{"id":5763,"date":"2018-01-16T07:46:30","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5763"},"modified":"2018-01-16T07:46:30","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:46:30","slug":"grandpa-say-happy-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/16\/grandpa-say-happy-life\/","title":{"rendered":"What would Grandpa Say&#8230; About a Happy Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jim Mettenbrink<\/strong><br \/>\nLife!\u00a0<b>Your\u00a0<\/b>life! There is nothing more important to you than your life. How you\u00a0<b>prepare\u00a0<\/b>for it\u00a0and how you\u00a0<b>live\u00a0<\/b>it will largely determine your earthly happiness and ultimately your eternity.\u00a0Recently, I read a\u00a0book called\u00a0<i>Frozen\u00a0<\/i><i>in Time: A Study of Generations<\/i>,<i>\u00a0<\/i>which was about the\u00a0differences of one generation from another. At any given time there are at least five generations\u00a0living in our society. And there are real differences.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nAbout 100 years ago, when my grandpa wanted to put up a windmill so they would not need\u00a0to pump water by hand to fill the tank for the cattle, my great-grandfather thought it was a waste\u00a0of money. Still, shortly\u00a0a windmill was installed. Several decades later, my dad and grandfather\u00a0had a disagreement when Dad bought a power-driven feeder wagon to feed the 400 head of beef\u00a0cattle. Until that day, Grandpa would not allow a tractor near the cattle, so he still used mules to\u00a0pull an old steel-wheeled wagon and unloaded the feed in the\u00a0feedbunks\u00a0scoop shovel by\u00a0scoop\u00a0shovel. Indeed, each generation can get stuck in a rut as to how to do things. So the previous\u00a0generations are sometimes called \u201cold fogeys.\u201d However, it is a serious error to simply dismiss\u00a0older generations and\u00a0thereby fail to learn from the experiences throughout their lives.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nOh, how I wish I knew what I know now\u00a0when I was your age. At 16, your parents just \u201cdon\u2019t\u00a0understand you.\u201d By age 20, your parents begin to get smart.\u00a0In a few decades you will wish Dad\u00a0and\u00a0Mom were still here\u00a0so you could ask them for advice. Many, if not most,\u00a0folks, no longer\u00a0have grandparents by the time they are in their late 20s or early 30s. I was fortunate. Although\u00a0one grandfather was 58 when I was born, he lived until I was 38. My other grandfather lived until\u00a0I was 41. My son, now 43,\u00a0still asks me for advice.\u00a0As a boy I loved listening to my grandfathers in discussion with their peers (mostly farmers)\u00a0and with my parents. So much to ponder, so much to learn! Aside from their wisdom, the trait I\u00a0remember most is their patience, a patience that we as parents usually do not have, likely because\u00a0parents are still too young.\u00a0It seems as parents we are\u00a0so busy providing for, and rearing, our children\u00a0that a lot of the\u00a0vitals of living are not passed on, if we even know these vitals as young parents ourselves.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nBut\u00a0grandparents! Now that\u2019s another story. I can hardly begin to tell you of the maturing, the great\u00a0growth in wisdom, that has occurred from the time I was 50 until now (66). That is why I often\u00a0rely on my two close mentors\u2013\u2013both 79 years of life experience \u2013\u2013\u201313 years more than I have and\u00a020-25 more years as faithful Christians. Both have been and\/or are elders\u00a0and have been\u00a0preaching for over 50 years. One has been a missionary in three countries, a teacher in a\u00a0preacher\u2019s school, author of Biblical materials and books,\u00a0and a pulpit preacher that entire time,\u00a0and is still an elder and preaching and teaching class each Sunday\u2013\u201379 years and ripe with\u00a0maturity and wisdom. The other mentor was an elder, preacher and publisher of Christian books\u00a0and journals, including\u00a0<i>Christian Bible Teacher<\/i>.\u00a0Indeed, it is a great privilege to have such wisdom at hand. No wonder, God assigns the\u00a0responsibility of shepherding His church to \u201celders\u201d (aged men). It is my firm conviction, as well\u00a0as that of my close mentors, that no man should become an elder before age 50. One of them\u00a0firmly believes a man should be 60 years old before becoming an elder. And they are\u00a0grandfathers and great-grandfathers!\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nMy first experience as a father began at age 23. My second was as a\u00a0stepfather which\u00a0began\u00a0with teens when I was 53. Although I was reared in a home that \u201cwent to church\u201d and four years\u00a0of my middle school education was in a religious school, my true interest in following Jesus, and\u00a0initial contact with the\u00a0church of Christ, began when I was 26. I became a Christian when I was\u00a028.\u00a0At age 51, I became a grandfather and had been a Christian nearly 25 years. Some of my\u00a0parenting was the same,\u00a0but\u00a0much of it was different because of the Christian growth and the\u00a0experiences of life. In both experiences my primary focus was\u00a0that the boys would be faithful\u00a0Christians, responsible men and citizens, honorable husbands,\u00a0and loving fathers.\u00a0Some of\u00a0this influence was done by example and some by direct teaching, much of which was about day-to-day living and what to expect when they left home.\u00a0As young parents, much of our influence \u201crubs off\u201d on our children in rearing them. (Children\u00a0are very observant of our conduct.) However, as grandparents, we become more like mentors,\u00a0imparting wisdom. The purpose for writing these \u201cWhat would Grandpa say?\u201d notes, is that I\u00a0love you and want you to be the best Christian you can be in every aspect of life, so you can have\u00a0a greater measure of happiness on earth as you journey through this life on your way to\u00a0Heaven.\u00a0Also\u00a0so you can glorify Jesus to the utmost in your life\u2013\u2013that you will be a bright light for Him\u00a0wherever you live, work and go. I\u2019ll be writing to you as a Christian grandpa, not as a preacher,\u00a0but we will certainly consider the wisdom of God\u2013\u2013\u201c<b>the<\/b>\u00a0Great Grandpa\u201d of us all. He\u00a0encourages all of us to \u201crise\u00a0before the gray-headed and honor the presence of an old man and\u00a0fear God; I am the Lord your God\u201d (Leviticus 19:32), and God informs us,\u00a0\u201cThe silver-haired\u00a0head is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness\u201d (Proverbs\u00a016:31).<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jim Mettenbrink Life!\u00a0Your\u00a0life! There is nothing more important to you than your life. How you\u00a0prepare\u00a0for it\u00a0and how you\u00a0live\u00a0it will largely determine your earthly happiness and ultimately your eternity.\u00a0Recently, I read a\u00a0book called\u00a0Frozen\u00a0in Time: A Study of Generations,\u00a0which was about the\u00a0differences of one generation from another. At any given time there are at least five [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,66],"tags":[1333,58,120,1271,573,1334],"class_list":["post-5763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-think-excerpts","tag-april-2013","tag-children","tag-family","tag-jim-mettenbrink","tag-parenting","tag-what-would-grandpa-say","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What would Grandpa Say... 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