HOPE IN DESPAIR
"If I can choose what is placed on my tombstone, it will be this: "Patriot and Statesman; Loving Husband, Father, and Friend; Man of God." I have not yet reached my potential in any of these areas, and in many ways I feel like I have fallen very short. But I'm still a young man and I have hope for the future. What would you like your tombstone to say? Are you who you want to be? Are you on the path to becoming what you want to be?" (Originally posted November 7, 2016)
Friends, I posted these aspirations five years ago. When I said I wanted to be a patriot and statesman, I was couch surfing at my parents and trying to get a fledgling law practice going. Today I advise the Governor and the Attorney General on constitutional issues and defend the state in constitutional law cases. I've had a great three season run on a popular Internet TV show about politics and the law.
When I said I wanted to be a loving husband and father, I was less than a year from my second divorce and was unmarried. Today I am married to the woman of my dreams, and I have added two children to the two I already had. I love them all. Cathy Butler Teichert and I now have an Amazon best seller, and we have Love in Later Years--a lot of great friends. I feel like I have an abundantly blessed life today.
If you are a single mom and don't know how you're going to make it financially, write down your aspirations. Pray over them. God has a way of giving us the things we ask for in faith, in His own time. If you are the dad that felt rejected by the woman you loved and deprived of the regular time with your kids, or if you are couch surfing at your parents like I was because you were ruined financially in your divorce, write down your aspirations. Pray over them. Whatever despair you are feeling today can be replaced by hopeful joy. You can have joy just knowing that things are going to be better. You can have joy knowing the sun will come out again.