Learning something new happens to all of us regardless of age. When I was on national staff with the American Baptists, I attended a training program that entailed three weeklong events held outside of Baltimore in Buckeystown. Sponsored by the MATC, Mid-Atlantic Training Conferences, I participated in the Small Group Facilitation Program that included learning about basic human interactions, group development, and designing skills. These experiences were very powerful in helping me to understand my skills and the dynamics of working with groups. To this day, I am still drawing from these insights almost 30 years ago. Learning something new never stops.
As a father, I want our children and now our grandchildren to see every new day as yet another opportunity to learn something new. When we read a book, we get the chance to get inside someone else’s head and heart and see something very new. When children stay “out of Mommy’s hair,” they might be able to learn something new on their own. And even when a father might be on a business trip and at time struggling to find a gift to bring home, it’s yet another self-learning to see how much you really know your children and their interests. I hope that as I have learned and am still learning that Greg and Lauren and now their own children are learning something new today.