We celebrated Elv’s fiftieth birthday last month. I invited as many of his brothers as could come to help us make the day special. Elv told me afterward some of what they had talked about, which brought me to these observations.
Elv and his brothers talk about real things. At fifty, these guys don’t mind talking about the past: the problems and their particular solutions, the fun memories, and the lessons they learned as children watching the older folks. (Things that were caught, not taught.)
You’ll know that when grown men get together and are willing and ready to talk about what works in real life from an experiential knowledge, that they have allowed life and the Lord to teach them wisdom. Dependable security for us.
Elv and his brothers are also thinking about the future these days. We often think that it is the young men who should be thinking and planning for the future and they should do that. But in my observation as a daughter, sister, wife and mom, it is the men fifty and older who are talking about/ planning for the future. Suddenly the rest of their days are in a foreseeable pose. It is a much more practical view now, looking ahead. At twenty, the future seems dim and far away and full of forgiveness. It takes a very wise parent/village indeed, to instill any amount of reality about the future into a twenty-ager.
I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, today.
