Dad Got One Thing Wrong
Don’t misunderstand. I loved and respected my Dad very much. He had his faults, everyone does, but he was generally a reliable bread winner, cared about us, his family, and there were some things about Dad I admire to this day, one of which was his skill at gardening. He loved his gardening!
Unfortunately, there was one thing he got wrong. When I was a youngster, he said I too would develop a love for gardening one day – “growing things in the ground” was the way he put it. He repeated that sentiment many times and it was usually while I was grumbling about being forced to pull weeds, cut grass and rake leaves. I’m a married man of many years now with two grown sons and some grand kids of my own and I’m still waiting for that day. Read more
Abraham Committed Adultery Got Divorced
Some people make the assumption that Abraham’s relationship with Hagar did not constitute adultery because the biblical text refers to her as his wife. The actual text reads…
“And Sara, Abraham’s wife, took Hagar her maid…and gave her to…Abraham to be his wife.” Genesis 16:3
And the presentation of Hagar to Abraham even has an official tone:
“Sara…gave Hagar to her husband Abraham to be his wife.”
Sounds like a wedding ceremony.
Sara’s suggesting the arrangement in the first place followed by her official presentation of Hagar to Abraham lead us to assume this was genuinely a marriage. Or was it? A superficial reading might imply this but a thorough consideration of the text suggests otherwise.
There are actually several things to consider: adultery, marriage and divorce. Read more
Abraham’s Adultery
Did Abraham commit adultery? Yes, sort of. He had conjugal relations with his wife’s handmaid, Hagar, and fathered his first child, Ishmael. It isn’t the worst case of adultery but adultery it was. Here are the facts:
Abraham, prompted by God, moved to Canaan from Haran when he was 75 years old. A part of the enticement to move was the promise that Abraham would become, not an average nation, but a great one, a tacit promise of children.
Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael, his first child, was born. This was anything but usual. For the previous eight generations his predecessors began having children in their early 30’s. By normal standards, Abraham’s first child was fifty plus years late.
That means Abraham’s paternal instincts were already frustrated when he left for Canaan and it was eleven years later before he had his first child, which, unfortunately, was not the child God promised. Read more
How Important Are Relationships In The Home?
Life is relational. It is impossible to exist outside of or apart from relationships and close ones involve people we see, talk to and hear daily. We work with and depend on these people. The relationship we have with them can be very good, very bad or somewhere in between. These close connections change us and enable us to influence change in others. Every person will move through many different relationships during the course of their life and each one will leave its mark but none will be as important as the relationships we have in the family and there are many reasons why this is true. Read more
How Do Parents Earn the Trust of Their Children?
Trust. Without it, everything falls apart, especially in a family setting. When it is assumed, our most important relationships are bound to fail and that leaves us feeling desperate.
Children can explore the world confidently only if home remains a safe place to recuperate from life’s inevitable bruises. When parents can be trusted to offer acceptance and understanding instead of criticism and rejection, they help insulate their children from the bad elements of the world. Unfortunately, kids often resort to the world because home has failed them. When children don’t develop a bond of trust with parents, home becomes an emotional prison from which they will do anything to escape. Read more
Tim Pepper - Beautiful Frustration