Happy(?) Father's Day!!

Mark just before leaving for the airport


This Father's Day, the man I love most in this world is not with the people who love him most. He headed out Friday morning to fly from Alabama to California for a conference that John MacArthur is hosting. While he is super excited about going and seeing his favorite author/pastor in person, he sounded awfully upset last night about not seeing the boys today. A lot of men think the perfect Father's Day gift is time away from the wife and kids-my hubby thinks that is the downside to his whole trip.


It is kind of weird how this trip came to be. A few years ago a guy that Mark worked with convinced him to start a profile on myspace. You can visit him at www.myspace.com/revmegdad He started writing blogs about faith and Bible lessons. He was checking out the top blogs list for religion and stumbled across a profile name that caught his eye: Dad(and Mom) of Eleven. So he goes and checks this profile out. Long story short: the guy is like an older version of Mark (with more kids, we stopped at three) So anyway, they got to know each other over the past few years, his wife helped us get started homeschooling, they are really nice people. So the dad sends Mark an e-mail one day asking if Mark would like to go to this conference. The guy offered to pay his entire way!!! He even sent Mark a check to cover any expenses that he might encounter!!! I know what you might you be thinking "Is it a good idea to fly across the country to meet someone from myspace? Don't people get raped and killed doing that?" Well, yes, when teenagers or perverts go to meet each other bad things can occur. They usually do not use the cover of "hey wanna come hear your favorite preacher?"

So, today at church everybody was asking if I had talked to Mark, was he alright, did he make it to the conference? Yes he did. Our pastor preached a sermon today that really made me quite sad. He talked about how men are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of their families, but so many of them are falling down on the job and it is the mothers who are bringing the kids to church alone. {ok, technically I was there alone with our kids, but not because Mark just refuses to go to church, he was out of town on ministry-related business} We have so many in our church who have to get their kids up and bring them alone. The message that it sends to young boys as they grow is that the church is a place for women and children. So, when they get to certain ages they feel they do not have to keep coming. I know this is not a problem exclusive to my home church; it happens in churches all across America.

So, that brings me to the real point of this post. I have a wonderful husband. He may not be perfect, but that is ok. I'm not either. He has set an example of serving the Lord to our boys. He does not show them that being a real man means being a bully. He shows them that studying the Bible is important. He sets a good example of what being a faithful husband is. Rather than going out with guys every weekend, he is with us. (I had to convince him that going to this conference was good, he did not want to be away from the fam that long) Rather than spending money on drinking, gambling or smoking he works to provide us with our wants and needs. He could have gotten out to California and run wild. His first stop? A Book Store. Yeah, he's a nerd. But he is my nerd and I love him. Happy Father's Day, Marko!!!