My amazing son Stephen turns 30 years old this Friday. I chose the BRAVE key for him because this has been a word to describe him his entire life.
As a child, he was BRAVE and courageous and grew to have this quality as a young man.
One week after he graduated from high school, he joined the Florida National Guard. He served our country bravely with one tour to Iraq and one to Kuwait. We have all of the medals he was decorated with in a beautiful case at home. He came home with such heaviness on his mind and heart, but lived his dream of graduating from Auburn University in 2015.
Now, he is in graduate school at New Orleans Theological Seminary working on a degree in counseling. His life will be given in service once again to help people struggling with addiction or trauma. This will require bravery that I know he will have to help other people.
I got two of these keys with the original thought of giving him one and keeping one, but after much thought, I want him to choose someone to give the other BRAVE key to. There are many people he will help in this journey who will need to be BRAVE and I know with all my heart, that Stephen will be the one to help them find the courage to heal.
Happy 30th birthday to my oldest son. To say I'm proud of you doesn't begin to scratch the surface of how much your dad and I love you and wait with great anticipation to see how God will use your life.
Keep being BRAVE. We know you will.
-Stephen
