Strawberries

Ever see the T-shirt that says "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" ?

It's actually a quote from Benjamin Franklin.

For me strawberries are proof that:

1. God loves us and wants us to be happy. Of course this takes second place to Him sending his only Son.
   
2. Proof that heaven exists.

What am I doing to show that I love my children and want them to be happy? Am I creating a stable loving home? Am I caring for them? Am I showing their mother the love and respect that she deserves? Hopefully I'm not showing them my love by spoiling them. Am I giving them opportunities to live their life to the fullest? Am I teaching them to be empathetic?

Am I being a light to them that reflects the True Light?

Blessing to you

Tim

Great Testimony

A great testimony from Kristin on "why she wastes her time worshiping". Good stuff. Hint: She really doesn't think it is a waste of time.

Blessings

Tim

Emily is a light of the world

Our oldest, Emily, is a kind, warm, loving child. She is also very outgoing, which is totally different from her mother and I. In many ways this is a blessing because she is able to make friends with a variety of children that are different from her. Whether they are children of different races, different gender, or just have different interests. She seems to be this light that other children are drawn to.

Something that I struggle with is how do we nurture this so that she can use this for good and not for bad? Jen and I have told her on occasion that since she makes friends so easily, that she needs to make sure that other kids are included and not left out. I just hope that she doesn't learn to use her charisma as a tool to hurt or exclude others.

Hopefully we are helping along the right path. We have such a good foundation in that she has the right temperament and the charisma to be the light of the world. My wife and I should therefore always keep in mind the following (emphasis mine) as we raise her:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

Matthew 5: 14-16

Any thoughts or useful suggestions are gladly accepted.

Blessings

Tim

Facebook and Reconnecting with the Pleasures of His Creation, Part 2

In my previous post I talked about reconnecting with the pleasures of His Creation. Namely, enjoying everything around me because all things were created by Him through his Son.

At this point you are probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with your Blog - "fatherhood and the Father"? The Father has created this world for us to enjoy so that we can love and serve him. It is a gift to us that we must take care of.

And this gets me to the point. Together with my wife, we have created a small microcosm of the world in our house and their little "bubble" of life which consists of mommy, daddy, the pets, and the house. This little microcosm is their little world created by my wife and I. Just as the Father has created this world for us to enjoy and show us his love, it is our duty to ensure that our children's world is as secure and enjoyable as our love for them is deep.

A difference in my mind, and I know there are many but this is the one that is relevant for me at this point, is that we do not create this world for our children in order that they serve us. Quite the contrary, we create the world around them so that they learn to be loved, to love, and to love the Father and his only Son.

Blessings to you

Tim

Papal YouTube Channel

While looking through my blog reader, I noticed that Michael Barber's blog "Singing in the Reign" had a post about the Vatican and YouTube.

Wow! The Vatican has taken the plunge into Social Networking! This is great news.

They have their own channel on YouTube now.  Check it out here!

On the videos page here , there are about 12 clips to watch.  Not a lot of material yet, but it is good to see that things are moving in the right direction.

I'm wondering if the Pope is going to start blogging.  That would be a great way of getting out his messages from his weekly audiences.

Blessings to you all

Tim

New Addition to the Blogs I Follow

You might have noticed that on the right hand side of this page is a list of other blogs that I follow.

I found the blog Letters to Liam while visiting another blog I follow: Catholic Dads.

Anyhoo, Letters to Liam is a great blog about raising a special needs child. It started out as a way for a father to write letters for his newborn child once he had become an adult. Liam's Down Syndrome has changed the focus of the blog, and it is quite inspirational.

It is reaffirming that there are other dads out there who have found the blogging outlet useful for talking about their relationship with their children!

I'm adding Letters to Liam to my list of blogs and hope that you get a chance to visit the blog and be sure to check out the introductory blog post.

Blessings

Tim

Enjoying His Creation

We took a ride to see the Snow Geese up near Mt. Vernon and the Bald Eagles who are wintering along the Skagit River. Short trips like this are how we try to spend our Sundays together as a family. Sometimes, life intercedes and we aren't able to something like this. But we do the best we can, right? Here are some pictures from the trip.

This one is looking across the fields of the Skagit Valley towards Mt. Baker.

Another shot of Mt. Baker, this time framed by some trees on the edge of the farms fields.

Close up of some of the snow geese and even some trumpeter swans

Finally, a shot of the final rays of sun on the Cascades near Rockport, WA. I beg to differ from those who say there isn't a God. Our Father has a wonderful, beautiful pallete.

Blessings to you all

Tim

Birds of a feather

Here's a couple of nice posts concerning fatherhood.  It's good to see I'm not the only one concerned about being the best that we can be.  Fulfilling our vocation to the best of our ability.

The first one is from Catholic Dads.  The second is from ihusband.com

Schedule

Thanks for checking in on a regular basis. It is appreciated. Sorry for the lack of posts. The two year old and five year old are keeping Mommy and Daddy very busy. In addition, one of my colleagues at work decided to take a different job (good for him!) within the company, so I have been struggling with double the work load.

In case you haven't figured it out, I post "major items" on a weekly basis. These items are things I have spent some time on and are fully baked. I've got quite a few in the queue, so please check back at least every Saturday evening!

I do try to post smaller items on a daily basis. These posts are usually based on material from other blogs that I follow or small sparks of insight that I may have.

Some things that I have been thinking of but haven't found a way to articulate and convey in an understandable manner are as follows:

• The post only a Christian with an engineering background could enjoy
  
• Working tirelessly, foot washing, JP2 the Great
• Working hard, playing hard, praying hard
• Why do I have a blog?
• Compare and Contrast

Hopefully, that is sufficiently vague to peak your interest and come back for more: ;-)

Blessings to you all.

Tim

Proof for the existence of God. At least for me

Conservation of Energy - Energy can neither be created or destroyed. There is a finite amount of energy in the universe. Although, to our finite sized brains, it may seem like there is an infinite amount!

How is it then, when we have a child, that we can love them so much? How can we love someone so completely all of a sudden. Yeah, some say that love is a chemical process. But chemical processes require energy and/or fuel to unlock the energy. Where does the extra energy come from? We don't eat or drink anymore than normal as the love for our children grows from nothing. We don't lose weight as a result of the extra energy it takes to love someone. (Weight lost due to breast feeding and extra physical effort does not count) We don't love our spouses any less, so we aren't stealing energy from them.

The Father has shown us, through the death of his only Son, that he loves us infinitely.

Therefore, the source of our love for our children is the fount head of love, the Father, his only Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Here is a classic proof of the existence of God from St. Thomas Aquinas

Blessings to you

Tim

"Go God"

Kristen is a former babysitter of ours.  She is a full time student and very talented amateur photographer.  She has felt the call to do some missionary work with Youth With a Mission.

Kristen has started a blog chronicling her adventures. The end of one of her posts really caught my eye: "Go God".

Pray for Kristen and her new adventures.

Tim

A reflection of the True Light

Last week went well with the kids. Sunday was a tough two year old day. Monday didn't start out any better. At some point I was wondering if we were going to have to get some warranty work on her baptism. ;-)

It is amazing where the Father can point you when you ask for help.

I came across this blog post entitled "Amazing Grace" on Monday night as I was doing some random searches on catholicblogs.com. Wonderful story. Wonderful testimony. I won't spoil it for you. Go ahead and read it. I wouldn't be able to do it justice.

Not that I have it terrible by any stretch of the imagination and don't get me wrong, this isn't a case of "thank God I am not in that situation". It's two things. First a realization of how fortunate I am to be called to the vocation of being a husband and father. Something that I need to remind myself of constantly.

Secondly, the story is inspirational on so many levels. I don't even think I could list them. For me,

• despite the many issues, they kept trying to have children
  
• They adopted a baby and if you read the blog post on fatherhood, you will feel the how this father has made a "quantum leap" in his vocation as a father.

I can identify with these quantum leaps. It is like a switch goes on in your soul that says you are in a different place in regards to where you are at with respect to your fatherhood.

The father, Bill, is a reflection of the True Light.

I don't want to spoil it with any more words. Needless to say I am inspired to be a better father. The best father that I can be.

"reflected in another source of light
when the moment dies
the spark still flies
reflected in another pair of eyes"

Chain Lightning, Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Pray for Grace. Pray for Bill. Pray for all fathers.

Blessings to you all

Tim

catholicblogs.com

I stumbled across this site yesterday. Catholicblogs.com is a website that let's you search a large number of catholic oriented blogs on the web. Pretty cool if you are looking for something in particular.

Pretty awesome. Check it out.

Tim

Facebook and Reconnecting with the Pleasures of His Creation, Part 1

How can we love and serve the Lord if we are not happy with ourselves, our surroundings, and those around us? What does it take to enjoy your life? I've been thinking about it a lot lately. God has made this world for us so that we can love and serve him. We should take pleasure in His creation.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I joined Facebook. We have been enjoying the hyper-connectedness that social networking offers. Often times it can be very time consuming which can be a problem for some. But it is a nice distraction. Especially being able to connect with old friends. For me, this has been the best part.

Recently, I reconnected with one of my best friends from college. I hadn't talked to him via phone in over a year and a half. But like most of those types of relationships in life, it was easy to jump right back into a conversation with him and it was like we had been talking just the day before. In college, my friend had a considerable zest for life. While visiting his Facebook page, I realized from his profile and pictures that he had posted, that the fire for squeezing the most out of life was still burning in his soul.

That got me thinking about how, in a way, I had lost that fire for squeezing the most out of life and that I had seriously insulated myself. This has kept me from really enjoying everything that is going well in my life. A good job, wife that loves me and that I love, two beautiful little girls, a roof over my head, bible study group that is like an extended family, living in one of the most beautiful places on earth, etc. Yes I was momentarily happy now and then. But I wasn't actively "squeezing" everything out of life that I could.

In my conversion story I mentioned some of the things that really give me pleasure about the Father's Creation. Truly, the Glory of God's Creation pours into everything in our life. Therefore it is not just nature, but everything in my life that I need to really start enjoying. For how else can we love and serve him if we are not happy with ourselves, our surroundings, and those around us. I must do this right now.

Much like someone who has an addiction must first realize they have a problem, I have realized that I'm really not enjoying life like I should. I pray that I have turned a corner and can really do this. With the crush of life and work, it is very easy (at least for myself) to hunker down and insulate from what is good in my life and everything that the Lord has put in our life to enjoy.

I think this ties directly in with this previous post concerning being a light for my children. If I'm not actively enjoying my life, how will they learn to do so?  Now things aren't as dire as they might sound.  I do enjoy life.  Probably just not as much as I should.

Update: I actually wrote the text of this blog about a month ago.  I am happy to report that things are going better and am actively trying to seek out and enjoy life a lot more.  Now that I have been back to work for about a week, it has become more difficult because of the pressures of life.  But with some diligence and prayer, we'll get there.

Blessings

Tim

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Small Changes Mean a Lot

A friend of the family has posted a challenge to the readers of the Diocese of Marquette paper. 

See here: http://www.dioceseofmarquette.org/upcarticle.asp?upcID=1845

Great insight into how people are called to their vocation, whether it is to the religious life or married life.

Something that struck me, concerning my blog in particular, is Mike's paraphrasing of a quote from St. Francis de Sales—"something to the effect that holiness is slow as sunrise: imperceptible changes realized only in retrospect."

This is good for me to keep in mind as I try to improve myself in my continued faith journey. Small changes may not seem to be making much difference, but in retrospect they can mean a lot.

So to with how we work with our children. As I've said in a previous post, "Ton of Bricks", I can't expect my kids to immediately change. If there is something wrong with their behavior, we need to work with them to improve with small changes. Also relates to another post, "Our Father, Part 1", catechesis of our children in bite size chunks that they can take into the future.

Blessings

Tim

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Good News! My sister Amy is entering the RCIA program back at her parish on the east coast. She will be confirmed at Easter. She and her husband are expecting a baby around Easter, hopefully they will be able to have an Easter Baptism as well!

Please pray for her and her journey into the church.

Blessings to you all.

Tim

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Reflections of the True Light

Interesting article from a home town newspaper. Amy's brother, Michael, is a friend who recently volunteered as a chaplain's assistant out here in the Pacific Northwest.

The article is very good. Especially poignant is the impact she is having on her students.

Amy is a reflection of the True Light. An inspiration for us all.

Blessings to you all

Tim

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Toughest Thing About Being a Parent

Do you know what is the toughest thing about being a parent, at least for me?  It's not the long nights up feeding or changing a diaper.  None of the things that one might expect, although some of those things are tough.  

No, the thing that makes parenting tough for me is correcting all of my bad habits so that they do not pick them up.  Things like my short temper, over reacting to things, etc.  I want my kids to be better than me in every way, including not having my bad habits.  Especially the habits that make it extremely difficult to live with.

Children are incredible sponges in the first few years of life.  They soak up everything.  They view life through the lenses that parent's behavior creates for them.  That view of life shapes how they will behave now and in the future. Including, and probably most importantly, when they become parents.

I pray that I can change my bad habits to be a shining light (or reflection of the true Light) for them AND I pray that I will be able to work with them to break the bad habits that they have learned.

Blessings to you.

Tim

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Our Father, Part 1

We started saying bedtime prayers with the girls when they were 2 years old. Now that they are 5 and 2.5, they seem to have them down pretty good. We say the "Our Father", "Hail, Mary", and the "Glory Be". All followed by "God Blesses" where the girls ask for God's blessings on family members, friends, and sometime toys. For instance our youngest occasionally asks for God's blessing for her Hippo Bank or Dora Hat. We try and steer them towards their sister, Mommy, Grandmas and Grandpas, Nana, and the rest of the family.

One of the things that turned me off about the church when I was in high school was that I knew all the prayers, but I just didn't get anything out of it. The rote memorization wasn't helping anymore. It wasn't until later when I started bible study that I actually began to more fully understand what I was praying. Last summer, our Bible Study Group covered the Lord's Prayer as part of our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We used William Barclay's commentary on Matthew for the study. I really recommend reading it. It's quite illuminating and you will probably never say the Lord's Prayer in a hurry again.

From this learning, I plan to slowly break out the meaning of the "Our Father" for our oldest daughter. So, rather than knowing the prayer by heart and trying to get through it as quickly as possible, as is starting to happen, she will hopefully come to love and understand the prayer as I have.

Our Lord told us to pray like this: "Our Father"

So every once and a while, I will talk to her about the phrase "Our Father". I start by asking her what she thinks this means. At first she didn't understand, so I would explain, starting with something all the lines of: God is not YOUR father, God is not MY Father. God is Our Father. All of us are the children of the Father. Sisters and Brothers are supposed to love each other. Sisters and Brothers are supposed to be nice to each other. If we hurt or are mean to one of our sisters or brothers we say we are sorry and we ask for forgiveness. If one our sisters or brothers hurts us, we forgive them and move on.

I've been doing this in small digestible chunks with her and it is starting to sink in. When I ask her about it, she is able to explain it to me. Awesome!

Hopefully these small bits of learning will stick with her when she gets tired of the rote memorization. My biggest concern is that she falls away from the church like I did.

Blessings

Tim

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New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year to you all!

In the past, my New Year's Resolutions have revolved around making my body more healthy.  Each year, I would give up something unhealthy in a bid to gradually get myself more healthy.  One year was soft drinks, still doing well on that one although I do use Coca-Cola or Sprite in mixed drinks occasionally.  The year after that, I gave up Salad Dressings.  In 2008 I gave up French Fries.  I've fallen off the wagon a couple times on that one but still plan to keep it up.  

I haven't figured out what I will give up this year in order to improve my health.  But this year, in order to improve my spiritual health, I plan to go to confession at least 1 a month. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, along with a good prayer life, it helps keep me centered with the will of the Father. Second, I'd like to get these habits in place so the kids get used to the family doing it.

Do you have any Resolutions for the New Year having to do with improving your spiritual health?  Share them!

Blessings to you all.

Tim

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Friendship

Great little homilette about friendship. I couldn't agree more about how Aristotle sees friendships. How do you see your friendships? For economic purposes, because their good humor or interesting viewpoints, or because we see reflections of our ideal selves?

If we think of these different levels of friendships in terms of light, which type of light are you drawn toward? Hopefully you are drawn more strongly toward the true Light of Jesus Christ. It is this glimmers of this light that we see in people who exemplify the ideal qualities that we would like to see in ourselves. Those people that are reflections or prisms of the true Light.

So to, I have to be a reflection of the true Light to my children. I need to strive to live a life such that they are drawn to friendship and respect because of the glimmer of the true Light in me rather than the other types of friendship.

I pray that I can be a light for my children.

Not only to my children, but my wife, friends, co-workers, etc.

Blessings to you all.

Tim

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