Living An Adventure

One aspect of life that I savor the most is adventure! I love thinking about what’s over the next horizon and discovering a new flavor, a new trail, or a new river that I have never been down. But life’s most joyous adventure of all has been raising my kids! My youngest turned 18 on July the 4th, and just like that, the adventure of raising children is over. I still get to be a parent…but now I’m a parent of equals—autonomous young men and women who simply don’t need my input over every little thing. It kind of makes me sad.
So, I’m off to the next adventure! I’m a grandpa!!
What a fantastic world that our God has made! Learning all the things that God has for us is an unending adventure. As we graduate from one aspect of the university of life, it is simply time to begin the next class. Just because you were a good son doesn’t mean you will automatically be a good father. It will require effort, thought, planning, hope, love, joy and a sense of adventure for you to be the best dad that you can be. The learning curve will be steep, the effort will be grand, but at the end of the day, there truly is no greater joy than watching your children walk in truth. There’s no greater “Attaboy” than to have your adult children show up just because they want to hang out! Being the best dad in the world isn’t about a coffee mug that says so…it’s about all the moments that add up to a story of a family brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It’s the joy, the laughter around the dinner table, the discipline of cleaning your room, learning how to change your own oil and the importance of maintenance before the problem happens. It’s creating an environment for a family that is balanced, happy, and in touch with their Creator, functioning in the hierarchical structure that God has given us. It’s adults that are leading their own home well; acquitting themselves responsibly in authority and under authority as God has commanded.
In all honesty, I feel like I won at life. I LOVE my kids and they love me. Just when I think that I’ve already passed through the best adventures in life, I become a grandpa! Just like the earlier iteration, being a good father does not mean that I’ll be a good grandfather. It will require effort, joy, love and a sense of adventure.
So far, what I have learned is that being a grandfather means I’m outside of the authority structure of my beautiful and captivating little granddaughter. When she comes over to our house, I am not setting the agenda for her upbringing. She is not under my authority, and so my relation to her is totally different than it was with my kids. For instance, if she wants chocolate, I 100% want to give it to her! I don’t care what time of day it is or what her diet looks like. I just love that little grin as we conspiratorially raid Grandma’s pantry for chocolate chips. However, the rules that I must enforce are the rules enacted by her mom and dad. It isn’t that she can’t have chocolate because she won’t sleep well later…she can’t have chocolate because Mama said no. Because my wife and I are outside of that chain of authority, we have a different responsibility than what we had with our children. We are the encouragers; We encourage faith in God through prayer over our meals and with our family. We encourage intellectual growth in our conversations and stories that we read together. We encourage family cohesion by recognizing the authority of her parents and modeling what it looks like to listen to them because they are her authority. We encourage her in relationships by building a nurturing wholesome relationship in our interactions with this precious little girl. We encourage our daughter in her own marriage as we model what it looks like to gracefully grow old together. We encourage our son-in-law as we rejoice over his successes as a father and a husband.
One of the things that I love about this adventure is that I am not figuring it out on my own. The triune godhead modeled every aspect of leadership that he expects me to follow in my life. The Son, Jesus Christ, was a dutiful son to the Father. He was obedient unto death and honored the Father in all things. While Jesus modeled this for us, the Father showed us what it looked like to be a good father. He provided for, protected and guided his son who was navigating life as a man. He shows us multiple times what it looks like to display pride at your son’s accomplishments. He said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” There is no greater platform for affirming a man’s ministry than the office of Father announcing he is well pleased!
The third person of the godhead modeled what it would look like to be a grandfather. He has called me to be a comforter and an encourager the way that the Spirit has been in my own life. Life is truly an adventure, and every new thing that I learn, every new experience that I have, brings home the incontrovertible, wonderful truth that God is good, Jesus loves me, and the Comforter is drawing me to an inheritance of eternal glory! May I model His goodness as I encourage this precious little granddaughter to walk in the well-trodden path of her earthly parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and our good Father in glory!