{"id":65,"date":"2012-06-17T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:12:40","slug":"fathers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"Father&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I used to dread Father&#8217;s Day.&nbsp; When I was younger, kids would tease me about not having a father.&nbsp; We lived in a small town where, at the time, no one else in my class had experienced divorce.&nbsp; At the end of the school year when we made gifts for our dads, the kids would taunt me; telling me I had no one to give my gift to.&nbsp; My heart was broken by the fact that I did have a father, he just chose not to have a relationship with me.&nbsp; Thankfully, I did have a wonderful grandfather who always showered me with love and affection.&nbsp; I was his only grandchild for many years and the only granddaughter for twenty.&nbsp; To say that he spoiled me would be an understatement.&nbsp; As much as I loved my grandfather and was blessed by his presence in my life, I always wondered what a real&nbsp;father looked like.&nbsp;&nbsp;Now I know.<\/p>\n<p>From the first moment&nbsp;my husband&nbsp;laid eyes on our first child, I knew&nbsp;a father was born.&nbsp; He stood there just gazing and smiling at her for what seemed like hours.&nbsp; He developed an evening routine&nbsp;with her before bed that&nbsp;included&nbsp;play time and a bath.&nbsp; It was his time with her and it was sacred.&nbsp; He continued the routine when the quads came along; it just became a little more challenging juggling all five.&nbsp; I have watched him love each one of them for who&nbsp;God created them to be.&nbsp; He disciplines them so they know&nbsp;what is right.&nbsp; He&nbsp;talks to them about who God is and what He has done for us.&nbsp; He has big expectations for&nbsp;our children because he knows what they are capable of doing, but is gracious and merciful if they fall short of the goal.&nbsp; He is fiercely protective and creates a safe, loving environment for them to learn and grow.&nbsp; He does make mistakes, but is strong enough to ask for forgiveness.&nbsp; I am very thankful for him.<\/p>\n<p>I have seen first hand the love of a father and the blessings it brings to a child.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through my husband, I witness the sweet reflection of my Heavenly Father&#8217;s love.&nbsp; It brings healing to my broken heart and&nbsp;fills me with unspeakable joy.&nbsp; I am truly blessed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I used to dread Father&#8217;s Day.&nbsp; When I was younger, kids would tease me about not having a father.&nbsp; We lived in a small town where, at the time, no one else in my class had experienced divorce.&nbsp; At the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=65\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}