Happy Father's Day

Father’s Day has recently passed us by and before it gets too far away to make sense, I wanted to write a tribute to my father!

Recently I have had a lot of people ask me about my relationship with my family, namely my father. While I am close to my mother, I am a “daddy’s girl” to the core. My daddy knows me better than anyone else on this earth. He has seen the good, the bad and the ugly and he still loves me for exactly who I am. Yes, he wants me to improve myself, but he has always accepted me for who I am.

 My friend Jason and I had a long conversation about how my close relationship with my daddy helped with relationships and life. So here are some lessons I learned…

1. I learned from my daddy what it means to have a generous heart. He has always been generous with his love, time and money. Even when we didn’t have much to give. He has always been willing to invite people into our lives and to share with them. When I was on a project one summer, we had a family weekend. I asked if I could invite some friends whose parents weren’t able to come. He said of course and paid for their dinner. He also loves wholeheartedly, claiming many new “daughters.” He loves to hug and show people that they are loved.
2. He also taught me how to give good gifts. Dad has never believed in giving practical gifts. One year, my backpack broke. I was going to ask for another one for Christmas, but when he found out my backpack was broken, he took me right then to Office Depot and let me pick out any backpack I wanted. He reminded me that a backpack was something I really needed and that I shouldn’t have to ask for a new one for a present. I still have that backpack…
3. He taught me to have a love for reading… however this lesson didn’t stick with my younger brother. But for me, it did. He gently pushed me to read more difficult books and then quizzed me on them to make sure I really read them. Because of him, I achieved a high school reading level while still in elementary school and a college reading level in middle school. To this day, I still love reading anything and everything.
4. He taught me how to have a good work ethic. While my other friends were watching TV and sleeping late every Saturday, my brother and I were working in the yard alongside my mother and father. While I hated it (I still hate yardwork), it taught me how to work and how to work hard.
5. He taught me useful skills… Along with a work ethic, Dad taught me how to do so many things that young girls aren’t taught. I was taught how to properly use tools and care for the house. Not many girls can say that they have helped lay a floor, planed lumber, put up sheetrock… etc. When I went to college and had to take a theatre class that required us to build something and use tools, I was the only one who wasn’t afraid of the skill saw… Not only that, but I never needed help in putting up pictures or curtain rods or shelves, thanks to the man who made sure I was handy with a screwdriver. Thank you!
6. Dad taught me to be independent and to take care of myself… although this lesson took a while to learn… When something happened… he would always help me to calm down and then help me get through it. Now that I can no longer call him with every emergency (Taiwan is far away, not to mention on a completely different time zone) I used the lessons he taught me to take care of myself. Through his lessons, I am fairly level headed and can at least figure out who I need to call to help me.
7. Dad taught me to believe in myself. He has always had more confidence in me than I have had in myself. Every time I attempted something and succeeded, he would tell me “I knew you could do it.” He never told me I couldn’t do something. Instead, he encouraged me and if there was something I failed at, he offered suggestions at how I could do something else different next time.
8. He taught me that distance doesn’t mean that you are forgotten. While I was growing up, he had to travel a lot for his job. I missed him a lot during those times. However, he ALWAYS called at night if he could. Although his travels caused him to miss a lot of important moments, I never felt unimportant. I received flowers and balloons on my birthdays and important days. If possible, he always made time to talk with me when I called. Even now, if I call with a problem, he will take time just to talk to me even if he is with his boss at dinner.
9. And finally, I feel like my daddy taught me that I deserve a Godly man who loves me. When Jason and I talked he asked me if my close relationship with my daddy helped me not to settle for just any guy and to have high standards. My answer was absolutely. Growing up, I watched my parents have an incredible marriage. My dad adores my mom. I never made a conscious choice, but just knew that I wanted a man who was as good as my daddy and who loved me like my daddy loves my mom.

Now… don’t get me wrong. He is not perfect. We fought some when I was growing up. He will admit to you that he wishes he could change a lot of things about the past. He traveled a lot and missed many important things. But one thing he did right: I always knew I was loved!

I love you, Joe Meherg!

Bee Stings and Life

Got a haircut!

Since Penghu, things have been up and down. God has really been dealing with a lot of things in my life.

The time I spent teaching in the US really was harmful to me and my relationship with God. I feel like a lot of poison was put into my life through negative people and situations. When I made the decision to come to Taiwan, Alicia Conn told me that God was going to do great things in my life. I expected it to be difficult. What I didn’t expect was for God to completely knock me on my butt and begin to break down my walls.

Vanessa, Zoe, and I

When I came here, I was very unsure of myself and what my purpose was. I knew God had a purpose for me, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I was unsure about my strengths and very conscious of my weaknesses.

 

Just for example, some things that God is working on me… Jealousy, Selfishness, Trust, Low Self Esteem.

The past few weeks have seemed to be the best and worst that I have experienced while in Taiwan. I feel a bit like everything has come to a head at the same time.

Me and Abby at her
graduation celebration!

I likened it to when I was a small girl and got stung by a bee. It hurt really bad, right? The stinger was still in my arm and my grandfather had to dig it out! I was afraid for him to do it because it hurt. After he pulled it out, he applied some chewing tobacco (yuck) to the sting. It was smelly and gross, but it pulled the poison out of my sting. If I hadn’t allowed him to pull the stinger out and apply the chewing tobacco, it would not have gotten better. I feel like this is what God is doing. He has pulled out the stinger, but is now applying all these difficult and frustrating circumstances to my life to pull all the poison out. It hurts and is unpleasant, but once it is finished, it will be great!

So the moral of this blog is… I still don’t know everything and everything is not happy and great, but one day I will look back on this and realize that although it was difficult, God was using it to draw poison out of my life!