I’ve written several times about my father. In fact, one of my first blog posts in 2022 was about him, titled “What’s In your Pocket?”. With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, I can’t help but reminisce about him again.
I’m an admitted daddy’s girl even though he’s gone to Heaven and I’m 65. Fathers are important in their children’s lives in many ways, but especially to show sons how to be a good men, husbands, and fathers. And to give daughters confidence that they are pretty, strong, capable, and to know how they should be treated by a man.
Daddy did all those things. He was also a flawed person. As we all are. He and my mother adored each other, but their marriage wasn’t perfect. Sounds like pretty normal human beings, doesn’t it?
Daddy was tall, handsome, and talented. He had a beautiful singing voice, played guitar in a small local band, and he liked to entertain children with his magic act. His primary job was as a radio announcer, but he also taught Sunday School and often substituted for the minister in our small church, which was part of a three-church circuit that shared one pastor.
My dad was also an alcoholic. He drank with the boys in the band. He and my mother went to boisterous parties with friends before they started having babies. After his shift at the radio station, he would often stop off for a drink (or several) on his way home. I was probably around 11 or 12 when he admitted he had a problem and started attending AA on a regular basis. In 1977, when I was a senior in high school, he took his last drink of alcohol. He didn’t say it was the last drink of his life. It was the last drink that day. Which became the next day. And the next. Until it turned out to be his last drink before he died in 2013.
During those 36 years he still attended AA every single week.
A year or so after I graduated from high school Daddy decided he wanted to be not just a part-time lay pastor; he wanted to join the ministry full time. He became ordained in the Methodist Church. His work with AA became an integral part of his ministerial work. I dare say he won over as many souls through AA as he did from the pulpit. When he died, a friend from elementary school who I hadn’t heard from in years messaged me to tell me how sorry he was for my loss. And he said, “Mr. David saved my life.”
I know Daddy would say it wasn’t him. It was God. And my friend’s willingness to admit his helplessness and his need for saving. But it was a beautiful reminder to me of how we can make a difference in someone’s life, often without even knowing it.
It makes me want to be a better example. To be willing to admit my flaws and mistakes. To acknowledge that I’ve hurt people. To apologize and make atonement when it’s needed. To let go of past mistakes and sins. To as much as possible be more like my father in Heaven and my Heavenly Father. To remember the mantra Daddy lived by:
God grant me:
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, and
The wisdom to know the difference.
Happy Father’s Day
Laura
A Light for My Path 
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