As a brother mentioned, we don't love God only because we love His gifts, but we love the One who gave the gift. As in, our focus is still primarily toward God and not basking in how awesome we are because we have this gift. Thus, realizing what we have is not to feel more secure in what we have, but to realize how good God is for giving us these things that we often forget. And so here it goes:
I was just reminded yesterday of my dad, when my spiritual mentor told me "You have a good dad. Did you know you have a good dad?" I said yes, that I knew. And I did know, but there is just something different about someone else telling you that you have a great dad, and when multiple people tell you the same thing, and when people also tell your mom that she has a great husband. It makes you step back and wonder if you missed something about your dad that other people are seeing. And so I spent today realizing the extent of how blessed I am to have my dad.
My dad, in four adjectives, is generous, open-minded, thoughtful and responsible. He is also supportive and loyal.
It is because of my dad that I'm not afraid to be passionate and to have a vision. If I have a desire or a goal or a vision, I know I have the freedom to go after it with support (still with wisdom of course). The best example that I have is when I was obsessed with tennis. I played since I was 10. I didn't make the team in 7th grade, but then in 8th grade and 9th grade, I made junior varsity. After my first season in high school, I made it my goal to make Varsity for sophomore year; I was determined to do anything to reach that goal, and my dad was supportive. He was the one who drove me more than an hour away each week to get private lessons from a famous instructor. He also bought a tennis ball machine and would take me to practice on the weekends and whenever I had time; a few times I think we even practiced at 5:30am before school. I also attempted to play in USTA tournaments and he would drive to those as well. Tennis is an expensive sport if you want to be good; it was a very big investment, both financially and time-wise. I never made it to Varsity. I was 1st or 2nd JV sophomore year, and I stayed in JV junior year. As senior year was nearing, I wanted to finally make varsity; we got new private coaches, and I enrolled in intensive summer tennis programs to train--all of this the summer before senior year. But then, during the two weeks of tryouts, I knew I wasn't going to make Varsity. And my heart was already drifting towards other endeavors, like self-studying for SATII Physics so that I could be an engineer. I told my parents that I felt like quitting tennis because I wanted to study more for physics, but that I felt like I just invested so much money and time this summer that it would be a waste. My dad supported and encouraged me to quit, saying that this was a paradigm shift. It's not a waste; all that money we spent is not a waste. It's a paradigm shift; when it's time to move on, it's time to move on. What was important before may not be important now.
And that's how I think about life now; my dad has given me that open-minded perspective on life. Nothing is a waste; sometimes it's time to move on; don't be too late to move on, you have to move with the shift. And when I think back to my tennis days and these lessons, I know that my dad is supportive of my growth as a person, and will support me in whatever direction I choose.
Praise God for my dad, a huge blessing and impact on my life. This post may sound like I'm just praising my dad, but in my heart, God is getting all the glory. I'm not just praising God's gift/blessing, but I'm praising God.
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