Pray For….

http://changeinview.blogspot.com/2012/02/pray-for.html

Stay Close My Son

http://changeinview.blogspot.com/2012/02/stay-close-my-son.html

Sorry…I’ve moved

Thanks for stopping by… hope I can get everything squared away soon, but I have recently moved to blogger at

http://changeinview.blogspot.com

Please continue to visit me there.

They are just different

 

While I was driving to work today, I began to think about the value of a man. It didn’t quite come to me at first that way, but I began questioning why it is that we see some people as worth developing a relationship with and others we just write off and try not to even associate with.

I think to a certain extent it is something that we learn as a child. I remember in church learning how certain things were wrong and beginning to feel that if someone is doing something wrong then they are a bad person. We have all been taught at one time or another that there are bad people in the world right? Can that be right?

Something my wife challenged me to to try quite a while back was when we speak to our kids to make sure we communicate when they are in trouble that they made a bad decision not tell them they were being bad. It sounds weird and really makes you think because how often do we say things like that?

So I have both of those thoughts running around in my head and I remember something I read from one of Don Miller’s books a while back. He gave the illustration of several different types of people being stranded on a life boat and ultimatly in order to survive one person must be thrown overboard. How do you decide who to through over? As we grow up we are taught some people, based on their jobs, their status, or their usefullness are worth more than someone else.

Anyway, now to get to the real point of it all. While thinking about this, I decided I want to challenge myself. I want to try and see how many times a day I pass judgment on someone else, just based on the little I know about them.

Example:

Kid at school is a bully and he picks on your kid. What is your first reaction? What are the thoughts that go through you head? How do you deal with it? Did you know the kid is bullied by his own parents and all he really wants is to feel worth while? Bad decision right, Not a bad person.

A man has a hard life without much support from his family. The man ends up in prision for a crime he commitsbut when he gets out he changes his friends, his surroundings, his habits, and starts over. Would you give him a job? Would you get to know him? Would you allow him to be around your kids? Bad decisions, not a bad person.

A girl has a rough life. Parents divorce while she is young and she feels like no one wants her. She makes a series of bad choices looking for love and acceptance and ends up with a kid with no one to help. She becomes a single mother and wants to do better, but doesn’t know how. Do you help support her? Do you help her find a job? Do you show her love? Bad decisions, not a bad person.

It’s amazing how many times we sterotype people and give them less of a value. Most would say a doctor, a teacher, or preacher have more value than any of these three examples. Is that the case? What makes them worth more? Didn’t Christ die for all of us? Didn’t He equate himself to the “least of these”?

I challenge you to look at how you view people. Do you pass judgment before you know someone? Are some worth more than others to you?

I know I am guilty of it….time to change….change in view.

What are we missing?

As I have mentioned before, part of this blog is for me to express what my changes in view are.  Today however, will be a little different.  In my efforts to see things differently, I have began to read through Genesis to really see what it is that I have always overlooked…read through / grazed over….or just plain hadn’t learned much about. 

I began today reading through chapter 27 and ready through chapter 30.  Its the story of Jacob, who’s son most of us have heard about Joseph. 

I found it interesting how many things took place in their lives that would be considered so wrong in our day-in-age.  Jacob worked 7 years for his first wife (which he didn’t really want and was tricked into), worked an additional 7 years for his second wife (whom he did want), then not only did he end up having kids with both of them, but they both also gave them their servants to him to have kids with as well.  I know there is a lot of societal differences between now and then and we view things so much differently, but this is just something I can’t understand.  Hence, why I am wanting to learn more.  I want to learn what God is trying to teach me through this. 

Jacob even goes on to basically steal from his Wives father by tricking him and God ends up helping Jacob leave the current circumstances and go on with all the wealth he has accumulated. 

This is all so confusing. It is all so wrong in my American eyes. Which ultimately brings me to my point for today.  I am just glad God can see the big picture.  I am glad He is in control.  I am glad that vengence is His and that His ways are not my ways.  So much came out of the Joseph. Without all of what Jacob went through and delt with, Joseph wouldn’t have been in the situation he was put in (which by the way I can see why there was so much sibling rivalry here) and then save so many from dieing.  All I can say is WOW!

Now, just because I accept this doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to view the story from a different way to.  I will be doing my research and trying to find what else God is sharing through this story.  I know I am missing so much just because I know God wouldn’t put it in the bible if it wasn’t important to His story. 

Oh how I wish I could see as HE sees!  We are so blind someitmes.

Parenting

I write todays post after hearing so many bothersom storries or occurances over the last few weeks.  Now, I know I don’t have all the answers, but having  3 kids I have some experience. 

It seems as though so many parents have become so selfish and self centered.  I say this knowing that so many kids out there dont have both parents at home because one has decided they didn’t want to be a parent anymore or have that responsibility.  It is an ever growing issue.  Have you ever wondered what it would be like if more fathers were at home and boys didn’t have to learn what it was like to be a man from their mothers. 

I feel like I had good parents.  Parents who to this day are still helping me in one way or another.  However, I hear about parents who don’t want to spend time with their kids… parents who don’t want to get along with their kids…parents who think they are done being a parent when their kid turns 18. 

This all breaks my heart.  Kids have so much to deal with already. 

I look at my relationship with my kids and what it used to be compared to what it is now.  When I was a youth pastor I missed almost a year of my kids life in which I didn’t have much time for them.  Looking at it now makes me realize how much I missed.  I love getting the opportunity to hold them in the morning, play with them in the evenings and just have fun everyday conversations with them.  Sure there are a lot of things in life that I want to do and want to have…but I can’t do it at the expense of my kids.  I just don’t understand how parents can be so selfish. 

I look at so many of our problems in the world today and wonder how many would be fixed if a parent would stand up and be the parent they were meant to be.  The movie “Courageous” is a great example.  Sometimes it takes being more than a “good enough father.”  Sometimes it takes just spending time with them….getting to know them….forgetting your desires and putting their needs before your own.

It’s hard being a parent.  Probably the hardest job in the world.  It is also a responsibility, not a choice.  If you are a parent and reading this….stand up and do the right thing.  Spend time getting to know your kid…teaching your kid…loving your kid.  Life is too short to say, “I’ll do it later.”

 

PS. Step Parents…your are a parents too whether you like it or not.  They are now your kids, treat them like your kids, love them like they are your own, and give them the respect they deserve (not earned).  What?  They arn’t treating you right…tough… you are the one called to set the example.  Step up and be the man or woman God called you to be.

Tinkering with Photoshop

Thanks for looking.  This is just a few attempts and some new techniques I have learned recently.  I hope to post some others as time progresses. 

 

Now I have always drempt of owning a music shop.  I don’t know that I would go with this name, but its a thought atleast.

Found this Black and white image online of the car I hope to someday own.  I decided I would play aronnd and see if maybe I could color it a bit and see what I came up with.  Love the car…not sure on the color.  Looks cool though.

 

Found these two imagines online.  Not my best work, but just learning how to do this.  My mom has some old photos of my grandfather in the military that I hope to someday be able to clean up and add color.

I think I like the grey scale one better.