Sunday, June 21, 2015

A Father's Day Prayer

Today at church I prayed a special prayer for Father's. Now normally I don't write out my prayers like  I did for this one, but since it was a special day and tried it out. I didn't stick to my notes completely and used it more as a guide than a manuscript. Hope you enjoy!

God in Heaven, thank you for being our example of how a Father acts. Thank you for showing us your love for people by sending your Son to earth. Thank you for teaching us the importance of encouraging our children when you affirmed Jesus in His baptism. Thank you for caring about our eternal existence and desiring us to be with you.

God we confess that being a father has it’s share of difficulties and we pray you would wash us clean of our sin.

We pray you would meet our daily needs while we parent our children.
We pray you would teach us how to lead our families closer to you.
We pray for fathers who have lost children to be comforted today.
We pray for new fathers to get sleep, you know how tired they are.
We pray for elderly fathers to be supported by their adult children.
We pray for estranged fathers to be re-united with their children.
We pray for awesome fathers to continue to model their behavior.
We pray for those who long to be fathers to have their desires met.
We pray for each and every father here to love your truth and ways.

God we choose to trust you today as our perfect example of a Father. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

HALT

There is an old acronym: HALT.

It stands for; Hungry, Anxious, Lonely or Tired. I learned about this acronym when I was pastoring at my first church. It goes like this.

If you ever find yourself being hungry, anxious, lonely or tired it’s a good sign that you need rest. When we experience these symptoms in our life, we are more susceptible to being harsh with our children for not getting the grade we think they should have in school. There is a higher probability of be short with our waiter for not getting our order right at dinner. It might even get so bad we begin cursing at random people while we’re stuck in traffic. Now I know you’ve never done any of these things, but I’m just making some examples of what other people do.

Raymond Brown says: “Physically exhausted people are not likely to achieve as much as they desire.”

Monday, June 08, 2015

Confessions of a Dad: I love my phone too much

"Hey dad, wanna play?"
Looking down at his phone, "Give me one minute, I'm almost done."

Dear Dad,

Look up from your phone for just one minute, I'd like to tell you something. Your kid is only going to be this age once. Tomorrow she will be older. Today she wants to play: Legos, hide and seek, soccer or Go Fish. So why not play with her?

Do you know there is going to be a day that she isn't going to want to play with you. Sure, you'll still have your phone. In fact, it will be an upgraded model with more "cool" stuff. There will be more apps and games for you to play. But she will always be your kid, there is no trading up here.

Let me ask you: "Is what you're doing on there really that important?" I mean, can it wait? Do you really need to check your email every five minutes? Will the posts on Facebook still be there when she is in bed? Is it more important to check Craigslist right now?

Let me give you an example to help you. Walk to your room. While you're walking turn your phone to silent. Look at your dresser, there is tons of room there. Set your phone down, try facedown. Now walk out, leave it there.

I'll stop telling you how to live your life, I can see you're either frustrated with me or get the point. I know being a dad is tough for you but fight for her. She wants to play with you. Remember how big she smiles. Remember how much she laughs. She loves you!

Put your phone down, it can't really be more important than her.

Signed,
Me

This is a letter I wrote to myself and I'm sending to myself. It's not for you, though it may speak to your situation. The letter is for me. I'm sick of stuffing my face in the phone, so it's a reminder I need to focus on my family and what really matters most.