Tender Whispers of Love

Indeed, we are in a war, a war that needs armor:

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. (Ephesians 6:13)

The best time to put on the armor is in the morning when you get up. If you’re like me and are not at your best in the morning, just say, “Suit me up, Lord.” He will know what you mean.

My dear dad had a hard time in the morning as well. On that very subject, he memorized (despite his Alzheimer’s) an old military song written by Irving Berlin. Dad was a commanding officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force for many years. He used to sing his version of this little ditty, which he called his theme song:

Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning!

Oh, how I long to remain in bed!

And the harshest blow of all is to hear the bugler call,

Ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up this morning.

Someday I’m going to murder the bugler.

Someday they’re going to find him dead.

I’ll amputate his reveille and step upon it heavily,

And spend the rest of my life in bed!

My dad had a great sense of humor. One summer day when I was visiting with him in the hospital because of his Alzheimer's, my T-shirt was riding up a little on my tummy. When I was ready to leave, I said, “I’m gonna take off now, Dad. Okay?” He gently took the edge of my T-shirt and said, “Don’t take off; pull down!”

Dad was such a card!

In the early stages of his Alzheimer’s, Dad lived in his own house for a number of years. One day when I came to visit him there, out of the blue, he inquired about Jesus and expressed a desire to know Him. Now, I had been praying for this day for twenty-five years. Still, I was shocked! This man, who had built his empire on making money and had had a love of money for so many years, humbled himself, and I had the incredible privilege of helping lead him in a little prayer to invite Jesus to be Lord of his life. He became a Christian in June 2012 in his seventy-ninth year. God caused this camel to go miraculously through the eye of the needle (Matthew 19:24) that day. Between the time of his conversion and his death at age eighty-six, God transformed my father.

This man who was prone to violence when I was little, who left the family when I was four; this man of whom I was deathly afraid all my life became loving, supportive, kind, patient, gentle, and caring. In fact, three years after he accepted Jesus into his heart, he said that I was teaching him how to love.

Dr. Charles Stanley says for a person to find Jesus and spiritual truth after age seventy is one in a million. Dr. Stanley pointed out that such a person would have been steeped in and held on to lies for seventy years, something very difficult to break through. But God did it on that summer day in June 2012 and led me to help my dear dad find peace and love. In October of that year, my dad was taken to the hospital. Despite living in a three-person room in the hospital on a busy ward for nearly four years, when I would ask him how his day went, he would most often respond, “Peaceful and quiet.” Truly, only God could have accomplished this.

After his stay in hospital, he went to live in his own room in a good long-term care facility, with many very caring staff. In fact, a staff member once asked Dad if he liked it there. When he said yes, the staff member asked, “And why is that, Ron?” Dad said, “Because of the people.” On the Christmas before he passed, he continued to describe his experience as “peaceful” to relatives he spoke to over the phone. God indeed kept him safe and secure in His arms, despite the intense warfare with which Dad had to deal, especially with his Alzheimer’s.