Gary Smalley, popular author and psychologist, asked 100 people, "What is one specific way you knew that you had received your father's blessing?" Here some of those answers:

1. My father would put his arm around me at church and let me lay my head on his shoulder.
2. When my father was facing being transferred at work, he purposely took another job so that I could finish my senior year in high school at the same school.
3. When I wrecked my parent's car, my father's first reaction was to hug me and let me cry instead of yelling at me.
4. When I was thirteen, my dad trusted me to use his favorite hunting rifle when I was invited to go hunting with a friend and his father.
5. My father went with me when I had to take back an ugly dress a saleswoman had talked me into buying.
6. My father would let me practice pitching to him for a long time when he got home from work.
7. Even though I had never seen him cry before, my father cried during my wedding because he was going to miss me no longer being at home.