Family Life: Thank you Daddy

David Paul Eymann, my daddy, is a Pastor. He was a worship leader and youth pastor in Tuscon, AZ after he and my mom got married. He was a worship leader and youth pastor at Gladstone First Baptist Church when I was a child. Then he was the head pastor at Spirit Love and Truth Church.

side note: I met my husband at Gladstone First Baptist Church. I don't remember the first time I saw him, I was just 3, but I've been told it was love at first diaper change. The Lewis families and our family left GFBC to start Spirit, Love and Truth Church in the Parkrose area when I was 7.

My dad is a hard working man. He is 63, retired, had hip surgery and has chronic pain but he won't stop. We tell him to. His 6 kids all try to make him stop. And we help him, but he just keeps going.

My dad retired from Eagle Fern Camp last year but continues to work on his Christmas tree farm in Estacada. He and my mom recently went to Haiti for 7 days on a missions trip. He helped build a concrete cover for a cistern and a kitchen for a family and delivered food to children in the sponsorship program. He. Won't. Stop!

Fathers are important in our developing relationship with our Father in Heaven. I got lucky. I have a good daddy. I know he loves me and will help me when I'm scared, or sad, or confused. I know he will share in my joy when I'm happy.
When I was growing up my daddy was concerned for my well being, he still is. When I did what I wanted, right or wrong, he always knew, and he was ever so patient. When he had to discipline me all it took was a look.
My daddy is one of the wisest, most loving fathers in the whole wide world. I might be biased. I go to him for the big questions in life. He helps guide me, with words of wisdom or advice. But sometimes he helps by providing no answer, reminding me to go to my Father in Heaven. He knows when I need to discover the truth on my own. He knows how to let go of someone he loves so very much and then wait patiently, and lovingly, and prayerfully.

So when I felt a shift in my heart, felt the broken cracks and holes from years of hurt fill with love, and realized, "WOW, I am finally healing!", I told my daddy first.

Daddy, here is a new writing on my blog! I finally get it…LOVE…I cried my heart and soul out…I finally realized he is unable to love me with a real love…And still I love him, from somewhere so deep in my heart only God could have planted it there and it is never going to go away…and only God can fill (the big hole in my heart) what Tyler can not…Daddy, I am finally able to let go of someone I love so very much and trust God to take care of what I wanted so badly to be mine, and wait. Patiently, lovingly and prayerfully.

Kari, It is good to read your description of the love in your heart for Tyler, even though he doesn't love you and he wants to hurt you. I think I understand it better now, and I think you know it is a love that will probably always create pain rather than hope fulfilled. But God's love for us was not without pain. Right? God is the God of miracles! if not the way we expect and hope for, then in His own way, His own time, even greater than we could have dreamed.

Thank you Daddy. For those words. For your love. For everything.
Love, your daughter.