Hard to Believe it has been a YEAR!!!!!!

What more could a kid want!!!

Presents to open, toys litterd everywhere, and a mom and dad addicted to the camera!!!

BTW - Don't worry about the medicine bottle in his hands, it's empty

So, What Gives?!

No idea!!

With the New Year came some new changes at my job and the ability to surf the internet. Specifically, blogspot.com.

Here's the deal - I can read any blog hosted on blogspot I want. Including my own. Whew. Problem is, when I click to leave a comment, read a comment, Sign In or go to the Dashboard, I get the Union Pacific disclaimer page that says I tried to access a site that is banned for knowingly hosting pornographic materials.

No kidding.

95% of all my posts originated while I was at work. True, I took the ocasional time out of my actual work day to not work and rather blog, but I mostly did this stuff at lunch. Being that I get home from work around 6pm, I am not too sure when I'll actually have time to blog. Here or at the PoliForum.

Bummer.

Real bummer.

So that's where I have been. I've been observing and that is about all. I can't read comments, I can't leave comments, I can't post, I can't edit, etc., etc.

What this may do is push me over to Wordpress. I am going to see what happens there. If I am not banned, I be on the move!!!!!!

In other news, I finished 3rd in Fantasy Football this year.

Conservative Christian pt.3 is coming soon.

Christmas was awesome

New Year celebration was fantastic.

And today marks 5 years to the day that the hottest thing out of Reese, MI, Saginaw County, Mid-Michigan, Michigan, the Great Lakes Region, the Midwest, the U.S., North America, the Northern Hemisphere, and under God's green earth and little ole me said I do!!

I thank God for you everyday Michele and despite knowing all my shortcomings you have stuck with me and even birthed me a heir!!!! And you want to do it again too......

Let's hang a 0 after that 5, whatta say!!!!

Sick

The whole household. Seth has an ear and eye infection. Michele got a bit of the flu and I seemed to have gotten the middle ground. A high fever (101.3) and the aches and pains but at least I could keep food down. But talk about feeling helpless. I'm trying to be this big tough guy dad male macho and I'm watching my family travail in sickness and unable to do anything. I could barely pick Seth up and carry him to Michele when he needed to eat. But I'd feel 100% guilty if Michele went to get him herself, never knowing when she'd need to run down the hall to....well you know.

So that is why I was MIA Tuesday and Wednesday.

So here is a quick run down.

I lost this week in Fantasy Football, so I am playing for 3rd place. Which still results in winning money.

And no Last 5 this week and there will be none until after the new year.

Matter of fact, things will be very light around here until after the New Year. I have some posts already done and just waiting for me to hit "publish" so you'll get those and I'll let you know very quickly what happen this weekend to my fantasy team, but that's about all you'll get from me after Friday.

In the basement.....

I'm Brian A. Maloney and I approve this message.



I'll be in the basement the next 24-36, maybe 48 hours (maybe over the whole weekend) pounding out another manifesto because I have a blog and feel it is important.

I'll be around sporadically offering comments (as always), but stay tuned for the post tomorrow (or maybe Saturday or even Monday) on Fearmongering.

I know, I know, your all on the edge of your seat waiting for it.

Trust me, it won't be much, I have a tendency to disappoint the more I talk something up, just ask Michele, I'm surprised we even have a kid.

Come on I had to say it!!!!!

So, the hammering, sawing, cussing, loud obnoxious noises you hear will be me in the basement trying to create something with my hands....

And keep commenting on all the blogs, just because I may not be there as much doesn't mean you can't continue bashing me and calling me uncompassionate and heartless and an idiot for being pro-Bible, pro-Church, pro-Bush, pro-Life, pro-Men, pro-My Wife, pro-beer, pro Conservative, pro-Libertarian, pro-Country Music pro-Do the Opposite and believing someone else's dogma over your dogma.



So.....

In the meantime, enjoy one of these oldie but goodies from back in the day (which was written almost a year to the day...and not sure I've changed any. Good? Bad?)

Paid for by the committee to tell you I'll be out of the blogosphere for a couple days but around enough to make some basic comments when I feel like and then proceed to piss you off, and rile you up, but by being out of the blogosphere for awhile I can avoid having to answer all your comments until such time that I can come up with real cool quips, comebacks, and logical thought to combat what you said.

Poetry

Arghhhh...?

I hate Lebron James!



Since uttering those words Thursday night, Friday morning around 1am.....

Let's say the weekend was crazy.

We all know about Thursday night and LB effin J. Arghh.....

Well Friday night wasn't much better with the Tigers blowing a 4 run lead in the bottom of 9th by giving up 5 runs to the freakin' CLEVELAND INDIANS. Arghh.......

Then after the game, saying good-bye to the brother in law and sister in law, my computer starts to reboot and shut itself down constantly. Arghh.......

Brother-in-law is a computer tech-head for Quicken Loans though, he says the Operating System is still there but something has corrupted a registery or one of the start-up programs. He can fix it! So we disconnect the tower and the external hard drive we have and he takes all of that to his home friday night, he pulls out the hard drive, hooks it up to a computer of his (he has like 5 of them...he is a serious tech-head, but not the geeky kind that wears glasses and listens to Radiohead all night, but geeky enough that he goes to "Network Partys" where 5 or 6 dudes bring their laptops hook them all up to one big network and play games) backups what he can off of my computer onto the external hard drive and then does system restore.

Problem still though, he's going to Cleveland to watch game 6 and Michele and I are leaving at 9am to head up-north for my sister's High-School graduation. Michele works exclusively from home now with her job at Quicken Loans. Without the computer having the right VPN and Term Web application she cannot work on Monday and will have to go into the office. Arghhh....

However, Quicken tech support always has to have a person on hand just in case something (like this) happens. We find out that we can take the tower to the Troy office (which is on the way up north), drop it off and the tech person will upload all the necessary software. Sweet! It's on the way. But, can't take it there until after 11am. We want to be 2 hours into our trip up north by then. Arghhhh.....

Saturday morning, its 80 degrees at 7am already! Holy crap, the humidity. Load up the Ford Taurus. The AC isn't working. Arghhh......

Unload the Taurus, load up the 4 cylinder Contour and get ready to head up. We can't go over 70 but at least we'll have ac. Arghh.....

Arrive up north (after deciding since we're late, we stopped in Reese to visit the in-laws so they can see their grand-child) aroun 6pm. Roughly 5 hours later than planned. Arghhh..... (but the time at the in-laws was worth it and actually provided a good break. Besides, Seth rolled over for the first time, on his own, twice!!).

Armageddon type storm around 7:30 or so in Wolverine is showing on the horizon. Time to batton down the hatches. Storm hits, tree in backyard falls over. Dish Network Satellite isn't working and game is going to tip. Arghhh....

Storm eventaully passes, game is on, watch Daniel Gibson score 31 points, Rasheed plays his last as a Piston (more on that later), and I really hate Lebron James. Went to bed with 4 minutes to go in the game. Used the baby as an excuse...pathetic. Arghh......

Wake up Sunday, watch sister graduate high-school, very cool and very awesome. Decide to head out for home right away (it's 4pm). It rains the whole way home. All the way from Indian River to Detroit it never stopped raining, honest. Slow drive results in kid waking up in car seat screaming. He's hungry. Stop off at the grandparents home in Saginaw to feed Seth and do dinner. Get back on the road and not home until 11:30pm Sunday. Arghh.......

Hook up computer to check everything out. 95% of all mp3 files are gone! 7 years of downloading illegal music gone! Over 5,000 files gone! Arghhh.....

Let me take a moment to state that this may be the one and only time I'll admit my music snobberish. I hate it and I hate people who think they "know music." They claim what is good music and what is bad. No one knows that (except maybe Rick Rubin and Brendan O'Brien...maybe). The only bad music is rap (and that is the politics of it all, not the art form) and "critically acclaimed" is a joke in the music industry. I know good music when I hear it. I know crappy music when I hear it. My favorite song of all time is Just Like Heaven by The Cure. Favorite album of all time is The Verve Pipe - Freshmen. My favorite band of all time is Pearl Jam. Best concert I have ever been to is Kenny Chesny and Keith Urban (Urban opened for Chesney). The last CD I bought was Audioslave - Revelations and I already have on reserve for pickup on June 19 Icky Thump the new release by The White Stripes. I know music. But I will very, very, very rarely ever talk about that fact because music is for you and what you make it. What you like you like and I'm just glad you like music and know what it can do for you.

Anyway, that has been the last 96 hours of life. A big Arghhhh.......

But it has all been fun and worth it. It sucks having lost the music and some oher random files and having to load back up Photoshop and Office and all the updates from Microsoft. But we did get to travel up north safe and sound. We did get to see both parents, see my sister graduate high-school, and drive in an air conditioned car, even if we couldn't go 75-80 like we wanted to.

And of course, there is Seth

Masculinity? 6 - Be a Man!

COMPARISONS
"If I set the sun beside the moon,
And if I set the land beside the sea,
And if I set the town beside the country,
And if I set the man beside the woman,
I suppose some fool would talk about one being better."
- G.K. Chesterton

I've switched it up a little here from my original intention. I do not like the term glory-bearers. I get the impression and the meaning, but no-one really can carry God's glory. As fallen man, it isn't possible right now. The original intent was to go off Paul's writing in Corinthians and Ephesians where he very plainly lays out the fact that "man is the image and glory of God: but woman is the glory of man." As well, "so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands." I still will, but I changed it up.

How does this tie into me raising Seth into a biblical form of masculinity:

BE A MAN!

Having your wife submit to you doesn't me you walk around shirtless drinking beer, watching COPS, beating your wife, and watching porn. It's not keeping her barefoot and pregnant. It's not sitting around all day playing games. I would go so far as to say it is never being Mr. Mom, outside the most extenuating circumstances someone could ever endure! Being a man is not being macho, but standing up, having a backbone and character. It is working hard and making the tough decision. It's raising a family and not running when the going gets tough.

Being a man carries a massive burden. Boys must be instructed on how to grow up into glory and how to fulfill their responsibility to be representative, responsible, and holy.

I am not sure where sitting on the couch fits into that equation there? I am not sure were mom leaving the home to go work full-time to support the family fits in there? I am not sure where divorce fits in there? I am not sure where abusing your wife and kids fits in there? I am not sure where quiting fits in there? I can't see at all where effeminacy fits in.

I see where love fits in. I see where strength fits in. I see where accountability fits in. I see where the bare bones of the facts are, the health of the family and the church falls onto the shoulders of men. These distinctions are not made in the interests of winning some kind of competition. When the Bible assigns one kind of glory to man and another kind of glory to woman, our modern egalitarian bigotries prevent us from seeing that they are different kinds and levels of glory. Man isn't suppose to stand around when leadership and a decision needs to be made. Man abdicates his role when he waits for someone else to do so.

This is what I have struggled with as my son will one day grow into a man, leave Michele and I to fight the dragon and rescue his beauty. To start the cycle all over again. To be a man in his household who makes the hard decisions and stands up when they are wrong and fail just as easy when he makes the right one.

As a man, he carry's the glory of God with him. I want him to stand before God, in the worship of God, with head uncovered. Not cowering in fear, hiding behind a mask, and too scared to decide. It is a struggle for me, because I fail miserably at some of these same exact things I have been "preaching" about over the last couple of weeks. It is the struggle of man.

To conclude this whole series of posts....

I want my boy(s) to be aggressive and adventurous. To be patient and hardworking. Not just to hate evil but have a deep desire to fight it. Eager to learn and be wise. Stand up. Fight when its a must. Learn what it feels like to hold a weapon in their hand. Use their hands, and back, and masculinity to love his wife. Be her provider. Fight for her. Be an example of strength. Lead his family. Be a man.

And it all sounds grand and romantic and completey awesome until...









I want him to learn all of that from me. There's the rub.

Masculinity? 5 - Sages

REVIEW (Intro Pt. 2 , Pt. 3, Pt. 4): Continuing thoughts on masculinity and what is it. Through a lot of reading, discussion with friends and family, some contemplation on my part, and a couple programs at our church I am laying out a rough outline as I understand it and agree with some of the things I have read and heard and disagreed with others, ultimately forming my own opinion. Read the other parts and come back to the discussion. As a quick recap, we have discussed how Man was created to exercise dominion in the earth. But more than just conquer and subdue we have to make sure our world flourishes. God also commands us to settle down. Tend and keep. Patience and Hard-Work is a necessity to masculinity. And last time we looked at the need men have to save and deliver. Created in the image of our Creator, the great dragon-slayer, men carry a need for adventure and a beauty to rescue. Boys must learn they are growing up to fight in a great war.

SAGES - The sage is a man who is great in wisdom, and wisdom in Scripture is personified as a great lady. Sons are exhorted to constantly listen to her. As we look to the first part of Proverbs (1-9), we see that wisdom is a woman who disciplines boys. When a grimy little boy needs his knuckles rapped, she is the one to do it. If he heeds wisdom in her role as the strict school-mistress, he grows up to a certain measure of wisdom, and the lady wisdom becomes his patroness. And when a man has grown up to wisdom, he has become a sage. We all know the "cool old guy" who is quick witted, tells the best stories, and seems to have all the answers. Video games and TV aren't the reason behind that cool old guy.

We must therefore teach boys the masculinity of study, of learning, of books, of intellectual discussion. Too often we let boys drift into a situation where they pit one aspect of masculinity against another. When this happens, for example, a boy who naturally loves the outdoors can too readily dismiss software programming as effeminate, or, even worse, come to look down on poetry. Intellectual discipline, or as Peter put it, girding up the loins of the mind, is an important part of growing to manhood. Poetry is an extreme brought up on purpsoe because of the disdain it carries when used in relation with masculinity. Unfortunately poetry is not viewed as very masculine. That is unfortunate. All one needs to do is read the Psalter. Read 5 a day for one month, you'll have read through the book and you'll find adventure, love, courage, despair, hate, cowardice, and valor all together at one time. Most, written by a man who killed a giant with a sling shot at the age of 12. The actual King of Israel was shaking in his shoes and a 12 year-old harpist with a book full of poetry shows up and slays the giant. Masculinty.

But with poetry there are also books and reading...alot. And I'm not talking the latest and greatest "Leadership 101" and "Be the Best Manager Ever" or even "How to Live A Christocentric Life at Home, Work, and Church." Those better business books and the latest and greatest spirituality books have their purpose and work well. I am talking the literary classics. Shakespeare, Twain, Berry, Dostoevsky, The Red Badge of Courage, Grim's Fairy Tales, The Lord of the Rings, Old Man and the Sea, and Sherlock Holmes. Books and authors that immerse your imagination and inellect. Books with characters that come to life and teach life lessons. These literary classics are classics because when the book is done, you miss the characters and the adventure they took you on. You want more, there's a slight disappointment the book is done. As well, these books aren't one-time in your life reads and some of them can only be read with age and experience. Read Huck Finn to your son when he is young, let him read it again himself when he is 13 and encourage him to do it again at 20. See how different the story is to him, how he has grown up, how different he views Huck Finn. It is the same for all of them.

Reading is a lost art. Re-capture that.

But reading and homework and learning poetry isn't all. In boyhood, study looks suspiciously like digging a hole and then filling it up. There is an element of gamesmanship here too. Games like Chess, Poker, and Pinnochle can accomplish the same. These games remove chance and luck from the equation. The elements that bring you long-term, expected success in these games requires intelligence. The ability to process information, probabilities, next moves, and "read your opponent" all at the same time to produce a winning strategy doesn't happen playing Madden 07' or WoW and watching the Simpson. I know card games rely on the cards you have been dealt. But everyone at the table has been given the same chance and the options are limited to a finite amount. Your ability to figure out the odds and bet accordingly and play your cards accordingly is how you win. Anyone can get "lucky" a hand or two and catch a card on the river, but that success is fleeting and is gone the next time they play. Lessons can be taught around the dinner table whether there is a fork in hand or a Queen's bishop.


I'm not advocating that playing games and reading books requires a lecture throughout the time of the activity. Or that a review is necessary afterwards. I'm also not saying to teach a 3 year old the inner most workings of the chess board or the probabilities of catching a straight flush on the river, but don't be afraid to introduce it.

Game playing only goes so far. Do not substitute games for reading and poetry. Supplement them. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but rather painful. Afterwards, when life comes at you, you realize the effect it has had on you. Nowhere is this principle more clear than in the relationship of study in the early years to wisdom in the years of old age. And while the point is clear when we make it this way, it is not naturally visible to a boy who has to do a homework assignment when he can hear all the neighborhood kids playing stickball.

The connections must be made for him. Boys must therefore learn to be teachable, studious, and thoughtful. As well as learn to laugh at the Simpsons and look forward to the day he finally beats dad in Madden on a hail mary.

Next up - Glory-bearers ?

Masculinity? 4 - Saviors

REVIEW (Intro Pt. 2, Pt.3): Continuing thoughts and masculinity. Man was created to exercise dominion in the earth. But more than just conquer and subdue we have to make sure our world flourishes. God also commands us to settle down. Tend and keep. Patience and Hard-Work is a necessity to masculinity. Carpentry and gardening are included in this tend and keep. One great way to do this is to capitalize on the tree fort impulse boys have and build one with them. If you have newborns or infants (i.e., you have about 8 years before they can help build a tree fort) then practice, practice, practice now.

Saviors - Masculinity is an essence. In boys, that essence is craved for. And it can only be passed between men. Masculinity brings adventure and a sense of journey with it. Men have a deep desire to deliver and save. We have a beauty to rescue and a dragon to fight. Happily ever after only comes after spilt blood. Jesus Christ is our ultimate example of a savior. His deliverance was promised in the near beginning of mankind. Adam fails to grasp and use his masculinity and the serpent deceives Eve. God proclaims a fight for the ages:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:14-15).

But there is a lot more to just this one scene. There is a lot of background to just this one story. Genesis is where we enter the story. A whole lot more has already happen. The world is already at war. The lines have been drawn. Evil is waiting to make its next move. Somewhere back before Eden, in the mystery of eternity past, there was a coup, a rebellion, an assisatination attempt. The captain of the guard rebelled against the Trinity. With a third of the angels, he tries to storm the actual Throne of God. God's answer? He draws his sword and thrusts it into the Enemy:

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon? (Isaiah 51:9)

The whole lot of them are cast out of heaven and have landed with a gigantic splash right here on this ball of spinning dirt. And they are pissed off. Raging hell, literally, everywhere. Offering and carrying death in both hands to whoever wants it (Rev 12:12). They were not destroyed, and the battle is not over. This fight has continued and will continue until God, in his infinite wisdom, power, might, mercy, and grace, ends it. When his Son descends from heaven with fire in his eyes and a sword in his mouth, this war is over...not until then. Jesus Christ is a dragon slayer. God set it up that way and promised it. So to must men.

Men who follow Jesus Christ, the dragon slayer, must themselves become lesser dragon-slayers. And this is why it is absolutely essential for boys to play with wooden swords and plastic guns. Acting out the wars and living the adventure. Boys have a deep need to have something to defend, something to represent in battle. And to beat the spears into pruning hooks prematurely, before the war is over, will leave you fighting the dragon with a pruning hook.

But there is more just giving junior a plastic gun and telling him go play cops and robbers. Great stories of adventure, war, and extraordinary feats work as well in conjunction. Valor, courage, might, and brains. Stories of swashbucklers on the open seas and fair maidens in distress. If your imagination escapes you, take history lessons and great inventions. Examples of extraordinary acts by ordinary people. The Wright brothers, when read about and told from an adventure standpoint has it all. We'll ge into this element a little more next time.

The Christian faith is no way pacifistic. The peace that will be ushered in by our great Prince will be a peace purchased with blood. As our Lord sacrificed Himself in this war, so must His followers learn to do.

Boys must learn that they are growing up to fight in a great war, and they must consequently learn, as boys, to be strong, sacrificial, courageous, and good.

Next up: Sages

Masculinity? 3 - Husbandmen

REVIEW - Last time we looked at the role of Lords in the masculinity of men. Man was created to exercise dominion in the earth. We get a mandate from God in the garden, he re-iterates this after the flood and we get a spin on it at the Great Commission. We see this impulse in boys as they grow up and keep a sense of adventure and vision. Fathers need to channel and direct this energy to an obedient response. But there is more to just "lording" over the earth.

Husbandmen – Discover, conquer, subdue. Being a lord and lording over. Words that sound great in the realm of masculinity. It plays right into adventure and power. But if we stop at subduing and lording, extinction is only a matter of time. Man was created, not only to discover and conquer new worlds, but also to make those worlds flourish. The command by God to subdue carries a second part with it.

“the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep
it” (Gen. 2:15).

This second aspect means that men are created to conquer and subdue, and after this, to settle down. After man was created, God placed him in the garden to tend and protect it. Notice, the same man he gives dominion to is the same man he tells to tend and keep it. The easy part is lording, the hard part is being the husbandman of the land.

Man does not just build bridges and space stations. He must also tend and oversee the organic things which he plants there – gardens, families, towns. Home improvement projects (whether simple and small or large enough to be a remodel), working in a garden, and basic yard work are all opportunities for boys to excercise this aspect of masculinity. Whether it's carpentry, gardening, or landscaping; it's all the same: 80% care and common sense and 20% skill. You do not have to be highly skilled to make furniture, as long as you never lose your temper, plan carefully and practice, practice, practice. The difference between a professional and me? They cut joints everyday. That's all. Great lessons can be acquired by small boys in a garden. A rich farmer was once rebuked for having his sons work in the fields when they didn’t have to. His reply was apropos to this discussion. He wasn’t raising corn, he explained, he was raising boys.

Take the tree fort impulse we talked about last time that all boys seem to have. They have it, so go build one. Building a decent treehouse is really hard. It takes probably 2-3 hours after work everyday for a couple weeks and all day Saturday and Sunday both of those weekends as well. Cost would probably be a couple hundred dollars too. In other words, it's a job for dads. Most Dads work 60 hours at a job, why not 60 hours with your son in 2 weeks! And how much was the PS3 and Madden 07? The treehouse won't go out of date and its healthier. We are well aware of the satisfaction gained from nailing bits of wood to a tree, but for something that look right, is strong and safe, and will last more than just a few months, you need a bit more than that. And do not forget the skull and crossbones...it's a must!

Again this is a chance to channel energy and teach life lessons. It's worth the effort, the sweat, the cost, and even the blood. The whole premise whether it's a tree house filled with sons and their friends, or a fresh salad with home-grown ingredients at family dinner time, or a summer game night out on the new deck and patio, it's a thing of beauty. And that's the why just lording isn't enough. But there is more to this tending and overseeing the organic things, and unfortunately, too many Christians ignore this part of the mandate.

All Christians share a burden in our environment and should be “environmentally friendly.” Just like anything else, this can go to an extreme and be carried too far (Al Gore). Ideally, that line to draw is your own. But we have a moral obligation to tend and keep this world we have been given. Our command after the flood was to replenish. You can’t go too far “replenishing” if you suck the earth dry. Any good lord takes on the role of husbandman and tends to his fields, home, and family and makes sure not to kill them in the process. Boys therefore should be learning to be patient, careful, and hard-working.

Next Up - Saviors

Masculinity? 2 - Lords

Lords – Man was created to exercise dominion in the earth. The charge which God gave in this regard is frequently called the cultural mandate.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth…Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. (Gen 1:26-28).

Some may assume that this cultural mandate is negated by the fall of man into sin, but God repeats the mandate again after the flood (Gen 9:1). Sin certainly affected our ability to fulfill this command from God, but it did not remove the obligation placed on us by the command. But if it is to be fulfilled now, in a sinful world, then it must be as a result of the goodness and grace of God. And this is what we see. The mandate is given to us yet again in another form in the Great Commission. We are told there to disciple the nations and bring them to true submission to the Lord Jesus Christ (Mt, 28: 18-20).

In boys, we might call this the “tree fort” impulse. Boys want to conquer and subdue, and if the terrain before them is the back yard, then that is why they want to conquer and subdue.

My brother, 2 cousins, and myself are about 6 years apart in age. When we were together there is no telling what we might try and build. We built a series of fishing docks out into Wildwood Lake in Wolverine. With posts in water and interconnecting 2x4’s going everywhere. Caught many a bluegill and perch off those docks. If you go there now, the posts are still in the water. We built at least 3 forts that I remember. Who knows how many we tried to build and failed. We built our own teepee and slept in it. Spent many nights camping out in our forts as well. I built a hunting blind when I was 15 and my cousin and I built one together a couple years later. This is a natural tendency for boys and soon enough Seth will be going after my tools and scrap 2x4’s and trying to hammer something together. Wanting to spend time with me in the garage and the yard.

The point of discipline with boys is to channel and direct their energy into an obedient response to the cultural mandate. It is not to squash that energy, destroying it or making it sullen. I should have Seth in training to become a man who exercises dominion, Seth should be learning to be lord in the earth, I should make sure he learns to be adventurous and visionary.

Next Up - Husbandmen

Masculinity? - Introduction

Every Mother's Day our church holds it's baby dedication service. This is the day that all babies born into the church since the last Mother's Day can be dedicated by the parents for service to the Lord. We, the parents, make a vocal assurance that we will raise up our child (who is fearfully and wonderfully made) in the commands and statutes of God. Is it symbolic? Yes. Is it necessary? No. It's something Michele and I already committed to do. And yes over the years, the whole baby baptism vs. baby dedication thing has become just a "rite of passage" and something parents do to comfort themselves and their families.

But I think that a celebration of life is important and an event like that offers the parents a chance to contemplate just what kind of challenge is before them. It's easy to get caught up in the emotion of the day and making sure everything goes just right and "please do not let junior cry while the Pastor lays hands on him, show he is normal." But it is up to the parents to lock in on this chance and put some thought into what they are truly saying. This monumental task of raising a child and having it turn out normal is paramount. Everybody draws on their own experience of how their parents were. Whether we do as they did or opposite of what they did. Ultimately we blend the do and do not into some sort of ratio.

For me, being raised with virtually no father figure for the first 8 years of my life and then being raised with a tyrannical ogre as a father figure for the next 8 years has really put a gap into my confidence of how I am going to raise my son. I can see the effects of both gaps (effeminacy namby-bamby and "macho-like") in my life in the way I handle my life and the direction it takes with my family in tow. To put it out there, I want my son to be masculine. Masculine in every sense of the way Jesus, David, Moses, and John the Baptist were. To be a man. To walk the line between effeminacy and macho. Through some lengthy discussions, a lot of reading of specific books, and contemplation on some of this subject matter I've developed a somewhat thought process to this. I will lay some of it out here and in subsequent postings. Feel free to add to the conversation.



We live in a feminist and effeminate culture. Because of this, at best, as a people we are uneasy with masculinity, and with increasing regularity, whenever it manages to appear somehow, we call for someone to do something about it.

There are 2 basic directions a boy can take in departing from biblical masculinity. One is the option of effeminacy, and the other is a macho-like counterfeit masculinity. With the former, he takes as a model a set of virtues which are not supposed to be his virtues. With the latter, he adopts a set of pseudo-virtues, practices which are not virtues at all.

When God has assigned a place to someone, it is disobedience to desert that station. A woman is no coward for refusing to desert her children in order to enlist in the army to go off and fight in a war. But a man who refuses to fight can be charged (depending on the circumstances) with cowardice. This same pattern can be seen in all the little things of life. A man is not supposed to stand around when its important to exercise leadership. A woman might be called to simply wait for her husband to make a decision. But a man who waits around for someone to decide is abdicating his assigned role.

Of course a biblical man is to be kind and gentle, but the model for this is to be (ultimately) the Lord Jesus, and in conjunction with this, the teaching of Scripture. The overarching model for this is not our composite cultural picture of what an accomodating male looks like. When distortions occur, they can veer left into effeminacy, or right into a counterfeit masculinity.

Manhood is where boyhood should aim. So what is masculinity? What are we looking for when we describe manhood according to the Bible?

Here is what I think...

Men are created to exercise dominion over the earth; they are fitted to be husbandman, tilling the earth; they are equipped to be saviors, delivering from evil; they are expected to grow up into wisdom, becoming sages; and they are designed to reflect the image and glory of God. To satisfy our "list culture:"

• lords
• husbandmen
• saviors
• sages
• glory-bearers

Honestly, my thought process on these is not detailed at all. I do not think I could make a detailed case for any of these roles. But I have a rough outline and some description to show the features of each. I think I can also show how each one is manifested in the life of boys.

Most of the subsequent posts are done, but my anal-retentive ways do not allow me to post them all right now. Every couple days allows me to pour over them and re-edit and re-type and then finally post them. They are all kind of short for now. They will probably stay that way. I'm not long winded. They may grow or shrink. But I look forward to hopefully some fruitful discussion and a definite growing experience for me.

Next up - Lords

Creation 1 - Core Competencies

I've got a couple entries I'd like to do with Creation as the backdrop. A couple come as a result of contemplation and the experience of the birth and the creation of Seth and watching him the past month (yes it has been month already!). The other from a Life Group experience that took place this past Wednesday. (Life Group Update - Since the birth of Seth, Michele and I are no longer hosts and I no longer teach at a Life Group. A newborn kind of saps all the time and energy. But it has been refreshing and invigorating to leave the house on Wednesday evenings to attend a different Life Group.). These posts aren't going to be on Creation per se. But just keep it as a back drop.

********************************************************************
Seth is a newborn infant. One month old. He coos and and oohs and ahhs. He wimpers and moans and sometimes screams. When he is awake his head is always moving, his eyes darting here and there, his legs are always kicking and his arms are always flailing. His hands open and close and once and awhile his hand touches on his nose or his ear and it stops him and he explores it further as he squeezes his nose or runs his finger around his ear. He does not know much of anything. If he is warm, fed, and clean he is happy. He has an innocence that he carries with him. But he is not innocent.

On occasion he doesn't like going into his crib or getting "tummy time." He doesn't want his diaper changed or to sit in his car seat as we go to the grocery store. All he wants is for mom (and sometimes me) to hold him. To keep him in our arms. He has figured out already how loud he has to cry or whine to get our attention. How loud to cry to get mom to scoop him up in her arms and hold him. Usually, within minutes he is asleep. Half the time we put him down and he cries again, the other half he stays asleep until he gets hungry and wakes up. To an extent he's figured out how to get what he wants from mom and dad.

But he isn't competent enough to take care of himself and how to go about getting what he wants. He needs mom and dad to care for him and feed him and clean him up and scoop him up in his arms when he needs comforting and solace. Sometimes he is warm and clean and needs to be fed. Sometimes he is clean and fed but doesn't feel warm. Sometimes he is warm and fed but not clean. Sometimes he is all 3 but wants to be held close. The world is big and cold and scary sometimes. Seth, sometimes, just wants to be held close.

This brings me to the famous story in Luke's gospel about Jesus' teaching about the little children. I use to look at this story in a different light than I do now. I use to focus on the innocence of it all. As I hold my son in my arms or watch my wife feed him, this has changed. My mediatation has changed to competence and care

In Luke 18, a rich young man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. He wants to be in the spotlight. It is no coincidence that Luke juxtaposes the passage of Jesus and the chldren immediately preceeding the verses on the young aristocrat. Children contrast wth the rich man simply because there is no question of their having yet been able to merit anything. Jesus' point is: there is nothing that any of us can do to inherit the Kingdom. We must simply receive it like little children. And little children haven't done naything. The New Testament world was not sentimental about children and had no illusion about pretended innate goodness in them. Jesus is not suggesting that heaven is a huge playground for infants. Children are our model because they have no claim on heaven. If they are close to God, it is because they are incompetent, not because they are innocent.

Additionally, as I observe my son and realize the incompetence he has and watch him scream out for help from mom and dad and be happy as we provide care for him, I am reminded that my spirit cries out "Abba, Father"

The realization that I have an incompetence about myself that manifests itself many times and I scream out to my Abba, Father the fact that my Heavenly Father (and Mother...that's for you Corey) scoops me into his arms and holds me close. He cares for me. He is the competence my life lacks.

I am Seth laying in the arms or on the chest or sitting in the lap of God as he rubs my back and soothes my tears.

When I cry out to God, "Abba, Father"

He says

"I've already taken care of it all."

And I am reminded as he stretches his arms out and shows his love for me.

Still Speechless

Obviously life is at an all-time high right now. A newborn baby will do that to you.

But I do not know what to say.

The whole thing is too surreal. What do you say?!

As much as the baby just stares at me with those huge black eyes and looks to be in awe and wonderment and "taking it all in." I pretty much do the same thing when holding him.

Maybe we never really do grow up?!

However, it may take a couple more days (or weeks) or maybe one of these nights when he is up at 3 in the morning I'll write more, but I'll be back.

I've got a couple things rolling around in my head. They are related to Seth and to Music (coming off of the latest entry over at Corey's blog).

But really, I wonder who is being more perceptive or "taking it all in."

Seth

or me.

In the meantime, enjoy more pics (sorry I am partial)

BTW - The reason Michele has not been in any pictures yet is that she refuses to authorize me or allow her publicist to allow me to publish any that contain her until she "feels pretty again."

Um, hello!!!!!!!!!

9 lbs. 5. oz 21" long 12:38 pm 02-17-07

SETH ANDREW

Still speechless