Polly Floyd desires to be an example to students

GRACEVILLE (BCF)—On any given work day, Polly Floyd is the smiling figure behind her desk at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville. Those who know her say she manages the business office with a gentle spirit and loving example.

Floyd did not always wish to be an office manager, she said, but realizes now her family life might have equipped her well to deal with the variety of circumstances she encounters on a daily basis.

“We were just a very close family,” she said. The middle child in a family of five, she shares her maternal grandmother’s name—and for a while her grandmother lived with her family. Because of this she said, “I always had a special connection with seniors and with children.”

Floyd was raised going to church with her family and said she accepted Christ when she was 14, although her Christian walk has been “full of ups and downs because you know there is no perfect life here.”

“You have to remember in all things [to] praise God because we only see that little bit of the picture,” Floyd said, “but God knows the whole plan.”

Jesus wasn’t the only one Floyd met in church. She also met her husband, Bill.

“We were childhood sweethearts. He knew he was going to marry me, he said, from the time I was three,” Floyd remembered fondly. “He’s the only one. We went to church together and he worked on the farm. We both knew when we were growing up and he was just always there. We will be married 39 years in July.”

After their wedding, they began their family which grew to include a son, Scott, a daughter, Kimberly, and three grandchildren.

Throughout her life, Floyd’s said her desire has been to be a Christian example.

“My passion in life is to always be that example, that others can see the Lord through me,” Floyd said. She believes this can be accomplished by “trying to think before you speak and to always study and try to have that closer walk with the Lord and then just to let others feel God’s love through you.”

Floyd desires to be an example not only to her family but also to her church family whom she has served in various capacities throughout the years, teaching children’s church and first and second grade Sunday School and discipleship training.

One of the greatest joys in Floyd’s life is her grandchildren.

“I think one of the greatest gifts is praying with them,” Floyd said. Of her granddaughter Caroline, Floyd said, “if she’s hurt or she feels sad she’ll call me on the phone and she’ll say, ‘Nana will you pray with me’? To me, that’s one of the greatest blessings you could ever have.”

“It’s a great blessing to see now that I have my children, they have families of their own and they’re both very dedicated Christians and they have Christian homes and Christian families,” Floyd said. “Through the years when we’ve prayed together, I have always told them the most valuable gift they could ever give us was to be the kind of Christian they know they should be and that God wanted them to be and for other people to recognize that they truly are children of God.”

Life has not always been easy for Floyd who said a difficult time was when her father had a stroke that paralyzed him and she helped her mom take care of him and run the family grocery store. Then her mom had a stroke.

“The only way she could communicate was to blink,” Floyd recalled. One night she remembers going out to the back step and praying, “Lord, I know you said you would never put more on us then we could bear.” Looking back she said, “I felt very blessed that I could take that time to take care of my mom and to be there with my dad.”

It was at that same store which her family owned where Floyd learned to do the books for the family owned business that gave her the needed skills to begin a career in business. Once her children began school an opportunity arose at Baptist College of Florida and she took it.

Thomas A. Kinchen, BCF president said Floyd exemplifies a godly woman.

“I know of no individual who better qualifies for the designation of ‘godly woman.’ Mrs. Floyd is a wonderful example of an individual who is living out her Christianity in the workplace,” Kinchen said. “I have often said that no individual is indispensible in the life of an organization. However, Polly Floyd comes closer to being indispensible in the life of BCF than almost anyone I can imagine.”

Floyd is an example to students as well as faculty. BCF junior, Lee Hyatt aid Floyd is a great example.

“Mrs. Polly is a woman who epitomizes Christ’s love for others,” Hyatt said. “She uses her position here at BCF as a ministry opportunity to students whether it be through her cheerful attitude, her help when paying school bills, or her care and compassion for students during times of trouble. She loves the students as her own and is one of our wonderful ‘BCF moms.’”

Floyd can barely contain her smile when talking about the best part of working at BCF.

“The greatest blessing of working here is seeing the students come in and how they become like your own children but then you see how they’re molded and how God works in them,” she said. “[The students] minister to us, not only that, we can minister to them.”

And that ministry continues even after students move on.

“That is a lifelong friendship you develop….” Floyd said. “I still have special ones that keep in contact.”