“And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.” (Titus 2:7 NLT)
My fourth oldest son was a four-year letterman in track during his college days. So knowing I wanted to speak intelligently and accurately on passing the baton, I asked him to help me understand some key things about the subject. Apparently, he gave my question some thought and considered who he was instructing. Or perhaps because his new baby was just 10 days old, he had more pertinent priorities preoccupying his time. This is what he told me. “To oversimplify it a bit, you need a full team (lol). You need good teamwork to time your run so that you are going the same speed in the handoff zone. The receiver needs to provide a clear target for the baton and trust that they’ll get the handoff (as to not be distracted and slow down) and the incoming runner needs to push through to give a strong handoff and hit the target. Some other good points would be to keep going and cheer the receiver on after you’ve handed the baton off and know when to stop so you don’t overrun the handoff zone.”
The message I was led to send you is that in this life, as you develop younger ones and cheer them on to continue the race towards the target called successful living, and as you disciple them to do the work of the Lord when you have finished your running of the race set before you, it is not a simple matter of handing them the baton. It is more complex and similar to passing the baton on a relay team and it involves the receiver as well as the person doing the handoff. It’s a process that takes practice, precision, and purposeful actions. Passing the baton is a process. Note that in your heart.
And there ought to be some signs that you, as the one doing the handoff, is giving it your best effort. Your effort gets better over time if you stick with running as a team. Let me, once again, show you what I mean by referring to my own children. Now I am a good dad, and in most cases, in spite of not having a perfect life, I have always tried to be one. I’m still trying to perfect my handoff technique, my passing of the baton. But here are the signs I see that are encouraging. I used to preach to my oldest son, last Sunday he preached to me. My oldest daughter used to ask me, the Human Resources guru, “What do you think Dad?” Now she is assuming the guru title and the other day, she was even tweaking my resume. My second oldest son will remember me showing him batting techniques as a toddler. Now he is teaching me technological communication techniques and actually set up my Mark Writes Daily blog site. My second oldest daughter used to come to me with little scrapes, cuts, and minor injuries that moved me to take her to the hospital for medical attention. Now she is the one with the medical expertise who I call for consultation before I even consider talking with my doctor. My third oldest son spent a lot of time listening to my speaking technique. Now, a radio talent, he advises me on techniques to stay relevant and he ensures that I ask my electronic device to play the clean version of pop songs. Oh there are two more kids. The track star above, my fourth oldest son, surely saw my discipline and devotion to work as the boss of HR. Now he manifest that same type of persistence in his senior level accounting position. He also set up my Excel sheet to track book sales years ago. One of his sisters respectfully calls him “Our future boss.” My youngest son benefitted from me being able to stay home with him during his first week of kindergarten, playing with toy figures in the morning and walking him to school in the afternoon. And if he rode his bike, I carried it all the way back home. I think being a father rubbed off on him because he has turned out to be great father. And, and just as I would check on him as a child, he calls more frequently than the others to see how my wife and I are doing. I need to add that ALL of my children are great parents. The stories they can tell you about their childhood with me, well, they will reveal that they were equipped to bring up their own children. All have accepted Christ. I think to some degree I have passed on the baton and even though the tables are turning with age, as far as who is doing the receiving and who is taking the handoff, I will continue the process. Now you do the same with the young people or the “younger” people in your life. Pass the baton! Be blessed!
“What you have done will be praised from one generation to the next…” (Psalm 145:4a GNT)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King