No idea how this happens, but it seems like at least twice a year a major cleaning up of the garage is needed. Or, you have find someplace else to park car.
So, after a few hours of shuffling around what goes in the garage sale stack versus what gets “organized” in the keep bins, I wasn’t feeling all that sentimental.
Hit me anyway.
We have on old, particle board dresser we keep for storage. In the top drawer are all kinds of pads and gloves for various sports. Second drawer is for racquetball junk. Third is for hiking stuff. But, the fourth has been my favorite for years.
In this drawer are things that predate my boys, even my marriage. They stretch far into the wayback of my life. Back to the grade school and junior high days.
There’s an assortment of throwing stars and nun chucks from the time in which Chuck Norris was my hero. I have no martial arts skills anymore, but I do have a sweet Chuck beard.
There’s my one and only bb gun. A handheld CO2 pistol. Awesome.
Then there are the dozens of pocketknives, boot knives, throwing knives and anything sharp and dangerous that a teenage boy who spent way too much time on the shelter belts had to have!
At least that’s what used to be in the bottom drawer. But, opening it up to hideaway a pocket knife, I was startled to see it was almost empty… basically just the bb gun remains.
I paused, thought and teared up a little. I guess I haven’t pondered it much, but over the years as my boys have grown I’ve been dolling these things out to them one at a time.
We will watch a movie and see some ninja do something too cool for words, and then I take them out to the garage and show them a bit of my past (trying to lead them to believe I was once a ninja myself… without saying it, of course). The response is usually, “that’s awesome!” and then I pass along a bit of the Addi family heritage to them in the form of some cheap, semi-dangerous, all boy commodity.
So, now the drawer is nearly empty. It’s a good thing.
I hope they grow up like me. I’m not perfect, I have lots I am still working on, but as I press into 40 (wait for it… not there yet), I’m hoping I have a lot of the basics down.
I want them to be stable. I want them to love family. I want them to not give up on marriage. I want them to make a difference. I want them to risk big when the time is right. I want them to hold tight to the things that should never be risked. I want them to love the Lord more than anything else in this life, or the next.
None of that happens naturally. You have to intentionally open up the drawer and give it away.
It’s our job as men, brothers, fathers and mentors in the church to live our lives in a way that we pack items away like faithfulness, passion, discipline, hope and love. Only then can we offer it up to our kids and the young ones of the next generation.
Deuteronomy 6:3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
It’s time for us to unpack the most important things in life. While you’re teaching them how to throw a curve ball, why don’t you talk to them about handling the ones life throws at you.
While you’re straightening up the house, why not remind them it’s a Godly man who keeps their house in order.
When your teaching them to grow up, make sure it’s not just how to look good, but be good, righteous, strong in the Lord.
The next generation is waiting for you to open up the drawer…