My Son - An Open Letter

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What will you be when you are grown?


A missionary in a far-off land, or just a rancher with an extraordinary wife and lots of children?

Perhaps you will be crazy enough to join the chicken industry, or the gas or oil industries. Perhaps your love for water will make you an Olympic swimmer, and you'll be the greatest that ever lived. Or maybe you'll be a veterinarian, since you seem to love all the animals you come in contact with.

Whatever life path you choose, I know one thing: you'll be good at it, and you will try your best to be great.

Yancey Lane, we are proud of you. You have inherited a headstrong personality from your parents, but also great strength and brains - from your father, no doubt. We will try to teach you how to use your intelligence for God, and couple it nicely with the stubbornness to get something good done in this world. But we won't be perfect. So try to be understanding. No doubt you will be, but only after you have kids of your own.

You are going to learn to ride horses, to work hard, to be respectful, and to fight for what is right - even if it means taking up arms if an empire invades our land again. My son, I can see the future is uncertain. Who knows where we will be when you are eighteen and ready to be on your own. But we will do our best to equip you for that world. For that day.

In just over seventeen years, you will be on your own - earning your own money, paying your own bills, and striking your own path. I pray you are an excellent marksman, a versatile rider, and a wonderful Christian.

You will be one man on your own out there. Many things will tempt you, but with God's help, and hopefully our training, you will be strong in spirit, and able to discern right from wrong and always pick right. You will change lives, regardless of what you do. Make it your goal to change them for the better, and find yourself a fine woman to help you along the way. Just don't pick a woman like me - your hands will be too full figuring out what in the world you got yourself into.

Your father and I are proud of you. We will try to raise you to be someone we can stay proud of. You just read your Bible and follow God. Which means pray. A lot. And pay attention.




Much love,

Your mother

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