What a wonderful, complex, even confusing fathering life I’ve got. That’s a good thing, a “legacy thing”.

I’m within an arm’s reach of 70, the new 50. I’m looking down the scruffy mountain trail I’ve ridden and looking ahead on the trail up yonder (yonder=cowboy for “Heaven”).

I love what I’m seeing. Except for the crap on the news. Yes, I do watch Glenn Beck and I read the disorienting news on my own, which I don’t like hardly nonatall. So, I get cranky over the future the world's and my nation’s current impulses are leaving for my grandchildren. And theirs. And so on…a dark legacy?

I’ve noticed that my own words can come back to me as encouragement or as shame. What was once fresh “meat of the Word” can become jerky, salty and barely tasty and hardly nourishing. I try to keep the Word fresh and my own words therefrom.

In outlining the themes for Generational Fathering, Matt and I found a prime motive in our relationship and for the book: preparing “our” children to withstand the chaos of the future. But there is more. To prepare them to lead…for the sake of the heritage, the nation, the Kingdom. Psalm 145:4 “Generation after generation stands in awe of your work; each one tells stories of your mighty acts.”

Probably like you, I’ve become deeply frustrated—no, “angry” would be more truthful—by my helplessness to reverse, even slow, the downward spiral of my nation’s course. It’s a world out of my control. Imagine that. Then Hope from the Word, fresh meat, and my own words came back to me. I remembered why I care about Legacy Dads and Generational Fathering: Hope and destiny, shaping the future not being hammered by it.

“Oh me, oh my, what is to become of these precious little critters I’ve come to adore as if they were the very purpose of my life?” It was formed over the recent months as a serious plea to the Father. Know what His reply was? “That’s up to you, son,” as if God were, Himself, fathering me by prodding my blended passion for Him and for them. That’s because as I live out and peck away at the book that’s broiling to the surface through my fingertips, I am reminded of the cornerstone theme: We can leave monuments, hospital wings, statues in the town square…or we can bequeath to the Kingdom and the world living testaments to the grace, goodness, and mercy of God Himself. It’s about nurturing—training up—our sons and daughters—and theirs—in the way God has designed them as models of goodness and godliness. YES! We can shape the future in preparing our legacy children for it.

Pause for a second. Reflect.

That is a legacy that will multiply itself around the world. May thriving remnants diverge from your commitment and your actions. My own may not even remember it was Popi Gary (you may fill in your name here, legacy dad/legacy grand dad) who set the generational discipleship in motion.

But we will be watching…as will Matt and his son, Taylor, and Taylor’s children (and the others’) from the Eternal Perch, on and on and on. Wouldn’t that just be Heaven?!

Inspirational, if not heart-fluttering? It all hangs on intentionality and specific actions. Lots of ingredients mixed just right, like an award-winning stew. But, not alone. The Word of God, transparent fellowship, a desperate heart for God, delighting in and living out His story, His glory, for your life…these are cairns, markers on the trail, of a godly fathering life. All of that plus, “not alone.” That’s why we are dads. And why we have dads. And raise future dads. Not Alone. Fathered by God, fathered by our fathers and their fathers.

So, have you thought of inviting Dad, “officially” in to your fathering life? Grand Dad, have you offered? Something not “quite right” yet for that to happen? FIX IT !