Marriage Is Simple, Not Easy
I’ve done a lot of pre-marital and some marital counseling. I’m not a professional, and I make sure to let my parishioners know that. But I’ve been trained to do a few things, mostly help people communicate a little better. It’s amazing how powerful just being heard can be in a relationship.
The Gift
I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to get for my wife last Christmas. We had drastically limited our gift-giving budget as part of a thing we were doing at church, but it was important to me to still give her a gift that meant something special. I decided that I would be our personal chef for a week, starting the 1st of January.
No Fear
My two-year-old has a lot of energy. A lot. Normally, we get him dressed and shove him out into the backyard to help deal with this abundance. Because it’s winter and our backyard turns into a mud pit after a little rain, we’ve decided to explore some indoor strategies to burn off some of the craziness. His and ours.
Integrity
I’ve been thinking a lot about my life BC (Before Children) – maybe even earlier than that, before marriage, before my career. I grew up in Utah and loved the outdoors. My family went camping often. I was a backpacker. A couple of times every year I would put 60 pounds of supplies on my back and head out into the canyon lands of southern Utah for a week.
Work Guilt
I love work. Really. I love my job. I love getting up early and heading to the office. I love feeling productive throughout the day. I love getting more responsibility and being able to achieve creative visions. But there’s a tension that comes with loving work so much.
I feel conflicted whenever I leave my family in order to go to work.
Why Christmas Is Such a Big Deal
It’s easy for me to bemoan the consumerism, Santa and all the non-Christian stuff that has become associated with Christmas. But I think we also need to look deeper into our nativity scenes and consider what was really going on.
Advent Conspiracy
I love Christmas.
I hate Christmas commercials.
I bet you feel the same. But for whatever reason, every year we get sucked into this buying frenzy that we secretly despise.
Wrastlin’
When I see my two-year-old in the morning, I have two impulses: The first is to pick him up and kiss his chubby cheeks and tell him how adorable he is in his new footy pajamas.
A Helper
I’ve just been through the hardest part of my life to date. Last month, I handed my infant son over to surgeons to fix a hole in his heart. The repair went very well except for one thing: the electrical system of his heart was injured and he required a temporary pacemaker. We spent three weeks in the hospital waiting for his heart to beat on its own.
Thank You, Health Care
I’ve spent the past week at Levine Children’s Hospital in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit watching my son recover from open heart surgery. I haven’t for one moment, not even a second, been concerned about the care he has received. The nurses, the doctors, even the security guard at the elevator door, have been outstanding. In a world where gripes usually get the most attention, especially in blogs, I want to take a moment to say: Thank you.
Travis Norton
It's a Dad's Life
Bio:
In a world of mommy bloggers, I’m a dad, writing about my attempts to be the best father to my son and best husband to my wife that I can be. My wife and I met on Match.com while we were both living in Montana. She was working at a ranch for troubled teenage girls where the only security was the threat of grizzly bears if they ran away. I was serving a congregation in Helena as an associate pastor. We fell in love through letters (ahem: emails), met, talked, and got married. I proposed to her on a frozen lake half-way between the two cities where we lived. My wife’s from Tennessee, so we headed south to be closer to her family. That’s how we came to live in Charlotte (Huntersville, actually). We bought a small ranch-style house, got a dog (Henry) and began life here. I’ve been a pastor since 2003, spending most of my energy on youth and family ministry. I currently serve as an associate pastor in Cornelius. At the core of my ministry, and my life, is a deep and profound love for Jesus. I try to follow Him in every aspect of my life.
The day our first child was born was the best and worst day of my life. About 20 months ago (as of May 2011), my wife almost died giving birth to our son. Fortunately, everything worked out and now we are busy (understatement!) raising him. To top it all off, we are expecting another son this August! I’ll be writing a lot about that transition.
As for my philosophy of fatherhood, I take “cutting the cord” as my metaphor. I feel it’s my job to help prepare my children to enter the world and succeed on their own. To do this, I want to instill in them a sense of self-confidence, virtue and faith. I believe a father’s love is one of the best and most underused tools to prepare children for strong, healthy lives. I intend that my children will know a father’s love.
