I appreciate all of you that have joined my blog family.  I usually write about leadership and self-development.  I try to stay away from “preaching” or talking about myself all the time.  Today will be different.

Almost twenty-six years ago God gave Paula and I our first child, a son, Nathan.  I don’t believe there is anything that compares to the feeling of being a Father.  God blessed us with a beautiful daughter, Lauren, almost twenty-two years ago.

Today is a day I have known would come, but never looked forward to seeing. Nathan graduated college three years ago and has worked for me ever since.  Today his SUV is packed, his bills are paid, and his plans have come together.  He is moving out of our home, and becoming his own man.

I think of a verse in the Bible that talks about this kind of thing. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things”(1 Corinthians 13:11).

1-    I trained him for this day.  When he was a boy, I took him with me to our church early every Sunday morning. He learned where every light switch was located and how to set a thermostat.  I threw him a baseball and tried to help him learn football.  Paula and I were his taxi to all kinds of sporting events and church events.  We watched him go to All-Stars and even win the MVP trophy in the state basketball championships. He was learning to become a man.

2-    I taught him to plan for this day.  Often we have talked about being a man.  We have talked about honesty and respect.  I tried to teach him to respect and honor his mother, knowing that would be how he would one day respect a wife.  I taught him to say “yes, sir” and “no, sir” because respecting authority was paramount. I watched him excel as a young man in learning to work hard.  For about three summers he worked for a moving company.  Leaving at daylight and often coming home at midnight.  Working hard but never quitting.  He was learning to become a man.

3-    I watched him mature into a godly man.  Ever since he was a boy he has been a leader.  He often got himself in trouble even as a first and second grader trying to coach other players on his team.  In each thing he has attempted, he has learned not only the basics, he has learned to excel.  He is completing a Seminary degree and planning other things with his life.  He has financially accomplished as young man what many older men never do; a debt-free mentality.  He has mentored a number of young Middle and High School students, and taught them what he was taught.  He has now become a man.

This is not a day I wanted to see, but it is a day I believe must be.  I am now the proud father of a young son who became a man.