He stomped his foot and brought his clenched little fist down upon the seat of the wooden piano bench that served as his pulpit. Although he was only five, the strong gestures and serious countenance of the little lad added to the attraction and folks would come out early to the revival meetings just to hear the boy preacher. “Take your shoes off, Moses, because you’re standing on holy ground!”
His dad was a preacher, an itinerating evangelist, and I can imagine the joy and the pride he felt when his little boy stood behind that piano-bench pulpit to preach.
Now even a preacher boy has to deal with temptation, and this little lad was not so different from so many others. The imagination is a wonderfully strange thing. Now what do you expect a little guy to do with a paint brush and motor oil? Well, when you add a little imagination, the oil quickly becomes paint and before you know it, he is giving a fresh paint job to his little pedal car. Of course, oil is rather messy, and the result of all this imagination is not something you could easily hide even if you were so inclined. Needless to say his mother caught him. Reminded of his sin he quickly exclaimed, “Mama, I just backslid the saved off me. I didn’t backslide the preaching.”
His imagination and attraction finally led him through the door of little white church in Kentucky to see that pretty Hyatt girl. The Hyatt’s granddaughter, Mary, was living with her grandparents, and she was quite active in the little church, teaching Sunday School when she was only a teenager herself. The attraction he had for her could not be quenched, so just before either of them reached their twenties, they were married.
Do the math. They were married in September, and nine months later, “a son of passion” was born in the month of June. As that “Hyatt girl” gave birth to their first-born son, the boy preacher was transformed! He became a father!
That was fifty-three years ago today. Now with four sons, (six, when we count the two boys he is raising now), fifteen grandchildren, and sixteen great grandchildren,* he’s still the greatest dad. On this anniversary of your fatherhood, I want to wish you a Blessed Father’s Day. I love you, Dad, and I am so proud to be your son.
*Emily’s gift to a childless couple makes fourteen and when you count the two on the way, there are sixteen great grandchildren.
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