Daddy Watch Me: The Josh Boley Story

Let's get hypothetical for a minute, because this is a "positive space," and I'm not going to call out any specific person... But imagine a young boy who has a tough home life. Maybe his father has a drinking problem or a drug problem. Maybe he gambles way too much. Maybe he is abusive. Maybe he's just never there.

There are kids, boys and girls, all across the country, that come up in a tough home environment. When this happens a kid will go one of two ways. Maybe they take a look around and say, "well, I guess this is just how my life is going to be," or maybe that kid says, "I'm never going to be like that."

Josh Boley is my cousin, and he is the Pastor at the First Baptist Church in Chaffee, MO. Josh was a 9 year old kid on the first team I ever coached, the Morley Braves little league baseball team. I was 17 years old, still a senior in high school. That same team had Josh's brother Danny, my little brother Randy Conn and Dom Johnson, Daniel Holman, Michael Minner, Chris Monroe, Chris Pobst, James Brown, Jonathan McNeely, and Laura Botkin.

I coached those kids for three years, and Josh was always our 110% hustle award winner. Josh's older brother Jason had given him the nickname "Moshy Pone" (don't ask me why, no clue LOL), and we actually renamed the hustle points to "Moshy Points" because Josh played so hard. That's just the kind of guy he is. Whatever he's doing, he's going to give it 100%.

Josh is one of the most talented people I've ever met in my life. He's a self taught musician, and he's so good that it makes you mad LOL. How can anybody just pick up a guitar and learn to play that well? He can also play piano, and he's a pretty good singer. He was a good basketball player. He's almost as good a shooter as me :)

Josh has always been one of those people that is just good at whatever he decides to do, and everybody that knows him loves him. I asked him who influenced him in a positive way, and he said, "Two people that have had the strongest influence on my life are my brother Nuke and Kevin Coffee. I can't remember any phrases or particularly good advice that any of them gave me (though I'm sure there were lots)--but I DO remember what I perceived as the underlying rule of their lives: Do the right thing no matter the consequences. Don't worry about the outcome, how this will make you look, what it will cost you, if it's convenient or not...just do the right thing. That "rule of life" has kind of been my motto or anchor from when I was very little. It has saved me from countless mistakes, and rescued my integrity on more occasions than I can count. Obviously, I'm not perfect, but that's the GREAT thing about the RIGHT thing, anyone can do it."

Josh mentioned Kevin Coffee, who was his youth pastor. Kevin and I also went to the same church, and we also played high school baseball together when Kevin was a senior first baseman and I was the freshman right fielder LOL. Kevin gave Josh his time and attention. That is a tremendous gift to give, since we can't ever get our time back.

What Kevin did for Josh is so simple. It's something we can all do. It's free! The gift he gave Josh has been paid forward 1000 times over. Josh is a difference maker because somebody else, a relative stranger, took an interest in him. Think about that today. Help somebody if you can.

Have a great day! #JWT