Today, the day after Father’s Day in Australia, I want to take a moment to reflect. For me, Father’s Day (& Mother’s Day) is filled with conflicting thoughts, feelings and emotions, and to be honest, I try to not think too deeply or feel too much on this particular day.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t write or even talk much about my parents. They are never really a topic of my conversation. It’s easy to avoid talking about my family or even my history as I live so far away from them and nobody here (in Queensland) really knows them.

And, if you are wondering, that’s not going to change in this particular writing piece. Suffice to say that there’s disfunction and brokenness in my family of origin and although I believe I have worked through and healed, some of those areas are scars that sometimes still feel raw and painful when they are touched.

Hence, for me Father’s Day = memories of good times and bad; reflections of where I have come from and where I am now; happiness and hurt; pain and healing; transformation and reconciliation; and in amongst it all, I see God.

God, my Father! Never changing and always there. Through trials and sorrow, heartache and pain, brokenness and disfunction, to healing and health, transformation and reconciliation, to wholeness – He has been there. Holding me, guiding me, comforting me, standing with me, strengthening me, fighting for me and healing me. He is my counsellor, my rest, my peace, my strength, my stronghold, my rock, my deliverer, my comforter, my healer, my all-in-all, my everything, my God, my Father!

So today, after the heaviness of yesterday, I want to say that I am grateful. For my Dad, my Father-in-Law, my Husband – who is the wonderful father to our children, to all the Spiritual Father’s that have and continue to walk alongside me on this journey called life – Thank You! But most of all, I am so very grateful and thankful to God. My Father! The absolute best kind of Father that there could ever be. Thank you, Lord!