A Letter to My Teenage Sons

I wrote the following letter to my sons a few years ago. It seems as relevant today as it did then.

This is going to be a hard letter to write. I assume it will be a difficult letter to read. Truth be told, you may not understand the gravity of this letter until you are much older and experienced, but then you will be much older and experienced, and now is now. Sometimes now can't wait for older and experienced.

When I was younger, what seems like forever ago now, I skipped off to college with my whole life ahead of me. Everything was fresh. Everything was new. Everything was good -- even the bad stuff. When you are young you have glossy eyes that allow you to see the world this way. It's good. Ever so often, reality hits. Like gravity, reality is a harsh mistress. When you're young, you have all the time in the world. You litterally have your entire life ahead of you. It's not until you get older that you begin to realize how short life really is. Again, this is good. Young people should think about young people things, and not be hindered by things that squander dreams. Dreams are important.

It is from this mindset that I relate the following story:

I've written so many songs, I've lost count over the years. However, I've only written a few that I have actually given names. One, very important song, that I named was called "Grandma's House". When I was younger I spent a lot of time at my grandma's house. I loved the place. There were lazy summer days where I just watched silly tv shows, and explored the vast landscape. Grandpa had even built a treehouse that I spent a lot of time in. It was a good time. I felt like I had all the time in the world. Turns out I didn't. As you get older, things change. In fact, one of the few constants that you can count on is that things change.

While I was in college, I received a few letters here and there from my grandma. She tended to urge me to come see her sometime. I wanted too, but life got in the way. College tends to take up a LOT of time. Some of it is important, some of it just seems important at the time. I remember thinking that I only had a few years in college then I would move back to Fort Worth and see grandma anytime I wanted. I had all the time in the world. What I didn't realize, at the time, is she didn't.

On December 25, 1993 she passed away. It hit me hard. Very hard. So hard that I still feel it 25 plus years later.

What happened to all the time in the world? It was gone. Cut short. At least it was in my view. Grandma had led a long wonderful life in the service of the Lord. I was just starting mine.

I learned a hard lession from that experience, and this is the entire point of this letter. Don't take for granted the time you have with loved ones. Cherrish every moment. Now, I remember people telling me that when I was younger, and I would nod my head and smile. After all I was young. The bad thing about being young is you are not experienced. The bad thing about being older and experienced is you are no longer young. That's just the way it is. Many times, you can't fully understand something until you experience it.

This letter is not meant to distress you. I'd love to tell you that people live forever. Maybe they do, just not here. The truth is we don't have all the time in the world, so the time we do have should matter. It should be intentional. It should be on purpose. It should be thoughtful. It should be in light of eternity.

So I encourage you to spend time wisely, as you can. Love those around you. Realize that time is limited, even though it seems vast. Make things count. Understand that, more likely that not, important things happen in the little moments. Moments like going to the board walk, or just sitting around and talking about what seem to be not much of anything at all.

I hope you are keeping these letters. I hope someday you come across this one and read it again. I'm pretty confident that you will read it in a different light some 25+ years from now.

Here's to the little moments...