Monday, April 11, 2005

Where is Your Faith

A while back Kim and I watched the movie Bowling for Columbine. At first I was sceptical of even watching anything by Michael Moore as I thought he was "too far out there". I didn't agree with some of the things that he protrayed, but some of the things he expressed made me think of other areas that, during our day-to-day activities, we so often are all a frazel about.

In these short 7 months of Jayden's life we have been in many conversations with people on parenting issues, most of these converstions are by chance, and all of which are with relatives, friends, aquaintences and strangers you meet in Target that want to know about "your little one." And not one conversation has the same point of view: We all parent differently.

Quite often we are bombarded by so many different media's points of view that we often don't just rely on our faith and "instincts". For example, many people are in constant worry about what little Jane or Johny can and can't eat. Should she/he be eating all organic? Don't get me wrong, organic foods are awesome, in fact, my Dad grows organic crops. I eat organic foods, as well as, non-organic foods. Growing up on a farm I ate non-organic foods and I myself am healthy as can be. If you really want to know the whole truth, my family actually dipped milk out of the bulk-milk tank when growing up (my Dad also milked cows) and drank it...it wasn't even pasturized. Oh My! :)

I guess my whole point to this article is to express that people need to just relax and raise their children in the way they see fit. We as parents are the ones responsible for raising Jayden in a healthy and loving way. We listen to his needs and feed him what's best. We do reference a book from time to time, but we don't need the book to raise Jayden every day of his life. Kim and I have wonderful loving parents and back in the day when they raised us didn't raise us by a book. After all, babies don't come with an owner's manual. So, where is your faith? Do you rely on God to raise your child and not on what some book and sometimes doctor tells you what you should and should not do? It's always nice to have the advice and opinions from other parents, but most importantly your child is going to tell you what she or he needs, and it may not be "by the book" or what your doctor will tell you. Just listen to your child.

So, speaking of Jayden, He's working on his third tooth. It's been kind of a ride for him. It's not quite through yet, but it's peeking! He still has yet to figure out what rolling over is, or that his tummy is not really a bad thing. So, the inevitible crawling will probably never happen, or we'll be old and gray by then! He is definately into people food, which makes eating a meal with him twice as more fun. He gets mad when he cannot hold something in his hand to feed himself. It won't be long and he'll be able to do it all himself!

With this nice weather we have gotten him out to some local parks for entertainment. He loves to swing and has figured out that sand tastes good! Over the weekend we broke down and bought a bike trailer for him to go riding in so we can finally get back to biking! (Kim is very happy!) We made the trip to a bike trail the other day and Jayden LOVED every minute of it. He still needs to grow into his helmet but it won't be long. So biking season has begun and Jayden is in for the ride!! Look out summer here we come!
Matthew 7:1 - "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

7 comments:

Joan said...

You think it's bad when Jayden is little. Just wait until the conversations turn to discipline. Boy is that fun!! Just hang in there and ignore the rest of the stuff.

dpine said...

dude i hope you weren't bothered by something sunday night. i think sharing what we do as parents is important to our learning and molding. you have your way of doing things and i have mine. there different but i respect your choices and admire your parenting, same way i hope you do mine.

On a different note...to bring up a theological discussion. I am not sure if God takes all the responsibility in raising kids. i think he wants us to put faith in him to provide the patience and grace and mercy that we reflect on our children. But lets face it I could stop feeding miya today (my choice) and trust that God will mircaulously feed her. But I dont believe God is a dictator who controls this world like a puppet master. He puts some of the decisions in our lap. In this choice miya would probably die in a week or two (i dont know the exact scientific amount). I think it would be wrong for me to blame God because I had faith in him and he didn't provide. I should blame myself for being a dumb a** and not feeding her.

Thoughts?....

Kevin said...

There really is no one point that triggered this writing. I'm not disrespecting anyone else's parenting as everyone has their different view. I agree in sharing how we raise our children is good, it's just when it becomes a disagreement and the daggers fly that it becomes discouraging in sharing.

I'm not disagreeing at all that God gives us responsibility in raising our kids. I also agree that he puts some decision making responsibility in us as well. We have to make the best choice that's available for us. But, it seems like a lot of times people worry about the simple things that in the end carry no value. Why worry? This kind of revolves back to the third paragraph of my article. We tend to concentrate so much on what the media say is right vs. wrong or on what we should/shouldn't do that we lose site of enjoying life for what it is. (Mathew 6:25-34)

dpine said...

word...i feel you. dont sweat the small stuff. its kind of my moddo. thanks for the stimulating blogging. thats what i love about this. btw...i created a blog for the junkyard bandnight. It's www.junkyardbandnight.blogspot.com. take care bro. see you sunday.

no worries.....be happy. don't worry be happy now....(you gotsta sing it like the song)

AClarke said...

Did I miss something on Sunday night? I didn't know that there was a dissagreement.
Julie and I have been sitting back and listening to this stuff for over a year now. There are things that we disagree with and there are things that we plan on taking and using when our daughter is born. But we have never "judged" someone because they do things differently than us. I don't know the circumstances but I would caution to not automatically associate disagreement with judgement. If anyone hurt yours or Kim's feelings the best thing would be to bring it to that person's attention.

I think that you and Kim are doing a great job with Jayden. He's an awesome little guy.
I look forward to seeing you guys on Sunday.
-Adam

Kim said...

Just to clarify things for all you that are concerned about something said. This really has nothing to do with one certain conversation, but many over the last seven months that we have been involved in. It's just something that has brought attention to us and we want to express it and get feed back as far as "parent to parent". Of course we are all going to agree and disagree or agree to disagree. We are all different and all will parent differently. It's always nice to have conversations on a "parent to parent" level, but sometimes when a parent is looked, maybe..."down upon," because of something they do, it makes the conversation less appealing in addition it leads to being judged or a disagreement in totally different aspects. We know that being judged and having a disagreement is not the same, it's the matter in which the conversation is received or interpreted. Don't take any of this personally. Just leave it as a topic of discussion.

Ta-ronnie-sauras said...

Minnis, I thought you were gay, but after reading this, all doubt has left my mind.