On this father’s day, check out this quote by then-senator Barrack Obama:
“Children who grow up without a father are 5 times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, 9 times more likely to drop out of schools, and 20x more likely to end up in prison.”
At some point in the past number of years, I’ve made a switch from cool (ish, at least in my mind) guy to somehow being everybody’s dad.
Nice things said to or about me are inevitably descriptors like wise or stable or reliable.
Nobody every says cool or with-it or anything within ten thousand miles of ‘sexy.’
I kind of didn’t like it at first. Watching my hair go grey and then fall out. Watching my beard turn white and feeling tinges of arthritis in my knees.I felt like the Velveteen rabbit who was loved so well that all the fur got rubbed off his head.
But my views have changed and I’ve embraced this new role. I believe that all of us men should strive to be father figures to younger men in our lives. I’ve always said to my kids that every lucky person has more than one father figure in their lives.
I’ve had several men who have spoken into my life and helped me grow.
Due to death, divorce, and deadbeat dads, lots of people don’t have positive father figures. They walk through life with a big missing piece. A void.
So my challenge to the men today is to become a positive father figure to a younger person in your life.
Take a young person out for coffee. Mentor someone at work. Take them under your wing. Build into their lives. Drop them a note.
Whether you have biological children or not, be a dad to someone, and leave a legacy beyond the scope of your own family.
