What Rubs Off?

As the grandfather of four grandsons and one granddaughter, I have been thinking about a truth I first heard in a junior boy’s Sunday School class many years ago.

The truth was shared with a class of 12 year old boys by our teacher, Fred Moore.  Fred had our admiration and respect because he was a “Certified TSSAA Sports Official”.  He officiated many of the local area high school football and basketball games.  He was also a father, a deacon in our church and had a vast repertoire of personal stories he readily shared with our class.  Many of his stories grew out of his “rough and tumble” growing up years as a youth and young adult.  Each Sunday, as Fred taught our lesson, we listened.

I will always remember what he said one Sunday morning as he told about some of his experiences as a dock hand on the Great Lakes lock system. In his own unique way, he told of the excitement and energy required to move those giant freighters through the locks and the burly men who worked to keep the boats moving along.  Fred told of how he not only worked with these men, but also hung out with them after work and adopted some of their habits and language.  He admitted that he'd picked up some habits and language that were not things he was proud of in later years.

On that Sunday morning, after some vivid stories about his Great Lakes experiences mixed with a few scriptural references to the life of Joseph, Fred summed the lesson up by sharing this truth.  He said, “Boys, as you mix and mingle with people in life; some part of every person will rub off on you and some of you will rub off on them.  Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is not so good and sometimes it is bad, but it all goes into shaping you into what you become as a person.  Be careful what rubs off others on to you and be careful what rubs off you onto others.”

Now as I look back some sixty years later,  I think what Fred said that Sunday was pretty much right.  The whole of the person that is “me” is made up of many parts.  Of course, Fred didn’t get into genetics and heredity; not much you can do about that anyway.  With genetics, you just “get it’ without any dynamics of personal choice.  It is just in the genes.

But what you get from the dynamics of personal interaction is different.  You are able to filter some of it, analyze some of it, reject some of it; you’ll even forget a lot of it.  But in the end, you do keep a small part of every encounter and, want it or not, it becomes a part of you.

So, today as I spend time with my grandkids and they spend time with me, I am challenged as I think about Fred’s truth.  What little part of their Granddaddy are they keeping as they stick small bits of me to their one day adult persona.  Is what “rubs off” something that is good; not so good, or is it possibly bad?

I can only hope something rubs off their granddad that will make them better; something that will help, not hinder.  Will it be some truth that sticks, some belief or some action that will help point them in the right direction.  Let’s hope so. 

As Fred said, “Be careful what rubs off,” some of it is going to stick.