A Father's Love by Laura V. Hilton

Happy Father's Day! 

Proverbs 23:24 - The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him. (KJV)

Fathers are so important. We long for their love and acceptance, we hurt when it's withheld. Sometimes we struggle to  understand what might be behind their actions. And sometimes, a father can hurt you so badly you struggle in your relationship with men for the rest of your life.

I was blessed with a good father. A quiet, bookish man, he worked hard to support his family. He worked for the federal government as a cartographer (map maker) and one of his unsung achievements was making the map of the moon and picking out the spot where the astronauts landed the first time. 

Dad struggled to raise me the way  I should go. And like most teens I rebelled. I wanted to read what  I wanted to read. Dad wanted me to read the  classics.  He discussed why my choices were  bad (and yes, I can tell you why) but they were exciting!   So he  enlisted my highschool teacher's support ... and she assigned me books to read and write a report on.  Books the rest of the class didn't read.  I hated being singled out, but the lesson stuck.

Garbage in = garbage out.

I was feeding my mind "junk food". He wanted me to feed it substantial food that would help me think. Learn. Grow. 

In my life,  it was books.   In my son's life it was something else.  My husband talked to him. He wouldn't listen. My husband enlisted help. Our son still didn't listen. In the end we spent hours  on our knees, praying.

My son is finally admitting Dad was right. Garbage in = garbage out. But he has to pay for his mistakes. There are consequences.

God loves us like a good father. He wants us to listen to Him, to obey Him, to honor Him.  But we  have free will and a sin nature.  We have to make an effort to read His word, to pray and talk with Him, and to obey.

Lord, thank you for loving us like a father. Help us to talk to You, to listen, to obey and to learn.  Amen.

Laura V. Hilton is an award-winning, sought-after author with thirty Amish, contemporary, and historical romances. When she’s not writing, she reviews books for her blogs. Her most recent series is set in Mackinac County, Michigan, and includes Firestorm, The Amish Candymaker, and Married to a Stranger (July 2019).

Laura and her pastor-husband have five children and a hyper dog named Skye. They currently live in Arkansas. One son is in the U.S. Coast Guard. She is a pastor’s wife, and homeschools her two youngest children.

When she’s not writing, Laura enjoys reading, and visiting lighthouses and waterfalls. Her favorite season is winter, her favorite holiday is Christmas.

Married to a Stranger Blurb

He marries her out of need. She marries him to escape. What does love have to do with it?

When her father falsely accuses a stranger of dishonoring her, Bethel Eicher finds herself promised in marriage to a man she’s never met. Not exactly what Bethel has dreamed of, but since she spent several years caring for her handicapped mother, the good guys were all taken and she’s considered an old maid at twenty-five. The alternative to marrying an unknown man is a steady barrage of older widowers, and none of them appeal to her. This marriage, while unappealing, might be the perfect escape.

When newly-called Preacher Gideon Kaiser learns he’s been accused of a dishonorable act toward an Amish woman, he is horrified and the community is thrown into a tizzy. A young widower whose wife died in childbirth, Gideon is practical enough to realize the necessity of another woman in his life. While he lives with his parents, his mother suffers from multiple sclerosis, and he has an infant. With Bethel to manage the household and care for their family, Gideon and his father would be able to run the Amish grocery store and deliver messages of hope to the Amish in the small district still reeling from a catastrophic fire. But marry a woman he’s never met? One he doesn’t love? The very thought strikes him as being unfaithful to his late wife. Still, he needs her, and does the honorable thing—agrees to marry her.

When Bethel exchanges the parade of unwelcome proposals for a position as a glorified nurse-maid and Gideon agrees to demands based on a lie, how can they possibly make a marriage work? When the truth behind the accusations is revealed, will it destroy everything? When love is as hidden as the ground buried under the snow, will they discover lasting treasure?