Just Like Pop

Man this picture always gets me. I love that it says “August 1963” on the side. That means my mom had just turned 4. This is a picture of my grandfather, my “pop pop”, in his painter whites on the job site. It also rings true to a reality in my life in running a small painting company when I’m not doing Training Ground. It make same think about how for him and me, the motivation of just getting food on the table for his family. The long summer days on a ladder trying to figure out how to finish projects to pay the bills.

It also rings true with what we offer young men in TG. The importance of work in a man’s life. The tension of hating the importance and necessity of a man’s own sweat yielding a paycheck. It is never usually fun, but it shapes a man. It makes him resilient, and ready for the real would. Work always asks the hard things from us. It, for the most part is always making us uncomfortable, tired, and ready to give up. Yet in some mystery we some type of fulfillment on project done well.

And in the same way we feel the satisfaction of being providers, offering our strength and seeing the difference it makes.

I really do wish I could sit down with this man in the picture. I’d love to ask him what he dreams about, what he hopes for his family, maybe even what kind of role God played in how he lived it. It also makes me see the foundation laid in my family through hard work. I didn’t meet my pop until much later after he had quit painting and moved on to be the Post Master and Ft Meade in MD but eh man he was makes sense after seeing these pics. He was a man deeply devoted to his family, to God’s call in his life, and valued a man’s ability to provide for his family. It’s a good heritage that I have been given to impart to my children. All to say thanks pops. Miss you sir.