Category: Life in Our Family

“I’m proud of you!”

Luke 3:22b NLT – And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

Peanut Gallery: Jesus was a “blessed child.” At both His Baptism and Transfiguration, the Father made a special point of expressing His approval… the Father blessed His Son.

father blesses son israeliThis blessing – “you’re my child and I’m proud of you” – is something we all yearn for. We want it at the end of life from our heavenly Father. And we want it during our lifetime from our earthly fathers.

It’s that earthly blessing that I’m thinking about here… and many of us never receive it.

One of the saddest recent Christmas stories came out of England:

When it comes to Christmas, it might be safe to assume children will ask Santa for an extensive list of toys, games and treats.

But a survey of their typical lists for Father Christmas has shown many have more serious concerns, requesting “a dad” instead…..

Despite their material requests, the tenth most popular Christmas wish on the list was a “Dad”.

For those of us who have/had loving, encouraging, supportive dads, the gain is immeasurable. For those of us who haven’t, the loss is enormous… it’s a hole in us that we long to fill.

If this unfilled longing resonates with you – or if you wonder how you can bless your children and grandchildren – I commend the book, The Blessing, by Trent and Smalley to you. It provides guidance for families seeking to bless their children following a Biblical model. And it provides healing and help for those of us who have been “looking for love in all the wrong places. “

At a family gathering a few years ago – our 2 kids, their spouses, and 8 grandchildren – we made a special effort to bless our family.

While they all watched, we singled out each of our kids and their spouses, laid hands on them and told them what we saw in them that made them special to us… and how proud we were of them. Then we asked them to do the same for each one of their children. We all prayed together and then had a fun and games evening.

Our kids are spread around the world now, but we continue the practice with them – and now our grandkids – whenever we can.

“A family blessing begins with meaningful touching. It continues with a spoken message of high value, a message that pictures a special future for the individual being blessed, and one that is based on an active commitment to see the blessing come to pass.”

Dr. Gary Smalley;Dr. John Trent. The Blessing (p. 30). Kindle Edition.

Check out Trent and Smalley’s book – The Blessing – there’s even a workbook available for anyone who wants to go deeper. You and your family will all be the better for it.

Hello: “My name is Art and I’ve got Compassion Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)”

Peanut Gallery: If you put me in charge of your church’s local benevolence budget for 2013, I’d finish the year with a surlpus. That’s how I know I’ve got “Compassion Fatigue Syndrome” (CFS)… a term I just made up.

ItaysWorld_Homeless_Signs_05For over 35 years, I pastored seven churches in various parts of the country… and the story was pretty much the same. Vagrants showed up on the church’s doorstep (frequently on Sunday am) with a well rehearsed story and their hands out. By my estimate, less than 10% were people legitimately needing help. The rest were semi-professional free-loaders. It got so bad that, when I thought I was being conned, I cut them off and said: “Don’t tell me your story. Just tell me what you want.” I hate being lied to.

In most of the communities I served, the churches worked together to coordinate their efforts and we had a list of specific goods and services that we could offer. On occasion, when we ran into folks with legitimate needs, one of our elders or deacons would work with them and monitor their progress… our goal was restoration and their eventual return to productive society. And we did have some real success stories… but, mostly, I thought we were being used.

Unfortunately, my attitude concerning America’s poor hasn’t changed much since retirement – hence, my confession: “I’ve got Compassion Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).” I want to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of the poor, but I don’t want to support other people’s bad behavior and perpetuate their irresponsibility – that would make me their enabler. And I’m not going there.

imageWorld-wide impoverishment is another story. Since retirement, I’ve been doing some travelling. You don’t have to go very far outside of America to witness real poverty… people who have absolutely nothing through no fault of their own. They are locked into a particular strata of their society for life… with no possibility of upward mobilty. Fresh water and mosquito nets are game changers… and two goats or a few chickens become a cottage industry. That’s why I can’t get excited about America’s able-bodied “poor” with flat screen TVs, cell phones, two cars, free lunches… free everything.

clean water SPSo… my personal approach to giving to the poor has been through donations to Samaritan’s Purse. They have a long history of financial integrity and I agree with their purposes and goals. They deal with genuinely needy people here and around the world all year long… and they do it through local churches in the name of Jesus. Click here for examples of what they do.

I wouldn’t give a dime to my denomination’s benevolence efforts because I don’t trust them… my giving would end up funding abortions, supporting gay pride and handing out condoms to high school students. Most public charities like United Way and the Red Cross are no better… it doesn’t take much digging to find Planned Parenthood among the agencies they support.

Nevertheless, I am not blind… I do live in coastal South Carolina not very far from historic pockets of the rural poor. And I don’t know what to do about it… how to change their lives for the good. I do know that pouring more money into existing welfare programs and electing the same politicians won’t help them. Nothing has changed for a couple of generations, so why would it now?

If doing the same thing we’ve been doing is not the answer, what is?

Public policy is not my forte, that’s why this email from the Heritage folks attracted my attention. Maybe some conservative adults can come up with some constructive ideas.

Our objective is to help more Americans escape poverty by promoting work, marriage, civil society, and welfare-spending restraints.

Sounds good, something’s got to give… but it won’t be me unless things change radically.
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Morning Bell: Are We Helping Poor Americans?
Jennifer Marshall

December 31, 2012 at 8:38 am

At the end of the year, many people take time to make charitable donations. But caring for those in need is a year-round responsibility—and when it comes to public policy, conservatives have an important opportunity to articulate an effective response to poverty and social breakdown in America.

A half-century into the War on Poverty, liberals can hardly declare victory.

Continue reading “Hello: “My name is Art and I’ve got Compassion Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)”” →

Is a college education worth it? Re-blog: “… A Most Peculiar Institution”

normal_jesuslordtome_copyPeanut Gallery: I’ve been thinking about my family growing in “wisdom, stature and favor with God”… and I’m not seeing how a college/university “liberal arts” education fits in with that. More… it seems to me that today’s college/university experience runs counter to – and is a detriment to – their Christian formation, i.e. becoming more like Christ.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Jesus’ early life. But I’m pretty certain that it didn’t include drugs, sex and rock & roll… living off-campus with co-eds at age 18… on Joseph’s dime. Jesus grew in “wisdom, stature and favor with God”… he sought out wise people… he learned a trade… and he got a life. And that’s what I want for my kids.

Ephesians 4:15-19 Phillips NT
True maturity means growing up “into” Christ

14-16 We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching and the jockeying of men who are expert in the craft presentation of lies. But we are meant to hold firmly to the truth in love, and to grow up in every way into Christ, the head. For it is from the head that the whole body, as a harmonious structure knit together by the joints with which it is provided, grows by the proper functioning of individual parts to its full maturity in love.

Have no more to do with the old life! Learn the new

17-19 This is my instruction, then, which I give you from God. Do not live any longer as the Gentiles live. For they live blindfold in a world of illusion, and cut off from the life of God through ignorance and insensitiveness. They have stifled their consciences and then surrendered themselves to sensuality, practising any form of impurity which lust can suggest.

With a few exceptions, there’s not much “growing up into Christ” on today’s college campuses. Instead, most of today’s college students leave with an “attitude”… $200,000 in debt… no job… and end up living in their parent’s basements.

stupid_voterCollege has changed dramatically since I graduated 50 years ago, and even since my kids graduated 15 years ago. I’m just not seeing how it fits into my grandkids’ spiritual formation.

The result is perhaps a fourth of the liberal arts courses — many would judge more like 50% — would never have been allowed in the curriculum just 40 years ago. They tend to foster the two most regrettable traits in a young mind — ignorance of the uninformed combined with the arrogance of the zealot.

Folks, it’s time to re-think this whole college thing… and Victor Davis Hanson‘s article re-posted below is a good place to start.
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An Anatomy of a Most Peculiar Institution
pjmedia.com
Victor Davis Hanson
December 28th, 2012
view original

A Campus-full of Contradictions

Almost everything about the modern university is a paradox. It has become a sort of industry gone rogue that embraces practices that a Wal-Mart or Halliburton would never get away with. It is exempt from scrutiny in the fashion that the Left ceased talking about renditions or Guantanamo Bay once Barack Obama was elected, or a Code Pink goes after a NRA official in the way it would never disrupt a hearing on Fast and Furious. In other words, the university is one of the great foundations of the Left, and so is immune from the sort of criticism that otherwise is daily leveled against other institutions.

So let’s take a 10-minute stroll through the campus and learn why costs soar even as students are ever more poorly educated.

The Curriculum

A student’s life on campus is a zero-sum game. For each elective like “The modern comic book,” or “Chicana feminisms” or “Queering the text,” students have no time (or desire to) take more difficult and instructive classes on the British Enlightenment or A History of World War I or Classical English Grammar. (Yes, despite the relativist, anti-hierarchical university, concepts really do exist like “more instructive.”) The former are mostly therapeutic classes, entirely deductive, in which the point is not to explore an intellectual

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Morning Reading: Luke 2.40 ESV

Luke 2:40 ESV
“And the child (Jesus) grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”

jesus grew in wisdomPrayer: Holy Spirit – strengthen us and fill us with your wisdom and grace. And today, I particularly pray for my children and grandchildren – Josh, Robin, Calvin, Carter, Caleb, Camille, Amy, Shane, Mia, Noah, Jacob, and Mason. Lord Jesus – help them to become more like you. Amen.

“What is your current location?”

Peanut Gallery: On the way to visit family in Chicago, our car’s GPS guided us to restaurants, gas stations and motels along the way. It’s a 1000 mile road trip, but “Nancy the Navigator” kept us on track and eliminated much of the anxiety of a long drive. We always knew where we were… and how long it would take to get to our next destination. Nice.

auto gpsAll this was made possible by a simple question: “What is your current location?” Once “Nancy” discovered where we were, she could map out our surroundings and plot the directions to our next stop.

So… as you begin 2013, here’s the deal – “Do you know where you are?” “What is your current location?”

Ths is an existential, self-assessment question… not a road mapping one. And there’s no existential GPS to do it for you. You have to work out the coordinates of your own life. But there’s help available – you’re not the first person to try to figure out where you are in life.

That’s why I’ve re-blogged the article below with its associated links. There’s no quick fix here. But there is plenty of food for thoughtful reflection. And once you figure out where you are, you can plot the path to your next destination. Give it a try and God bless you in the new year.

Special thanks to godsbooklover for bringing this to our attention. Check out her posts here.
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Take Time to Reflect as We Tumble Over the Cliff into 2013
by godsbooklover, thabto.wordpress.com

A good friend of mine posted this message on Facebook recently:

Don’t want to make resolutions you will break all too soon, but want to be intentional about the direction your life is heading in the next year? Here is a tool to spend a little time evaluating your life holistically at the turn of the New Year.

2013 pie-chartShe included a link to a website called reviveourhearts. com, where you can fill out a “Personal Vitality Plan” (a downloadable PDF) which examines 12 areas of your life, including not only the usual suspects, i.e.:

marriage, family, relationships, work, and finances.

But also: service, physical health, emotional health, moral purity, rest and recreation, and seeking God.

One way of visualizing your overall development (says the companion text) is to think of your life as a reservoir comprised of multiple sub-sections. It is possible to be doing well (to be full) in one dimension of your life while neglecting others (to be empty). Identify activities and practices that are helping “fill” you in each area or that are “draining” you in areas.

We all know that our calendar’s sometimes ominous turning from one year to the next is an artificial boundary. We don’t to wait for January 1st to look at our lives in this way. Each of us is quite capable of making changes in any area of life at any time.

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