I wrote this letter in March and I don't know if I ever sent it, either via post or email:
Sons,
My time of actively funding and directing the course and
events of your lives has long since past; as it well should. My goal as a
father was to equip my sons to be fully functioning and active adults, and you
all are.
One of my roles now is to encourage you without becoming
intrusive or a nuisance. The greatest, most valuable piece of advice I can
offer is for you to read the Bible every day. Your mother and I still read
aloud to each other daily. I recommend you do the same with your wives. We find
hearing God's concepts together to be very engrossing and uplifting.
However you read, individually or separately, alone or as a
family, do not blindly accept what other men say the Bible means. That includes
me. Know what the Bible says to you. You can not know what it says unless you
read it. If the Bible truly is the word of God (which it itself says it is) it
deserves more than one reading.
Do not fear that every time you see me I will be asking,
"Have you been reading your Bible lately?" I will not do unto others
what I would not have them do unto me. But I do talk to God about it from time
to time.
I am proud of my sons and I like to be around them. And they have exceptional taste in women, they married well. I am grateful they love and provide for their children.
