Dan Jarrell was speaking at a FamilyLife Marriage Conference when a man came up and handed him a letter. The letter told of this man's lifelong desire to hear his father say, "I love you." His father had died in World War II, when this man was only three years old. His mother had often assured him of his father's love as he was growing up, but it didn't fill the void he felt.

One day, this man, now 40 years old, was helping his mother move. She gave him an old Army picture of his father. The picture suddenly slipped out of his hands and the frame and glass shattered all over the floor. As he picked up the mess, the man noticed a piece of paper wedged behind the photo. It was a letter from his father. He had known that he might die in the war, so he had written a letter to his three-year-o…