gathering in light

My buddy Rhett’s written on a provocative topic, what do we do about immodesty in the church? This is pressing for him and I since we are both now father’s of beautiful little girls.  He writes:

No matter what we as parents do I know there will always be that cultural peer pressure on my daughter to do something different. But in the midst of that pressure I hope that we can convey the message of the importance of modesty, and that showing skin is not what she should value or want approval from others for. Doesn’t get easier for parents when teen stars provide much of the cultural peer pressure (i.e. Hannah Montana).

Certainly both men and women are influenced by cultural expectations on how we look, what it means to be successful, what makes someone cool enough to welcome into your group, etc, but what do we do about it?  What have you done, or seen done that’s been helpful in addressing this issue for both genders? I do not think this is a female-only issue. Some church cultures have been more successful than others in promoting modesty. We do not have too much of a show of skin on Sunday mornings at our Mennonite church, but there still is still the occasion. Of course, this doesn’t address the other issues that may be bubbling under the surface in these groups either. But it is an issue that the church in general faces regularly, I remember this conversation coming up about once a semester when I was in undergrad. So, what do we do about the very basic assumptions that fuel these outward practices? [Read more]

Emily and I have set up a “family scrapbook” site called Weird Fishes (the name of one of L’s favorite Radiohead songs). It’s basically going to be our site for all things Daniels family. I know there are a number of you (family and friends) who read my blog because you’re interested in getting updates about what we’re up to in life, the baby, etc. and I recognize that Gathering in Light usually fails in this area. And since I am trying to make a move to keep this site more focused on being a journal of my “work,” it seemed like a good idea to Emily and I to create Weird Fishes. That said, I’d like for all of you who are interested in reading about the family life side of things in the lives of the Daniels to hop on over to our new site (or sign up for the email updates). As a little side-note, I am going to be transitioning into stay-at-home dad for the next 3.5 months and could use your prayers (I’m pretty nervous). One fun thing I’ve decided to do is take a picture of something L and I do everyday to show Emily what we’re up to while she’s at work, I’ll be posting those pictures on our other site as well. And as always, thank you for reading this site.

As of late I’ve been on this kick to declutter my life. I am sure this has a lot to do with now being a father and realizing there are a lot of inessentials in my life; and quite honestly, I can’t say I would have come to this otherwise. Actually, this has also lead to a lot of reflection on all kinds of things including my blogging: why I do it, and whether I should continue and if so in what manner? But all of that is for another post.

So I decided to make this year a year of decluttering. I say year so that it’s not too ambitious, like get rid of everything in the next month, but rather spend the entire year, not just getting rid of things, but organizing better, managing time differently, and make good choices about what to bring into my life (whether a material things, commitments, etc). One thing somewhat related that Emily and I have talked a lot about is trying to focus on buying used things instead of always feeling the need to have something new.

Anyways, I don’t have any great tips on how to become less cluttered and I’m still at the very beginning of this process, but here are some of the things I’ve been working on so far.

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Our good friend Amy, and Cindy Lou Who’s¹ hipster life coach, from over at “i attack with love” created a one of a kind gift for our daughter the other day. You can read about the Hipster Baby care package here.

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Footnotes

1. the psydonym for our daughter [↩]

I was thinking the other day how my resume is drastically changing with the birth of our daughter, here are some new skills I’ve picked up in the last nine days of her life.

I can:

1. Turn my chest into a warm and toasty mattress.

2. Change diapers while sleeping.

3. Catch urine in mid-air, protecting upholstery, pillows and other objects close to the changing table.

4. Explain what baby wearing is and how to do it.

5. Read a baby’s body language to know the difference between “rooting” and pooing.

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On Wednesday December 19th, 2007 at 4:21am our baby daughter was born. She’s 6.1 lbs, 19 inches long, wonderfully healthy and ridiculously beautiful! The whole thing was such a holy experience, I am still buzzing from it! This baby is soooo awesome! Mom did a fantastic job and remembered the dutch as well! We made it to the hospital at 1:15am and had the baby just a little more than 3 hours later. At about 4am the nurses realized that Emily was complete, and the baby was ready to come, in fact they told her to stop pushing, we waited 16 min. for the doctor to arrive, and about 5 min later she was born!

We should be home tomorrow (Friday) afternoon sometime and I will post more sometime after that, there is no internet available at the hospital. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

You can see the whole set of photos here.

Well, we have officially entered December, month nine, and the countdown to the birth of the baby is at 24 days. We are both increasingly excited, and at this point are anxious for her arrival. We want to meet this amazing person living in Emily’s womb! But then again, we have no control over when she comes, we only have a guess, and while that guess (Dec 25) is our best guess (it is after all called the “due date”), it is no more than a guess. Approximately 2% of all babies are actually born on their due dates. So we have to keep watch and be ready, holding onto our guess, and yet at some level being completely clueless to when she plans to take the leap.

I keep thinking about the passages in the Gospel’s where Jesus talks about the importance of watching and being ready (Matt 24:36-44). Or maybe the passage in Thessalonians more fitting, since Paul makes a poignant illustration:

1Th. 5:1-5 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,� then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.

When I think of these passages, I think to myself, “like a baby in the night,” because that’s how I am seeing it right now. I’ve got my cell phone on at all times, we’ve got our bags packed, we’ve visited the hospital and planned our routes (and backup routes) for getting there. There has also been a lot of preparative work being done around the house for the baby’s arrival.

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