Today's Sunshine Report

Everybody can see the material success of an individual. But beneath it, and behind it, we often find the ashes created by the chasing of false dreams. “I’m doing it for my family’s future,” is the war cry.

Eventually, the truth is there for all to see when the family doesn’t work out the way one wants. I was lucky. I was not a great dad. But things turned out well, thanks in great part to the mother of our two sons.

Let me share an incident with you about a dad who wasn’t as fortunate as me. Dick Heyman is not his name, but it will do.

Dick is a highly successful businessman…the principal owner of a big steel producing plant. I met Dick about 25 years ago under some very adverse circumstances. Here is Dick’s story.

One Saturday afternoon a month, I would spend time at my church to talk with anyone who needed a willing ear and a caring heart. It was mid-afternoon one Saturday in April when Dick showed up.

The knock on the door was rather timid. I opened the door. Before me was a man with a desperate look on his face. I could tell his torture arose from his soul.

His body was wrenching from pain. Tears flowed down his cheeks. His eyes were blood-red.

Why was Dick in such a state of mind? I was soon to learn that his twenty-year-old son had committed suicide, the week before.

Dick talked about how he had neglected his two sons to chase his professional and financial goals. Regret filled him every sentence.

Dick told me his son had left a suicide note. The words that stood out to Dick were these: “I had a father, but I didn’t have a dad!”

I didn’t try to give Dick any advice. I just listened for the most part.

I do remember telling Dick that he was going to have to be willing to live differently. It necessarily would not be for his benefit, but for his other son, who still in high school.

I later found out Dick did change. He became a dad to his other son.

Those of you who still have children at home, how many weekends in a year do you devote solely to your family? From the time a child is born, until the time that child leaves home around eighteen, there are less than a thousand weekends available for you to be a parent. Digest that!

The message here is simple: Learn to say “No” to those things that keep you from getting to the “Yesses” in your life.