Okay...I admit, I'm a forty-something probably in the middle of some sort of mid-life crisis or something of the sort. But I've been unusually reflective these days. Could it be because I've been having trouble with my teenage daughter recently or the fact that my son graduates from high school at the end of this year? Maybe it's just the stage of life I'm in. Whether you're a man or a woman, you've probably had reflective moments in your life where you've wondered if you've been a good parent or spouse or provider. You may have wondered what you could have done differently to save your relationship with a spouse or child or friend. All I know, is I'm smack-dab in the middle of a very reflective moment in my life. A life-altering moment, really. I lost a woman I loved with all my heart and feel like I'm about to lose a daughter who is the world to me. And for all I know, I've already lost a son who shows no signs of it, but who may someday come to me and say, "Dad, why were you always so critical?" or "Dad, why weren't you more loving with me?" All I know, is that I want the people in my life whom I love the most to know that it is of no fault of their own that they feel the way they do about their relationship with me. Although I have loved them with every fiber of my being, I didn't always know the proper way to show them that. I wasn't always the positive, life-affirming man that I wanted to be. But that I have always loved them with all that I am and will continue to try to be the best father, friend, partner that I can be. And that I WANT to know when it is I have strayed from being that person that they want me to be. When I'm sixty-something, I don't want anymore regrets for not being the kind of man God expected me to be. I want to be all that anyone could ever expect me to be. 
