Just Like My Father
Our youngest son has been recruited by our friends to help them with some yard work at their home and rental properties. He has always been a hard worker but is finding it difficult to land a part-time job this summer.
The economy has affected everyone but especially hard-hit are college students like our son.
Last week, our friends had him heaving river rock so that stubborn weeds could be removed. He worked 4 hours in the Arizona sun and made $40. Great pay for yard work. This week, they offered him two jobs: 1)clearing out the wind-blown leaves around their backyard; 2)shoveling gravel onto the front yard of a rental. Here in Arizona, gravel is the standard protocol for front yards. Squishing your toes through lush green grass is only possible in one’s backyard.
The Youngest took both jobs, grateful for the income. He meticulously sucked up every leaf that could be located along the sides and in the backyard, yet the job seemed to take longer than I thought it should. Worry that our friends might think he was milking the job crept into my mind.
As he returned home, we passed each other in our cars. I called to him. We stopped in the middle of our suburban village and chatted about the completed task.
“Oh, don’t worry Mom,” he reassured me. “They are paying me a flat $20 for today’s work. I just wanted to do the job like Dad would. I looked for every leaf and even took the shop vac around the pool area. You know how nit-picky Dad is. I wanted to do the same…..”
I was lost in his words. Pride and wonderment burst into my mind. Here was our son, who always complained about his father’s finickiness, now imitating the man in his life. The quality of his work mattered more than what he got paid.
I reflected on how much our walk with the Lord should mirror this attitude. The desire to do something just the way our Heavenly Father would do it brings Him great joy and gives Him great glory.
I’m watching our son now mow down the tickley grass in our backyard, shop vac the once blooming rose petals, and whack the weeds. From the back view, my mind shrinks him down to the 5-year-old helping his Dad.
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:20 NIV
“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” John 17:4 NIV
What work have you done that mimics the Father’s heart and brings glory to Him?
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Absolutely wonderful post! Lump in my throat. We just completed a year long study of the book of John so those verses really hit home with me. What a precious lesson, and precious compliment to his father. Thanks so much for this Janis!
Thank you, Stephani, for your encouraging words.
Janis
Wow, Janis–you are blessed! This does not happen to every mom, so know how much God has given you. I’m glad!
Love, Cindy
Rob,
I’m glad you found a connection within my post. It’s not often that we hear our sons say something like this. So, we’re treasuring it.
Cindy,
I will keep in mind how blessed I am! Thank you for pointing it out.
In Him,
Janis
I enjoyed your post. It made me think of my relationship with my sons and our relationship to the Father. Blessings.
This reminded me of my husband, who is just like his father, and now our two sons do things like their father, not because he said much, but because they were around him and learned to value what he values. It is such a joy to see that they are responsible, productive adults, and I thank the Lord for that. The connection to our Heavenly Father was perfect….
Great post Janis. Some of the best times I ever had with my Dad were when I was working with him on the farm or at his tire store. I really got to know my Dad by working with him. It’s the same way with my Heavenly Father. I get to know Him best by working with Him, doing what He’s doing.
Now if I can just get my teenage son to “get it.” Maybe I just need to invite him to work with me more. –Richard
Hi LaShorne,
Thank you stopping by and reflecting on how it pleases the Father when we do things just as He would do them.
Hi Anita,
Thank you for your comment. It encourages me to know that our sons will follow their father here, and ultimately their Heavenly Father.
Richard,
So good to have you visit. It takes a while for the teenage sons to model their father–some longer than others as I am learning. The invitation to have your son work with you is a good one.
Blessed by your comments,
Janis
Great post Janis. This statement really made me take pause and reflect: The desire to do something just the way our Heavenly Father would do it brings Him great joy and gives Him great glory…
My desire is to bring glory to the Father!
Shop vac the rose petals. Now that was something that arrested me. 🙂
This is a fantastic post. I have tears in my eyes, and he’s not my son! How wonderful for you, as his mother, to see him doing such a great job. He’s going to be just fine, despite the economy. God will use his work ethic to open doors for him!
~Jennifer
1. The borders and design look fine to me.
2. I would go to flickr http://flickr.com and search the creative commons photos for a picture that would complement your layout and expresses your personality and add it to the header. Richard did a great job on his and he uses blogger.
3. I don’t think your “getting to know me” and “contact me” pages are considered sneeze pages. If you had a page with all the post from a specific category, I thing that would qualify as a sneeze page. As far as your categories I personally like searching these in the sidebar. But I realize this is personal preference. Again, this is personal preference, you may ask the others what they think, but I like to see the categories higher in the page. I would move them up above your google friend connect, the comments badge, and the archives. Your categories tell me more about what your blog is about and gives me more options to explore than the other items I just listed.
4. Don’t know.
5. It has been a while since I have worked with blogger but I think that this is just a widget in your sidebar and you should be able to delete it. If you choose to do this I think you should add your photo to the “getting to know me page.”
6. The text is fine to me. There are different thoughts on post length so I am not sure there is a right answer. I am shooting for an average of 500 words. Sometimes is is 370 and other times it is 640. However, 500 words seems to be enough for me to get my thought across and compact enough to prevent me from rambling.
7. I have enjoyed reading your posts. I like the way you look through the lens of your life and see God in the midst of it.
8. I am still working on my sidebar as well so I am no expert. But here are my thoughts. I don’t think you need the “all material is copyrighted” in the sidebar. I would try and put this in the footer area or at the end of each post somehow. You may be able to find a widget that would allow you to put text in one of these areas. If you removed that and the “view my complete profile” that would pull everything up. This would put your subscription options at the top right near you post title for everyone to see. And if you moved your categories up, they would be near the top and searchable. Again this is just my opinion, I don’t think having a blog roll in your sidebar is a good idea. It just gives your readers more opportunity to leave your sight and go somewhere else. The idea is to get them to stay and search your blog. You can link to these blogs in a single post by highlighting an article or sharing their links on twitter (just my opinion).
9. I am still trying to learn this myself.
10. Be persistent and keep writing. Even if it doesn’t draw big numbers, God will use it to change lives.
I hope this helps. Again, most of this is just my opinion with very limited experience. God Bless!!!