Sunday, June 22, 2008

To the Men in My LIfe

Sorry this post is so late, but I still want to say for Father’s Day, that my life has been truly blessed.
I am most fortunate to have been given a wonderful father. He was an example of all he professed: full or faith, a devout member of the Church, a loving father and husband, a hard working provider, a life-long learner, and a talented singer, teacher, and artist.
I am grateful for my father-in-law, DeVar who worked with Madge so tirelessly to support and raise a family of 11 children. He has a strong testimony and always faithfully does whatever is asked of him in the Church. He is strong, generous, loves his family and is always willing to help.

I am thankful for my sons-in-law, Shawn, Steve, and Zeb. Here are a few of their traits I hold dear. Shawn reminds me in so many ways of my father, disciplined, patient, loving, and insightful. Steve loves life, is full of enthusiasm, generous, and has a great sense of humor. Zeb is kind, adventurous, fun loving, and caring. They are all spiritual, hard-working, faithful fathers and husbands, who love their children and wives and are loved and adored in return.
Our son Mike is strong, caring, creative, insightful, and has his father’s sense of humor. He is a wonderful, loved uncle to all of his nieces and nephews.

Finally, I am grateful for Jim, the love of my life. There are many times I wonder how I could have been so fortunate. He is a wonderful father and husband. I remember one time his sister Sallee, who lived through the block from us at the time, asked me if his loud whistling irritated me. I answered that though it sometimes got a little too loud; there wasn’t really anything about her brother that truly irritated me. I love everything about him, from his good looks to his sense of humor, from his deep, spiritual side to his fun, adventurous spirit, from his loving nature to his teasing attention-getters, from is faithfulness to his generosity, from his zest for life to his empathy for others, from his strength and athletic ability to his kind and gentle nature---I love it all. I thank God everyday that I was blessed to be his wife and I am thrilled to be serving this mission with him. Our love makes me strive to be a better person, so we can be together forever.
So to all those special men in my life, I say thank you and I love you with all my heart.

5 comments:

Arah Debra said...

That was beautiful Mom! You truly have been blessed with all the men in your life. I'm so lucky to have parents with a relationship like yours. What a great example you are to all of us! Love you both!!

Lisa said...

Oh mom, you made me cry.

Shawn said...

I love you so much Sister Lynda Shumway.

Delsa said...

Okay, I'm probably writing this so late that you will probably never remember to look back and see it, but since there was nothing on Lisa's blog, I thought of her parents and decided to try theirs. I was very touched by this. You truly radiate that love and gratitude as well and I am blessed to know you and Elder Shumway and be able to watch your relationship more closely here in Australia. You are a wonderful example to me.

Julee said...

We have all been blessed by the many wanderful men in our lives. Thank you for putting it into such great words. I love that you and Dad have such a strong relationship you are a great expamples for all of us