A Letter to My Son
To My Son,
I intended to write this letter to you shortly after you were born, but now I write this letter as you are approaching 11 months old. Time seems to have moved faster than I anticipated. It’s amazing that in such a short amount of time you are already walking, talking (some), and bring so much joy to your mother and I. I thank God that He gave us you.
We began to worry that you might not come, but you did, and we are thankful. Time never seems to be perfect or abide by our schedules. Your mother and I wanted to wait to have you after we were married awhile. We wanted time to get to know each other, and I wanted time to settle into my career. In July of 2018, I lost my grandfather. Nine months to the day I lost my other grandfather. I thank God that I had them for over 30 years, but I’m sorry you will not get to meet them in this life. After losing them, I wanted to give my family good news—you. It took a while for that to happen, and we began to think it might not. So we decided to take a break as the world got crazy (more on that some other day), and then you happened.
Son, I want you to know that your mother and I love you very much. You are one of our greatest blessings that we have together. You bring joy and happiness into this home. While waking up during the night is quite obnoxious, I enjoy being the first in your room in the morning so that I can see your big grin light up across your face and have that first big hug you give every morning.
You are a happy boy. I pray to God that you always keep that happiness. This physical life can interfere with happiness if you let it. Always remember you get to decide, not circumstances, if you’re happy.
You are filled with so much energy. I almost wish I could harvest that. Always stay active and energetic. God designed you to move, so move.
You are stubborn. Stubbornness will serve you well when life gets hard if you hold on to it. Life will try to get you to submit, so don’t. Trust the Lord that He will look over you, but lean into hard things when they come. Your stubbornness is going to lead to many altercations between you and I, but let’s make a promise to each other that we will be open minded, yes?
Son, I want you to know that this life is beautiful. It was designed beautiful. Don’t let the ugly things in this life steal away the beauty in it. I also want you to know that your mother and I will always love you, no matter what. It is our sincere hope and prayer that you will always walk with the Lord. I can promise you life will be a lot easier for you if you do. You will at times fail – but I encourage you to get back on to the path. Failure is enviable but following the Lord is a choice that you will have to make repeatedly until it is cemented into your heart. Failure does not define you, what you do with it does. Always remember that.
This is cliché, but is something my father always reminded me, and I will remind you— remember who you are. Life gets in the way of remembering, but you come from a long line of God-fearing men. Honorable men. Continue that legacy. This is the greatest request I can make of you. Continually seek the Lord as the men who have gone before have. If you forgot, son, I’ll be here to remind you as long as the Lord sees me fit to be here on Earth.
One thing I do ask, please forgive me when I fail you, and I will. I do not think it is possible for a father not to wrong a son in some way, even unintentionally. At times I am going to make the wrong call. While my fatherhood is young, I’m not too stupid to not recognize I will fail you at times. I may hurt you, even deeply, but I pray you will let this go, do not let it take up residence in your heart.
Love,
Your Father
