Everyone has to apologize every once in a while.

It’s no fun.  And the more people you have to apologize in front of, I imagine, the less fun it is.

Public apologies have become a staple of our cultural diet.  Every month or two, we expect a celebrity, pastor, or politician to apologize to us.  In fact, we demand it.  We foam at the mouth.  We jeer and flaunt the person’s wrongdoing…

…And it’s really annoying.

You know that Rush Limbaugh apologized on his show on Monday.  He will not be the last person to apologize for saying something he should not have.  And so, the next time we all have an apology coming to us, here’s three super-annoying habits everyone can stop doing.

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Everyone likes to have friends.  The more friends, the better.

And as the word “religion” has become more and more distasteful, Christians have tried to bill their faith as a “relationship,” or even a “friendship.”  But definitely not a “religion.”  Religion sounds cold and ritualized.  We want friendship.

The problem is, God doesn’t want to be your friend.  And He doesn’t want you to be His friend.  And calling what we have with God a “relationship” may just be really confusing things.

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Parenting Month is coming to a close.  I’ve had a lot of fun.

A funny thing happened this week in one of my classes.  The kids were being silly and were asking me if they could call me all kinds of made up names.  You know, silly nonsense names that just popped into their heads.  One girl blurted out, “Can I call you ‘Dad’?”

After I laughed my face off, I said, “No.  No one calls me Dad.”  I’m still laughing about that one.

The kids had a hard time with that.  They couldn’t understand how I could be married and not have a kid.  I tried to explain that they don’t just hand you a kid when you get married.

My path toward parenthood is far from over, but before I take a break from talking about it on the blog, I’ve got a confession.

I really really don’t want to reproduce.  That’s what I’m scared of.

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This is it, the last big parenting topic before I close out this series on Friday.

See, everyone likes “homemade” things.

Home cooked dinners, cookies, cards, gifts, everyone likes those things.  Eating out of a takeout box every night is unhealthy or depressing.  And a handmade card conveys so much more feeling than Hallmark…

But then again, store bought stuff is pretty good too.  No one likes watching home movies.  And who wants a homemade bicycle or a homemade PlayStation?  No thanks.  Sometimes, pre-packaged, store bought things are okay.

So while my wife and I continue to wait for the stork to show up, there are plenty of people loading up with ready-made kids.

So I ask: should we just go shopping instead of doing things the old-fashioned way?

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Hey, it’s not too late to enter to win a FREE copy of “Sons of Grace!”  Comment on Friday’s post to get entered!

Here we are, the topic that really inspired this whole series on parenting for me.

See, my wife and I have sat in the waiting rooms where people go when nature needs some help making babies.  And there’s always these helpful pamphlets sitting around offering all kinds of “counseling.”

Counseling?  Sounds helpful!  Though I just can’t decipher what “genetic counseling” means.  But it looks so promising.  Look at those happy couples in the pamphlet with their perfect baby.  And there are hundreds of tests that we can opt for, before and during pregnancy, which promise to help us make “informed” decisions.

And look at that, the pamphlet even promises that we can wipe out Down’s Syndrome, through the magic of science!

What prospective parent would choose to be uninformed?  And what parent would choose for their kid to have Down’s Syndrome?  It sounds so promising, but maybe in a George Orwell dystopian nightmare kind of way.

The pamphlets and tests and medical advice are so commonplace, I don’t really know what to do.  So I asked for some help to sort things out.

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Happy Friday everyone.

Today, we’re taking a short break from Parenting Month to bring you the chance to win a free copy of a great book, Sons of Grace.  It’s made up of the stories of ten tough men who found Jesus.  There are some incredibly redemptive stories here, like the guy who went from an abusive home to being an “enforcer” in a bike gang, to finding Christ.  There’s a sniper, a cancer patient, and even the author himself, Mark Hughes, an obsessive career ladder climber (read: corporate tool).

Yes, there are some tough, gut-wrenching stories and language.  But they are all true and need to be shared.  And none of the situations you will read about are tougher than the grace of God.  The book perfectly illustrates how God still penetrates the toughest hearts.  You need to read this book.

Fortunately for you, I’ve got a great Q and A with Mark Hughes, who has generously provided ten copies for giveaway.  All you have to do is leave a comment to be entered to win!

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