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WHO MADE ME?
I love the story of the boy sitting on his father's lap as they were looking into a mirror. The boy said to his dad, "Dad, who made me?"
He said, "God made you, son."
He said, "Dad, who made you?"
He said, "God made me, son."
He said, "Dad, who made granddad?"
He said, "God made him, son."
He said, "Dad, who made great-granddad?" He said, "God made him, son. Why do you ask?"
The boy took one look back in the mirror and said, "Well, it just seems to me He's been doing a better job in recent years!"
Laugh as we might and should, the boy was right. God so starts at conception to develop a child that unborn children have detectable heartbeats at just 18 days.
(From a sermon by Larry Moyer, What Does God Say about the Sanctity of Life? 1/5/2011)
Jeff Calendar’s three year old daugh-
ter along with the rest of her family
was observed opening Christmas packages.
As is often the case, Jeff’s wife had
recycled some bows from previous times,
and their daughter grabbed one and then
placed it on top of her head. The old
tape left on it caused it to stick to
her hair. That sight caused everyone to
begin laughing which excited her. In
the midst of their laughter, she cried,
"Look, I’m a present!" [And, in the
end, aren’t we all? On the otherhand,
are we ’a present’ worth keeping and
using in the Kingdom of God?]
HOW GOD CALLS IT
A major league baseball player hit the ball far out in left field. Bases were loaded. The one who was on 2nd base made it all the way to home plate and he collided with the catcher. Immediately, the one team yelled, "He's safe, he's safe, he's safe." The other team yelled, "He's out, he's out, he's out".
Upon looking at both teams the umpire calmly announced, "He ain't nothing til I call him."
The issue is not how you and I feel about the sanctity of life, but it's how God feels. It's not how you and I call it, but it's how God calls it.
(From a sermon by Larry Moyer, What Does God Say about the Sanctity of Life? 1/5/2011)
To say the least, I was at first shocked to read the headline, Baby Ate Cocaine Dad Left Nearby. According to the Associated Press a father from Ravenna, Ohio was sentenced to one year in prison for endangering his daughter, who was six-months-old at the time of the incident. He evidently stashed his illegal drug in her baby swing and she ate some of it. The mother noticed the white powder around the daughter’s mouth and took her to the hospital for treatment.
I take this as a wake-up call to fathers from God. He is calling us to protect our children. Obviously, this man carelessly endangered his child, but what about us father’s possibly putting our children at risk in very subtle ways. I believe it is not enough for us dads to house, feed, cloth, and educate our children. We dads need to empower our kids to turn from evil and do what is good and right, and to have the best possible harmonious relationship with them as we can.
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reported recently in a survey which suggests “....most teenagers find it easier to talk about drugs with their mothers than with their fathers, and those who don’t get along with their fathers are at far greater risk of smoking, drinking and using drugs....” The survey reported that “teens in two-parent families who have fair or poor relationships with their fathers are 68 percent more likely to use drugs than those in average families.”
Dads, we can to have a relationship with our children that fosters openness and care. We can be responsibile to do what is in their best interest, safety and welfare.
We dads can be emotionally and spiritually connected with our children. “ ’Too many fathers are just AWOL in their kids lives,’ said Joseph Califano, the research center’s chairman. ‘They’re not there to help with homework, and kids don’t go to them with important problems.’ " We can best share with them helpful lessons from life and God’s Word by maintaining a positive relationship.
Jesus Christ said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:11-12).
Fathers, even though none of us always hit the mark, we can still give our children good things. Let us search our hearts and ask God to reveal the attitudes and habits that can hurt or hinder our children. Then let us jettison them for the sake of our kids, ourselves, our community and our Creator. For “....children are a reward from [the Lord]” (Psalm 127:3).
Published Wednesday September 01, 02:25PM CDT
Baby Ate Cocaine Dad Left Nearby
RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) - A man whose infant daughter ate some of his cocaine after he stashed the drug in her baby swing was sentenced to a year in prison for child endangering.
The 6-month-old girl was treated in time.
Christopher Stockman, 21, was sentenced Monday. He pleaded guilty in March. The baby was hospitalized Sept. 29 after her mother noticed a white powder around the child’s mouth.
Source: http://Omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/APStoryViewer/1,3293,89112,00.html
WE NEED TO SLOW DOWN
A study by the US National Commission on Sleep Disorders blamed half of all traffic accidents on tiredness. Put that together with our penchant for speeding, and the result is carnage on the roads. Annual traffic fatalities now stand at 1.3 million worldwide, more than double the figure for 1990. Though better safety norms have cut the death toll in developed countries, the UN predicts that traffic will be the third leading cause of death in the world by 2020. Even now, more than forty thousand people die and 1.6 million are injured on European roads every year.
(Honore, Carl (2009-04-14). In Praise of Slowness (Kindle Locations 137-141). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition.)
