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Q. What impressed you about your father's life?

A. When I look back on my childhood, I'm amazed at Pop's incredible consistency and faithfulness. Day in and day out, he got up, drove to work, got there on time, worked hard, came home, and shared the fruits of his labor with his family. Pop considered it a privilege to do it. He knew he was responsible to bring us to maturity and to meet our needs until we could take care of ourselves. That meant teaching us the same kind of responsibility that he practiced.

How did his words reinforce his example?

If I had a responsibility that I just "let drop," my father would grab me, look me straight in the eye, and say, "You never walk away from responsibility. If you've got a job, you do it."

The principle Pop underscored was this: It's honorable to be counted on; it's important to "show up." He felt that if a person said he was going to do something, he should expect to have others expect him to do it. Pop often reminded me, "Son, the only thing you have as a man is what you say. If you don't do what you say, then you don't have much else."

When I was 16, I began selling shoes at a local shoe store. If I complained that it was hard, or I just didn't like something and wanted to quit, Pop said, "No, you're not going to quit unless you're being grossly mistreated or there's some insurmountable situation. If you walk away from the things that you don't like, you'll be walking away for the rest of your life."

Crawford Loritts Jr. directs the Legacy Ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Adapted from Never Walk Away (Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, 1991) by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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