June 16, 2013
I am grateful another father's day is over. The father's days of today are not as much fun as when I had my own father around to share the day. Partly because he was there and partly because of the innocence I had in always believing that life as I knew it would stay the same. Grateful ignorance I call it today. I still envy those friends and strangers who are lucky enough to have long living fathers. No matter how healthy if you have a living ancestor you should be glad. Tonight my family and I tried to dissect archival papers to piece together the life we guess my father and his father lived over the past one hundred years. My oldest brother does not remember stories told when he was young about the history of my father's family. I am ten years younger and nobody really spoke of the old days anymore by the time I was older.
Father and son relationships were often strained in the Bible. Abraham had two wives of note and a son from each wife. He had a relationship with each son and mother but in obeying God had to send one set away until later in his life. I learned in a Bible class that Abraham was unhappy having to send away his second family. After Sarah died he asked and received Issac's permission to go find his displaced family. This is a small detail most people do not know. Not knowing small details it seems is common when life does not break in your favor. Sometimes it is easier not to know the hardships and stress of daily life of an ancestor but then again you do not know the joys either. Even celebrity families had their ups and downs. The kings and queens of faraway lands had their family problems too. Many wars were started by brothers fighting over land or fortune over the centuries from ancient days to modern times. I guess the moral I am trying to distill from my musings is to be enjoy the life you have and learn from the mistakes made by ancestors in your family. Also, appreciate the good in your life and be grateful. Try to live each day with a focused balance by taking care of yourself and your loved ones as well as doing good for others.
