The Power of a Good Man’s Voice

We stood in a triangle in the classroom –the teacher, the parent, and the student. The parent got onto the student about the grade showing up for my class. The student reacted. And that was about the time I almost interjected my opinion to the student.

Except the triangle became a square –the teacher, the parent, the student, and my husband. Well, my husband didn’t materialize, but his voice did. I could hear him saying, as he had said to me in several conversations at home, Honey, this is between the parent and the student. Let the parent deal with it.

And so a miracle happened. I kept my mouth shut.

A miracle I tell you –greater than the parting of the red sea is the keeping shut of this woman’s lips in the appropriate moment. Glory!*

Today is Father’s Day and my first one with my dad in heaven instead of a phone call away. Yes, some tears.

I’ve been pensive for a few days, thinking what I would say in honor of my dad. My first thought was to write a blog post entitled, To My Brother, and I imagined saying something about how awesome dad was because look how we turned out. Haha. And I would say something about how I win this year, in the competition of who called to wish dad a Happy Father’s Day first, because my blog posted at 5:00 a.m. Oh yeah. Winner winner chicken dinner.

But instead I’ve landed on writing about the power of a man’s voice. Do you know what we have said the most since dad went to be with the Lord?

If dad were here, he would say…

Because when good men say words, especially if they have repeated those words, the words have a ring to them.

We went to a percussion concert recently, and one of my favorite instruments is the large chimes that the percussionist hits on the top with a mallet. The sound rings out for a long time, unless the musician touches his hands to the chimes to quiet them.

A good man’s voice rings out, even when he’s not in the room. Even when he’s in heaven.

A good man’s words keep sounding and sounding. They’re good, and who would want to quiet them?

The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters… (Proverbs 18:4 NASB)

My dad loved, more than anything, to surprise people with extravagant gifts or acts of service. He would plan something wonderful for you and then, in a childish, sing-song voice, say, I know something you don’t know. His eyes would crinkle up happy, and you just knew something good was coming.

Well, my dad’s with Jesus on this Father’s Day, and dad has shimmied up the huge pearl gates, to lean over and say to us, eyes crinkled on the edges, I know something you don’t know.

His words ring on.

So this blog post is in honor of my good dad and my good husband and all the good men who have spoken words of wisdom into my life –I can still hear you.