This is the third post from Barbara explaining how her parents showed loved to their six children who all walk in Truth today ~
I never felt unloved by my parents, even though back then it wasn't necessarily in vogue for them to say "I love you" ten times a day. I didn't need the words. Their lives spoke loud and clear.
For many years my dad worked as an insurance salesman for a Christian insurance company. He didn't make a lot of money. In fact, he had a good friend, Uncle Joe* we kids called him, who at the outset of his career and family life chose making money over focusing on his family, and he lived to regret it.
Daddy chose another route; putting his family first. He always said that he invested in "two-legged stock," meaning not the stock market kind, but children :). It showed, in that all six of his children are walking with the Lord, serving Him, and raising Christian families.
With my dad's limited income, he always put food on the table and a roof over our heads, and allowed Mom to stay at home. Yet I know he sacrificed for us, sending us to Christian schools whenever he could; he even drove a school bus to contribute to the cause. He and Mom didn't buy new clothes for themselves very often. I recall in 6th grade shining Dad's very-worn shoes for him for 25 cents a pair. And seeing Mom wear her old {yet pretty} dressy dress {very rarely} made me realize they didn't spend on themselves, so they could give to us. Later my dad took a job with a Christian college, I'm sure partly to insure that we had free tuition. Great idea.
Daddy spent time having fun with us from time to time. The thing I remember most about that is him chasing us around the house, and tickling us to death after we got caught. Maybe it was a form of exercise for him, but we kids loved it, of course.
*Not his real name
And above all these put on love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:14
