OJ’s dad, Duncan, just celebrated his 60th birthday, and it was so fun to take some time to think about how much we love him and Patty, and to honor him…it got me thinking about my parents, too… so here’s a little blog to you, Mom and Dad!

1) Constant encouragement…one of the most common injustices we find as we pray for folks is the witholding of verbal blessing and encouragement from parents.  My parents let it pour out on me, all through the years!

2) Raising us in the city of Chicago.  My parents are from the part of America everyone wants to go to, not leave, namely California.  Instead of making millions in real estate like everybody who stayed, they left to raise us in the absence of everything that made sense, just out of obedience to the Lord.  They taught us not to figure out the nicest plan, but to obey the Lord.  And in turn, God’s shown their kids more of this beautiful globe than they probably could have imagined!

3)  Mom’s neverending ideas.  My mom’s so filled with passion and ideas, I don’t know anybody who can keep up with her.

 4)  Dad’s joy over his kids/grandkids.  I can’t wait for the look on his face next time he sees Ariel and Judah!!!

5)  Remembering Dad singing, “Trust and obey, there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey…”

6)  Remembering Mom’s tall corn, fruit trees, and tomato plants growing in that tiny yard in the middle of the city

7)  Dad preaching the Word.

8)  Mom’s cooking better in 15 min than most people in a half day…

9)  Annie’s driving now, and it reminds me of how normal my parents thought it was to be completely inconvenienced and expensed for our mobility…

10)  Mom’s taste for finer music and pulling out the china and Dad’s Ivy League education, and the flip side…Mom’s tupperware collection of cool whip containers, and Dad licking his plate!  HA!  We certainly must be the whitest folks to find ourselves in that famous work of literature and hallmark of our home library, Sckraight from the Ghetto.  Love you, Mom and Dad!

 P.S.  Sckraight from the Ghetto is a book by Bertice Berry that helps to identify certain traits common to people reared in the American inner city, and explains much of my childhood, and the paradoxes of the Petersons.  It is available on Amazon, and I do not recommend it at all, except for a little bit.