A few weeks ago I interviewed my 12-year-old granddaughter, Grace. Her responses were priceless, so I started wondering how my dad would answer the same questions. He’s 88.

Here you go…
ME:     Dad, what’s important to your friends?
DAD:  Keeping a good quality of life. Staying connected to family (including church family).

ME:     What’s important to you?
DAD:  Mostly the same…

ME:     What did you want to be when you were growing up?
DAD:  An electrician. The humming of electric lines always fascinated me.
I always wanted to work with electricity so I did.

ME:     What do you want me to tell my readers about your generation?
DAD:  Church, work, everyday ethics, family, and making memories seem to be             important to my generation. And my generation better planned for the future.

Dad was born at the end of the Greatest Generation and is part of the Silent Generation (sometimes called the Lucky Few*). The “Silents” were focused on their careers and tended to conform with social norms. They were called the Lucky Few because even though they were born during the Great Depression and World War II, they moved into adulthood during the prosperous ‘50s and ‘60s, with higher employment rates, better health, and earlier retirement. (Wikipedia)

Dad’s interview highlights his value on church, family, and ethics. Many of the Silents and their kids, the Boomers, were a churchy bunch, at least in the South. Youth groups. Camps. Pot lucks. Mission trips. Sunday morning services, with roast beef and mashed potatoes for lunch. Now, however, according to an August 2016 article in The Atlantic, 49% of Americans say they rarely if ever go to church.

I just know I need Church—
the reminders about Love-with-a-capital-L,
the challenges to go beyond my own humanity,
the comfort when I need it and the kick in the butt when I need it.

I like what Dieter F. Uchtdorf had to say… “The Church is not an automobile showroom – a place to put ourselves on display so that others can admire our spirituality, capacity, or prosperity. It is more like a service center, where vehicles in need of repair come for maintenance and rehabilitation.”

So Dad, for building Church and so many other good things into the fabric of my life, thank you.