God’s ideal for the home is to have both the father and the mother available to their children throughout their growing years. But sometimes separation can’t be avoided.

Over the years, the BGEA and the Team became my second family without me realizing it. Ruth says those of us who were off traveling missed the best part of our lives – enjoying the children as they grew.

Only Ruth and the children can tell what those extended times of separation meant to them.

The only answer was to try and make our times together as normal as possible, and to concentrate on my family as much as possible during the times I was home.

Nothing can bring people closer to each other than communal prayer. That time together is a gathering, a family reunion with Christ at the center.

Ruth and I thought that when the children were grown, we would be at the end of our parental responsibilities. But we have discovered that their concerns and burdens are also ours. Like their parents before them, they look to the older generation for our advice, counsel, and help. The same principles and promises we applied to our children are still true for our children and great-grandchildren.

Without question, the regrets are greatly outnumbered by the delights. And that bolsters our faith that He will do the same for the generations coming after us.

Excerpt from Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham