God Centered Dad

    Have you noticed how the world likes to change the use and meaning of words, especially when they want to remove God from their worldview? This has become a rampant problem, but it seems like it is not a new problem.   Some time ago, my mind wandered and I got to thinking about the terms "the Dark Ages" and the later occurring "Enlightenment". I got to wondering what the basis of these terms actually was. On the surface, one might think that the Dark Ages were a time of oppression, lack of human flourishing and maybe even spiritual repression if you have a bent towards theological thinking. The Enlightenment would seem to then be the contrast to that, suggesting that oppression had ceased, human civilization grew and advanced and that spiritual repression had ceased. But is this really the case?   As it turns out, the term "Dark Ages" was coined, somewhat indirectly and unintentionally, by an Italian poet by the name of Francis Petrarch who lived in th...

   What follows is another of my thought exercises that I sometimes like to undertake. There may be some references to Scripture, since I base my thought processes on what Scripture says, but I will not assert that what follows is strictly Scriptural. In the beginning, God created (Genesis 1:1); in the beginning of what? It can't be in the beginning of time, because, as I will discuss a little later, time as we know it only came into existence through the creative process. It also can't be in the beginning of God's existence, because the Bible tells us that God has always been. We understand from astronomy that the universe is constantly expanding, and though some scientists may not acknowledge this, the implication of this is that at some point in time, the universe had to have a beginning. If the universe is constantly and consistently expanding, then it cannot have always been. If we reverse the expansion back through time, there will come a point at which the ...

   I came to a realization this morning, which I will get to shortly. I have often shared a story with people that I know that demonstrates how people need to be taught what many of us may think of as a basic skill of survival. I may or may not have already written this story on this blog previously, and I'm not about to share it now as it is merely a parallel situation to what I am writing about today, but this story is about maintaining basic cleanliness and how it is not an ingrained human trait, but rather, something that has to be taught. I came to this realization many years ago after having been exposed to a people group who had apparently never been taught this skill. To the same end as this story, this morning I came to the conclusion that people need to be taught how to make good decisions. In our internet age, we get to have a front row seat to the consequences of too many peoples' bad decisions. How often have you come across some story or video of someone who is b...

I have been witnessing and observing the methods and results of a style of parenting that is referred to as "gentle parenting". According to a summary of an article by Cleveland Clinic, "The goal of gentle parenting is to raise confident, independent and happy children through empathy, respect and understanding, and setting healthy boundaries. This parenting style focuses largely on age-appropriate development." This method of parenting is contrasted with traditional parenting with a "focus on punishment and reward." I was raised traditionally. As were my siblings. We all turned out well. We are all functioning members of society with friend groups and social circles. We all avoided the teenage and young adult traps of cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and sex. And most importantly, we all loved our parents and had good relationships with them. I think this is a fantastic outcome of a parenting system that has been around since the start of time. There are, of c...

We live in the information era. Almost anything that you want to know is available to you 24/7, wherever you are, through your computer or your smartphone. What's more, with the advent of AI, if you choose to use it, you don't even need to do the searching yourself anymore. You just ask AI for the information that you are looking for, and it is presented to you with almost zero effort. This information era has changed the nature of business. While the North American economy has previously been built on engineering, manufacturing and resource development, it is increasingly being supported by information. This isn't scientific knowledge or inquiry. This isn't mathematical theory that may lead to future advancements in understanding. This information that appears to be the cornerstone of modern business is the personal information of each one of us. There are myriad "rewards" programs that are run by various companies. They offer points that you can use towards...

Humanity has always had an interest in the afterlife. We all know that we are alive on this earth, and we also know that everyone eventually dies. What we don't know for certain is what happens after our life on earth is done. The Bible gives us a pretty good understanding of what the afterlife looks like, but as with many subjects, there is an element of interpretation involved in understanding it. This is why there are several ideas about what one will experience once we leave this mortal coil. But what the Bible is very clear about is that there is a life after this one. There are a lot of verses in the New Testament that talk either directly or indirectly about the afterlife, but this understanding of life after death did not come about only in the New Testament time. The Jews have a very intricate teaching and understanding about what things look like when one dies. I do not claim to have a full knowledge or understanding of these views, but we know from Scripture that Sheol ...