Letter to Dad Golden

Dear Dad Golden,

You don't know me but I know your precious daughter Terry from Canadian Blogger and from Pilgrim Pals. Everytime she writes about you or posts a picture of you on her blog, I can't help but remember my own daddy. He had one of those contagious smiles just like you. But more important than that smile, he was a dedicated and loving father to all eight of his children. Ohhh, he had some issues in life, as we all do, but he always said he survived each day on just a bit of mercy but a ton of grace...My dear mother was a devout catholic, bless her heart.... but my daddy, well.....he just never saw any sense in all the church stuff. BUT....every Saturday night he would get out the family Bible and read to himself...I can remember asking him how long he thought it would take until he finished reading the whole book and he said, "until I get it". He never talked much about it cause he said I was already going to church and learning about God and he didn't want to cause me any confusion. But I have to tell you the truth here..he was 58 years old when he finally "got it"......and I never truly "got it" until I was forty seven....One day someone just started to talk to me about God and I picked up my Bible and started to read it and all of a sudden, things made more sense to me and I haven't put it down since. Everytime I open it up, I can hear God talking to me, reminding me of things He would like me to say or how to help the people around me and how He wants me to live my life. Just this morning I was reading where Jesus said, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you; for everyone that asks, receives; he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened.

So I got down on my knees, Dad Golden and I prayed " Thank you Lord for this day, thank you for your word and for guiding me along this path here on earth....Thank you for the wonderful husband and loving father you created in Dad Golden; thank you for blessing him with a beautiful wife and nine children to love and encourage him today. I ask, in your precious name, to guide the hands and minds of the doctors and staff for his procedure on Friday; before, during and after. Let your presence be known to him Lord as you comfort him and his family. May his belief, faith and trust in You, be awakened in his heart and in his life this very moment." Amen.

After I prayed, I was a little weepy thinking about my own dad and then my mom.....both of them left this earth many many years ago and are with God in heaven and I look forward to the day we all come together again with Him; during the time that my mom was sick with cancer, her and I used to read scriptures together....and so I am going to share with you one of her favorite ones....she said it is one I should always remember her by and share with others for her....read along with me and I pray it helps you understand God's purpose for your life just like it did my moms.....

"For I know the thoughts I think towards you says the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and
pray unto me and I will hearken unto you

And you shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with
your whole heart.

And I will be found of you said the Lord and I will turn away your
captivity and I will gather you from all the nations and from all
the places I have driven you and I will bring you again into
the place where I caused you to be carried away captive.

Jeremiah 29:11-14

God bless you Dad Golden
Love,
Donna