Here in Dallas County some of us have many blessings. The YMCA with its awesome programs and care for those in the community, thinking of the new Mentoring Program underway, and an event I believe may have been a first for our Y this year. It was a Father/Daughter Dance the Friday night after Valentine’s Day.  As we were leaving the pool we noticed young guys in white shirts and ties greeting and directing the dad’s and their special dates around the hall to the gym where the festivities were. The young ladies were all decked out like princesses ranging in age from maybe 2 or 3 to teens, hanging on the arm of their fathers.

It was wonderful to see the fun they were having, the love and security they felt being together at such a special time.

Then this week in the STJ, the eye opening article on the Pollnitz family Barber Shop….how the current owner learned the trade from his father and now his son is barbering there also.

The weight and importance of a hardworking dad and what this teaches his children. Congratulations to the Pollnitz Clan.

Our mayors, both in Selma and in Valley Grande, are talented, God-fearing, family loving men. We are blessed to have them at the helm of our communities. Men, all men in this city, fathering is not something to take for granted. Raising children was not delegated to women only.

My heart breaks for children having no father present, no father figure in their lives, perhaps not knowing their father at all.

Two things from the good book come to mind.  A plaque given to my husband by his children says “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord” Psalm 112:1.  The last verses in the Old Testament echo respect for the Lord’s ways when in Malachi 4: 4-6, God says, “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel…Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”   

Thank you, fathers who care and love and provide a safe place for their children.

These are true dads. A quote I know is “Most anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.” Yes, here in Dallas County, some of us are blessed. But some among us need fathers to bless us. Which are you? Be thankful if you are blessed with a present, caring earthly dad. If you are not, cry out to God the father, the heavenly father.

He made you in his image … you have his DNA in you so he is yours, and he loves you, and he is the best. If you are the latter, check out Christine Nelson’s book at One Way Bookstore or on Amazon.

It is titled The Father I Never Knew.  I wonder when Elijah will come….who will be the Elijah in our day.   

Gail Box Ingram

Valley Grande, Al