏🏿

Here are the links to the original authors of this unique tag: Dollfaced Writer and Purple Rose

From Dollface…

The Meaning of this Tag:

A father is someone who loves his child unconditionally, provides for them, protects them always, teaches them values, disciplines them fairly, and wants the best for them. For that, we should always, ALWAYS have respect for our fathers. They are created to bear the responsibility of caring for and protecting their families just as God calls them to do. Father’s Day is about reminding your father how much you appreciate him, but I hope this tag will perhaps remind you this month how blessed you are to have a father at all.

As I said before, this is a very hard day for me every year. My father and I have a very complex relationship. In fact, it is the polar opposite of my relationship with my mother. Growing up I felt abandoned, rejected, unloved, forgotten, and neglected because of his behavior that stemmed from alcoholism and what I believe could have been other mental health issues (don’t quote me, I’m not a doctor XD).

I will always love my father. He is a part of me, half of me to be exact. However, mustering the strength to honor or respect him at all has taken a long time to do. We talk sometimes over text, but not a lot. Some days he responds and I feel like we’re getting somewhere, then he vanishes like he always did. It has helped living a thousand miles away from him since finishing high school, but I have come to accept the pain I feel from my childhood will never go away. Recently, in the last week actually, he said something that has proven he’ll never change. I was trying to gain closure, but he continues to blame me for things that I may talk about in another post. Anyways, he may move on in his life, which is painful for me to watch, but that doesn’t change the past he continues to deny and blame me for.

If you have a similar situation, whether you have been abused, manipulated, abandoned, or rejected by your father (even someone else in your family), can I give you some advice that has helped me cope with such a toxic relationship?

You have a choice. You can walk away. You can block a number. You can say no. You can cut them off from your life. That doesn’t mean you don’t honor them, that just means you have enough respect for yourself to protect your heart and enough respect for them to love them at a safe distance. You can pray for someone every day and never talk to them again. Isn’t that better than subjecting yourself to more pain and building up further resentment that could become the poison of unforgiveness? I think so, because no one deserves to be abused in any way. You deserve love. If you don’t/didn’t receive that love from your father, always know you have a Father in Heaven who loves you more than your father ever could.

I hope you do have an awesome father though. If you do, give him a bear hug and be grateful to have the best protector you could have on this earth. If you don’t, pray for him, friend.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you to participate.

2. Use the original featured image.

3. Copy and paste the introduction and meaning of this tag at the beginning of your post, along with the links to both creators’ original posts. *This rule is very important. Please, please link this post and Purple Rose’s post so that as authors we may be alerted when a tag is published. It also gives us proper credit, which is much appreciated. Thank you ❤

4. Answer the questions.

5. Nominate one or more people to participate.

6. Enjoy the rest of your month! 🙂

Here are the questions for this month’s tag:

1. What is your relationship like with your biological father, if anything at all?

My father left this world just before the age of 65, but I loved his passion and integrity.

2. What is one thing you would change about your father if you could? What is one thing you wouldn’t change?

I would have changed the cultural and socially expected way of raising a child when he was growing up. Although he was intelligent, passionate, a great story teller, and excellent business man, he was stoic (as boys were taught to be) about things of the heart.

I would never change his love of music, time he spent telling us, and the neighbor kids engaging stories, and singing with us. He was a man of integrity, and loved taking his family on Sunday drives to explore different cities.

3. Who do you celebrate on Father’s Day (your father, step-father, grandfather, uncle, etc.)?

I celebrate the wonderful Dad and Papa that my husband is, and thank God for my Dad. I also thank my heavenly Father for being so amazing.

4. What was the most valuable thing he taught you?

He taught me that thinking positively, working hard, and trusting God, (not necessarily in that order) are rewards in and of themselves. And that a good sense of humor will keep you going. He was so right.

5. What is one thing he does that you would never do?

My answer to this question is one that always remained with me. My father wanted one of his kids to take over his business, and it just wasn’t meant to be for me. I never had his love for real estate, but I loved him.

6. How do you honor him on Father’s Day?

I remember that God gave him to me as my earthly father, and I am thankful.

7. How has your relationship with him impacted the person/parent you are today?

I wanted our daughter to know that she could do all things through Christ who strengthened her. That life is discovery. It’s important to find ways to love your work. That people are to be loved, and things are to be used. And that no matter what, laughter is a good medicine. And now these truths are being passed on to our grandson. ♥

I am tagging…🤔🤔

FYI: There is no pressure to participate, but looking forward to reading your answers if you do…

Joshua Swanson