Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The glory of young men is their strength,
    gray hair the splendor of the old..

• Proverbs 20:29

You who are young, be happy while you are young,
    and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
    and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
    God will bring you into judgment.
So then, banish anxiety from your heart
    and cast off the troubles of your body,
    for youth and vigor are meaningless.

• Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

• Jeremiah 29:11

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

• 1 Timothy 4:12

The New Boilerplate

My wife filled a small book with “Angel” on the cover.  It was hidden with a box of crafting things.  On 18 July 2025, I thought I had posted the last of these.  But this little angel book held a prayer, followed by 71 quotes.  So, the “with a little help” series is back in business for a while.  And it will be fun for me.  She did not attribute any of the quotes.  The first, next week’s installment, is from James A. Garfield, the 20^th president of the USA.  The next one is disputed, with some thinking it originated with Teddy Roosevelt and others saying Fred Astaire.  After the prayer, these might be on the lighter side.

Her quote

“There is only one thing wrong with the younger generation.  A lot of us don’t belong to it anymore.”

• John F. Kennedy?

The Discussion

When I searched for this quote, I got one article that said that John F. Kennedy said it or said something quite similar.  My wife made errors in copying these quotes.  Until this one, I have gotten definitive results in my searching.  But most of the other posts gave similar quotes that “meant roughly the same thing.”  Those quotes dated back to Aristotle who said, “”Young people have exalted notions, because they have not yet been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things.”

One of the quotes that I saw in a scrolling video said that what is wrong with the younger generation is we want to do those things too, and our bodies do not cooperate – or words to that effect.

But would we do the crazy things that we see younger people doing?

When I was in the military, I had the chance to go to Ranger School.  I turned it down.  I could have gone to Airborne School.  I saw no need of jumping out of an airplane.  A friend told me that if I flew in the belly of a C-130, I would feel the need to jump out of an airplane, hinting that you wondered how the airplane remained in the air.

But on the other hand, I qualified to rappel from a helicopter, first one of my team to do so, and I was thoroughly disappointed when they scrubbed the mission.  Our entire team qualified, but we were the only team to have anyone qualify.

Military service is a young person’s activity.  The cry from parents is for the government to not send their boys off to war because they have not lived their life yet.  But if we flipped it and old men went to war, how many battles would be lost because the soldiers turned to the commander and said, “You are crazy if you think I’m going to run up that hill into a hail of bullets!  I wouldn’t send my grandchildren up that hill!”  That’s where those gray hairs from Proverbs 20 come into play.  The ones who do not have gray hair are the ones who gladly went up that hill.  In other words, you learn from life.

Think about it.  If an academy grad or an ROTC grad puts on the yellow bar (what we called a butter bar), at the age of 22, fresh out of college, he will probably be a lieutenant colonel (LTC) – considering Army and Marines – when he could retire at 42 years old.  Retired and he might be to the halfway point of his life, yet while he served, he commanded roughly 800 people.

But there is something to be said about looking back and wanting that spring in your step.  But I would not wish to have the lack of knowledge that I have acquired.

Let the gray-haired people counsel the young against being foolhardy, but let the young play the sports, climb the mountains, swim the oceans, and sadly when times require, go off to war.

Let us not dislike the young because they have a spring in their step and we do not.

And as for the young, read the advice Paul gives to Timothy once more.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

• 1 Timothy 4:12

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory