GENDADS

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.

Good Morning, Lord. Where DO I head this morning?

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?”

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

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.

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.

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?

Wild, wild morning and it’s only 0545. I broke my pledge already; the one in which I committed myself to be writing, not blogging and emailing all day.   But a sneaky peek at a blog post of a friend caught my attention. I am posting my response here. Actually on the “more” page.

Is this worth the use of precious posting time and cyber functionality? Yes. Because DEATH, not life, COMES FIRST. Right?

DO WE THINK OFTEN ENOUGH ABOUT DEATH AND THE LIFE THEREAFTER IT ENABLES?

I coulda watched “THE wedding” live. Didn’t, though beginning a new life together is an important bit of life. One must first accept death of the solo-self.

If you only have a few minutes, don’t waste your time reading my thoughts about what it will be like in the cyber world when I’m gone; how will they–or WILL THEY?!–announce and care about my leaving the net?   You can read that in a minute.  Good takeaway.

I want you to go–right now–to my friend’s short post A Pauper In The Court of The King There is a story of death honoring life out of the tornado tragedies (Faithful to the End, A Father’s Sacrifice).

Touching, no? Now you can read my comment about my own consideration about how the cyber world will treat my death (Hey, relax, it’s a long way off. Unless…) and what matters to me about that. It’s short, just click on MORE More

Really, REALLY hard to get this post out. For all the right reasons. If I said “tears” or “thumping heart,” would it make sense? It does to me. And if you’ve been reading or take a few moments now to catch up on the last four or so posts, you’ll get it. It’s about Dads and Sons. Period. See, I’m a dad, sometimes “grand,” sometimes not. Now uncommonly humbled as the observer-participant of my oldest grandson’s Year of, then Week of, then Rite of PASSAGE.

I owe you fans who’ve been so encouraging (and demanding) that I post details of the night in the Big Log Lodge. Mostly you want to know what was said to Taylor and what his response was and how he responded to the questions posed in his wilderness quest.

I will. Soon (this is called a “teaser” in the promo business).

THIS IS THE WOMAN-TO-BE WHO SINGS TO GOD, AND EVERY SONG IS AN ORIGINAL.

We boys rediscoverd this the day before the Big Log Lodge nite. Brooke, somewhere between 8 and 16 years of age, had a tea party. Busy dad, distracted grandfather, harried brother all had to attend. It’s all in the power of the sly roll of the eyes, the hands on the hips. Where did she learn that?! Two neighborhood mothers, a few neighbor girls arrived for tea, cocoa, and crumpets of sorts, and they were all dressed up.

Oh, did I tell you we SERVED? Get the picture? Get the drift? Get the future portended?

Cute, but there’s a sobering summary. Dad is her dad, too. She will marry the man who is most like him. How Matt treats her mother and the other girls is the man who sets the standards and the expectations. How “Popi” treats “Nani” fingures in, too. “Comlementary fathering” is our theme. We both play a role. With today’s longevities, I’ll be there to take part in her Country Cotillion or however it is that her mother and father take her across the threshold of being a captivating woman of modesty, purity, grace, and maturity in Christ.

So, men, this is the sidetrack with purpose. As fathers we model manhood to our girls. If you see that ideal man you may already be praying for as gentle, humble, wise, serving, and mature in the Lord, you’d better be living that model before her…NOW.

THEY DO WHAT THEY SEE: Are you modeling strenth, humility and godliness for her future husband?

THE FROSTING, NOT THE CHOCOLATE,  TAKES THE CAKE

DEAR BELOVED SON BEGAN MATT’S LETTER TO TAYLOR

Tears still brim my eyes as they did most of last night. It was payday for Matt’s week-long–heck, his year-long–investment in the first “child” of his six to step across the adult threshold.

Ten men and their sons, some logging a three-hour drive from the nearest city, circled Taylor in hugely comfy sofas.  Speaking of “huge,’ so did 14 of the most exquisite, awesome, huge Elk and Deer mounts around the huge room glowing in the light and heat of a huge 5-foot fireplace.  Get the picture?  This was not a birthday party of baloons, streamers and cake.

Subscribers and visitor of GENDADS know the build-up over the year and this last week as Taylor Jarvis Pettit trekked through his last year as a child with a remarkable heritage.  Serious Christian parents, both sets of grandparents, alive and otherwise, were “present.”  They stacked the deck; this was an important milestone in a young believer’s journey of  significance in the Kingdom God.

Did I hear you say, “Stop with the teasers already!”  Here’s the problem.  This event was too grand for a mere post.  You’ll have to give me time to write it up.  Here are the elements, though:  Letters from those present and others to far away to attend,  Man-gifts, as each letter was read (more tears well up…those gifts proved the worth of the event and of the man-in-the-making: Taylor’s 12th year man-journey as a slide show on the screen under the hugest of the Elk giants, Matt recalling the year in four segments dotted with skits and video excerpts of Brave Heart, Finding Forrester, The Patriot, Kingdom of Heaven, Scriptures recited and read by the godly men assembled, two love letters (To My Grandson, Be a Man of God and To the Son I So Deeply Love), and cake.  The latter by way of a paper plate and plastic fork on the way out the door at nearly midnight.

Click here to see a little MORE More

If you missed yesterday’s post sending Taylor off into his solo wilderness quest, go back an catch it.  It’s short.  Sets the stage.

WHAT A SYMBOL ! BOY STRUGGLES TO EMERGE AS A MAN.  IT’S A THING OF BEAUTY.  WELCOME TO THE SUNSHINE OF GROWING AS A MAN OF GOD’S CREATION, TAYLOR.

He’s due back in a couple of hours.  With Dad who (unbeknown to “T”) rode his horse in about a mile away for his own quest…and a watchful eye via hunting binoculars.  The four sibling covered their eldest brother in prayer at bedtime.  Now are quite anxious for his return.  As it should be, a young man emerging from childhood, has been made a big deal.  Oh, and TODAY IS TAYLOR’S 13TH  BIRTHDAY.

Last night, through the night, and refReshed all morning long is my PEB prayer. You’ll have to buy the book that will someday be finished to get the entirety of prayers for your family. Let’s just say the “Protection” prayer was prominent. Bears are coming out of hibernation in these here parts. The point of the quest was the “Enablement”. Matt is practicing Proverbs 22:6 in pointing him in the direction God created him for. The “Blessing” is reigning as we reflect on Taylor’s growth this year.

There, that’s your sermon for the day. Now, how would YOU answer the questions we posed for him to work out overnight?
WHAT IS MY CALLING—What did God design me for? What are my strengths, my special abilities, my life desires?
WHAT IS MY PURPOSE IN LIFE? What do I want to be remembered for?
WHAT DO I NEED TO BE A COMPETENT MAN
WHAT DO I NEED TO BE A TRUE MAN OF GOD—are there issues, problems, struggles, sin, to deal with? Are there gifts and interests that need to be developed? What and who can help me develop these best?
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST TO ME TODAY, REALLY?
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, WHO IS TAYLOR PETTIT?
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, WHO WOULD TAYLOR PETTIT LIKE TO BE IN THE YEAR 2031,
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, MY IDEAL LIFE IN 2031 WILL LOOK THIS

[noto bono: Legacy Dad is a companion blog to GenDads which three of us author. Per previous post we thought it was time to actually meet. That event authenticated the very chapter I was writing for Generational Fathering . Fathering is not the trail and error solo parenting venture we have made into the default standard. It's a team sport, and victory is a long way down the trail. Best we NOT do this alone. Fathering is NOT a game. Too much at stake for the lives of our legacy, our children and grandchildren. Here is a Legacy Dad post after the bonding weekend]

WHAT BETTER THAN THREE HORSES, THREE CIGARS, AND THREE DAD DUDES PASSIONATE OVER THEIR LEGACY.
What an immense pleasure to actually meet up with and embrace my two partners of Legacy Dad. There is an uplifting irony in this. For all the questionable dynamics of the two-dimensional world as seen through the eyes of pre-Internet generations, our blog, Tweets, and FB did a very old fashioned thing; it brought us together. Three lives across a wide spectrum of age, geography, and professions would not have otherwise met. My life would be slightly less rich if we’d not made the original cyber connection. And, it would be a lot less rich if we’d not met on the beach cottage in SoCal.

I think our meeting breathes something important into the lives of fathers today; our own and our dad pals on GenDad and Legacy Dad. Fathering is best done NOT alone. It’s a team sport. Since it’s not about us but about our children, our legacy, pulling out all the stops is the right approach. That includes connecting with other dads. Not so much for the “How To’s” but for the encouragement, for the discussion of bedrock principles, for just not feeling alone and overwhelmed by marriage, work, and parenting.

I’m a grandfather, so my take-away is different. I see the value of elder fathers imprint on current child-raisers. That’s where Generational Fathering (my book in progress) is going. Then there is value of seeing and feeling the joys and conflicts of fully engaged young dads. Refreshing and instructional; I’ve gained insights I can pass along to my own and other young fathers who seek me out.

DAD, MOM(including single’s looking for a dad for their children) ARE YOU WILLING TO SEEK OUT A FATHERING CONNECTION TO MAKE THESE SHORT AND PRECARIOUS PARENTING YEARS GO BETTER?

Post number two on praying for the children of your heart, of your legacy.  Poke back to the last post. I just did, and I like it.  Again.  It’s short.  Sets the tone. Pray for the sons and daughters of your life passionately, often, specifically. AND pray for yourself as the model they see.  They do what they see, you know.

In my hotshot Navy flying days, the “gouge” (yes, it’s spelled right–”gowj”–a Navy insider term) would be whatever the acronym or the phrase or the ditty that was a mental hook used to shortcut to some pretty complex procedures. We even called the crib sheet for our endless book tests, “the gouge”. Ready for the prayer gouge my wife and I use daily for our children and grandchildren?

“P. E. B.” Nail that to the wall of your busy brain. The gouge becomes the routine you don’t even have to think about. Just do it. F.G.T: “flaps, gear, throttle.” Here’s the gouge for praying dads and granddads. Life gets a little busy, distracting. Still, you just gotta do it. FGT. Once, too much going on in the pattern, and didn’t do the gouge. Forgot the “G.” Big woops. Fortunately it was a private plane. No taxpayer dollars were harmed in the making of this life lesson. USE THE GOUGE.

Protection. “Oh, Father, these are dangerous days. Protect (name each one) from physical harm, from the damage the world, their friends, and themselves can bring to their spirits. Protect them from the enemy of their souls who would devour them as a roaring lion.”

Enablement. “Matt and Cari–me, too, Lord–need special grace, patience, insight to ‘raise them up in the way they should go.’ Enable us all to be worthy of being your first choice in shaping their lives to follow you.”

Blessing. “Like your friend, Jabez, dear Father, I ask you bathe (name each) with your blessing. Enlarge the territory of their influence that they will bless others in Your Name, and cause them neither to be harmed nor to harm that the world will be pleased with You through them.”

There it is:  P.E.B. The whole of Psalms 37 is a perfect devotional to reinforce the protection, enablement, and blessing assured to those who follow after God.

AMEN. SELAH. SO BE IT. HALLELUJAH.