True to Life with Life with James Rosser, MD, FACS OH Magazine asked Dr. James ?Butch? Rosser to answer the question that follows from his perspective as a successful WLS patient and talented WLS surgeon. Here we share his candid and heart-felt response. If you could instill one value or one central message in your kids that they would keep through adulthood, completely internalize and really live, what would it be? I would say that it would be something more universal that goes beyond weight management and applies to any of life?s circumstances where you receive challenges that you have to respond to. My word of advice would be that there is no circumstance or situation that houses the absolute nature of hopelessness. There is always hope, and that hope is generated from your willingness to recognize the shortcoming and honestly identify it, formulating a plan based on that honesty. No matter how dirty, no matter how filthy you feel that honesty is, build your plan based on the foundation of the true circumstance that you found yourself in, and then relentlessly execute that plan by not only using your own personal resources, but the resources that God will put around you to enable you to win and climb to higher ground. Now you ask me that question, and I seem as if I had a very prepared answer that I?ve thought about for years, but that could not be further from the truth. That was a very unique question asked, but in my mind?as I watch them and I hold them and I kiss them and I see them move them from the back seat and want to sit to the front and hear them talk about, ?Daddy, you need a good car so you can give this car to us,? and witness them use their charm in the store to get me to buy something I had no intention of buying?in my heart, that question has already been posed to me and that answer has already matured within my spirit. To learn more about Dr. Rosser and his personal weight loss journey, and to read an article written by his wife, Dana, please visit the Black American forum at www.obesityhelp.com/forums/black_american.