We had just moved and I was so upset. I didn’t want to move and I didn’t want to make new friends. I remember going to church and deciding I wasn’t going to make any new friends because we would just move again. I was strong into my teenage years by this time.

I remember that we came home from church and Dad invited me to go on a walk with him. We lived in temporary housing in an apartment complex that was situated on a really busy road.

I don’t really remember much about that walk, except that we walked really far. Cars were racing by us the entire time and it was so hot. But despite all of the discomfort of the experience, I look back at this moment with such fondness and reverence.

I had basically poured my hurt, angry, and frustrated little heart out to him. And he listened with love and patience. Finally, after I was done, he took a moment to reflect and then said, “I’m going to ask you to do something.”

That was absolutely not what I expected him to say. In fact, he could have told me how spoiled I was and so many other things that could have caused a rift. But he didn’t. He went on to say something to the effect of, “I want you to give these people a chance. Let them welcome you and give you friendship.” That was it. So simple. So beautiful.

I looked at him with surprise in my sad and angry eyes and you know what I saw in his eyes? Complete love. The love that knew I could be so much happier if I just let myself. Love that knew that beautiful things were coming. Love that didn’t want me to stay where I was but also wouldn’t force me to change.

It is now so many years since that walk with Dad. I never realized how much that walk with my dad, is such an example of walking with our Heavenly Father.

Heavenly Father is there with us in the discomfort of a long walk, with loud distractions, suffocating heat, on a path that seemingly has no direction. He listens while we rant and cry and complain. And when we are done, He gently asks us to do something completely opposite of what we think He would say.

He asks us to choose another way. A way different than what we are expecting. A more beautiful way. A way that might ask us to change our heart. And he does it with such love, respect, and adoration.

It is that loving glance into our soul that makes us want to change. It gives us hope. It lowers the walls that we have put up. It helps us to understand that if we let Him, He will show us the most amazing life.

So, on this Father’s Day, I want to thank my dad on earth. He is not perfect. We have had moments where the opposite scenario has happened and hard feelings began. But that is the beautiful thing about growing together as a family. Forgiveness, mercy, and understanding.

Dad, you are my favorite. I am so grateful to be on this earthly journey with you.

My father loves to tell the story of my birth. It was quite a day. He ended up grabbing me from the nurse that had to deliver me in the hallway while going into the delivery room and he always talks with such love about how when I heard his voice, I stopped crying and looked for him with my tiny brand-new eyes.

The last time he retold this story I hugged him and told him that I think that moment was me remembering him from the pre-existence and feeling so safe with him. And he told me that he has thought the same thing.

I now want to speak to those of you that might not have a good relationship with your earthly father. I hope that you know and understand that you have another father. A Heavenly Father, who is perfect and that is there for you more than you know.

If you haven’t already, begin today to have a relationship with Him. You will not regret it.

Heavenly Father goes on the most amazing walks with me. There are a lot of dead ends, and we have to turn around a lot. But when I let Him, He asks me to do the most amazing things, things that I would never expect Him to ask of me.

And when He asks me with such love and knowledge of what I can accomplish, I submit to Him and give Him my best effort. And He takes my small, weak, and imperfect efforts and He magnifies them.