On Father’s Day, I have mixed emotions when my kids give me gifts. I’m glad they remember me. I’m just disappointed they think I dress like that.

But fatherhood affords ample opportunity to get even.

On the day Kerstin received her learner’s permit, her father took her out for a driving lesson. But he hopped in behind her and said, “I have waited for this ever since you were a little girl. Now it’s my turn to sit back here and kick the seat.”

After a tornado warning, Laura’s family ducked into the basement. The husband told everyone to stay put while he got his cell phone from the car, in case the lines went dead. He didn’t return for the longest time, so his wife went looking for him. She was upstairs calling his name when the voicemail on the desk phone clicked on. “Hi,” a voice said. “This is Dad. I’m locked out of the house.”

One dad was driving along with his sons, enjoying the scenery, when a duck flew right in front of them straight into the car. The boys looked at their dad. He said, “Well, that’s one duck that didn’t live up to its name.”

Jeanne’s family was viewing old slides. One flashed on the screen that caught everyone’s attention. Dad was wearing his favourite golf shirt and holding his daughter Jeanne at the tender age of three weeks. The look on his face said it all. “There’s my prize possession,” her father said. Touched, Jeanne smiled at him. Then he said, “I wonder whatever happened to that golf shirt?”

Like these guys, my dad was far from perfect. But I smile when I remember what he did well.

• He built me a rubber band gun—despite the fact that he was a pacifist.
• Though there was little cash, each year he took the family camping.
• I wasn’t the sharpest shovel in the shed, but I never heard him compare me to my siblings.
• Very late in life, for the first time, he told me he loved me. I always knew it, but it was nice to hear those words.

Dad’s love made it easier to believe in God’s love. His faith in Jesus was vibrant and real. He loved my mom. And his humour made it easier for me to believe that God smiles too. Once when Mom sent Dad and me shopping, he checked a few items off the list and said, “You know, if we mess this up badly enough, we won’t have to do it again.”