This is a reposting to combine the audio of my sharing the poem during the closing of the 2016 Father’s Day worship service at Deer Run with the words I had published two years earlier for Father’s Day 2014.

My Dad

It’s getting late,
I should be in bed.
But it seems like a poem
is stuck in my head.
It rolls around in there
and seems to want out.
To be set in print,
to stop rolling about.

So here I am,
with keyboard and mouse.
Alone in the basement
of a quiet house.
The topic is fitting –
all good, nothing bad.
A poem’s trying to form
that would honor my dad!

A harder worker,
I surely don’t know.
He taught me so much
by the seeds he did sow.
And while there was much
he did plant in the ground.
It was seeds full of wisdom
that did always abound.

I know there were days
that he probably thought.
Will these boys of mine
ever do what they ought?
I’m so very glad
that my dad still can see.
Just what kind of man,
that I’m growing to be.

As I look back in time
and down through the years.
I pray that my life now
has made up for the tears.
I learned how to work
and I learned how to play.
From my mom and dad
as they showed me the way.

Dad worked very hard —
in fact, he still does.
It’s his way of life,
not just something that was.
But even in work,
there was room for fun.
Dad helped me to see,
I needed both, not just one.

Some days at the sawmill,
we’d walk home through the wood.
And jump in the pond,
like every boy should.
There always were chores
that had to be done.
But when they were finished,
there was still time for fun.

Dad doesn’t say much,
but that is okay.
For I understand,
I am much the same way.
His actions speak louder
than words ever can.
I know he’s beside me,
as my biggest fan.

There is so much I do,
as I step back and look.
That I learned from my dad,
it can’t be found in a book.
Dad showed me how
to invest life in life.
As he builds up his children
and loves his own wife.

I’m sure there are things
that are clear in my mind.
That if I could see now,
something different I’d find.
My recollection —
of vacations, you see.
Dad would stop anywhere,
as long as it was free!

State parks were the norm,
of places we’d go.
We could have lots of fun
without spending much dough.
So when I grew older,
and out on my own.
I have often returned
to where those seeds were sown.

To visit some places
where memories were made.
I’ve taken my family,
and we’d walk in the shade.
The example that I saw,
in the childhood I had.
Was a home full of love,
and a great mom and dad.

I could go on,
with this poem for a while.
When I think of my dad,
I can’t help but smile.
He lives life each day,
to the best that he can.
And when I grow up,
I want to be like that man!

As the day came to a close with Father’s Day just around the corner, this poem began to form in my mind. I am thankful for the dad that God has given me and I pray that I honor him not just with some words, but with my life.