“Today, we honor you and celebrate your life”

Today, we celebrate Terrence’s 17th birthday, the first son your mother and I made with the gracious help of God our Maker. Your mommy and I are very proud of the young man you have become and are becoming. You made me proud of myself as your father; you’re kind, brilliant, obedient, respectful, and ambitious. I see a lot of me in you, and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. 🙂 Nonetheless, I admire all your qualities, virtues, and imperfections.

As a young man, you remain focused toward your goals in life and will not give up until you successfully achieve them and touch the highest star. You’re a brilliant, dedicated, and hard-working student and human being. You graduated from High School at 16 years old and concurrently earned your A.A. degree at the same time plus a Certificate in Aerospace Engineering at 16 years old.

You take good care of your siblings when mommy and I are not home and have become a role model to them to emulate. They love and admire you more than you know and can imagine. They look to you every day and watch every move you make. You’re a handsome young man with a golden heart, and God made you according to his image and has gifted you to represent him in the world and in your interactions with your peers. Don’t you ever forget that as image bearer of God, you have both moral and ethical responsibilities to imitate God’s character and moral attributes revealed in Christ; these moral virtues may include a deliberate commitment to demonstating compassion, grace, empathy, goodness, love, forgiveness, relationality, and kindness toward people. Your soul is beautiful and your mind is strong and stable.

I pray the good Lord and the most compassionate and most loving God will preserve you and continue to grace your life with understanding, kindness, wisdom, and intelligence. Most importantly, I pray he will enable you to love people, serve those in need, and commit your life to a great cause: the cause of human freedom, peace and unity, and human flourishing wherever you are and will be in the world.

I love you, Son.

Enjoy your birthday!

–Dad