Tribute to My Fathers

I have two fathers. That may not seem unusual in todays time when there are so many blended families and broken families, but I do not come from either of these. You see, I am adopted. I started life, as most do, with one father, but when I was twelve I was adopted into a new family...without ever leaving my original family. Confused yet?

Let me start by sharing this tribute that I wrote for my biological father on Memorial Day: read here

Lt. Williams James Poole, USN, retired, is my true, biological father. He has been my father from the beginning and remains my father today. I lived under his house until I was eighteen when I left to travel with a band, then college, then seminary, then marriage and beyond. He is the man that taught me how to be a man. At times he may have been a little tough, but if I ever received any unfair punishment it probably only made up for the many things that I never got caught doing. He is not a perfect father, but he has been and continues to be a great father who shared with me the most important things in life. I will never forget our family trips camping or visiting relatives when my dad would start singing those old songs (A boy Named Sue, The Stripped Kitty, On Top of Old Smokey, How Much Is That Doggie in the Window, etc.). Even though he was tone deaf (probably from being around all those big guns on ships). Many of the things he taught me while growing up did not make sense until much later in life.

But at the age of twelve, I was adopted into the family of God. That is the day that I suddenly had two fathers. God is now my heavenly Father. He is a perfect Father and He continues to teach me how to be a godly man. As a teenager I did not understand many of the things I learned from my Heavenly Father, but now I am beginning to better understand. The moment I first held my own son, I understood how difficult it was for God to send His Son to die for me. When one of my boys does something that makes me proud, I understand how God must feel when we do things that make Him proud. When one of my boys do something that disappoint me, I understand how God must be disappointed in some of the things I do.

I am very fortunate indeed to not only have one father that has been in my life and continues to be a source of inspiration for me, but to also have a Heavenly Father that continues to teach me how to be the person that I need to be. I pray that my own sons will look back and see that I was a father who taught them how to be men as well as how to be men of God.