Like Father, Like Son

We visited with my daughter and son-in-law and those two darling grandkids. Did I say darling? I suppose it's because I'm a grandparent. These two youngsters are without much parental control. Oh, they're cute enough, and it doesn't take much for a loving grandparent to bring them into line. And, as all children, they seem to want that sense of "fences", of being cared for and contained rather than wild and free. So it's fairly easy at this age to make the visit a pleasant one.

But I thought it was my responsibility to sit the boy down and explain to him his responsibilities as husband to my daughter and father to my grandchildren. So we had "a talk". You know what I'm talking about. I explain to him the wisdom of the ages. He nods, agrees, of course, and goes on about his way. I thought it was interesting that he was so intent on being viewed as a whole, fully functioning, responsible adult instead of admitting to any shortcomings. His failure to see the problems, however, assure that there will be no change unless God intervenes.

All we can do, sometimes, is pass on information, and that was all I could do. I left it at that and left it in better Hands than my own.

Then we visited my grandfather. He's an old man. I'm sorry. No way around it. Ninety is old. And I found myself there, visiting with my grandfather and my father, and me, the youngster in the group, talking just like my unaware son-in-law was. I wanted to be viewed as a whole, fully functioning, responsible adult. I wanted to be viewed as just as wise as these two older men who were much wiser and certainly much more experienced than I.

It's not the youth of my son-in-law. It's human nature. We call it "pride", and it's prevalent in all of us. I suppose that there will be no change unless God intervenes. And, oh, I'm praying for that.