Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Pee in their corn flakes.

Seventy year old man wisdom coming. I'm not seventy. My dad is. He has had several back and neck surgeries. He has had two barn fires. He has had most of his old-people-family die. He has lived through a variety of financial conditions and governmental interference. He shakes hands with his left hand because his right hand doesn't work anymore. He was the one person I NEEDED to speak with after my challenges after my last deployment.

I visited him last week and he saw my condition and said this, "Do you remember hoeing cabbage rows?" Me, "No, I was three years old." Him, "Oh, yeah. Well anyway, sometimes you get a weedy row. You still need to get to the end of the row. The field needs to be finished."

My father doesn't have the IQ I have. However, he has the wisdom I need. Farmers have a much better picture on life than others. Sowing and reaping means more to them. Accepting life as it comes at you is easier for them. They don't whine about deserving more rain or sunshine. Life is what it is. You deal with it. You might cry sometimes. I've seen my dad cry once, the first barn fire. He might have cried at one of my sisters' weddings. I didn't see it. There are rumors though. He laughed at mine. He was happy...but he laughed. I have valued my father's advice more and more as I get older.

The point of this is to learn from your elders and teach the youth. You don't have to stick your tongue in an electrical socket to know it's a bad idea. Experience is a great teacher, however someone else's experience is better. That's kind of the point of the whole Bible.

As a father, you cannot allow your children to whine about their lot in life. It is absolutely necessary that we confront entitlement mentality head on. The current media, school, and church atmosphere promotes the ideas of entitlement and victim-hood.  The earlier we fix this mentality in our children the better. This mentality is a natural occurring thing. If you don't counter it, they will acquire and hold to it. You need to pee in the corn flakes of this mental meal. The Truth will separate them from it and give them experience of others' wisdom.

2 comments:

  1. tough row to hoe

    but it still needs hoeing

    ReplyDelete
  2. It took me 40 years to learn to shutup complaining about my lot. Life is much better.

    I love the old wisdom. I go back and look for now constantly in old books and stories. You can build a life worth something with it.

    ReplyDelete

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