The only detail left to close the deal was if the car dealer could have the car ready for his son to pick it up in time for his senior prom. You see this dad wanted his son to know he loved and trusted him. This dad loved buying new cars and this one was special, a brand new Lincoln Continental. He loved the feeling of driving a new car off the lot and smelling the “new car smell” when you first sit in it. So letting his son pick up the car from the dealer and going directly to the son’s senior prom was a form of sacrifice for this dad, a form of sacrificial love. This dad knew that actions matter, by the way this dad was my dad and I will never forget the message of love he sent by letting me pick up his brand new Lincoln from the dealer and take it to my prom.

I hope you get to experience that kind of love….

A few years ago my oldest son Zach and I decided to climb a mountain in Colorado that is one of the famous fourteeners (mountains that are over 14,000 ft. tall) It was one of the hardest things I have ever tried to do. Half way up my son decided to go ahead to keep up with some of our friends who were obviously more prepared than I. I kept stopping to rest and with each rest stop began doubting more and more if I could make it to the top. When I had just about given up, I came around a corner and there I saw my son coming back to help his dad, to climb to the top together. The love he showed me that day, was a love that turns around and makes sure that everyone wins when everyone is given the chance  to make it to the top.

I hope you get to experience that kind of love….

A group of young Jewish boys draws straws to see which one of them would go to a mock confession in the cathedral in Paris. The boy who got the shortest straw entered a confessional with a list of mock sins his friends had prepared. He slowly without emotion read the list to a priest in the confessional. After finishing the priest said that he didn’t seem to be sorry for his sins – so as his penance told him to go into a side chapel and kneel in front of a large crucifix and say 10 times the following prayer – “Jesus you died for me and I don’t give a damn”. The young jewish boy after looking at the crucifix and only saying the prayer 3 times broke down and cried with the reality of the sacrificial love of Christ for him. That young boy went on to become Catholic and eventually the Cardinal in Paris. A priest in a confessional loved him enough to not allow him to go through the motions.

I hope you get to experience that kind of love….