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Yesterday, Matthew Perryman Jones sent out a tweet saying there was a princess party in his living room. You could tell the tweet went out from a moment of pure delight. How could you not delight in that picture? And earlier yesterday morning, I read a quote from John Sower’s book Fatherless Generation about how quickly our girls wilt when their fathers leave, how they long to know they are beautiful and wanted and have the God-given power to endear a man. And for obvious reasons, the picture and the quote struck me pretty hard. Young men and young women really do want the same things; to know they are important, to know they matter, to know they can impact the world, to know they are wanted and so on. Of course, these desires are expressed in different ways, but children of both sexes gain early on a confidence that they are on the earth for a reason and not as a mistake. And they don’t learn this from a book, not even from the Bible. The idea we matter is more important to learn in childhood than in any other stage. And they learn from adults, from whether or [...]

If you’re looking for a quick read that will help you understand the fatherless crisis in America, please pick up John Sowers new book. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll never look at culture the same. You’ll see the crisis in movies, hear it in music and be able to respond when you see it in your own community, even your friends and family. A person prepared to help heal the fatherless wound will be needed by all. Here is the second excerpt from John’s book: Left: To face death and life alone Haunted by the face that was once one of our own. Now, a disembodied cry hangs stranded— Afloat on the howling wind, No anchor to plant us amidst our growing strife, No touch to give us feeling, No breath to give us life. Dad and I kept in touch a couple of times a year.  I continued taking my obligatory visits to Austin every summer.  But those visits were awkward.  Like trying to catch up with someone that you never knew in the first place.  My entire world was in Little Rock.  My best friends, my little league baseball team—the Coyotes, my neighborhood pool, and the [...]

John Sowers is the President of The Mentoring Project, and his book came out last week. I thought I’d feature an excerpt. If you’d like to understand the fatherless crisis, John’s book would be an excellent place to begin…. Fatherless Generation: Redeeming the Story The earliest memories of my father are the few times he came to visit us during Christmas. About once a year, he would drive up from Austin to Little Rock for the weekend. My brother and I usually stayed with him at the Motel 6. Back then, Motel 6 had the big mechanical beds that, for only a quarter, would shake and make a low humming noise. Sleeping on them was like riding a giant, lumbering submarine. My father usually smelled like an odd mixture of Old Spice and musky sweat. And for most of my childhood, I just thought that was how a man was supposed to smell. Sometimes he let me “drive” his burgundy Monte Carlo, which consisted of sitting in his lap and playing with the dark hair on his arms. My brother Bill and I always ended up fighting for his attention. To us, his attention was a prize to be won. [...]