Firm, Fair and Consistent

Last One

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:48:00 +0000

I have decided to start a new blog under a different name. Most of you probably know it already, but I'm going to be taking this one down so wanted to give you a heads up. Please follow my new blog "Scriptures for the Home" by clicking here. This blog has shorter posts, but more frequent. Hope you enjoy! We also have a facebook page for "Scriptures for the Home" be sure to check it out and join!!!

God bless!!!!

Patrick Antonucci

Scriptures for the Home

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God the Lord is One! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. And these words which I am commanding you shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

These verses would be one of the first passages to be memorized by the Israelite children. I think it is pretty obvious why. Additionally, this is one of the verses that I have committed to memory. I think one reason that it is so attractive is because it is a call to action. It can be immediately and directly applied in our lives. Sometimes in the scriptures we struggle to find the application, or how a teaching fits into our lives. But here we’re given concrete ways to apply these teachings. As fathers I believe this verse is all the more valuable as it gives us ways we can fulfill the command to raise our children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4).

There are very important principles for us to understand in this passage and several implications. Below I have given my thoughts on three of these…

1. The mere fact that we need to be raising our children in the Lord implies that we ourselves must be in a place to offer this training. We need to be trained. We need to be well versed in the scriptures. How can we teach unless we ourselves have mastered the scriptures to one degree or another. This is definitely a heavy responsibility and if you sit and ponder the implications here, you may become a little nervous at the responsibility that has been entrusted to us as fathers. We are stewards of the children that are in our lives and a big part of their direction in life is directly affected by the relationship that we develop with them. Additionally, their relationship with God, their heavenly Father, is seriously impacted by their relationship with us. Have you equipped yourself for this responsibility?

2. We need to be actively and intentionally teaching our children about the Lord. This world, as we all know, is FILLED with many and varied forces pulling our children away from innocence, purity, the family and Christ. If we stand by and let our children just simply “grow up,” the results won’t be fruitful. (Prov 22:6) As fathers we must be involved in teaching our children about the Lord. The Israelites were basically instructed to talk up and talk about the Lord at every opportunity and saturate their lives with the scriptures. They were to have them everywhere, continually reminding them of the commands of God. Do you talk up the Lord on a daily basis? I don’t mean just praying at meal times and bed time. Are you pointing out God’s awesome creative genius as seen in nature? Are you intentionally pointing out Godly characteristics that your children or others display from time to time and recognizing it as such? Are you teaching them what God has instructed about respect, honor, morality and virtue? (Currently, it is springtime, a time when a renewal and birth in nature is occurring. Are you taking this opportunity to point out how this directly corresponds to our rebirth in Christ? Our resurrection from the dead? These are teachable moments; don’t let them pass you and your children by.)

3. Another implication is that WE are responsible for the primary teaching about the Lord in our family. Unfortunately, many have left it up to just the church to do the primary teaching about the Lord to our children. Not that the church is doing a bad job. I love the church. It’s God’s plan. I believe that the church is doing a great job, but honestly, if your children are only getting spiritual instruction Sunday morning and perhaps at one other mid-week service, what message is this sending to them? Are we saying that we only do that “church stuff” on Sunday? The church is a good start for instruction and training for those new to the faith and a good supplement and reinforcement to those more mature in Christ, but it is just that, a good start or a supplement. (I’m speaking here with respect to the responsibility of instruction of children. I realize that the church is crucial to the existence of a Christian, in fact, to be a Christian is to be a part of the church, the two are inseparable.) The primary teaching and instruction about the Lord should be in the home. Fathers, we must be intentional about teaching our children about the Lord. I’m not talking about simply having them memorize Bible facts and scripture, (Which are good disciplines in and of themselves. They should be familiar with loads of scripture.) but having them understand the commands of the Lord and how these commands and principles are to penetrate every aspect of their being and life. There should not be one single area in our lives in which we are not applying the teachings of the Lord. He has given instruction, whether directly or indirectly, explicit command or example, for every part of our lives. The worship service is one aspect, but there are about 100 other hours that our children are not involved in those services. That’s a TON of time. What are they doing with that time? What are YOU doing with that time? Again, my point is not to diminish or discredit the church and its crucial function, but my point is to get us to see our personal responsibility in these matters.

Well, there are my thoughts for now. I hope they’ve sparked some deep thoughts and cause you to reflect on your parenting. God bless you and your family!

Dads, Debt and Doing Business

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:31:00 +0000

As a husband and father, I know the immense responsibility that is inherent in both titles. These responsibilities are God-given. In Ephesians (5:22-6:4) Husbands are compared with Christ and admonished to sanctify their wives and that the express reason for leaving the parent-child relationship when marriage takes place is that he now must love his wife, give himself up for her and cherish her. Additionally, as fathers we are instructed to raise our children in the "discipline and instruction of the Lord." These are truly weighty responsibilities and can only be fulfilled by God's grace and help.
First things first. In taking care of our families our primary goal should be to glorify God. This includes putting Him first in ALL areas of our lives. We must diligently study God's word so that we can be part of the foundation of the family that is built on Christ. This is where it all starts. We ourselves must be grounded in the scriptures. How else are we to be like Christ to our wives and bring up our children in the instruction of the Lord? Some additional things that we must consider are our means to provide for our families and what we're doing to fulfill this obligation. Are you waiting for someone else to take care of your household? (See 1 Tim 5:8 if you need direction) Even those men out there who do not yet have children or a wife or are not even "adults" yet, what are you doing to prepare yourself for these days ahead? Anyway, back to my point. As a provider, I often see myself as an employee. I go to work 5 days a week for 8 hours and get a paycheck every two weeks. I have benefits and a pension set up with the state. It seems good and it seems secure, BUT, is this really true? Am I in some sense totally depending on others to take care of my house hold? Am I living up to 1 Tim 5:8? What I mean is that 40 years ago this would have seemed like a good place to be in. 40 years ago, this probably would have been "secure." However, this is not 1970. Today things are changing so rapidly that it's impossible to keep up. Did you know that the first 2 years of education for a technology career at a traditional 4 year institution will be obsolete by the time they graduate? In today's market, as Dave Ramsey would say, "a man is only as secure as his ability to go out kill something and drag it home." This is why lately I've been looking into other ways to generate income. That's one of the reasons I began writing this blog. I want to explore what writing is like, and perhaps pursue it in one way or another. Also, I have some ideas for products and Internet businesses and I may write about them in the future when I get the ball rolling on those. I'm reminded of my friend and spiritual mentor Jason (a family man himself) who is working a few jobs right now, but additionally he's developing websites and exploring other ways to generate income. He has started his own website to sell stair rails which his company makes. He gets a percentage of the sales and maintains the site and handles orders in his spare time. You can even check out his work
here!

My point is that the traditional 9-5, 40-50 hours a week jobs are becoming less and less secure and a mans ability to provide is falling more and more on his own shoulders. Which, if you think about it, is actually a better position to be in. For example, since I get about 95% of my income from my teaching position, what happens if I get fired, or the school closes or gets consolidated or taken over by the state or tax revenues are low and the district can't meet budget and I'm put on furlough with out pay? 95% of my income is GONE!!! Yeah, we have a little money set aside and could probably do just fine for about 3 months and I would probably find something else in that time, but how about the other scenario I'm speaking about? If I have four streams producing income, and one of them is cut off that's on average only about 25% of my income instead of nearly 100%! Now, which situation sounds more secure or insulated against risk in today's job market? Additionally, if Ive been creative enough to create 4 streams of income, I could probably do it again, or find ways to increase the flow from the other streams. Go back to Jason, he has several streams going now. If one gets cut off, he and his family would probably be okay since he still has the others. This is what I'm trying to accomplish. Not to mention the endless possibilities that are out there for us if we can just let ourselves think and get creative!
One more topic I would like to mention before I close is the theme of debt. In our culture debt is like breathing, everybody does it! Yet there's one difference, you do not need debt to live! The Bible says, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender's slave" Prov 22:7 (NASB) How true is this?!? I'm not going to lie, I got caught up in debt with some credit cards while in college and student loans. Now my wife and I are diligently paying those off. Can you imagine for a moment what it would be like to have no payments? I mean really! How much more a month would you have? $100? $200? $400?!? No credit cards, no student loans, no car notes! Seriously, this stuff really adds up and strangles your ability to provide for your family. How many people have had a student loan for so long they think it's a pet?!? These bills are sucking the life out of us! Also, they are sucking the life out of our ability to provide for our families and I'm not just talking financially. All the extra stress, anxiety and worry that these bills are placing on your life, how is that effecting your relationships? When is the last time you had an argument with your spouse? Was it over money whether directly or indirectly? We have this idea in our culture that we have to have everything our parents worked a lifetime for, but we have to have it now. We therefore end up going into massive amounts of debt just to attain this false sense of status. It's like we're buying stuff we don't need, with money we don't have often to impress people we don't even like!
Well, I've written long enough, it's getting late and I need to get some sleep, but do think seriously about the things I've mentioned here. Think about the ideas that are taught in our culture and how often times they are in direct opposition to Biblical teaching. We really do need to get back to the Bible in all areas of our lives.

FIRM

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:21:00 +0000

Websters dictionary defines "firm" as:
1a: securly or solidly fixed in place b: not weak or uncertain VIGOROUS c: having a solid or compact structure that resists stress or pressure 2a(1): not subject to change or revision (2): not subject to price weakness b: not easily moved or distrubed STEADFAST c: WELL-FOUNDED 3: indicating firmness or resolution.

I believe in light of this explanation we can arrive at a better understanding of verses in the Bible that speak of firmness. 1 Corinthians 15:58 is a good example. Here Paul tells the church at Corinth, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

He's telling them (and us) to be FIRM in their (our) faith.

Sometimes the work we do for the Lord here on Earth may seem like it's not amounting to much, like it's all in vain. We can become discouraged and almost lose hope, we can nearly be "moved" from our faith. But, Paul reveals to us a hope. A hope that our work is NOT in vain, that it's NOT useless and amounting to nothing. At times we can feel this way, but reading verses such as this offer encouragement to the weary soul. We are instructed that we can KNOW that our work is NOT in vain. We have a reason to be firm, and our reasoning is well-founded. If we back up a few verses, we can see the basis for our "knowing," it is because He gave us the VICTORY through Christ. Christ's victory over death did more than just prove who he was and make salvation possible for anyone. It has other implications as well. One of the results is that we can KNOW that our work in the Lord is NOT useless and empty. We can KNOW that we have victory over death and therefore have the firmness that it takes to complete the work that has been prepared beforehand! Often, we want to see results NOW. In our culture we're taught to expect instant gratification and that everything we do should feel good and benefit us directly and if it doesn't meet these criteria, then it's not worth it. Many times, the work we are assigned in the kingdom does not play out like this. It is entirely possible that we may never see the resluts of much of the work we do for God, which can be hard to accept and even bring us to contemplating that it's not worth the effort. However, if we go back to the scriptures we are instantly restored to a right thinking and a right understanding of how things really work. We are not uncertain about the work we do. (For you non-math majors out there, that's a double negative, which results in a positive, ie we ARE certain :)

In His service...

Some other verses to check out
Psaml 18:1-3
1 Peter 5:8-11

First Time Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:04:00 +0000

Well, I've finally succumbed! I'm going to start blogging. This is actually my first post EVER, so bear with me, I'm excited, but new to this. I'm a school teacher, since you wanted to know, and the title of my blog comes from an experience I had with a veteran teacher while I was doing my internship at a local high school. His was probably some of the best advice I ever received, and something I've remembered in the years since our conversation and have been able to apply in many areas of life. Firm, Fair and Consistent was his response to my question about one of the most important things a teacher can do in the classroom. It's simple and concise, yet VERY profound. As a young teacher just entering the profession I was eager (and still am) to learn all I could from those seasoned veterans who have been through the fire. I wanted to learn from their experiences and apply their wisdom on day one. As Roger Chambers has said, "Experience is a good teacher... if it's someone else's experience." Anyway, this simple statement has been a pillar in my methodology. I must admit, though, I have fallen short and fallen often. Nothing could have adequately prepared me for the experiences that I was going to get into. As it is with anything we do for the first time, we can read all the books, watch all the videos, observe all the gurus and write, research and report all we want, BUT it's NEVER going to replace actually DOING what it is we're going to do. Well, to try to get to the point, Firm, Fair and Consistent has been my rock in my experiences, it has really focused my thinking especially when things get rough and difficult. I'm not just talking about teaching anymore, I'm talking about many and varied aspects of life. Whether it be a job, parenting, relationships etc... Firm, Fair and Consistent has been good advice for me. So, I come here to write about my experiences and hopefully encourage others. My goal for now is to write about being a Christian, Husband and Father and other topics that may come up from time to time and to post at least once a week. (I'm aiming for consistency in the blogosphere.) Please feel free to leave me a comment.