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Who’s Teaching Your Kids?

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teaching-wordleWe pride ourselves in the knowledge that we live in a time like no other. A time where the amount of information created, consumed and freely available is beyond anything we’ve experienced in the past. We exist in a time where at the push of a button, we achieve access to nearly every answer man has ever discovered or needed. I have in the palm of my hand a venerable magic wand which, when fully charged, is able to give its possessor God like knowledge and understanding.

From the correct spelling of the world longest word (pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis for those of you who’d like to know) to the requirements to produce atomic energy, every single person has the ability to answer every single question ever asked, and in most cases correctly.

So why do I get the sense that in spite of limitless knowledge, common sense and general good choices seem to be on the decline?

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My son’s sensitive, and I think that’s HARDCORE!

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love-never-fails-woodDaily, whether by your news APP, T.V, radio, newspaper or general water cooler chat, we are reminded of the brutality and cruelness that exists. The content of so many news publications reads like a who’s who list of the latest Antichrists, duking it out for the top dog position on the worlds most evil list.

Just sitting here writing, I have my ears accosted by some baseball clad, track suit pant wearing wanna be tough guy. His language on the phone would bring shudders to the toughest made man. Shouting expletives in the middle of the parking lot to someone on his phone, weaving in and out of the cars until he makes his way back to the table. He must be almost 22, filled with boyish insecurities and yet banging his chest like a fully grown silverback. The anger, the hatred, the ultimatums and the indifference to the people surrounding him, most of whom I wager are not excited by both his volume and content. How is it we are surrounded by such sand papery people and yet look at our children and become concerned with their emotions being too available, they are too sensitive, they need to develop tougher skins. Appears to me, we should be fending off all hardness and embracing their softer sides for as long as possible, especially since the world that awaits them when they eventually step into adulthood will do a sterling job of attempting to knock the softness out of their hearts.

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When the flame starts to flicker

/ thefatherheart / 3 Comments

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????What happens when passions fade, when the things you attach your purpose to stop being the reasons you keep moving forward or keep dreaming. When the pieces seem too shattered to gather off the floor, when simply choosing to take another step has become an effort and the noise of your life seems to engulf and overshadow you.

I’m a husband, a father, a soft place, someone who’s heart cries out for the little ones who don’t know they belong. At least that is the me I remember and the me I’m desperately trying to claw my way back to becoming. I write about fathering, sonship, manhood, adoption and all things related. But if you were to take a quick stock of my online footprint, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’ve suffered from little connectivity for most of 2014. What’s happened, where have I gone?

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Regretless

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We’ve all heard how no one sits on their death-bed wishing they’d spent more time at the office, landed a bigger deal, spent more time on their own, watching sports, being upset, being angry, just being. Everyone will agree regardless of their faith, that they would expect someone to wish they had spent more time with the ones they loved and loved them.

What a year, some epic down points but also some magnificent highlights. We lost a baby, but we have been blessed with watching our son grow and grow. From new words, to personality developments, to potty training and big boy beds. My beautiful wife is still my best friend and importantly my favourite person. Jesus is still my Lord and Saviour and continues to blow us away with His grace and favour. What a God!

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Where have all the smelly people gone?

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So tonight my wife and I went to watch a movie, something simple, something funny, some time alone, except for the 100 or so other people there, but regardless it was great. Granny was looking after our little one so we took the opportunity to get out and do something we don’t often do. We laughed, had some coffee, ate some chips. Good times:)

As we were walking to the car, I saw her out of the corner of my eye, my first thought, please don’t follow us, but as you know with a first thought like that, she did. She walked right up to us as we were getting into the car.

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You white people are too “clever”

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last week a friend of mine posted the following definition of atheism from, I assume, different sources on the web. It was a very entertaining perspective. It read as follows:

Atheism: The belief that there was absolutely nothing, and nothing happened to nothing, and then nothing exploded for no reason, creating a beautiful and well-ordered everything. And then a bunch of everything magically arranged itself for no reason whatsoever into self-replicating bits, which then turned into dinosaurs. 
Makes perfect sense.

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It’s about time!

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I’m sitting here looking over the Maluti Mountains, around 15 km’s from Clarens, in the Northern Drakensberg. It is totally amazing how God works, these mountains just seem to explode from the ground and give the sense that such power has created them.

My wife and I have taken our first weekend away on our own in around 6 years, but on our own now requires that we leave our son at home with his Grandparents. I think it phases us more than him!

It’s amazing, that while we are here surrounded by such beauty, enjoying the scenery, revelling in the lack of schedule and things to do, one thing is so apparent to us. We are incomplete!

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Men behaving Daddly!

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I’ve had the privilege recently of sitting with some amazing young people and hearing their hearts, hearing where they are at, where they’d like to be at and just generally being allowed to listen to them sharing.

So much of what I hear seems to connect with their confusion of who God is, what He wants and how we should connect the two. I must say that for most of my life I struggled with this, to be honest, I still have days now, where I struggle with understanding Him and what He wants for my life. But for certain, one thing that God has solidified in my heart, chiselled into my very soul, is that He wants me to be a father, a husband and a man, and those are things He holds close to His heart. After all, He is a Father, he lives as a husband to his bride and he was a man!

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