November 18, 2002
Justin,
So here we are. You are a couple of months from your 18th birthday and your formal entry into manhood. It seems like such a short time ago that your life started and the process of your growth and maturity became a single blurred picture as if it were a movie played in fast forward.
I cannot help but wonder if I did my job well as a father. I many times worry that I didn’t spend enough time with you, and that I didn’t share enough of God’s word with you. Did I instill the values in you that will protect you from harm? Did I demonstrate how to love others? Have I taught you how to be happy in your pursuit of love and life? I am sure these questions will torment me, to some degree for the rest of my life.
Yet I see how you have developed and that gives me great encouragement. You have become a special young man that any parent would be proud of. You have shown that you can take on and manage responsibility in a way that will protect your future and that of your family. You have become a dedicated worker at your job and have shown that you are not lazy or expectant of others to provide for you what you can provide for yourself. You have a sensitive heart, and I don’t know of anything that shows the character of Christ more than that. Your ways are far greater than mine were at your age. I trust that the Lord has a special plan in store for your life.
So what should I tell you at this point of my life and yours? What do I wish I had known when I was your age about what would face me in the future; things that would both enrich and challenge my life, my relationships and my walk with the Lord? How can I convince you not to make the mistakes I have made without having to experience them on your own? The choices you make will be up to you but here are a few things I would ask you to consider as you pass into manhood.
- Pursue a close relationship with the Lord. While that might not seem significant at this stage of your life, you will learn as time goes on that your happiness and peace in the future revolves around this critical point. Our faith as Christians is not empty religion. Seek to draw closer to the Lord and your future will be fulfilled in ways that you will not be able to understand.
- Develop a balance between love for others and justice. Your sensitivity for others will bring many your way that will take advantage of your generosity. You would do well to develop standards that would help you filter out the insincere people that come your way verses those that God brings you to help.
- Shelter your heart and your mind. Protect yourself from the so many things that would stand in the way of you becoming the man that God wants you to be. Build boundaries that you will some day wish you could build for your son.
- Be humble. Whatever you are, whatever you have, whatever you become, whatever you accumulate will all be things that God has granted you through His love and mercy. Don’t become proud but remain thankful for those gifts.
- Pursue true love. Hunt it down, study it, figure it out and then find it. I can only tell you that when you finally find it there will be absolutely no doubt that you have it. True love is one of the strangest things you will ever experience yet it is also one of the most satisfying. It comes with a total peace and happiness that leaves no question in your mind or heart.
- Be a patriot. Determine to understand why so many have been willing to die for what this country stands for. Being born in this country is a special gift that will affect your future in a positive way. Learn why and develop a conviction and an understanding so you will know when to be passive and when to stand up and shout, even to fight for the freedoms we enjoy.
In the end, you have to make your own choices. You have to go your own way, and regardless of the choices you might make in life, I will always love you in a way that you will never understand until you watch your own son pass through childhood into being a man. You have made me very proud to be your father. I pray you are proud to be my son, and I pray that you will be led by the Lord into the paths of life that will bring you joy and happiness that only too few come to know. I love you more than you know.
Best Wishes,
Your Father……Your Dad