Dec 30 2008
Here is your New Year’s bonus tip, compliments of my best friend’s family:
If you are looking for a fun, cheaper, safer, more legal alternative to fireworks, just get a couple or more big rolls of bubble wrap, lay them out on your living room floor or driveway, and stomp to your heart’s delight. I recommend a mixture of large and small bubbles, but whatever suits your fancy. Enjoy!
Dec 30 2008
New Year’s Resolutions can be a great way to refocus and improve our lives and relationships. Self-improvement is all well and good (although I have experienced much more improvement in my life through surrendering to God than through anything I have been able to do for my self), but I have decided to put that energy into offering some recognition of some very deserving folks as we ring in the new year.
To all of you who are actively engaged in the critical tasks of investing in the lives of children and shaping them toward healthy adulthood…
THANK YOU for your parenting efforts. No, you aren’t perfect. Yes, your best efforts do make a tremendous difference. What you do matters more than you will ever know!
Mothers – Thanks for giving so much of your selves, and for your loving sacrifices to be there for your kids. You have the most significant role in the world!
Fathers – Thanks for your hard work, and for your willingness to show your kids how to handle life well. You have the most powerful position in the world!
Step-Parents – Thanks for choosing to love the children who came as part of the package deal of marriage. You have the most underrated role in the world!
Single Parents – Thanks for doing whatever it takes to provide for your kids, keep them healthy and well, and teach all those life lessons along the way. You the most challenging position in the world!
Parents in recovery – Whatever your life struggle or addiction, thanks for working two full-time jobs in addition to your career: parenting and recovery. As you work on your self and “clean your side of the street,” you actively improve the lives of your children. You have the most thankless role in the world!
Grandparents – Thanks for sharing your lives with your grandkids, and for doing so much to make them feel so special. You have the most blessed position in the world!
Extra “Parents” (teachers, coaches, youth pastors, other mentors) – Thanks for investing in the kids in your lives in so many meaningful ways that make such a lifetime difference. You have the most supportive role in the world!
And to all of you who parent in one way or another – May you take the time to savor the difference you have made in the lives of your kids. New Year’s Resolutions are great, but don’t forget to enjoy the tremendous victories of parenting you have made over the last year. THANKS!!!
Gratefully,
Roger
Dec 28 2008
In the spirit of Christmastime and the impending new year, it seems appropriate to share another nugget of wisdom from our old friend, Oogway the kung-fu grandmaster turtle. This quote happens to be my very favorite:
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.
Good stuff, Master Oogway! May each of us live every day in the beauty and serenity of this truth.
For more Oogway posts, click here: Master Oogway’s Wisdom and More Wisdom from Oogway
Dec 17 2008
There is really something meaningful and powerful about sharing good stories with someone. Passing along the memories of a time or event or tradition that blessed our lives in some important way offers a unique opportunity to share that blessing with another. I hope you will take time and make the effort to share some of your favorite Christmastime memories with someone in the coming days. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas blessings:
- Although we weren’t a big Santa Claus family, one year my parents and grandparents conspired with a neighbor to bring our Christmas gift sled to the front porch while we were unwrapping presents on Christmas Eve (as was our family tradition at that time), and to make plenty of noise doing it. The adults then made a fuss over having heard a noise on the porch, and opened the door to see what it was. Even if only for a little while, Santa Claus became very real for one little guy that Christmas Eve when I saw that beautiful flexible flyer style sled with a big red bow on top.
- We had an upright piano throughout my life, which still sits in the same spot in my parents’ living room. My Mom played the piano, and my sisters and I each learned to peck away at it a bit here and there. Every year in December, the old yellowing pages of traditional Christmas carols would emerge from the piano bench. At times, my whole family would sing them together as my Mom accompanied on the piano. More often, my sisters and I would just pull out the music and sing. For my money, nothing beats singing through every fascinating verse of Good King Wenceslas. Cool story. Great words. Stirring music.
- This one may get me in some mild trouble with the in-laws, but it’s worth the risk. Continue Reading »
Dec 12 2008
Anyone else out there getting tired just thinking about the impending barrage of Christmas parties you are about to be attending in rapid succession?
Maybe it’s just me.
Maybe it’s the cough that’s settling into my chest.
Maybe it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Well, my advice to you my self for facing all the Christmastime fun is this:
Easy does it!
Brilliant, huh?!! Well, keeping it simple seems to a pretty good antidote to overcomplicating and overfilling our lives. And this simple advice is undoubtedly what some of my most cherished friends and spiritual advisors would tell me at this moment. So I’ll officially begin my Christmas party season tomorrow, but give my self a break from trying to be the life of the party, staying to close down and clean up, or generally making it out to be more than it is – a relaxed time of enjoying friends at a wonderful time of year.
Merry Christmas! (I feel better already. I don’t know about you.)
Roger
- For more tips on surviving the holiday season, click here.
Dec 04 2008
I write this post in anticipation of joy. Based on many past experiences (and one in particular), I feel I am on solid ground to expect some genuine joy and exuberance this weekend. I’m going to risk taking you into my confidence here. My son is turning five this weekend, and isn’t quite old enough to be reading my blog with any regularity, so I’m counting on you not to spoil the surprise for him.
His big birthday present this year is going to be a pile of dirt. His Nana is participating in the emergence and celebration of his young masculinity by ordering a big ole pile of river silt to be dumped in a great mound in our back yard near the live oak. I can’t remember the last time I so looked forward to a birthday party! I realize I will be the guy responsible for shaping up the big mound to get it ready for childhood exploration and adventure, at least until the first good rain helps it to settle into place with some measure of permanancy. But that won’t even seem like work, when it is for such a think of beauty as a huge heap of soil.
Jesus once said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Several things come to mind. I am grateful to God for helping me grow in my ability to give good gifts to my son – gifts that really matter and that help to mold him into a man after God’s own heart, rather than gifts that simply fill up a few moments with enjoyable distraction. (The free dirt pile in the neighborhood disappeared before I had a chance to haul it to our backyard, so my mother-in-law graciously offered to buy him a load of top grade river silt. Man, did I come out easy on this gift idea!)
As I consider these words of Jesus, and revel in the anticipation of the joy my son and his friends will find in the new “playground,” I am overwhelmed at the realization that my delight in bringing joy to my son is but a dim reflection of the delight my Father takes in bringing joy into my life. Is it any wonder the stories of Jesus’ life and message are called “Good News” (Gospels)?!! What really blows me away is the second half of this joyful message of Jesus. “…how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!“ Two things are worth some serious exploration here. Do I know the difference between good gifts and bad gifts, with regard to my desires for my own life? And how willing am I to boldly and confidently ask my loving Father to delight us both by giving me these good gifts?
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen!”
With Hope in Him,
Roger
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Dr. Roger D. Butner