An Appreciation Post to my Adam (because I am Eve) on his 30th Birthday

Dear Dad,

As you celebrate your 30th Birthday, I just want to honor and appreciate you today. You know I am not good at appreciation, but this post is for you.

First, I want to thank God for your life, for giving me the partner I don't deserve yet exactly what I needed. Thanks for making me feel special and loved. Life is easier with you by my side and I couldn't imagine it without you. He gave me an accountability partner to check on me, to rebuke and to help me improve. You support me in my every endeavor and I'm so grateful with that. Your strengths are my weaknesses and it's funny how it compliments and fitted together. Isn't God amazing?

I'm blessed to see how you stand up and assume responsibility as our leader. You make sure to address issues with our kids, to sit down and to talk to them. You resolved to be intentional in ministering to us and you committed to improve as a husband and as a father.

I've witnessed how much your faith has grown over the years. Knowing who you were once before accepting Jesus. Truly, the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. You are now a completely different person, the old has gone, the new has come. Yes, you are not perfect (nobody is) but it is in our imperfections that we magnify the only perfect, which is Jesus. As you mature, you desire to be pleasing to God in everything that you do, to be faithful in small things. I've seen how you would want to serve and give your time and talents generously to God and to others. You always want to have your best foot forward and strive for excellence and your hard work is incomparable.

Last 2018 was a bit tough. Our marriage was into a different storm. Yet the Lord remained faithful to us. I've seen you rise up every time you fall, how you strive to humble yourself, admit your faults and start anew. You accepted defeats yet you did not give up.

Sometimes, the experiences we are most ashamed of are the very things God wants to use as our ministry to others. He takes our failures and produces something good. Indeed, He never wastes a hurt.

I know the Lord is not done with you yet. He is still in the business of working in you and through you, there is still a lot to improve but I am grateful to God for bringing you this far. Character-building can be long and painful. He will develop your character to match bigger tests, and with greater tests will come greater love for God and knowledge of His ways. It is my joy to be with you as I watch you bloom.

To my partner, lover and (as John was to Abigail Adams) my dearest friend, Happy and Blessed Birthday!