Dear Next Generation—Never A Fatherless Child

I have read dozens of self-help/improvement books; I have watched videos and listened to podcasts in hopes of becoming a better man. I have searched the internet for advice on living life, investing, and health. Typically a young boy would have a life primer from his Father passing on the wisdom he had gleaned in life; my Father lost his life in a car accident; I was five years old. I have failed in searching my memories in hopes of finding a single clear remembrance of him. I have but a few fading photos and comments from my family to stitch together to know if he would have been a good father and mentor.  He lost the opportunity to mentor me about the challenges I was about to face in a head-on crash on a lonely highway—I lost a teacher and best friend that would build my character from infancy.

I thank God for the women in my life; my grandmothers and my mother were true-grit ladies who tried and tested through the hardship of life on the Dakota Plains. These women filled the father-son gap as well as a woman can; I appreciated every kernel of wisdom they offered. My uncles had failed in their lives and offered a sprinkling of advice—most of it was terrible. Boys become Fathers, they need to know how to do the job—that stated young girls need Fathers also to protect them and show them what a good man is.

There are sadly too many fatherless young boys and men whose hardships make mine trivial. Many lost their fathers because they walked away—likely the second generation abandoned tormented boys who never grew into the men they could have been. Prisons hold thousands of fathers apart from their sons—but even those fathers could provide a boy some valuable advice for what not to do in life. If the world could eliminate the scourge of fatherless boys, most of our social ailments would vanish—because boys and young men would mentor their sons to be the better man.

To the next generation, to the fatherless, I have two nuggets of wisdom in hopes my words will be accepted and give you a life lived to the fullest:

1. Every boy, young man, has a Father who is eager to teach him to be the man He knitted in the mother’s womb. God knew there would be boys without earthly fathers—so he wrote the self-help book, the Bible. He gave all of us the roadmap to a life lived to the fullest. He made plans for all of us, plans to prosper us, provide us with hope and a future. Just seek Him out and pray for wisdom. 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

1. Every self-help book ever written has plagiarized every part of the wisdom of the Bible—it is your Father in heaven calling to you and offering everything you will ever need in life. Pick up that old dusty Bible today; it is a Love filled message to humankind—the story of God’s struggle to bring all His children home—our roadmap to a prosperous and contented life and a way home. A good place to start is the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 5-7