[I meant to post this yesterday, but due to the personal nature of the post, had to wait on my son to review and give permission to post.]
I’ve heard discussions and debates about the whole “nature vs. nurture” thing since grade school. And it was all very interesting and made for interesting study and conversation, but it was also all very abstract. The debate is not the same as living with the actual issue at home. It’s easy to intellectualize and argue for the “right” answers when there are no real emotional stakes involved. But when the issue hits your family, well, everything is different.
I know it shouldn’t be. The same arguments should work whether you are discussing an abstract person or your own flesh and blood, but it doesn’t really work that way, you know, not when you’re discussing your own son.
I can’t tell you how long it’s taken me to work up the courage to say this publicly. But I should start at the beginning. I’m the father of four sons. I’ve always thought of myself as a good dad. I took my boys to Alabama football games and basketball games, to raise them right. You know, to appreciate the manly things of this world, like Alabama football and Alabama basketball. I did all the right things.
But for one child of mine, well, he was never quite like the other three. It was subtle at first — easy to deny. But in hindsight, his choice of toys and choice of colors should have told us — his mother and I — that genetically, he’s not the same as me and his brothers. Continue reading →
Change??!!
Baptism in Galatians
