About Ron
I'm Not a Perfect Dad
Let me say this up front: I wasn't a perfect dad—and I'm still not.
I was in the room but not always as present as I wish I was, providing while missing things I can't get back. I'm not here because I mastered this. I'm here because I didn't—and God's still refining me.
Just Getting Started
I'm a husband of thirty-plus years, a father of two, and a proud grandfather. After a long, full career, I recently retired to Spring Hill, Tennessee, to be near my first grandchild.
But for me, retirement isn't a finish line—it's a launchpad.
I'm nowhere near finished. High-energy, full of fire, and backed by decades of hard-won lessons, I'm giving this whole next chapter to Prayer-Centered Fatherhood—walking alongside men who want to become the Servant-Leader Dad their families need.
Who I’ve Walked With
Thirty-plus years with men who look fine and carry more than anyone sees—pastors, ex-cons, ordinary dads.
What changed them was never their circumstances. It was the moment they stopped carrying it alone and let God meet them where they actually were.
I've been that man too.
But the One I've walked with longest is Jesus—through the good and the hard, the wins and the wreckage. He's never once let go of me.
What I Bring
35+ years mentoring men
20 years in bi-vocational pastoral ministry
20 years in premarital coaching
12 years as a certified coach
10 years leading prayer ministries
6 years as a law enforcement chaplain
Licensed and ordained through the local church
Author of Black Diamond Dads™
Creator of the Black Diamond Legacy Refinement™—a proprietary process developed over decades
The credential that matters most: I've lived every bit of what I walk men through.
Forged, Not Broken
A carbonado is a black diamond—the toughest on earth. Where an ordinary stone would crack and fail, a carbonado holds: the pressure fuses it into something stronger.
God forms men the same way.
The pressure you're under doesn't have to break you. Under God's hand, it can be the very thing that shapes you—not by remaking you into someone else, but by revealing the man He's been forming all along. Prayer is what brings it into the light.
It Doesn't Stop With You
This was never just about a better prayer life.
When a father is refined—when he stops carrying it alone and starts leading from settled strength—he doesn't change alone. His kids feel it. His home steadies. And the way he prays becomes the way they'll pray, long after he's gone.
That's the vision: not one program, but a generation of Servant-Leader Dads raising the next. Fathers forged under pressure, teaching their children to stand under it.
It starts with one dad, willing to do the work.
Ready When You Are
No performance required. No need to have it together first. Just a man who's walked the hard road and will walk it beside you.
Explore The Carbonado Intensive →
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Flat-Footed Conviction. Wholehearted Grace. Better Dads.
Ron Maxson, Jr. | The Dads Prayer Coach