My Daddy’s Direction

My Daddy has always been the best at leading us kids, grandkids, family, students, coworkers, friends in the right direction. His advice, that has been given to SO many over the years, is always from a place of wisdom, faith, knowledge, and love. And he shares it willingly with all who will accept it. Isn’t that what a father is supposed to do? 

 

Well, our family is not always good at directions. In fact, this image of my parents and my girls under the St. Louis Arch depicts one of the favorite Taylor family stories of just that. 

 

Most summers my parents would take the girls for a few weeks while they were on summer break. We would meet roughly halfway (though my parents always reminded me that it was further for them than it was for me) in or around St. Louis. This particular year my mom suggested we meet under the St. Louis Arch since we had never been there. We had seen it many times while driving through the area either on family vacation, on our way to a youth trip, or the like. But we had never stopped. And the family joke was that every time we drove by, I was asleep! I always missed seeing the famous arch. So, what better place to stop to get the girls this year, than this very place.

 

This was well before everyone had cell phones, so I borrowed one from a friend at work. I arrived and I picked a spot on the grass to wait. The direction from my Daddy was to meet under the arch a this certain time.

 

Forty-five minutes passed the assigned time and the cell phone that I borrowed rang. It was my work friend who I borrowed the phone from. She said, “I have your parents on the phone and they can’t find you!” I told her I had been waiting for 45 minutes right where I was told to be, under the arch. My mom gets on the phone and asks, “Where in the world are you?” I told her right under the arch where they told me to be. She said they were, too, but they were nowhere in sight for me! She asks, “What do you see around you?” I replied, “Green grass, blue skies with white puffy clouds, and a great big arch!” My mom chuckled and said, “Well, we are a bit further under than that. There is a mall UNDER the ground of the arch, and that is where we have been waiting all this time!”

 

So, directions…my family has a knack for this, missing a detail and not getting it right. Missing one little detail that could determine the ultimate outcome of arrival. And that is something we’ve learned the hard way many times. But where my Daddy always gets it right is his ability to search scripture, God’s wisdom, and the knowledge of life and Jesus’ teachings to give us all proper direction at the proper time. Always leading us to where we need to be.

 

Thank you, Daddy, for all you do for so many! You are a father to all of us, even outside of my siblings and me, and we are so grateful for your many years of directions! Happy Father’s Day!

 

Lisa