Impact I’ve taught in prisons and jails, juvenile detention centers and homeless shelters for the last 50 years. What I experienced recently provides the wind beneath my wings. Recently, after Covid weakened and Hutchins State Jail reopened, I started back teaching the Abiding Fathers curriculum there. Before the class started, a young man came in […]
Taking action My friend, Bill, and I were visiting recently about a meeting he had with about 15 younger fathers and fathers-to-be. Each of them was attending the meeting to learn how they could be or become the father they wanted to be and knew they were supposed to be. The common request in the […]
The final conversation This past May, my wife, Laura, and I graduated our second son, Ben, from high school. In the months leading up to graduation, as the date grew closer, I began to have this overwhelming desire to have one final conversation with Ben before he left for college to make sure we had […]
What if? There is a child’s game called ‘What if?’. Many of you may have played it sometime in your life, or something similar. The object is for someone, probably an adult, to pose situations to a child that they may face in real life. One might be—‘what if you successfully climbed a tree, but […]
A father’s love I was on vacation, sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a lodge or restaurant somewhere with my oldest daughter, Nal, in my lap. She was 2 years old or so at the time, and had her head on my chest, awake, relaxed as we soaked in the moment. An […]
Adventures Growing up, did you ever have an adventure that you took with your father? If your father was busy or not present, did you ever have friends that you joined on different adventures? Growing up in the Midwest, the kind of adventures we sought out many times depended on the seasons. In the winter, […]
I am a simple-minded guy. I look for the simplicity in all things, even the complex. So, as I reflected on what it takes to raise kids of whom the world and God can be proud, I realized that fathers are nothing more than bridge builders. When we build bridges as fathers, we connect our […]
Disappointment Think back to a time when you’ve been disappointed in your son or daughter. For some of you, it’s a recent event. What is your response as a father? My standard response as a father of young men is the cold shoulder. My mood is cool. My talk is staccato. My look is downcast. […]
Roy predetermined that his child was going to go in a certain direction instead of listening to what his boys wanted to do. Roy was very athletic and as a father, he wanted his boys to follow in his footsteps. ‘You’re either going into the military or going to play sports in college’. He thought […]