God's grace made manifest through my family part 5: Paps

"Paps" is what my sisters and I (and now more recently other people) call my father. I forget how this name for him came about. I think Allison started it because she thought it was hilarious. Every time she would call him that we would all get grossed out because it reminded us of pap smear. Lovely, right? Well, now the name has caught on. Once, we tried calling him "Doctor" instead of "Dad". That stuck for a little while, but not like this name.

Paps and I. I think I told him to make the face he give us when we are in trouble. For some reason, it is more terrifying and convincing in real life. If I saw this when I was going to get disciplined, I would laugh. (actually, Kaity, Alli, Kim and I all have stories from when we were younger and we were getting lectured and we had to try really hard not to laugh......we are bad....)

A lot of people say that I'm like Paps. I'm "Mini Don".  Since birth I've looked like him, which I'm not sad about. Why should I be ashamed about looking like such a beautiful man? We have a similar laugh and similar humor. Amidst all the similarities, we're different. First, I am a girl. More seriously though, Paps knows what it means to care for the souls of others, to be compassionate and care for sheep.

These are things I desperately need to learn. Good thing I have him as an example to follow.

I listened to this sermon series on parenting a couple of weeks ago (for fun! not because I have any surprise news) and I got owned. In my interactions with others my attitude was bad and I only had to see those people once or twice a week. Being a parent though, you have to see your kids 24/7 and still have the same attitude, a winsome one, where loving Christ is the ultimate goal, your sole desire for those rugrats. I am glad I am not a parent yet. And I'm glad I'm not in some role where I have to care for the souls of a bunch of other people.

Paps does both. He's got all of us in the family to care for and also the church. It's pretty crazy. A couple of months ago, Paps had the opportunity to preach from the pulpit for the first time. I went home to hear it and show some moral support. My dad, man, he loves God. I know that winsome attitude that I learned about a couple of weeks ago is in Paps, maybe not 100% of the time (I mean...he's still sinful too), but it's seen both at home and in the church.

Dad knows he's a sinner. He's humble. He might own all the guys in the church fantasy football league and trash talk after (but that's all part of being a winner.) Paps can have a winsome attitude more often than me because he knows and remembers often what he has been saved from. The gospel applied to his life first forms how he interacts with others. I need that. A good dose of the reality of my own sin.


Here's my dad's sermon. He has some places where his words get confused (eg: when he quotes Luke 18:12 he says, "I fast twice a week; I pay thighs of all that I get." thighs instead of tithes. ahaha.) overall though, it was a good message.

Remember From Where You Have Been Raised