Mark Stephens wants you to remember a ball on a string.

He wants you to picture two little boys playing in the yard while scripture floats in the background and poetic memories of chest naps and childlike wonder warm your heart.

But what he doesn’t want you to remember?

• The No Contact Orders—one of which is still in place, the other ONLY lifted due to the child turning 18.
• The child psychiatrist’s warnings about emotional manipulation so severe, it led to growth arrest in his son.
• The court-verified “contract” he coerced his child to sign—denying a medically diagnosed eating disorder.
• The fire at his home, which he and his wife were found to be at fault for by the Clark County Fire Marshal—and which they blamed on the children. View Final Hypothesis View the full fire report here
• The baseball uniform that had to be replaced for Nathan after being lost in that fire. Mark refused to pay for it. A local volunteer and stepfather stepped in instead.

What you’re witnessing in this post isn’t healing. It’s DARVO in slow motion:

• Deny the harm
• Attack the other parent subtly (“never lost my childlike heart”)
• Reverse Victim and Offender with sentimental appeals to appear like the devoted father cruelly cut off from his kids

Mark isn’t “writing stories for his sons.” He’s rebranding his past.

These posts are attempts to overwrite court records, eyewitness accounts, and medical findings with filtered nostalgia and carefully curated captions. And while the hashtags say “#fatherslove,” the documented history says something else: neglect, contempt, and control.

Because love is not proven in Facebook videos.
It’s proven in moments like:

• Showing up to medical appointments
• Paying your child support
• Following through with therapy, not fighting against it
• Not making excuses as to why you can’t or won’t do the work
• Not blaming your own children for a house fire you caused

This isn’t a father being unjustly denied. This is a man who created a pattern of harm so clear, a judge ordered complete no contact—not supervised visits, not limited custody—zero contact.

So no, a backyard video and a cherry-picked Bible verse don’t undo the damage.

They just remind us that for some people, the image matters more than the impact.