Letters to My Boys #003: The Dignity of Work

My dear boys,

There are certain conversations I hope we have many times throughout your lives. Some will happen while we’re sitting around a campfire. Others while we’re driving to a baseball game, casting fishing lines from a pier, hiking a wooded trail, or simply working side by side on a project around the house. Those are often the moments when fathers teach their sons the most.

But life doesn’t always unfold the way we hope it will, so I’m writing these letters because I want you to know your father’s heart. I want you to know what I believe, what I’ve learned, where I’ve failed, and, most importantly, what God’s Word has taught me along the way. My prayer is that years from now, whether you’re seventeen or seventy, you’ll pull these letters off a shelf or find them tucked away in an old folder and hear my voice again.

Today’s letter is about something that will consume a large part of your lives, work. Not careers, promotions, salaries or retirement, but work. Because long before you ever become husbands or fathers, before you buy your first home or earn your first promotion, God has already called you to become men who understand the dignity of work. Unfortunately, that’s a lesson our world is beginning to forget.  Buckle up, this is going to be a long one.

God Invented Work

One of the greatest misunderstandings many people have about the Bible is believing that work was God’s punishment for sin. It wasn’t. Work existed before sin ever entered the world. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, before there were weeds, sweat, pain, and death, God gave Adam meaningful responsibility.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” – Genesis 2:15

The Garden of Eden was perfect. There was no suffering, brokenness, frustration, exhaustion. Yet there was work. Adam wasn’t sitting in a hammock eating fruit all day. He was cultivating, naming animals, caring for God’s creation. Organizing, building, stewarding. God could have done every one of those things Himself, but instead, He invited man to participate.

That tells me something profound. God created us not merely to exist, but to contribute, build, improve, cultivate, solve problems, serve others. Work wasn’t beneath Adam, it was part of God’s perfect design. Then sin entered the world and everything changed. But notice carefully what Scripture says, God did not curse work, he cursed the ground.

“Cursed is the ground because of you… By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” – Genesis 3:17,19

Work became difficult. The ground resisted. The body grew tired. The sun became hotter. The muscles became sore. The weeds grew faster than the crops. Deadlines became stressful. People became difficult, but work itself remained good.

That distinction is important. If work were evil, God would never command us to do it. Instead, Scripture repeatedly calls us to diligence, excellence, perseverance, and faithfulness. The curse made work harder, it did not make work less holy.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #1 – Work is not God’s punishment. It is one of His gifts.

You Were Created to Glorify God Through Your Work

Boys, I hope you never measure your worth by the size of your paycheck. Our culture does. God doesn’t.

Our world celebrates celebrities, athletes, CEOs, influencers, and entrepreneurs. It often overlooks the farmer who grows our food, the mechanic who keeps families safe on the road, the lineman restoring power after a storm, the sanitation worker who keeps neighborhoods clean, the teacher who molds young minds, or the factory worker who quietly shows up every morning without recognition. God sees every one of them. Every honest vocation has dignity because every honest vocation can glorify God.

Paul writes,

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24

Notice what Paul doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Whatever ministry you do…” He doesn’t say, “Whatever church activity you participate in…” He says, Whatever you do. That includes mowing lawns, writing reports, driving trucks, building houses, teaching children, organizing logistics, changing diapers, washing dishes, sweeping floors, cleaning bathrooms, designing websites, running machines, fixing broken equipment, and planting gardens.

Every honest task can become an act of worship when it is done for Christ. That changes everything. You may have a boss someday. You may have customers. You may own a business. You may answer to a supervisor, but ultimately, boys, you work for One Master. Jesus Christ.

That means you don’t cut corners because everyone else does. You don’t cheat because no one is looking. You don’t lie on your timecard. You don’t steal company supplies. You don’t waste hours scrolling your phone while someone else pays you to work, because whether your employer sees it or not, God does.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #2 – Your real Boss is Jesus. Work in a way that makes Him proud.

Excellence Is an Act of Worship

Consider this verse:

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.” – Ecclesiastes 9:10

Notice what Solomon doesn’t add. He doesn’t say,

“…if you enjoy it.”
“…if you’re appreciated.”
“…if your boss is nice.”
“…if you’re paid enough.”
“…if someone thanks you.”

He simply says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. That kind of attitude is becoming rare. People often ask, “What’s the bare minimum I can do?” God asks, “Will you give Me your best?” There’s a difference. One serves self, the other worships God.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #3 – Excellence is not perfection. It’s giving God your honest best.

Remember Where You Came From

I also want you boys to know something about your family. Long before I ever sat behind a computer designing websites or creating marketing campaigns, the men in our family worked with their hands. Your great-grandfather spent decades working for Ford. So did your grandfather. Every morning they got up, went to work, came home tired, and got up to do it again the next day. Not because every day was exciting or easy, but because their families depended on them.

On your grandma’s side of the family, your great-grandfather spent his career working in steel production.

Those were hard jobs.
Dirty jobs.
Physically demanding jobs.
Jobs that left calluses instead of trophies.

Yet those men built something that can never be measured by a paycheck. They built character, reputations, and families. They taught the next generation that a man keeps his word and carries his responsibilities whether he feels like it or not.

Boys, never forget where you came from. Be grateful for the sacrifices of the people who came before you.

The house you grow up in…
The clothes you wear…
The food on your table…
The opportunities you’ll have…
Someone worked for every one of those blessings.

Gratitude should produce humility, humility should produce diligence, and diligence should produce faithful work.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #4 – Never forget that someone else’s hard work made your life possible. Honor their sacrifice by becoming a diligent man yourself.

The World Is Forgetting the Dignity of Work

As I look around today, I see something that concerns me. Our world has become incredibly convenient. Artificial intelligence is taking over jobs. Robots can build products. Machines can mow lawns. Apps can deliver groceries. With a few taps on a phone, someone else can cook your dinner, drive you across town, shop for your food, or assemble something you could have learned to build yourself.

Now don’t misunderstand me. Technology isn’t the enemy. In fact, I’ve spent much of my career using technology to communicate, design, write, and solve problems. Technology can be an incredible blessing when it’s used wisely. But convenience can become dangerous when it teaches us to avoid effort.

Previous generations understood something we must never lose.

They knew where food came from.
They planted gardens.
They fixed broken things.
They sharpened tools.
They changed their own oil.
They built barns, fences, sheds, and homes.
They learned skills because there often wasn’t another option.

Today many people would rather pay someone else than learn how to do the work themselves. There are certainly times when hiring an expert is wise, but don’t become a man who avoids learning simply because something is difficult. Learn how to work with your mind, hands, to solve problems, build things, repair things, become useful.

Remember when you boys overloaded our washing machine and it spun so wildly out of whack that it walked across our basement floor? With a couple of  Youtube videos and a whole day of elbow grease, I took the whole thing apart, assessed the problem, replaced with new steel parts versus plastic and gave the machine another 20 years of life (hopefully).  That what I’m talking about.

One of the greatest compliments someone can give you isn’t that you’re wealthy. It’s that you’re dependable. That when something needs to be done, you’re the kind of man people can count on.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #5 – Become the kind of man who solves problems instead of creating them.

As you grow older, you’ll discover that work is about far more than earning a living. God uses work to shape our character, humble our pride, teach us perseverance, and prepare us for greater responsibilities. Before you ever receive a paycheck, He’s already preparing your heart.

And that preparation has already begun. It begins every morning when your alarm goes off. It begins at your desk in school, with homework, with the choices you make today. That’s where I want to take you next.

School Is Your First Job

Right now, boys, you probably don’t think of yourselves as workers. After all, you don’t have a paycheck, you don’t clock in, or pay taxes. You don’t wake up at 5 in the morning to drive to a factory or office, but don’t let that fool you, you already have a job. It’s called school. Homework, reading assignments, math problems, book reports, science projects, spelling tests, research papers. Learning.

Whether you realize it or not, school is preparing you for your future vocation. It is teaching your mind how to think, your character how to persevere, and your heart how to respond to responsibilities you don’t always enjoy.

One day God may call you to become a teacher, an engineer, a welder, a pastor, a police officer, a mechanic, an entrepreneur, a designer, a missionary, a doctor, or perhaps something that doesn’t even exist yet. Whatever He calls you to do, your habits are already being formed. That’s why I want you to take school seriously. Not because grades or getting into the best college is everything, and definitely not because I expect perfection, but because the quality of your work today is preparing you for the quality of your work tomorrow.

Jesus said,

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much…” – Luke 16:10

Homework is one of those “little things.” If you learn to be faithful with small responsibilities now, you’ll be prepared when God entrusts you with much larger ones later.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #6 – School isn’t simply preparing you for a career. It’s preparing you to become the kind of man your career deserves.

Learn From My Mistakes

Now let me tell you about a mistake your dad made. Actually, several mistakes. When I was in high school, I was naturally smart. That may sound prideful to say, but it’s true, and it actually became one of my biggest weaknesses, because school came fairly easily to me, I convinced myself I didn’t need to work very hard. If I enjoyed a class, I usually did well. If I didn’t enjoy it, I did enough to get by.

I looked at certain classes and thought,

“I’ll never use this.”
“This has nothing to do with my future.”
“Why should I put much effort into something I’ll never need?”

Looking back, I realize those weren’t the thoughts of a hardworking young man. They were the thoughts of a prideful one. I had confused intelligence with wisdom. God had given me certain abilities, but instead of developing them with discipline, I relied on natural talent. Talent will only take you so far. Character is what carries you the rest of the way.

That attitude followed me into college. I wasn’t failing. I wasn’t getting into trouble, but I wasn’t giving my very best either. I often settled for “good enough.” I studied enough to pass. Worked enough to finish, applied enough effort to get the degree.

I once had a t-shirt that said “Slacker” on it and I was once proud to wear it. Looking back now, I wish I had approached every assignment as an opportunity to honor God instead of merely satisfy a professor.

Then something changed. Graduate school. This time I wasn’t just attending classes. I was paying for every single one of them.  I had been working for a little while by then and suddenly every assignment mattered. Every wasted hour had a dollar amount attached to it. Every missed opportunity cost me something.

Do you know what happened? I earned straight A’s. Did I suddenly become smarter? No. I simply became more disciplined. Somehow I aced Managerial Economics, Managerial Accounting, and Business Law all in a row. Three subjects that I could care less about now. The ability had always been there. The discipline was not.

Boys, don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t wait until life becomes expensive before you decide to work hard. Work hard, give your best, and honor God now. Whether it’s math, english, history, science, music, or a subject you think you’ll never use again, give it your best anyway. Not because your teacher deserves it, but because God does.

Paul writes,

“Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31

Notice he doesn’t say, “Whatever you enjoy.” He says, Whatever you do. That includes homework.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #7 – Don’t let your natural ability become an excuse for a poor work ethic.

Never Stop Learning

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is that education doesn’t end when you receive a diploma. In many ways, that’s when it really begins. The men who stop learning eventually stop growing.

Read books.
Ask questions.
Learn from older people.
Develop new skills.
Listen more than you speak.
Never become too proud to admit you don’t know something.

One of the wisest men who ever lived wrote,

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” – Proverbs 9:9

I hope you become men who are always learning, not because knowledge makes you important, but because wisdom helps you serve God and other people more faithfully.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #8 – The day you think you’ve learned everything is the day you’ve stopped growing.

Expect Setbacks

There is another lesson I learned in graduate school that has stayed with me for decades. One of my professors looked around the classroom and said something that caught all of us off guard. He said, “At some point in your career, expect that you’ll probably be fired or downsized.”

I remember thinking, “I hope that won’t happen to me.” I believed that if I worked hard, stayed loyal, and did good work, everything would work out. I was wrong. Years later, at forty-six years old, after spending decades building a career that I truly loved, I was downsized because of a corporate economic downturn.

It wasn’t because I had done something wrong. It wasn’t because I didn’t care about my work. My boss, the VP of Marketing Communications, and many of the other publisher’s I worked with stated, I had served the company very well and wasn’t being downsized for performance. Sometimes businesses simply have to make painful decisions. One day I had the career I had spent years building. The next day I didn’t.

I haven’t found another career position in my field since. This season has humbled me. It forced me to ask questions I had never really asked before.

Who am I…if I’m no longer a marketing director?
Who am I…if I don’t have the career I spent years building?
What gives my life value?

Those were difficult questions, but they pointed me back to the only answer that truly matters. My identity was never supposed to be found in my career. It was always supposed to be found in Christ.

Jobs change.
Titles disappear.
Companies close.
Economies rise and fall.
Technology replaces industries.

But Jesus Christ never changes. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us,

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

If your identity is built on your career, you’ll always fear losing it. If your identity is built on Christ, you’ll have something no layoff, recession, or hardship can ever take away.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #9 – Your career is what you do. Your identity is whose you are. Never confuse the two.

As important as school is, it isn’t the only classroom God will use to shape you. Some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned didn’t happen behind a desk or inside a lecture hall. They happened while digging holes, carrying heavy loads, cleaning up messes, working jobs nobody bragged about, and doing things I simply didn’t feel like doing. Those lessons are the ones I want to share with you next.

Character Is Built Through Work

Boys, some of the greatest lessons God has ever taught me didn’t come from a classroom. They came from work. Not glamorous or exciting work, just plain, ordinary, physical labor. Long before I ever sat behind a computer designing websites, creating marketing campaigns, or leading communications teams, I worked jobs that taught me something far more valuable than technical skills.

I worked in a greenhouse.
I worked in a hardware store.
I worked in restaurants.
I worked in landscaping.
I worked in retail.
I worked general labor jobs.

Some of those jobs were dirty, physically exhausting, and paid very little. Some were repetitive. Some were frustrating, but every one of them taught me something about becoming a man.

Those jobs taught me to show up on time.
To work when I was tired.
To respect authority.
To finish what I started.
To treat customers with kindness.
To take pride in doing ordinary things well.

Those lessons followed me into every career I had afterward. Whether I was serving organizations in legal services, financial services, real estate, nonprofit,  ministry, advertising, publishing, or marketing, I carried those same lessons with me.

Your first job isn’t simply teaching you how to earn money. It’s teaching you how to become trustworthy.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #10 – Your first job establishes your first reputation. Guard it carefully.

The Value of Physical Labor

One thing I hope you never become is afraid of hard work. Your generation is growing up in a world unlike any before it. Never become so dependent on technology that you lose the ability to work with your own hands. Learn how to use tools, fix things, plant a garden, change a tire, paint a wall, build something, sharpen a knife. Learn how to solve problems before paying someone else to solve them for you.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #11 – A man who can work with both his mind and his hands is a blessing wherever he goes.

Why I Made You Move Bricks

There have been times when you’ve wondered why I asked you to do certain jobs around the house. Moving bricks, spreading rubber mulch, pulling weeds, chopping and stacking wood, cleaning, sweeping. Carrying things from one side of the yard to the other.

Sometimes I even had you undo work and do it again because it wasn’t done correctly. I know some of those jobs felt pointless.

You probably wondered, “Why can’t Dad just do this himself?” Or, “Why are we moving this again?”

The answer is simple. I wasn’t only trying to finish a project. I was trying to build men. I wanted you to understand that meaningful work isn’t always exciting. Sometimes it’s repetitive, uncomfortable, hot enough that your shirt is soaked before lunch. Sometimes it’s cold enough that your fingers ache and your nose hairs freeze together. Sometimes you’re sore, filthy, tired. Sometimes the task seems completely unimportant. And yet…It still needs to be done.

The world is full of people looking for meaningful work while ignoring the meaningful character that ordinary work produces. Character isn’t usually built on mountaintops. It’s built while doing things you’d rather not do.

Let’s look at Colossians again,

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord…” – Colossians 3:23

He didn’t say, “Only when it’s enjoyable.” Or, “Only when people appreciate you.”

He simply said, Whatever you do. That includes moving bricks.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #12 – Sometimes God builds your character through work long before He changes your circumstances.

Work as Discipline

There is something else I want you to understand. There were times when your consequence for fighting, lying, disrespecting authority, or directly disobeying wasn’t losing a privilege. It was work.

Some people won’t understand that.  The court system doesn’t understand that.  Your mother doesn’t understand this, but I hope someday you will. I wasn’t trying to make you miserable. I wasn’t trying to embarrass you. I wasn’t trying to get free labor. I was trying to teach you that discipline should produce something valuable.

The Bible tells us,

“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” – Hebrews 12:6

A few verses later we read,

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” — Hebrews 12:11

Discipline isn’t merely about consequences. It’s about training.

Training your heart.
Training your attitude.
Training your habits.
Training your perseverance.

When I asked you to complete difficult work after you had made poor choices, my hope wasn’t simply that you would remember the consequence. My hope was that you would become stronger because of it. I wanted you to experience that hard things can produce good fruit. That work can humble us. That effort can teach patience. That perseverance can become a lifelong habit.

Someday you may not agree with every decision I made as your father. That’s okay, but I hope you’ll always know why I made them. Everything I did was because I wanted to prepare you for adulthood, not simply make childhood easier.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #13 – Good discipline doesn’t just punish wrong behavior. It trains right character.

A Confession From Dad

Now I need to tell you something that I’m not proud of. There was a season in my own career when I slowly became comfortable. As my career progressed, working from home became more common, especially following the COVID-19 era. At first it was a tremendous blessing. It eliminated commuting, gave me flexibility, and allowed me to focus, but over time, I began taking some of those blessings for granted.

I still completed my assignments, met deadlines and produced good work. From the outside, everything probably looked fine, but God saw something no one else could. There were days when I didn’t give Him my very best. There were days when I let comfort replace diligence. There were moments when I took advantage of the fact that no supervisor was looking over my shoulder. Nobody at work may have known, but God did.

That realization has humbled me. I don’t say this because I think God downsized me as punishment. I don’t know all of God’s purposes, but I do know this, He used that season to expose something in my own heart. He reminded me that my work was never supposed to depend on whether someone else was watching. It was always supposed to be done for Him.

Paul writes,

“Not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” – Ephesians 6:6

That verse still convicts me, because there were days I acted more like I was working for a paycheck than serving Christ. Learn from my mistake. If your boss leaves early, keep working. If your teacher walks out of the room, keep working. If nobody is checking your effort, keep working, because integrity isn’t revealed when people are watching, it’s revealed when they aren’t.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #14 – The truest measure of your work ethic is what you do when no one else is looking.

Strength Comes Before Success

Our culture tells young men to chase success. God tells us to pursue faithfulness. Success may come, it may not. Faithfulness though, is always within your control.

Never be ashamed of honest work.
Never think you’re too important to carry something heavy.
Never believe certain jobs are beneath you.

The strongest men I have ever known weren’t always the wealthiest. They were the ones who quietly carried responsibilities year after year without complaining. They got up when they didn’t feel like it, kept their promises, provided for their families, served others, and they glorified God through ordinary, unseen faithfulness.

Boys, that’s the kind of men I pray you’ll become, not famous, not rich, but faithful. Because in God’s kingdom, faithfulness is always greater than fame.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #15 – God has never asked you to become famous. He has asked you to become faithful.

A Man’s Calling

As I finish this letter, I want to leave you with one final lesson that I hope you’ll carry with you for the rest of your lives. One day you’ll become men. Not because you reach a certain birthday, graduate from school, get married, or have children. You’ll become men because you’ll gradually learn to accept responsibility.

Responsibility is one of the greatest differences between a boy and a man. Boys wait for someone else to take care of them. Men begin asking, “Who has God entrusted to my care?” That question changes everything.

Providing Is More Than Making Money

The Bible places a tremendous responsibility on men.

Paul writes,

“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” – 1 Timothy 5:8

Those are strong words. Providing isn’t simply about earning the biggest paycheck. It’s about accepting responsibility. Sometimes providing means working long hours, taking a second job, starting over after losing the career you loved. Sometimes it means doing work that isn’t glamorous because your family needs groceries more than your pride needs applause.

Never believe that honest work is beneath you.

If God calls you to lead a company, lead it well.
If He calls you to teach children, teach faithfully.
If He calls you to work in a factory, work with integrity.
If He calls you to dig ditches, dig them with excellence.
If He calls you to clean bathrooms, clean them as though Jesus Himself were going to inspect them.

There is dignity in every honest vocation. Don’t ever let the world convince you otherwise.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE  #16 – No honest job is beneath a godly man.

The Family God Designed

I also want to tell you something I believe with all my heart. I believe God created men with a unique responsibility to provide for and protect their families. That doesn’t mean women aren’t gifted. They are. It doesn’t mean women can’t contribute financially. Many do, and many families depend on two incomes in today’s world, but I hope that as you grow into men, you never try to hand off the responsibility God has entrusted to you.

Don’t wait for someone else to carry the weight. Carry it yourself.

Be willing to sacrifice.
Be willing to work.
Be willing to do difficult things.
Be willing to put your family’s needs ahead of your own comfort.

That is servant leadership. That’s what Jesus modeled. Our Lord didn’t lead by demanding to be served.

He led by serving.
He washed feet.
He carried a cross.
He laid down His life.

The greatest leaders are always the greatest servants.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #17 – Real leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s about taking responsibility.

Success According to God

Our culture has a very different definition of success than Scripture does. The world asks,

How much money did you make?
How many followers do you have?
How big is your house?
What kind of car do you drive?
How impressive is your résumé?

God asks different questions.

Were you faithful?
Did you love Me?
Did you love your family?
Did you tell the truth?
Did you keep your word?
Did you work with integrity?
Did you serve other people?
Did you glorify Me?

Those are the questions that matter. One day you’ll stand before Christ. He won’t ask how many promotions you earned, how many awards were hanging on your office wall, or how many people knew your name. He’ll care about your faithfulness.

Jesus said,

“Well done, good and faithful servant.” – Matthew 25:21

Faithfulness is success in God’s eyes.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #18 – God measures faithfulness before He measures success.

My Prayer for You

Boys, by the time you read this, I hope you’ll remember that your dad wasn’t perfect. I’ve made mistakes, been prideful, impatient. I’ve allowed work to become too important at times. I’ve taken shortcuts and failed to give God my very best on some days. I’ve placed too much confidence in my career and not enough in Christ.

If there’s one thing I hope you learn from my failures, it’s this:

Don’t waste yours.
Learn from them.
Build on them.
Grow because of them.
And never be too proud to admit them.

I pray you’ll become men who love Jesus more than success. Men who are known for honesty before talent, show up early, finish what they start, keep their promises, humble enough to keep learning, and can work with both their minds and their hands. Men who never believe they’re too important to do ordinary work, protect the weak, provide for their families, and love their wives. Men whose children feel safe because Dad always keeps his word.

I hope people describe you this way:

“If you give that man a job, he’ll do it well.”
“If he gives you his word, you can trust it.”
“If he says he’ll be there, he’ll show up.”
“He’s the same man when nobody is watching.”

If people can say those things about you, I’ll consider my job as your father a success.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #19 – When your life is over, I won’t care what your business card said. I’ll care whether your character looked like Christ.

One Final Thought

One day, long after I’m gone, someone else will speak at my funeral. I doubt they will mention the jobs I had, organizations I served, projects I completed, or articles I wrote. Those things won’t matter very much.

What I hope they’ll say is this:

“Brian loved Jesus.”
“He loved his boys.”
“He worked hard.”
“He wasn’t perfect, but he kept pointing people to Christ.”

If that is all that’s remembered about me, I’ll consider my life well spent, and if someday people say the same about each of you, I’ll be praising God from heaven.

DAD’S PRINCIPLE #20 – Leave every place better than you found it. Whether it’s a workplace, a home, a church, or a relationship, a godly man leaves behind excellence, integrity, and evidence that Christ was at work through him.

Until then, boys…

Work hard.
Love deeply.
Serve faithfully.
Stay humble.
Protect your name.
Honor your family.
Keep learning.
Finish what you start.

And above all else…Keep your eyes on Jesus.

“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” – Proverbs 16:3

I love you more than words can ever express.

Always,

Dad