- Only running shorter distances of up to 3 miles in Vibram FiveFingers, left foot feels slightly strained at longer distances, want to strengthen but not injure feet!
- Recently scored a cheap pair of Salomon Sense Mantra's on eBay in excellent condition, I might have to put a separate review of those up, so far they are awesome!
- Am hoping to put a post up about anger and how big of a problem it is for both men and women and especially as parents and how destructive, misdirected and unrighteous anger can be to our kids! Lord wiling, one day that will be posted!
- Lastly we come to the subject of the post, I'm at home with Joshua, Hannah, Abby and Jeremiah for the weekend! Yup, that's right, just Jesus and I with the 4 kids! The Lord provided for Becca to visit her family in Montana for our sister's graduation, so she gets a bit of a much needed break for 4 days and I get some quality time at home! :)
I've often thought about how dad's are viewed as babysitters or simply childcare and quite frankly that really angers me (righteously, of course). It's as if we men are completely non-family minded and absolute hacks at raising a family. Quite frankly, these children are made up of just as much of a father as they are of a mother, 1/2 chromosomes from both parents. Yes either mothers or fathers may play more of a primary role in the day to day care-taking and "in the trenches" parenting, depending on who's working in/out of the home but that's a whole other sermon on male/female roles that I will not get into because I simply believe all those impassioned views aren't always, if ever truly Biblical.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand, here's a new Testament verse that describes the role a father has:
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." - Ephesians 6:4 (NIV)
Or in the ESV:
"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
And the Amplified Bible does a great job at expositing a little more:
Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.
The whole rearing, training, discipline, counsel and admonition of the Lord thing doesn't sound like merely childcare does it?
This also reminds me of something else more old school from the book of Deuteronomy (Also chapter 6 incidentally). Pay special attention to Verse 7:
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord].
5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.
6 And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then]
7 You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes.
9 And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities which you did not build,
11 And houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full,
12 Then beware lest you forget the Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Sound familiar? That's not only and example of how the Bible hangs together but also a good way to correlate parenting and also what's implicit in the Deuteronomy passage is the cultural model that father's played in the very patriarchal Hebrew society.
So anyway, I'm sure most dad's appreciate the concern and the shocked reactions that say with or without words, "Are you sure you can handle them!!??!?! All by yourself?!?!?!"
But Jesus is with me, even our kids know that and He strengthens us for whatever He wants us to do, and if that's fathering, then that's fathering whether mom is or isn't around.
Or the Apostle Paul said it much better and thought of it long before I did in Philippians 4:13:
13 I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who[a]infuses inner strength into me; I am [b]self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].
PS. Here's a link to an article on the Hermeneutics Blog that's part of Christianity Today that initially got me thinking about this:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/february/im-dad-babysitter-and-other-cultural-myths.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/february/im-dad-babysitter-and-other-cultural-myths.html
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