True Strength

When I was a very young child, I sometimes did bad things. I guess we all do, but there’s one situation in particular that stands out in my mind. It was 1963, I was 8 years old, and my Dad was overseas on a tour of duty with the Marines Corps. My Dad and I were very close and since he had now been gone for more than a year, I was missing him more than ever. Fortunately, he was due to come home soon.

In the meantime, I spent a lot of time on my own exploring the desert and the sand dunes around our small home in Yuma, Arizona. Since my father was gone and I was a very curious child who loved to explore and learn about things, I had to learn a lot on my own. One of the things I was curious about was fire, so being young and not very smart yet, I developed an unhealthy interest in fire and started playing with matches. I knew it was wrong, but my curiosity got the better of me.

My Dad finally returned from Japan and I was thrilled to have him home again, but I still kept playing with matches. One day I was in the back yard, playing in my “homemade fort” next to our rickety old wooden fence. I had graduated to adding gasoline to the mix now and had no idea how dangerous the situation had become. When I lit the cup of gas on fire you can imagine what happened. There was a huge ball of flame that scared me so bad I dropped the cup, which then set the fort on fire, which then set our fence on fire! I ran screaming into the house for my Dad to help me. “The fence is on fire!”

My Dad took immediate action, first putting out the fire, and then second lighting into me. He spanked me and then yelled at me in a really loud and angry voice. His anger scared me worse than the spanking because he kept on yelling. But then suddenly, he stopped. He saw how scared I was… and I think he realized he was scared too. He grabbed me, put his arms around me and hugged me for the longest time. Then, in a really soft voice, with his strong arms still locked around me, he said “You could have been killed and I would have lost you forever. I love you so much. Please don’t ever do that again”. I promised I would not, and I meant it.

On this Father’s Day, June 21^st, 2020, remembering that story about my Dad got me thinking. Maybe one of the reasons my Dad was so special to me was because he set not just an earthly example for me, he also set a heavenly example… by always making me feel loved in spite of my mistakes.

PFC Allen B. Thrailkill - Nagasaki, Japan, 1963

The true measure of a Father’s strength isn’t how much he can lift, 

it’s how tight he can hold on. 

~ Anonymous