Family Models Value of Showing Up With Surprise

One of my life quotes is attributed to the Victorian period author, George Eliot: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” As long as we now have breath, we are able to proceed to set targets, dream goals, and pursue them. My 94-year-old good friend John is refitting his home for solar–by himself. Even if it’s studying a new language or the piano (my retirement purpose), it may be completed, and could be what helps keep us alive–the human capacity to proceed to grow and change is an unimaginable reward. Couple that with a household that fashions, helps, and celebrates us in that growth: that is an even larger reward. 

Family values is the subject of this week’s Feel-Good Friday. 

Jon and his spouse are mother and father of 4 daughters and now, proud grandparents. Three of the daughters are married and out of the home, so Jon determined to spend his latter years pursuing a grasp’s degree at Western Seminary in Portland, OR. According to PEOPLE, Jon had been quietly pursuing the degree for a while, and was scheduled to graduate with his Master’s in Biblical Leadership in June:

For Jon, the commencement wasn’t about checking a box or incomes credentials. It was about staying teachable. “I didn’t need the degree for a job or anything,” he says. “I just wanted to keep growing and stay connected to the next generation.”

After more than 30 years in ministry, he noticed it as a probability to higher perceive the conversations and struggles youthful people are going through. “There are things I didn’t experience, and I realized I needed to be better resourced to support people well,” Jon explains.

But the household all lived in Olympia, WA, and the ceremony was in Portland, around two-and-a-half hours away, so Jon determined he did not need to inconvenience them with a long drive. His daughter Ashtyn (and who gave him his first grandbaby), obtained suspicious when she did not hear about when the ceremony can be.

Ashtyn says she didn’t even know the ceremony was occurring at first. “He was kind of quiet about the whole thing,” she says.

It wasn’t until her sister talked about the commencement was coming up that it absolutely hit her. “I just looked at my husband and said, we’re going,” Ashtyn recollects.

…

But the choice to make the journey wasn’t even a query.

“He’s been to all of our graduations, every big thing in our lives,” Ashtyn says. “Of course we were going to be there for his.”

[…]

He wasn’t making an attempt to downplay the significance of the day. In his thoughts, he was just being sensible. “They’ve got kids, jobs, a million things going on,” he says. “I never want to put any extra stress on them. I just wanted to be considerate.”

How candy is that? A gracious father who considers his youngsters, and youngsters who think about their mother and father. There’s a biblical idea someplace in there. Sadly, I do know many mother and father of grown youngsters who lament the very fact that their offspring don’t make time for them or really feel the need to embody them in their lives, whether or not they be small moments, or main milestones. Not so with Jon’s household. It’s a stunning testomony that Jon’s women thought of it a precedence to honor their father by displaying up, even if it meant driving a number of hours. However, as Jon tells it, “showing up” is a large half of the household’s values.

“One of the things we’ve always tried to model in our family is showing up,” Jon says.

It’s not just about being there for the massive occasions, he provides. “It’s a way of life — we try to nurture those relationships and stay present in each other’s lives.”

That’s one thing Ashtyn has all the time seen about her dad. “He’s never quiet about our accomplishments — he hypes us up, he posts about it, he brags on us,” she says. “But when it comes to his own, he downplays everything.”

That humility, she says, is a component of what made the TikTok resonate so deeply. “People were like, I wish my dad was like this,” she says. “And it made me realize how lucky I am.”

Daughter Ashtyn determined to make a quickie TikTok of Jon strolling in his graduation, and she caught his full shock to see his household in the viewers.

WATCH:

That quiet act of thoughtfulness is precisely why Ashtyn felt compelled to movie the second. Her TikTok, posted with the caption “no because why is he so precious in his cap & gown,” went viral in a single day.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t have family like this,” he tells PEOPLE. “And something simple we might take for granted — like being surrounded by your loved ones — can be really meaningful.”

Ashtyn says watching her dad graduate was a perspective shift. “You grow up thinking your parents have mastered everything,” she says. “But then you see your dad doing something for the first time, too, and it’s really inspiring.”

She calls it a “sweet moment” seeing him stroll across the stage surrounded by classmates many years youthful than him. “He just looked so proud and humble,” she says. “It was honestly adorable.”

Even though Jon was, at first, embarrassed by the video’s response, he got here to notice that it gave people one thing to attempt for, and even hope. 

“If a six-second video helps someone feel seen or inspired, then maybe it’s not so silly after all,” he says.

May we all continue to grow, inspire, and passionately pursue the life we’ve been given and passionately pursue one another. Another favorite saying I hold to: “Enjoy life. This just isn’t a costume rehearsal.”

Every single day, right here at RedState, we are going to stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the novel left and ship the conservative reporting our readers deserve.

Help us proceed to inform the reality about the Trump administration and its main wins. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.