A Life Worthy

Tag: Fatherhood

  • Manliosityhood

    elephantSeussical, the show my family has been a part of this summer, is coming to a close.  The experience has already produced some pithy paternal parental ponderings that I have passed to my progeny to preserve for posterity.

    But wait…there’s more.  This one’s for my boy.

    Hey Boyo,

    One of the scariest jobs in Fatherdom is raising children to be emotionally stable grownups.  So I, who was raised in a house of women, need to somehow steer my way through the dense fog of estrogen to teach my boy how to be a man.  And not just any man, but a man of God.

    Good luck, Kid. (more…)

  • Holding Tight…Letting Go

    I remember teaching you to ride a bicycle.  You were so scared, theHands bicycle so big.  It was, in truth, a tiny machine, long since sold at a yard sale. On that morning, however,  it was your Goliath to conquer, your stallion to tame and to claim.  

    “Deeda, hold on tight.  You won’t let go, will you?”

    Never, if I have the choice. (more…)

  • Of Beauties and Beasts

    tiara 2My daughter and I are currently in a production of the show Beauty and the Beast at LifeHouse, a local community theater.  The heroine of our version is named Rose, not Belle; otherwise the story tracks pretty well with the story you know.

    An open letter to my daughter…

    Daughter of My Heart,

    Since we started this show together, I have noticed a lot of flak out in Cyberland against the Beauty and the Beast story.  Most of it centers on the idea that Rose (Belle, Beauty, whatever you wanna call her) is a bad role model for young women, because she falls in love with the Beast (sort of the epitome of the “Bad Boy”) in the hopes of changing him.  In the Christian world, we call that missionary dating; in the secular world, it’s just stupid and codependent. (more…)

  • One-a-Day Tuesday, 12/24/13

    number 1Everlasting Father,  (Isaiah 9:6).

    I hope you have a great dad.  I hope he is loving and strong and gentle and a daily blessing to your life.  I hope this, not only to make those family Christmas dinners a little less awkward, but because it will give you a better picture of God.  You see, God presents himself to us in many ways through Scripture, but I think the one that hangs most people up is the image of a father.  It can be difficult to see God as loving and caring if your earthly father was cold, distant, or absent altogether.

    Look, this is not the time or space to get all psychological, but as we close in on Christmas I need to point something out.  Whatever your earthly dad does well, your heavenly father does even better.  Wherever your earthly dad messes up, your heavenly father gets it right.  He is the perfection we all fall short of.  He is the goal we can never quite attain.  He will always be there to cheer you when you win, and comfort you when you lose.  His advice will always be perfect, and his discipline will always be just.  He will come to all your ball games, all your dance recitals, all your spelling bees.  He will be there at the hospital bed and at the wedding altar.

    He will always love you.

    Always, as in Everlasting.

    Walk in his love this Christmas Eve.

  • One-a-Day Saturday, 11/30/13

    number 1Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:19-25).

    During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln permanently established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  As you read, can you imagine any modern president getting away with this admonition to the American people?

    Washington, D.C.
    October 3, 1863

    By the President of the United States of America. 

    A Proclamation. 

    The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 

    No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. 

    I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. 

    In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. 

    Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth. 

    By the President: Abraham Lincoln

    Think about this: Lincoln referred to slavery as, “Our national perverseness and disobedience.”  He felt that the Civil War was, in part, a punishment for the sin of slavery.   Is there sin you need to confess, here and now, so that you can move forward with true thanksgiving for the grace of God?

    Thanks for reading the Extend-O-Rama Thanksgiving version of the One-a-Days.  I hope you found them edifying and as useful as leftover turkey.

  • One-a-Day Thursday, 11/28/13 Thanksgiving Day!!

    Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that openly profess his name (Colossians 2: 6-7).

    The coming of spring brought, at long last, relief to the Pilgrims.  They met Squanto, a member of a local tribe who was fluent in English.

    Squanto befriended the Pilgrims, teaching them how to plant corn, how and where to fish, and basically how to survive in their new land.  Squanto would stay with them, helping and guiding, for the rest of his life.

    That year, 1621, there was food.  Between hunting, fishing, and the crops they were able to raise, The Pilgrims had enough to make it through the winter.  After the harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks to God for allowing them to make it through the brutal times.  They invited their new friends and allies, the Wampanoag, to join in the festivities.  The hard work was just beginning, and there were plenty of difficulties in the days ahead, but God had shown himself capable of surmounting any challenge on behalf of his people.

    Ponderations: When you first received Christ as your Savior, you were probably “overflowing with thanksgiving,” as Paul encouraged.  Are you still? If not, what is keeping you from that? Are you willing to change what needs to be changed so you can overflow with thanksgiving again?

     

  • One-a-Day Wednesday, 11/27/13

    number 1We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death itself. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

    Having arrived in America, the Pilgrims found that their troubles were over.  They stopped at McDonald’s, then checked into the Hilton for showers and a good long nap…

    Ah, would that it were.

    Perhaps if there had been some enterprising Wampanoag children waiting for them, with a lemonade stand and deep fried clams on a stick…but no.  In fact, the hard times were just beginning.  The Pilgrims found themselves at the start of a hard, cold winter.  They had little left on the ship in the way of provisions, no crops to harvest, and no homes waiting for them to move into.  Sickness and starvation began to claim passengers and crew alike.

    The women and children stayed on board ship through the long, bitter winter.  The men went back and forth, building their new homes.  They wouldn’t need as many as they had planned; by spring, nearly half of those who had boarded the Mayflower had perished.

    Ask yourself:  What is God’s top priority for His people? How does allowing suffering in our lives (even promising it), help to accomplish that? What is your top priority in life? Does it line up with God’s priority for us?

  • One-a-Day Monday 11/25/13

    number 1Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

    Life in Holland provided the religious freedom the Pilgrims were looking for, but at a high price.  Living conditions there were rough, to the point where they had to work brutal hours to survive.  Children as young as six years old were working twelve- to fourteen-hour days just to help make ends meet.  (Feel free to emphasize the above point to your kids, especially if they complain about chores.)  Parents began to fear for the health of their children as the hard labor took its toll.

    Life among the Dutch was taking other tolls, as well.  Language, customs, traditions—all were different from what the Pilgrims were used to.  Parents could see their children growing less English, and more Dutch, with each passing day.  The greatest concern was over the moral “freedom” that accompanied Holland’s religious liberty.  Parents feared that they may have saved their children from persecution only to lose them to licentiousness.  They made the decision to protect themselves and their children by taking them to a new world.

    Chew on this: How are you being polluted by the world?  What are you willing to do to “be transformed?”

  • One-a-Day Sunday 11/24/13

    number 1But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ… (Philippians 3:7-8).

    England in the 1500’s and 1600’s was a place of great religious freedom—you were free to attend the Anglican Church.  If, however, you didn’t agree with the Anglican Church, and chose to speak up about it, it stank to be you.  You could look forward to hefty fines, imprisonment, and other extreme levels of governmental harassment.  One group of people experiencing this grief was the Puritans.  They felt that the Anglican Church was polluted with all sorts of non-biblical fluff, and they wanted to purify it.  Hence the name.

    Eventually, some of the Puritans decided that the Anglican Church was simply too far gone to work with, and they should separate from it.  These people called themselves Separatists.  It is from this group that the people we know as the Pilgrims came.

    In 1607, a group of Separatists decided to leave England and move to Holland, a country known for religious freedom.  Easier said than done, for while the King of England made life intolerable for Separatists, he would not allow them to leave.  The Pilgrims had to sneak out of the country, leaving everything behind.

    Question to chew on:  What have you had to leave behind in order to follow Christ?