Faithbase

Fathers, paving the way, desires the best, has endured much test. Will not candy coat the truth. You guys are the foundation of the home. Walk towards many storms to protect. Mess with your family and you will hunt and arrest. You have been given the authority to bestow identity blessings on your family. I am my father's daughter. Happy Father's Day weekend dads and grandpas and for women who love him and happy ninth anniversary Father's Eve. My name is Tonya Lee Carey and I want to thank you for this opportunity to share a few words of how valuable and significant, how needed you guys are. And it does take a village to raise our children. Many of the fathers are not here this year. In the last year because of COVID and for many other very sad situations. But you're here and I'm here and I'm going to share a few words in regards to my short story called Daddy's Girl that went across the globe. My father passed away in 2005. His name is Robert Lee Lattimore, one of the original gospel layers of Dayton, Ohio, pioneer of gospel music. It took his sister's death that brought life to our relationship being raised without him. But I learned there's two sides to every story. And when I rejected him, I was actually rejecting a part of myself. I am my father's daughter, but it took his death to bring life to a love he had for me. And I was clueless. I mean, I found a picture that I sent to him and an eight by 10 of his group. And he actually got into the photograph and a picture was taken. We didn't have any pictures taken together. Then I found another picture of an eight by 10 I sent to him and he had glued another picture of himself to that photograph and took a picture of that with a Polaroid camera. This is what I found on the day he passed away. Fathers do not allow a day, a week, God forbid, a year to go by. When your children do not know that you love them, your gifts and your presence are nice, but nothing is priceless as your presence and your direct engagement in your children's life. I am my father's daughter. I've learned that life is 10% of what happened to us, but 90% on how we respond. It has to be. If my daddy was there growing up at five years old, I know he would not allow a man to get in the bed with me, nor would I have experienced going to the jail house, stepping on a stool, a footstool and picking out what man got in the bed with me in the lineup. I am my father's daughter, nor would I experience of having so many last names if my father was in my life growing up in my earlier years. But I call myself honoring the men. I'm heterosexual, honoring every man that I married. How many? I mean, I get tired of hearing, what is your name now? Oh, that what you call yourself? But I was honoring and honoring and honoring, but now this daddy's girl is honoring herself. And yet I still honor my daddy by keeping his and my middle name, Tanya Lee, as his name is Robert Lee. I am my father's daughter. Fathers, take this nugget. Albert Einstein says, don't try to be a person of success, be a person of value. And we value you this weekend. Fathers, we need you and God bless you. My name is Tanya Lee Carey and yes, I am my father's daughter. We salute you dads. God bless you all. Until next time, I love you unconditionally and there's nothing you can do about it. Peace.