Grateful: Day 13, Good Men

I speak to my father a few times a year.  Just a handful. Face-to-face encounters are even more sparse. The dysfunction in my parents’ marriage was rampant during my childhood.

As a young adult, I married a man who later realized he just wasn’t that into it. I became a divorced, single mother at the age of 30. That was unpleasant.

Until a certain point, the men in my life brought me disappointment.

Then, I joined a church. And the men in that church began to bring me some other things. Getting to know them put a promise in my heart and hope in my spirit. I became a witness to something.

Good men do exist.

There are real men who love their wives, men who have been married for a lifetime. These men – who are kind, patient, faithful, to their families and the church – became models for me.  I began to believe in good men and the notion that someday I would find one. I knew what to look for, too, because the examples around me were so clear.

Then, when my husband did come along, I had a new and improved set of criteria and some extremely credible folks to help me screen him. Good men will do that for you.  I’m so grateful for that.

I’m hugging one in this picture from my wedding day.

If you have some good men in your life, who are they? How have they helped you along the way?

Read this series from the beginning, by clicking here.