Thinking about my Dad

When I was a teenager I worked at the downtown ZCMI department store. My shift generally ended at 9 p.m. on Friday night. Often, I took the bus to work, then waited for my dad to pick me up in his brown van around 9:30 in front of the old mall entrance to Deseret Book. Dad was usually late, and I was usually pathetically downtrodden because I had no invitations to be with friends on those Friday nights. I wasn't considered a "hot comodity", and dates were very few and far between (just call me a late bloomer). Dad was my constant, my Friday night date.

In those High school age feelings I remember being intensely insecure with how my future would turn out. Would I continue to be without social invitations and suitors as I grew up? Was I destined to be a lowly sales girl with a seriously lacking social life? Who knew, but I dreamt it would ever be so, and I worried endlessly about it.

Dad was the rock. He was the stable place. He believed in the high school sales girl. I knew he knew I wasn't perfect. He corrected. He commented. But he loved me. And on those Friday nights (and many other nights as well) he greeted me, even late, with a smile and a friendly voice. Chatting as we drove, he seemed optimistic about my future and pleased with my present trajectory even though to me it was very flat. The drive over, Dad and I would retire to the television couch, and he would put his arm around me as he caught the sports on the 10 o'clock news.

I never cared for sports, really, but those 15 minutes with dad's arm around me got me through those uncertain teenage years. I was o.k. with him-and that meant to me that I really was o.k.

To this day the feeling of my dad's arm around me is a secure and comforting place. Somehow dad is able to deliver through that touch the love of the Father of us all who-knowing I am not perfect, and who correcting and commenting at times-does seem to be optimistic about my eternal future and usually pleased with my trajectory.

Did you know you delivered all that to me during the sports dad? Did you know you were my standing date on those lonely Friday nights? Probably not. But on this Father's day weekend I want you to know you were all of this. And as time goes on you are so much more. Happy Father's Day.