This was hilarious, the best political parody yet. Click here to see the Biden-Palin debate from SNL.
I'm as skeptical as I've ever been about politics. Neither side fires me up. So I fully enjoyed the humor of this, without thinking, "Hey, that's not fair...I like that person."
I'd be interested to know, from those of you with strong political convictions, to hear how you're voting this election and why.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Cool pics from the sky
Another reason to frequent Chris Braun's blog. He's good at giving a slice of cool stuff floating around out there in cyberspace. Click here to find some breathtaking "pictures from above."
It's amazing the things our modern eyes are privileged to see...a bird's eye view of the planet has never been an option for anyone but those in the last 100 or so years.
Unless of course you climbed up a big hill.
It's amazing the things our modern eyes are privileged to see...a bird's eye view of the planet has never been an option for anyone but those in the last 100 or so years.
Unless of course you climbed up a big hill.
On Parenting
Last night I spoke to the parents at our family ministry, D6.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about parenting recently (I think I'm up to 3 minutes a day). So this talk was some of the overflow of that. Maybe I need to do more thinking on parenting. It wasn't a stellar talk, as far as speeches go, and I did overstate some things. Typical.
But, one of the things that's on my heart is to help parents get beyond a "method" of parenting (We follow Tripp, or we follow Ezzo's, or we follow Priolo, or we follow Dobson...). Churches are so good at creating little legalistic subcultures (i.e. if you're not talking to your kids about the Bible and that God says what they did is wrong after you spank them, you haven't done your job OR "if two kids are fighting over a toy they are both wrong, even if one 'had it first' OR you need to breast feed in this way...). I think there are some valid points to what we learn in the parenting books, but let's take a step back and remember something...
Raising kids is making disciples. Jesus never spanked his disciples. He didn't breastfeed them. So how did he teach them?
That was the bulk of the talk. My favorite point from the speaker (every blind squirrel finds a nut) was...[drumroll]...
"Teaching moments are not always in the moment, but always in the moments."
A lot of times, our kids are not ready to have a heart to heart conversation right after they've been spanked or suffered the consequences for what they did. More of what we teach them will happen naturally in the context of doing life together- shema style- walking along the road, driving in the car, eating breakfast, going to bed, playing outside, even watching TV. Whenever life happens, we are teaching.
It's just a matter of what we're teaching.
I sensed that everyone was particularly engaged during the point that we should use the good, bad and ugly stories from our past to teach our kids. I frequently speak to youth about moral purity. I've already gone public with my victories and failures. I will definitely be as open as I can with my kids when that becomes a relevant discussion. I think there is a time to talk to our kids about being immoral, raped, abused, pure, whatever to help them learn and stay on the path.
Thank God for a church where there is peer pressure to be authentic.
There are some points I didn't get to...
- Each child is different, and different means of discipline will be required.
I've been talking to a college student whose dad tried to raise him like his older sibling. His older sibling was more like his dad in the things that he enjoyed, temperament, etc. Therefore, saying, "Hey, let's go out and work on the car" when your son enjoys graphic design isn't the best way to instruct. One son gets affirmed while the other gets ignored. Chuck Swindoll made a great point about Proverbs 22:5-7, "Raise up a child in the way he should go..." Each child will need to be raised differently.
- God is not your tool to raise good kids. You are God's tool.
As my friend Ed says about parents of teens, "They want their kids to have just enough Jesus to keep them off drugs." The problem is, God cares more about your kid's passion for Jesus than he does about their grades, behavior modification, and the parent's self-image. We can't treat God as a means to get good kids.
There is so much more I left out of the talk.
And so much in the talk you may want to ignore.
Either way, you can listen to it if you have some time to kill or kids to raise- just click here.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about parenting recently (I think I'm up to 3 minutes a day). So this talk was some of the overflow of that. Maybe I need to do more thinking on parenting. It wasn't a stellar talk, as far as speeches go, and I did overstate some things. Typical.
But, one of the things that's on my heart is to help parents get beyond a "method" of parenting (We follow Tripp, or we follow Ezzo's, or we follow Priolo, or we follow Dobson...). Churches are so good at creating little legalistic subcultures (i.e. if you're not talking to your kids about the Bible and that God says what they did is wrong after you spank them, you haven't done your job OR "if two kids are fighting over a toy they are both wrong, even if one 'had it first' OR you need to breast feed in this way...). I think there are some valid points to what we learn in the parenting books, but let's take a step back and remember something...
Raising kids is making disciples. Jesus never spanked his disciples. He didn't breastfeed them. So how did he teach them?
That was the bulk of the talk. My favorite point from the speaker (every blind squirrel finds a nut) was...[drumroll]...
"Teaching moments are not always in the moment, but always in the moments."
A lot of times, our kids are not ready to have a heart to heart conversation right after they've been spanked or suffered the consequences for what they did. More of what we teach them will happen naturally in the context of doing life together- shema style- walking along the road, driving in the car, eating breakfast, going to bed, playing outside, even watching TV. Whenever life happens, we are teaching.
It's just a matter of what we're teaching.
I sensed that everyone was particularly engaged during the point that we should use the good, bad and ugly stories from our past to teach our kids. I frequently speak to youth about moral purity. I've already gone public with my victories and failures. I will definitely be as open as I can with my kids when that becomes a relevant discussion. I think there is a time to talk to our kids about being immoral, raped, abused, pure, whatever to help them learn and stay on the path.
Thank God for a church where there is peer pressure to be authentic.
There are some points I didn't get to...
- Each child is different, and different means of discipline will be required.
I've been talking to a college student whose dad tried to raise him like his older sibling. His older sibling was more like his dad in the things that he enjoyed, temperament, etc. Therefore, saying, "Hey, let's go out and work on the car" when your son enjoys graphic design isn't the best way to instruct. One son gets affirmed while the other gets ignored. Chuck Swindoll made a great point about Proverbs 22:5-7, "Raise up a child in the way he should go..." Each child will need to be raised differently.
- God is not your tool to raise good kids. You are God's tool.
As my friend Ed says about parents of teens, "They want their kids to have just enough Jesus to keep them off drugs." The problem is, God cares more about your kid's passion for Jesus than he does about their grades, behavior modification, and the parent's self-image. We can't treat God as a means to get good kids.
There is so much more I left out of the talk.
And so much in the talk you may want to ignore.
Either way, you can listen to it if you have some time to kill or kids to raise- just click here.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Moving to Arkansas
After watching the Duggers last night on TLC, Leatha and I were inspired.
Have you seen this show?
You want to laugh at this family for their prima facie conservative extremism, then all of a sudden you start thinking, "Hey, that's not a bad idea." Initially, you might expect a legalistic undercurrent, but you get a surprising glimpse of a grace-filled home marked by holiness, love and joy. Their whole family has a sweet disposition.
The last episode was about their oldest son's courtship. It was amazing. It was the most counter-cultural relationship I've seen. And yet the most exemplary.
This transition to becoming the Duggers won't be easy for us. It will require a few changes...
1. Moving to Arkansas
2. Changing our attire. ("Ava, put on this dress. Boys, don the polo shirt and part your hair with some Aqua Net.")
3. Being happy all the time
4. Cutting out TV. (Ironically, they have a reality show about their lives, but they don't even have a TV...)
5. Cutting my hair (wait, I already did that last week...Leatha chopped off all the old highlights...I look like a school boy.)
6. Building a new house...by ourselves.
7. Homeschooling
8. Teaching our kids how to court (I've got to figure out what that means first)
9. Changing the "Metropuritan" blog to "Neopuritan"
10. Getting a CDL license to drive the family bus.
11. Changing my name to Jim Bob (Not even joking- Jim Bob is the patriarch)
12. Changing our last name to Dugger
13. Changing my dating talk (I encourage college students to date)
14. Having 14 more kids.
Nevermind.
Monday, October 6, 2008
What do you know about forgiveness?
I rarely (if ever?) do "advertisements" for people. But since Chris Brauns prays for the Salt Company and has one of the few blogs I try to keep up with...
He recently wrote a book, Unpacking Forgiveness, and has a forgiveness quiz that I found intriguing. I got a few of the answers wrong, which only makes me want to read his book. Click here to take the quiz.
He recently wrote a book, Unpacking Forgiveness, and has a forgiveness quiz that I found intriguing. I got a few of the answers wrong, which only makes me want to read his book. Click here to take the quiz.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Random Pictures
Tonight we played "Operation" and "Memory" for family game night. Makai didn't do so well at either. His motor skills aren't quite up to par for operation. The memory cards seemed to change location everytime the kids turned them over. Eventually game night regressed into wrestlemania (instigated by Beck I'm sure). Entropy always seems to rule anything we try to do as a family. But everyone had fun.
This is Makai's life these days- getting stuck. Above, he's got a bag of Leatha's forbidden fruit- marshmallows. Everything you see in this closet was free from Walgreens. It's a long story, but the short of it is that Leatha knows how to use coupons.Below- A parenting dilemma... let natural law teach the lesson? OR come to the rescue?
You never know what is going to become Cameron and Beck's next sheath.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)