That Time My Kids Hacked My Blog

{Disclosure:  This blog has been hacked.  This blog post and the three that follow today do not represent the thoughts, ideas, intelligence, creative perspective, sense of humor, theological viewpoints, or grammar skills of Andy Wood Ph.D. and he is hereby released from any responsibility, liability, culpability, and general other abilities related to said posts.  He did, however, sire, raise and influence all three authors –  so make what judgments you will.}

Today’s a pretty significant day.  It’s a day that is set aside to purposefully honor fathers, or father-like figures in people’s lives.  Now, we might be a little biased, but we kind of think that we hit the jackpot when it comes to dads.  Our father is loving, creative, funny and has spent his life pointing us to Jesus.  He is an excellent communicator, a generous giver, and puts up with our family vacations to Disney World.  So it makes pretty logical sense that on this day dedicated to dads, we would want to come up with a really cool gift idea, right? Right!  Let the brainstorming begin!

{Cue Crickets}

Listen people…we’ve been doing Father’s Day for 30+ years.  We’ve done your typical gifts – the nice shirts and ties and coffee mugs.  We’ve done your handmade gifts – framed Bible verses and snow globes and collages.  We’ve sent gift cards.  We’ve forgotten to mail gift cards we’ve purchased and then found them months later and used them for ourselves.  We’ve picked out the perfect books, knick knacks, movies and toys.  And really, what gift could possible top the watermelon slicer of 2015 (you’ve actually taken that out of the package, right Daddy?!)  All of this for the man who regularly told us that all he wanted for Christmas was “peace on Earth and a new pair of underwear.”  So you can understand why it gets a little challenging to come up with good gift ideas for such an important person in our lives when we’ve exhausted so many options!

We tossed around the idea of a Yeti cup.  We considered purchasing all of the Disney movies that he hasn’t seen.  We nearly defaulted to the typical iTunes or Amazon gift card.  But none of our ideas measured up.  Not this year.

You see, this year Father’s Day is a little bit different.  It’s a little bit harder, a little bit sadder.  This year is our Daddy’s first Father’s Day without his own father.  We lost our grandfather very recently and the loss is still very fresh.  We know that today will be a difficult day for our dad, and we wanted our gift to him to matter this year.

So we asked ourselves and each other this question – What is most meaningful to our father?  Without any hesitation we all three answered with the same answer.

It’s words.

Words matter to our dad.  They are the tools of his trade.  He writes, teaches, preaches, counsels, coaches, and connects with others using words.  He loves a good quote.  He pays the bills with good grammar and sentence structure.  He appreciates alliteration, and loves a good joke.  He studies the word of God and can easily explain it to others in words that they understand.  He understands that words can give and take life and that what he says really matters.

So that’s what we’re giving him for Father’s Day this year.  We are giving him our words.  Following this post today will be three more.  Our open letters to our Dad.  We’re going to offer the words that we have to honor him in the most meaningful way that we know how.  And what better way to do that than to “borrow” the platform that he uses to offer up his words to others each week?

Daddy, we’re sorry for hacking your blog.  Sort of.  (I’m not at all sorry. – Joel) But we hope that through these posts today, we can communicate to you and to those who follow your blog how truly significant you are to us.   

Happy Father’s Day.  We love you.  Carrie, Cassie and Joel

P.S. The letters will be posted in birth order, per Carrie’s request.  She also requests that she be able to die at least five minutes before Cassie and Joel, because birth order really matters.