This past Wednesday, a funeral.
How could attending the funeral of someone we love so dearly possibly be a WIN? Let me tell you.
While mourning the loss for myself, my husband, our children and our grandchildren, along with our extended family, I was also privileged to celebrate the life and memory of my precious father-in-law. Pop Fort was truly a man of impeccable character, integrity and honor. It seems he was loved and appreciated by all who knew him.
My relationship with Pop Fort began in the summer of 1981 when I first met him as the dad of one of my acquaintances. I was dating a young man at the time who had a cousin, Bruce, who played in a local band, Crossfire. Crossfire, along with several other bands, would be performing in Palo Duro Canyon (second only to the Grand Canyon) so my boyfriend and I decided to make a day of it and attend.
In Crossfire were Bruce’s two best friends, Loyd and Mike, whom my boyfriend also knew. Upon meeting these three on different occasions in the prior several months, we had an established relationship which I would define as recognizable acquaintances. From the first introduction and each subsequent meeting I was around these three, whether they were together, individually, or any combination of them, I was drawn to their friendliness, their wit, and the friendship they shared with one another. Although they were not yet my friends, I knew I wanted to become friends with them.
It was summer and I was ready to grab a large iced cola, walk down into the canyon and catch some rays while listening to the bands. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day and the venue was fun for the crowd. Between sets, we visited with the band in a tent which was comfortably several degrees cooler than where we had been seated on the blankets outside. In that same covered area were Mike’s parents, his sister, Janice, and brother-in-law, Lynn. I was introduced to them and immediately liked each of them.
Pop became my dad-in-love that summer day, before I even knew it. You see, quite some time later I learned that Pop Fort chose me out of the crowd in the canyon that day and told Mike he should go after me. While there is much more to the story, the condensed version is that several months later Mike and I began dating and were married June 11, 1982.
On Saturday, April 14, 2018, Pop Fort was ushered into the magnificent, eternal presence of The Lord.
On the following Wednesday, I would normally have been doing my WINNING WINS-DAY report. Instead, Wednesday, April 18th, we attended the funeral service to bid our farewells and see you laters to our precious Pop.
Even with that, there is a HUGE WIN I want to share with you; the WINNING FAMILY SECRETS learned from Pop’s life. These can truly help anyone know how to get along in this life more effectively, so I want to share them.
First and foremost, Pop lived his life by the standard of God’s Word. His life was founded on his relationship with Jesus Christ and he lived by Christ’s principles. These principles are being lived out in the life of his family.
Life by God’s standard means Pop lived a life of HONOR & INTEGRITY. He was a man of truth and honesty. He did not have an easy life. He worked hard and provided as best he could for his family.
Pop provided a HAPPY HOME LIFE. Pop provided for his family’s practical needs, yes, as well as for their emotional well-being. He was faithful to his wife, whom he married at the young age of seventeen, she sixteen. He went to work. He came home. He spent only what he earned. He was never too arrogant to take a job, any job, that would help pay the bills and provide for their needs.
Pop learned the VALUE OF HUMOR and expressed many times in various ways, if you can make people laugh, you will win them over and have them with you. He was, in his own words, “a cut-up” and on April 13th was telling silly stories, laughing, and keeping everyone in his hospice room laughing. Every visitor and every worker who entered his room that day was endeared to Pop because he brought them SMILES.
To say I am thankful to have become one of his daughters thirty-six years ago seems so inadequate. The fine example of Pop Fort’s life grounded in his relationship with Jesus Christ is now lived out in the legacy of his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. Truly, there is no greater legacy than that.
Each day, my cousin texts an encouraging scripture and the day prior to Pop’s service, I received the following which is fitting for a life so well-lived:
“You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.
So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.”
James 2:22, 24 NLT
Today, Pop Fort is reaping the rewards of the life he lived on this earth. His faith and actions worked together. He entrusted his life to the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and lived it out for His glory.
May I live a life that proclaims at the end, “I believed, I conducted, I lived out my life and brought encouragement and joy to others because of my relationship with Jesus.” Share on X
