21

Yesterday was my son's 17th birthday. Happy Birthday Son! I am praying that this coming year holds great things for you. As you learn to grow into a man, I hope you learn to deal with life's ups and downs in a mature and healthy way. I know you are capable of great things, that you can create a wonderful, amazing, and successful life for yourself if you desire it.

I want you to know that the road is not always smooth. If it was no one would ever have to replace a windshield! It's easy to let one small rock nic the glass, or even two or three. You can fill those small holes up and get allot more use out of the windshield before it has to be replaced. But we all know what happens to the glass if those small holes are not treated right away, those small holes become a crack that spreads from one end of the windshield to the other, and that crack in turn causes more cracks, which in turn weaken the whole windshield until it no longer offers any protection from the wind!

Our lives are like that. We often "drive" through life repairing those little nics.(wrong choices) We've done our best to repair them, and even though there is a slight scar on the glass, we can still see the road ahead. Sometimes we can see the flying rocks and swerve around them, other times we can't and the glass suffers.
It is when we choose not to fix the cracks that our view of the road ahead is limited. Then all of the sudden, we don't know where we are going, or what road to take because the path ahead is no longer visible and we find ourselves "stuck in the middle of the road" which is a very dangerous place to be!

I hope that on your "road trip" through life that you take the time to repair those nics in the glass. I think you will find allot of enjoyment in the passing scenery and look forward to your destination if you can see clearly the hazards before your eyes. And anyway, it's nice to have protection from the wind.

"it is far easier to build strong boys than to repair broken men."