Sometimes there are effects of our influence that we may never know. G. Brook Adams kept a diary from his boyhood. One special day when he was eight years old, he wrote in his diary, “Went fishing with my father; the most glorious day of my life.” Throughout the next 40 years of his life he never forgot that day he went fishing with his father, he made repeated references to it in his diary, commenting on the influence of that day on his life.
Brook’s father was an important man; he was Charles Francis Adams, the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain under the Lincoln administration. Interestingly, he too made a note in his diary about the fishing trip. He wrote simply, “Went fishing with my son; a day wasted.”
Of course the day was not wasted; its value may well have proved to make it one of the most well-spent days in his life. No one can measure the influence of a man on his children, and that is all the more reason to take the job and its responsibilities seriously.
Someone has written, “last night my little boy confessed to me some childish wrong; and kneeling at my knee, he prayed with tears, ‘O Lord, make me a man like Daddy-wise and strong. I know you can.’ Then while he slept, I knelt beside his bed, confessed my sins and prayed with low-bowed head, ‘O God, make me a child like my child here; pure, guileless, trusting thee with faith sincere.’ “—copied
What kind of a father are you?
