Internet Filter Software

Internet Filter Stuff


1.OpenDns Family Shield is free. But you need to know about internet router software to install it.

Click GET STARTED and select Family Shield for the free software directions
 http://www.opendns.com/parental-controls

2. XXXChurch is a porn prevention ministry that helps adults and kids with porn addiction and experimentation.  One of the services offered is an accountability software that tracks all sites searched for the week and sends out a report with time, date to parents or accountability partners. $7 per month
http://www.x3watch.com/

iPad and Smartphone support as well.

3. Safe Eyes
Comprehensive software that blocks all questionable material. It is fully customizable and can have different users with different parameters.  I experienced a little bit of a lag in surfing capability because it uses a background filtering software but it certainly works well.  $39-$49 per year.
http://www.internetsafety.com/

iPad and Smartphone support as well.

I hope this helps!

Homework Week 2 Q3

Question 3

Based on who they are (personality, strengths, gifts) what do you hope they accomplish or who do hope they become? What do you see them doing when they become adults?

Homework Week 2 Q2

          Question 2

 Are your teens trustworthy and earning freedom?  Do you spend enough time with them to keep them accountable?

3

Homework Week 2

Question 1:

 Describe a time when you were hurting as a teen? Who was there? How did you get through it?

Parent Forum Week 1: Homework

September 23rd Homework: 

      1. When did you transition to becoming a Man or Woman, instead of a boy or girl?

     (This question is aimed at your physical transitions... your period, hair growing...what was it like, how did you feel?)

2. When did it occur to you that you were an Adult?  How did you know?

          (Ultimately responsiblility for your life)

      3.What were some major transitions you experienced during  adolescents? 

         (personal pains, triumphs or changes)

Comment Below

Simple Man

Men are not men because they are old enough and they are not men because they produce children. Men are men when their relationships cost them more than their selfishness. I don't believe I was a man when I got married or when I had my first child, I was operating in my responsibilities for sure but it was what I was supposed to do. I was just comparing myself to other lost boys living out 'fake it, 'til you make it' theology.

I became aware I was becoming a man when surrendering to Christ was my only option...when I asked God to father me for the first time. By that time 3 of my 4 children were born and I was jobless and just settling into a home we couldn't afford even before I lost my job. That was the toughest most humbling and empowering year of my life. I spoke to God and he answered. He gave me a vision for my life, he invited me in and did what I asked, he began to father me.

I began to see that the selfishness of my heart was dulling my masculine growth. It sounds like a contradiction for sure. But what if your penis size did not have power over you...what if your check book didn't give you a name? I began to think of becoming a man and that that is exactly what God wanted me to become. How do you set out in becoming a man, isn't it just supposed to happen? Well, sure I didn't follow a formula or take a class, but the first step for me was to stop trying to be the strongest man in my life. I had to leave room for at least one more, they call him Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father (Is 9:6). Becoming the man God wanted me to be was more about my surrender to His fatherhood than my ability to just be tougher. I needed to be teachable.

If you know me at all, you know I don't lack confidence. Some may even confess that I never have, but that confidence doesn't come from my own strength but from my interaction with the one who holds my heart in his hands.

I'm boasting...a little. But ultimately I boast in the transforming power of Christ in my life. I could fake it like the rest of the world and maybe my personality is not a whole lot different than it was 6 years ago, but I know this. The story God has written of my life over the last 6 years is much greater and amazing that I could ever have asked for and the relief I now have in knowing that its not all up to me, has allowed me to lead my family courageously.

New

I am going to resist the temptation to overstate my intentions and get sucked into the "New Year resolution" bubble. Emotions and my internal competition tend to overreach and dream about what this year will become. I reason...I serve a big God who has big plans for my life...SO, I am going to accomplish this and that. But as I am beginning to learn, God's big plans for my life take a life to accomplish and the journey IS the destination not the destination itself.

So, here is what I am praying about this year. God has put a missionary heart within Cessie and I and we want to discover what that looks like this next year. Not ready to pack for Africa yet, but we want to understand this call clearer.

KingMaker Ministries is still going and I am waiting..err...God is waiting on me to get the first edition of my book/ guide finished...this is the year to go public, to use the message of Family Discipleship to help Dads lead their children to spiritual maturity.

This summer I will begin to use my outdoor skills to teach teens and families Leave-No-Trace techniques and the use of 10 essentials for survival...I have a hunch on how its going to workout but following Jesus you never know for sure. Which makes following Christ so fun!

Will you pray with us?

Screwtape and Wormwood

I had over 32 hours of driving this past weekend and instead of hitting the shuffle button on my iPod as I usually do I was inspired to attempt the Audiobook button on my itunes...

I was on a mission to find a very compelling set of resources that would hold my attention as well as urge me on from glory to glory. Since this was a new endeavor I first began looking online and found some great self/spiritual help style books like "The Principle Of The Path" by Andy Stanley and "Radical" by David Platt...great reads..err hears. Very inspiring.

However the Christian Book store provided my best resource, C.S Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" in dramatic audio. What a life changing compilation! It was perfect timing too. I was entering a weekend of spiritual warfare as the Wild At Heart conferences purport to be. The parallels draw from the book and the conference where eriely familiar.

What if you had a backrow seat into the schemes of your enemy? What if you knew his plan of attack and your own weakenesses from your enemy's perspective? I felt more prepared for the enemy's attacks and had my defences ready.

"The story of your life is the long sustained assault of your heart by the one who knows who you could be...and fears you."

The fact is there is an Enemy and he hates your guts! His greatest attack is to convince you that he doesn't exist all the while keeping your head in a fog about spirital things.

"All sophisticated people are persuaded that there is no hell or that other place" CS Lewis

Men's Retreat Colorado

God speaks. He fights. He is dangerous. After encountering God in this way, my heart is sad for it to come to an end. Then God speaks again..."this is only the beginning, son." Hope rises and my courage returns.

This weekend was full of healing and restoration. God refined and cleared the vision he has for my life...but his greatest gift this weekend was to hear his voice. And what he said about me, my heart, my manhood...it just slayed me.

I am just too emotional to unpack all that God said in this post and I am still on the road on my way back to California, but know this there is a love story God is telling and it is set in a world at war. God said "pick up your sword, mighty warrior and pierce the darkness. Start with the dark parts of your heart and fight like hell for yourself and your family." That's what I intend to do...Want to join the fray?

Our Adventure

Kingmaker Ministries is now ONLINE! http://www.traildad.org/ Check out the site and give some feedback. How does it look? Is it missing anything? Is everything clear and understandable?

My son, Caleb and I got back from the bluffs just outside of Bakersfield, Ca. We scrambled up a class 3 mountain side and perched ourselves on top of the highest ridge just west of the Kern River. From a distance the mountains have a greenish brown hue, but up close the hills sang with purple tall grass highlighted by wildflowers. The huge Sierra Nevada mountains were the back drop of this excursion and no car, no plane, or voice could be heard for miles. Just open country as far as the eye could see.

I shared with Caleb that its not everyday that a dad and son can get out like this. Many dads, in fact don't have time for such an excursion. However, I chose to be there right then. Yes, I had to keep stopping so he could get stuff out of his shoe and I had to carry his Batman backpack part of the way because it was too heavy. He wanted to go back a few times as he saw how high we were and how far the truck was, but we pressed on. We got to a place of quietness and closeness, he rarely stopped talking but the low hum of his 6 year old voice was over shadowed by wisping wind over the ridges. I could feel the pleasure of God at that moment when I crouched down to take a picture with my son. He is so curious, so imaginative, so unaware of an absent love. I am so grateful that I get to share a father's love with my son. I am so grateful that he will never have to question if he matters to anyone. He gets to walk through this life knowing his father loves him and that love is close, affectionate, and generous.