What Influence Did Your Father Have In Your Life?

I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord and do what is right and just.

Genesis 18:19 NLT

Soaking up Dad

We teach our children even when we don't think school is in session. Too often we think our lessons are the sit-down kind, the planned-out kind. But our lessons are also how we react as a Little League coach when the ump blows a call, and how we treat our wives after we've both had rugged days at work., and what we say when we see a homeless man on the street.

Sometimes our lessons are good ones. I hope my sons—without me saying a word—have become more color-blind by our attending a church with a black pastor and linking arms with a black ministry in rural Mississippi.

Sometimes my lessons are the wrong kinds. As a boy, what hurt so deeply was to hear my mother and father fight; though it wasn't a common scene, the most perfect day could turn blustery cold when their relationship iced up. Without intending it to, I've taught a few similarly chilly lessons to my own sons.

Our children are sponges, quietly soaking up all we say and do.
Bob Welch in A Father for All Seasons

from Men of Integrity Devotional Bible with devotionals by the editors of Men of Integrity magazine (Christianity Today, Intl), Tyndale House Publishers (2002), p 25

---

All our heritages are flawed—of course some far more than others. Modern men and women are so sensitized to this that many have come to use the sins of their parents as a cloak for their own sins and parental deficiencies. This has brought about, as Robert Hughes writes, "the rise of cult therapies teaching that we are all the victims of our parents, that whatever our folly, venality, or outright thuggishness, we are not to be blamed for it, since we come from 'dysfunctional families.'"
R. KENT HUGHES

Merry Chtistmas

Just wishing everyone who reads this blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

God and Lawns

GOD:

Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

St. FRANCIS:

It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD:

Grass? But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It's sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS:

Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD:

The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS:

Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.

GOD:

They cut it? Do they then bail it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS:

Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:

They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS:

No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD:

Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS:

Yes, Sir.

GOD:

These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS:

You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:

What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.

ST. FRANCIS:

You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD:

No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS:

After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:

And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS:

They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD:

Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE:

"Dumb and Dumber", Lord. It's a story about....

GOD:

Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

John 11:21-27; 11:33-44

21) Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22) And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." 23) Jesus said to her, " Your brother will rise again." 24) Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25) Jesus said to her, " I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26) and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" 27) She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." 33) When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; 34) and he said, " Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35) Jesus wept. 36) So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37) But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38) Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 39) Jesus said, " Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." 40) Jesus said to her, " Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" 41) So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42) I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me." 43) When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, " Laz'arus, come out." 44) The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Luke 10:17-24

17) The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" 18) And he said to them, " I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19) Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. 20) Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." 21) In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, " I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. 22) All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." 23) Then turning to the disciples he said privately, " Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! 24) For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."