May 22, 2020• Ben Moore

Lessons from a Dad: Part 4, Have Fun

Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.“

Recently, I began writing a series of blogs as a result of reflecting on the 20th anniversary of my dad’s death. In the first one, I placed a list of 10 things I want to teach my girls. At the bottom of this post are links connecting you with the first three posts.

Let me start this off by saying one of the most vivid things I remember about my dad is his sense of humor. I remember laughing all of the time because of him. My dad drove a 1991 Chevy S-10. It was a standard and had the super-long shifter-thing (yes, that is the technical name) right in the middle of the pick up. There was no back seat, so if both Brett and I ever rode with dad it was cramped, and whoever was in the middle was really squished. One time, I do not remember many other details other than Brett being in Kindergarten, but he farted and it STUNK!!! My dad rolled his window down and went on and on about how the cows outside were jealous of Brett’s fart. I remember friends would ride in the pick up and dad would scan the radio stations to find a song. He would ALWAYS stop on any diva pop-singer songs – Britney Spears was his favorite – and belt out as loud and high pitched as he could. We would have races in the house: one person would get his wheel chair, one would get the crutches, and one would get the cane and see who was fastest. Cane always won, but the wheelchair was the most fun. The crutches were so tall that really only Dad could properly race with them. I have so many more quirky things that I remember about my dad – jokes that he would tell and stories that would captivate my imagination and just make me belly laugh. All of this took place while he was extremely sick and on the verge of death.

Life is really too short and there are too many hardships to let them keep you from laughing. Have fun, girls. Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself. You are not perfect and it’s okay to laugh. Don’t take yourself so seriously that you miss the humor that is all around you. Both of you, right now, have sweet and funny personalities.

Addi, you love to sing and lately you have been making up songs that I do not understand, but they last about 5 minutes a piece and you dance to them. They make me smile and laugh so much. We have been singing songs at night time! Every night at bedtime I lay in your bed with you and we talk about your day and then I rub your back and I sing “His Mercy is More” by Matt Boswell. It’s become such a sweet time for me and I cherish those moments. The other day I was rubbing your back singing that song – and we both know I am not a good singer – but you don’t seem to care. I finished the song and we had just had a good talk about your day and about Jesus. I will never forget this. I gave you a kiss on the cheek and tried to get out of your bed, you rolled over and grabbed my hand, and said “daddy?”, I said, “what, sweetheart?”, thinking maybe this will be a continuation of our conversation about Jesus and how He died for sins. You looked at me with your big blue eye and sweetly said “can you sing frozen 2 to me?” I laughed so hard! I thought this was going to be a sweet spiritual moment and you were thinking about Elsa and Anna and wanting me to sing that annoying high-pitched song. Laugh and have fun Addi, life is too short not to.

Bryn, you have always had such a joyous spirit about you. You love to belly laugh and you do so many things that are just funny. You’ll lift your shirt up and slap your belly for no real reason. You do your own thing. I will never forget the first day we brought you home. We were living in Spearman, which was an hour and a half from the hospital. When your sister was born we had to stop about half-way because she was crying so much. But you never did that. You were pretty easy. We got pretty close to home, but we were hungry, so we got some Allsup’s burritos. If you don’t know what those are, they are from a gas stations and they are deep fried burritos. Allsup’s has taco sauce that is the BEST EVER! We ate our healthy lunch and hung out for the day. Now, I can’t remember if this was that evening or the next day, but I had gone into your room to change your diaper. I had you on the changing table and I undid the sides of your diaper. I lifted up your new born baby leg and you pooped. I mean, that is funny in and of itself, but this was an Allsup’s burrito poop… they do not call them gut-grenades for no reason. Your poop SHOT across the room in a way I thought was impossible. I screamed so loud your mom came running into your bedroom out of breath and afraid. She thought I dropped you… I did not! I showed her the poop that was about 3 feet across the floor… she laughed I laughed and you looked relieved. We were cleaning up the mess when I looked at your closet doors. They are 5-7 ft from where you were when you called your shot. It had poop on it… Literally you pooped 7 feet away. I have a video on my phone of it if there are any who doubt me! It was the grossest and funniest thing ever. Have fun, Bryn. Keep enjoying life, even when you poop all over your room.

As a Christian, I look at life from the perspective of Jesus Christ already taking my place on the Cross. My eternal life is certain, but my job is not complete. I am to grow in Christ and point others to Jesus for salvation or discipleship. What do I have to be worried about? What do I have to fear? What do I have that should steal laughter? There are certainly hard times in life, but they fade and pass with the seasons. Laugh. Celebrate the little things. You do not need money to have fun. You do not need to go somewhere to have fun. Make the best of what you have, trust in the Lord, and laugh.

Ben Moore

Super Singer

Pooper Scooper

Pastor FBC Ira

Introduction to series blog –

https://fbcira.com/blogs/2464693–may-3-2000

Lessons from a Dad –

Jesus is Better Than You Can Ever Imagine