parenting

Who Wants Children?

34th child abandoned under Neb.’s safe-haven law

A 5-year-old boy has been dropped off at an Omaha, Neb., hospital only a day before the state Legislature begins a meeting to change the state’s safe-haven law.

[…]

Nebraska’s safe-haven law was intended to protect unwanted newborns from being abandoned, but unlike similar laws in other states, Nebraska’s doesn’t include an age limit.

The Legislature opens a rare special session Friday afternoon to change the law and add an age limit.

As of Friday, 34 children have been abandoned under the law. Five have been from out of state.

Free birth control.

Easy abortions.

Safe dumping.

Abuse. Neglect. Unkindness.

Yup. Who wants children?

“Without natural affection,” the Bible says.

Fatherhood

I’ve been Dad (or variations thereof) for 26 years.

 

Twenty-six!

 

That frightening day/night in Guaymas (Sonora, Mexico) seems a long time ago (Happy birthday to LaVay).

Now our middle child is twenty (Happy birthday to Dora a week ago today) and our next-to-youngest is almost seventeen (Happy birthday to Michayla in two weeks).

Twenty-six — my, oh my.

I’d wish for another opportunity to do it over…if it did any good. (Lacking that opportunity, I may post a “Tips for Parents” piece one of these days. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks already.)

May my children and their spouses do better. I made it easy.

That melancholy thought aside, I’m grateful for each of my children (including Shari and Luke).

I’m grateful they want to follow God’s ways.

I’m grateful that (generally speaking) the young do the child rearing.

I’m grateful for Ruby, my wife and partner in this “enterprise.”

I’m grateful for God’s grace. My successes I attribute to Him alone.

Reading: Choose the Best!

Earlier today I called attention to the sacrifice of right reading.

Now I get this in my email: Choose the Best (alas, I didn’t/haven’t):

The printing press puts into the hands of parents a means of good, which they may use to the greatest advantage in the culture of their home-life, and in the shaping of the lives of their household. But they must keep a most diligent watch over the pages which they introduce. They should know the character of every book and magazine which comes within their doors, and should resolutely exclude everything which would defile. Then, while they exclude everything whose influence would be for evil, if they are wise they will bring into their home as much as possible of pure, elevating, and refining literature. Every beautiful thought which enters a child’s mind, adds to the strength and loveliness of the character in after days. The educating influence of the best books and magazines is incalculable, and no parent can afford to lose it in the training of his family.

That was written in 1882!

I’m grateful for what J. R. Miller wrote way back then. Just as I’m grateful to The Berean Call for calling my attention to it.

But what will I do about…

…my own personal reading matter?

…the other reading matter I allow in my home?

…any teaching opportunities I might take (or make)?

Knowing me, probably nothing. 😥

Like a Mother. (And a Father.)

Over at Life in the Shoe, Dorcas Smucker as a short-but-excellent post on Looking Like a Mom:

Obviously the implication here is that looking like a mom is a bad thing. Maybe that’s because the popular perception is that looking like a mom is all physical, and all moms are sloppy and out of shape. At least that’s the impression I get when people meet me and insist that I can’t possibly have six children, which is flattering in its way, but I think the essence of a real mom shows up on her face and I hope that’s what people can see in me.

I am proud to be a mom, and I hope people can look at me and tell right off that if they have a problem they can tell me about it, that I’ve survived enough crises to know what to get upset about and what not to, that I’ll happily dispense advice, that I believe in better things for them, that I’ll drop everything to make them a cup of hot tea, that I’ll happily mother anyone who needs mothering.

And if someone stops me in a store to ask what to buy for a ten-year-old, I’ll feel honored.

Way to go, Dorcas!

While I do not wish to look like a mother (or a grandmother), I want to “feel” likewise honored in looking like a father or even a grandfather.

After all, that’s what I am.

Whether or not I look like one, let me be the best at both that I can be.

Long ago I wished for a father’s heart like the Father’s heart. My wish was sincere. And intense. And quite ignorant.

Ignorant because I didn’t know the breaking and restructuring the granting of such a wish would require.

Ignorant because I didn’t realize the fragility of such a heart. (No, that doesn’t make God fragile!)

Do I now have a heart like the Father’s? Not even close. But I’m far closer than I was before making that request of Him.

And I think I understand His heart better than I used to.

So — again — I ask: Let me look and love and lead and live like a father should.

And like the Father does.

Adrift Down the Tubes

Three news items for you to chew on.

Most Americans Say Divorce is Morally Acceptable

A record 70 percent of Americans believe divorce is morally acceptable, according to Gallup’s 2008 Values and Beliefs survey. That’s an 11-point increase from seven years ago.

[…]

Of the poll’s 16 ethical issues rated for moral acceptability, divorce topped the list, followed by gambling, embryonic stem-cell research, homosexuality and abortion. Extramarital affairs — often a cause of divorce — are at the bottom of the list, with just 7 percent of Americans finding them morally acceptable.

By what moral law and standard do my fellow Americans make this judgment? (At 70%, that includes a lot of real — as well as nominal — Christians. Wow!)

And why does that moral law and standard make extramarital affairs so unacceptable?

OK, here’s the second story:

Boston Doctor Offers Sex Change Treatment to Kids

Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric specialist at the hospital, has launched a clinic for transgendered kids — boys who feel like girls, girls who want to be boys — and he’s opening his doors to patients as young as 7.

So Doc Spack is catching lots of flak. I wonder if it’s coming from any in the 70% mentioned above. And why.

Now from the Mail Online (UK), the third story:

Fathers aren’t needed say MPs: Commons decides IVF babies can do without a male role model

Fathers were last night effectively declared an irrelevance in modern Britain.

The requirement for fertility doctors to consider a child’s need for a male role model before giving women IVF treatment was scrapped by MPs.

In a free vote, they swept away the rule despite impassioned pleas that the Government plan would “drive another nail into the coffin of the traditional family”.

Labour rebels said it would send entirely the wrong signal to society as Britain faces a crisis in responsible parenting. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, had warned it would remove the father from the heart of the family.

Obama’s Conception

Seven words from his Selma speech:

Don’t think that fatherhood ends at conception.

If Senator Obama’s father’s fatherhood began at Obama’s conception, when did Obama become a human being?

And if Senator Obama had been aborted at conception, would that have been a pro-choice action or a murder or both?

Or did the senator’s tongue merely slip?

given by Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama on March 4, 2007 — commemorating the Selma Voting Rights March at Brown Chapel A.M.E Church

Above all, love God!