Old Guys Rule!

Or, um… Parenting Wisdom from Seniors

By Ken Laue

I have gray hair and wrinkly skin, but that’s just my disguise.

Underneath I’m still 25.

And you may be young, invincible and omniscient, but I can still take you on.

In fact, let me tell you a secret: right now this instant while you’re standing there thinking how you’ll be young forever… getting old is happening to you!

But that’s okay because when you’re an old guy saved for thirty years like me, you’ll see your life was just the backdrop for all the wonderful family times you had because God kept your marriage intact in spite of who you are, with all your weaknesses and faults.

So pull up a chair, son, and have a listen.

God has blessed me with a family, two beautiful saved adult daughters, and as many too-smart-for-their-own-britches baby granddaughters. 

Now, I don’t get the credit for keeping our marriage together. No, sir.

There was a time or two or three of those I’m-out-the-door-I’m-done-I’ve-had-its.

Yeah, I had ’em, but I came back.

Why? Well the truth of the matter is, I really do love Jesus Christ. And after the emotions wear off you just figure this doesn’t please Jesus and I better go get things right. So I did.

Profound, I know.

But it’s the simple things that keep you, young ’un. Like the simplicity of God’s grace.

My wife doesn’t get the credit, either. She had similar episodes during those years, but came to the same conclusion.

Hey, we were two sinful, selfish individuals!

But we were each clinging to Jesus for ourselves – like for real, not just doing the “we are so religious” thing at church – and that’s what allowed Jesus to heal our marriage and keep it, time and again.

So, Rule Number One for an intact, functional marriage:

Put your individual personal relationship with the Lord first.

Here’s the next one. Are you listening, son? Okay, Rule Number Two:

Do things together as a family.

First and foremost thing to do together is serving God. Bonnie and I ministered in children’s church and Young Servants (a ministry for middle school age kids at our church) and our kids ministered right alongside us.

Beyond that we did a number of other things that filled multiple photo albums and provide fond memories for all of us to this day.

And we did it all with no money! Well, close to none, anyway.

When the kids were littlest and we were the poorest, we’d go summer evenings to Tucson Mountain Park and roast hot dogs on the grill and play while the sun went down and the heat of the day cooled off.

Total cost? A couple bucks in gas.

Hey, don’t you have to buy food anyway? Don’t you have to fill that gas tank, too? So you just take some of that gas and food and take that wife and kids out where it’s cool and have you a picnic.

You know, kids love picnics. Even in weird little places like that park the city put in your own neighborhood.

And back in the day, the Forest Service hadn’t perfected the art of rip-off, so there were no fees for entering those nice picnic areas around Tucson like Mt. Lemmon or Madera Canyon.

Even so, you can probably scrounge up the five bucks they’re asking nowadays.

Or get in under the radar at one of those places they forgot about like Parker Canyon Lake, where there’s no fee… yet. The grandbabies had a ball out there in the boat with me recently, just 70 miles from home.

In the age of the dinosaurs we did whole vacation trips on no money, too.

Lots of camping. But those womenfolk don’t like to get too stinky, so we’d camp two nights and do the third at a Motel 6, so they could have their one day of clean luxury.

Some of these tricks we learned from Ma and Pa. They lived before the age of dinosaurs.

You can do a little looking around and find cool cheap places in your region, too.

How do you do all that on no money? You budget what you ain’t got till you got it.

It’s called saving up, son.

So maybe you’re too broke to go out and eat every Sunday after church. You just save up and go once a month or six weeks or so.

That’s all we did, and what a treat it was for our two girls! Just something simple like that builds good strong family memories.

We saved up till we could have friends from church over for Sunday dinners, too.

Okay, now we’re ready for Rule Number Three:

Stay involved in your kids’ daily lives.

We were always involved with our girls’ activities at school and at church as they grew up.

Oh, and just a clue for you whipper-snappers: parent-teacher night doesn’t mean Mom goes to meet the teacher while Dad stays home watching sports and playing video games. You got that?

See, us old guys really do have it going on. We’ve been working at this long enough to look good doing stuff with the grandkids, too.

Okay, so, I do have to give it to you: You’re young but you really do got what it takes. 

For one thing, you survived all the way to the end of this article written by an old fart.

If you don’t remember nothing else, husband and wife, both of you just remember to cling to Jesus in your individual lives.

That’ll keep your family intact even when storms are blowin’.

If you still have an extra brain cell fired up after that, remember to serve God together and to do cool things together. Family fun doesn’t have to be a big bucks operation.

And don’t forget to stay involved in your kids’ lives and schooling.

So, repeat after me: Okay Gramps, we gotcha. Ten-four acknowledged.