Top ten posts for Yahweh’s Song 2009
December 31, 2009 Leave a comment
Smoker’s Corner
December 31, 2009 2 Comments
Since taking up the pipe, I really enjoy it relaxing with a book or a glass of wine. But now that Carrie is pregnant I can’t smoke around her. Actually, I really only smoke a bowl maybe about once every two days. Which is really not that much, but even still, it’s not good to do it around her. So, I came up with this idea. I created a makeshift smoker’s corner in my office. It’s dainty. Not that elaborate. But it does the job.
So I just whisk away into our office and have a smoke and read and relax. Very nice. Then when we get a house, hopefully it will have room for my studio and then I can have an ideal place to go and smoke my pipe. Care to join?
I Feel Violated
December 30, 2009 4 Comments
My back has started hurting just recently. I don’t know what I did, but if I sit for too long my back starts to hurt. Good thing my wife works for a chiropractor. It’s so nice to go in and get popped for free. 
Anyway, I decided to go in today and get “adjusted”. I like that word better than the word she used to use. “Manipulated”!
So I stopped in to her work and one of the back poppers there (that’s what I call em) laid me down on the table. It felt so weird having “her” touching my lower back and partially my bum even with Carrie sitting there with me. She would push and pull and press and on time she even got all her weight on me and jumped. She’s a small woman. It was just so weird I guess, but it popped a few times and felt so good.
Along with the idea of being violated, Carrie went to her first Dr.’s appointment yesterday. We arrived and went into the room and waited on the Dr. to get there. She was running a little late because she was finishing up delivering a baby. As soon as she got there, we met and talked for a moment and then I left the room cause I didn’t want to see her getting “violated” by being prodded and poked and whatever else they do to women in those situations.
They asked me if I wanted to be in there when they done the ultrasound and I said yes. So I went out into the lobby and read a Sporting News magazine while I waited and finally they called me in. When I walked in they told me place was up by her head so I stood there and they told her to lay back and put her feet in the stirrups.
Wait a minute. I wanted to see the ultrasound, not see this. But that’s how they do it when your just eight weeks along. They put a condom on this probe and lubed it up and in it went. WOW!!!!! I’m thinking are you okay? Do I need to be doing something?
They turned the monitor around to us and we could see the baby. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! She turned and showed us the arm nubs and leg nubs and said the baby looks well and good. Then she asked if we wanted to hear the heartbeat. At eight weeks? I thought. She turned the sound on and WOW! It was just going a hundred miles an hour. I’m thinking, “whoa baby. Slow down. Ain’t no need to get your heart racing like that before your born. You got it made. Just calm down and enjoy the ride in there.”
Sometimes I look at things around me and just ask, “How can there NOT be a God!” It is amazing. I’m still not sure about all this, what we’re getting into, or if I am ready. I will probably never be. But God thinks that I am. This is definitely gonna be interesting.
Just call me Daddy
December 27, 2009 Leave a comment
For years I have said I was not in favor of having a kid. I had come to the conclusion that I was too selfish. Too selfish with my money, too selfish with my time, to selfish with my resources, just too dang selfish. Over time and through many avenues God has brought me to learn what it means to give of myself and to be a servant instead of the one to be served. The Lord led me to a job where instead of working to get ahead, I worked to serve my customers. The Lord led me to pastors who taught me that it’s not about becoming the best worship leader but yet serving the ones who serve me spiritually.
After teaching me servant-hood, which by no means have I perfected it yet I have learned of it far more than I ever thought I would, the Lord led me to a city where babies are so prevalent, you can’t walk without tripping over one.
My age is getting no younger, nor is my wife’s. So by this and knowing that many in my family were wanting a child by my wife and I, I began to pray. Praying for something that I didn’t know if I wanted was hard. But I began to pray that God would give me a heart for a child and a heart to love those children around me, to see the joy in a rug rat, to desire to see myself in another person walking around. I prayed. I prayed. I prayed.
Here we are 2 months into a pregnancy and I’m excited. Never did I think I would be excited but I am. To know that God is going to make me a steward over another person is very thrilling.
How did we break it to our parents? We bought a picture frame and put a poem in it with a picture of a baby as a watermark behind the text and wrapped it up for Christmas and had them open it. This is their reaction.
We are embarking a new chapter in our life. It’s crazy, exciting, wonderful, new, refreshing, and scary! There’s probably more emotions I could add here but I don’t have my thesaurus handy.
You can prepare to call me Daddy. I’m getting the cigars ready. We’re gonna celebrate like it’s 1999!!!!!
To Santa or Not To Santa-That Is a Question?
December 17, 2009 Leave a comment
I came across this article on a worship blog. My wife and I have been discussing what we would do when we had kids if we would teach them about Santa or not. We have ultimately decided that it would be best for us to raise our children the truth about who St. Nick was and teach them the reason for the season in our protestant home. Some folks disagree with our decision yet some agree. I think that’s par for the course that my wife and I play on. Keeps life fun that way.
I posted this link on my Facebook and these are a few of the responses I got. I left the last names out to protect the innocent .
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Brandon
To not allow a child the excitement Of learning about Jesus and Santa is extremely selfish and robs the child Of important life lessons! Santa is exciting to a child! If the parent says they do not lie to their children, then what do you tell the child when he or she ask What the noises are coming from the bedroom a night! I bet the parents don’t tell the truth!
Kevin
I think that being a selfish thing is opinionated. Of course I asked for you opinion, so thank you. I don’t see what the important life lessons would be. Don’t listen to your parents, there liars? One friend of mine decided to teach their children the real history behind St. Nick rather than the fable of the made up Santa Clause. We won’t be … See More teaching our child about Santa Clause cause I want my child learning the “excitement” of Jesus Christ and why he came. I’ll figure something out about the noises in the bedroom later, lol.
Theresa
I taught my daughter about the reason for the season and when it came up about santa, I told her that santa was just a fun thing that people do at Christmas.
Juli
It’s not always what the parent teaches the child…they learn about Santa from daycare, school, the media, etc… what’s important is for the parent(s) to explain the REAL reason for the season.
Corrie
I taught my kids about St. Nick,and how much he loved Jesus!!!…also I am truthful with my kids about the “noises” coming from the bedroom…I tell them Daddy is loving mommy!!!:)…What a better way to make a child feel he is in a stable home environment than to know his daddy loves his mommy???????????
Sarah
I have always been with you, Kevin. “When my kids find out that Santa is not real, how would they believe me when I told them about Jesus?” But I have to say – in the last few years, reading GK Chesterton and CS Lewis has been adjusting my perspective. They both believed that fairy tales (incl. Santa) paved the way for the Ultimate Fairy Tale that … See More is ingrained in each of us. About a Prince who ransomed his princess by giving his own life and slaying the dragon. As I look around at a culture raised only on scientific intellectualism (believe only what you can see), and I see that culture have a hard time with the idea of faith, I see the importance of raising my children with the capacity for wonder. I personally have met Jesus in many modern fairy tales: The Lord of the Ring, Chronicles of Narnia, even the Matrix. And at some level, I met him more there than I did in Bible School. I read an article recently that summed up my thoughts well: “Christian apologists like Lewis and Chesterton embraced fairy tales, precisely because to embrace Christian dogma is to embrace the extra rational. As a parent, I believe (with the older apologists) that it’s essential to preserve a small, inviolate space in the heart of a child, a space where he is free to believe impossibilities.” I do not teach Juli that Santa is “truth”, however we have begun to explore the magic and mystery of Christmas (and life), much more than we ever did. As you can see, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this! And I don’t feel I have it figured out yet, but my theology has made room for fairy tales.
Robert
You can’t keep your kids from finding out about satan claus but you can hit them with a pre-emptive strike and teach them the truth
William
I know J.C. I do not know santa
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Juli mentioned it’s not just the parents that are teaching the kids this. It’s also the teacher at school, daycare, media, and etc. I would also agree that these mediums are not just teaching our kids what I would say is a “fun lie” but these mediums are inundating our kid’s lives with other things that the church teaches to be wrong. So I think it is fair to say that it is our duty as parents to protect our children from the things we as the parents do not want our kids to learn. Thanks Juli for that comment.
Corrie mention that those sounds in the bedroom is just Daddy loving Mommy. PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!! I gotta remember that one.
With Sarah’s post, it is very well thought out as I can see she has been struggling with this very same thing. However, I would argue (if you wanna use a word that strong, maybe debate, or just simply question) the idea of comparing fairy tales with twisted truth. I believe Santa Clause is a twisted version of many ideas incorporated into one. Foundational truth being on St. Nick and stories about shamans and flying reindeer being an additive to create a wonderful fairy tale like illusion. I do however see her stand and appreciate where she’s coming from and right on to her if that’s where her convictions lie. Thanks for the comment.
Robert calls him Satan Clause! Need I say more.
Bottom line is I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. I was raised on Santa Clause, had Santa all over my presents and my parents asked if I was ready for his visit. I even once thought that I saw Rudolph one night coming home from a Christmas party. The red light was NOT blinking so I didn’t think it was an airplane. However, I knew that the story was that Santa came down the chimney. So either my parents were wrong, left the key out on the porch so he could come through the door or it was all just a big lie, cause we had no fireplace. And the sucker still ate my cookies that mom made me leave out cause I didn’t want to. I wanted those cookies myself.
So stick to your convictions cause I made it through life ok knowing there really wasn’t one. But I refuse to teach my kids about the “fairy tale” of Christmas. They will know who St. Nick and how St. Nick felt about the real reason which was Jesus Christ.
Thanks for reading!!!!
