Worthwhile Reads: On Expectations

When I post a collection of blog posts and articles that I consider “worthwhile reads” I generally try to come up with a theme that unites them. These three posts all have this in common: They all deal with expectations. Danielle dissects an e-card on fathers and daughters, Haley explains that parenting is about being willing to let your children write their own lives, and Vjorak asks just what evangelicals and fundamentalists mean when they argue that Christianity has been “banned from the public square.”

What Does a Good Dad-Daughter Relationship Look Like? on From Two to One

Yes, it’s an extreme. But I know plenty of people who adhere to the daddy-daughter/king-princess relationship. They take their little girls on “dates.” They teach them that teenage boys “want only one thing — sex.” They purchase purity rings for their 16, 13, even 11-year-olds as a promise to abstain from sex until marriage. Are any of these things inherently Wrong? Yes.  No.  Maybe. There are far too many shades of gray in life, especially in the awesome responsibility of parenting.

But it should cause us to pause and ponder.

Guest Post: What you aren’t told when you have a baby, on Permission to Live

While being transgender was certainly not on my parent’s dream list, and really they never had any control over that. (A consistant proportion of people are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender.) Their investments and hopes have paid off in my life. Their love that nurtured me when I was a child, has played a part in shaping the vibrant compassionate woman I am today. I want to give my children the best quality of life that I can for them. But my own story underlines how I can’t fall in love with any script surrounding my children’s lives. There is so much I have no control over. But no matter how my children’s lives unfold, I am always in control of how I interact with them and show them my love. No matter what happens, I want to love my kids, not the hopes and dreams I might have for them.

A Question: What Christian Voices Am I Missing? on Unreasonable Faith

If we’re going to talk about how social pressure is forcing Christianity out of the public spaces, and yet there are still all these Christian voices, shouldn’t we start by talking about how social pressure is completely forcing out all other religious voices first?