Let me begin by reminding you how proud of you I am. I am grateful to God for you and thank Him for you in my prayers. You are a good son and good brother in Christ. I like being your dad. I like that you are my son. I love you and I like you. I always have and I always will. No matter what. Forever and ever. Amen.
But that's just the beginning... I'm grateful for a son who looks up to me, but I realize that by this time next year, in order to look up to me, you'll probably have to look down on me. You are shooting up like a plant full grown. All those prayers from Psalm 144 are being answered right before my eyes and I have the outgrown shoes to prove it. You have always had man hands. It was funny when you were a toddler, but now they just match the rest of the man. You have always had big feet, which again were funny on a little guy, but now match the rest of the man. Your shoulders are getting broader, your jaw stronger, your voice deeper, and your wingspan wider. You are growing up. Of course, that's always been true in one form or another, but lately it's been a whole lot of the form. You have shot up over the last year and there's good reason to believe you aren't done shooting yet.
Especially when you eat like you do. I mean, just... wow! You eat and eat and eat... and then you draw something... and then you eat again; and then to top it all off, you eat some more! Hey bro, I heard you like eating, how about putting some food on your food so you can eat while you eat! The tacos never stood a chance. The breakfast burritos? goners. The pizza slices? better get your house in order. You love to eat and enjoy good food. You like coffee and wine and steak and mac n beef broc. You appreciate your mom's cooking and are learning to fix yourself snacks midday and before bed. Eaters gonna eat.
You like physical labor and like being put to work. You like mowing the yard and have even had the opportunity to make some extra cash mowing other people's yards. This parlayed into the opportunity to rake the neighbor's leaves. When you do good work, the reward is often more work. While being one of the only boys your age around does have its downsides, one of the upsides is that all the mowing/raking/snow shoveling opportunities end up falling into your lap and provide you the opportunity to pad your wallet. Our neighbors have commented that you work hard and try to do a good job. Hard work is always noticed and often appreciated. As I mentioned, one of the rewards God gives to those who work hard is more work. This may not sound like a reward sometimes until you consider the increased wages that come along with it and the honor and respect that accompany someone who is trusted with meaningful business. It is a high privilege to be depended upon. What you sow, you will reap. Hard work sowing means more to reap, but the hard work on the back end is the hard work of trying to figure out where to put all the harvest when your previous hard work pays out and you can't keep up with all the thank you cards you're getting.
You still love your Joe's. You love making stop motions and thinking through story lines and scenarios for your men to participate in. You have your favorites and you care about your characters. A good author always does. Sometimes favorite characters have to die, as we know, but sometimes that is what cements their status as our favorite characters for all time.
In keeping with that, you continue to develop your graphic novel skills, both in creating storylines and in developing your craft competency. You are really good at capturing movement. You always have been. And you are only getting better at it the more that you do it and play with it and try new ways to tell your stories. Your first full graphic novel, Skeeter Wars, is done, and the sequel is under way. I'm excited to see it and look forward to all the others you will complete, especially now that you have all those blank books from the Days.
You love riding bikes. You look for every opportunity you can find to get out and get up and down the street. One of the blessings of this neighborhood has been the quiet street that makes for plenty of opportunity to bike. Your new bike is an adult bike. It fits you well. A man's bike for a young man. Play adult games, ride adult bikes... or something like that :) You've got the "look Ma no hands" move down pat and enjoy racing others up and down the sidewalks.
You have been keeping up with the To The Word Bible Read-Through Challenge. You diligently read your Bible and proactively set aside time to sit down with God to hear from Him. I am very encouraged by your growth and discipline in deciding to do this and following through with doing it. I'm very impressed. Keep it up! As you noted, Dr. Bray mentioned a few weeks back, that the world needs more men who know their Bibles and are ready to teach other men. May God give you faith to understand and courage to proclaim what you know.
Every night you copy the Proverb of the day into your notebook. You like capturing all the nuances and stylistic marks I put into them for you and enjoy making notes about any important events or milestones at the bottom of each drawing. You also have been reading the Ray Comfort daily devotion every morning and often will mention to me what you read about earlier that morning. All that to say, your world is immersed in the Word and war. You love the good fight in whatever form it takes. May God continue to equip and grow you to take your place in the only war to end all wars, the war Jesus already won, and the one we have the privilege of pushing to every corner.
You are a great big brother. You love your little siblings and often ask to hold Ophelia. You sometimes even fight Penelope over who gets to hold her. Ophelia adores you and often looks for you. You look out for your brothers and sisters and like leading them when left to it. You naturally take on the father role in taking responsibility for others in looking out for them. We did not name you Atticus for nothing. The fatherly instincts are strong with this one.
You are growing in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with both God and men. You are getting wiser as you grow and beginning to appreciate watching formal logic on display in things like: Doug Responds or Jeff Durbin street evangelizing. You like watching the lunacy get a licking. You are growing in height and weight and like working your body to exhaustion. You are earning a good reputation with those at church and in our neighborhood as a reliable, faithful, young man. God sees it all and so do we. You are a good man and I am very proud to be your dad.
Happy birthday, Atticus Jacob Rhyne Van Voorst.
I love you,
Dad
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