Fathers Say…نموونە

Launchpad of a Vision

As a kid, I’d accompany my father during the summer to his shoe repair shop in East Orange, NJ. I may have preferred to be playing baseball with his buddies, but it was also fun to just be with my dad on these occasions.

My father never pushed my brother and I to follow in his footsteps as a shoemaker. He always wanted us to have a college education, although that little trade put two of us through college. We never lacked for anything that was worth anything. My father’s sole focus was his family and providing for them.

After I graduated with my journalism degree from Boston University, I returned home and through a series of providential events, had the opportunity to launch my own publication.

This was quite an undertaking for someone with no capital, and armed only with a vision God had given to me. At that point, I partnered with someone who would become one of the greatest mentors in my life and use his non-profit organization under which to publish the magazine. That was helpful.

The only caveat was that he could not afford to pay me. Oh. Well, that could be an issue.

With vision in hand, and not much else, I approached my father and explained what I felt I was called to do—except that I could not get paid! I had been working since I was 16, including all four years in college because my father was paying for my college tuition. So, I thought that following this dream of starting the magazine might not be so well received because of the financial issue.

After explaining to my father the situation, he did not even skip a beat in his response. One I will never forget. He simply said in his broken English, “Hey, I took care of you for 22 years. What’s one more?”

Proverbs 22:6 asks parents to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” That means to understand how your child is wired for a direction in life, and not to determine that direction for them.

Though my dad did not know it, he fulfilled that verse by really saying, “Son, I believe in the direction you want to take in life and I want you to follow your dream.”

Question: Do you know the “bent” of your child? What can you do to help fulfill the way they are wired?

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