"In the beginning...."

I've often wondered what motivates people to put together a blog.  Most of them seem to identify a person's interest in hobbies, in special interests, or in things that touch them personally.  I'm not very fond of many blogs, because they often are detailed descriptions of someone's personal life.  I'm sorry, but I'm not really interested in how the Betty Crocker version of a particular recipe wasn't as good as the one found on the Food Network's web site.  I think the number one thing that I dislike about blogs is that they are mostly litanies of complaining.  There aren't too many people who enjoy being around negative people for too long, so celebrations of the things we don't like really cannot have mass appeal.

For these reasons, I never thought I'd find use for a blog.  It didn't seem to be my thing.  However, recent introspection into my life and my relationships have given me an idea.  Not a new idea, mind you, but one that has motivated me to search out the inner blogger in me.  In my soul-searching, one thing that kept haunting me is that I am not truly living up to my calling as an evangelist - that is, I wasn't living up to my baptismal calling as priest, prophet, and king.  If I cannot serve my fellow man as a priest in the service of God (not an ordained priesthood, mind you, but one of normal service toward man), and I fail to proclaim His Good News as a prophet, I will never share in the Kingdom of God.  To that end, I will compose reflections on a topic that is dear to my heart - Christian fatherhood.  I thought of also doing a separate blog on reflections of being a Christian husband, but for me, the two are inseparable.  Later reflections will delve into this deeper.

In reflecting on my life, the three top characteristics that I identify in myself is that I am a Christian first, a husband second, and a father third.  Other family and friends fall behind these priorities in life, as does work, and certainly the materialism of society.  God has called upon me to follow Jesus and carry my cross, and on that journey I am called to be a companion to my lovely wife, and according to His will, we are called to bring forth and raise four five lovely children plus one child who has already touched the face of God.  Everything else in life falls behind these priorities.

I am not writing this blog because I feel that I am the perfect father and that I have great wisdom to bestow upon fathers everywhere.  On the contrary, I know that I am very flawed.  We all are.  My motivation for doing this blog is to reflect on specific thoughts that I have about what it means to be a Christian father, and what that means in respect to our modern society.  I'm not a preacher or a sociologist, I'm just a father who thinks that fatherhood means something way more than how it is seen in society. 

I am heavily motivated by the movie Courageous, and one line in that movie specifically has had an impact in my journey of life.  The lead character was introducing his revelation of fatherhood to his friends and how he needed to improve.  One of his friends said, "You're a good enough dad."  In my mind, I stated the response before the actor on the screen did...."I don't want to be a good enough dad, I want to be the dad I was called by God to be."  I'm not quoting the movie verbatim here, but this is the basic idea that echoed in my mind throughout the rest of the movie, and honestly ever since. 

Hopefully, this gives a little insight into my reason for doing this blog.  I don't know if it will ever be read by anybody, but I think it will certainly help me develop myself into the dad that God wants me to be.  If there is someone who reads this, please feel free to respond.  If you feel an ache in your heart to be more, and you need someone to discuss things with, I would be more than happy to walk your journey with you, so long as you are willing to walk my journey with me.

God Bless, and enjoy future posts.