Father's Day......a new home office for Tom!

Today was Father's Day.  We weren't sure what to get Tom for Father's Day.  He hates to have us spend much money on him so I knew we had to keep it simple.  He had some suggestions, but none of them hit me as much as the idea that I had!

First, I consider myself extremely blessed to have Tom as the father to my kids!  I have always considered him to be the best person I know.....and he hates when I say that....because he is also the most humble person I know!  This last year has been a challenging year for us in terms of parenting.  When I have been weak, he has been strong!  When I have emotional, he has been together!  When I have been angry, he had the voice of reason!  When I wanted to react, he helped me find restraint!  When I didn't know if I could love enough, he loved enough for both of us!  When I wanted to shut down, he stepped it up and showed up!  He has helped me be a better parent in some tough times!  I so love and respect him for who he has been...especially this last year!

Through this, we've also gone through some serious transitions with our church.  Tom served as the interim lead pastor during a tough transition.  When many would have wanted to run, he stayed!  He stayed because God called him to stay!  I'm so grateful to have a guy that seriously seeks the heart of God in all that he does!

He was recently called to be the Lead Minister at our church.  For twelve years he has served as the Worship Pastor and now he preaches just about every Sunday. Quite honestly, I enjoy his messages.  I have the privilige of hearing them several times each week as he prepares!  There are seven of us living in this 3-bedroom home.  Every space is taken up by either a person or the belongings of a person!  We don't have an office or den as a place to get away to read and/or study.  Tom has made the front porch a place where he reads, studies and prepares for Sunday mornings.  For several months now I have complained that our front porch looks like a bit of a Hillbilly porch!  The old ladderback chair looked cool, but wasn't comfortable for reading.  So he used it as a table and sat in a lawn chair.  Many mornings he sits there with his Bible, an assortment of other books and his laptop.  There are the occasional days where it is the newspaper!  On many Sunday mornings, if a neighbor would be out, they would probably hear in the distance the sermon that would be given later that morning at our church!  Many Sunday mornings, I get to hear it as I contemplate getting out of bed and getting ready for the day!  I admire this in him and consider it am blessed at seeing and hearing his heart....coming from the front porch!

So the girls and I set out to shop on Saturday morning!  Lily is proud to say, "We got daddy a new home office!"  It's a simple chair and a simple table sitting on a simple porch!  I'm glad it doesn't have that hillbilly look!  So, maybe one day he will have some fancy office where he can bring his hundreds of books out of the basement and placed on fancy bookshelves.  Until then, his front porch home office will do....Happy Father's Day, Tom! I like the view of the front porch when you are sitting there!