My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
3 lessons from my Dad
|
Reader, on Saturday, I gave the eulogy at my dad's funeral. He was a good man of deep faith whose life was a lesson in wisdom I'd like to share with you. I hope you are inspired.
My Dad taught me the three secrets to a life well lived, and I want to share them with you today: give freely, love deeply, and live fully
My Dad called himself a simple farm boy. He was known as one of those Alvis boys up on Colt Ridge. He never liked school because sometimes the education system fails to see and nurture brilliance, and he was a brilliant man who was effortless with numbers and could learn to do just about anything with his hands. The work ethic instilled in him growing up on the farm with Danny, Don, Dorothy, Garland, Roger, and Rose stayed with him his entire life. When I was a child, he would work all day at DuPont and then often disappear in the evenings and weekends to work beside his brother Danny on the farm they shared or do repair and construction work at the church or for friends.
His hands were his gift from God. His love language was acts of service, and he spoke it fluently. Dad has made many trips to Lousiville along with Larry Ceese and Nick Reed to bless my house with his able hands. My daughter Sarah has only slept on a bed made by my father since she left her infant crib. If you were lucky enough to receive something he handcrafted in that massive woodworking shop he loved, I hope you will continue to treasure it. After retiring, he expanded from wood to pie. He mastered his no-fail pie crust recipe, and there was no stopping him. He loved to make pie for church and family gatherings. He never showed up to visit my home without a pie in his hands.
I never heard my dad say no to helping others. He showed me that what you give is what you receive in abundance, and he gave freely.
The second lesson Dad exemplified in his life is to love deeply. He loved Jesus, which became the standard of love he gave others. You didn’t have to earn his love or friendship. It was offered unconditionally, and there was always room in his heart to add another friend,
God blessed him with two great loves during his time on earth—Gladys, with whom he shared 35 years, and Claire, who most recently brought him such joy and love. Those marriages resulted in a large blended family which he embraced completely. He shunned traditional labels. His kids were his, regardless of parentage. And he loved his friends as if they were his brothers and sisters. To be in my Dad’s inner circle was to know love.
The third lesson I invite you to draw from Dad’s life is to live fully. I never saw my Dad do anything halfway. When he said yes, he fully committed. He was proud to be a DuPonter and valued the friendships he made there. He was a faithful steward of the Broadway Church of the Nazarene and the weekly men’s prayer group he established and nurtured for two decades. If you spent time with him fishing, hunting, four-wheeling, traveling, or gathering around the table to lose to him in Chickenfoot or Rummikub, you shared some of his most cherished blessings.
The people touched by his generosity, love, and fellowship number in the hundreds. He was not a perfect man. But he committed his life to letting the love of Jesus shine through his words and actions, setting an example for others to follow by giving freely, loving deeply, and living fully.
Francis George Alvis leaves an extraordinary legacy of goodness, generosity, faith, family, and friends. He is profoundly missed.
Grief is the receipt of love. Each tear you shed is a testament to the joy and love you exchanged with Dad. So, let them flow. He generated quite the tab in his 82 years.
If you got to this line, thank you for reading what my dad meant to so many and honoring his life. 🥰 Who do you know that is looking for a speaker for meetings, workshops, or trainings? An introduction would be awesome! 🥰 |
Rita Ernst, Positivity Influencer
My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
Reader, let's dispel a huge lie This week's #ShowUpPositive Spark is ENOUGH.. Early in my career, every publicly traded company I worked for eventually hired one of the big management consulting firms to help them figure out how to increase productivity and profit. At first, it was a helpful exercise. Tightening up processes, automating, and leveraging people in better ways were the right decisions. Unfortunately, the hamster wheel chasing more and more and more never eased. Workers became...
Reader, these tips are 🔥 This week's #ShowUpPositive Spark, BEHOLD, is inspired by my colleague Gary. Childhood was my introduction to the word behold. The contextual use was something of magnificence or splendor. Thus, I always interpreted behold to mean see something amazing had to be present. Then I met Gary during one of my early LinkedIn audio events, Talk Me Off the Ledge, and he opened my eyes to a whole new perspective. BE = Present, attentive; HOLD = Pause, be still. BEHOLD was not...
Reader, are you getting enough rest? I'm not just talking about sleep. Rest is space from people who zap your energy constant demands grinding at your computer all-day the hampster wheel of productivity back-to-back meetings cleaning up someone else's mess overwhelming commitments being enslaved by obligation masking your true self I don't know about you Reader, but just reading that list makes me want to curl up in a ball and hide. And here's the truth -- the holidays are just around the...