Blessed is the Dad who gets to see God's mercy at work

Jadon and I were talking about rather heavy issues of the heart late one night, and we read together part of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus declares some rather perspective-challenging truths about who exactly the "blessed" or happy people of the world.  As we discussed what his next steps in life would be, I asked Jadon whether he would rather be known as a child of God with heavenly rewards, or as a child of the world with only earthly rewards.  Based on our interactions from the past, I half-expected him to tell me he's not even sure the heavenly rewards exist, or just cynically tell me he'll take the earthly rewards he can see.  

Instead, he answered, "Of course I want to be God's child, but it would be nice to have all the rewards too."

July 2023

Wheeeeee!!! Whooops!!!

We tried it again the next night with the same chortling success. But the swing twisting proposition failed probably due to excess load…

Hushed Hoots and Hollers for Happy Happenstance

On a quick late evening out for exercise earlier last night, Jadon and I took a brief trip to the little Heritage Park near Akong and Ama's home in Tustin. It was also a quick trip down memory lane since Jadon spent a lot of time there as a baby and toddler, and together we reminisced and commented on some of the renovations around us as we walked toward the swings. It turns out that last night was also a trip for making new landmark memories, as it was the first time Jadon was able to master high-powered self-propulsion on the swings. It still baffles me that as a high level hockey skater for years how he never got the hang of playground swings. But there by my side just a few hours ago was my seventeen year old son, uttering hushed hoots and hollers as he unexpectedly discovered that he could actually make himself swing high back and forth on that silly contraption!