Category: Father

These kids just grow up so fast… or My kid is a technophile

Over the past few weeks honestly, my now 4 year old has completely figured out how to work the TV remotes.  TV, Apple tv, DVD, she can start her own movies, pause them to go get a snack, start them over, skip scenes she doesn’t like…  I don’t know why I was surprised, this is the same kid that at 2 1/2 could work an iPhone better than some adults.

Sometimes I think that she is still so little, then she will do something that just reminds me of how much she is growing.  And it is in these times, that I start wondering, am I doing everything I can to raise her right.  Are my wife and I teaching her the things she needs to know.  I mean she has already informed us that when her next birthday comes she will be in Kindergarten.  She has also told us that she is going to marry this boy at her pre-school, but thats a story for another time.  I also try to make sure that I am spending my time with her wisely.  When we are hanging out together playing am I teaching her the life lessons that will be important later on; sharing, helping others out, being a friend.

Too many times in our world today, our kids get put on the back burner.  As I have said before today, we are all workaholics.  We are plugged in 24/7, if you don’t have your phone within reach you feel lost.  You need to check email – work and personal, you need to check twitter, Facebook, G+….  It’s not that we are intentionally neglecting our kids.  We just miss those extra little things that they do.  I have seen many work emails sent at 8, 9, 10, 11 at night, to me this is prime time with my wife and daughter.  Now I will admit, I am guilty of doing this as well, I have my face buried in my phone playing a game or checking twitter, fb, G+, and not spending that time finding out what my wife has going on at work, what my daughter did at school, etc.  I have been making a concious effort the past few months to leave work at work, now there are exceptions, but from 6 – 12 its McGlone time.

You know, I got upset tonight when my daughter was watching Tinkerbell.  She was watching Great Fairy Rescue, and I couldn’t help but get mad at the little girls dad in it.  I know its just a movie, and honestly that is how they probably wanted you to feel, but it was such an example of our American lives, that we put work ahead of our kids.  We let our kids raise themselves and its time for a change.

I know I just one dad rambling on, but maybe another dad sees this and puts it to practice, and passes it on to another dad.  Kids today need their dads to be there for them.  To be in the house, to be in their lives, and to be a man.  There are too many stories out there of guys that leave after a kid comes into the picture, or has never been around.  I heard on the Steve Harvey radio show a couple weeks ago about a boy 19 years old, with 14 or 15 kids with 14 or 15 different girls.  Now I’m not gonna blame one side or the other, but where were the parents?

It’s stories like this that make me pray everyday that I am the father figure that God has called me to be for my daughter.  And I hope that my influence on her rubs off on her friends, and the other fathers out there.

Good night, God Bless.

 

by corymcglone

What are we doing with our lives

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you do the things that you do.  Not why do I go to work, but why are actions and attitudes are they way that they are.  The past couple weeks at Church, 2 different churches for that matter, the sermons have touched on things that I felt God laying on my heard for a few weeks now.  Why do we go to Church where we do, why do we do the things that we do, why do we live the way that we live, what are we doing as Christians different from the world?

Some words have kept popping into my heard why thinking on this; complacent, convenient, habit, comfortable, satisfied, pacified, agnostic, and accustomed.  If you look at these words and feel that they are all the same, you could be right, they could be all unrelated to some as well.

I feel that in life in general we are all creatures of habit.  Even if you think that your not, we are all a little OCD.  You know if someone has adjusted your chair at the office; You know that the blue pen was on the right side of the pencil holder when you left last night and now it is in the middle; You use the same seat in the conference room every meeting, in fact 90% of you co-workers sit in the same seat.  We get to a point in our lives that we are just in a habit, we get up at the same time everyday, go through the same routine, drive to work the same way, get mad when someone has taken your normal parking spot….. Drive home the same way every day, come home and put your keys on the same hook…. You get the point and for the most part we are all genuinely happy this way.  Our days have enough variance that they stay interesting, and when you have kids, in they house you never know what to expect.  But its the stable things in life that can cause us the issues.

We get to a point where our jobs have not changed in 20 years, you are still pulling the same lever that you did when you started 20 years ago, you have not had a desire to move up.  You are satisfied with you pay and responsibility.  You become complacent, in your work, everything is mundane, it the same ol different day.  To some this is great to others it makes them go crazy.  We do things because thats all we know.  We have no desire to go that extra mile to do something on our own, to step into that unknown realm of difference.  This happens all to often in our churches and in our spiritual lives.  We do enough to get by, we go to church on Sunday, we don’t cuss around people, we are good people, thats not enough.  As the Bible clearly states, we are not saved by works alone, however faith without works is dead.  It is not enough to go to Church and say that you are a Christian, you have to live it day in and day out.

This brings me to another point, when we become complacent and pacified, our spiritual lives suffer.  When we go to church just out of habit or obligation, we can’t let so and so down if were not there, we loose sight of why the Church is there to begin with.  If the Church has just become a social gathering to see and be seen, to get a warm fuzzy and to do your spiritual duty of going to church for the week, you are doing it for the wrong reasons.  While yes Church is absolutely about community, it is about helping each other, being there for each other.  When someone in the Church needs help, your answer should not be, let me see if I can make it, it should be I’ll be right there.  The sense of community in the church has changed over the years, but in some churches you can still see the congregation come together, pray for one another, cry for one another, and just all go to the throne of God for someone else.  They put their cares and worries aside for this other person who has a need.  No matter how great or small God hears them all.  Sometimes you just don’t see prayer services in Churches anymore, that the thing I love about our Church in Ohio, this little Church has not forgotten the power of prayer.  So what if it throws off the flow of service, let God do what God needs to do.

I have said all of that to say this; If in your life, you feel satisfied make sure you are not complacent.  God wants to bless us abundantly, He wants to fill our cups till they are running over.  He wants us to ALWAYS be hungry for His will in our lives, He wants us to find community with those around us, to where we don’t just know their names and 5 things about them, but that we can look at them or get a call from them and in seconds know that something is going on, good or bad, we have that connection with them that we know they need us to praise with them or pray with them.

Sometimes you will have to do things that you don’t think you can do or want to do, but be responsive to God’s will in your life and see if you don’t become happier in all that you do.  There will be a new feeling around you and people will know that something is going on.  God has done amazing things in the past with 1 person; David, Joseph, Moses, Abraham, Paul, Jesus.  Yes these people had others with them, but it took the power of God working through the one person to bring in those others, and do change lives, nations, the world.  God can use you and the gifts that He has given to you in ways that you have never dreamed, the key is to never be satisfied, always want more from God.  Our God wants to give us everything all we have to do is ask.  We step out in faith, even if we are alone, even if we only have 1 person to back us up, we still have Him on our side.  If you look at the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer in 1 Samuel 14,   Jonathan was tired of hiding.  They stepped out in faith that God would talk care of them, and 2 men killed 20 men who were more well armed then they were.

Have faith in God and trust in Him.  Nothing is to much for God and He will never give us more than He knows we can handle.  Maybe now is the time you to make that new commitment to your Church, maybe it’s time to find a new way to share your faith, maybe its time to put into action that tugging that has been in your heart to do something that you have no idea what it is.  Trust God in all that you do and believe, seek His will for your next actions, and see what adventures lie ahead for you.

by corymcglone

In a hurry and don’t know why.

…Ok so i am just now finishing up this post.  This post began the beginning of October last year.  A lot has changed since then.  But remember the things that are most important in life…

This past weekend and few weeks have given me some time to reflect and think about some things. We spend life rushing through, all that we do. Life is about speed, fast food, fast computers, fast cell coverage, fast cars, fast w……. I’ll stop there. The past few weeks at work have been busy, I’ve logged a lot of miles, about 1800 in the last couple weeks. During this time I’ve been able to really think on how blessed I am. In all this time driving I have been able to see sunrises and sunsets that are absolutely beautiful. These are the things we miss in our day to day lives because things are so planned out and “busy”.
When was the last time you took the time to just thank God for a beautiful sunrise or sunset? When was the last time you and you spouse just went on a date, sat together and didn’t talk about work? Spent quality time with your loved ones, no cell phones interrupting you?
We live our lives planned out minute by minute only concerned with us. There is a line in the Kirk Franklin song “Little Boy” that us directed to parents and how they have been so driven for success that they “bought a house but your kids live at 106 and Park. ” We get so caught up in the day to day that we quickly lose sight of what is most important. When everything else is gone family and God will still be there.
No matter how hard we try many of us become workaholics. It’s happened to me. I find myself checking email first thing in the morning and just before going to bed. Along with the hundreds if times during the day that I am checking it. I try to tell myself hey I’m in IT I need to know if something goes down, but it’s nothing that we can do about it right at that time so it doesn’t matter that much. Instead of spending time just relaxing and enjoying life, we don’t take actual time off. During this time we are checking our phones and messages just so we don’t miss something. There is nothing important enough to pull you away from your family when you should be with them. We are all bound anymore by out schedules, every minute of every day us planned out. We try to do this in all aspects of our lives and sometimes you just have to accept that real life cannot be planned.  One of my favorite quotes from 30 Rock is, “If you want to make God laugh, Make plans…”

3/3/11 How many times in life, do we think we have it all under control just to have things go a complete different direction.  Last month I was the VP of a small IT firm, now I am an IT Analyst, at a Fortune 500 company.  In life we look at all of the things around us and “try to make time” for them.  I wish I had time for this or that, however we will make time for other things that don’t matter.  We have all heard it said that you can’t take it with you when you go, and its true, spend time with your family and loved ones while you can.  At my last job it was nothing for myself and the other managers to put in 60 -80 hours per week.  When you work like that it takes a toll not only on you and your body, but on your family and friends.  At the end of the day, family is all that you have, the jobs and the work goes away.  The more time you spend at work, the harder it is to get away from it.

Do you find yourself not able to go without checking email at midnight? Do you look at your phone as soon as you hear a sound?  Take one day, just one day, leave work at the end of 8 hours turn your phone off and relax with your family.  Eliminate the disruptions that we all have, not by acting that problems and stresses don’t exist, but by taking 2 hours to get in the floor and play with your kids, by talking like normal people — not about work, but about life, listen really listen to what your kids, or wife, or husband has to say.  Keeping things inside will make you go crazy, talk it out and relax.

Take time also to spend time thanking God for your blessings and spend time reading His word.  God wants to hear from you and hear you voice your problems even though he already knows what is in your heart.  Getting into His word will show you what others have gone through, and sometimes the same verse you have read many times before, will have a different meaning.

Take your time, remember what is important, and listen for God.  He is still working today much in the same way He did in the days of David and Moses.  It is when we just stop and listen that we will hear what He has for us.

by corymcglone