Be the HERO that your children already believe you are. - Blake Brewer

The Legacy Letter

“We all have three things in common.”  Blake Brewer said as he began speaking to around fifty fathers who had gathered together for dinner in Wright’s Barbeque.  The menu and meal had been specially planned for this gathering.  It was a gathering for one specific purpose.

“Be the hero your children already believe you are.”  Blake continue before he went on to identify the three things we all have in common.

“We all have a super power.”  Blake said.  “The words we use can either destroy our children or build and fortify them.”  Then, he revealed our second commonality.

“All of us will have a last day on this planet.”  Blake said quietly, as if he had a specific reason and experience for saying so.

You see, Blake was on vacation with his father and mother in Hawaii not too long ago.  It was a special get away for them and they were having the time of their lives.  Blake remembers feeling extra close to his father as they walked down the trail toward Hanauma Bay to snorkel together.

They were in the bay’s water for some time before Blake noticed he could no longer see his father.  The waves and their swells had become increasing large and swimming through them was very tiring.  Blake was tired himself.  He was also worried.

He was so worried that he swam over to a large rock formation where he climbed to the top.  He hoped he could see his father from this high perch.  He was right.  He looked out and found his father a couple of swells away.  His father was calling for help!

Blake saw his father’s mouth calling out, he couldn’t hear him over the crashing waves, and decided to jump in to try to rescue him.  He remembers wondering if he had enough strength left to be his Dad’s hero.  He jumped in anyway, just as he saw his father go down under the water.

Moments later Blake reached his father.  His Dad was a large man, who had played college football as a tight end with Terry Bradshaw as his quarterback.  Blake is a tall man himself, so he was able to wrap his long arms around his father so he could begin to tow him toward the shore.

Not long after he started his final swim for the day, a life guard approached the two men.  The combined strength of Blake and the guard allowed all three men to arrive on the beach.  Two of them arrived well.  One, Blake’s father, had expired.

It was the expiration of a joyful vacation as well.  And, Blake and his mother spent the next couple of days mourning their loss in a hotel room, while he wondered if he could have done more.  Fortunately, his father had done more!

He had written Blake what he now calls his Legacy Letter.  He had no idea of its existence until his mother quietly handed it to him in that same hotel room.  It was the culmination of a change in Blake, that would also be the beginning of a change for millions of men and the identification of the third thing we all have in common.

“None of us want to have any regrets about our family on our last day!”  Blake said with palpable emotion, to those gathered together in Wright’s Barbeque.

The entire room, down to every man, was touched by Blake’s passion.

“Your words have the power to call your children to greatness!”  Blake said right before he challenged all of us to be one of the million men he is working to inspire to write a legacy letter to their children.

“It will cut through the noise. It will penetrate their hearts.  It will make every heart who reads it ‘return-to-able!’”  Blake counseled.

“We all have three things in common.”  Blake began.

The One Million Man Legacy Letter Challenge then began in earnest for us as well, as we all began to outline our own personal legacy letters.

If you’re one in a million please join us by going to: 

https://www.legacyletterchallenge.com/