Like you, I’m struggling. I’m struggling on my journey as a father and through this thing we call life. I’ve never felt completely at home anywhere—any house that I’ve lived in, any office I’ve worked in, or any church I’ve worshipped at. I kind of sense that there just isn’t a place where I really belong. Instead, I feel like a foreigner from another country, a citizen of another land. Why? Well, maybe it’s because I am. I’m not meant to be here forever. I’m here for just a relatively short time.
I’ll be going to my eternal home soon. Will it be today? Maybe. Next year? Perhaps. Thirty or forty years from now? I can’t answer that question. But I do know that with each day that passes, the probabilities increase. And I also know that I want whatever time I have on this earth to matter. I want it to matter for God, for Susan, my wife of twenty-two years, and for my five children—Megan, Emily, Hannah, Mark Jr., and Grant. I want whatever influence I have as a man and father to last for generations, and hopefully, forever.
My guess is you do too. And I know your time is valuable, so I want to assure you, if you take the energy to hike the path I prescribe in my new book, All Pro Dad: Seven Essentials to Be a Hero to Your Kids, you and your family will change. It is my hope that your return on investment will be enormous, not because I’m a pillar of wisdom, but because the truths we’ll learn are eternal and life changing. So as we walk side by side, you and I will explore our hearts and minds and perhaps discover some very crucial things about ourselves, which will enrich our lives and the lives of our children. We’ll learn the fatherhood fundamentals and explore the 7 essential Ms that will enable us to execute those fundamentals well. The 7 Ms will also motivate and equip us to be the kind of dads we were created to be and, as a result, a hero to our kids.
My hope is that the words on the pages of All Pro Dad will press against your back and will be like a tailwind for you, gently propelling you forward to a meaningful and fulfilling life as a father. We may be starting at the foot of the mountain, but we will see the summit soon. When we do, I hope you’ll witness the awesome, breathtaking view as a dad who has a new vision for his life and the lives of his children. Let’s take the first step.
(Portions of the foregoing are excerpted from Mark Merrill’s new book, All Pro Dad: Seven Essentials to be a Hero to Your Kids, Thomas Nelson, 2012).
