Letters From A Young Father

The Italian poet and film director shares a series of loving letters to his unborn child in this intimate and reflective poetry collection. Becoming a parent changes everything. Fear and love live together. An expectant father desperately want to give his child happiness and safety—two qualities of life that are often at odds with each other. Letters from a Young Father comprises forty letter-poems written by award-winning film director Edoardo Ponti to his unborn child during the forty weeks of his wife’s pregnancy. These poems are gifts, lessons, slices of joy, blueprints for building a life, and insights into how we work, learn, love, and remember.

For years now, it has been the author’s habit to write a monthly letter to his children during their teenage years. The letters cover an amazing array of life lessons that also show an intimate glimpse of one family’s life journey. All families, the same challenges and it is this connection that makes the book endearing and relevant to all who read it. Christian faith and values are highlighted throughout, and stories from the bible are brought to life. “I’ve read hundreds of books on fathering and Letters From a Father is at the very top of the list. This book shares timeless words of wisdom, grounded in scripture from the heart of a devoted father.” David Hirsch, founder 21st Century Dads Foundation & Host of the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. “Please read this book and perhaps start writing to the kids in your life. Letters from a Father is priceless.” Bob Muzikowski, Founder and President, Chicago Hope Academy

Have you ever felt in over your head? When Eric Peterson became the pastor of a brand-new church, he quickly and wisely turned to his dad for guidance. Eugene Peterson, author of more than thirty books including his bestselling memoir The Pastor and his groundbreaking Bible The Message, here reflects on pastoral ministry in all its complexity--from relationships to administration to the sheer audacity of leading God's people in a particular place. This is Eugene Peterson at his best--lifelong wisdom written with deep love. As the reader, you will glimpse into the tender, witty, personal side of Eugene mentoring his own son. These intimate letters will be treasured by all who read, and applicable to church leaders around the globe. Purchase individually or together with Letters to a Young Congregation as a memorable gift for a church leader or seminary graduate.

We all need advice growing up and facing the big stuff life gives us. We all need the voice of a parent or a good friend who has lived through joy and suffering and has thought deeply about it. Kent Nerburn is an extraordinary writer who can be that voice when we are lost and in need of guidance. Letters to My Son, written for his son, Nick, but true for all of us, shows us that life isn't always shared in all its richness with those we meet along the way. Kent shares with us what he believes, and makes us look at the hard questions, but never offers easy answers. Like a wise and gentle friend, he guides us to the truths that emerge when you approach life openly and honestly.

Many books have been written about the father-son relationship. Most of the readers are well-meaning fathers looking for helpful advice on how to build a relationship with their sons and impact them in a real, meaningful way from older wise men, who have done it. These “successful” fathers usually provide a step-by-step plan describing what they did to connect with their son. This book is different. This book is written from a son's perspective. At the beginning of each chapter, you’ll encounter a letter written from a son to his father asking important questions, expressing doubts, and sharing experiences during growing up from adolescence to becoming a young man. Young men have a lot of questions, questions about life, about love, about God, about finding meaning, about finding purpose, about pursuing a passion, about living courageously, that they rarely verbalize. Through the son’s perspective offered in this book, you’ll develop a meaningful understanding of the young man in your life. This book can be the turning point in your journey of connecting or reconnecting with your son. The impact of fathers on their sons cannot be overstated. It's time to get intentional about walking together, with fathers leading the charge! Father, this book will encourage you to stop being a bystander and will equip you with the tools and biblical principles to impact your son. Reading this book with your son will help you and your son grow together as it highlights both the successes and struggles that fathers and sons experience. This will not be a comfortable journey, but it is so worth it!

Letters from a father to his son when his son left home. The letters cover all the issues that parents face with their children. The father gives his son instruction and teaching about all the important American values of life that are important. The reader, especially a parent, can easily get inspired and ideas on how they can still influence their child who has just left home.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER At the pinnacle of a soaring career in the U.S. Army, Lt. Col. Mark M. Weber was tapped to serve in a high-profile job within the Afghan Parliament as a military advisor. Weeks later, a routine physical revealed stage IV intestinal cancer in the thirty-eight-year-old father of three. Over the next two years he would fight a desperate battle he wasn’t trained for, with his wife and boys as his reluctant but willing fighting force. When Weber realized that he was not going to survive this final tour of combat, he began to write a letter to his boys, so that as they grew up without him, they would know what his life-and-death story had taught him—about courage and fear, challenge and comfort, words and actions, pride and humility, seriousness and humor, and viewing life as a never-ending search for new ideas and inspiration. This book is that letter. And it’s not just for his sons. It’s for everyone who can use the best advice a dying hero has to offer. Weber’s stories illustrate that in the end you become what you are through the causes to which you attach yourself—and that you’ve made your own along the way. Through his example, he teaches how to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. Praise for Tell My Sons “A gift to us all . . . Every page exudes courage, honesty, and an indomitable spirit. Mark Weber’s story has touched me in such a profound way.”—Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie “Tell My Sons is a deeply moving, personal account of a soldier’s journey into an ultimate frontier. As I read Mark Weber’s book, I was astonished by its honesty, courage, and discipline. This book offers one of the most profound and detailed descriptions of the strange world of cancer and should be essential reading for all of us who seek to understand that topsy-turvy terrain.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies “Tell My Sons is one of the most profound and inspirational stories I have ever read. It may have been written for Mark’s children, but it may as well be a treatise for all of us about honest parenting and leadership with character in love, family, faith, and politics. For a man who is facing profound health issues, Mark is doing a remarkable job showing us all how to live with courage and integrity.”—Walter F. Mondale, former vice president of the United States “This book is why I have always been proud to call Mark Weber my son. His ability to reach across complex boundaries and write and speak with such depth and beauty makes him a modern day Lawrence of Arabia. Mark’s passion, attitude, and thoughts about life are what is best about America.”—General Babakir S. Zibari, chief of defense, Republic of Iraq “A poignant illustration of what being a hero is all about . . . Heroes exemplify invincible courage, character, and perseverance in times of insurmountable odds. Mark embodies these attributes. Tell My Sons will empower the reader with profound lessons of living life with hope and determination.”—John Elway, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback

A collection of short letters, most centring on a powerful story from the author's life, that convey core values and attitudes from a father to his child. Topics addressed include death, right and wrong, thinking about God, cheating, failure, popularity, studying, sex, self-esteem, prayer, family relationships, materialism, and marriage. One typical letter addresses the question of how to be a friend to unpopular kids at school and tells the moving story of the time the author was told he should ask the girl with polio to dance. Many of these letters are rooted in childhood and adolescence, others in youth and early marriage. They speak honestly and engagingly to both the young and to those who are trying, the best they can, to raise them. Read these stories with your children or by yourself and smile in recognition as you remember your own struggles to understand the world and your place in it. Then, as the afterward suggests, tell a few stories of your own.