My daddy

My dear one,

Sometimes I wonder if you will be a little (or a lot) like my dad. I've heard it stated many a time that woman marry men that resemble their fathers. I have no doubt that, in matters of moral character and spiritual faith, you will indeed be like my dad.

But as far as personality goes, I guess I don't really care that much. Your personality and his could be as different as night and day.

But in case you're wondering what my father is like, here goes...

My father is a quiet humble man, a man who for thirty years served as a faithful shepherd of three small church "flocks." He has has stood courageously for the truth of God's Word and the holiness God proscribes for His people, despite the unpopularity of such a stand. 

I have witnessed my father being unjustly maligned by those he served yet without a harsh word or defensive spirit. I saw his shoulders heavy under the burdens of ministry. I observed the tears of grief and love he shed for the people he sought to lead. I saw the hours he spent training up eager disciples of Christ and the years he spent faithfully expositing Scripture from the pulpit.

I observed how God gently led him to a new ministry that removed him from the heavy weight that had been crushing him. I smile as I note how the people he now serves love him so dearly. Whether teaching Sunday School, mowing lawns, filling out work orders, sitting with a feeble man as his wife recovers from surgery, stepping in as an emergency plumber, singing in the church choir, moving furniture in triple-digit summer heat, fulfilling the role of a deacon, or starring in the Christmas play, he does so with the same servant's heart and humble spirit I have always known him to have. I rejoice to see the new health and vigor in my father's life, and find myself amused at his new hobbies of astronomy and jogging. I learn something new about my dad every day, it seems!

I have fond memories of watching my father sitting on the couch with his Bible and a cup of coffee, listening to classical music early in the morning as he prepared for his day. He would sing and pray with me at bedtime, and would read books and make up stories that were "to be continued" night after night. He would build magnificent campfires during our family's tenting vacations and toast marshmallows to perfection.

My father's love for us his children and his wise counsel to us over the years is something I treasure above all else. I am so thankful for his example and how he exhibits the qualities I now seek in a man who would be my husband. I pray that someday you will know and love my father too, not in a servile, sycophatic, toadying way, but as a friend and brother in Christ, a fellow student of God's Word, and as someone who wants God's best for me. Someday you will ask my father's permission to woo me. Someday you will ask my father for my hand in marriage. Someday...

Waiting,
Me