Posts by stevehodges:
Daddy Destinations
April 4th, 2012
Author: Steve Hodges
The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. –Psalm 24:1
My wife recently attended a two-day blogging conference. While at the conference, I spent the days with the children.
Our family has long had a tradition of Daddy Destinations. A Daddy Destination is a trip to some unannounced place that I have chosen. These trips are usually a surprise.
On a Friday afternoon, I gathered some items together and put them in the back of the van. A tablecloth, several bottles of water, paper plates, plastic cups, and forks. I gathered the children together and told them that we were going to get some supper.
After a stop at the KFC drive-thru for dinner, we drove to a park near us. The park is a peaceful tract of wilderness just ten minutes from home. We set a picnic table, and the adventure began.
After supper, we cleared the table, and went for a short hike.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
–Psalm 19:1-4
Down the trail from the picnic area, we came to a lake. We stayed awhile and enjoyed the peacefulness of the park. Listened to the wind. We got away from the house, the electronics, the television and just enjoyed each other’s company.
The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the Earth he has given to mankind.
–Psalm 115:16
Nobody was ready to leave when sunset came and the park was closing. We left thanking God for his beautiful creation. All of the children were asking, “When can we come back?”
Next Week’s Author: Susan Ottmer
Father-Son Retreat
November 29th, 2011
Since ancient times, age thirteen marked a boy’s transition from child into adult. According to the Talmud, when Jewish boys reach 13, they become responsible for their actions and
become a Bar Mitzvah. Prior to a boy reaching Bar Mitzvah, his parents hold the responsibility for the child’s actions. After this age, children bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition and ethics; he is able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life.
When our eldest girl neared the age of 12, we began to think about how we could mark this transition. As we thought about how we might, our friends shared about special trip they were planning with their 12-year-old son. Each of their children get to pick any location in the continental United States for a two-to-three day getaway. This time is spent having fun and talking about the years ahead.
Our eldest son chose the Creation Museum. This 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life,Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings. It is a terrific imagining of how ancient life might have been. It is completely true to the biblical narrative.
We drove to Petersburg, Kentucky. Stopped along the way at Joyce Kilmer memorial forest. We stayed in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. We visited the museum, travelled around the area, got to see a nuclear power plant up close. Ate too many cheeseburgers, and took advantage of the hotel’s free breakfasts.
Along the way, we went through the Passport to Purity weekend retreat study. Dennis and Barbara Rainey have taken what can be an awkward subject and placed it in a biblical perspective. This study fit perfectly with the Creation Museum visit. The museum proclaiming the truth of God’s Word from the very first verse, and the discussions of moral reponsibility coming directly out of the same Word.
This is a great way to spend time with your pre-teen. Have them pick the destination, and let the fun–and learning–begin.
Passport to Purity is available here where you can also listen to a sample audio excerpt: Christian Book Distributors
My wife’s description of a mother/daughter weekend plus links to our friends’ parent/child weekend retreats: You Must Do This
Next Week’s Author: Susan Ottmer
Defense in Depth
July 20th, 2011
It is an Information Assurance concept strategy in which multiple layers of defense are placed throughout an information technology system. It addresses vulnerabilities in personnel, technology, and operation for the duration of the system’s life.
The defense in depth approach is to defend a system against any particular attack using several varying methods. It seeks to delay, rather than prevent, the advance of an attacker—buying the organization time to detect and respond to the attack.
What does this have to do with parenting, you may ask?
Do your children use the World Wide Web? Have you ever left a child unattended on the web, even for a moment?
The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is. –Jeremiah 17:9
Deceitful and cunning people are out there; ready to corrupt the hearts and minds of our children. How do we defend our children from them, when even a moment’s in attention can be enough time for an image, or word, or phrase to sneak in?
Defense in depth.
Many parents set the Internet parental controls in Windows or on their Mac and think “There. I’ve protected the children from inappropriate content.” But I have noticed that the Internet parental control on some of our computers says, “Try to limit access to adult sites automatically”. When it comes to shielding my children from inappropriate content, I agree with Yoda: “Do, or do not. There is no try.”
So how do we protect our children’s innocence?
We treat computer use in the home as a privilege. We manage each child’s computer time with the time limits control. Both Windows and Mac operating systems allow setting the time ranges and number of hours a day that a child can use the computer. This also prevents late-night browsing after the parents have gone to bed.
Our defense against the attackers of childhood innocence uses several varying methods. The first is to have our household computers in open areas of the house. Use of the computers is subject to anyone in the house observing your activity. The second method is use of the parental controls present in the Windows and Mac operating systems. We set the systems to “try to limit access”.
The third layer is the use of the OpenDNS name resolution system. This free service allows parents to set whole-household rules for filtering inappropriate content. Computers, game consoles, iOS devices, smart phones, etc. are all subject to the OpenDNS filtering rules.
Once our Internet Protocol (IP) address was registered with OpenDNS, we set our network router to use the OpenDNS service. All requests from Internet-connected devices in our household is routed through the OpenDNS service, which applies the content filtering rules we have set to each request for a web site. If a requested site is in our filter list, our child receives a customized message from us about why access to the site was denied.
The fourth layer we use is review of the OpenDNS logs. OpenDNS keeps a record of all sites requested. Reviewing the logs with your children is a great way to let them know that you’re keeping an eye on what they’re doing—even when you are not physically present in the room.
Using the defense in depth approach to defending our children from the ”bad guys” accomplishes exactly the same thing as it does defending information systems from attack. It allows us time to detect the attack, and respond appropriately.
Next Week’s Author: Susan Ottmer
