My Two Favorite Dads

Happy Father's Day to two of the GREATEST dads I know!

First, to my own dad. He has taught me through example the importance of living a life guided by the Lord and Him alone. The importance of raising my children to love the Lord and laying up treasures in Heaven. To always walk so that others will see, not just me as his daughter, but me as a daughter of the King.

Daddy is a graduate of Bob Jones University. He left everything he knew in Ohio, his job and his family, to follow the Lord's leading into the ministry. Whatever that would be. With him, he took his wife and three small children to unchartered territory and a very unknown future. During those years of attending BJU, he was the youth Pastor, choir leader, and whatever else he was needed to be. But first and foremost, he was always my daddy.

After graduation, he would once again pack up his family and move to North Carolina to be the youth pastor of Carson Memorial Baptist Church and later a Gaston County Police Officer. If he wasn't patrolling the streets, he was planning youth activities that noone would ever forget.

The Lord called him to Liberty Baptist Church where he continued to be a Youth Pastor, Choir Director, Sunday School teacher, and "Preacher with a gun." It was here that he became my own Youth Pastor. I remember youth conferences, Teen Olympics with crazy obstacle courses, Hay mazes at the Crosby farm, Gaston Gallops, and "The Four 'L's." Though busy planning activities and studying sermons, he still found time to be my daddy.

Upon retirement from the Gaston County Police Department, he underwent open heart surgery, was diagnosed with diabetes, takes dialysis three days a week, and was a tower of strength when he buried his firstborn son. All the while, still teaching Sunday School at Faith Baptist Church, playing in the church orchestra, being a friend and mentor to children who need him in their lives, and is an active member of our church. All the while, still finding time to be my daddy.

Thank you, dad, for always being there. For teaching me things that noone else could. And I promise.................I'll pay ya back! ;)

The next dad in my life, is my children's dad. My sweetie, Bruce.

I met Bruce when I was seventeen, working at the local Harris Teeter. I was a junior in highschool, and he was on his way to becoming a United States Airman.

It didn't take him long to woo me. However, our young hearts would grow fonder as the distance between NC and Texas lay before us. During that time, the US Postal Service made a killing on stamps that would be placed on letters to my sweetie. Letters that even now, have found their way to a box in our attic to read, if the mood to reminisce should ever crop up within.

We weren't given a lot of time to spend with each other, but we did enjoy our letters back and forth and everytime the phone would ring, my heart would skip a beat, in hopes it would be my sweetie.

When he returned home from Tech school in Mississippi, he proposed at the top of a mountain, next to a monument at the Kings Mountain Battleground, on a beautiful winter afternoon. I accepted, and a few days later, he was gone again. This time, across the ocean to Germany.

We were left with letters and phone calls one more time. I didn't see him again until he came home from Germany nine months later on the 20th of Dec. I married my sweetie two days later at the Faith Baptist Church of Simpsonville, SC. What a wonderfully good day that was.

It was hard to see my new husband leave again, but I knew it wouldn't be long and I would be making the same flight to an unknown country to be by his side. My sweetie found us our first home, and sent for me. This is where we would start our family. Where I would become a mother. And he would become a father.

We were given the blessing of a beautiful baby boy and had absolutely no idea what to do with him. My sweetie had a lot of learning to do, as all new fathers. But he learned quickly that if he trusted the Lord to guide him, he would be a successful father.

Fifteen years later of becoming a father, it still amazes me to see his faithfulness and dedication to the scripture and prayer every morning. I can tell you his routine of rising up to get ready for the day, making his way to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal or grits, and then sitting in "dad's spot" on the couch to have his time alone with his Lord.

Besides faithfulness and dedication to the Lord, he has taught our children three other important things:

*Remember your name. No matter where you go, you represent our family and, more importantly, our God.

*Knowldege is power. Never underestimate it. Never take it for granted.

*The choices you make dictate the life you lead.

Sweetie, you've been a wonderful father to our children and I am so proud of you. You've learned a lot. Taught a lot. And will no doubt reap many wonderful benefits through your children.

I love you.