Fathers

You don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's.
~Robert Frost

Truth spoken by the poet. I understand this now more as a parent. Not that my children don't deserve my love, but I expect more out of them than simply being born.

I want them to become something. I want them to work hard.

In church today, we had a farmer/rancher guy talk to us about his mule being a hay burner. Doing nothing more than simply eating hay all day with nothing more to show for it.

I don't want my kids to be hay burners. Just sitting around soaking up the good life because they were born.

I want them to become something. I want them to work hard.

Because if they work hard they may turn into better people than I am.

And that is what all fathers (at least this father) really wants for their children.

But if not, I will still love them. My heart, however, will ache for that thing which they could have become.

Cheers,

Nathan

P.S. Dad - I have been a hay burner at times, but there have been times that I have caught the vision you had for me. I am grateful for your love and support for a young man trailing behind you on a very long road. One day, I hope to catch up. Though it may not be in this lifetime.