family crest

I have always enjoyed movies that portray men of strength,

war movies. 

Yes, this is Chad. 

My favorite movie of all time would be

Gladiator, followed by Braveheart.

I actually used clips from Gladiator during a class on purity and gender education

that I recently taught.  

Being a father I have been reading a lot about raising 

my son to be a man of God, 

how to pass down to my son what it means to be a man of God.

I have thought a lot about how to create in my son the values of Honor,

Strength, Truth, Courage, Love, Wisdom...

I want my son, soon to be sons, to know what we stand for as a family,

and how we are suppose to live as Men of Honor, Men of Integrity, Men of Courage...

(on a side not, I enjoyed the movie "Courageous" and would recommend the book and the movie.)

I hope that as a father, as a man, and as a husband, I emulate these qualities to my sons.

I hope that I can live these things out before my sons, and pass them onto them.

Only by God's Grace.

And one day, if God has it for them, my sons would be Men of Courage to

their own wife and children.  

Men of Purity, Men of Honor, Men of Strength, Men of Truth, Men of Integrity...  

Men willing to stand for what is right, willing to stand for Truth, even if it means standing alone.  Because, we know, in our culture it is not always the popular thing 

to believe God and stand on what His Truth says.  

When I read scripture there are so many "battle" type word pictures used...

Put on the Full Armor of God (Eph 6:11)

God's Truth is like a Double Edge Sword (Heb 4:12)

God is a Warrior (Ex 15:3)

Fight the Fight of Faith (1 Tim 6:12)...

Here is a family crest I have created.  Through looking at what family crests look like

and thinking about what we want our family to look like,

I have come up with this, so far...

the crown on top: Crown of Righteousness, our Identity is in Christ,
"You are a royal priesthood..." 1 Peter 2:9

the swords: sword of the spirit (Eph 6),
God's truth is what we hold as our standard and is sharp like a double edge sword.

the fish: three being a few, a family that looks after the needs of others,
 a family that gives their all to Him (Matt 15:34, Mark 12:33)

the cross: one on the crown and one as the center of the shield,
we as a family want to live our lives with the cross of Christ at the center of all we do.
We want to remember what He did for us, because He loves us.
1 John 3:16 says as Christ laid down his life for you, you are to do the same for others.
We want to live like that.
This life is only a mist, and will one day be gone,
we want our family to be one that lives in perspective of eternity.  

Those are the things we want to mark our family.  We know we will strive and fail many times, but we will continue to strive...

I want to print this one of these days, and frame it.  For us as a family to always

have a reminder of what we want our lives to be marked by.  

 And, for me and my sons to always have a reminder to be Men of God.  

What better reminder

than a cool war shield.

I want my sons to see me as their daddy living this out daily.

Legacy: I always think about this word as a father too.  

What kind of legacy am I leaving with my sons?  

I think it would be neat one day, when I knight my sons into knighthood,

to give them a dog tag or ring with our family crest etched into it.

And give them some cool speech with other men of God present, 

that would call them to be Men of God.  

And have other men who live courageous lives

speak truth into my sons as well, a ceremony of sorts...

I have also been working on writing a prayer of blessing for my son.

Something else I hope to frame and put in his room one day,

and pray over him.  Always reminding him who he is in Christ.

When I leave each day for work, and put my son to bed at night, I end by giving him

a fist bump and say "Courage and Honor."

He repeats it back to me, "Courage and Honor, Daddy."

Throughout the day I point out times when H did something of Honor, or something of Courage.

I ask him when I get back from work if he showed Courage and Honor in his day.

Joshua was reminded four times by God in the first chapter of the book of Joshua
to be "Strong and Courageous."
Joshua needed that encouragement, that charge, that reminder.

We need reminders, encouragement, and a charge daily...

So I leave you with this blog, Courage and Honor!
Who are you honoring with your actions and speech?
Are you living courageously, or just the way the culture tells you to?