Dad says I shouldn’t go to church to find a man

Dear Pastor, I am 19 years old and I live with my parents and my two sisters. I am the first child for my father. I used to live with my grandmother, who is my father’s mother. When my father got my mother pregnant, her parents told her that she couldn’t stay with them, so my father would have to find a place and put her. She wanted to give away the baby, but my father told her that she shouldn’t. He said that he would take the baby. So, he took me to my grandmother, and she cared for me. I love my grandmother so much.

When I was 13 years old, my father told me that he would like me to come and live with him. My grandmother told him no. She told him that she wanted me to stay with her. My father told her that he wanted me to have an education because the two younger children are in good schools. When I was born, he couldn’t do for me what he is doing now for his other children. So he wants the best for Dear S.B., Your father has a right to approach this young man, and by doing so, he was trying to protect you. You have a wise father, so you don’t have to be worried about the young man who has stopped attending church. If his motive for coming to church was to get a girlfriend, me, too. He took me to Kingston to live with him and my stepmother.

My stepmother treats me well, and I have my own room. I go to see my grandmother often. My father gives me everything I want. He is a Christian. I met a boy at the church. He says he likes me. He is 20 years old. I told my father about it and my father told me to tell him to come to him. I don’t like this boy, but every time I go to church he wants to come and sit with me, and the people say to my father: “Tommy (not his real name), you soon have wedding.”

My father told the guy that my reason for attending church is to praise God; not to look for a man. The boy stop coming to church because of that. I feel very bad about it. I like him as a friend, but I am not ready for a man in my life. This boy thinks that because I am from the country, I am an easy pushover, but I am not.

S.B. he had the wrong motive.

I must congratulate your grandma for doing her best to train you as a young girl and for your stepmother for embracing you as her stepdaughter. Go to school and do your very best. The time will come when you will meet a good man who will respect you, and both of you will plan your future together.

Pastor