Yesterday as we celebrated Father’s Day and honored our fathers and the father of our children, we also honored and celebrated our Heavenly Father.  We started off our day honoring God first before anything.  As I sat there listening to the pastor preach, I couldn’t help but think of my Grandpa Ramirez.  I was so close to him growing up.  He was almost like a dad to me.  He helped raise me from birth and as I grew up he was always there for me, showing me unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness and compassion.  There was nothing I could do wrong in his eyes.  I thought about my dad that raised me from the age of 3 and always showed me love and took such great care of me.  When someone hurt my feelings and said I was just my brother’s step sister, my dad became upset.  He explained to us that there were no steps inside this house, except the steps at the front porch.  He wasn’t a man of many words growing up but he sure did show me how much I meant to him.  I thought about how God knew when I’d be born my biological father wouldn’t be there for me so He picked two amazing men to be my dads.  The love my Grandpa Ramirez showed me was God’s love radiating through him to me.  It took until a few years ago for me to truly understand God’s unconditional love and how when we accept God in our lives and love others as He loves us, we show others that unconditional love God shows us.  His love and mercy just shines from within us like a bright star.  My God put my dad in my life because He knew how much my dad would care for me, how his heart was great just like God’s.  He took me and loved me and raised me as his own daughter with never a doubt in his mind.  My dad did all he could do to teach me what he knew, he taught me to be selfless, he has been a wonderful father to me.  He may not have said much but when he did, it was so meaningful and heartwarming.  Little did I know that all those years growing up I wasn’t growing up with two fathers…I had grown up with 3 Fathers.  My earthly dad, my spiritual dad…my Grandpa and my Heavenly Father, God.  I grew up with 3 wonderful loving Fathers.  Each teaching me something different, but the one thing I learned from each of them was to love selflessly.  To give my heart to others.  To love others, blood or not.  They each taught me unconditional love.  To love without a doubt.  To love without reservation.  To love with a whole heart.  And most importantly they taught me to love myself.  As I celebrated my daddy yesterday, my Grandpa Ramirez, the man that lead me to God and most importantly I celebrated my God…my Heavenly Father.  Without God I would not have grown up with these loving Fathers in my life.  I am so thankful for my 3 Fathers.  It’s because of them that I have become the woman I am today.

XOXO…Ileen

psst…God Loves You

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”  Proverbs 22:6