A couple of weekends ago we celebrated the 25th Wedding Anniversary of a guy I had in a group 10 years ago who now lives in Colorado. He and his wife threw a big bash in Chicago, re-stating their vows at a church where they were married, and standing before the same pastor who married them all those years ago. Quite a deal these days—a pastor and a marriage that survived 25 years!

He is a commercial real estate guy who made a commitment in our group I’ll never forget. It was about 1997 and 5 of us were meeting Tuesday mornings for prayer and support as dads. He had 5 kids. But he loved to do deals—and he was very good at it. We had been in some challenging discussions about how we invest time in people. He walked into the meeting and said, “I am cutting back to 4 days a week and spending that day with my kids—no matter what.” Though we had to remind him of that promise a few times, he stuck with it.

Then Friday night his 5 kids all stood up to talk about their relationship with him, their mom and the fact that their parents were role models for them. These kids were ages 13-23, but I remembered when they were 3-13 and he made that statement. Now it was paying off. Pretty cool.