It's Friday and that means another recap of articles that I shared on Twitter this week that caught my attention.
Modesty is an issue that has worked its way back into the public discussion. Most of the time when we talk about modesty we discuss it in the context of what women wear. But there is another side of modesty that is worth examining. Meanwhile, an actress turned designer caused quite a stir when some of her comments regarding modesty went viral.
I'm sure that if I put some of these time management principles into practice I would be a lot more productive. Seems like I spend more time reading stuff like this than implementing it.
One of my favorite blogs to read is Art of Manliness and it seems like every week there are multiple posts I could share. The highlight of this week is this post on character, its 3 true qualities and how to develop it
This really struck a chord for me. I can really relate to this post on how to be social as an introvert.
It pays to be widely read. Here's a guide to reading the Christian classics.
I suppose we are long past the point where we can expect media to be unbiased. But the lengths they will go to in advocating a position are downright shameful as we saw this week.
Constitutional law alert: an actual Third Amendment case and what it could mean to you. It will be fascinating to see how this one turns out.
Does God give you more than you can handle? The answer is, of course, yes. That's the point.
That's it. Have a great weekend!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Modesty and Purity
The other day I was in the grocery store with my youngest daughter (who is 9). As we passed by the magazines she asked me a question that totally floored me: "Don't you think people have better things to do than look at each others' body parts?"
With her simple question, she had hit upon one of the things that is so wrong with our society today: we are a sexualized culture that no longer sees modesty (or purity, for that matter) as something to be valued.
I wish I could take credit for a really snappy comeback to her question but I was caught completely off guard and didn't know what to say.
Her question, however, got me thinking onto the subject of modesty.
As a father of two girls, I want my daughters to grow up understanding the importance of dressing modestly. But I also want them to understand that it's about a whole lot more than not showing off their bodies. Modesty is part of living a life in pursuit of purity. Too often we don't frame a discussion about modesty this way. Instead, we define modesty as adhering to a particular style of dress and setting up rules to follow in how we are to appear in public. It's important, however, that our daughers understand that dressing modestly is part of keeping themselves and others pure.
As Joshua Harris says so well in his incredible book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, (Dads - do yourself a favor and read this book with your teenagers) purity is a direction, not a destination. Rather than drawing a line in the sand and say we're not going to cross it but moving as close to the line as possible is not pursuing purity. Pursuing purity demands that we flee from temptation (even those magazines in the store that we shouldn't be looking at). Teaching our kids this lesson can be one of the greatest legacies we can leave as Dads.
Note: This post originally appeared in 2006.
With her simple question, she had hit upon one of the things that is so wrong with our society today: we are a sexualized culture that no longer sees modesty (or purity, for that matter) as something to be valued.
I wish I could take credit for a really snappy comeback to her question but I was caught completely off guard and didn't know what to say.
Her question, however, got me thinking onto the subject of modesty.
As a father of two girls, I want my daughters to grow up understanding the importance of dressing modestly. But I also want them to understand that it's about a whole lot more than not showing off their bodies. Modesty is part of living a life in pursuit of purity. Too often we don't frame a discussion about modesty this way. Instead, we define modesty as adhering to a particular style of dress and setting up rules to follow in how we are to appear in public. It's important, however, that our daughers understand that dressing modestly is part of keeping themselves and others pure.
As Joshua Harris says so well in his incredible book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, (Dads - do yourself a favor and read this book with your teenagers) purity is a direction, not a destination. Rather than drawing a line in the sand and say we're not going to cross it but moving as close to the line as possible is not pursuing purity. Pursuing purity demands that we flee from temptation (even those magazines in the store that we shouldn't be looking at). Teaching our kids this lesson can be one of the greatest legacies we can leave as Dads.
Note: This post originally appeared in 2006.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Friday Tweet Recap
During the week I'm usually tweeting out articles via Twitter so here are a few things that you might have missed that caught my attention this week:
Seven marks of false teachers. This is especially good advice if you're either looking for a church or evaluating what pastors to listen to .
I am really bad at remembering someone's name so this article provided some pretty helpful tips.
I didn't realize John Piper had retired from the pulpit earlier this spring. He's spending a year in Knoxville which is a lovely city not far from where I live. The most striking thing he said in this article is that he intentionally left Minneapolis behind to give his successor at Bethlehem Baptist Church some breathing room.
It was Father's Day last Sunday and Joel Miller has some thoughts on what every child needs to hear from their dad.
My daughter pointed this one out to me. I think it has to do with the fact she wants to major in theatre. 10 Ways Being a Theatre Major Prepared Me For Success.
John Stonestreet has some thoughts about what to say to our daughters about the morning after pill.
It's a little bit of a shock but longtime Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully almost signed with the New York Yankees. And demonstrating that he is a true Renaissance man, he took to Twitter earlier this week during the Dodgers-Yankees series. It was as beautiful as you could have imagined.
More baseball: Grantland's Jonah Keri examines the flawed importance of the closer. I have always wondered whether too much emphasis is placed on the 9th inning. Now I'm sure of it. This also made me think of this piece from Joe Posnanski.
This article got me thinking: 9 Qualities of Truly Confident People. It's an interesting read. On a related note, the four questions great leaders ask.
Some of these vintage rules for conversation (from 1875!) are really remarkable. It would be interesting to see how different our conversations would be if we applied these rules.
Life Magazine has been posting photos from their vast library online. The latest installment is unpublished color photos of the ruins of Normandy following D-Day. These pictures are amazing.
Also from the Life Magazine archives, color portraits from the 1950s of Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz legends.
Here's a list of 8 things you shouldn't do every day. I confess that I am guilty of quite of few of these mistakes.
Some tips on how to read a book. I will admit I hadn't thought about some of these strategies before and they look like they are worth a try. This article also has some tips on how to read more books including some interesting ways to keep track of books on your reading list.
That's it. Have a great weekend.
Seven marks of false teachers. This is especially good advice if you're either looking for a church or evaluating what pastors to listen to .
I am really bad at remembering someone's name so this article provided some pretty helpful tips.
I didn't realize John Piper had retired from the pulpit earlier this spring. He's spending a year in Knoxville which is a lovely city not far from where I live. The most striking thing he said in this article is that he intentionally left Minneapolis behind to give his successor at Bethlehem Baptist Church some breathing room.
It was Father's Day last Sunday and Joel Miller has some thoughts on what every child needs to hear from their dad.
My daughter pointed this one out to me. I think it has to do with the fact she wants to major in theatre. 10 Ways Being a Theatre Major Prepared Me For Success.
John Stonestreet has some thoughts about what to say to our daughters about the morning after pill.
It's a little bit of a shock but longtime Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully almost signed with the New York Yankees. And demonstrating that he is a true Renaissance man, he took to Twitter earlier this week during the Dodgers-Yankees series. It was as beautiful as you could have imagined.
More baseball: Grantland's Jonah Keri examines the flawed importance of the closer. I have always wondered whether too much emphasis is placed on the 9th inning. Now I'm sure of it. This also made me think of this piece from Joe Posnanski.
This article got me thinking: 9 Qualities of Truly Confident People. It's an interesting read. On a related note, the four questions great leaders ask.
Some of these vintage rules for conversation (from 1875!) are really remarkable. It would be interesting to see how different our conversations would be if we applied these rules.
Life Magazine has been posting photos from their vast library online. The latest installment is unpublished color photos of the ruins of Normandy following D-Day. These pictures are amazing.
Also from the Life Magazine archives, color portraits from the 1950s of Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz legends.
Here's a list of 8 things you shouldn't do every day. I confess that I am guilty of quite of few of these mistakes.
Some tips on how to read a book. I will admit I hadn't thought about some of these strategies before and they look like they are worth a try. This article also has some tips on how to read more books including some interesting ways to keep track of books on your reading list.
That's it. Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Know Your Social Media: Twitter
I am not a huge fan of social media though over the years I have created accounts on different platforms. I have a Facebook account, a Pinterest account, a LinkedIn profile and a Twitter account. Of all of these the most useful to me are Twitter and LinkedIn each for different reasons. In this post, I want to highlight some of the things I have learned about Twitter including its pros and cons and how to make it a more useful tool.
The first thing you have to decide is how you plan to use Twitter. Are you using it to keep in touch with other people or is it more informational? Personally, I use it primarily as a news feed. I find it's an easy way to keep track of things I am interested in. My feed is a great way to keep track of news and other events.
It also allows me to keep up with writers that I enjoy reading. I don't have to keep track of their blogs or websites if I know that they will send a tweet out with a link to their latest piece.
Second, you have to decide who to follow. By clicking on a person's profile you can see all their tweets. Since I am mostly concerned with news links I tend to weed out folks that use as many (if not more) of their tweets in conversation than publishing links to other stories. That's because I have limited opportunities to check my feed (see below for more on that) and conversations are sometimes more difficult to follow.
As noted above, you also need to determine how often you'll have an opportunity to check your feed. The blessing (and curse) of Twitter is there is always something new to be posted. It will quickly feed the sense of missing something if you're not checking your feed a hundred times a day. The number of times you are going to be able to check your feed will also influence how many people you will follow and they types of folks you follow (do they tweet numerous times a day or only occasionally?).
You will likely develop a completely separate circle of influence apart from your other social networks. For example, most of my followers are people I don't know personally. But it one way or another we probably share a common interest. So it allows me to share ideas with people I would not normally have an opportunity to speak to.
Also, Twitter has a useful tool that allows you to link to your Facebook page so that whenever you send out a new tweet it will also post to your Facebook timeline. This is great because then you don't have to worry about posting the link yourself. It also allows whatever you share to be circulated among your friends (who are more than likely going to be a separate and distinct group from other social media followers).
Finally, you need to know that brevity is both its biggest asset and its biggest liability. Yes, the 140 character limit forces you to be pithy in your commentary (apologies to Bill O'Reilly). But it's also hard to flesh out a complicated idea one tweet at a time. This is why Twitter works so well as an aggregator because it allows you drive traffic to other sites. It also (naturally) limits the amount of personal information to as much or as little as you want to share.
One more side note: if you have a blog you need to be on Twitter for no other reason than to drive traffic to your blog. And if you utilize hashtags properly you can open up to a wider audience than just your own followers.
Of all the social media platforms I use, Twitter is by far my favorite for the reasons above. Give it a try if you haven't already. And make sure to follow me @Daddypundit.
The first thing you have to decide is how you plan to use Twitter. Are you using it to keep in touch with other people or is it more informational? Personally, I use it primarily as a news feed. I find it's an easy way to keep track of things I am interested in. My feed is a great way to keep track of news and other events.
It also allows me to keep up with writers that I enjoy reading. I don't have to keep track of their blogs or websites if I know that they will send a tweet out with a link to their latest piece.
Second, you have to decide who to follow. By clicking on a person's profile you can see all their tweets. Since I am mostly concerned with news links I tend to weed out folks that use as many (if not more) of their tweets in conversation than publishing links to other stories. That's because I have limited opportunities to check my feed (see below for more on that) and conversations are sometimes more difficult to follow.
As noted above, you also need to determine how often you'll have an opportunity to check your feed. The blessing (and curse) of Twitter is there is always something new to be posted. It will quickly feed the sense of missing something if you're not checking your feed a hundred times a day. The number of times you are going to be able to check your feed will also influence how many people you will follow and they types of folks you follow (do they tweet numerous times a day or only occasionally?).
You will likely develop a completely separate circle of influence apart from your other social networks. For example, most of my followers are people I don't know personally. But it one way or another we probably share a common interest. So it allows me to share ideas with people I would not normally have an opportunity to speak to.
Also, Twitter has a useful tool that allows you to link to your Facebook page so that whenever you send out a new tweet it will also post to your Facebook timeline. This is great because then you don't have to worry about posting the link yourself. It also allows whatever you share to be circulated among your friends (who are more than likely going to be a separate and distinct group from other social media followers).
Finally, you need to know that brevity is both its biggest asset and its biggest liability. Yes, the 140 character limit forces you to be pithy in your commentary (apologies to Bill O'Reilly). But it's also hard to flesh out a complicated idea one tweet at a time. This is why Twitter works so well as an aggregator because it allows you drive traffic to other sites. It also (naturally) limits the amount of personal information to as much or as little as you want to share.
One more side note: if you have a blog you need to be on Twitter for no other reason than to drive traffic to your blog. And if you utilize hashtags properly you can open up to a wider audience than just your own followers.
Of all the social media platforms I use, Twitter is by far my favorite for the reasons above. Give it a try if you haven't already. And make sure to follow me @Daddypundit.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Rules for Dating My Daughter
It's only fair that any young man who wants to date my daughters know what he's getting in to before he considers asking them out:
This also makes me think of one of my favorite Chuck quotes (via John Casey)
Or you can always take the Willie Robertson approach to dealing with your daughter's boyfriend.
Related: Application to Date My Daughter.
UPDATE: Thanks to Adam Baldwin for the retweet!
This also makes me think of one of my favorite Chuck quotes (via John Casey)
Or you can always take the Willie Robertson approach to dealing with your daughter's boyfriend.
Related: Application to Date My Daughter.
UPDATE: Thanks to Adam Baldwin for the retweet!
RT @Daddypundit “Rules for Dating My Daughters - with a nod to ‘John Casey’.” - http://t.co/zWzpOYANDd
— Adam Baldwin (@adamsbaldwin) June 18, 2013