Tattoos

Tattoos

I have to admit this blog is a little personal for me.  My oldest son (23) against my advice went ahead and got a Tattoo.  We had several discussions about it before he did it but did it any way.  Along with this I had a good friend at work get a tattoo with the verse “as for me in my house we will serve the lord.”  He wanted it in Hebrew I helped him out by coping the verse out of my Hebrew bible for him to give the tattoo artist.

 I admit that I am form the old school on this and believe that Tattooing is wrong and I gave the verse below

 

Leviticus 19:27-29

New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁷ “Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.
²⁸ “Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord.
²⁹ “Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with prostitution and wickedness.

In this I included the context and it is where the laws were addressed for the Hebrews as they enter the promise land.  These are a list of things they were not to do that the pagans did in their religious services.

That is the heart of my son’s argument.  He says that he did not get the tattoo as a part of another religion.  In fact he got a very fancy cross over his heart to show Christ is in his heart.  I like the sentiment.  But I do not feel this is the best way to show this. 

Another point my son made is that Christ has Tattoos. 

The Rider on a White Horse

¹¹ Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and true, and in righteousness he doeth judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³ He is clothed in a robe dipped in^[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. ¹⁵ From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down all the nations’ and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

My son says that it is a Tattoo on Jesus thigh that says “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”, I am not sure that Jesus would have had that Tattooed on himself.  I think that it got put there by some miracles’ way.  

I was not convinced by any of these arguments that Tattoos are okay.  But I also told him there is forgiveness of sin and I know God will not keep him out of heaven for this and I still love him and always will.  And the same is true of any one of my readers out there that have a Tattoo.  I have a couple of Pastor Friend’s that have Tattoos they got while in the military, which they now regent.  But they know there is forgiveness in Christ.

Tipss

Tips

Recently there have been two articles on tipping a waiter that caught my attention and made me think some.  The most resent a football player for a Philadelphia team took a couple of buddies out to a trendy restaurant for lunch and he picked up the bill for $60 plus tips.  Well he only left a twenty one cent tip and also left his credit card on purpose to make a point.  Well the waiter took a picture of this and pasted it on the restaurants facebook page and was very derogatory to the player, the football team and the NFL.  This started a media storm and one celebrity said that tips were this man’s wages and that the football player was robbing the man of his wages and next time in Philadelphia he was going to give the waiter 1000 dollars to save face for celebrity’s.   

The player was interviewed on local TV about the incident.  He explained that the waiter was very rude to him and his friend.  The waiter also said some very derogatory things about football.  He said that a tip was for good service.  This waiter did not give good service; therefore purposely he only left 21 cents and also left his credit card so the waiter would know he could have left more but did not because of the poor service

. 

Sharon’s economic teacher told her if you have bad service leave 7 cents, a nickel and two pennies because the waiter would know that you searched you pocket and found that to leave a statement that it was bad service. Because if you leave nothing they will think you forgot.  I am thinking that what the football player left 21 cent it is the same idea. 

I have to agree I was always taught that a tip was for good service and was not the obligation of the patron.  As you know we have a time share in Disney and one of first timeshare I picked up a broacher on restaurants and education on fine dining.In it there were a couple of things I found interesting.  One was that a tip was customary for good service not that it was monitory.I think that Disney being a leader in the entertainment industry would know best what a tip is for.  It also said use a sliding scale for your tip it said for good service give 15% for better service give 18% and for great service leave 20%.  They also said that you do not tip on the tax.

The other tip incident was a pastor had went out after church one Sunday and they paid for several people to eat and the bill came up to over a 100 dollars the restaurant add a 18 % gratuity to the bill.  The pastor crossed the tip out and wrote I give 10 % to God I will not give more to man.  The waiter then took a picture of the receipt and placed it on his personal page and said some very unkind words about Christians, pastors, and God.  Because the post had the pastor’s name it got back to the pastor what had happen.  The pastor then called the manager of the restaurant and the server was fired for posting a patron’s name.

Another thing I want to point out before I get to the meat of this one is that both waiters posted receipt on Facebook.  One of the waiters were fired for this the other was praised for it.  I think it absolutely wrong that a name of a person should be posted on Facebook without their knowledge or consent. 

The real meat here is what the pastor wrote.  He said I will not give man more then I give God.  I understand what he was saying but I think this goes back to what I was talking about earlier.  A tip is for service it is not a gift.  The pastor thoughts are the opposite of the actor the actor thinks it is a right of the waiter to get the money where the pastor thinks that a tip is a gift. 

I do not like to be hard on pastors but because of this attitude of a tip they have driven away a possible person to Christ instead of drawing them in to Christ.  I went a long way for my point but it is that just little things like a tip can have an impact on heavenly things.  That is why the Bible says

Philippians 4:6

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

  Do everything with prayer.  That says a little pray over a tip can go a long way. 

To my childern

To my children

The last couple of years I have been very sickly.  I have been in the hospital three times and I just had a bad case of pneumonia.  I can see in the eyes of my children that they are very scared and concerned for me.  My daughter came over to the house every day when I was very sick;to check about my health, and my oldest son was sending texts checking on me.  My baby (he is 11 years old, but he is still my baby) was sleeping in our room so he could help take care of daddy.   This was a big change to see their dad like this. I used to allow Josh, the oldest, to punch me in the stomach because I had taken some boxing in college and know how to hold my stomach and not get hurt.  But, the other day Sharon had to tell him he could not do that anymore. I am diabetic, and I take insulin in my stomach and it leaves bruises and it hurts if he would punch me.  Bekah used to love to wrestle on the bed with dad, even after she was married, she would love to come in after I had lain down and jump on me and wrestle around.  Sharon had to tell her to stop because I, and the bed could not handle it any more.   Kaleb misses out the most, because of my bad knees we do not go out and play ball, go to the park and other things that I did with the other kids.  They see their dad getting decrepit.

I know how they feel, I remember about 15 years ago, my dad got real sick, had a long stay in the hospital and when he left he was on oxygen.  It is that realization; that your dad is not immortal, and you are scared about what you are going to do without your dad.  He has always been there, your buddy, your adviser.  It is a very scary thought to lose that. 

I would like to address my children and say yes, someday I will die and it will probably happen before you are ready for it.  But I want you to know that I am ready at any time the Lord calls.  I know that all three of you are Christians and you are working to lead the next generation of our family to Christ.  My only regret is that God gave me so much and I do not think I used it the best I could have for the Kingdom of Christ.  I do not regret any time I spent with you, but I know that there was a lot of times when I just sat on the couch and watched movies or TV when I could have be writing or doing something else for the Lord. 

I also want you to know how proud of you I am.  Josh, I will be honest that some of the middle years I was really concerned for you and I invested a lot of prayer in you.  You at one time had your heart set on becoming a ballet dancer and you were well on your way do that, you had already started doing it professionally and even had a dance choreographed for you at Houston Ballet. But you also saw the bad side how there was corruption and favoritism and it crushed your spirit toward dance.  And you wondered for several years before you found Chick fi la.  It gave you direction, maturity and taught you a lot about business and how to better deal with people.  Also at Chick fi la you meet Lauren and she has helped you out greatly by being a calming influence and helps you live a healthier lifestyle.   I know you were not real happy with Chick fi la when you left but it greatly prepared you for your career as a banker.  I am so proud that you do not just have a job but a real career that you can provide for your family.

I am also proud of Rebekah the most obvious is our 1^st and 2^nd grandchild.  But also for finding a good job in something you love working with children, going to school and getting good grades.  You struggled though you High School years because of your learning difficulties but now you are working to get a degree online, which we found is one of the best ways for you to learn,  you have straight A’s.  That you have found a good husband in Seth.

Kaleb I am proud of you also: we are still learning about your strengths.  And one of them is compassion and helping others.  You helped your Grandpa when he had  two surgeries.  You have helped me in my different hospital stays and when I was home afterwards need nursing care.  Plus you are known around the church as a good helper.  We need to develop this God given talent of yours to become your career.

 To all my children all I ask of you is to carry on the faith in your children and your children’s children.  And hold fast to your faith.  And remember I love you.

                                                                        

Love

Dad.