Fathers! They do Things and It's Awesome!

So, yesterday was Father's Day, which is kinda a big deal. Though we humans are still a little strange in creating celebrations for literally everything, I guess it makes sense to spend some time refocusing us to do what we should do all 365 days of the year.

And such is Father's Day as well, another holiday where we celebrate and honor our mothers - of course, an obligation that we as Christians should always hold. But maybe we forget sometimes, and maybe the day serves as a reminder of what all fathers do.

(Yes, I just copied and pasted from my Mother's Day post, and switched out a few words. Don't hate me.)

I mean, they work, support a household, raise kids, provide spiritual leadership, manage finances (at least in some families), and do anything else that their family requires in order to function as a cohesive unit.

So, fathers are an integral part of the ideal family unit, and we should honor those people who fill that role 365 days a year. But if nothing else, I hope that you gave your father due respect yesterday. That's what the day was meant for.

(Don't judge me for borrowing my brilliant wording from Mother's Day for this post. I thought it was so good that I would use it all again!)

Mothers! They do Things and it's Awesome!

So, yesterday was Mother's Day, which is kinda a big deal. Though we humans are still a little strange in creating celebrations for literally everything, I guess it makes sense to spend some time refocusing us to do what we should do all 365 days of the year. 

And such is Mother's Day as well, another holiday where we celebrate and honor our mothers - of course, an obligation that we as Christians should always hold. But maybe we forget sometimes, and maybe the day serves as a reminder of what all mothers do. 

I mean, they cook, clean, raise kids, take care of their sick household, decorate, and do anything else that their family requires in order to function as a cohesive unit. 

Wait, that's a little old-fashioned, isn't it? I guess in the somewhat feminist view, women do things like work a job, have a career, cook, clean, raise kids, take care of their sick household, decorate, and do anything else their family requires in order to function. Wait, that's still pretty impressive, isn't it? 

So, any way you really slice it, mothers are an integral part of the ideal family unit, and we should honor those people who fill that role 365 days a year. But if nothing else, I hope that you gave your mother due respect yesterday. That's what the day was meant for. 

A Single Man in Possession of a Good Fortune...

"“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Thus begins the famous work Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It would seem through the scope of the story that the situation is just a tad bit backwards that every single woman is in want of a husband of a good fortune, but that is the irony, isn't it?

Dissecting Jane Austen's works is not my strong suit, so I will not go deeper into that analysis, but isn't it crazy how many Christians today fit into this mold? It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that every Christian young male and every Christian young female ought to get married. And it seems fitting to tackle this subject after Valentine's Day.. 

Now I really really want to get married myself. I want to have a wonderful wife one day with whom I can serve the Lord. We should have somewhere between 1 and 100 little children running around our house (no, I would not really expect it possible to get a hundred children, the number is just supposed to show that I have no preference for the number as long as it is greater than 0).

But in today's Christian culture, it would seem that we think it is necessary for us to be married to serve the Lord (and if I'm real with you, the pressure seems much greater on the lady than on the gentleman and that's also just wrong). That however is just sad. The only thing necessary to serve the Lord is willingness.

Of course, no one is explicitly saying that we have to get married to serve the Lord; all would know such a claim to be ridiculous. But the way we have set up our culture is implying it to be true.

Perhaps our Christian culture has forgotten the entirety of Paul's admonition in I Corinthians 7. Here Paul develops a very key theme - both marriage and non-marriage can be honoring to God. Paul himself is partial to non-marriage, and it's easy to see how this fails to effect his ability to serve the church.

As I aforementioned, I am partial to the concept of marriage. I love families, not gonna lie. And that shouldn't have to effect my ability to serve either. Noah didn't have difficulty serving the Lord because of his wife. 

Paul however does highlight some challenges, such as having to put a high priority in your life upon your family, and then having difficulty ensuring that high priority doesn't just become too high.

But the main takeaway is that marriage and non-marriage can both please God. So keep that in mind, y'all, and don't coerce young ladies and gentlemen to get married. It's not for everyone. (I do still hope it's for me though.)



The following was the obligatory relationship post. It was about time that it was written. It started because Ryan had no idea of what to write about, and found himself writing the beginning words to Jane Austen's novel. Then suddenly an idea! 

What does it Matter? Life's Not Fair

Trials and persecution. I wrote a series about this facet of our lives. One of the things I stressed was that it would happen to anyone whether that person lived a good life or not. Indeed we all know that life's just not fair.

But how often have we heard (at least on the television) people use that expression as an excuse to justify their injustices towards others? Apparently since life is full of suffering already, it doesn't matter if we should add more suffering into the mix.

So here's a radical life principle - just because suffering is bound to come to the believer, doesn't mean it should come from within the church. The Bible uses the imagery of a family to describe a church quite often. Now I would at least hope that within your own family, you would not be willing to add to the suffering simply because they're going to suffer anyway.

Now of course, I'm sure few Christians would either decide to intentionally hurt others in order to advance their own selfish desires or to push others down to build themselves up. But it seems all too easy from my experience to do so unintentionally. In my life, it comes as a complete desire to be right, causing me to unfortunately pummel straight through any conflicting theory and its owner.

But it can come in other ways too. You see, we can attack each other selfishly without even necessarily knowing we are doing anything wrong. Thus, we must take time to evaluate our behaviour to see how we would be feeling if we were in the opposite position.

Now of course there are situations in which we just can't help but hurt somebody else. Our obligations to ourselves, to our family, or to the Lord force us to act in a way that is sure to cause emotional agony for someone else. In these situations, the only thing you can do is try to be as direct and delicate as possible.

Hurt feelings might not seem like a significant issue, but this phenomena is not limited to hurt feelings. Indeed we are discussing a number of areas where people can so easily hurt others, but the truth is, we won't do much good fighting the enemy, if we are instead fighting each other.

We will be able to do more to protect ourselves as a unified force than every man for himself. Take for instance, during the time of Esther, when the Jews had to fight for their lives. Naturally, the Lord protected them, as He would us today. But they still had to prepare to fight.

Each man did not protect his own family of his own might either. Rather, the Jews came together to fight as a unit. Esther 9:2 proclaims,

"The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people."

Look at how effective unity can be. But then we all know that it is not easy to work with someone who manipulated his way into a position that you think you deserve (I know not really Christian behavior on either side there). Nor is it easy to work with someone that you know you have unnecessarily hurt at some point in your life.

So with that, I ask simply, let's strive to not cause suffering to other members of the family of God, but instead to do the exact opposite. As the Bible commands in Philippians 2:1-4,

"If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."