Heart Touchers

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{Straight From the Heart} *It's a Dad Thing* 2/8/01

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Before we get to today's wonderful story by Tami Coxen, I wanted to issue
a Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin road advisory! If you live in this part of
our great country, be extra careful on the roads. Word on the street
is that Samantha Holcomb has been issued her TEMPS. (Her temporary
driver's license) Stay off the roads and highways if at all possible, but if you
do have to travel in this region use extra caution...This is NOT a test of the
emergency broadcast system...THIS IS THE REAL THING PEOPLE!

Drive safely Sam! We love ya!
Michael & Kristi

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It's a Dad Thing

by Tami Coxen

This is a phase I hear a lot around my house. Because I am the lone female
in a home overrun by testosterone, I've decided that there are some things
that I'm just not going to get. Oh, I have the Mom thing, but usually the
Mom thing involves yelling things like, "Don't jump the last six stairs,
you're going to break your neck!" and "Please chew with your mouth closed, I
have no desire to see your PB&J in it's present state." When I say that kind
of thing, my two sons roll their eyes and I know they are thinking, "It's a
Mom thing."

Somehow Dad things are different. Dad things are cool, not cautionary. No
one rolls their eyes at Dad things. Sock slingshots are a good example. No
one in my family excepting the dog and myself can take off their socks
without pulling them back and sending them hurling across the room. I've
even walked into sock slingshot battles between my husband and the boys.
"You know, I say as I duck flying socks, this really stretches your socks
out guys. If there a reason that you all can't take off your socks without
turning them into missiles?" Then I run from a barrage of cotton as the
words, "It's a Dad thing!" follow after me.

Noogies are another Dad thing. Not a day goes by without someone in my house
grabbing another by the neck and grinding his knuckles into their head. I've
come to believe that this is a time-honored ritual from when men's knuckles
used to drag the ground. I guess they still need something to rub against.
You never see girls chasing each other in attempt to land some noogies. My
husband walks in the door after work and the kids run screaming from his
menacing knuckles. I am exempt from this, I am thankful to say. I get a kiss
and a "What have you sacrificed for dinner?"

My sons are at that unfortunate age when nothing is as hysterical to them as
bathroom humor. In an attempt to protect my sensibilities and keep from
being completely grossed out, I automatically outlaw anything that couldn't
be said to a nun. At face value my husband totally backs me up in this and
sternly tells the boys," That's not funny." He's not fooling anyone. When
the occasional gross joke or statement slips out, his lips twitch
spasmodically and I know that he finds it as amusing as any pre-adolescent
boy. I glare at him and he shrugs and says, "It's a Dad thing." I have the
feeling that most men never leave the age when fart jokes are a laugh riot,
so that also makes it a Man thing.

It's a secret conspiracy between my husband and my sons, this Dad thing.
It's an area that I will never comprehend and can't enter by virtue of being
first a Mom and second a woman. I might throw up my hands in disgust at most
of them, but there are other Dad things that my sons are learning. It's a
Dad thing when one of them opens a door and gestures me through first. It's
a Dad thing when they wait for me to be seated before they charge the dinner
table. When they carry bags and bags of groceries in the house after I've
gone to the store, they are doing a Dad thing. Along with the sailing socks,
noogies, wedgies and other assorted practices; their father is teaching them
the way a man does things. Every night, long after they've gone to bed,
their father goes in to check them, dropping a kiss they never feel on their
foreheads, and saying a grateful prayer for them. He'll look back at me
standing in the doorway and smile, saying, "It's a Dad thing."

Tami Coxen
taz@ovis.net

Email Tami and let her know what you think of her story!

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Tami Coxen lives in West Virginia with her husband of 18 years, her two
sons, ages 11 and 7 and their dog, Rico the wonder puppy. When she is not
kid-wrangling or chasing down the dog, she writes a family humor column for
her local paper and contributes to regional parenting magazines.

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Some Comments on Yesterday's story: What Really Matters

Just wanted you to know, I read this story and ended with tears streaming
down my face. What a lesson! My son, who graduated from high school last
year, was a wrestler, taking 6th place in State in his weight class. We
saw the same kinds of lessons played out at wrestling matches and meets and
watched the valiant comebacks of some of these athletes despite
overwhelming odds.

Thanks so much for starting my mornings at work with these heartwarming
stories; they are truly a blessing.

Ingrid Hawley
Fredericksburg, VA
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I just finished reading What Really Maters. I sit here with tears in my eyes for the young girl and the team. You have a great way about telling a story. Keep up the good work and God Bless you and yours.
Carol
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Excellent story, Michael that I read right through to the last word. I needed it too because I was forgetting the important things and doing the things that interested me. It is a very BIG difference between the choices. Thanks for reminding me about what really matters.
Maria
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Dear Michael,

Amen and amen to this story on what really matters!!!!! In the long-
range scheme of things, probably most of what concerns us
doesn't really matter when you look at things from God's
perspective. You're right in saying what does it matter about a job,
or car of house or furniture or clothes........and it can go on and on.
That's why we need to be looking up; looking at things from an
eternal viewpoint. Yes, we need to take care of the things that God
has blessed us with, but those things are only "things" after all; not
to be valued so highly. As Corrie Ten Boom said "teach me Lord
to hold things loosely" and not to focus on the things of this world
but on Godly things. Sometimes we succeed at that; sometimes
we don't. And that's what Grace is all about.

I greatly enjoy your daily e-mail. God's richest blessings on you
and your family.

In Christ,
Jeanie
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Michael --

Loved "What Really Matters" --- it does demonstrate the true value and
values of life.

And maybe, the most important thing IS winning --- after all, the whole team
and the coach DID win --- in the most important way!

Thanx again for "What Really Matters"!
-- Bill

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Thought For The Day:

"Love sees through a telescope, not a microscope."

Verse for the Day:

"Love endures long and is patient and kind...it takes no account of the evil done to it (it pays no attention to a suffered wrong)."
1 Corinthians 13:4,5 (AMP)

Kid's Thought For The day:

"If you can't name it, scrape it off your pizza."

Parent's Thought For The Day

"If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either.
(Dick Cavett)

Coach's Thought For The Day

"When you help someone up a hill, you'll find yourself close to the top, too."

Deep Thought For The Day:

If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea...
...does that mean that one enjoys it?"

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_
/_/\/\    MICHAEL T. POWERS
\_\ /    THUNDER27@aol.com
/_/ \    "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
\_\/\ \   Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live for the Son
   \_\/   of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

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Kelli-- College Station, TX

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