Giving Answers (1 Peter 3:15)

I have a drama queen in my family.  Maybe you have the same. Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Now I love my daughter with this trait with all my heart.  However, as a father, I recognize that this drama queening will get her into a LOT of trouble in life, if I don't guide her through how to properly handle conflict (whether it is conflict with her own desires and wants or with others). Give me a moment to define the term drama queen (or king).  A drama queen (or king) is someone who over-exaggerates the importance of trivial matters.  These trivial matters then become the most important thing that is happening in their lives...at that moment.  Because of this attitude, there becomes unrest in their lives and everyone else's lives around them.  Their happiness and joy is affected by these trivial matters.  Fights begin.  Pouting happens.  Slammed doors.  Loud wails.  Disconcerted complaining abo...

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net As we expose our children to God, the Bible and its teachings questions are bound to arise.  These questions usually start at the age of 3 or 4 but will accompany your child throughout their walk with Christ.  Many of their earliest questions will either be on the silly or profound side.  The silly ones we can handle pretty well.  However, it is interesting that many of the first questions your child will have about God and faith will be the ones that will need to be revisited over and over again as they grow.  Let's take the question posed for today:  Who created God?  (Or who's God's daddy?) This question was asked to me yesterday by a curious Kindergartener in our Day Care.  It is important to answer the question at the level of understanding, and this is why we will have to revisit this question over and over again as our children grow into tweens and teens and finally adults....

Being the parent of a child or multiple children is an incredibly hard and time demanding job.  I know...I am one too. However, as hard as it is to juggle children, I believe there is an even harder thing for parents to do during the wonderful time God blesses us with the upbringing of these children.  It is simply this: Image courtesy of Vlado at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Making sure your spouse is the most important relationship in your life outside of your relationship with God. When your children are young, you attend their every need.  They need to be fed.  They need to be burped.  They need their diaper changed.  They...just need everything. And that's how it begins...the need of time and attention starts with the parents being attentive to every cry of their child and celebrating every joy, like their first steps, and the first time they poop on the potty (can I get an "Amen"?). Life begins to revolve around this (or these) little bundles o...

We live in a culture defined by technology.  In some respects, this could be construed as one of the greatest times in all of history.  So much knowledge, information and resources at our fingertips.  Do you want to learn how to knit or auto repair?  Pop onto YouTube and look at the thousands of videos that give step by step instructions.  Or if you are someone who would rather actually read the directions, there are thousands of sites online for that too. At the touch of a keystroke or a tap of an icon on our smartphone and the world awaits us. I have a library of books on my phone that I can take around with me easily fitting it into my pocket and access anywhere in the world. So what are most of us doing with all of these resources that we have at our disposal?  Playing games.  Watching meaningless videos.  In other words, we are entertaining ourselves to death. Now don't think that I am just calling you out.  I am calling myse...

One of the biggest complaints that I receive about belief in God is the problem of evil.  As a pastor, I receive this complaint in two different ways.  The first way is from atheists who look at all the evil in the world and posit:  If God were all powerful, why is there evil in the world?  Why couldn't God just prevent the evil from happening in the first place? There are two major of fallacies within the context of this line of questioning.  First, an atheist has no framework for evaluating good and evil and must therefore borrow that understanding from somewhere outside his/her worldview.  This is the easiest to see and there are scores of resources referencing this by both theists and atheists.  (I personally recommend Frank Turek's book "Stealing from God".)  Second, the atheist makes a category mistake in confusing the nature of a human being with free will with that of a toaster oven.  If we look at a d...

Image courtesy of Nathan Greenwood at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Do you ever wonder if you are doing good enough for your kids? As a parent of three, I worry about how well I am raising my kids.  Like you, pressure mounts all around me for all the things that I ought to be doing for my children.  The opinions that come from friends, family and just the cultural expectations of what make a good parent constantly berate my efforts and seem to tell me that no matter how much I am doing for them, I can always be doing more.  And worse, that little bit more, my fears whisper, is the essential ingredient that I am missing. Right now, my fear has been fixated on my kids teeth.  My children have inherited my teeth.  (To give an idea of what kind of nightmare that is, in and of itself, just imagine four years of braces with a jaw operation thrown in just to correct the overbite that came with the teeth.)  What convicts me is how little has been done with them ove...