Today, too many boys are growing up with smartphones in their hands but without a father’s steady hand on their shoulder.
A father’s influence cannot be replaced by a screen, a program, a classroom, or a culture. Boys need dads. They need men who show up, speak truth, model courage, offer correction, give encouragement, and walk beside them as they learn what it means to become men. A present father is one of the most foundational and formative gifts a boy can receive.
Good dads come in many varieties. There is no one-size-fits-all template for how to raise a son, and no human dad in the history of fatherhood has ever done it perfectly. Fatherhood is beautiful, demanding, humbling work. It requires love, sacrifice, patience, prayer, and often the wisdom to recognize that even the best dads were never meant to do it alone.
In Trail Life, we see it day after day: dads and dad-like mentors showing up for boys in powerful ways. They pitch tents, teach skills, lead hikes, build fires, pray with boys, challenge them, encourage them, and help them discover what they are capable of becoming.
Mark Ream is one of those dads.
We recently told the story of his son, Jackson, who earned Trail Life USA’s Freedom Award. But Mark’s story is not just part of Jackson’s story. It is a story of its own — a Father’s Day story about faith, humility, perseverance, and the quiet, powerful love of a dad who wanted to help his son become a godly man.
When Mark first started looking for something like Trail Life, he was looking for an activity to do with his son that would help him raise his son into a godly man. He had intended to join the BSA with his son, but recent decisions made it clear that the Boy Scouts no longer aligned with Mark’s values.
“I prayed and prayed to the Lord as I looked for an alternative to raise my son in a godly environment alongside other men,” Mark said.
Jackson was six years old when the Ream family found Trail Life. He was just a little boy then — a Fox Trailman with years of campouts, hikes, patrol meetings, projects, failures, friendships, and hard-earned lessons ahead of him. Mark could not have known all the ways those years would shape his son. But he knew one thing clearly: Jackson needed more than one man speaking into his life. Sometimes one of the greatest acts of fatherly love is making room for other godly men to help shape the son he loves.
“It was important to me to find other men who put Christ first in their walk and to have those men come alongside me to help raise my son,” Mark said. “I knew I couldn’t do it alone. Jackson’s upbringing would be incomplete without having other men who have strengths in areas that are my weaknesses. I needed other men to fill those gaps.”
For Mark, Trail Life became that place.
“To have a community of men come alongside me — and hold myself accountable — iron sharpens iron,” he said.
Through their local Troop, Mark found what he had been praying for: a place where boys could grow in faith, responsibility, grit, and brotherhood. Or, as Mark put it, “Trail Life created, in our local Troop, a nurturing environment where the boys can be challenged and pushed.”
But Trail Life was not only growing Jackson. It was growing Mark too.
Jackson’s Navigators Trailmaster, Dan, recalls that “Mark was a helicopter dad. It was fun watching Mark let go and Jackson learning to do it on his own.”
“Dan’s right. I was a helicopter dad,” Mark admitted. “And I tell you, I haven’t completely outgrown that title. Complete transparency. Sometimes I find myself stepping in too much.”
“That’s why I have these other men in my life,” Mark said. “They pull the reins back in.” As Jackson moved from Woodlands Trail into Navigators, Mark began to see his role changing.
“Around 6th grade, a transition happened. I became more of an observer rather than a participant. I got to stop doing things for him and started watching him take off.”
“When he did his Timberline project, I was out of town. Another Trail Life leader, Scott, stepped in to help. Jackson got to start blazing his own trail,” Mark said. “And for me not being there, it was sad, but it was good.”
Over the years, Mark watched Jackson change. He saw him grow from an eager young leader who sometimes barked orders into a patient young man who could coach, serve, carry burdens, and lead with humility.
“As a dad,” he added, “I’m really proud of that.”
Jackson’s growth has reached far beyond Trail Life. Mark sees it in his son’s steadiness, his faith, his willingness to take responsibility, and the way he handles conflict.
“He maintains a very levelheaded and calm manner amongst the chaos,” Mark said. “And I didn’t teach him that. It’s the other men around me who did.”
That is the beauty of a healthy Trail Life Troop. Fathers do not have to carry the work of discipleship alone. Sons are shaped by their dads, by their leaders, by older Trailmen, by younger boys watching their example, and by the steady presence of men who show up week after week.
Jackson noticed it too. “No one man is able to do everything right,” Jackson said, “almost like how a church is formatted, that every Christ follower needs a community so that everyone’s strengths can be combined to make the best situation possible.”
Near the end of the interview, Mark shared a rite of passage story he didn’t anticipate. Trail Life has rites of passage integrated throughout the program. Some like the Worthy Life Award, Timberline Award, Ridgeline Award, and The Freedom Award are built in. Others, like a first campout, the first time splitting wood, the first time starting a fire, and a first backpack trip are more organic—-just part of doing life together. As dads, we look forward to those moments with our sons.
But this one was different. Jackson had planned a backpacking trip and out there on the trail, Mark was beginning to doubt whether he had what it takes to finish. He looked at his high school athlete son and had to admit, “Jackson, I don’t know if I can do this — this route that you have picked out is tough”
Jackson’s answer was simple, “I got you, Dad.”
“And he did,” Mark said. “We did it together.”
That moment captures the quiet reward of fatherhood. The little boy Mark once prayed over, guided, protected, and pushed had grown into a young man who could shoulder the load and help his dad keep going. The son who once needed his father’s steadying hand had become a young man strong enough to offer his own. That is what faithful fatherhood can do.
Ever since Jackson was little, Mark has always been intentional about how he raised his son. “That was the vision that I had when he was six,” he said, “to equip him to be a future godly father, man, and husband.”
Years later, looking at the young man Jackson has become, Mark can see the fruit of those prayers, those campouts, those hard conversations, those other men, and those moments when he had to step back and let his son lead.
“He’s very strong physically,” Mark said. “He’s strong spiritually, and he’s strong mentally, and he’s strong emotionally. He is a lot better Christian man than I was when I was 18, by far.”
This Father’s Day, we celebrate dads like Mark.
We celebrate fathers who show up when it is hard, pray when they are uncertain, lead when they are tired, and love their sons enough to guide them toward manhood instead of holding them back from it. We celebrate dads who sacrifice in quiet, faithful ways — who leave work early to make a Troop meeting, spend weekends sleeping on the ground, load gear into the back of the truck, teach knots and fire-building after long days, pray over hard decisions, have difficult conversations, cheer from the sidelines, listen late at night, and keep showing up even when they wonder if they are getting it right.
We celebrate dads who know their sons need their presence—not perfection. Boys need fathers who are engaged, humble, courageous, and willing to keep growing right alongside them.
And we celebrate the men who stand beside those fathers: Troop leaders, mentors, grandfathers, uncles, pastors, and friends who help strengthen the next generation. Raising godly men is not a solo mission. It is a sacred calling best lived out in community.
For Mark, Trail Life has been part of that journey from the beginning. For Jackson, that journey is only just beginning. And for countless fathers and sons across the country, a Trail Life Troop may be the place where a boy finds adventure, a dad finds brotherhood, and both discover the joy of walking the trail together.
This Father’s Day, thank God for faithful dads.
Find a Troop near you or learn how to bring Trail Life to your community at TrailLifeUSA.com