lucius-gantt_web.jpgIf you’ve got to believe in something, why not believe in me?

All of my life I have felt that people didn’t believe in me. No one thought that a child who grew up in housing projects and in impoverished Atlanta neighborhoods could attend college, get multiple graduate degrees and work in the most prestigious news and information institutions in the world.


And, no one ever went to sleep and dreamt that a radical writer, a nationalistic philosopher, rabble rouser and sometimes thug could one day have a very profitable international business enterprise.

Well, believe what you will. Believe in God and believe in yourself. I don’t care if most people believe in me or not. The only disbelief that hurts me is when my children don’t have faith in me.

I, and many other parents, work hard for many long years to provide for our children and their spouses, if they are married. You find a way to take care of your children, you feed them, you clothe them, you give them lunch money, you finance their education and do so much more. But no matter what you do for some children, what you do is never right, it is never on time and it is never enough.

Why? When children are adamant in their lack of faith in one parent and their overwhelming and unadulterated support of the other, you should suspect that one parent has poured salt on the other.

This idea of ex-spouses hating on each other is nothing new but most of the ex-marital animosity is usually spewed by the woman.

Let me explain a common occurrence. When a woman breaks up one relationship and seeks to enter into another, it is not unusual for her to say bad or negative things about her ex-mate if that is what her new man desires to hear.

“He’s no good. He’ll never be anything. He’ll never get a good job. He’s crazy. He’s on drugs. I will never go back to him.” Those are some of the things women say about their ex to impress the new guy.

They can choose to say what they wish to concoct a story to get a man but I think it is always wrong for a woman to talk bad about their children’s father to impress some other man.

I hate it when women do that but I hate it more when grown children believe the lies.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if your children love you and believe in you or not, as long as you’ve done for them the best that you can do and you have given them the most you could give. Whether you want them to or not, sooner or later what was once yours will become your children’s.

Smart children will treat their parents in a Biblical way. They will honor both their mothers and their fathers. They will love both parents, support both parents and believe in both parents, at least to the extent the parents can be believable.

A smart child will believe in the truth and not be swayed by comments made by one of the parents to get a new sex partner.

The man or woman whom you are quick to call broken, imperfect or undesirable just might turn out to be blessed, healthy, prosperous, protected and heroic in God’s eyes and the world’s eyes.

If you’ve got to believe in something, believe in the truth.

Lucius Gantt is a political consultant based in Tallahassee. He is also the founder of All World Consultants and author of the book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing. He may be reached at www.allworldconsultants.net  or by calling 850-222-3475. You can also find him on Facebook.