GENDADS

Colton’s Great Adventure

In the process of growing through stages of life, there are none quite like the one we term the Journey to Manhood.  If you reel way back in this blog you will see Taylor Pettit, my 12-cum-13 grandson, going through this process over several posts.  Poor Colton…he gets one summary entry.  This 12-year-old made his trip from Colorado to California with his father, the family therapist, for five intense days.

This is long for a blog, but a short, good read nevertheless.    I’m  going to start with my own report since it has such a significant bearing on how the Lord intervened on Colton’s behalf to make this a God-framed event.

I have advanced prostate cancer, a pretty aggressive variety, and it’s got a good grip on my skeletal structure.  I appear to carry myself in a pretty “normal” fashion, and seem healthy to the casual observer.  But the biggest side effect is the limits to my walking.  I was concerned about my being a full participant in the really cool schedule of events I’d set up for Colton and Matt.  Using the customary oncologist formula, I’m supposed to be pretty much at the end of the standard time line.

But I’m not.

I keep a spread sheet to keep track of my general and physical status.  Peculiar, I know, but helpful.  Every day except the last half of the last day after they hit the road, I was scoring 7 ad 8 on a ten scale.  “Normal” would be 5 and dropping.  That we could go night and day was a gift to Colton gift from On High.  They left Tuesday.  My next chemo day (a new “breakthrough” formula) was Wednesday. The doctor called after I returned to report a remarkable event.  My numbers had been climbing, but suddenly they took a dive.  I smiled broadly and whispered, “Praise the Lord.”  My doctor heard it and agreed.

Speaking of a “dive,” we are now back to Colton’s story.  So, the first day of their arrival was a half round of golf (Carolyn and I live on an RV resort right off eighth green).  Two great events: Colton, who has proved himself a natural athlete and hunter, beat me by one or two strokes each hole.  The other event is that I walked the entire route on chemo legs.

Next day, our thespian-inclined young man, got a personalized tour of Azusa Pacific University’s (Cari’s excellent alma mater) theatrical and cinema department.  Impressive.  Inspirational.   Then after a two-hour meal at a Brazilian steakhouse (12 varieties of meats brought to your table throughout the evening on a sword), we took in a play.   That meant a late night return.  Short sleep for growing boy/man and an old man facing a maximum demand day ahead.

This Saturday proved a highlight.  One of Matt’s former charges at Aspen Ranch lived in La Jolla, a high grade beach town with a cove famous for it’s aquatic preserve and great snorkeling.  And, he happen to work at a shop that rents snorkeling and kayaking equipment.  What a day!  And this is where I tell you I was as impressed with Matt (who doesn’t like swimming all that much) as I was with Colton.  Colton, got slammed with a snorkel malfunction on his first attempt to swim out.  We made it back to the beach, fixed the problem, and very impressively charged out as if he had not nearly drowned minutes earlier.  MAN meets challenge!  His description of the wonderful new underwater world was a treasure, especially the part where a “huge” sting ray swam right under him.

So, where is Matt, we wondered.  I even asked a life guard.  He spotted Matt and our experienced water-world host and guide, Henry, “swimming around that point over there.  They’ll be back, there’s no way out without coming back.”  Colton and I hiked the cliff line to finally find the two of them had swum through the seals and made their way up the rocks in heavy surf.  Matt, “you da MAN!”  Seems a special manhood event beside Colton’s was under way.  A celebratory lunch, meeting with Henry’s family, 31 Flavors, and a movie—“Zero Dark Thirty”—capped the day. Now that was a men’s day out!

Ahhhh, Sunday, a day of rest.  Sorta.  After church, it was a a trip up the nearby mountains to the famous Palomar Observatory and museum.  Monday?  Oh that was men’s Bible study (The Man God Uses).  But before we participated in the study, we met with a group of men who showed up early specifically to share with Colton what it was like in their family and professional life to walk with the Lord.   Some shared how they came to the Lord late in life.  Their life changes were dramatic.

You’ll never guess what the next event was.  Colton “shadowed” (that’s the term the doctor’s staff used) our family physician, a serious practicing Christian, by making rounds, following staff as they did their routines, and even sitting in on my semi-annual physical.   We rounded out the day, unfortunately, with another round of golf.  By this time my “7” had dropped back to “5” so I “let” Colton beat me on a couple more holes and called it quits.

Oh, there was one more event just before they left on Tuesday.  Colton had a choice.  He very nicely offered to go on the two-man glider ride since this was likely the last time I’d have the chance to fly with him.  I thanked him but let him go with his real choice and watched him take the solo (with pilot) acrobatic glider.  What a thrill to see them turn every which way but loose.  When the glider leveled out above the field, we assumed Colton had gotten sick.  Nope, just not enough air speed and altitude.  He actually was given the controls for part of the flight and has one of those Go Pro videos of this man-sized event in his young life.

 

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The Christ-centered life…so common a phrase among its practitioners that it looses it’s flavor like my new Strawberry Shortcake gum. Suddenly it’s back…in the center.

Whenever I profile a media sign up and they ask for favorite songs and statements, I include this: “Tis one life, ’twill soon be passed; only what’s done for Christ will last.” It was first quoted from a Moroccan friend of mine, Augustine, who became a saint after a racous life.

God has intruded on me. Craig Barnes’ “When God Intrudes” was a huge guide to something new. It’s not the 4th stage prostate cancer that claims the bulk of my attention and prayers. It’s the sudden disability of my legs from extruded spinal disks. Not related to cancer except no operation is possible. Enemy cancer cells seems to have found my spinal nerve assembly a fine headquaters.

So now the point to give this quick read some context and value. I went to the ER when my legs suddenly gave in and I collapsed all because the docs thought it was cancer chewing on my nerve bundle.

The back and middle story is too long. Go to Wild Gray Goose for that. Worhwhile.

The end piece of this Life Story segment is for you. Maybe.

It was not the certainty of a shortened life from cancer that re-shaped my life. My side effects are nearly nil. But now, according to my therapist (and soninlaw and co-author of Generational Fathering) I’ve entered a New Stage. We all face several of these in our lifetimes but most ignor and don’t adapt, dragging their old life across the rocky trail. I have had to come to grips with legs functioning at 70%, and probably decreasing, limiting distance and weight considered “normal.” Nothing in life, however well planned, is nailed down. God owns only three nails and they are still in the Cross. That stays firm, fixed, forever. The rest is flux.  Be prepared!

I had to take a day alone “on the edge” (a perch on the escarpment overlooking the Colorado River valley). It was to deal with my New Stage and use that as my moment of crossing the threshold of something new my Lord had in mind when He intruded with a major changeup. Legs. HMMMmmmm. Could been brain or eyesight. I’ll stick with legs and a walking stick.

I’ll leave you with this: As I gathered my Bible, book, and journal, and walked to the car, the words came to me as if from On High, “slower and lower.” It’s my new life theme, one I would disdain only months ago. But when God intrudes with a change, it is for His purposes. A slower pace using a walking stick and a handicapped sticker wasn’t me. ‘Tis now. Humility now frames what used to be my physical health and prowess. There is a new layer on the old me.

On top of the still forming assets of my slower and lower me, will be a much better focus on Generational Fathering which has trouble getting meaty with so much “normal” activity, like buying a short-sale ranch in Colorado.

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Keeping my word: Short.  This is our new Blog plan.  Short vignettes that illustrate the theme of Generational Fathering.  Two generations of fathers, the elder partnering with the younger busy professional who is passionate about his fathering but is in the prime of his professional life to provide for the family  These will be little stoires to enourage young fathers and older retreads to share the duties and the joys of “fathering to the end,” and “finishing well” in the arena of life that counts more than fame, riches, and low handicaps at the retiree tournament as a proper fulfillment of God’s assignment, never rescineed, to serve Him by being a father.

Matt’s away on a remote job.  Tuesday is for our Rite of Passage kid, Colton.  Morning Bible study.  We could skip; great excuse.  Or “we” the team dads, could carry on. So we did; I did.  It’s not plowing through Samuel watching the complimentary lives of David and Jonathan, that’s so hard.   It’s the Hootenany Pancakes.  Grandpa ain’t so great on that one.  I tried for animal-shaped pancakes; “Com’on Popi, that was when we were kids.”  He grimmaced bravely over his first bites, the rest remained untouched.                                                                                   

So, Colton has a pre-study assignment.  Matt, by phone, told me mine.  We dig in.  Basically, it’s the same expected questions.  It’s the answers that count; Colton’s answers since he’s the man in training.  We came up with this one, the highlight answer of the morning.  I Samuel 20-25.  So what influence did best friends have on each other?  Dedicating their lives to each other.  And it wasn’t just for them, it became a valorous bond that affected the entire Kingdom of Israel.  Even later when they were married and had families, they stuck together.  We know their comradeship carried into their  family lives; their renegade kids like Solomon and Absolom were always challenging their fathers.  “I guess we don’t see it exactly in the Bible, Popi, but you KNOW they had to have some serious discussions, maybe even tears about those kids and probably their many wives, too.” 

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['Twer conceive very differently, this Father's Day announcement with the too-cute-by-half  bugling noise.  I got humbled.  My faithful blog mechanizm said it did, but it didn't.  Send you a notice, that is. Two weeks later, working with the email designer, and over my head with other things, I am trying again to send this your way.  WHY (be so bull-headed)?  That's just me.  AND, this is as important an announcement now as it was then.

If you've faithfully tortured your way this far in my whiney intro, you deserve the short version, "TA-Ta--Taaa!" etc. aside.   I took some time to add some old (and new) friends to the subscriber’s list because of the new journey ahead.  If I misjudged your potential interest in following my SHORT Gendads posts as part of writing the book of my head and heart so long delayed, shoot me an "unsubscribe" note at gary@gendads.com. Would love to have you stay onboard with the hope some of you will add examples of generationally significant fathering and maybe even agree to an interview.]  

We’re back to the delayed original:  Bugling…might be reveille, the military wake up call. Could be my favorite sound in the wild, a wapiti, a bull Elk announcing his presence and, well, his really serious intentions. Really big announcements come with bugling. All of which brings me to this TA-Ta-TAAAAAaaaa!!

That’s me announcing a pivotal event in my life appropriate to FATHER’S DAY.
You see, I got me an editor. And I got me a request from a well-known publisher, too. Think it’s about time the Generational Fathering myth becomes a book?

GENDADs (.com) is about to become what it was originally intended.  Matt, co-author and soninlaw, had wanted this space to be more bloggy instead of a rare intonation from ancient cowboy-philosopher-poet.

Here’s what you’ll be getting from GenDad’s now.  First is “short.”  Revolutionary, eh?  Still provokative, or maybe just a prodding.  Frequent due to the new function.

While I dig deep and do the hard work of the book, and it should take some considerable time, I’ll be less in touch with my “tribe”. But as I finished talking with Matt on the cell in his travels from Denver, this idea struck me.  Hard.

Talking with Matt, I was walking to the arena with 9-(cum 18)-year-old Brooke to keep a promise to train her in the round pen on her horse, Holly.  Dad, the equine master, has been gone.  I am filling in.  This is the essence of Generational Fathering…”co-fathering,” maybe, “partner-fathering.”   Maybe “complementary fathering” is more apt.  Matt is full-up with Deep Rivers Family Ranch and his therapy practice like most dads this age at the crux of their careers.  Six children complicate things.  Alas, “Popi” rides up on a white stallion, white hat, and a golden heart and a deep desire to build and leave a godly legacy.

So?

So, I will be writing (and Matt commenting) as layers of our tightly wrapped lives unfold into stories illustrating our convictions supporting this bold new dimension of fathering in an increasingly fatherless world.  I can take short vignettes out of our lives to keep the stories fresh here in GenDads.  It’s a good way to demonstrate what “complementary fathering” looks like in the canvas of our lives.  I’ve noted four in my pocket pad since wrote this.  Our hope?  Give you on either side of the father/grandfather role some food for thought.

If I am committed to writing three hours a day (many of you are so glad to hear, at last, “FOCUS!”) I can add a short piece, blog style, every few days.   They’ll be way shorter than this transition statement. I use Hootsuite, so some of you will get a Twitter alert, others Facebook, and a bunch of my Deep Rivers Family Ranch connections in Linked In will be able to peek at the progress of our book and of our lives.

Oh, some of you know about the advanced stage of you-know-what and the chemotherapy routine I’m balancing with a “normal” full life.  It’s a motivator.  It’s about time I multi-task despite my wife’s 48 years of doubt.  Dual primary tasks is a good thing.  Leaving a legacy for multiple generations to follow and concentrating on the book as the premier project of this finish-well leg of the journey means no stinkin chemo is going to thwart God’s assignment.

Thanks, alas, for sticking with this last long blog.  Any comments to encourage or re-direct let me know the admin rework worked.

 

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So, what do I do now? Better yet, what would YOU DO? Even better still, what would you BE THINKING, MUSING, PLANNING, PRAYING now?.

I’m cool, even strangely excited, about sitting here in Starbucks waiting for my bone and CT scans. You may know those to be cancer tracking proceedures.

Speaking of “cool,” that’s what everything was last visit. I’d shifted from the Urologist to the Oncologist. Oh-oh. But she said, “You don’t need no stinking chemo.” (Well, maybe not in such street terms). That was two months ago. In six days she sees me again with today’s scans. HMMmmm. NEVER assume. NEVER take God’s gifts and blessing for granted.

Think about this in your own life. Doesn’t have to be cancer, health, or seeking God’s wondrous will. It could be something small. Yesterday is but a taste of tomorrow, and there are no guarantees of healing, even tranquility. Momentum is not a heavenly concept. For those walking with Jesus, who, after all, is the Lord God incarnate, the future is now; it’s how you walk with, trust in, depend on, love Him NOW.

So, do I count on the cancer being held at bay, maybe conquered? Nope. But I do know this, and I pass it on to you. What is, is. And it is He who IS, the “Great I AM.” Count on it. So will I be anxious next Wednesday? Maybe a scosh. Like you, wondering if God wants that loan to go through, that sort of stuff. We get the answer and move on knowing each step, like each moment, belongs to Him and it is He, the Lord God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, who treats us to His will at each point.

May I get religious for a moment? (The cowboy lost on a rugged trail and counting on Toffee to carry him home is surely a creationist thanking God for smart horses and His sovereignty). This is too common, so don’t take it for granted, please. Think of it in the context of wild, wild Peter who, recovering from his moral failure was going to conquer the world for his Master:
2 Peter 3:11-13(Msg)Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival.

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No, I’m not dying.  Well, yes, I am, but so are you.  I mean my cancer is there, but so am I; healthy, strong, no affects other than the entertaining issues from the femine hormones (prone to hug, spending extra time in Khols, hot flashes).  Still, there is this thing about the path of life.  I, of course, think in terms of “The Trail.’   Many a trail on the back of Toffee (who preceeded me last year into Horse Heaven), many a ride along rich and challenging sections with Matt.  We peel off and head down our own trails, always within shouting distance, always following the Wild Goose, always ready to reign strong and ride hard over to the other’s call.

Along the trail are the cairns (rocks stacked in such a way as to guide the next rider, invaluable when maps, trail markers, and overgrown trails cloud the journey).  We follow some, we leave some.

This is a short post leading to a longer one in my personal blog (this being more a dads and book blog) The Wild Gray Goose.  Before you jump over there ( I recommend you do), I want you to catch a “bottom line” idea.  Saves you all my poetic meanderings.  We ALL need heart–partners.  We need comrades, amigos, saddle mates, partners who will stand beside us for God’s sake and ours.   SEAL Team Six is a TEAM.  And they do their missions in pairs.  I flew with a wingman, never alone in combat.

Life, because of the Fall and subsequent invasions of our lives by the Enemy of Our Souls, is warfare.  We need trusted companions.  The new movie, Act of Valor (active duty SEALs as “actors”), will emboss that on your psyche.  Ephesians 6:12 will take your understand where it ought to go…the battle is in the heavenlies but touches down in our lives sometimes subtly, sometime dramatically.  The battle is not ours, it’s His.  Our heart/life/trail mates are cruicial.

Oh, one note more.  My grandsons (and soon the granddaughters) are being conditioned to the trail ahead and its difficult sections.  Through Matt and I (the team, co-fathering theme again) taking them up to and through a rite of passage; boot camp for those who would ride and fight well…but never alone.  We provide two generations of savvy companionship.  And when I go, Matt and each of them will repeat the cycle; a legacy of preparing for the long ride on life’s trail and the battles and joys thereupon, one cairn followed by another.

And now, you’ll better understand the meaning of my view of the trail in The Wild Gray Goose.

 

 

 

 

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So, I really don’t have time for this.  What’s new.  Just before heading out the door on today’s project, I got snagged by a friend’s FB post.  Here I am an hour later.   One thing lead to another.  Mostly pondering and typing as I toured my new micro-world in Hootsuite.

This morning became archtypical of what’s right and wrong (but mostly right) of my mornings these days.  I commented on four posts, did a Tweet, and now this.  It’s about The Story.  Again.  I can sledom see a movie twice and never read a book twice.  But this Story I love, for it is Life itself.  Here is a mix of todays posts.  I asked a question I ask of you again here.  How does my “noble sunrise” and it’s quick disintegration look like yours?  Or not.

From a new friend’s comment about a dream of her dad.  It wasn’t a post, it was a vignette of a Story.  Life should be full of thrilling segments of His Story written for us.  Instead, well…. OK, a quick read should be enough to pass the pondering and writing baton to you:

“There’s a story here .  Two stories mingled.  After all, our life fully lived out of the heart is merely The Story God had written for us.  Best we live HIS Story in us one chapter (hey…one PAGE) at a time.  I too often write and follow my own script. More in the past than now.  Age drains the ambition, adreneline, miss-focused passions that too often  formed my own story because the Author was way too slow with His.”

Now this as I moved from pondering to practical in my morning postings,  “It don’t hardly matter…whether old or young, the first challenge of the day, recognized and spoken or not, is:  What are my priorities AND “What are the first three things I will actually DO?

Wanna know mine?  Am curious how much mine and yours are alike.

Coffee, news, update “To-Do,” wrote yet more stuff that won’t get done, settled to read today’s five Psalms and Proverbs 26,

Wait.  That’s Four things.  See, once again, my Father of fathers gets second best.  Actually, I walked the dog as number four…but at least prayed from my Walkabout list while she pranced, peed, and pooped.

Is God offended (no, not about me forcing you to imagine dog-pooping/man-praying) that He was number five?  Not likely.  He’s quite used to it.  So, maybe you, like me, will want to surprise Him.  Without fanfare (which is what I think Tweeting is all about), I’ll move Him up to the number two spot.  (Certainly He does not expect a fruitful, cogent meeting with my heart and my mind before at least one cup.  Right?)

Wanna move God up a notch or two?  Wanna “read” and walkabout from His script instead of yours?

There’s one last punchline because my priorities now include my all-out help to Deep Rivers Family Ranch, one of the most exciting God-Thing projects I’ve been connected to in years.   Like you, I have to let God govern my priorities.  I have to make the assumption that those coming from the heart, a heart given to Him, are His.  BUT, since I am prone to my ways over His, I need to constantly ask, “Father, is this wonderful project for You that I’m on, what I am to be doing NOW?”

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That’s me.  I went deep this morning following the Wild Goose.  I actually wrote, yes wrote, as in hand writing, in my journal.  It framed my day.  Following the Holy Spirit, known as the Wild Goose by my Celtic forefathers, is both wild and wonderful.  I provide the gray.  Take a visit to my journal and get a short profile of following the Winged and Wonderful Creature  www.newseason.us

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My place-holding blog entry is waaay too old.  Good reason, though.  Interesting, but are you interested?  Maybe not, so here’s the nutshell version so’s I can get on with fortifying the bridge so I can cross back over.

I loved blogging.  I loved a whole bunch more in life, too.  Hard to balance.  So, with the major focus being the rite of passage for my olderst grandson behind me, I took the bridge across to “LayLoLand”.  Been helping soninlaw, Matt, get started in his new professional-business-as-ministry, Deep Rives Family Ranch.  MAN! is that exciting.  It’s like passing the baton from our years of ministry to the newer gen better able to handle the peculiarities and demands of current family status in our nation.  DRFR is a whole-family crisis intervention therapy ranch.  Did I get enough words in there to help you figure it out?  It’s finding wonderful response in the therapy community and in the lives of those families Matt is touching.

After a summer at their new ranch site in Colorado (in the mountains above and west of Grand Junction), Carolyn and I are back home in SoCal catching our breath AND setting out on the new stage of priorities: 1) enjoy each other and the remaining life God grants us (see next paragraph), 2) Re-start Generational Fathering (after five months idle) and start with notes for Carolyn’s and my life memior (“Our Extraor dinary Journey:  Stories of Following Jesus Up Mountain Peaks, Through Valleys, and Out of Quick Sand”) 3) continue prayer and marketing support for Deep Rivers Family Ranch, 4) increase our personal witness and serve our Chapel congregation well.

By the way, the above is in the context of my advance prostate cancer.

So, what’s the bridge analogy that require re-crossing?  Life is short (and shorter by each year I enjoy God’s grace), Life is Hard, Life is Unfair, and Its End is Uncertain.  That’s the Engineer’s label on the bridge abuttment.  The bridge has been named the “Finish Well” bridge.  I’m crossing it again with even more enthusisam than what characterizes my life to date.

And I remember daily two motto’s.  One took me into college with faith the my future was in His hands, “‘Tis one life, ’twill so be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”  Then the motto on the cornerstone of Wheaton College that sent me out from that wonderful, life-framing institution, “For Christ and His Kingdom”.

Sorry I can’t fancy this up with the normal photo’s and graphics.  I’ve been too long away to remember how. For now, I just want my GenDads pals to know I’ll be back on the keyboards.  Soon grandson #2 will be entering his year of passage.  You’ll get some of those pieces and a bit of my Finish Well Journey.

My personal blog, Wild Gray Goose, has some personal refelction of life, cancer, and serving The One upon Whom all is centered.

 

 

 

 

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For those being intruded on by hackers, I apologize.  I am hiring a smart blogger to fix the problem.  Please be patient.

FIRST, IT WAS THE LORD’S “STILL, SMALL VOICE”(See comment below).

THEN IT WAS THE DEVIL’S TURN…Or was it?  You probably noticed.  I got hacked.  Messed up my rigid plans for the day.  BUT it got me back into this blog.  I’ve been planning that for over a week.   Or is that spelled, “weak?”  I ‘spect I’m being prodded by the Lord to re-enter the blog world as part of the mission to pick up my book writing.  Been away all summer helping son-in-law start his business. It’s actually a ministry of reaching out to families in chaos by way of equine assisted therapy on Deep Rivers Family Ranch.

At the beginning of the summer I wrote:  SUDDENLY, THE LORD WHISPERED LOUDLY…”Take a break, son.”  He was refering to my time on my blog and social media.  He reminded me He wrote His Book, and now I should write mine.

SO FOR MY VISITORS OVER THE FIRST HALF OF OCTOBER:  This is a perfect place for a static page.  It introduces the book and a bit of our life touched, incredibly, by grace uncommon.  Feel free, however, to leave a comment (tap “comments,” above).]

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Per the blog header, the focus  of GenDads is pretty clear.  It’s about “generational fathering,” the concept of promoting multiple generations participation in the fathering challenge.  If the goal is “good and godly” children as lights of hope and righteousness in a darkening future, then the father and the father’s father would be a better set of tools to hammer out that sort of legacy.

One thing is obvious.  Like other “obvious” truths, we need reminding: it’s not the quantity (as in two complementing generations) but the quality of both that will assure the quality of the newest and very challenging generation being molded.

See the cute, happy couple? If the photo is 46 years old, does “happy” continue (even if “cute” is long gone)?  It’s a serious question.  The handsome Navy flyboy has wrinkles, white hair, and a protruding belly now.  But it  is the quality of his life–and his  “Happy Couple” marraige–that determines the quality of imprint “Popi” will have on his grandchidren.

This weekend Sunday service forces this issue.  You see, Carolyn (the still “cute” and obviously better half) and I were asked to share our testimony and given the entire message slot.  We would never have guessed (and still are a bit dazed) the overwhelming event that would become.  It was not the 46 years of walking with God together done in 40 minutes, but the entire week it took for us to forge Our Story from memory and pictures.  Tears, smiles, awed silence and shaking our heads in wonder as we reviewed each segment of the journey.

Reviewing our life under the Utterly Gracious Hand of a Loving God has changed us.  Our life forward will be different.  The “Finishing Well” phase of life  (like a race, a poem, a painting, a landscaping project…heck, like anything of worth) depends what’s been invested, hammered, built, tested, sacrificed (etc., etc.,) in early stages.  We were overwhelmed (I mean that; really, we were swept up in the wonder of it) at the amazing and unearned grace of God to have favored us so.  I type through tears even now.

This could be a very long post.  Or it could stop here.  Or maybe I should hit the “pause” tab for now.  I think over the next couple of days, with writing Generational Fathering highest on my priority list, I’ll take time on GenDads to share the highlights of that journey.  WHY?  Back to the “quality” thing in leaving a legacy imprint on my generations to follow. The quality of God’s grace is never in question.  How we appropriated it–that alone a mystery of unmetited grace–is the essence of how my life (amplified by my still-cute better half) will imprint these six grandchildren I so dearly love.

AND YOU?  HOW WILL THE WORK OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE UP ‘TIL NOW IMPACT YOUR LIFE ONWARD..AND THOSE HE GIVES YOU TO LEAD, INCLUDING THE GENERATIONS TO FOLLOW FORWARD?

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