Responsible Father

Over at my other blog, for the first year or so, I used to post entries every Saturday into the ‘Saturday Poem’ category there. Thirteen of them are of the same type, a poem about truths learned while out with my family at beautiful (with one exception) locations. I thought it would be handy (at least to me) to have these specific poems listed in one place. Here you go.

All locations are Minnesota, unless noted. And all of them are a specific spot in the named location.  I recommend Mystery European City (read to the bottom), Daniel’s Broken Arm and any poem with a location that you’ve been to.

Minnesota State Fair
Split Rock State Park
Grand Marais
The Arch, St.Louis, Missouri
Red Wing
Atlanta, Georgia (Daniel’s Broken Arm)
Cascade Lodge, Lutsen
Mystery European City
Devil’s Tower, WY
Wild River State Park
Frontenac State Park
Door County, Wisconsin
Wild River State Park 2
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Wild River State Park 3

The guys over at the Fighter Verse Blog let me write something about kids and this week’s Fighter verse, which, at first glance, seems rather harsh.

Hop over and take a look

A truth I’ve learned while jogging with my Mom’s dog, Mocha, who we recently dog-sitted:

A repeated and constant tug forward motivates me to move forward, and makes me run faster.

Here’s a good resource for families with young kids. Some comments:

1. The title has a double meaning. It is, in fact, big. Colorful art with images that draw you in and create interest. But it is also “Big Picture” in that it tries to portray the overarching themes from the bible with broad strokes. We have lots of Children’s Bibles. This one is unique.

2. How about this (from page 45) for good theology: “God cursed the snake. God punished Eve. God punished Adam, too. Do you know why God had to punish them? God punished them because they disobey God’s word, which was meant to rule over his place and his people. Did you know that some good news came on this sad day too?  God gave Adam and Eve a hint that he would not always be angry with them. God promised that one day someone would come and crush Satan’s power over people.”

This becomes the theme and is highlighted in the later stories.

3. Yes, Genesis 2 is on page 45. The book is 452 pages long. That’s a lot of pages.

4. Be warned – lots of stories that you are used to in a kid’s Bible are not here. This is to be expected, give the book’s big picture aspect. But there are some surprising and helpful inclusions (such as the rebuilding of the temple) and make sure you look at the details of the pictures for stories not overtly mentioned in the narrative.

5. When I say that it’s for families for young kids, I should be clear: All of my story-listening children (ages 6-11) enjoyed it. I read it out loud to my kids and it was common for them to say “Keep reading” at the end of a section.

6. As portrayed, the death and resurrection of Jesus is sweet and powerful. The gospel is explained.

This book is highly recommended by JamFam.

This post is a review for Crossway Books.

Last year, at the end of January, I posted some of the contents of our Christmas letter, with an explanation.

This year, I’m even later. Can you figure out how I determined the order?

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JAMFAM BY THE NUMBERS – 2009

Ages of our kids as of Dec 16: 6,7,8,9,10,11 (years) and 12 (months)
Degrees outside (and inside) when we drove home from the North Shore with the van heater not working: -4
Fighter Verse sets recorded in song: 2 ½ (half of them)
Years Debbie has led K/1 choir and Scott has led K/1 Wednesday night class at Bethlehem: 4
Months with no TV reception (so far): 6 * Dozens of cookies made this month with grandparents: 13
Recording sessions to record 15 songs (including 2 sessions in Arkansas): 15
Miles biked to the Mississippi River with the three older boys in September: 15
Years of joyful marriage for Scott & Debbie (celebrated on the North Shore, just the two of us): 15
Number of MN State Park official geocaches found: 20
Years in a row that Scott has been to the Bethel Festival of Christmas: 25
Pages of stories from this year’s kids’ journal that we had to trim down to a half page: 28
Percentage of our kids who took swimming lessons this year (funding/transportation by Grandma): 85.71
Earliest picnic: March 15 * Picnic count (beat last year’s record of 81): 92
Pages now in our kids’ journal (all years): 300+
Weight of all of our children (on the big scale at the pumpkin farm): 416
Lord of the Rings pages read (as a family)(now at Helm’s Deep): 529

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Percentage of good things we enjoy that are from God: 100 (JamFam give thanks.)

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Later this week: What was on the flip side