Easter Sunday

What a dear boy, he looks like! George

What are you reading with such intensity? I have to know what is in that, seems to say.

Tremendous curiosity, great insight and determination should be challenged with puzzles of opening and closing types. Open the box, open the cup and find the hidden object. Pointing out hidden delights in the paper puzzles that one might get. Hand play of tangrams, I do love. Even if he can’t do them himself. Doing it in front of him will challenge his thirst for knowledge. Easter egg hunt is probably so delightful and sweet for this little face.

Where did it go? Even though Hans is too deep for little ones. I would read it to him, just for the greatness of the language and the great depth to know this man as a dear friend through literature. Poems and Nursery Rhymes, notwithstanding, don’t miss even one nursery rhyme they are all a part of the puzzle that we are working together. They are our unified heritage and they should not be neglected, for silliness. The best of all is Mr. Rogers. He is not soft. He is gentle. For strength, there should be powerful preaching. I would never let a royal child grow up without hearing the powerful voice of Sam Waldron. There is absolutely no greater preaching voice that I have heard, although his content is lacking for his greatness of education now. The old stuff is better. But he must hear him live. There is place for both the Mr. Rogers and the Mr Waldron in a kingdom. He must learn to find his own style of public speaking and decorum through having choices and watching. Like a sport.

Pretend that you are in front of everyone. Pretend that you are a tennis star. Pretend that you are a basketball star. Pretend that you are a streetsweeper. All in due time and play and now be who and what you are. Let us take up the broom and help mommy. Let us go and shoot the hoops. Let us learn to be first real before God and then build what God has given us to govern. First ourselves and then others and not visa versa.

We mistakenly prioritize the outside world. We insist, don’t embarrass me. How can we be more embarrassed than to be born in the spotlight? This is still a pitfall. Not a Saul. He is not a choice for us in the grace of Christ. Christ died that this person would not be a part of the kingdom of God. Keeping a pure heart and making King David as real as you can, is the best remedy. See the men of God dance before the Lord and dance before Him yourself, in private, if you cannot in public. God loves to inhabit the praises of His people. God loves a cheerful giver. Giving Him the praise that He is due is the most important lesson to teach in childhood. He will take care of the rest.

a link to Sermons by Pastor Sam God's Boys will be good boys!

God's Boys will be good boys!

a link to Pastor Chanski's Abraham sermon

A breathtaking sight to see the wonder of a grown and healthy young man. Truly there is little else that can draw out affection of such depth as to see one who you longed to see growing healthily into adulthood. How carefully and wonderfully woven the sight of this youngster coming to church was into the imagination of Abraham having to sacrifice just such an affection on an altar of sacrifice for God. I love how Pastor Chanski emotionally brought you in, or how God wove the coming of this one to church as if to give light to a possibly dull subject for the constant hearing. The love that Pastor Chanski had for him came through in the break down.

Seeing this boy is breathtaking, he said. And then he prayed asking God to give him ability beyond himself to help us see. God came through big time, I’d say. It seems that the familiarity of the passage to have been studied, notwithstanding. God wanted to show us something of the depth of his affection for “His own” that came through so clearly and blessed my soul enormously. Jesus paid it all.

Deepak Chopra?

God's Boys will be good boys! What college is is an opportunity to explore the world of thinking, unchaperoned. That is a great opportunity to use your own reasoning as formed and founded in the scriptures and family traditions to make your mark on the world. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The warfare is not avoidance of untoward creeds and thought, but developing the tools of thought to overcome them, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony...

Arise my soul arise, shake off thy guilty fears...

Enjoy the mental challenge of taking captivity captive, in your own mind and then teach others to do the same. Happy sword fighting.

How our reading can affect our direction...

God's Boys will be good boys!

Like a delightful respite, we enjoyed a nice conversation about how Pastor MacArthur's book affected Christian music for our good, this recent past quarter of a century. It is true that we have been blessed by the direction and assistance of god-blessed study and writing. Can it be that there was a great and silent awakening that we have enjoyed? Looking at the development of Christian music, you and I and the rest of your siblings rejoiced that "excuse me!"{by Nicholas} was not the only example of Christian exuberance of those long days ago.

Sometimes we look at the days of the puritans and miss the things that are just past us. This time, the joy of spiritual fruit of the glut of Christian instructors and music were our reason to rejoice. Sadly our Christian profession has not outshined our verbosity in music and instruction. What if we are measured by the weight of our words compared to the weight of our personal profession? What if we are compelled to really be what we talk about and listen to? " Let us love and sing and wonder..."

Let us be what we hear and write and talk so much about. We are technoinstructed, super abundant tools for the spiritual warfare? Still, we are all too anemic in our victory. HELP, LORD!

Thank God, you are not a father yet! I am grateful for that.

God's Boys will be good boys! I imagine the idealest of circumstances for fatherhood. Relative obscurity, security of finances and a loving marriage and then...children. I imagine Prince William {certainly not the idealest of circumstances to be a Prince} always looked at and fawned over, but God has a plan for such uncomfortable circumstances, as well.

My daddy challenged my every faculty from my earliest moment. He looked at me as his soul, what he would have done or been, had he a father. It started at 6 months and I certainly would never recommend this, but he heard the guys on the job talking about their walking children and he was determined that I should be one of the early walkers. He placed me against the wall and of course I fell flat on my face. I don't remember this, but they told me this.

Infancy is for relationship development. I think my Daddy and I bonded very early. It is about teaching the child to trust you and know you. "Getting to know you" time. Don't mistake their inability for inattention. I think they are more attentive than we could realize. My children would remind me of things that had happened to them, when I thought they were unaware, the year before, when they were 2 or so that I thought that they would never remember. I would take at least an hour every day,{were I a young papa} playing age appropriate games with little baby-mine and introducing some of my interests also. If I am engulfed in a book of my liking, I would spend some time reading that book to baby, while bouncing or tickling toes.

They need muscle stretching, we learned from Grandma Ruth. Dad would talk about his horror at watching her stretch the small infants for a few minutes everytime they went to the in-laws house. She did it to everybody and she always told us it was good for the babies. I recommend it. Range of motion exercises for baby's development of movement. Eventually they won't need it, because they will do their own things.

I don't like techy things for babies. I think it will mess up their eyes and no mirrors in the crib. Grandma Rosalee says it makes them teethe hard and we experienced it first hand with Evvy. She was the only one that we disobeyed that law with. We had to go to the hospital for her first molar, it was purple.

I do hope that one day you'll be able to stomach the melodrama of the "Lloyds of London" movie.

God's Boys will be good boys!

I am thinking this morning about the touching scene when Mr. Angerstine first meets the little impoverished Jonathan and becomes his mentor. The affection that takes a man from a civil duty to a paternal duty was played so well in this movie. Every once in a while someone grabs our heart and doesn't let it go. Maybe, they don't know they have won our paternal prayers and concern. Providence has sent us brothers and sisters and father and mother, but grace and mercy weaves relations in Christ that are as dear and life-giving and soul-uplifting. We fear so, that some will take advantage of our heart's affection and this keeps us distant from one-another. I pray, dear boy, that you would be aggressive to carry your brothers in your heart in prayer and good relationship. I pray that you would nurture that relationship and expand your fellowship to develop yourself and others throughout life. Be encouraged to grow your fellowship.