(Photo courtesy of the Hiott family)

                                                 Davey and Lisa Hiott


        And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.

 Colossians 3:23 is a verse Davey Hiott remembers from Bible drills as a youngster at Pickens First Baptist Church, and is scripture that he values in his role as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. “Being in politics now, that verse will ring in my ears, because people will be watching,” he told this writer, in an interview with The Christian View. “You can’t compromise what you believe in. You can’t get caught up in trying to please human beings. You need to please God first. There is no doubt that verse was taught to me at an early age for where I am right now."
        He had two opportunities to put into practice the meaning of that verse even before he took office.

  He and his wife, Lisa, had six places to be one night that December. Their son, Lander, then a seventh grader at Pickens Middle School, and their daughter, Salley, then a fifth grader at Hagood Elementary School, each had a Christmas program at their schools. Salley sang a song in Spanish, and Lander played in the band. “The kids won,” said Lisa. One of the opportunities they turned down was a party at the Governor’s Mansion for all of the legislators. “A lot of people said they would have gone to the Governor’s Mansion,” said Lisa, “but we won’t push the kids aside. This was their Christmas program, for which they had practiced for months. Davey made a decision that surprised a lot of people. The Governor will not always be the Governor, but Lander and Salley will always be our children.”

 Another opportunity had come earlier to meet with the Governor, but Hiott received the call while driving his wife to the Atlanta airport to go on a mission trip to Peru. “Davey said, ‘No, I’m sorry, but my wife is going on a mission trip and won’t be back for ten days, and I’m ‘Mr. Mom’,’” Lisa recalled. “Our children were shocked. Our son even said, ‘Dad, that was the Governor.’ Davey said, ‘Son, he’ll still be the Governor when your Mom gets back from the mission trip.’ I’m with them 50 weeks out of the year, but when I can’t be there, he’ll be there, even if he has to miss something that would look like an opportunity to improve his standing somewhere. He’s not there (in Columbia) to improve his popularity. That spoke to the children, because they realize that, even though he is going to be gone a lot, and there will be a lot of things on his mind, they’re still ahead of all of that, when it comes right down to it. I think that’s important for the children to know. Being a good daddy is important to him. Sometimes, he plays with them too late at night, and it makes me want to get hold of all three of them. But he’s a conscientious daddy, and he’s not going to blow his kids off in search of accolades from other people..”
        Hiott said that his Christian faith will play a role in his decision making in Columbia, as it has throughout his life. “Anytime you make a decision, you have to decide, in your own heart first, whether it’s right or wrong. Anytime you make a decision, you’re going to upset some folks, but you have to make a decision you think is right, and live by that. The way I look at it, what you were taught, growing up, being right from wrong, is how you base your political life. I’ll make my decision, and, if I feel comfortable with it, I’ll live with it, and go from there.”
        The Hiotts spoke with fondness for their church as well as their Pastor, Fred Stone. “We have a great staff and a Pastor who is not ashamed to stand up and preach the Bible,” said Hiott. “He preaches God’s Word and has Scripture to back up what he says. “If someone does not like what he says, and it’s coming straight out of God’s Word, then they need to take it up with God,” said Lisa. “He does not hesitate to preach it,” said Hiott. “Many Sunday mornings, I have left there, thinking, ‘What did you preach that sermon for?’ But it was something we were supposed to hear. He is not ashamed to preach and not ashamed to stand up in the pulpit and proclaim it. He is a great man.
        “Our church has the ability to reach out to people, and we understand the needs of the community. We understand that people have specific needs that we can address and help.”
        One way Pickens First Baptist reaches out to the youth of the community is through hosting Pickens High School’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) meetings, which begin before 7 a.m. each Friday throughout the school year. “Our Pastor is involved and is very concerned about the youth of our church and of our community,” said Hiott. “He encouraged our church to allow them to use the fellowship hall, because he feels it is a good outreach for our church. He and the church staff and the church membership have been very supportive. Some men are there every Friday morning at 5:00 (to cook breakfast for the students). That’s their place of service, and they do a great job.”
        “It’s a great thing, because so many churches work together,” added Lisa. “And these are men whose children are grown, and they wouldn’t have to be up there cooking for a bunch of teenagers.”
        “We have such great leadership in our youth program and in our children’s program, and that’s one of the reasons our church is growing, because churches grow with the young people,” said Hiott. “We’re not just entertaining them. They’re being taught. They can have a good time, but they’re being taught God’s Word, every time the doors are open."
        “We're very active in our church,” said Lisa, who teaches an English class for Hispanic adults at Pickens First Baptist, in addition to the ESL classes she teaches at Hagood Elementary, Pickens Middle School, and Pickens High School for non-English speaking students. The number of students who attend the class at church can vary, from one to 18. Often, attendance depends upon the weather, as the students, who are in their late teens or early 20’s, walk to the church.
        “God leading me through this is sort of a funny story,” she said. “I’m slow to take a hint, sometimes, but He eventually can get through to me. God calls you into things, and God can call you out of things, too. God doesn’t necessarily intend that somebody do the same thing forever. But every time I think to myself that I’m not going to continue, because the class is getting smaller, that will be the time that more people will come to the very next class. Last winter, when we came back after Christmas, we had just a very small group coming. I thought those guys were making a major effort to get there, and I really felt like they were coming partly because they didn’t want me to be disappointed. In my prayer time one day, I said, ‘I think it’s time to quit. If I don’t have ten people come to the next two classes, then I’ll know it’s time to quit.’ I had meant five for each of the two classes that week. The very next day, I had 11 people. So, God speaks. I was like, ‘Okay, that was very funny. It was funny for you to send 11 people.’ I had 11 people that night and 11 people the next class night. I never had a class again that year with more than three, but I knew that I did not have permission, for whatever reason, to end this. Now, I feel like going until God says stop or until God says to hand it over to somebody else. We don’t have many Spanish speakers at our church, but we want to open the doors to people who would like to come into a church and get to know Christians. We present them with tracts and give them an opportunity to come to Sunday School class, which I teach.”
        In addition to teaching, Lisa also enjoys being taught the Bible, as she is involved in a ladies Bible study at Pickens First Baptist. ‘That is where I get a lot of my disciplining,” she said. “I like that we have older ladies and younger ladies. I’m one of the younger ones, although not the youngest, so the things I’m going through, the older ladies have already gone through. They have a different view and can help me with things I’m going through. I have taught Bible studies, too, but the ones I benefit the most from are ones that I go to. Ladies who are very active in church are there, in the Bible study. They are godly role models, and that’s a very positive thing. And it’s a safe place. You don’t have to go into the Bible study pretending that you have it all together, because we don’t. Nobody has it all together. 
        “Helen Batson is one who encourages me. She teaches piano lessons to many children in the church. She taught me and taught both of my children. She is a very gentle, godly woman and role model. The Bible study has been an encouragement to me. When you try to live the Christian life, it’s so easy to lose your focus. It’s not that you think less of God, but that you think of God less. The study helps keep me on the right track and keeps my focus centered on God.
        “There is a lot of good, strong Christian fellowship in our church,” she added. “We have a good body of believers. Our church is not perfect, but you’re not ever going to find one that is.”
        Hiott said that, of all of the Christian influences in his life, his parents, Gary and Eloise, have been first and foremost. He has worked with his parents in the family business, Hiott Printing in Pickens. “I was born and raised in a Christian home, with devotions at the breakfast table early in the morning, whether I was awake or not,” he said. “And we all knew that, on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, we were going to church. Mom and Dad have been very strong in their beliefs, and they led me down that way, too.” As Hiott and his wife started their own family, his parents continued to be an influence and a source of encouragement.
        Hiott recalled Bible drills in his church when he was growing up. “I can remember learning the Bible verse for the week and the thought for the day, and those were really an inspiration,” he said. “Two people who taught me about the Bible were Bob Lawing and Sarah Lou Trotter. Mr. Lawing has taught our daughter in Bible drills. When I was growing up, we had several people every year in a state Bible drill. I can rattle off the books of the Bible as good as anybody because of what I learned. And some of the verses that Salley has learned are some of the same ones I learned. Studying with her sort of brings me back to when I memorized those same verses.”
        “Probably my favorite book of the Bible would be James,” said Lisa, “because James is very straightforward and very practical. And I love to read the 139th Psalm, because it deals with God being everywhere you are, God searching you, God creating you. It is a reminder that God is active in every part of your life, from the conception till the passing on. He formed us. He created us for a certain thing. The Psalm ends, search me and know my heart. He’s still with us, every day. That’s probably one of my favorite passages. 
        “I love the third Psalm also, and I enjoy reading a lot of the Old Testament. I realize that we study the New Testament because of Christ being revealed in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is very rich and full of history and God dealing with His people.”
        Hiott said that his faith, and the desire to see right decisions made for his children’s future, led him to seek office. “I’m very supportive of his doing this,” said Lisa, “because I feel that, anytime a person is doing what God wants them to do, other Christians, related or not, ought to be supportive. So I support what he does, and I told him I would be there for him, because, not only am I a Christian, but I’m his wife.”
        Downsides do exist with being involved in politics, the Hiotts have learned. “Now that we go places, that we’ve been our whole life, it’s ‘special’ that we’re there,” Lisa joked. “It was really strange when we went to dinner recently where we had eaten before. But now, the people were introducing us and clapping, and I was thinking, ‘I ate here last year, and nobody clapped. Let’s just get on with dinner.’ It was strange, because we are not people who are accustomed to having a fuss made over us. I was like, ‘Oh, man, they’re all looking at me and clapping now.’
        “All people are created by God, and all people are equally important. An Hispanic man digging a ditch is no less important than the Governor of our state. I’m no more important than anybody else. We’re exactly the same people we were last year. Nothing has changed except that he has a different position.
        “Loss of privacy is another thing I’m not comfortable with,” she added. “I did some painting recently, and I went into a store, because I needed a new brush. I looked like I had been painting; I had paint on me, because I’m a messy painter. And somebody said, ‘Do you know who this is? This is Lisa Hiott...’ And I thought, ‘Oh, man, I used to could come to this store and not be known, and I kind of liked that, being incognito when you’re looking like a painter, or looking like someone who’s trying to paint, because real painters don’t get paint all over themselves.” 
        “We still have our core group of friends who don’t ever change,” said Hiott. “They were there before I announced, and they were there after I announced, treating me the same way. They still treat me the same way, and that’s the way I like it.”
        “They’ll bring you back down to earth,” said Lisa.
        “When you go out to eat with them, they’re not going to let you think you’re better than you really are, I can tell you that,” said Hiott. “You’re going to buy your own meals, and they’re going to make fun of you, and they’re going to tell stories on you. You’re just one of them, and that’s when you feel the most relaxed. You can sort of kick back. They know who you are, and you know who you are, and everybody’s the same, just having a good time. I’m starting to enjoy that more, because, when you’re with that core group, you don’t have to ‘be somebody.’ You’re who you are.”
        Those friends, as well as family and a faith in God, keep them grounded. 
        It all goes back to that favorite verse of scripture learned in Bible drills years ago.