Needed

 The devil always has a plan, and he adjusts on the fly. When he saw he couldn’t get Jesus to turn stones into bread, he took Him to the pinnacle of the temple and encouraged Him to throw Himself off, reminding Him of what was written. When that didn’t work, the devil offered Christ all the kingdoms of the earth and their glory if He would but bend the knee. It wasn’t a baseless offer or something he couldn’t make good on. He knew it, Jesus knew it, and it was a last-ditch attempt to avoid what he knew was coming.

To think the enemy does anything by chance, or to give his minions the benefit of the doubt, is a sure path to ruination. There is always a reason for why he does what he does and why his minions do what they do.

For the longest time, the enemy has woven a narrative that the only thing the graying and aged have to offer the younger generation is stories of what a rotary phone was. That, and perhaps explaining what a sarsaparilla is, but nothing of any real note or value. You’d think that until the advent of the man bun and men using moisturizer, all were but barbarians and brutes, eating with their fingers and not knowing how to use cutlery.

Fast on the heels of that well-fashioned lie came the narrative that fathers of all shapes, sizes, races, and upbringings were nothing more than bumbling buffoons who blundered through life until they slipped on a banana peel or fell down a well. If not for the smarmy, know-it-all kid and the condescending, angry wife, you’d think those poor men couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag, nevermind survive, thrive, build infrastructure, and skyscrapers and lay mountains flat just to build roads across them.

It didn’t matter where you turned. Whether in sitcoms, movies, magazines, or books, all dads were deadbeat losers in stained wife beaters, belching up the meatball sub from the morning’s breakfast and falling asleep in front of the television in their recliners.

The targets were clear: fathers, men of moral character, and those old enough to have gleaned some experience from life that they could pass on to those who came after. The message was likewise clear: the old have nothing to teach you, and the government will make a better father for your children than your worthless, no-good husband.

Rather than stand up and defend the calloused hands and bent backs, the church went along to get along, and men swinging hammers and axes before sunrise and long after sunset were demonized as uncaring, unfeeling workaholics.

Perhaps those men listened to the stories of their fathers, and they stuck. Maybe they remember their elders with similar calloused hands and determined looks insisting that they’d arm wrestle the devil in hell before they saw their children going hungry again and took it to heart. Maybe that’s why they worked so hard, so long, so fiercely. Because there was someone there to remind them that if you don’t work, you don’t eat, and sometimes there’s no work to be had, so work while you can.

They’ve been trying to convince you that if you have some gray in your beard, you are obsolete. That’s it, pack it in, go sit on your porch and wait for the grim reaper to pay you a visit. You’re done, son. Why they do this is insidious and will prove to be catastrophic for the next generation.  They do it because they do not want wisdom passed down from generation to generation any longer. They want to control what the young hear, see and believe as being true to the point of indoctrination. It’s the only way you can have teenagers having nervous breakdowns because melting ice caps will kill us all in less than a month, even though Al Gore’s been spouting that same nonsense going on three decades.

You are needed more than you know. Your wisdom, experiences, counsel, and direction are necessary if the next generation is to have any hope of a normal existence and not some dystopian nightmare with everyone living in hovels, having sworn off gas stoves, eating crickets, and debating what the hundredth gender should be. It’s special, after all, it’s number 100!

Someone needs to teach the young how to change a tire, bait a hook, skip a stone, use a torque wrench, be principled, have values, and love God. Someone must teach them the importance of family and that getting a splinter doesn’t justify taking a week off work. Someone needs to speak up and say that we shouldn’t coddle laziness or validate insanity. It’s not going to be any of them; it has to be one of us. The grays, the scruffs, the ones who understand that skipping breakfast doesn’t mean you’re going hungry and that the metaverse is not a real thing.

It is your duty as a warrior to teach those coming after you that some things are worth fighting for, but by the same token, you shouldn’t go looking for a fight just to say you got bloodied. Don’t be shy about telling the younger generation that a life in service to God is a life well lived, and His presence throughout it all will keep your head above water and sheltered through the storms of life. If you do not teach them the truth, the devil will happily teach them a lie. If you do not offer them hope in the form of Christ, the enemy will be more than happy to provide them with bleakness and despair.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.