First Post

I wanted to start our blog by defining what is most passionate and dear to me. It is what motivates me to press on and press through when life swings with devastating blows, it is the place I find joy, hope, peace, and satisfaction. It is the place where God teaches and humbles me in my journey with Him. I am not particularly skilled here; just a student whose heart and mind is open wide as I learn. I share life, love, knowledge, and my best and worst moments here… my family. I shakes me to the core to consider what God has given to me in them, four lives with souls bared looking to their father and husband to navigate through life and its perils. We share laughter and tears, joys and pains as we traverse though this momentary journey together one small step at a time. As the kid’s lives speed past it reminds me of the brevity of life and that each moment is a gift from our Creator, given to do with as we chose, but for which I will someday give an account. What shall I give myself to? Shall I satisfy my own desires, shall I give myself to great and benevolent causes, or shall I create in my posterity something that will honor God for eternity?

Deuteronomy 11:18, 19

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Teach them when you walk, when you lie, sit, and wake, teach them. I think the implication here is so vast it is hard to fully conceptualize. It means to put aside the endless self satisfying hobbies, the mind numbing TV, sports, and agendas, to live life sharing moments together LIVING as examples of Godliness.

Doug Phillips, one of my favorite lectors and family advocates, beautifully expresses the following: The family was the first institution created by God and blessed by Christ during His earthly ministry. It is God’s primary vehicle for communicating covenant promises to the next generation. It is the basic agency of dominion on earth. Within the context of the family, the father is the God-ordained vision communicator. Minimize the father and the family will perish. Minimize the family and you have neutralized the church. The sad truth is that broken and weak families are the norm even within the most conservative and doctrinally Orthodox Church assemblies.

The writings and pictures here are our joyful and passionate expressions of family. May God be honored as we do our best to live, learn, and grow together for Him.

Ed