A Lawyer's Daughter

My daddy and me
Easter Sunday and my 2nd birthday
April 6, 1958

"The LORD doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 NLTb)

When Phillip and I started dating as teenagers, his granddaddy said, "Jill, sure is a nice girl to be a lawyer's daughter." J

Some folks back in those days jammed all attorneys into the same crooked pigeonhole, but obviously they didn't know my daddy's heart. William Winfred Watson, a captain in the US Army during WWII, served overseas in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. After the war, he earned his law degree at the University of Alabama, and eventually returned to Fort Payne to practice.

Because fathers had died in combat, many children in the 1950s and 60s were wards of the state; and in our small town, daddy was their legal guardian. I remember riding with my parents to Jacksonville State University to take a young lady under his guardianship to college. Another one who'd been under his care, recently told of Daddy personally buying her a coat and shoes for elementary school. She said with tears in her eyes, "He had caring and compassion for me."

Jesus said, "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For  you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged." (Matt. 7:1-2)

"You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart." (1 Peter 1:22)

Help us, LORD!