Sunday, June 21st is Father's day so I thought I would talk a little about that this week. I wanted to start out by telling you about my dad. I am blessed by having a dad who loves the Lord and has served him in various ways his whole adult life. There are many lessons that I can tell you that I learned from my dad, but one stands out that I want to share.
In 1974 we had a huge December snow storm in Toledo Ohio. I remember it hit on a Sunday morning because after church we spent a lot of time pushing cars out of the church parking lot. (this was a time in life where people didn't let something like weather to keep them from church)
That evening we needed to get some groceries and my dad asked me to walk over to the grocery store, which was a little less than a mile away. Before we went, we walked to a few of our older neighbors and asked if they needed anything. Some did and my dad and I walked over to the shopping center in the midst of blowing, drifting, and rising snow. My dad walked in front of me and told me to walk in his footsteps, so I walked in a path my dad created for me to make it through the more than waist high drifts. Every few yards my dad would turn and ask if I was still coming and if I was okay. But that is not the most memorable part of that storm.
The next day the daily newspaper, the Toledo Blade, could not be delivered because of the snow. My dad has to read a paper each morning, so again he asked me to take a walk and we walked down to the Frisches Big Boy restaurant to see if the paper box out front would have the Blade. When we got there, the restaurant was closed but the paper box out front had that days paper. But the slot to put coins in was frozen over so you couldn't put coins in the machine. But the box door was frozen open and you could easily reach in and take a paper without paying the .25 cents. That is what my dad did, he reached in and took a paper and we walked home.
The next day, my dad asked me to take a walk again (in case you don't catch it, my dad loves to walk), so I bundled up and we walked back up to the Frisches Big Boy restaurant. By this time most of the main streets were cleared and the restaurant was open for business. We walked in and my dad walked up to the lady at the front counter, reached in his pocket and pulled out a quarter and as he handed it to the woman, said "I came here yesterday and took a paper out of the box out front. It was frozen over, so I couldn't pay for it, so I thought I would come and pay for it today. Thank you." I remember the woman behind the counter stood, not knowing what to say, and probably thought my dad was kind of strange. We turned and walked home after that. Not a whole lot was spoken on the way home. But while nothing was verbal, my dad spoke volumes to me that day. Integrity was, is and forever will be, vital to my father. I think I should walk in those footsteps too. Thanks dad. I love you.
Have a great day.
Rod
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Great story Rod. I remember a similar lesson from my father. I was captain of my football team when I was in 8th grade. We went undefeated, for the second year in a row, and my dad paid for a team dinner to celebrate our championship. I was with him at the counter when he was handed the bill. The bill was somewhere around $400 dollars. My dad looked at the bill and said to the oriental women, "I think you have added wrong!" (Of course this was before calculators and computers were common) The oriental lady was very apologetic stating, "I so sorry, I pay you too much?" After a quick math lesson my father explained to her how she had under charged him by over a hundred dollars and then paid the corrected bill. Though he is gone I have never forgotten that lesson.
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