Dear Gemma,

Yesterday, I had to pick you up from ‘School’.  I have to admit, I was a little frustrated by it.  My daily routine was disrupted, and it was throwing me for a loop.  I left work, hopped in the car, and headed your way.  I got to the church, hopped out of the car and made my way to where they told me you’d be.

I peaked my head in the window, and I saw you about to play ring around the rosey with the teachers, you were having a blast.  And then you saw me.  Your face changed from having fun to pure delight.  You screamed, “Daddy” and ran towards the door.  The moment you saw me, nothing else in that room mattered.  My heart melted, all over again. I’m not sure I’ve seen that much excitement on your face before.

I opened the door, scooped you up, and you grabbed a hold of my neck.  I mean, you grabbed tight.  Like you were never going to let go.  More importantly, like you never wanted to let go.

Gemma, yesterday you changed my life.  I don’t know what, if anything was different, but you made my schedule being a bit off, totally worth it.  You made my frustration disappear, and you made me remember a little clearer what is important in life.

I love you,

Daddy

I’ve been really focused on me.  The heavy stuff on my heart.  Can I just say that being a husband and father is the most amazing thing in the world!? [sthumbs=1599|1598|1597|1591|1595|1593|1587|1594|1589,144,3,n,center,]

I wrote this to ABC Family.  I’m still waiting on a response.

Dear ABC Family,

I have a bone to pick with you.  I don’t even really know where to begin.  When I think of the word family incorporated with a tv channel, I automatically think, “Oh, this is something the entire family can watch together.”  I almost get excited. I think of the opportunity to talk to family about real life issues.  (As I thought was going to be possible with your ‘hit’ show, “The Secret Life”)

Now, the content of the shows don’t bother me as much as your rhetoric and target audience. (I won’t touch on the wonderful acting today)  The name of your channel is ‘ABC Family’.  Family.  Now, at first glance I thought, “The Secret Life”, what a wonderful opportunity to talk to a child about premarital sex.”  Amazing my astonishment when this show was filled with some (horribly thought 0ut) plots.  Not only does a teenager get pregnant, but her dad is cheating on her mom, her christian friend becomes a slut, (from my understanding) another man’s wife dies, (or the other way around) and merely 2 weeks later he is sleeping with another woman.  Wow.  Now, I am sure that this is great television to some, but I have to disagree with the way you are targeting our youth for this kind of garbage.

If you have a defense for that show, (Which I’m sure you do) how on earth do you explain another one of your prime time shows, “Greek”.  (GRΣΣK). I really don’t have to explain further do I?  How do you justify targeting young kids to watch this junk?

I urge you to consider changing the name of your station to something a little more reasonable, instead of just changing your tag-line to “A new kind of family.” That’s a little misleading.  The options are endless.  Maybe ABC Half:  “Just not good enough for the REAL ABC.”  Or, ABC Trying To Take a Dollar While Corrupting Our Youth “Seventh Heaven could only carry us so far.”

I might be being a little harsh.  Maybe I’m jumping the conclusion.  But your plots are not those of a family show.  Your situations are not ones that a child should be watching.  Your characters are not ones children should be aiming to be.  In today’s world, something needs to change.  I urge you to promote the change.

Thank you,

In case you don’t know. Tam does something called Thursday swap over at her corner of the internet.

If you don’t know Tam, you really should.  She has an awesome husband and a great funny family (but doesn’t use punctuation or capitols.. unlike me, I use them whenever and where ever I want).  From all the tweets and comments I’ve read, everyone admires her children.  If you don’t know her story, read it here. It literally speaks the love of God.  You cannot afford to not read it.(did I word that right?)  But… today is not about me… so without further ado, I give you….. Tam

———————————- Family—————————-

we’ve been talking about family, kids, open communication and sex over at my place this week. ive always felt that families today arent near as open with one another as i feel they should be. we live in a society where we let other people do our work. the work of the family, the parent. we defer way too much to the schools. public and private. in fact, i found that when our oldest went to a private christian school, for kindergarten and 1st grade, we became very relaxed in our responsibilities at home. like, talking about God, reading the bible and even praying with her. in the back of my mind i knew she was gettin all that stuff at school, so i didnt feel as guilty when i let it slip and slide in our home.

parents? we have to be proactive. we need to be. our kids need us to be. being and doing so shows our children we care. shows them they are important enough to us to take the time to tackle the hard stuff because they are worth every ounce of effort and energy we can give them. is it always easy? no. is it always convenient? nope. but does that mean we dont do it? of course not.

and even though we’ve always heard that it takes a village to raise a child, which i agree with, it doesnt mean we step back and let the village do it alone.

ive been told before “youre so lucky you have such good kids!”. seriously? do you think it was really luck? no. its been, and still is, the hardest thing we’ve ever done. but when something means the world to you…you will go the ends of the earth for it.

its time we take back our families and our roles as parents seriously. the future of our young ones depend on it.

as andy and andrea prepare for their first born i believe they will be phenomenal parents. ive read their written words, which i believe are the desires of their hearts, and am convinced they will pour every bit of themselves into their family.

lets remember to pray for them. to pray for each other and our children. THAT is the best thing we can do for one another!

God,

Thank You for waking me up.  I love everything You do for us.  I love You Lord.  Today I pray for patience.  Not just for me, but for the world.  I know times are tough, and I pray that today, You can just give us light hearts and help us take today in stride.  Lord, I pray for my temper.  I pray that you can help me overcome the small things that set me off.

God, I’m not a whole lot without You.  I know sometimes I try to play you up, or leave you out, but Lord, I pray that today, I can’t do that.  I pray that today I am reminded that I need You to breathe.  I pray that I am reminded that I need you keep my job.  I pray I am reminded that I need you to keep my anything.   Lord thank You for everything you’ve carried me through.  Thank you for loving me when I couldn’t love myself.  Thank You for seeking me out.  Thank you for accepting me.

Lord, please just look over my family, my wife and my child.  God, please just show them love.  Show them you’re here.  And protect them from the craziness of this world.  Your love is unexplainable, and more than enough for me!  I love you God..