Legacy

For months before my fiancé, First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, kissed my swollen stomach and said goodbye, he had been preparing for the beginning of the life we had created and for the end of his own.

He boarded a plane in December 2005 with two missions, really — to lead his young soldiers in combat and to prepare our boy for a life without him.

Dear son, Charles wrote on the last page of the journal, “I hope this book is somewhat helpful to you. Please forgive me for the poor handwriting and grammar. I tried to finish this book before I was deployed to Iraq. It has to be something special to you. I’ve been writing it in the states, Kuwait and Iraq.

The journal will have to speak for Charles now. He was killed Oct. 14 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his armored vehicle in Baghdad. Charles, 48, had been assigned to the Army’s First Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Tex. He was a month from completing his tour of duty.
Click Here to go to NY Times





This article from the New York times brought home to me the stark reality of what I see on the nightly news. Just like a lot of things in our modern society, reality gets left behind by the shere volume and and political spin of content we see on a daily basis. The images and stories coming back from the front lines are real. Real people, real husbands and wives. Real fatherless boys like the one in the story.

It is no accident that a father at war felt the urgency to put pen to paper to attempt to connect with his son through the grim curtain of death. He knew a son needed preparation to face life and stand up to it's challenges. He spoke to his son about faith. He told him of the value of the women in his life. He told him of the necessity of man to humble himself before God. A warrior dad took the time to leave behind a powerful identity for his son to grow into.

What about us dads? Is the boy in the story his father slain on the streets of Iraq more prepared to face life than ours? Are we talking to our sons about our faith. Not so much with bible stories but with our life lived in front of them? Are they learning to value women by the words we speak and the manner in which we treat the women in our lives? Will they learn about honor at our feet when no one else is watching, but they are. We have the luxury of presence in the lives of our children. I pray we are not taking for granted the time which we could spend preparing our sons and daughters for the war that is life.

I hope you are as humbled as I was at story of this warrior dad, who even as a member of our countries warrior class, expressed to his son the necessity of humbling himself before God.