Gram-Pa

My grandpa is a man of few words, and I like that about him. I visited him on Monday with my mom. At one point he was talking with my mom, and while pointing at me, he said, “I always thought this one would be a good Father”. I was taken back and I’ve thought about what he said. Sure, I have a ten-year-old mentality and maturity so I can relate well to kids, I spent a good portion of my childhood on a trampoline so I know how to give a good bounce, and I got most of my clothes for free so I don’t mind getting home and finding that my pockets have been filled with spaghetti. Heck, half the time I fill my own pockets with spaghetti for a mid-morning snack. But does all of that make me a good candidate for fatherhood?

I look at my own father and think of the qualities that made him excel at the position, and I think that he was a good provider, was a good disciplinarian, and he always treated me with respect, as an equal. Good grief, I don’t do any of those things! I talk my more successful friends into renting me space in their homes because I can’t afford my own, I’m a total pushover, and I ask my own nieces and nephews for advice because I look up to them so much. Seriously, I’ve sat in my brother’s back yard and watched my two nieces fight, pulling hair, scratching, and hitting. And instead of breaking it up, I sat between my two nephews and took bets on who I thought might win. I’m sure at that point of the fatherhood hiring process, I would have been thrown out of the interview. I don’t know if my father knew everything about being a dad, but he must have been doing something right. I mean, I didn’t turn out too well, but look at my brother!

Nonetheless, I liked it when my grandpa said that about me. And I’ve concluded that the emphasis of his statement should be on the “would”. I’m clearly not a good father now, but potentially I could be. I find that motivating. For isn’t that the true and most noble form of motivation; to have someone else notice great potential within you that you haven’t yet been able to notice in yourself? In my own experiences, that is how God has been able to motivate me. It’s wonderful that Grandpas so often have a divine manner of doing things. I know mine does.