Wheres the Love?

 We have a dog named Oscar.   I remember the night I brought him home he just jumped right up next to Tina on the couch and made himself home like he was part of the family.   From that point on he has been bringing joy to our family.  What amazes me is his endless love that he gives to each one of us in the family.  He always loves on someone, and it is always unconditional.   If you’re sick he knows it and he’s right there to comfort you as well.    If he sees your sad he comes right over and gives you kisses.

I wonder how the world would be if we all had the trait of unconditional love?  One of the greatest commandments that Jesus taught is in Mark 12:31 is Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these.   It seems that society has come to a point where we can’t love each other or we can only love you with conditions.   A good example of this is the Million moms group that most recently tried to boycott JC Penny’s for having Ellen DeGeneres promoting their products.  Now they are protesting Toys R Us because they are selling Archie comic that has a gay couple getting married on the cover.  We see it in politics today as well; all the republican candidates are trying to outdo each other on who is the most conservative and just saying nasty things.  We also see it in the Democrats as well painting the Republicans in a bad way too. 

 We are all uniquely designed and because of this we are all different, we should not let these differences stop us from loving each other.   I am going to try to take Oscars view on love and put it into practice in my life.

Acceptance

As my spouse Tina and I were walking today I was pondering the way my parents acceptance of me.  Sadly my relationship with them and many other family members is just a shell of one.  There is no substance to it at all.  We talk about the weather, how my job is doing and maybe how the kids are doing and that is as about as far as it gets.  It is sad that I have not been able to share the joys and sorrows of life with them.   For many years Tina and I have had to hide the issues of being transgender. Like many people in the LBGT community we face such harsh judgment from the ones that we love for being different in the eyes of the mainstream Christian community.    So over the last four years Tina and the girls seen so many changes and we can’t even share one of them with my parents.   I have been truly blessed though that Tina and the girls have been so supportive on this wonderful journey in life. 

As I ponder how I should handle my relationship with my parents I came across this passage in the bible.

Romans 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” (NASB)

I think that I need to look hard into myself and accept that they will never accept me for the person that I am, and accept them for who they are.  If that mean only a shell of conversations then that’s ok I am still showing them the love of Christ.

Just Me

I have been wanting to learn how to do a blog for a while now so I thought that I would give it a try.
I really don't know were this is going to lead and I really don't have any preconceived ideas of were its going to go as well.

I thought that I would share a photo of me taken by my friend Cindy the other day.  I had a really quick trip up to Pennsylvania.  On my way back to South Carolina I stopped in Chestertown Maryland to see Cindy and her spouse Susan.  I have known them for a year now and they are such nice people.  It was so nice to catch up with them.  Cindy and I had a great time walking downtown and hitting some of the little shops and she took this photo of me in front Sultana of the Chester river.  It was made by hand there in Chestertown and launched in 2001.  It is used for education of students and teachers about the history, culture and environment of the Chesapeake Bay area.
http://www.sultanaprojects.org/aboutus.htm