As, long as, I can remember my father was a preacher. I did not know what it all really meant that he was a preacher. I sort of learn as I grew up, what it meant. As I time went on, there were many other people who would remind me daily, that my father was a pastor. If I did anything out of the ordinary, act out of character, they would say I am going to tell your daddy. If I wore the wrong clothes, I would hear "I'm going to tell your daddy." If I were caught wearing makeup, I would hear "I am going to tell your daddy." One day when I acted out in class rebelliously with my teacher, she even said "I am going to call your daddy." As you may know that did not go well for me, she did call my daddy(smile). You probably know he did not act as a pastor, he acted as my daddy. I did not act out in class anymore from that day on. This was the only time; my daddy did not feel like a preacher to me. No one ever had to remind me that he was a preacher. I experience it firsthand when we would go in the building called the church. It seemed like we were there all the time. I remember the long preaching sermons my father would preach standing in the pulpit exhorting himself. Oh, did I tell you I grew as a Pentecostal, probably not! Well, I did! I had to deal with my daddy being a preacher as well as belonging to a Pentecostal Holiness church. My daddy was not always in Pentecostal, he grew up Baptist and my mother were Methodist. Even, denominations did not make since to me at my young age. There was so much to learn, so many questions that I needed answers for. Of course, when I was growing up there were no mentor-ship groups to connect with to explain the ministry to me. I did not know how to act, and again many people would remind me that I was a preacher's kid, and many would say "Preacher's Kids were bad!" I grew up hearing this stereo type language all my childhood, and teenage years. When I acted out in my classroom, I guess I was proving that I was preacher's kid then I am bad. I grew up resenting my daddy belonging to the preacher's club. I always wanted him to be a normal guy, just like every other person I knew that had a daddy. There daddies were normal, at least not a preacher.
After, maturing and understanding the love my father had for God. This is when I realized why he was preaching to reach the one that was lost. When I saw his face light up, when someone said Yes, God! I knew I did not need a mentor-ship group now, to tell me why my father preached. Yes, there were a lot of stipulations growing up in a Pentecostal Holiness church. However, one of the biggest gifts I received, is when my daddy's preaching saved me. The words he preached pierced in my heart from some of the sermons he spoke about God's love. I had entered a low space in my life and did not know where to turn. I had left home and chose to never return, because of so much church and preaching. I too returned to my first love in 1982, it was the Christ my father has preached about in some of those long sermons. Many of those sermons started making since in my life. I was in that low place, and I needed more than what I had to offer myself. Then it started making sense to me why my father became a preacher. He must have had a low moment in his life, while alone on his journey it happened to him to say Yes,God!
I finally arrived at a crossroad in my life, where I needed the Lord, then the voices of my father's preaching echoed in my head. As time went on, I finally figured out why my daddy became the preacher. I too had to make that decision on my own to say Yes, God! #YesGod #Preacher #PreachKid #Preacherchildren #Church #Christ