A Daughter's Heart

Last night I had the awesome privilege to take my beautiful daughters out for a special evening.

The event we attended is called A Daughter's Heart and it is a daddy-daughter dance.
A local couple, Ed and Renee Behr have organized and sponsored this event for the past 11 or so years. Their mission: A non-profit ministry created to help foster the relationship between Fathers and Daughters.


We had a wonderful time. We danced a lot. I got a little teary eyed a couple times during the evening... Especially at the beginning when they ran a slide show to the song Cinderella from Steven Curtis Chapman; again at end when the band closed with the Bob Carlisle song Butterfly Kisses and I held both of my girls close and we just had a kind of group hug for the whole song. (Disclaimer Warning: Listening to these songs can melt your heart.)
It's really hard to relate just how special this is for me, and I know that it has been really special for my beautiful girls both years we've gone.

I thank God for the opportunity to share such a blessed time with my girls!
Thank you my girls for the time you spent with me and blessed your papa!

Finally Getting It Right

After all these years, I think I might have finally gotten it right for the first time.

I remembered Valentine's Day.
I had a card for her on the side table Thursday morning when she went downstairs to read her bible.
I had flowers delivered to my wife at work.
I had a date arranged for us to meet for lunch.
I had arrangements for dinner on Friday evening along with tickets for a concert for an outstanding musician named David Templeton who played piano and guitar.

Don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.

Mostly because it has taken me way too long to at last get close to being on top of the game the way I should have been all along.

You see, I'm pretty sure I had it figured out when I was wooing her to try to win her heart in the beginning. I would take her to dinner and movies. I would write her love letters, call her on the phone and we'd talk for hours (and it was expensive to call long distance in-state in those days - before cell phones and unlimited night time minutes). We would go for hikes and long drives just to be together. We went to see Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in concert. This unheard of guy named Rich Mullins opened the show. What a fun time we had!

After we got married and started having children, life happened. I had to change careers just so we could eat and attempt to keep a roof over our heads. I started college and spent ten years doing that and working full time. In all that, I forgot to remember how to spend time winning my wife's heart. Our dates became everyday tasks like going to the grocery store. Going to see a play meant spending the evening at the middle school or high school when our kids were in them. Musical events were the same thing. Seeing a movie, meant renting a video and watching it on our TV. The pizazz and romance had definitely disappeared.

Now, with almost 23 years together and two of the three kids out of the house, I'm remembering again how to invest in the most important person in my life.

Sorry honey that it has taken so long! There will be more good things to come!

So hopefully, I'm finally starting to get it right again.

Protective Papa

There have been several incidents in the past few months involving my girls... a couple in the past two weeks.

As a father I am VERY protective over my girls!

Be off with ye scurvy dogs!

One young man who had been dating my oldest daughter said some mean and hurtful things to her... and my thoughts about him at that time were not quite charitable.

The Powerful Art of Persuasion

About two weeks ago two different young men decided they could talk in quite UN acceptable ways to or about my youngest daughter.

One young man (a long time friend of hers) made an inappropriate comment to her and she quite adamantly made it clear that he was NEVER to talk to her like that again. His sheepish response was that it was a slip like he was talking to one of the guys. She then demanded, "Do I look like one of the guys?" [I was and am very proud of her!]
Never-the-less, it has been, shall we say, difficult for me not bring a stern admonition to this pup.

I be inclined to cut out his tongue.

The second young man made comments about body parts of youngest and one of her female friends during a practice time for an activity they are all participating in. Youngest still has not been willing to share with me what, exactly the comments were. She again handled it well (smacked him for a start), then spoke with the teacher/sponsor of the activity regarding his sexually harassing comments. The teacher addressed it with him and he has been on much better behavior since.
But just to back it up, I'll be wearing my leather jacket and a mean looking scowl to the activity competition.
As a side note, I'm not sure what my daughter has said to him since, but tonight she told me that he was intimidated knowing that I would be at the competition. I smiled at her as I replied, "He should be... he should be!" (said with a Yoda voice for effect).

Now for clarity, I am a law-abiding citizen and don't go around threatening people, but... if you mess with my girls, I'm definitely willing to mess with you.