Easy like Sunday morning…

Man where do the days go.

Time to figure out our Halloween costumes (I’ll keep you posted!)

Ok, I know they say never to talk politics and religion.

Politics I’ll stay away from because I hate it all…

But religion for me is an interesting subject and I’ll go there.

Especially because we’re raising kids and want them to share our values.

Just a quick back story…

I grew up Catholic, yes Catholic school and all.

It was a good childhood overall but I never really connected with religion and made it front and center in my life.

I just tried to be a stand up guy and go about my business.

My wife, she grew up Jewish.

Her mom was Catholic and converted to Judaism for her dad because he took it pretty serious.

When I first met my wife in New Jersey, she didn’t come across as typical “Jersey girl”.

Nothing wrong with Jersey girls at all.

I mean, I grew up on Staten Island, NY and dealt with Staten Island girls. WOW 😂 (No offense to any reading this😉)

Back to my story…

I swore I thought my wife was this mid-western Christian girl.

That was the vibe I got. (Shout out to you mid-western Christian girls!)

So when I found out my wife was Jewish, it was too late.

I was already in love with her.

So me being me, I had to map out how this was going to work.

I knew her dad was thinking Jewish grandkids…

But for me, team Jesus was non-negotiable.

My wife was waayy more open than me and her dad.

She was like me kinda, never connected to her childhood ‘religion’, but was very spritual and felt a connection to God.

I mean, beyond all the rules and the tribal stuff…

It’s supposed to be all about your connection to God and living out a life of purpose and righteousness.

So before asking her to marry me, we sat down and had the talk.

I truly wanted to raise our kids with Christ in their heart.

My awesome wife agreed and I agreed to celebrate the Jewish holidays with her dad.

When we moved to Florida we found an amazing non-denomination church called Bayside Community church.

This was where we will build our family’s foundation in God and Jesus.

My wife loves it as well.

I just gotta say, my wife is awesome!

Here’s a woman who honors her father’s traditions and yet has such an open heart to experience her husband’s beliefs and embrace it.

My whole thing was not pushing her to convert or anything, but to explore.

All I said was this, Mosses brought the 10-commandments and the rules to live by.

Jesus is the continuation of the story.

He ‘showed’ us how to live, how to truly love and redeemed us.

I think that connected.

It’s still a journey.

For both of us.

I still have questions too.

But in today’s world, kids need a guiding light.

Who better to follow than the man who lit up the world and carried our burdens with us and for us.

One of the most brilliant things to me is how Jesus related God as our father.

If God being “the father” was already correlated before Jesus came about than please correct me.

The father is not there to make sure we never make a mistake or control us.

That’s not my job as a father.

God does want us to know that under all the mistakes, all the choices, all the darkness and all the celebrations that we are NEVER alone.

We are LOVED.

UNCONDITIONALLY.

BUT…

The father guides.

The father listens.

The father places us in position and opens doors for the child to blossom and thrive when we listen and stay close to our values.

Being a parent is an evolution of ourselves.

And we have a book, a loving father and a living example of how to do.

But the devil is in the details (no pun intended).

So every Tuesday night, my wife are in a parenting group at our church that teaches a curriculum from the book, “Parenting from the Tree of Life.”

It takes biblical values and really gives you tactical advice on how to raise your family in love, respect and values.

If you have an opportunity to find this book and curriculum, I highly recommend it.

We both see areas where we are implementing certain principles before reading the book and areas where we may have fallen short at times.

There is NO perfect way to raise kids.

But waking up every day to do better and stay focused on God IS THE WAY.

In your corner,

Greg

P.S. I’ll leave you with this…At times we get in the role of telling our kids what to do and what not to do. Show them the why.

Where do you stand on your values and principles at home?