Greetings Beloved Readers and Merry Christmas,
As I sit here with some of my family and missing others, I ponder what I would most like to share about Christmas. It is rather simple. It is Christ. You see I know that there are many sentimental things I can say about Hope, Joy, Love and all the trappings of Christmas. There are things I wish and they matter more than anything, for I believe that Christ wants them as well. You see I have a practice. I never ask God for anything on Christmas day nor on Resurrection Sunday. I consider that God knows my needs and in memoriam of those two days I think he has given enough. Here, today, however, is my Christmas wish list.
That my family would see Christ so clearly that they only follow him.
That my beloved Avalon would see how far she is from Christ and return to him
That my friends, family, and students who do not know him would give Christ and honest try
That all of you would feel my deepest gratitude for you individual parts in my life
Merry Christmas and remember if my seriousness during you merriment is an offense you can tell yourself this is just another Christmas blog. Hey Santa, pass us that bottle will you,
Wishing you joy in the journey
Aramis Thorn
25 December 2008
23 December 2008
Advent - Love
Greetings and Merry Christmas Dear Reader,
What have we done with the word love? It is such a small word but contains so much power. I am going to abandon my usual approach to these things and just offer up some random thoughts. I leave for Georgia today to spend Christmas with my Son, Bezel and my parents and siblings. As I drive I will be thinking about love. Here are the questions I am going to ponder. Perhaps some of them should dance through your thoughts as well.
How do we show others that we love them?
How do we see Christ’s love for us actively in our daily lives?
Do we really know how to love or do we manufacture it when necessary?
When we feel loved by someone else, what is our response?
When someone says that they love us, do we really hear it?
Why do all those who do not know Christ not hear him crying out that he loves them so much?
Is it possible my actions toward others keep them from hearing Christ because I claim to be one of his followers?
How do I show others how much I love Christ?
Do you really believe that you can say that you love Christ and treat others with anything less than the love you need from him?
Do we know how to show love to others in the way Christ does, no matter how we feel?
I am sure there are many more questions to ask, but what I wish to say to all of you is that I love you all, collectively and individually. I will do my best to show it and ask in advance for forgiveness when I fail.
As we close out our preparation for Advent this year, I hope that we truly cling to the coming event of Christ’s appearing and what that means for us all.
Wishing you all joy in the journey and a Merry Christmas,
Aramis Thorn
What have we done with the word love? It is such a small word but contains so much power. I am going to abandon my usual approach to these things and just offer up some random thoughts. I leave for Georgia today to spend Christmas with my Son, Bezel and my parents and siblings. As I drive I will be thinking about love. Here are the questions I am going to ponder. Perhaps some of them should dance through your thoughts as well.
How do we show others that we love them?
How do we see Christ’s love for us actively in our daily lives?
Do we really know how to love or do we manufacture it when necessary?
When we feel loved by someone else, what is our response?
When someone says that they love us, do we really hear it?
Why do all those who do not know Christ not hear him crying out that he loves them so much?
Is it possible my actions toward others keep them from hearing Christ because I claim to be one of his followers?
How do I show others how much I love Christ?
Do you really believe that you can say that you love Christ and treat others with anything less than the love you need from him?
Do we know how to show love to others in the way Christ does, no matter how we feel?
I am sure there are many more questions to ask, but what I wish to say to all of you is that I love you all, collectively and individually. I will do my best to show it and ask in advance for forgiveness when I fail.
As we close out our preparation for Advent this year, I hope that we truly cling to the coming event of Christ’s appearing and what that means for us all.
Wishing you all joy in the journey and a Merry Christmas,
Aramis Thorn
15 December 2008
Advent - Joy
Merry Christmas Beloved Readers,
This, the third week of Advent is dedicated to Joy. I wonder if our current culture really understands what joy is. I think we confuse joy with happiness, excitement, and even fun. As my son Maxim often says, happiness is overrated. We can say that we are happy or unhappy about something but how often are we expressing true joy over things. In the Bible, the word happy appears around 25 time while the word Joy is seen over 200. So what is the big deal about joy?
Perhaps we should contrast the two words. Think about things that make you happy and then about things that bring you joy. Things that make us happy tend to be temporal and fleeting, but the things that give us joy seem to last. My children do not always make me happy but they always fill me with joy when I see them, speak to them, and hear of their lives.
This year has not been filled with much happiness for me. My beloved Avalon continues to pursue divorce from me and each thought of her is painful, but in those same thoughts I continue to find great joy in my love for her. Is that joy complete or reciprocated? No, but it still lives. My love for her, like Christ’s love for all of us is not based on her actions toward me but on who she is to me. My vows to her were not based on her being a good wife but on my choice to love her for life.
This is so relevant to the joy we sing and talk about a Christmas time. Our joy can be complete in Christ no matter what others do to us. I cannot buy the best gifts, have the party I wish, or celebrate Christmas with in-laws that I love. I can revel in the truth that all these ills will pass away when Christ comes to make all things new. I can find joy in the fact that evil and strife will not always hold sway over the world and in finding that joy I can wish it to others.
It is not my pain that matters but rather who I am in that pain.
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart, prepare him room and heaven and nature sing.”
Wishing you JOY in the journey and a Merry Christmas,
Aramis Thorn
This, the third week of Advent is dedicated to Joy. I wonder if our current culture really understands what joy is. I think we confuse joy with happiness, excitement, and even fun. As my son Maxim often says, happiness is overrated. We can say that we are happy or unhappy about something but how often are we expressing true joy over things. In the Bible, the word happy appears around 25 time while the word Joy is seen over 200. So what is the big deal about joy?
Perhaps we should contrast the two words. Think about things that make you happy and then about things that bring you joy. Things that make us happy tend to be temporal and fleeting, but the things that give us joy seem to last. My children do not always make me happy but they always fill me with joy when I see them, speak to them, and hear of their lives.
This year has not been filled with much happiness for me. My beloved Avalon continues to pursue divorce from me and each thought of her is painful, but in those same thoughts I continue to find great joy in my love for her. Is that joy complete or reciprocated? No, but it still lives. My love for her, like Christ’s love for all of us is not based on her actions toward me but on who she is to me. My vows to her were not based on her being a good wife but on my choice to love her for life.
This is so relevant to the joy we sing and talk about a Christmas time. Our joy can be complete in Christ no matter what others do to us. I cannot buy the best gifts, have the party I wish, or celebrate Christmas with in-laws that I love. I can revel in the truth that all these ills will pass away when Christ comes to make all things new. I can find joy in the fact that evil and strife will not always hold sway over the world and in finding that joy I can wish it to others.
It is not my pain that matters but rather who I am in that pain.
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart, prepare him room and heaven and nature sing.”
Wishing you JOY in the journey and a Merry Christmas,
Aramis Thorn
08 December 2008
Advent – Preparation
Merry Christmas beloved Readers
Over the next couple of weeks you will encounter a question that I call a seasonal weather question. Often when people do not know what to say they talk about weather. During this time of year they ask, “So, are you ready for Christmas?” What the average asker wishes to know is if your shopping is done, if your house is decorated, and if your party is planned.
Too seldom do we really prepare for Christmas. Remember that we are talking about the Advent of Christ. Literally, we are looking forward to the arrival of the Anointed Redeemer. How do we prepare for that? Last week I talked about giving others hope. In addition to hope we need to prepare our lives for his arrival.
Instead of thinking of preparation as getting things we need, we should think of it as getting things in order. When we have a favored guest coming to our home, we will spend hours getting our house in order. We plan and anticipate the arrival and become more excited as the moment draws nearer. This is the whole point of celebrating the Advent of Christ. “Let every heart prepare him room.”
We are to approach Christmas as a time when we make ourselves ready for the anticipated arrival of the most honored of guests: Jesus Christ. So as you put up the tree, wrap the presents, and plan your holiday celebrating, I would pose a question. Should not this be another aspect of Christmas that we are pondering and preparing for all year long. Remember that the word Christmas literally means Christ Mass, or the celebration of Christ. So I ask dear reader, are you ready for Christmas?
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Over the next couple of weeks you will encounter a question that I call a seasonal weather question. Often when people do not know what to say they talk about weather. During this time of year they ask, “So, are you ready for Christmas?” What the average asker wishes to know is if your shopping is done, if your house is decorated, and if your party is planned.
Too seldom do we really prepare for Christmas. Remember that we are talking about the Advent of Christ. Literally, we are looking forward to the arrival of the Anointed Redeemer. How do we prepare for that? Last week I talked about giving others hope. In addition to hope we need to prepare our lives for his arrival.
Instead of thinking of preparation as getting things we need, we should think of it as getting things in order. When we have a favored guest coming to our home, we will spend hours getting our house in order. We plan and anticipate the arrival and become more excited as the moment draws nearer. This is the whole point of celebrating the Advent of Christ. “Let every heart prepare him room.”
We are to approach Christmas as a time when we make ourselves ready for the anticipated arrival of the most honored of guests: Jesus Christ. So as you put up the tree, wrap the presents, and plan your holiday celebrating, I would pose a question. Should not this be another aspect of Christmas that we are pondering and preparing for all year long. Remember that the word Christmas literally means Christ Mass, or the celebration of Christ. So I ask dear reader, are you ready for Christmas?
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
01 December 2008
Advent - Hope
Happy Christmas beloved Readers,
Tell me what you are doing for Christmas. Share with me you wishes and dreams. Was the first response a present you hope for or a gift you wish to give? I spent a good part of the Thanksgiving weekend hearing other’s talk of their hopes and wishes for Christmas. I watched as hundreds flooded our local mall in search of “door buster” deals and the chase for things. While all were out getting and spending I observed something else. I saw very little happiness in it.
I am beginning to think that we hope for all the wrong things and that it leaves us bereft of hope. We say we want world peace but do we really hope for it? We want the homeless to have a home. We do not want there to be starving children in Africa, Asia, or anywhere, but do we dare really hope that it can become a reality? During this festive time of year, do we dare to really hope that the world can be a better place? It can be, but how?
I think that first we have to stop trying to eat the elephant all at once. You can only eat and elephant one bite at a time. We are not able to end world hunger but we can find and feed someone who is hungry or help an organization that already does that. We may not be able to negotiate world peace but we can make peace with someone with whom we are at war. You see I think that we avoid the really big problems in our world because solving them seems so hopeless. The tasks are huge, daunting, and seemingly insurmountable. And then there is the ultimate hope.
Christ has promised to end all of the problems that plague us. One day there will be no more children with distended bellies. One day there will be no more aids, no more violence against women, no more war, and no more broken families. I know to some of you that seems more like fairy tale endings than it does a reality to hope for. That is the problem you see. We are afraid to hope for that finality because it demands that we have faith and that we act on that faith. I have found the best way to live out hope is to give it to others. Here are some practical things you can do to start the advent season with hope.
Dare to believe that Christ will make “all things new.”
Give up some of your personal time to care for the needs of others
Join the Advent Conspiracy – www.adventconspiracy.org
Listen to the Transiberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve and other Stories
Center your CHRISTmas around Christ not the gifts and trappings
Read Luke 2:1-14 and hear the hope in it
The thing is:
If you want to arrange it,
This world you can change it.
If we could somehow make this Christmas thing last,
By helping a neighbor,
Or even a stranger,
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask.
-- Transiberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve and other Stories
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Tell me what you are doing for Christmas. Share with me you wishes and dreams. Was the first response a present you hope for or a gift you wish to give? I spent a good part of the Thanksgiving weekend hearing other’s talk of their hopes and wishes for Christmas. I watched as hundreds flooded our local mall in search of “door buster” deals and the chase for things. While all were out getting and spending I observed something else. I saw very little happiness in it.
I am beginning to think that we hope for all the wrong things and that it leaves us bereft of hope. We say we want world peace but do we really hope for it? We want the homeless to have a home. We do not want there to be starving children in Africa, Asia, or anywhere, but do we dare really hope that it can become a reality? During this festive time of year, do we dare to really hope that the world can be a better place? It can be, but how?
I think that first we have to stop trying to eat the elephant all at once. You can only eat and elephant one bite at a time. We are not able to end world hunger but we can find and feed someone who is hungry or help an organization that already does that. We may not be able to negotiate world peace but we can make peace with someone with whom we are at war. You see I think that we avoid the really big problems in our world because solving them seems so hopeless. The tasks are huge, daunting, and seemingly insurmountable. And then there is the ultimate hope.
Christ has promised to end all of the problems that plague us. One day there will be no more children with distended bellies. One day there will be no more aids, no more violence against women, no more war, and no more broken families. I know to some of you that seems more like fairy tale endings than it does a reality to hope for. That is the problem you see. We are afraid to hope for that finality because it demands that we have faith and that we act on that faith. I have found the best way to live out hope is to give it to others. Here are some practical things you can do to start the advent season with hope.
Dare to believe that Christ will make “all things new.”
Give up some of your personal time to care for the needs of others
Join the Advent Conspiracy – www.adventconspiracy.org
Listen to the Transiberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve and other Stories
Center your CHRISTmas around Christ not the gifts and trappings
Read Luke 2:1-14 and hear the hope in it
The thing is:
If you want to arrange it,
This world you can change it.
If we could somehow make this Christmas thing last,
By helping a neighbor,
Or even a stranger,
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask.
-- Transiberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve and other Stories
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
24 November 2008
Christmas On All Souls Day (part the third)
Greetings Dear Reader,
As we approach Thanksgiving and the first real snows fall on the town where I live I wonder at the completeness of commercial America’s transition into full Christmas mode. Not only is it Christmas town in all our local shops, but Christmas music is piping from overhead speakers everywhere. I LOVE IT.
I overheard two co-workers speaking of this on Friday. The attitude of one of them was amazing. She went on about how much she loved Christmas and liked the idea of extending the whole season. I agree with her but I am also holding on to some old traditions. I will not put up the tree until Thanksgiving weekend. I won’t wear my Christmas bandanna until then either. I will do my best to forgive anyone against whom I am carrying a grudge.
This last bit is very important. A couple dozen years ago I realized that celebrating the birth of Christ without forgiving those who have hurt us or wronged us is a contradiction. The birth of Christ is all about forgiveness. It is about a God who could destroy us with a thought, and rightfully so, choosing to become one of us and die for us instead. To set up a manger without an eye to the cross is a vast error. Christmas is about forgiveness and redemption.
I have never told my children this but each year when I sit and go over my Christmas lists I include one of people I need to forgive for one reason or another. It is true. I keep a gift list, shopping list for an open house, and the forgive them list. This year is harder than ever. You see I believe in real forgiveness not just lip service to it.
Forgiveness is not just that I stop feeling bad or being angry about something. I have to quit making the individual pay for their offense. I have to restore them to a proper relationship with me. In Christ’s model prayer he asks the Father to forgive us in the manner in which we forgive others. If I say I have forgiven someone and do not restore her to her proper place in my life, then I have not forgiven her. Forgiveness is not easy but so necessary.
So I challenge you to make another Christmas list. A list of gifts you can give that only cost faith, pain, and pride. I promise that this is hard for me this year but I will not harden my heart by ignoring it. How about you? It is gift giving season. Whom will you forgive? If you have questions about this I will try to answer them, but it really comes down to this. Christ died to forgive you. Why not celebrate Christ’s birth by honoring his purpose in having one.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
As we approach Thanksgiving and the first real snows fall on the town where I live I wonder at the completeness of commercial America’s transition into full Christmas mode. Not only is it Christmas town in all our local shops, but Christmas music is piping from overhead speakers everywhere. I LOVE IT.
I overheard two co-workers speaking of this on Friday. The attitude of one of them was amazing. She went on about how much she loved Christmas and liked the idea of extending the whole season. I agree with her but I am also holding on to some old traditions. I will not put up the tree until Thanksgiving weekend. I won’t wear my Christmas bandanna until then either. I will do my best to forgive anyone against whom I am carrying a grudge.
This last bit is very important. A couple dozen years ago I realized that celebrating the birth of Christ without forgiving those who have hurt us or wronged us is a contradiction. The birth of Christ is all about forgiveness. It is about a God who could destroy us with a thought, and rightfully so, choosing to become one of us and die for us instead. To set up a manger without an eye to the cross is a vast error. Christmas is about forgiveness and redemption.
I have never told my children this but each year when I sit and go over my Christmas lists I include one of people I need to forgive for one reason or another. It is true. I keep a gift list, shopping list for an open house, and the forgive them list. This year is harder than ever. You see I believe in real forgiveness not just lip service to it.
Forgiveness is not just that I stop feeling bad or being angry about something. I have to quit making the individual pay for their offense. I have to restore them to a proper relationship with me. In Christ’s model prayer he asks the Father to forgive us in the manner in which we forgive others. If I say I have forgiven someone and do not restore her to her proper place in my life, then I have not forgiven her. Forgiveness is not easy but so necessary.
So I challenge you to make another Christmas list. A list of gifts you can give that only cost faith, pain, and pride. I promise that this is hard for me this year but I will not harden my heart by ignoring it. How about you? It is gift giving season. Whom will you forgive? If you have questions about this I will try to answer them, but it really comes down to this. Christ died to forgive you. Why not celebrate Christ’s birth by honoring his purpose in having one.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
17 November 2008
Christmas Trees on All Souls Day (part the second)
Greetings Dear Readers,
I am wondering when you start your Christmas Shopping. My children joke that I start the day after Christmas. The big secret is that I actually start on Christmas Day. For me it is the joy of watching others open gifts, see delight in their eyes, and learn what pleases their hearts. I study what other like and enjoy so that as I begin searching for gifts they are based on the person and not the "duty" of gift giving.
I never give gifts out of duty or pressure to find a gift for someone. I would give the entire world a Christmas gift if I could. By starting my shopping as soon as possible I am usually done by the end of November. This leaves me free to do things like Bell Ring for the Salvation Army. For Christmas to work the giving of gifts must be motivated by the joy of giving. That comes from an understanding of why we even give gifts.
I seek to be excellent at giving thoughtful, appropriate, and loving gifts so that perhaps it will open the door to giving the best gift there is. I seek for others to see Christ in my gift giving. I want others to know they are loved and to see that the love I have for them comes from my love of Christ. Hopefully as I celebrate those I love I do so in a way that celebrated Christ. Perhaps you too can wander the malls and shops as you complete your Christmas list thinking of the gift of Christ and how others can benefit from seeing him in your giving.
If you are going to make that change this year, then it may be good that there were Christmas trees on All Souls Day. This means you have more time. If you try it out, let me know how you fared.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
I am wondering when you start your Christmas Shopping. My children joke that I start the day after Christmas. The big secret is that I actually start on Christmas Day. For me it is the joy of watching others open gifts, see delight in their eyes, and learn what pleases their hearts. I study what other like and enjoy so that as I begin searching for gifts they are based on the person and not the "duty" of gift giving.
I never give gifts out of duty or pressure to find a gift for someone. I would give the entire world a Christmas gift if I could. By starting my shopping as soon as possible I am usually done by the end of November. This leaves me free to do things like Bell Ring for the Salvation Army. For Christmas to work the giving of gifts must be motivated by the joy of giving. That comes from an understanding of why we even give gifts.
I seek to be excellent at giving thoughtful, appropriate, and loving gifts so that perhaps it will open the door to giving the best gift there is. I seek for others to see Christ in my gift giving. I want others to know they are loved and to see that the love I have for them comes from my love of Christ. Hopefully as I celebrate those I love I do so in a way that celebrated Christ. Perhaps you too can wander the malls and shops as you complete your Christmas list thinking of the gift of Christ and how others can benefit from seeing him in your giving.
If you are going to make that change this year, then it may be good that there were Christmas trees on All Souls Day. This means you have more time. If you try it out, let me know how you fared.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
13 November 2008
Christmas Trees on All Souls Day (part the first)
Greetings Dear Readers,
As those of you who know me well may recall, I love Christmas. Christmas seems to have started November 2nd this year. And I love it. It is not the commercialism I love, but rather it is Christ and his advent, or arrival to the world as the God-man who would redeem our souls. Whether you share my faith or not, you must admit that the story is awesome.
Consider it for a moment. The very essence of all that exists and all that will ever exist creates us so that He may have a relationship with us. He sets up rules for that relationship that are in line with his nature. We violate those rules, reject him, and force him to place summary judgment on our species.
At this point we see why I am not a god. Were I in this situation I would just scrap the human experiment and start over. Instead God chooses to do something that I would not conceive. He comes to live among us and die for us. He pays the debt for our sin and asks that we only accept him on faith so that we can restore our relationship to him.
That in a nutshell is why we even have Christmas. So back to my original thought here; and that is that I feel that I am winning. You see I am free to talk about Christmas now. Many will complain and bluster that “Christmas starts earlier every year.” I do not think they are saying that we should not celebrate the advent of Christ only in December, but rather that they already feel the pressure to spend and get that has overtaken this most Holy of Days (holiday).
On the other hand, I get to meet those feelings of curmudgeonly humbug with joy, mirth, and anticipation. Avalon’s actions in our lives have made the financial side of Christmas almost untenable this year. I am determined, however, to participate in every available moment of Christmas joy by finding ways to celebrate Christ and those I love in ways that will be financially inexpensive and spiritually profound. In a perfect world it would be always Christmas and briefly winter. Perhaps the materials world’s march toward this truth can allow those of us who celebrate the advent of Christ daily to feel free to do so allowed all year long.
Wishing you joy in the journey and Happy Christmas,
Aramis Thorn.
As those of you who know me well may recall, I love Christmas. Christmas seems to have started November 2nd this year. And I love it. It is not the commercialism I love, but rather it is Christ and his advent, or arrival to the world as the God-man who would redeem our souls. Whether you share my faith or not, you must admit that the story is awesome.
Consider it for a moment. The very essence of all that exists and all that will ever exist creates us so that He may have a relationship with us. He sets up rules for that relationship that are in line with his nature. We violate those rules, reject him, and force him to place summary judgment on our species.
At this point we see why I am not a god. Were I in this situation I would just scrap the human experiment and start over. Instead God chooses to do something that I would not conceive. He comes to live among us and die for us. He pays the debt for our sin and asks that we only accept him on faith so that we can restore our relationship to him.
That in a nutshell is why we even have Christmas. So back to my original thought here; and that is that I feel that I am winning. You see I am free to talk about Christmas now. Many will complain and bluster that “Christmas starts earlier every year.” I do not think they are saying that we should not celebrate the advent of Christ only in December, but rather that they already feel the pressure to spend and get that has overtaken this most Holy of Days (holiday).
On the other hand, I get to meet those feelings of curmudgeonly humbug with joy, mirth, and anticipation. Avalon’s actions in our lives have made the financial side of Christmas almost untenable this year. I am determined, however, to participate in every available moment of Christmas joy by finding ways to celebrate Christ and those I love in ways that will be financially inexpensive and spiritually profound. In a perfect world it would be always Christmas and briefly winter. Perhaps the materials world’s march toward this truth can allow those of us who celebrate the advent of Christ daily to feel free to do so allowed all year long.
Wishing you joy in the journey and Happy Christmas,
Aramis Thorn.
04 November 2008
A Stack of Books and A Leap of Faith
Greetings Dear Readers,
Very often we want things for a good reason. Sometimes, along the way the wanting of the thing takes the place of the reason that we want it. For years I have wanted set of books that I only used briefly in the mid 80's. Over the years of wanting them the depth of my understanding of their purpose gave way to just wanting to possess them.
As my beloved wife Avalon leaves me for what she thinks is a better life, I have asked the same question of my feelings for her. Do I really love her or am I just trying to hold onto something I want having forgotten what it truly is? The true and harsh answer is both. I want MY WIFE. I do not want to go through the rejection, betrayal, violation of promises, and pain involved in a woman who vowed to stay with me for life deciding she does not have to abide by that promise. The last I checked I am not dead.
On the other hand, I truly do love her and know the meaning of that love. I have listened to others, as I go through this process, say things about Avalon that they would not say while she was in my life. The hard part is that the things that are being said are true. They are not pretty nor are they things I would allow myself to think about her. As I admit that there are some very unlovely things that are true about my departing spouse, I also realize that beyond on them I truly love her. It was an error to blind myself to those things and to not seek Christ's healing of my fears and her flaws in our marriage. It is necessary to never stop loving her, to see her as she is and constantly remember why I loved her from the beginning.
It is also necessary, for the sake of my own healing, to see her as she is, warts and all. I have done a good job of owning my own sin and failures. I have not been willing to remember that she is just as fallen as I am and that she has chosen a path contrary to the expressed desires of Christ. I must love her even though she rends me. I must remember the real reasons I loved her from the beginning and no matter what she does, see her as she is and continue to lover her.
I recently bought the books I spoke of earlier. I can see them from where I sit. I have delved deeply into them and remembered why I love them so much. They have something to teach me on every page. I bought them to remind me that you do not go into things so tha
t you can blind yourself to what they are, but rather in faith see things as they are and work to make them more as God intended. Each time I study from my new books I intend to check on my faithfulness to seeing things as they are and not as I imagine or wish them to be. I will still look toward what they can become in Christ, but will do my best not to be blind to the wounds that need healing first. I failed Avalon in not seeing what she needed and I failed my sons in not seeing how those needs effected them and my relationship with them.
t you can blind yourself to what they are, but rather in faith see things as they are and work to make them more as God intended. Each time I study from my new books I intend to check on my faithfulness to seeing things as they are and not as I imagine or wish them to be. I will still look toward what they can become in Christ, but will do my best not to be blind to the wounds that need healing first. I failed Avalon in not seeing what she needed and I failed my sons in not seeing how those needs effected them and my relationship with them.Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
30 October 2008
Boys of Summer
Greetings Dear Readers,
There is something about being a parent that is amazing. Opportunities abound when your children are young. Then they commit the terrible crime of growing up and opportunities become rare. As a teacher I had many summers to spend with my sons Maxim a
nd Bezel growing up. We built some amazing memories and had some real and imagined adventures. I had the honor of teaching them to swim, discovering who they were becoming over Jamocha Shakes, and teaching them the wonder of baseball.
They are older now and the opportunities are few. They are good men trying to find the right path in a dangerous world. They are loyal friends. Maxim is a good husband to his wife Raven. His passion for the lost and seeing Christ touch the lives of others is inspiring. Bezel has a depth of loyalty and compassion that is incomparable. His charm and wit could win millions to Christ. They are amazing men who I also count at my best friends.
It astonishes me how much they have to teach me but I sometimes wonder about the things I need to begin to teach them. What is a father's place in the lives of his adult sons? I know that there are areas where I dare not tread. I must respect that they are young men but I see things they do not always see and am not sure how to communicate it to them.
There are other matters where I must teach them by action with few words. Currently I am teaching them how to handle pain and rejection at the hands of someone I love. I will have to teach them how a man handles aging, painful life changes, and facing the future without the love of your life. I hope they never have to apply these lessons but I will teach them just the same.
It is my job to be the example they need even when they do not wish it. I must handle all things with the grace and love of Christ. I must love them wear they are at all times. When I fail them I must own it completely. When they fail me I must insist that they own it but do so in a spirit of gentle and restorative love. I love my sons with a fire that is unquenchable. I challenge all men who are blessed with sons to do the same; be vulnerable about your failures, hold them accountable for their, most important, evidence the grace and love of Christ is all things.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
There is something about being a parent that is amazing. Opportunities abound when your children are young. Then they commit the terrible crime of growing up and opportunities become rare. As a teacher I had many summers to spend with my sons Maxim a
nd Bezel growing up. We built some amazing memories and had some real and imagined adventures. I had the honor of teaching them to swim, discovering who they were becoming over Jamocha Shakes, and teaching them the wonder of baseball.They are older now and the opportunities are few. They are good men trying to find the right path in a dangerous world. They are loyal friends. Maxim is a good husband to his wife Raven. His passion for the lost and seeing Christ touch the lives of others is inspiring. Bezel has a depth of loyalty and compassion that is incomparable. His charm and wit could win millions to Christ. They are amazing men who I also count at my best friends.
It astonishes me how much they have to teach me but I sometimes wonder about the things I need to begin to teach them. What is a father's place in the lives of his adult sons? I know that there are areas where I dare not tread. I must respect that they are young men but I see things they do not always see and am not sure how to communicate it to them.
There are other matters where I must teach them by action with few words. Currently I am teaching them how to handle pain and rejection at the hands of someone I love. I will have to teach them how a man handles aging, painful life changes, and facing the future without the love of your life. I hope they never have to apply these lessons but I will teach them just the same.
It is my job to be the example they need even when they do not wish it. I must handle all things with the grace and love of Christ. I must love them wear they are at all times. When I fail them I must own it completely. When they fail me I must insist that they own it but do so in a spirit of gentle and restorative love. I love my sons with a fire that is unquenchable. I challenge all men who are blessed with sons to do the same; be vulnerable about your failures, hold them accountable for their, most important, evidence the grace and love of Christ is all things.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
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