Monday, April 9, 2007

My Dad

I probably woke up at 3:45 am. I stayed in bed for as long as I can trying to go back to sleep. As I was trying to fall asleep, I turn every stressful thoughts into prayers. But sleep seems far away...

While turning thoughts into prayer, my mind wondered back to memories of my childhood, more specifically, about dad...

I know I said I won't be talking about my family on this blog anymore...but that's "my family" as in my husband and kids (see this post). I am pretty sure my dad won't mind that I talk about him. He probably would be a bit embarrassed (simply because he's so humble)... but he won't mind. In fact, he'd be happy that I am sharing part of his testimony...

When I was a child, part of my house chore was to clean the ash trays around our house. They were many of them. Many days I would have it all nice and clean during the day only to find them all full in the morning. You see, my dad smoked cigarette a lot. Like me, he also wakes up in the middle of the night or very early morning due to stress and anxiety. What he used to do was listen to the radio and smoke.

One day (or night) he decided to read the Bible while he smoke. Work was extremely stressful. He needed something to relieve the stress and he thought since he's up anyway and he was tired of listening to the radio, he started reading the Bible.

The reading continued every night and early morning...and as the days pass...the cigarette butts that I clean gets lesser and lesser each day....

Somewhere in those early morning Bible reading, my dad said a prayer and he was "born again". No one talked to him about it, he did not hear the message about being born again at church (we were Catholics), but God, in His loving way, met my dad in our tiny little kitchen (where my dad reads his Bible) and God revealed Himself to him in a more personal way.

As you would probably have guessed, my household chore of cleaning the ash trays were eventually terminated. There were no cigarette butts to find in the mornings anymore. They were empty. All I could find is an open Bible and an empty cup of coffee on our kitchen table.

My dad still worries a lot and stresses out easily (I must have gotten that gene from him :) - but now he does not depend in cigarette to relieve him of his stress. Having been a smoker before, my dad (and our family) are very accepting of people who smoke. You know how some Christians would judge smokers and tell them they are sinning because they are ruining the temple of God? My dad is not like that. My dad would say..in God's time they would stop, and then he'll pray for them :)

It's 5:31 am and I need to get ready for work. Thank you Dad for the memories, thank you for the legacy, and thank you for praying for me that I come to know the Lord like you did...because now I do...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

kudos to you for having a dad like him - so loving, so prayerful...

i, too, am blessed with a super cool, loving, fun dad.

Kristen said...

What a nice testimony. I've been thinking about my dad all day, and I was going to write a post about him. He also was a heavy smoker who quit, although only like five years ago or so. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Lisa thanks for sharing your dads testimony
I pray that I may find a cure to an addiction I have that I have written about in my blog so that I may be able to restore and use my body as a temple to God

Joyful Days said...

Liza this is an awesome post!

My sister was a believer when she asked God to take smoking out of her life. And He did. She stopped cold turkey--with no withdrawl symptoms. She says there are days where she thinks it would be great to have another--but she does't want to return the gift she was given. So she just asks for grace to get through. I am so proud of her and so grateful she received this gift.

Wendy said...

WOW! Amazing post. Very touching as I too have smokers in my family. What an amazing thing to pray for! Thank you so much for sharing!!