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With Father's Day being this past weekend, I wanted to take an opportunity to look at two individual's experiences and asked them what Father's Day meant to them. Both have what I believe to be interesting stories that I hope you'll appreciate as well.

This story is a personal account of one young man's experience of growing up with a unique father figure in his life, his grandfather.  - S.N.

My father wasn't in my life to help me to learn how to be a man on a daily basis. My mom did her best to surround me with positive male figures all throughout my adolescent years. She always kept me in the YMCA programs, Boy Scouts, sports programs, and more to keep me around the environment of men. My most recognized father figure would be my grandfather, who recently passed away. As time goes by and the older I become, I realize how much of an inspiration and father figure he was to me. I also had great uncles that took me under their wings, as well. Father's Day means a lot to me. Even though I didn't have my biological father to guide and raise me, I relish the opportunity to let all the positive father figures I have know how much I love and appreciate them for molding the young man that I'm comfortable with growing up to become.

My grandfather was a distinguished and respected man of God. He pastored a church for half a century, taught and lead by example what God wanted from his children. During his years as pastor of his church, he played an enormous role in the civil rights movement in Houston, Texas. He was one of the few pastors in the city to take a stand with Martin Luther King Jr. when he visited for the continuation of the civil rights movement. He stood up for a lot and gave me motivation to keep that tradition going of love and respect that our last name stood for. He did so much to change the lives of others that he neglected his own son by mistake. He left the child parenting to my grandmother, while he provided financial stability and tended to God's work. My father didn't grasp the concept that being a father meant being there for his child, so my grandfather vowed to be the man in my life that my dad wasn't able to be for me. The older I've gotten, I have begun to realize, appreciate, love and understand everything he did to shape me into a true man of God.

I also had 3 loving uncles that were street smart, family orientated, and well-respected around their neighborhood. They showed me about hard work. as my grandfather did, but in a different view. They taught me about how to handle women, turn nothing into something, and also how to be myself and be cool.

Father's Day means a lot to me because I have the chance to let all of these father figures in my life know how much I love and appreciate them. I've learned from all of them that God is the number one priority to becoming a great man, and one day I hope to become a great father as well.  - C. Lott, Houston, TX