We need you. Desperately, deeply, undoubtedly need you. We have angry sons and unprotected daughters. We have abandoned mommies and lonely, latchkey kids. We have a country screaming for gun control when what we really need is daddy control.

We need our families restored.

Our faith restored.

Our fathers restored.

We need you, Daddies. Please don’t leave us. When it gets hard with Mom, please don’t walk out that door.

Nearly every shooter in America has a daddy who has walked out that door. The last shooter’s daddy went to prison. We see it again and again in the news. Lonely men with nothing to lose. A generation of boys raised without fathers. Without a family’s warmth and wonder. Without a daddy’s irreplaceable love.

We need you to raise us when we’re small. To teach us to love and respect you. To love and respect Mom. And to love and respect others. We need you to take us fishing. And take us to play at the park. And take us to pizza. To teach us to ride our bikes, and do our chores, and how to swim with big arms. “Big arms,” you will say pushing us through the water with your big arms. “You can do this! You can swim!” you will say, and we will believe you. We will swim.

We need you, Daddies. We need you to tell us we can do this. That we can become decent human beings. People who make the world a better place. If you fill us up with love when we’re little, we will love when we’re big. Teach us to take care of kitties and puppies and take care of old people and take care of our little sisters and brothers. Teach us to protect the weak, and warn the devil, that you– our big, strong Daddy– won’t let someone hurt us without a fight.

Teach us to be like that daddy who nearly died on his son’s sixth birthday. Who ran towards the shooter instead of running away with all the rest. Who said, “I just hope everybody is okay,” after taking five bullets trying to stop hate from walking into a college classroom in Oregon. We need daddies who will step in front of bullets, proclaiming, “It’s my son’s birthday. Please don’t do this. It’s my son’s birthday. You’re not getting by me.”

And we need daddies who will step in front of divorce and proclaim, “This stops with me. I won’t walk away. I’m holding my family together until the day I die.”

Be a brave daddy. You can do this. You have big arms.

We need you to teach us how to paddle. And how to play well with others. The television can’t play with us. Video games can’t hug us and hold us and teach us how to love. iPhones and iPods and iPads can’t tell us the truth. The truth is: we need our daddies. Don’t let your career steal you away from us. Don’t let selfishness and lust destroy the man God made you to be. Don’t find another lover, love the wife you’re with. We need daddies to stop leaving their families.

We need you to be better men. Better husbands. Better fathers. We need you to man up and say, “Enough is enough. I won’t run away when the bullets start flying. I will protect you. When hate comes, my love will be bigger. I will be there. We need daddies willing to die for us.

Dear Jesus, please help the daddies.

Please fill this country’s fathers with fresh courage.

With new honor.

And with your everlasting love.

Please God, give this nation back our daddies.