going to die .” This might be the hardest one for a teenager to take to heart . I took Nate to a local Moravian cemetery and I had him walk through the tombs for twenty minutes in silence and think about all the lives of the people who had gone before him . I asked Nate if he noticed the common theme on all of the tombstones — there is the date of birth , the date of death , and the dash in between . “ Your entire life is going to come down to that dash . That ’ s your opportunity to shape eternity : eternal rewards , eternal fruit , eternal vision .”
One of the bonuses of this particular exercise is that it will also affect your own heart as a father , a guardian , and a human being . I found myself inspired to move from ease into difficulty , to recognize the eternal in what I am doing , and to make all of these shifts more permanent in my own life .
NOW
Excerpted from The Intentional Father : A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character by Jon Tyson . Copyright 2021 . Used with permission from Baker Publishing Group .
bakerbooks . com
Jon Tyson is a pastor and church planter in New York City . Originally from Adelaide Australia , Jon moved to the United States over two decades ago with a passion to seek and cultivate renewal in the Western Church . He is the author of Sacred Roots , A Creative Minority , The Burden is Light , and Beautiful Resistance . Jon lives in the Hell ’ s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan with his wife and two children . He serves as the Lead Pastor of Church of the City New York . Learn more at
www . churchofthecitynyc . com 45