Why Parenting Is a Privilege, a Blessing, and the Highest Calling
Powerful lessons I learned from my father
When I think about the kind of father I wanted to be, I often return to memories of my dad. He wasn’t perfect — no one is — but he had a way of grounding life’s big questions in simple, profound truths.
My father, Clifford Jones, Jr., taught me more about love, humility, and the privilege of being a parent than any book or class ever could. He may not have realized it, but he shaped my understanding of raising children.
One summer afternoon stands out above all others. I was a boy sitting with him in a field near our home in New Hampshire. The grass was soft and green, the clouds moved lazily across a blue sky, and the air felt thick with the quiet that made you think.
I had fumbled through Sunday Mass as an altar boy (a less-than-stellar one). I was full of questions about God, faith, and the overwhelming idea of right and wrong that I barely understood but felt compelled to figure out.
“Dad,” I asked, “how do you know there’s a God?”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached over, took my hand, and held it tightly in his. For a long moment, we just sat there, looking out at the world around us.
