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A WORD FROM OUR PASTOR…
This weekend is Father’s Day and a great opportunity to do a little reflecting on how our lives have been shaped by our dads. Here are three things to pay tribute to my dad, Thomas Earl Criddle:
1. Take time to remember the special people in your life. I find myself reflecting on my family a lot as I prepare for sermons/devotionals, etc. I mean, what benefit is having interesting family members if you can’t use them for good illustration material? As I get older, I realize how precious the memories are of our loved ones. I think about my dad quite often. He died in June 2000 from a massive heart attack. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him and wish he could have been here to experience being a grandfather and tell me more stories about growing up in Houlka.
My dad was the type who loved to avoid the camera. I only have two pictures of him from the last two years of his life. One was from the day Debbie and I got married on June 28, 1998. The other one was the day I graduated from Oral Roberts University in May of 1999. This was the age before smartphones and digital cameras, so pictures and videos were not as readily available as they are today. Cherish the ones you do have and don’t be that family member who avoids the camera at all costs at significant moments. Think of it this way – with every picture, you are giving a gift to your family they will “open” in the future.
2. The seeds he planted made me who I am today. Here are three things that have had a significant impact on my life: First on the list has to be the bicycle he and my mom gave me for my birthday when I was about 7 or 8 years old. It was a blue Huffy bike. I probably put 1,000 miles on that bike between my house and an aunt’s house on Hollis Switch Road in Calhoun County. That bike gave a free-spirited “little jc” the ability to explore all kinds of trails and logging roads. I have been on a bike ever since then, for over 40 years. A bike gives me a lot of joy thanks to my dad.
Second has to be the value of hard work. My dad appreciated a hard day’s work and the satisfaction that comes with enjoying the fruit of one’s labor at the end of the day. It could be as simple as mowing the yard and sitting under a big oak sipping on a glass of sweet tea in the evening hours. It could be as grand as building a shed in the backyard from the ground up one piece of lumber at a time over several long weekends. I bring that same work ethic to my job at the church and refurbishing a flowerbed at home.
Finally, he taught me the value of a good afternoon nap. I can still see him stretched across a quilt on the living room floor with a box fan blowing on a Sunday afternoon. It seemed to revive him after a long morning waxing the family car or tilling the spring garden. Naps are like a reset button for me. They clear my mind, revive my energy, and put me back together in some strange way. It must be a Criddle thing.
My dad taught me a lot of life lessons mostly through observation. I don’t recall too many “lectures” or long conversations, but I was always watching him. Thanks for being a real, unique individual, Dad.
3. Nobody is perfect. Dads aren’t perfect and that includes mine. He made mistakes in his life, and I think he carried some of that guilt around with him. It is part of the reason I have now outlived him. There was never any doubt that he loved me and my brother with a true fatherly love. He always told me that he was proud of me for getting a college education. He dropped out of high school as a teenager to start working. When he died, I was serving my first church in Yazoo City. I know he was proud of my decision to serve Christ by serving His church. I have tried to learn from the good things he did as well as the failures. I think that’s what all parents want for their children – to have a better life. I find myself now as a parent to three “little Criddles” here in the middle years of life, realizing that I too am a mixture of successes and shortcomings. I pray my children have a better life because I have dared to be a dad.
Hope to see you Sunday.
Jimmy