The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Our Fathers’ Spiritual Legacy
While packing up the garage in preparation to move, Dan came across a box he had decorated for his dad as part of the craft activities available for summer camp at Verdugo Pines in 1964. The art on the box is a multi-media representation of their church – Grace Bible Chapel, an open Bible, a mountain with snow on it, and a sheet of paper with the word “Announcements” written at the top of the page. The box represented what Dan knew was important to his dad. Everything about his life was governed by Scripture, including his active ministry in church and at Bible camp. Forty years later, Dan found the box while cleaning out his dad’s garage as part of the process of moving his folks full assisted care.
In a lot of ways Dan and I have parallel upbringings. We were both born into and raised by Bible-believing parents; we both accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior during the year we were seven years old; we both went to summer Bible camp from the year we were nine years old – in fact that is when and where we first met; and we both experienced a daily reading of the Bible, usually at the evening meal. Both of our parents took seriously the Biblical instruction given to Israel in Deuteronomy 4:9 to “…take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.”
Titus 1:6-8 outlines personal parameters of leadership in the church which are also guidelines for intentional, effective Christian parenting: “If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly – for a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre – but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine…to exhort.” We saw this in both our fathers and I praise God that this also describes Dan through the almost 45 years of our marriage.
