1 My children, these things write I unto ye, that ye be wise and endangereth not your life with cluelessness.
2 And hereby I do proclaimeth until the end of days that we do not fully know what your earthy father doeseth for us.
3She that dare sayeth, “Mom, I know that!”, and, “No, you are wrong”, keepeth not their cool, is a liar, and the truth is not in her/him.
4 I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye should have heard from the beginning.
5 Geteth this and geteth it now, for ye hath heard not what I already dun said.
6 Again, I write unto you, be grateful for your good Dad because the darkness is past, and the light now shineth.
7He endureth for the ages to picketh up your boyfriends and he comlaineth not and he keepeth his cool even though he be quite afraid you will geteth hurt.
 |
| Fathers be good to your daughters ... Daughters be good to your father too. |
Troy Livesay married me many moons ago. He instantly became a dad to two daughters, they were eight and four years old at the time.
He rocked the protector Dad role from day one. He made the oldest daughter's first boyfriend come to our house for apple pie with his parents before he would consider any other dating. We moved to Haiti when she was 15 years old. He watched as she fell in love at age 16 (with a boy on a short term mission trip to Haiti, no less!) and went off with her Prince Charming by 18. (Totally working out - year ten anniversary trip happening right now.)
He drove Paige to and from dates in Haiti before she graduated from High School. One time he drove her to break-up with a boy and witnessed an awkward teary scene. Once Paige was in college he invited her new boyfriend to spend six weeks with us in Haiti because it was the right thing to do and time was of the essence. (Thank the Lord, that one worked out too! Year four anniversary was this week.)
Troy is now on to daughter number three (of five) that is entering the "Daaaaddddddy, will you please allow my boyfriend to come visit" stage. This (our norm) is not the regular way it happens in developed nations.
Here in Haiti we have limited vehicles, limited time, and unlimited traffic jams. If a boy is to come see our girl, they must travel far - & for infinite amounts of time in order to reach a meeting spot where Troy has also traveled for an infinite amount of time. There has never been a boyfriend date in Haiti where a young man showed up in his own car and took our daughter for dinner and returned her in a few hours to our door.
Dates in Haiti require Troy's participation and mercy.
Hope was excited to see her male friend this afternoon. Troy made it happen.
Paige wrote me today and said, "The number of boys that Dad has had to awkwardly pick up for his gals, bless it. He has a special place in Heaven."
Amen. I think so.
