Skip ‘Fifty Shades’ and watch ‘Old Fashioned’

February 13, 2015 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents & media usage, Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged christian, dating, fifty shades, fifty shades of grey, movie, old-fashioned, Rik Swartzwelder, romance, valentine's day

This story/review first appeared in two other publications.

Skip ‘Fifty Shades’ and watch ‘Old Fashioned’

What happens when a God-honoring romantic movie is released on the same weekend as “Fifty Shades of Grey,” one of the most sexually exploitive (and popular) stories of our time?

We’re about to find out.

The faith-based movie is “Old Fashioned,” a Valentine’s Day weekend film that turns everything America believes about dating on its head and proves that true romance is found in upholding biblical values, not following trashy novels.

It tells the story of a Christian single man who has developed “old-fashioned” views of dating, years after a promiscuous college life. His theories about romance are put to the test when he meets a free-spirited young woman who is new in town and who is taken aback by his “outdated” beliefs. For starters, he refuses to be alone with her at her apartment. There obviously is mutual interest, but can they make a traditional courtship work in modern-day America?

I watched it and simply loved it. The acting is top-notch and the storyline fun and compelling. It’s probably the only romance movie that I not only enjoyed but also cheered.
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3 reasons to date your daughter every single week

February 7, 2015 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged daddy daughter date night, daddy-daughter, date, date night, father-daughter, father-daughter date, father-daughter date night, God

There aren’t many things in life that truly terrify me. Natural disasters and tornadoes come close, and snakes finish near the top, too. I’m also not crazy about tight enclosed spaces — and I would rather not die by drowning, if given the choice.

Then there’s the idea of raising a daughter. It’s not terrifying, but there are some parts of it that certainly give me pause.

Let me explain.

I had been the father of an awesome son for three years when our daughter came along. She’s every bit as awesome, but she’s also sweet and beautiful and loving and tender and kind in ways that (my) boys simply are not. She’s smaller than those boys, but I just know her heart is bigger.

Her big heart is on display every afternoon when she runs toward me – pony tail swaying and smile spreading ear to ear – simply to cuddle. When she senses I’m frustrated, she gives me an out-of-the-blue “Daddy, I love you!” And when her brothers hurt her feelings, sadness covers every inch of her face.

3 reasons to date your daughter every single weekv

My daughter and I enjoying a lemonade. Drinking out of the same glass was her idea.

She’s amazing, but I grieve over the world she will face, and over the society that will tell her lie after lie about beauty and what she should be. She will grow up in a world that objectifies women, that uses sensuality and sexuality to sell everything under the sun, that tells women they’re not “pretty” unless they are blemish-free and bone-thin, that idolizes actresses and models and singers for their curves and appearance – and not their talent. Everything I teach her at home, society will try to undo. So I’ll have to work extra hard.

There’s an old saying that women marry someone like their father. I don’t know how true that is, but I do know that I am the only man she will see on a regular basis for the first 18 or so years of her life – and that I will have a huge impact on her. And so, when my daughter had barely turned 2, I started “dating” her. Every week or so, we go out and do something together, and each time, we have a blast.

It’s a habit I wanted to establish early and one I’d encourage all fathers to do. Here are three benefits:
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5 New Year’s resolutions for a more Christ-centered family

January 9, 2015 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Bible, child, Children, God, new year, new year's resolution, parenting

My first New Year’s resolution took place as a young adult, when I pledged to read the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—in one year. I remember enjoying Genesis and Exodus, struggling a bit with Leviticus and Numbers, and then getting bogged down in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy at the time was like quick sand, and I never made it out.

I since have made it through Deuteronomy, but I’m still mostly a failure at New Year’s resolutions. For instance, my 2014 New Year’s resolution was to plant garlic. It’s unique and incredibly healthy, and it would save my family a bit of money. But I never even purchased a bulb.

Still, New Year’s resolutions are worth pursuing, especially when it involves something as significant as your faith or your family. While resolutions themselves aren’t mentioned in Scripture, the Bible does have a lot to say about second chances and new beginnings (Psalm 51:10-11).

I imagine even the Apostle Paul would have made New Year’s resolutions. After all, it was never-look-back Paul who wrote, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-15).

So what type of resolutions should parents make this year? Here are five suggestions that—if followed—are sure to change your family life for the better:
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‘Dad, did baby Jesus cry?’ — 3 ways to teach your children great theological truths this Christmas

December 17, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged augustine, baby jesus, child, Christ, deity of christ, God, humanity of christ, Parents

The Adoration of the Shepherds (Gerard van Honthorst), 1622.

Kids have a way of asking questions we adults have never pondered.

Once, my inquisitive son was reading a science book and looked up at me with a puzzled look.

“Dad, are there germs on germs?”

I was confused, and he knew it.

“Yeah,” he continued. “There are germs on us. But are there germs on those germs, and then germs on those other germs, then germs on those germs?”

Maybe he was hoping that all those germs would duke it out in a battle royal and kill one another – and we’d never get sick.

Honestly, I’m still not sure what the answer is.

But the other night he asked me a relatively easy one.

“Dad, did baby Jesus cry?”

“Of course,” I responded.

“Huh?” he replied, sort of shocked.

“All babies cry, because that’s how they communicate,” I said. “And it’s not a sin for a baby to cry.”

He had been singing “Away In A Manger,” a wonderful Christmas tune that has the unfortunate lyric concerning the Christ Child: “No crying he made.”

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year to reinforce the Gospel to our children, simply because everyone they know – their friends, their teachers, their neighbors – is celebrating it. In other words, our children can’t go anywhere without being reminded of Christmas, even if it is a sanitized, secular version.

But we don’t have to battle the local box store to put “Christ back into Christmas.” We can do that in our homes, beginning by what we tell our kids about Jesus.

Here’s three ways parents can teach their children deep theological truths about Christ this season, using simple language:
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4 countercultural reasons my family doesn’t celebrate Santa (and why my kids think he’s Noah)

December 10, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Christ, countercultural, God, nicholas, not real, presents, santa, santa claus

I don’t own a pair of those record-everything “Google Glasses,” but there are times I wish they had been invented much sooner.

Like the moment in 2010 when my oldest son – then 2 – first saw an image of Santa Claus. He and I had been enjoying a father-son night at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, having just finished off a shared plate of chicken and dumplings after coloring the kids’ menu.

But before leaving we wanted one more moment in front of the restaurant’s fireplace, and it was that moment I could have used those Google Glasses.

“Noah!” he shouted.

Caught off guard and trying not to laugh, I replied, “Did you say Noah?”

“Yeah, Noah!” he excitedly responded, pointing upward at the fireplace mantle, where a small statuette of Santa Claus resided.

And then it hit me: This is how a child who has not been raised to know anything about Santa responds.

I grew up believing in Santa – studying toy catalogs and writing letters to the North Pole — but when I reached adulthood I pretty much decided that I didn’t want to continue that tradition with my children. And then I married someone who felt the same way. And so it was an easy decision: We wouldn’t “do Santa.”

Of course, such a decision would have no impact on anyone at all if my family lived in the Alaskan wilderness or in the northern parts of British Columbia or pretty much anywhere in Wyoming. But we don’t. We live in a town near a mid-sized city. We interact with people, and our kids do, too.

When our kids were very little, we never mentioned Santa around them. No books about Santa. No TV shows about him. Nothing. When strangers asked them what Santa was bringing them for Christmas, they responded with a “what-planet-are-you-from” look – and we all laughed.

As they aged, though, they learned from friends who Santa was. But because we didn’t reinforce the Santa story at home, they naturally placed him alongside other fictional characters such as Clifford The Big Red Dog and Charlie Brown. It was only when they were 5 or 6 and running into friends who “believe in” Santa that they came home with questions. And so we tell them that some families practice Santa and some kids believe he’s real — and that we shouldn’t ruin it for them. But, of course, kids are kids, and everything doesn’t always go as planned.

Sadly, Santa has turned into one of those taboo subjects for Christians that we can’t discuss without dividing into camps, getting angry, and questioning everyone’s motives, patriotism and faith. We have friends on both sides of this, and we get along just fine.

My family does eat apple pie and we do celebrate the Fourth of July and we even like baseball. We just don’t “do Santa.” Here’s four reasons why:
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