A Girl and Her Dad

I love holidays.  Any and all holidays.  Especially ones where you have an excuse to be extra sappy. I love sap.  The emotional kind, not the tree kind.

Yesterday we celebrated Father’s Day.  My absolute favorite moment of the day had to do with my husband, though.  He presented my dad with his Father’s Day present from the church and he got a bit sappy in his presentation.  Immediately after church, I went to Timothy and his eyes were full of tears.  ”I just love your Dad,” he said.

Wow.  I loved that moment.  I loved seeing how much my husband loved and admired my dad.

See, there’s this very interesting thing that happens in a girl’s heart when she gets married.  And I know it’s not just something that has happened to me.  This weekend people were posting pictures galore on all the social media networks about their dads.  And an overwhelming majority of the pictures posted by women were images of the daughter and her father on her wedding day.

When a girl thinks about her dad, her heart often goes right to that moment.  That moment where he walked her down the aisle and gave her away to another man.

For 21 years, it was just my Dad.  I was (and still am) a supreme Daddy’s girl.  I adore my father.  He can do no wrong in my book, just ask my mom.  Ha!

But now that I’m married to my soulmate, he’s my number one.  He’s my spiritual head, the one who prays for me, the one who protects me.  Like the Bible said, we left our families and cleaved to each other, starting a whole new family.

What a huge transition, going from a Miss to a Mrs.  From a Gill to a Gothra.

The only moment I cried in our wedding was when I was saying good bye to my Dad.  I laughed through the rest of the day.  And you know what?  I think that’s how it’s supposed to be.  I was sad to end that chapter of my life, but overjoyed to start a new one.  And now when I think about Father’s Day, that moment comes rushing back.

Now I can look back and see all the ways my Dad helped mold me into who I am today.  He taught me how to be feminine by showing me what true masculinity was.  He showed me the characteristics to look for in a man by the way he treated my Mom.  He protected my purity.  He led our family, just the way God intended it.

Because of all that, I held out.  I kept my standards high.  I waited for just the right guy.  He would have big shoes to fill.

The day I became a Mrs. my relationship with my Dad changed.  Now I esteem him even more, if that’s possible.  I’m so thankful for everything he was and is to me.  As cliche as it may be, if it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know that I would be where I am today.  I may not have stood for purity.  I may have questioned my identity and lived life skeptical and untrusting.  I may have not waited for the one God had for me.

My Dad taught me so much that I didn’t realize until after I was married.  I love you, Dad!

~Whitney