The Sunday before Christmas, the pastor at the church we attended appropriately continued his sermon series on the birth of Jesus. He discussed Joseph's dream, when the angel came to him and said "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21)
The pastor discussed how Joseph accepted his responsibility as the father of Jesus and raised him as his own son. He did stop short of saying that Joseph was a step dad, but the idea was there.
It is OK for us to admit it, Joseph was the step-dad of Jesus. Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus nor did Jesus have a father who surrendered his parental rights.
Jesus had a biological father through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). Though most people at the time, and certainly many today, thought/think that Joseph was really the biological father, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus all knew who the real father of Jesus was.
Jesus also acknowledged many times who his father was, and his father acknowledged who Jesus was. The earliest we have Jesus publicly acknowledging who his father is was when he stayed behind in Jerusalem after the Passover. His parents have left Jerusalem after the Passover and later realize that Jesus is not with them. When they return to Jerusalem to find him, they find him in the temple. Mary admonishes Jesus for staying behind, but Jesus says to her “Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:42-51) At the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, God the Father speaks and says “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
Now I can't recall any sermons I have ever heard on being a step dad. Perhaps in some personal story a pastor was sharing. Maybe we avoid it because he causes us to get into topics we don't like to discuss like divorce and remarriage. But maybe starting with Joseph might be a good place to start talking about step dads in church.
This song(s) is by Steve Fromholz. It is a trilogy about the struggle of life in Texas around Kopperl, Texas in Bosque County.
I first heard it from Lyle Lovett's version. I loved the song from the first time I heard it.
This is Texas Trilogy, as performed by Frommux, Steve Fromholz and Dan McCrimmon.
Another one for today
This song is called Man with the Big Hat. I first heard it in New Mexico when it was performed by Bill and Bonnie Hearne. I picked up one of their albums, Celebration: Live at La Fonda, and it included this song with Steve Fromholz performing with them. What a treat that was.
Tyler Barabas, Laura Cheek and Ian Latimer wrote a song about their excitement about returning to Texas so they can have Whataburger. They had been in California where one can find In-n-Out, which while it is a good burger, it isn't a Whataburger.
This past weekend I made a trip back to Texas.
Leaving Monterey, California involved a short hop on a short plane to San Francisco.
The pilot said the inbound flight to MRY saw whales in the Monterey bay, but while I was seated by the window, I did not see any.
Now flying out of MRY is usually not to save time, but convenience. I had a 2 hour layover at SFO before my next flight. Factor in the 20 minute flight and the hour before boarding, a the time spent flying from Monterey to San Francisco is longer than if one just drove. But the convenience of not fighting traffic on 101 through San Jose was nice.
While in San Francisco, I thought I'd get some lunch. Outside security I saw a Subway, but thought I could do better. I cleared security and found numerous restaurants that wanted $20 for the privilege of enjoying their cuisine. My taste buds aren't that picky.
So I found a Greek restaurant. Seemed legit.
Now babynames.com says that the name Max comes from Latin, not Greek. That might have been a good first clue.
I ordered the lamb gyro and sat down. Here is the beauty of that gyro.
Did I win? Well the lamb was OK, i wasn't hungry after I ate, and I didn't pay $20.
Next was the hop from SFO to DFW.
The plane was slightly bigger than the one from Monterey.
When I got to my seat, 15C, there was a gentleman already seated in it. Assuming he was really in 15D and just hoping no one was going to sit in C, the aisle seat, I asked "Are you in 15D?" He said that he was. I put my bag in the overhead and then thought I should encourage him to get into his own seat so I could sit down. I said "Do you just not want to sit in D?" He said that he didn't realize he was in the wrong seat, apologized, and moved over. I was trying to be polite, but I'm pretty sure I came off as being a jerk. My bad.
Onward to DFW.
Landing in DFW, my brother picked me up. First meal in Texas? Need one ask?
Two late night sausage, egg, and cheese taquitos and a coffee. Now I know I'm home.
The weekend went well. I was visiting my brother and his family. I had not met my nephew yet, so it was good to see him. Though he is 6 months old, he is bigger than Jonas who is almost 18 months.
My niece loves coloring, so I picked up a coloring book from SFO. We spent the weekend coloring it, as well as using side walk chalk outside. If you color with a child, you have made a friend for life.
A good game one might want to play is to determine if the drawing is made by me or a 4 year old.
Now being in Texas, one must eat BBQ. I lived in Georgia for almost 4 years and grew sick of their so-called BBQ. They chop up pork and call that BBQ. It is an insult to BBQ everyone.
I went to a place called Smokey's BBQ in Fort Worth on East Lancaster.
It is in an abandoned Dairy Queen and has a fire truck out front. This place is legit, and not in a Max's Greek kind of way.
I might not be as big of a BBQ aficionado as this self proclaimed BBQ snob, but I did enjoy the BBQ. I found the brisket quite tender, the jalapeno sausage tasty, the sauce had good flavor, but the portions were small.
Monday morning found me visiting with my niece's preschool class. It was veteran's day and I was asked to talk about the Navy, so that is why I am in uniform in the earlier photo.
On the way to the airport, one final stop to Whataburger was required. I had a Whataburger Jr, with cheese, all the way. I could have done better, but sometimes simple is beautiful.
My flight from DFW went to Phoenix Skyharbor. Walking around, I found this directional sign interest.
It may be hard to see, but beneath the glowing advertisement is 3 directional signs, North, West, and South. Thinking about the cardinal directions, one finds these directions broken. I'm probably the only one to notice or find it humorous.
Landing in Monterey, I drove home and found my family fast asleep. Seeing them, now I know I'm home, Whataburger or not. At least there is Whataburger ketchup in the fridge.
Previously I discussed the Biblical justification of divorce
with how it relates to a single guy who is dating a divorced woman.
The Bible sets the course for my life. While it doesn't hold teachings on everything
we will experience in life, it does cover almost every major decision we will
make and provides useful teachings which will guide us when we encounter
situations that are not directly discussed in the Bible.
The most important decision we will ever make is the decision
about our salvation. The Bible tells us
that if we have faith in Christ for our salvation and confess our sins, that
the blood of Christ, sacrificed on the cross, will wash away all our sins, and
we shall inherit eternal life. This of
course is a life altering decision, which requires that we begin living for
God.
To me, the Bible into two parts, how to become a Christian
and what to do now that you are a Christian.
Making the first decision is required before the rest becomes
applicable. For what good does it do a
man to live as a Christian if he isn't a Christian?
So, while dating my now wife, I spent time finding what the
Bible said about marrying a divorced woman.
There isn't much. Last blog entry
we discussed the commandment about divorce.
Looking in the Bible, we only find a few things which seem to
apply. The one that seems most common is
Joseph being the step-father of Jesus.
This situation didn't seem to apply to me, as Joseph was the only human
who could make any sort of a claim to be the “father” of Jesus. Of the situations that do apply, a couple
stood out. One, David taking Mashiboseth
into his family. The other, Boaz taking
Ruth into his family.
With Mashiboseth, David takes him into his family. Mashiboseth is the son of Jonathon, the son
of Saul. Jonathon and David were very
close and David felt that showing grace to Mashiboseth was a way he could honor
Jonathon. He took Mashiboseth into his
family and he ate from the table of the king, though he was a cripple.
Now, my family is certainly not crippled and I didn't know
any of their family. But the concept of
taking someone into your family and treating them as equals seemed to resonate
with me. My wife and I would of course
become one and I would treat her as such.
My step-children, they are not related to me biologically. But when my wife and I married, they become
my children and I became their dad. In
my view of my family, there is no “step.”
Many may talk about it, and my children may even refer to me as their
step-dad, but in my eyes, they are the same as if I was their biological
father. Yes, my family is a blended
family, which my children having a biological dad, a step-dad, soon a
half-brother/sister, and perhaps one day a step-mom. But my children would not be treated any
different in my house than anyone else in my family. They are my children and I love them as such.
With Boaz and Ruth, Ruth's first husband died and she chose
to stay with her mother-in-law, Naomi.
They come to a town where Boaz works.
Ruth works in the field of Boaz, gathering the leftovers in the
field. Boaz, it turns out, is a redeemer
of Ruth, meaning he can marry her and take her in since her husband has
died. But, as Boaz mentions, there is a
redeemer who is closer to Ruth. Boaz
goes to the redeemer, who chooses to not redeem Ruth. Boaz and Ruth marry and he takes Naomi into
his family.
This scenario seemed about as close to my situation as I
could find in the Bible. There was
someone who chose to not be married to my then girlfriend, opening the door for
me to be married to her.
With these Biblical examples in mind, I continued on my path
to marriage.
Growing up I listened to a lot of classic country. One of the songs I remember well was Charlie Rich's Keep on Rolling with the Flow.
One line particularly I remember was "'fore I reached 30 I'd be dead." When I was in high school, 30 seemed so far away. I remember when I renewed my license at 18 that it was good until I was 30. Surely I'd be dead before then.
Nope. Today I made it to 30. I'm still rolling with the flow, but raising kids!
The other night, I was on Daddy Duty with my three kids as my wife was out with some of her girlfriends. I gave the kids two options, tuna casserole or going out to eat. Perhaps my tuna casserole leaves much to be desired as they opted for eating out. Being the smart dad I am, I chose Applebee's to go to because kids eat for free on Tuesday night. I ordered the Fiesta Lime Chicken, quite delicious, while my kids had the hamburgers and chicken strips from the kids menu, though the baby just ate cereal puffs.
Fiesta Lime Chicken
While we ate, a lady came around and made balloon animals. My kids got a heart with a parrot and a girraffe.
After we ate, the waiter informed me that our bill was already taken care of. Someone else had paid for our meal. I told the waiter "thank you to someone!"
It left quite a positive impact on me that someone did that. I don't know who or why, and pry never will. Whether it was because I had a Texas A&M shirt on or because of pity for a dad being out with 3 kids, someone was generous enough to pay for our meal.
Many people call this "pay it forward." To pay back the generosity of someone, be generous to someone else. Now that is not a bad principle for us to live by when interacting with our fellow man, but may I challenge us to take it a step further?" Instead of To pay back the generosity of someone, be generous to someone else, what if it was Be generous to someone else.
Why should we wait to be kind? Instead of giving kindness to others because someone gave us kindness, why should we not just give kindness anyway? The Bible tells us that we are to love because he first loved us
Lunch today was at Locos Grill and Pub in Athens. The menu was full of deliciousness. I had the hot chick while my wife ate the gobbler. Neither was disappointed.
Big Bugs exhibit at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Columbus Ships at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Columbus Ships at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Selena exhibit at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Butterfly in the xeriscape at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
By the aquarium under the Harbor Bridge is an observation deck. Now the observation deck is closed because they installed a radar on the 2nd deck, but it is still a cool area to go watch ships.
M/V DHT Cathy passing under the Harbor Bridge
M/V DHT Cathy exiting the port of Corpus Christi
Pushing over the Harbor Bridge
For New Years Eve, the Mrs. and I went to Bleu Bistro for their New Year's Eve dinner.
Afterwards, we went next door to the Havana Club, where the most exciting thing was the giraffe art.
What visit to Corpitos would be complete without a visit to the Selena Memorial?
Our trip home brought us through Baton Rouge around lunch where we ate at Zapata's, a good Mexican restaurant.
That night brought us to Mobile where we spent the night then toured the USS Alabama and USS Drum.
For dinner, we went to Foosackly's, famous for chicken strips.
The next day found us in Columbus, Georgia, where we ate a magnificent lunch at Minnie's Uptown Restaurant. A great cafeteria style lunch, my favorite of the entire trip.
