Obedient Believers

A picture of Carson my Grandson sleeping taken by my daughter Jennifer>>>>>

In the context of a church where everyone was accepted and freedom was strewn about by the boatload, regardless of how one lived, one young, brave, German Pastor spoke into the wilderness of an impenitent people, these words:

“Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945 for his participation in the small Protestant resistance movement about one month before the Allies won the Second World War in Europe.

http://www.dbonhoeffer.org/node/3 for more on DB.

"Parentalness"

A thought raced through my mind the other day and today I hope to spend a few moments concentrating on it here…

Most of you probably know from the last post of this blog about Carson, our cute and cuddly grandson that was born a week ago today. Holding him has caused me to reflect on the difficulties of parenting. Seeing my daughter Jenni and Greg, her husband, adjust to the demands of having a newborn in the house, (the sacrifices of sleep, convenience, money, priorities, to name a few) has me asking, and wondering, and trying to remember the time when our children were young.
You see I was just 18 when we were married and Connie was only 16. We were in High School and we were pregnant. We married in March, two months after finding out about our coming baby. It was the right thing to do for us, we confessed our sin and then adjusted our lives to the consequences of our actions. We also loved each other very much, so on a rainy March 7^th, 1981 we promised before God and family that we would be committed to each other for the rest of our lives. That was a great day. In the months that followed I finished high school, then we bought our own place in Harrison Township, MI and then on July 11^th, 1981 our daughter Jennifer Lynn was born, She was beautiful and full of life and so tiny! I loved the idea of being a father, that I was responsible for a little human life was cool. Then the stark reality of being a parent gripped me and I failed. The reason that our children were loved and nurtured was primarily my wife. I look back and don’t remember too much involvement. Yes there were some sleepless nights and the like, but I worked. There was no FMLA. Connie now 17 was alone most of the time to care for our child. In those early days we only had one car that worked so she was stuck. I can’t explain how we made it other than the hand of God so firmly gripped us even before we recognized it.

So my thought the other day was this:

My wife Connie really amazes me and I almost never tell her about it. My selfish way of life always gets in the way of me reminding her how much she means to me and how much she has done in the life of our children. She pours her life into others and it began with little Jennifer over 25 years ago. Connie, I cannot begin to thank you enough for all that you have done in our lives.