Protect & Provide

Everybody has a least two

Life words

Two words that motivate & drive them

Two words that are the very core

Of who they are

For my Grandpa Houghton,

Those words were

Protect and provide.

For my father,

I believe those words are,

Provide and serve.

For me,

Those words are

Love and serve.

It's funny how words

Carry through the generations

And even if they don't continue

They at very least, affect us.

My grandfather protected us

In life, in dying, and even in death.

My father has provided for me

All the days of my life,

Even at times serving me

To his own detriment.

We have stayed at jobs he did not love

Because of the love he had for me

He has spent his life savings

On my college and my future

He has served

My church, my college, and my home

He has given everything in himself

To me and my family.

And me?

I hope to be half the man my grandfather was

And a fourth of the man my father is

If I can learn to serve as selflessly as my dad

To protect as fiercely as my grandfather did

And to provide others - with love-

As well as they provided for me,

Then I might be a great woman one day.

In the end though,

I'd really just like to love.

What is life without love?

A life lived alone, without anyone to love

And to be loved by

Is not a life worth living.

When I die, I want to be remembered

For how I served

And how I loved.

That is all.

Beth Houghton,

To serve and to love.

07/29/23