Dad dropped out of school in the sixth grade to help support his family. He was the eldest of five brothers and three sisters. The depression was on and war drums were beating all over Europe and the far east. After several odd jobs, he got a job pumping gas at an ESSO station in Wayne, WV on old U.S. 52. He was an early teen and would be married before he was sixteen. Mom was a year older and got married after graduation. A little over a year after they were married, “Little Don” entered the world.

After a few years, Dad got a job running a cake route for a national cake company and became a troubleshooter for them. Things were tough until I was in the seventh grade. By that time, the war was over and Dad was making more money, even bought a used car with a rumble seat. He ended up buying two gas stations and a drug store and became a highly respected man, not because of his success but because of his character. He tried to pass that on to me.

My most impressive lesson from Dad was that, “A man who will lie will do anything.” Life has proved that truism. People will lie then lie again to cover the first lie then sometimes even kill to not be detected. Plus, as he said, if you don’t lie, you don’t have to remember what you told people about anything.

Dad was savvy about people and business. He bought a gas station on one of Huntington’s major streets and quickly made it a success. He wanted everyone in town to know that Boys’ Esso Station did the best wash job in town and could be trusted with minor repairs. So I had to wash under the wheel wells and other places that no one could see.

I had just become a Christian and refused to work on Sunday morning or evening since I would be in church. He was not thrilled with that but he grudgingly accepted it. He permitted me to drive our service truck around the station driveway as I taught myself to drive. The truck was a 1948 Ford pickup painted white with red fenders. On each door was emblazoned “Boys’ ESSO Station” and within months I was using it for my dates with Mary Anne who was destined to become my wife. Often on Sunday or Monday, people would inform Dad as to where I had been on my Saturday night date! Within a year, I was preaching throughout the WV-KY-OH area and drove the truck to my preaching engagements.

Dad was not successful by accident. It was all planned and I had to follow his plan. I was to approach a car on our driveway with, “Good day, sir, may I fill it up and check your oil?” Dad never had a psychology course but he knew it was better to suggest a fill-up rather than, “What can I do for you?” He also knew that a few cars each day would need oil, maybe even an oil change. Of course, every car got the windshield and back window cleaned.

Dad taught me to work hard and long and watch out for details, something I have treasured during my life. All my life I have never been comfortable when people were working while I was watching. His push to get me to finish a job the best I could has been reflected in every area of my life sometimes to extremes. I remember when I was 40 years old and Mom and Dad came to Indianapolis to spend a few days. In recent years I had annually sold a million dollars per year of whole life insurance (for six years); was now administrator of one of the largest Christian schools in America; was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives; and had just written my first book; yet I remember wondering what Dad would think of my backyard garden! Would he be impressed with the straight lines of vegetables; the firm, red tomatoes, the lack of weeds (that he had taken years to train me to eliminate in our family garden)?

To this day, I still follow procedures that he insisted on me following as a boy: always wash my hands before every meal; comb my hair; stand when a lady enters the room; never sit when speaking with a lady; never talk when someone else is taking; respect all uniforms and I do to this day.

I was to keep my word whatever the cost to me. This came home to me when I was publisher of Christian school curriculum and mailed a promotional piece that was ambiguous, to thousands of Christian schools. It cost me over $2,000 to make it right although I could have pleaded that it had been taken the wrong way. Dad would have insisted that I make it right. I’m glad I did.

One of the most impressive lessons from Dad was his almost fanatical insistence on paying bills on time. It has played out in my life as I pay all bills when they arrive not when they are due.

I think Donald W. Boys was a great man even before he trusted Christ at 60 and after that he became a good man–an outstanding Christian. I still find myself wanting to talk with him at times; but it will have to be some other time!

Boys new book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse if Burning! will be published next month by Barbwire Books.

Because of his father’s involvement in Hollywood, Elliot attended premieres of “Star Wars,” “Hunger Games,” “Indiana Jones,” and others. He even experienced the coveted red carpet treatment with accompanying photos! Because of Hollywood connections he was invited to a private Katy Perry concert! Whoever that is!

Elliot confessed that his father “was rarely there.” He blamed his parents for not buying him stylish clothes and getting him a “good-looking haircut”! This spoiled dude had anything he wanted, traveled the world, often first class, and he thought he was not liked because of his clothes and hair cut! He never considered that he wasn’t liked because he wasn’t likeable! Or because he was a self-absorbed snob.

When he mentioned his dislike of his haircut to momma, she took him to an expensive hair salon and had his hair bleached blonde and he became angry because the hair just above his ears was still dark. I think maybe I would get mad at that. Maybe momma should have ordered him a butch cut. Or, as in my day, a flat top!

In the ninth grade he cried every day at school! At a dinner party at the Bubenheims who were influential friends, some young friends were there and as they spoke of their active lives, parties, and dates Elliot confessed that he broke down and “cried in front of everyone.” He then told everyone that he wanted to commit suicide!

At his 14th birthday party in Morocco his stepmother’s father showed him some very gross, vivid, European porn that repulsed and excited him. That old dude should have gone to prison!

After this, Elliot was obsessed with sex and mentions it 193 times in his 137-page manifesto. He constantly writes of being rejected and humiliated by girls but he NEVER gives an example. If a girl made a sour face from across the room he assumed she was revealing her distaste, dislike, and disdain for him. His resentment toward young couples, who seemed to be having a good time, especially if they were involved sexually, was appalling, astounding, and abnormal. And ended up killing him. And others.

Where were his therapists and psychologists he had been seeing since age eight? Obviously, the kid had major problems when he whined and cried almost daily. He didn’t have female friends; he shook when he met someone, yet he thought he was “a perfect gentleman” with a “superior memory,” and thought he was “destined for greatness.”

He said that he would love to see rich, active, famous people burn alive. Sick, twisted dude. He declared, “I am Elliot Rodger . . . Magnificent, glorious, supreme, eminent. . . Divine! I am the closest thing there is to a living god.’’ Someone should have told him that he was a pathetic jerk and should enter the real world of commitment, work, and living for others. But he had not been exposed to the real world. He lived in another world where pills, passion, and privilege took control and warped his view of self and life.

As he finished high school and enrolled in college, he was obsessed with still being a virgin and never having kissed a girl. He blamed that on the thoughtless, unkind, evil women who were dedicated to making him suffer. He assumed every beautiful woman thought him repulsive and ridiculed and rejected him. The fact is: they didn’t think about him or know he was alive.

Did his father ever try to correct his son’s warped, wanton and wicked attitude about women? Did he ever take him by the hand and take him to a Bible-preaching church? Did he ever read the Bible to him and pray with him? Did he try to teach him to develop character whereby he would do right because it was right, not only for success? Did he tell him that money, prestige, and sex would not produce satisfaction? Did he ever challenge him to live for others rather than himself?

Did his parents, nannies, therapists, and psychologists, try to correct his incredible opinion of women? Elliot wrote, “There is no creature more evil and depraved than the human female….Women are vicious, evil, barbaric animals, and they need to be treated as such.” In his confused, wicked mind, the only answer was to kill all women, especially blonde women and their male lovers. Then he would be satisfied.

However, Elliot Rodger is not satisfied today. He is a virgin, no doubt in Hell. That’s the place for killers, rapists, adulterers, thieves, the proud, the haters and other lost souls of the world.

And were it not for the grace of God and parents who had character, that could be me.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:22-23: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.” That passage is hated by many who claim to be Bible-believers! However, in many parts of the world, there is little discussion: the man is the leader, governor, boss, chief, etc. However you look at it, the husband is the leader in a biblical home.

A wise husband will always discuss with his wife when major decisions must be made. After all, she is part of the family. Just as important, the man needs a woman’s perspective since he obviously cannot produce that viewpoint no matter how bright, wise, and committed he may be. In our home, my wife is far superior to me in many areas. She is an incredible analyst and can make correct decisions far better and quicker than I. She is also the one who keeps me out of trouble with my columns and books with her knowledge of grammar and composition. I hate to think where I would be without her. All our friends know that she has an engineer’s mind and can solve problems that I don’t even comprehend. So, evidently I am not the head of the home because I am brighter, more talented, better educated or because I am heavier, hairier, or more handsome. It is simply God’s appointment.

Each day before I get out of bed, I ask myself, “What can I do today to make my wife even happier than she is?” We have never had even a “hot” discussion about money or children, the two main points of dissention in most homes. She talks to me before spending money even though it is not necessary since I have complete confidence in her decision and we decide together about investments. If there came a time when we could not agree and a decision had to be made, I would make it and accept the responsibility.

In any family there will be differences and each person should try to satisfy the other’s wants and needs and try to acquiesce to the mate. There may be times when that is impossible and the man must make the decision. When a husband feels the need to command, that usually means a deterioration of the relationship. When command begins, contentment often ends with tragic results. But if each person seeks to satisfy the other, there should be no reason to command. The husband has to fulfill his place as leader and decision-maker and the wife must respond and if she is wise and Christ-directed she will submit to his leadership even if she is convinced his decision is wrong. The man will have to live with his decision. That’s the price of leadership.

That is one reason the man should always get his wife’s thoughts before a decision is made since the responsibility is great. Two minds are better than one and should be twice as safe.

It takes an informed, dedicated, and sincere Christian woman to surrender willingly to God’s plan for her life in this matter. After all, the whole culture is against a wife’s obedience and she will often be ridiculed by foes, friends, and family. It must be understood that times have changed but God’s plan for the home has not. Cowardly, sniveling husbands and overbearing, commanding wives are a modern abomination and the broken homes resulting in unmotivated, uncivilized, uneducated, and undisciplined children are the consequences.

Francis Quarles, in his homely rhymes, alluding to the superstition that the crowing of a hen bodes bad luck to the family, has said:

“Ill thrives the hapless family that shows
A cock that’s silent, and a hen that crows:
I know not which live most unnatural lives,
Obeying husbands or commanding wives.”

Deep in every heart he or she knows what is right; however, it is one thing to know the right and another thing to do it.

Meanwhile, behind every successful man is a woman rolling her eyes. Sometimes it is his wife, sometimes, it’s his mother-in-law!

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”