This book is dedicated to my father
Mayo Cavin Mansfield
A man of great spiritual and physical strength, who at the same time was gentle, kind, and loving. I never had any trouble with the statements in the Bible about "fearing the Lord," because I understood respectful fear of someone while at the same time understanding they loved you. When Daddy said "Don't," you had better not! While he was a man of discipline and a firm hand, there were many times he would allow me to go ahead and learn from my mistakes and suffer the consequences.
A Melody of Faith: Growing Up with Hymns and a Father's Love
He was a man who read his Bible daily and was a great prayer warrior. He loved to sing the "songs of faith," as he called them, and had a wonderful voice. He loved to whistle and I can still hear him whistling the tune to "Amazing Grace," his favorite hymn. We grew up hearing and singing the hymns of our Southern faith. Our home was one where music was listened to an sung along with regularly. As I grow older, I realize how very special my upbringing was in a home where Christ was loved and revered openly and worshiped daily. My strong faith comes in part from my parents' faith (" The Faith of Our Fathers") and my love of the traditional hymns from a background raised in churches where my Daddy was the pastor and I the preacher's kid.