Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

1 Comment Posted on food reviews, Health, parenting, vegan

Non-Dairy, Plant-Based Options For Eggs, Milk, Cheese & Butter

July 28, 2013 at 1:06 pm , by 

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Spirituality

A Parent’s Prayer For Wisdom, Humility, And Grace

July 26, 2013 at 1:18 pm , by 

2 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

I’ve written before about how I pray for you. Today, I want to tell you about how I pray for myself, as your dad.

First, I pray for wisdom, more than anything; because if God grants me wisdom, I am better prepared to handle any future blessings or challenges that come my way.

I pray for wisdom to guide me in life, as a husband, a daddy, as a steward of time and money, and as I attempt to be a decent human being in general.

Life would be so much easier if things were predictable; if life came with a literal play-by-play instruction manual. Instead, by praying for wisdom, I hope to gain maturity to know how to handle each situation; as I build upon what humility as taught me in the past.

Therefore, I also pray for humility.

Though there are many wise sayings about pride, this one by Yogi Bhajan is currently my favorite:

“When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful.”

When I think of that quote, I think of my own dad, actually. When I think of a person in my own life who I never have a memory of being prideful or selfish, but instead, who always put others first- even in regards to his own feelings- it’s my dad.

The older I get, the more I realize what really matters in life… and that’s serving other people.  Like I wrote you yesterday, I am now very consciously aware of not letting my own specific beliefs on politics, religion, and even food, get in the way of that. So when I speak of what I’m passionate about, I want to be inclusive, not exclusive.

Plus, on the flip side, I figure that the less people in life I give the authority to hurt my feelings, the better. It’s like that great quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Which brings me to the last element of the trifecta of my daily prayer, as a parent:

Grace.

Every day, I expect for situations in life that will force me to choose to put my wisdom and humility to the test. If there’s not something new I can learn about myself in the process, and if there’s not something new I can learn about overcoming my pride and helping others, it’s then that I should be worried.

Therefore, I need grace on a daily basis. I need grace to land the falls that are sure to come.

I believe that God passionately opposes pride, but gives grace to the humble. Without wisdom, I wouldn’t desire to become humble. But if I am humble, I want grace, God’s favor, along with the humility.

That’s all I’m going to say about wisdom, humility, and grace today… otherwise what I am saying could come across as being prideful.

So I will end with this.

These three things I pray for are also what I hope to share with you on a daily basis, from father to son.

I want to share my wisdom by teaching you, my humility by serving you, and my grace by giving you mine.

After all, if I’m asking these things from my Heavenly Father, I must be wise, humble, and graceful enough to give them to you first.

 

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

Just One Of The Kids… In Training

July 25, 2013 at 12:24 pm , by 

2 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

This week while on vacation, I’ve been observing your social behavior.

So as I brought up a few days ago, I suspect that, like me, you’re a highly social, highly verbal introvertwho needs a designated time and place to just zone out and meditate without someone or something interrupting your thoughts.

You’re a deep thinker, like me. You like to analyze how the world works and teach yourself as much as you can about life.

And as I have been watching you this week, you have been watching your older cousins.

I’ve caught you several times smiling whenever they laugh about something; like here in this picture.

You have no idea what they are talking about, and even though they don’t even see your reaction, you still are reacting.

Whereas you’re nearly 3, the youngest of your cousins on this side of the family is 10 years old. So there’s a major age gap there. It’s interesting to see the dynamics.

I’ll say this- I don’t know that I’ve heard anyone refer to you as “Baby Jack,” as was this case with previous family visits. That means your cousins are seeing you as a little kid now.

Sure, you’re a pet version of Animal from the Muppets, or a baby caveman, to them. But I can see that your cousins are naturally drawn to want to socialize you; as you want them to socialize you.

So I like catching glimpses of you smiling when they laugh, as if you were part of the conversation… because at least in your mind, you are.

 

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

Never Talk About Politics, Religion, Or Food You Don’t Eat

July 25, 2013 at 12:20 am , by 

2 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

I’ve decided that in addition to writing about the funny things you do and say on a daily basis, and covering trending parenting stories, I want to start teaching you “life lessons from dad.”

So here’s the first one:

I have learned that the topics of politics, religion, and food are so interwoven into emotions, moral beliefs, and sense of identity, that to bring up a point that goes against or even questions a person’s already established viewpoint…

Well, it often ends up becoming an insult, a threat, or a display of arrogance: It could put you in danger of being perceived as self-righteous or judgmental; even if you have the purest of intentions.

While it seems most people are familiar with the fact that politics and religion are sensitive subjects, I recently learned that the topic of “food you don’t eat” is equal in regards to one’s emotions, moral beliefs, and sense of identity.

But my opinion about these topics isn’t worth dividing people. I want to connect to people and make them feel included, and I’ve learned that openly talking about, or even just asking questions about, these three topics isn’t the way to do this.

So for the past month or so, I’ve been trying something out. I’ve been very careful not to use the “V-word” to label myself in regards to my eating lifestyle or the “L-word” to label my political beliefs.

And when it comes to speaking about my religious faith, I am trying to focus on humility, more than anything; which is one of the most important aspects of what I believe anyway. What good are my religious beliefs if my personal beliefs regarding politics and/or food distract people from my faith?

This is me trying to deliberately not perpetuate America’s polarizing tendencies, especially in social media. Both CNN and Fox News are pretty good at that already. I’ll leave it to the experts.

Regarding politics, religion, and food I don’t eat, I’ll let my viewpoints remain as much of a mystery as possible… until people specifically ask, or it works its way into conversation more naturally.

I want to earn the right to have these conversations with individuals, not broadcast my lifestyle across the universe to the masses like I’m the ultimate authority on these three sensitive subjects.

Here’s to finding out if my actions can speak louder than my words.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

My Son Doesn’t Know What A Gun Is

July 23, 2013 at 4:24 pm , by 

2 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Your Auntie Jenny and her family had a special gift ready for you as soon as they got here to meet us on our annual family vacation to Sacramento.

It’s the Imaginext Sky Racers Twister Jet.

And it’s actually pretty awesome! I’ve never seen giant chainsaws on the front of a fighter jet before…

In fact, that’s so creative of an idea I’m sort of jealous I didn’t get hired by Imaginext to come up with ideas for toys!

It’s good timing because Mommy and I are planning to take you to your very first movie in a theater: Disney’sPlanes.

So your Twister Jet serves as not only your first real toy plane, but also as a way to pretend you’re flying one of the planes from the new Planes movie once you officially become obsessed with them… which you will.

Your cousin Matt and I were talking about the “practicality aspects” of having two giant chainsaws on the front of a fighter jet, when he happened to look down into the wading pool full of toys you’ve been playing in and saw what he thought was a toy gun, only to learn that in reality it was one of  your girl cousins’ toy hair dryers.

“Does Jack like toy guns?” Matt asked.

That was the first time I had considered the fact, that honestly, you don’t even know what a gun is.

It’s not that I’ve purposely sheltered you from toy guns; water guns, in particular.

But even with your water table on our back patio, you don’t need water “guns” because you have several toy animals that squirt water instead.

By no means am I endorsing any kind of agenda either against or for guns, especially because for the past month as I’ve been working on a letter to you called “Never Talk About Politics, Religion, Or Peoples’ Food,” I’ve been trying to deliberately not perpetuate America’s polarizing tendencies, especially in social media.

At some point, you’ll be old enough to know what guns are. You’re not even 3 years old yet.

As for now, we’ll just stick with chain saws.

 

Love,

Daddy