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Author Archives: Dan Nelson

Just for Fun: A New Vocabulary Word from a four-and-a-half-year-old

29 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family

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Children, Mispronunciation, New Words, Vocabulary

My children have taught me some interesting things, a couple of which I want to share just out of sheer fun:  words that they have crafted through either misunderstanding, lack of ability to pronounce, or just creating them.  Most are common to most little kids, but not all.  It isn’t the first thing he’s taught me, and probably won’t be the last.  His talents are somewhat indescribable.

Our eight year old pretty much has English pronunciation figured out now, but she did not always.  “Movie-ator” was one that lasted a long time, and one that she even passed on to her little bother.  “Quash-quash” rather than wash cloth, went through a sort of evolutionary transient stage with “Quash-Quoff” before sadly working into an orthodox pronunciation just a year ago.

Our four-and-a-half year old is still in the word learning and experimentation phase.  He’s still likes pasghetti and the movie-ator, but there are other words that have crept into the vocabulary of the rest of the family. One is calling the door a “dorn”.  We have no idea where it came from, and we all have started using the word.  When something gets completed, I find myself say “Tot tot!” patterned after his exclamation when he would do something he was proud of in place of Ta da!  We still greet his sister, not ” Hi, sissy,” but ” Ak, Neet-nee”.

These are all words that make sense.  We can see why he uses them-where they came from, but there is one that we have no idea where it came from: Eever.  Pronounced “EE-ver”.  He uses it consistently in multiple contexts, but always consistently.  He knows exactly what he’s saying, we know exactly what he’s saying, but where it came from, we simply have no clue.  He might say, “I eever want to go to the store.” or “Heidi eever wants to go out the dorn.”  “I eever love this movie.”

It’s almost superfluous.  Take it out, and it still makes sense, but leave it in, and it is almost used as an adverb.  Possibly as a synonym for actually or “just” or “possibly” even “always”.

I eever don’t know.

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Book Review: Loving Your Wife

23 Sunday Aug 2009

Posted by Dan Nelson in Family

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Loving Your Wife as Christ Loves the ChurchIt is great for someone to say, “The bible says to love your wife like Christ loves the church.”  Let’s face it, though. What does that look like?   It isn’t all that difficult for most of us to love our wives, but is that different from what scripture teaches?  What if you have a wife that is difficult to love?  There are so many thoughts & ideas and views of what it means to be a good husband. As Christians we want to know not what makes a husband good, but what makes a husband godly.  These are difficult questions to be sure, and I would like to review a book that dives into them.

Before I start, here’s my disclaimer.  This is my first book review (at least since I was required to do one in college), but I love to read, so I’m trying my hand in it.  I plan to do it as I read a book.  What passes for Christian self-help books are sometimes good, sometimes a mix of good and bad, and sometimes downright horrendous.  Most people coming across these types of books will read them, and try to apply them without ever having read the scripture (as scripture warns us to do) to make sure they are really biblical.   I was once one of these, assuming that if it got printed by a “Christian” publisher it was safe.  This is a VERY dangerous practice, and I don’t recommend it.  In fact, I plead with you that you never take anyone’s advice about anything without checking scripture to determine what it has to say about the topic.  That includes this blog.  I take this very seriously (consider James 3:1) and if you come across something that looks sculpturally inaccurate that I have written I would appreciate if you would bring it to my attention.  I may stand my ground, but I may need the correction.  So with that out of the way, let’s talk about the book!

I’m gearing up for a bible study, based on a book I read recently called Loving Your Wife as Christ Loves the Church by Larry E. McCall.  I found it via The Blazing Center, if you are interested.  The fact that I am using it for a bible study should show that I think highly of what it has to say.

The book uses scripture to examine what it means to be a godly husband.  It not only looks at scripture, it gives practical advise on how to apply these truths to our lives.  Knowing what the bible says doesn’t always equate with how to practically use that knowledge.  He begins by looking at what the perfect husband looks like.  I already know what you’re thinking.  A perfect husband? Is there such a thing?  Actually, there is.  And if you think it’s you… well, you really need this book.

Mr. McCall’s book looks extensively at the model of the perfect husband, Jesus Christ. Chapters include discussions on Predetermined love, Practical love, Protecting love, Providing love, Passionate love, Praying love, among other others.  So he not only examines how Christ displays these attributes, he discusses what this means for husbands.   Discussions cover everything from how to practically pray for your wife to why pornography is so bad (and it’s probably worse than you thought).

I think the thing I appreciated most in this teaching is helping grow in my understanding of Christ’s care for his bride, the church.  It helped me to assess myself and look at areas I may need to adjust or outright begin doing.

It isn’t a difficult read, but it certainly challenges.  He uses a great mix of quotes from some solid teachers, good application of scripture, and examples of how he applies this in his own life.  I recommend it not just to husbands but to any man-young old, married, engaged, or considering marriage one day. Through it you will gain not only a more biblical view of how to be a more godly husband, but you will grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us as our example of the Perfect Husband.

You can purchase the book from CBD or Amazon.

If you are in the Cape Girardeau area this fall, I will be teaching on the subject on Thursday nights.  Contact Lynwood Baptist Church for more info.

Want to dive deeper?  Read the book and listen to this sermon by Paul Washer.  This could really change your view of marriage. Your wife will appreciate it!

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Adoption

15 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by Dan Nelson in Adoption

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Adoption

Yeah, I’m pretty sure nobody read my last blog post, but that’s okay.  You can find it here.  Quite a bit has gone on since my last post.  Huge, massive changes that will change our lives significantly.  So I thought I would post.  I am motivated by the fact that my wife now has a blog.  She told me tonight that she’s had one for almost a week, but forgot to tell me.  I would be less surprised if she had said that the minivan exploded while I was at work and she had forgotten to tell me.  So if she is going to do it, then I can surely write, especially when writing thing is one my favorite pastimes. 

I discussed last time about how much I loved being a Dad.  About the time that I posted that entry I started praying-in ernest- about adoption.  It is an idea that had been rolling around in my mind for a very long time.  But I put it off.  I would mention it to my wife every once in awhile, but I was doing that pathetic-excuse-for-a-husband-thing and waiting for her to make a decision.  I’ve done that before, which was, in my own feeble way, an attempt to protect her.  After all, she would be doing a great deal of the work, so if she wanted to do it, she should just be the one to decide.  Right?  Um… no.  I’ve made this mistake before, like wanting her to stay home from work, but never telling her.  She is, after all, a pharmacist and I didn’t want her to give up her career.  But she cared more about our children than her own career and chose to stay home.  If I had only said something sooner, I would have done a much better job of protecting her, but instead I just said nothing.  But that is past, and I am learning how best to be a godly husband, and I think I’m getting better at it.

So, after fervent prayer, lots of advice, and a good deal of reading we have chosen to adopt!  We have two children already, but our lives need a couple more.  There are many reasons we have chosen to do this, and I think I will break down some reasons why in future posts.  I want to mention a book I am reading by Russell D. Moore called Adopted for Life which has done nothing but strengthen my decision.  If you have stumbled here because you are interested in adoption, I suggest taking a look at what he has to say.

We are just at the beginning stages.  We still have a long journey to go, and I can see why so many people say it is a journey.  So far our journey has included:

  • Deciding to pray about adoption
  • Deciding to adopt
  • Deciding to adopt two children (preferably twins)
  • Deciding to adopt from Russia
  • Finding an agency
  • Applying to the agency (We were approved)
  • Finding an agency to do our home study
  • Applying for approval to get a home study (That’s an application to apply for a home study application). (We were approved).
  • Getting things notarized

And now we are in the process of home study.  So far we’ve gotten four things notarized, and I suspect we have about 2% of our noterized items completed. (I say that jokingly, but only a little bit…) 

If you read this, please pray that things will go smoothly.  So far everything has fallen into place, except for how we are going to pay for it.  I’m going to keep it short, so I won’t elaborate how we are stepping out into faith with paying for the entire thing, but let me say… things are falling into place in ways we couldn’t have foreseen.  The homestudy fees have been taken care of.  We didn’t see it coming.  It was not a gift from another person, it is something that just worked out with perfect timing.  I have a lot more to discuss, but more later!

And I promise it won’t be three months to my next post!

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Trying out WordPress and Introducing myself

11 Monday May 2009

Posted by Dan Nelson in Christianity

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I’ve had a blog for about two years, not that I actually write about anything interesting, or that anyone except my brother ever reads it, but it exists.  I keep a journal, and I have about 2400 pages from the end of high school until today.  I love to write.  I just don’t have any particular topic to write about.

I love the idea of blogging, but I can’t get into it.  I blog at entirely random intervals.  I did it pretty regularly when I used it as a journal, and I love the idea of integrating photos  into my posts and I do tend to post more when I’m on vacation.  My question is will the blogs be there after I am?  I suspect not.  While it’s true that my handwritten journal may be destroyed, they are at least a tangible physical that can be preserved, God willing.

So to introduce myself, I am a Christian, a husband, a father to two, and a druggist. (I know we call us pharmacists now, but I like that word.  I don’t want it to die, so I’ll just use it as often as possible.)  I believe in God and I believe that Jesus is God and the bible is true.   I spend most of my spare time doing ministry work- I work a lot helping those who have addictions, whether it is alcohol, drugs, pornography, or food.  In 2008 I lost 70 pounds just with the understanding that addiction to food was not a result of having the “fat gene”, it was a spiritual problem. 

As far as Christianity is concerned, I disagree with most of what is considered acceptable as far as what we see in America these days.  I used to be a hypocrite-great in knowledge of the bible- but without understanding.   There were vast tracts of the bible that just made no sense to me because I had the wrong view of God.  I had invented a god in my own mind that was great and was similar to the One in the bible, but was clearly different.  Now I understand- I have a good concept of who God is, why things are, and I am satisfied with it.   So I truly believe that most who claim Christianity in the United States are unrepentant & unregenerated hypocrites (i.e. not Christians- goats, impostors.)   There is a general misconception both of who God is and how Christians should act.  (For example if I point out to someone that they are not acting as a Christian should they think I am being unchristian when in reality I am being exactly Christian.)  That sounds harsh, but I used to be there and to be honest a bit upset that nobody every told me I was not acting as a Christian should.  Trust me, it’s better on this side!  I can answer most questions about the bible and God, at least in the general sense. 

Now for being a husband, I am working on that.  I realize that I spend most of my time thinking of myself, but I’m not called to do that.  I am called to be better than that.  I’m getting there, and the fact that I struggle with it is my proof.  In all my wife is extremely intelligent (as far as wisdom is concerned I value hers over almost any other human’s- she’s that good).

And for being a Dad, I love it.  It is both frightening and fun.  Here I am raising two more people who have their own hopes, desires, and personality.  We have an 8 year old daughter and a 4 year old son.  They are exactly opposite in every way except their propensity to watch too much Scooby Doo.   I mean they are exactly opposite.  When one is afraid, the other is not.  They have opposite reactions to sugar.  One is entirely messy the other is inherently neat.  They compliment each other well.

Now honestly I have no idea what I’m going to blog about.  It may be theology, maybe whether or not my chickens are still alive (Edit: They are not), or what I had for breakfast.  Or maybe after a couple of entries I’ll default back to my old blog.  But hey, here I am!  I also twitter @capedan .

Any ideas are welcome, feel free to comment, but just so you know any foul language or blasphemies (including not capitalizing God’s name) will be happily deleted.  (If you lack the intelligence to communicate without the f-word I just don’t value your thoughts as much.  Sorry.)

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