Dirty Hands

Like most families we spend a lot of time trying to clean up the kids, after all we want them to be healthy and presentable as they prepare to engage the world in which we live. However it cannot be denied that sometimes the very best preparation is to get your hands good and dirty.

Collecting Eggs

Checking out the new chickens

Getting friendly with a baby Bison!

Finding the Sacred

For most pastors, weddings are one of their least favorite things to do, but not so with me. Usually I enjoy the opportunity to bring Gods’ Word to bear upon the union of man and woman; however I have become increasingly aware of a general lack of appreciation or understanding amongst the bridesmaids, groomsmen, photographers, florists, etc, with regard to all things sacred.

After the last wedding rehearsal I was talking to the organist when I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye. The photographer had taken it upon himself to set up a little still life photography session right on the altar. Without hesitation he stood behind the altar, moved the bookstand and candles and did some spontaneous shooting. He had no regard for the sacred use of such things, no appreciation (or fear) for the holy space he had entered.

“Sacred” or “Holy” things have become ordinary for many in our society and I think that their downfall begins not at the church but in the family. Take as an example the simple act of praying before you eat. When the family pauses after all the food has been laid out, when it stops (against natural desires) to give thanks to God, it teaches something powerful. The simple action of prayer reminds all that the ordinary things of meatloaf or baloney sandwiches are in fact gifts from God. Sure he gives them to those who pray and those who don’t but by praying we confess his holy work in very ordinary things. And if he is at work in providing my baloney sandwich how much more are we prepared to see him at work in gifts laid upon the altar!

A family at prayer is well prepared to recognize and treasure the sacred.

Thanks, mom.

Where would we be without our mothers?

Thanks for YOUR dedication to OUR success!

I just want you to be HAPPY!

I wonder why this is our assumed goal in life, to be happy. When did contentment become greater than truth,  honesty, or even love? Don't get me wrong - I'm happy when the baby is happy. But is this it?

There is more to life than mere happiness. If all I wanted was for my children to be happy, they would wear three tubes of expensive red lipstick from head to toe, everyday. They would whine when they don't get their way. They would proceed to tell me "It's not my fault" when things go wrong. No, I hope they have much more than happiness; responsible minds, fearless hearts, disciplined bodies, gentle words and a strong faith.

Maybe, as a result, they will be happy after all!

Home is where the freedom is!

The greatest of liberty lies not in the rampant individualism of a college bound bachelor nor in the smiling face of the habitual barfly but in the home. As G.K. Chesterton noted, “this institution of the home… is older than law, and stands outside the State.” While government and laws can, and often do, affect our homes and the family that resides there, the home remains the a place where the vast majority of us can experience true liberty.

For decades we have been taught that the family is a safe shelter of routine in a world of uncertainty. In fact we are told that this shelter is crucial to a healthy and well rounded adulthood. If a family does what it is supposed to do then it gives us a systematic and orderly way to “fit in” with the rest of society. When a family fails then we have unruly and undisciplined school children, rampant drug use, teenage pregnancy and the like. When individuals don’t fit into society’s understanding of a healthy and orderly existence, the family is usually the first suspect.

Yet this is to have everything backwards. The family is not a servant of our society’s expectations. It not a training ground for the laws and limitations of the State. Our homes are places of escape from such rules; they are places where we can be truly free. The family is the place of constant experimentation and adjustment. It is a place for pushing the boundaries and testing the traditions. The family is anything but a servant. It is, by its natural institution, a wild and unruly place.

And yet this institution is under attack. From every side we find the fencing in of the family and the loss of man’s greatest liberty.