Dec 21, 2008
22 things I admire about my parents on their 40th anniversary.
(A guest post by my brother Barnabas.)
1. “Dussy da puppy”—What my daughter Grace said, when asked “what do you like about Grandmamma and Granddaddy?”
2. The open door policy. Anyone can visit any time.
3. Mother’s leftover food creativity.
4. Their availability at any time, particularly times of need or crisis.
5. That Olive Garden classifies as a “fancy restaurant” in their book. (It wasn’t until after college that I realized this wasn’t really true in the public’s eyes.)
6. That they were excited to expand our family by adopting when they were 50 or close to it.
7. Homemade spaghetti.
8. Daddy’s aversion to “cool”—I wouldn’t have it any other way.
9. That I had 18 years of unofficial homiletics to carry into my first preaching opportunities.
10. That Daddy is a living reminder of what the Trinity is like—he is one man in the pulpit and another man at home, but they are the same man.
11. That Daddy and Mother’s marriage is another reminder of the Trinity. They are very one and very two.
12. That they were strict without being legalistic when I was growing up.
13. Their delight at every additional grandchild.
14. That they got us a puppy when I was 10 and cried unashamedly when she died 13 years later, just like me.
15. That they taught me to enjoy going to church.
16. Homemade baby and wedding blankets and all the love that is crocheted into them.
17. Including visitors in family devotions.
18. That they don’t meddle, but they’re always available with counsel when asked.
19. No TV—I’m so glad I learned to love reading and doing outside stuff.
20. That they encouraged me in my hobbies by getting me things like hand tools, power tools, baseball gloves, bikes, and paying the fee for every single sport I played for about 13 years.
21. That I never paid for a bible I owned until I was 20.
22. That I learned to pray from listening to countless prayers from both of them.
I would like to see your dad crochet! ;)
What a beautiful tribute to your parents and a wonderful example to the rest of us who are in the midst of parenting and grandparenting :–)
Blessings,
Tammy ~@~
A fine pair, and a happy anniversary to them. Forty years is a good long time. Your mum could have killed him and served her sentence twice over by now!
What a wonderful blessing and example your folks are to us all.
(and what do you mean Olive Garden isn’t fancy eatin’?) ;)
A great example of honouring your parents, and an inspiring challenge to be married well.
I absolutely love that picture of your parents – because it’s so different than they look now – but you can see it’s them, totally! It’s classic!
Awww… what a wonderful legacy.
The photo is great! I bet they are very blessed to read this. :)
Thank you very much for this post and tribute to your parents. I gladly join the other ones who commented on this that it’s very honoring to God and to your parents. Beside that it shows your humility to recognize these evidences of grace which you received through your parents. And it models how I can honor my parents.
Thank you, Barnabas and Abraham
Happy Anniversary to the PIpers!
Thanks Barnabas.
Great post – and I had to laugh about Olive Garden…that’s living it up for us too.
What a beautiful, noble tribute.
Here’s to more folks with an “aversion to cool.”
Cheers!
:-)
Yeah, the Olive Garden is where we go when we want a special treat. Fine dining.
Abraham, did you really have no TV?
Never?
Great stuff. Too many good things to really start singling out.
Thus: Thanks for sharing–and for the photo.
wonderful tribute. Happy anniversary!
I’d love to hear more, from both of you, on how they were ‘strict without being legalistic.’ Could you share what this looked like on a daily basis?
My fiance and I are only 22 years old, but we laughed out loud at the idea that Olive Garden is a fancy restaurant. We’re OK, though, if thinking that means we get to grow up and be like your parents!
What Courtney said (both lines)
HAHAHA #10 … I don’t know how I’m supposed to interpret that ……… :D
I love this post! My husband and I celebrated our 40th anniversary back in August. Praise God for His faithfulness to your folks and to us.
[...] Piper has a guest post at 22 Words, the blog of his brother Abraham Piper. The guest post is “22 things I admire about my parents on their 40th anniversary.” What I find helpful about this post are the many normal things that Barnabas remembers. We [...]
[...] the numbering. The gaps are intentional, they are motivators, spurning you forward to check out 22 Words and see what Abraham Piper and his son Orison have to say via the world wide [...]
Barnabas that was a real blessing to read. I’m 22 and we didn’t have tv growing up really either and my parents were stricter than most by I appreciate it as well. Thank the Lord for parents! Thanks for allowing us to look into a bit of growing up with your godly parents.
[...] and Noel Piper, Barnabas Piper shares 22 things he admires about his parents. I encourage you to read his list, some of which [...]