My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me. Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. Today's letter is H so let's get right to it shall we?
My wife is amazing and I am married to her. That makes me the husband of one amazing wife.
We were married 27 years ago this week. Our wedding reception was at a roller rink, It was the wedding of Dave & Amy Roller, so it seemed like the best venue.
Our wedding was the first wedding we attended as a married couple. The most recent wedding we went to was Our niece's wedding a few days after Christmas last year. After the wedding Amy and I hung out at a mall and we did a little goofing around. There was a photo booth kiosk where you could get a comic book style cover with your picture on it.
Not much more to say after that picture. To get back to the A to Z Challenge page click here. To see the A to Z Master List click here.
My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me. Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. Today's letter is G so let's get right to it shall we?
Exactly 10 years ago today my A to Z post was about giraffe poop. My theme was nouns and each entry was about a person, place or a thing. Giraffe Poop is a thing.
My favorite animal is the giraffe. It hasn't always been my favorite animal. This is because it wasn't until my earl 20's that I had a favorite animal. Then I started hanging out with Sheryl Ryan. I met Sheryl when she was a Junior in high school and I was a volunteer for Campus Life, a parachurch youth group. We got to be friends and I would often hang out with her at her house. It became obvious that her favorite animal was the giraffe. She had a whole bunch of giraffe memorabilia in her room.
It was then I discovered that I did not have a favorite animal. So I just stole hers. That was the mid 80's now 40 years later my favorite animal is still the giraffe. Yes, I once was fascinated by how they poop. But there is so much more to them than that. I love that they don't make noises. I love that they are majestic and awkward at the same time. I love that giraffes newborn giraffes are about my size 6 feet. I like how they eat leaves. I'm just enamored with them.
I also love that I have visited many zoos over the years with family and friends and I have had many opportunities to share my love for giraffes with my family. I love discovering what kind of animals my family loves. From wolves, to rabbits from snakes to elephants, from turtles to giraffes, learning about and loving animals is something I'm so glad to continue to share with my family.
For more of the A to Z challenge click here. To get back to the master list click here.
My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me. Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. Today's letter is F so let's get right to it shall we?
When I started this blog 16 years ago, I was 44 years old and my children were 19. Well they were nine, seven and three so their total age was 19. I was approximately 2 and 1/3 times their total age. Now I am 60 and the youngest is 19 all by her lonesome! Together they are 67 so they are approximately 1.1 times older than me.
My tendency for posts like this is to talk about them. But since this is the ABC's of me. I want to talk about me as a father. Focusing on the challenges I face as I navigate being a father to adult children.
Have you heard of helicopter parents? My Dad was not a helicopter parent. My dad was more of an air traffic control parent. Actually that may be too generous. My Dad was more like the air traffic control guy in the movies when you have some guy or girl who has to land the plane because all the flight crew are too sick or dead to operate the aircraft. The tower takes over has you go on autopilot and walks you down I step by step details.
The problem with this approach is that in the metaphor I was not some inexperienced warm body filling the Captains chair. I was a capable pilot able to fly and land my own plane.
My Dad was forever turning lights out in our house trying to save electricity. However, I think he never was able to find an off switch when it came to parenting.
I decided before I was even married that if I had children I’d want to prepare them for flying solo as independent adults. Then I had children and practice is much more complicated than theory. I understand now how hard that off switch is to find.
Perhaps it's not an off switch at all but a switch like that in a rail yard when you change the tracks. The first 18 years and sometimes more your children are on the track to adulthood. They are the passenger and we are the conductor. Then they all hop into different tracks, my son jumped on the work train upon graduation. My youngest daughter took the University express. My oldest daughter's journey has had more detours, track changes and layovers than any of us expected but her train has been moving steadily in the correct direction for a couple years now.
My wife and I laid a lot of track for our kids in their first 2 decades. We worked hard to keep them from going off the rails. Now is the time that we are doing our best to help them make their own connections and ride off on their own steam.
For more of the A to Z challenge click here. To get back to the master list click here.
Hello, those dropping by from the A to Z challenge and welcome to Team Saturdazzle!
Team Saturdazzle is the best thing on the internet that no one has ever heard of. It's one of those super cool, super hip things that needs no explanation.
Okay here's a small explanation; Team Saturdazzle occurs each Saturday at Leap of Dave and is a Potpourri of randomness and merriment. Team Saturdazzle began when I led a work group chat at a previous job on our Saturday shift. I called the chat, wait for it, Team Saturdazzle.
This year I have titled all the Team Saturdazzle posts with titles that look like they are episodes of the T.V. Show Friends. That's why this post is called The one Without The Kool Aid.
So for the Saturday's of the challenge I will have my A to Z post as the first part of the Team Saturdazzle post.
Before I start I want to share that during the A to Z challenge my Weekly Writer's Workshop submissions will appear as a segment in Team Saturdazzle or as part of my daily A to Z challenge response.
Here are this week’s prompts:
1.Write a post based on the word roommates.
2. Write a post in exactly 12 sentences (lines).
3. What’s something that makes you far angrier than it should?
4. Write about something you’ve recently spent a lot of time wondering about.
5. If you could change the color of one thing, what would it be and why?
6. If you knew you could live forever, how would you spend your days differently?
My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me. Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. Today's letter is E so let's get right to it shall we?
As a Christian I believe that the only thing I deserve is an eternity without God as a result of my own sins. I also believe that my salvation comes from God through Christ and is taught in the Bible. Nothing else is needed. When evangelicals defend unchristian behavior because they like the politics behind it they are not showing an understanding of Christ's redemptive love to a watching world.
Yes, I am quoting myself. I will be making many of the points today that I have made multiple times on this and other platforms. Since it is the ABC's of me, and I am, in fact, me. I will be quoting myself whenever possible. All quotes unless otherwise noted are from the post The Politics of Christianity which there is a link for in the paragraph above this one.
John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing put out his prompt list earlier this week for his Writer's Workshop segment. I chose #4: Write about something that you recently spent a lot of time thinking about. I've been ruminating about this topic for many many years and that includes recently. It is one of those things that makes me go" Hmmmm?".
I consider myself an evangelical Christian. This is how Wikipedia defines Evangelicalism:
I know I wrote more experientially and anecdotally when I wrote about being a Christian on my C post. However if I were to take an academic or explanatory approach it would match pretty close to Wikipedia's entry above. The Wikipedia entry is very similar to the 5 Solas (Latin for alone) the tenet's of the protestant reformation.
They are Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, Glory of God Alone, and Scripture Alone. Evangelicals, in a nutshell, believe in those 5 points and spreading that message as a regular practice of their faith. -
Why is the church getting engaged to the republican party when we are supposed to be the Bride of Christ? - Dave Roller TPOC
The problem of putting something in a nutshell, is that there is usually a nut or two alongside. (That is definitely a future quote from me.) Among American evangelicals these days there seems to be many who are nutty about Making America Great Again. It's as if there was a 6th sola, America alone (Sola America) and since 2016 a 7th Sola : Trump Alone (Sola Donalda)
It wasn't always this way. Back in the 1980's and 1990's I knew evangelical Christians who were Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and some even who were fans of the Green Bay Packers. aka Packertarians. Back then Donald Trump was not necessarily someone you would equate with evangelicalism of any stripe.
A letter to the editor in a suburban Chicago newspaper, The Daily Herald regarding Muslim reaction to Trumps proposed Taj Mahal casino had this to say about Trump:
Donald Trump's very name has become synonymous with conspicuous consumption, greed and arrogance. He is now linking himself with gambling more and more. A Reaction To Trump, Daily Herald April 27th 1990
The author did not identify himself as an evangelical in the letter, however, since I was the author of the letter, I can assure you that I was an evangelical at the time , and still am (sans the Trump Kool-Aid).
Billy Graham, who I will refer to for the rest of this piece, as EFE (Everybody's Favorite Evangelical) had this to say about gambling:
“Gambling is nowhere approved in the Bible. Instead, the Bible stresses that the Christian should earn his living by honest work and effort, and this would exclude relying on chance (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). The Bible tells us to ‘abstain from all appearance of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Gambling has often done untold evil to people by making them lose money that could be used for good purposes or even the necessities of life. Money is given to us by God to be used for good, not evil. Anyone seeking to do God’s will should not be involved in gambling.” Billy Graham - My Answer Column quoted in Gospel Herald Article 1/26/17
Trump still profits from his previously owned casino resorts. The AP reported this past Tuesday that Trump has an agreement with Bally's that if they build a casino on the former Trump Links that Bally purchased in 2023 that they will pay him 115 Million dollars. It is just one of many instances where it makes it hard for me to understand the relationship between Trump and Evangelicals.
Michael J. Kruger wrote an excellent article at his website canon fodder entitled "How the 5 solas do more than respond to Catholicism". Kruger breaks down each sola, saying what it fights against. Kruger says that Soli Deo Gloria (For God's glory alone) is about "letting go of our glory, and living for God's glory." He concludes that Soli Deo Gloria fights against pride.
If that's the case, MAGA doesn't make sense coming from the mouth of an Evangelical. Making America great again and all our energies on being a proud American sound like what people who need Christ may be looking for Glory but not the evangelicals dedicated to sharing that Christ. The Wikipedia definition calls evangelicalism a world wide movement. If that's the case, wouldn't the aims of evangelicals be more global, if not other worldly, than national?
In my post, The politics of Christianity I explain how I have both a passion for political involvement and also a passion to shower the world with the love of Christ. I then say:
If I had to choose between passions I hope I’d choose the passion mandated in the Bible. Jesus states this passion very succinctly in the book of John ...
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:12-13
Or in the words of EFE:
“I’m trying to stay out of it and just keep preaching the gospel, because there’s nothing coming out of Washington or any of those places that are going to save the world or transform men and women. It’s Christ,”
Billy Graham 1987 – quoted in What Billy Graham taught us about a healthy relationship between religion and politics – Deseret News 2/21/2018 also quoted in TPOC
The point I hope I am making is that evangelicalism has nothing to do with Trump. This doesn't mean that evangelicals should have nothing to do with him. Evangelicals carry the good news of Jesus Christ and that message is vital and has eternal consequences. It is a message worth sharing to presidents, felons, adulterers, poor losers, and instigators of riots. Evangelicals can and should vote in their countries elections, but that doesn't mean they need to drink the Kool-Aid.
I just love this standup routine from Nate Bargatze from the first time he hosted Saturday Night Live. The first few minutes are pretty good but it's the last 5 to 6 that just about kill me. So funny.
I may have broke AI
While I was researching and writing my A to Z post for today, I searched for how the 5 Solas would be translated in other languages. This was for a point I decided not to make. I looked it up in Spanish, Russian and Greek. Each time Googles AI gave me an overview with the 5 Solas and what they would be called in that language and then I could further search the links below that. Being the totally Saturdazalous person that I am I decided to see how the Solas might look in Klingon. AI went to work but after 30 seconds it was still thinking and I decided that maybe I should back out before anything really bad happened.
That's about all I have for Team Saturdazzle today. Thanks for stopping by either from The Sound of One Hand Typing or the ABC Challenge. For More Writer's Workshop click here. To get back to the A to Z Challenge website click here. To go back directly to the A to Z Challenge Master List click here. Otherwise leave a message at the tone and I'll call you back at my earliest convenience.
