Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 12:10

Happy February, friends! This morning I am writing about writing (which I will grant is a little meta), but I need to bring closure to what has been one of the highlights of my career as a writer.

Last month, after around 25 years of consistent work, I officially retired from my position on the writing team at Family First and All Pro Dad. The amount of work and the number of articles – both with and without my byline – is in the several hundreds. And the reach, by virtue of the runaway success of these websites, can be counted in the hundreds of thousands if not millions.

There is a lot to this story, but I will try to keep the length manageable.

Late 1990’s

I first came across the radar of Family First president Mark Merrill in the late 1990’s, when he asked if he could post one of my Tampa Tribune columns on the site. I had written about gangs of renegade orphaned male elephants, saved from execution via the introduction of a mature bull, a role model who could teach them how to behave.

Mark’s mission grew into the launch of All Pro Dad – a shared vision with NFL coach Tony Dungy, and then iMOM. I have written for all three, but predominantly All Pro Dad. My particular focus has been to encourage and equip dads in their relationships with their children and their spouse.

My most consistent message for fathers has been this: the absolute best you can do for your children is to love their mother: love her faithfully; love her consistently; love her selflessly; love her eloquently.

the absolute best you can do for your children is to love their mother: love her faithfully; love her consistently; love her selflessly; love her eloquently.

This has worked so well because, while Mark is a committed Christian and all the staff and writers anchor our work in the teachings of scripture, we offer resources that can be utilized by people of all faiths – and those with no faith at all.

Because what we want – first – is to strengthen families and equip people with the tools they need to keep families strong. We believe that the good news will – in consequence – be more evident and accessible.

Bullet lists and my viral moment!

Early on it became apparent that people respond well to bullet lists. So almost all the content is presented like, “10 Reasons Men Love Lists” with a couple of punchy introductory paragraphs. Or, “Five Dad-jokes You Should Know!” Hmm, maybe I should have written that one!

It turns out everybody loves lists, and Family First is the reason one of mine literally went viral. It ran well on their site and then, as often happens, it was shared by a reader. So far so good. Someone else liked it enough to reformat in fancy lettering. Only they forgot to credit Family First or me. A couple of shares later it took off! Last tally over 300K shares and an impossible to calculate number of views. When I whined about lack of recognition, I clearly heard God’s response: “Derek; I promised I would use your writing to help people. I have. Why do you feel you need the credit too?”

So, yes, I will miss the excitement of being featured on probably the world’s best resource for dads. But the archives never go away, and I know my work will continue to help.

Now, in honor of Mark, and APD, and iMOM, and all my editors over the years, here is one more list. “We thank you for…” and, yes, it could be far more than ten:

10 Thank You Citations Celebrating the Work of Family First:

1. Standing up for Family without pushing a sectarian agenda;
2. Celebrating what is good in an age saturated with bad news;
3. Bringing hope to millions of men, women, and children;
4. Giving support and encouragement in so many creative ways;
5. Providing help without judgment;
6. Offering step by step solutions to real problems;
7. Connecting people to community so we know that we are not alone;
8. Dealing with questions readers did not know how to ask;
9. Providing a safe place where honest questions are welcomed;
10. Helping to recalibrate the mood for struggling families from despair to belief.

In gratitude, and happy to continue writing at DerekMaul.blog – DEREK