Being a Dad: Surviving Christmas: (The Angel)

Hello and Welcome Home,

The Christmas Angel, everyone knows where they come from, the significance and the meaning of them also. I can’t really talk about Being a Dad and Surviving Christmas without sharing about this one.

Anyone who knows me has heard me talk about the most influential person in my life. While I love my wife and kids dearly and they do influence me, my mother was there in the beginning. She pushed me into pursuing many things I still enjoy today. 

Christmas was really special to her and her favorite symbol was, you guessed it, the angel. I still have an angel on my tree every year because of her. To her, the angels brought the Christmas Story into fruition. To her, God had chosen the angel to connect it all together.  

While my mother has since passed, every year I am reminded that she took it even deeper than that. She was convinced that the Angels were the ones who brought the joy, the light, and the hope to the season. 

She imparted all these passions to her children as well, and was our shining light in the darkest of times that we had as kids. Oddly enough, she struggled deeply to be that light. In the end, though she overcame. 

Her example, as my heart swells up and my eyes start to blur with tears of remembrance, reveals that to me more and more every year.

Her legacy has been an inspiration to me for many years now and being a dad who survived Christmas in 2020 did not change that.

You see, Christmas comes but once a year, our legacy, however, does not. Our legacy builds throughout our lifetime.

It is the life message our loved ones see through us as they interact with us each day.  Our legacy is what our children will remember in the years, long after we are gone.

Being a dad is about living our lives in a way that builds a legacy those children will be proud of. Don’t be afraid to build it all year long.

Living by Faith with My Family,

M. E.