Minimum Wage drove me to Maximum Performance

I’ve often dreamed about “Things I rather be doing” throughout the day. I think most people do. To some extent, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s good to have plans and dreams. When it gets problematic is when you are not fully attending to your present responsibilities. Discontentment could be good in the sense that if you are a lousy state of affairs and want to get out. For example, if you’re working at a minimum wage job and you realize you don’t want to make peanuts for the rest of your life and start making plans to better yourself like going to college or trade school in order to acquire marketable skills to improve your life.

That’s what happened to me. I was working at my mom’s 7-Eleven store for two years after high school for $10 an hour. A friend playfully joked that I was “going to be behind the register for the rest of my life.” He didn’t intend to be mean-spirited about it but it did hit a nerve in that I really thought about that possibility of working in this same job for the rest of my life and immediately wanted to put a gun to my head and pull the trigger.

The prospect of working at that store for the rest of my life drove me to the decision to attend college. Don’t get me wrong, I will be eternally grateful for that store because it was the vehicle by which our mom provided for us. But that doesn’t mean I needed to make it my life-long career. I didn't want to put up with rude, ungrateful, and classless people (not all of them were like that but there were plenty) and gang members constantly making beer runs and bums demanding free food for the rest of my life.

Keep in mind I was a terrible high school student who only graduated because my high school wanted to get rid of me (I don’t blame them). I applied to Rio Hondo Junior College in Whittier, took all the necessary required documents, and took all the pre-tests in order to qualify for college level classes. I’ve never worked so hard in my life and hadn’t even started college yet. Rio Hondo sits on a side of a mountain and the parking lot wraps around that mountain so when you park you have to walk up hill for about two blocks (sometimes three depending how busy it is) and by the time you get to class you felt like you’ve attended a stair master class.

Did that deter me? No. Every time I thought about quitting I kept thinking about working at 7-Eleven for the rest of my life and it gave me renewed fervor. In short, I transferred to Biola University and graduated with a bachelor and two masters degrees. I eventually completed my teaching credential and my personal financial planning classes in order to because a teacher and personal financial planner.

What’s the point of all this? Well, when I finally took responsibility for my own life it gave me a clear direction. I didn’t ask the government to fix my problems or give me a better life. I racked up student loans but I did something crazy. I paid it back and didn’t ask someone else to do that. Sometimes being uncomfortable could be a good thing. It drove me to a better place. I have freedoms and liberties that I currently have that I would not have had if I simply stayed working at a minimum wage job. It was a great place to start to teach me discipline and responsibility.

As a public school teacher, I have a good salary and great benefits. I am able to provide for my family. As a financial planner, I could choose to work with people I want to. I encounter rude and difficult people all. The difference now is I could choose to not work with them. It's within my right to do so. You don’t have that freedom as a clerk in a convenient store. You have to serve the person in front of you.

Let discomfort drive you to a better place. As Tim Grover said, “You don’t have to love the hard work. You just have to crave the end result so intensely that the work becomes irrelevant.” It takes nothing short of hard work to experience these freedoms. No one else is going to do it for you. “Patience is bitter, but its’ fruit is sweet.”

Two Years of Joy

So my little Alaina Joy just turned two. I remember the night she first came into the world and joined our blessed family. Being a parent is difficult. Anyone who is a parent would agree 1,000%. The idea of being parent is difficult for most people. Even when I was single I could understand in the abstract that being a parent would be extremely difficult and an endeavor I wanted to postpone as long as humanly possible. However, inevitability arrived a few short years after I got married to my beautiful wife. My motto of "avoiding responsibility" was completely and utterly obliterated. There is no avoiding it once you have children.

You see I've viewed, for much of my life, children as a necessary evil. It was a joyless "We have to have them because that's what people do" mentality. I even lazily attempted to find some goodness in having children but still ultimately viewed them as symbols of subjugation, restriction of leisure, and constraints towards happiness. I had a wife to take care of, a mortgage to pay, a lawn to mow, a dog to walk, and I was trying to start my own business. Where did having children fit into all of this?

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Good people in my life tried to tell me that being a parent is "character building." But character didn't matter to a self-absorbed idiot like myself. In my immaturity I thought "happiness" was "freedom from responsibility." That is a great lie the devil and the world tells every young person. Sadly, most of us buy into it and ultimately never truly grow up. Certainly there are people without children who are mature and godly. I'm talking about dismissing fatherhood as if it were banishment from "real freedom." In reality, I was hiding a deep seeded fear underneath this fake tough guy bravado. It was a fear that I might turn out to be like my dad (Summary: He wasn't around). It was masking my own feelings of inadequacies at being a father. Any type of major life change is scary to a child. And I was a child in fear of major change.

So what happened?

Parenting is embarrassing, exhilarating, and down right exhausting. It touches the entire emotional spectrum of the human soul and in so doing it awakens emotional senses within you and it expands your capacity for greater love. Like most things that happen in life, you either continue to avoid the responsibilities that have been given to you and fail or embrace them and thrive and watch yourself be transformed as the thing you dreaded (fatherhood) becomes the catalyst for greater heights of joy you never knew existed.

I love my children and I find joy in their joy. As a result, I learn to find joy in the joys of others, not just my own children. And when we truly "rejoice with those who rejoice" and experience it within community everyone shares in a joy inexpressible and unfading. I believe that's the way God designed a man to experience fatherhood. I've never been more affirmed in my manhood and my masculinity until I had the responsibility of taking care of a family, especially taking care of my children. I never thought that would be the case. But God clearly had other plans and I'm glad His plan always wins out.

Happy Birthday Alaina Joy! You are so dear to my heart and you've changed daddy's life forever. You motivate me to be a better man and a better father by your existence and just like your name you bring unspeakable joy to my life. I love you.

Anniversary 7.0

It’s been seven wonderful years that I’ve been married to the girl of my dreams. As we get older and watch our children grow, we occasionally glance at each other in silent amazement. As the years keep passing by I love my wife more and more. This year, I simply want to point out a few things I’ve learned about marriage so far in our seven short years together.

Before I start, you must remember that for a real view of any long term committed relationship, you have to forget almost every romantic movie you’ve ever seen. Actually, I think most of them are quite harmful to a marriage. The reason is that one of the most common complaints I hear from wives about their husbands is that “he isn’t romantic," which usually means the husband doesn't buy them flowers, chocolates, fancy jewelry or drive up in a limo to pick them up with all those things in hand like Richard Gere did for Julia Roberts at the end of “Pretty Woman.”

Now I’m not saying men shouldn’t make an effort to be romantic (they absolutely should), and though I occasionally do some of these things, riding up in a limo notwithstanding, I appreciate how my wife from time to time acknowledges the "little" things I do for her and the family. For example, she frequently will just say “thank you” for going to work everyday and providing for the family. Yeah, paying the bills and putting a roof over your head isn’t “romantic” or even that “exciting,” but the normalcy of a man’s faithfulness to provide shouldn’t go unappreciated. I think some women miss this, in that they are quick to point out flaws and slow to acknowledge the good their husbands actually do. Sure he may not bring home flowers that often but you wouldn’t care so much about flowers if you were homeless. With that said let the show begin.

Talk the Talk

I can’t begin to tell you how important it is to be able to talk to your spouse. I’m not even talking about the serious stuff, I’m talking about the non-essentials. My wife and I can talk about a spectrum of things. For example, we can talk about the Laker’s salary cap situation this summer and which free agents they should pursue to considering pre-school for our 3-year-old daughter. We can talk about upcoming movies and try and predict if they’re going to stink or be decent. We can talk about different books we’ve been reading and sermons we’ve been listening to online. It’s incredible that I truly feel I can talk to my wife about anything! I love that about my wife.

If you’re single and considering being in a committed relationship with someone ask yourself, “Can I talk to this person about anything?” because if you can’t what do you think you’ll be doing most of the time?

Character Above All

Being married to the right person is amazing. But being married to the wrong person could be absolutely miserable. “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones” (Proverbs 12:4). There’s really no middle ground here. It’s far better to wait to get married then to rush in and marry someone you shouldn’t be marrying. Physical attraction certainly matters, but it’s a person’s character that determines the outcome of the marriage. What attracted me to my wife was her personal relationship with the Lord, her discipline to achieve her goals, and the clarity that she had with all of her life’s pursuits.

When a person knows what they want and those desires are godly ones, it’s a mark of a person with maturity and vision. I’ve met people who date others for dumb reasons (e.g., “We’d have good looking children.”) and those dumb reasons cost them dearly.

Through seven wonderful years, I always check in with my wife and make sure her needs are taken cared of. And as she continues to express her appreciation for me I make sure I do the same for her. It’s a superb place to be, doing life together with an amazing person is a gift from God. The appropriate response to such an astonishing gift is gratitude. My heart is filled with joy and purpose because I’m driven to be the best husband I can be to a wife that deserves no less. That’s the kind of person you want to marry. Someone who by their very nature drives you to be better than what you are.

Happy Anniversary!

Why Do Men Want Sons?

Why Do Men Want Sons?

It’s simple really. We want company of our own gender, to share male camaraderie, do yard work together or go play ball together. Some men want to replicate the relationship they had with their own fathers (e.g., go to ball games, fishing, etc) and some want to build a close relationship they never had with their dads. I would be the latter.

I’ve said before that I’ve often wondered what it would’ve been like if I had a caring father growing up. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so angry, maybe I would’ve learned how to deal with my emotions better, maybe I would’ve learned the lessons I’ve learned sooner and would’ve been better off today. Well, I actually get to see a glimpse of that in my son. I know my son will have his own identity and his own interests. But he will also have a faithful father. The crazy part is that I have no idea what’s it like to have a loving and caring biological father, someone who will be firm and kind and not just cruel and demanding. The prospect to be someone I needed when I was a child to my own son is a cherished opportunity.

There is always the risk of vicarious living through your child, especially between a father and son. It’s a natural desire to want to have common interest with your child in order to have a point of connection, but it gets unhealthy when the child feels things are forced on them. I joke around about my son not having a choice with playing basketball. Truthfully, I really hope he loves basketball. It’s the best sport in the world in my opinion. I imagine taking him to Laker games and teaching the history of the team and all the legends from years past. But if he’s not interested, it’s not the end of the world (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). If anything else, I have an excuse to play with toys again.

What is important is that he has a personal relationship with the Lord. Although my wife and I will influence him in that regard there’s no guarantee he will come to know the Lord. That’s my worst fear. But I take comfort in the fact that the Lord will love him far more than I could.

Mental Preparation

My New Testament Greek professor told us on the first day of class that if you know something is hard up front you will be better mentally prepared for it. And yes, Greek was hard. My wife has done an amazing job as a mother to our two girls. Throwing a son into the mix, with half of my DNA, will probably be pretty volatile. Raising a son will be hard. So here’s a running list of things I’m already preparing for mentally:

• Getting pee in the face when I change his diaper
• My son hitting me in the balls for no reason
• Our food bill tripling as he gets older
• Breaking everything in his path because he thinks it’s fun
• Constantly injuring himself because he can’t understand why he can’t fly
• Being too rough with his sisters
• His teacher telling me he can’t stay still, focus, or complete a task because he has too much energy
• Trying to make him understand that smoking pot isn’t good for him
• Getting a call in the middle of the night needing to get bailed out of jail

This list is a few things from the top of my head. My fragile mind can only take so much. I’m sure they’ll be other things that come up. But part of the wonder of parenthood is figuring it all out as you go.

Carrying on the Family Name

I never gave much thought about my name other than the fact that no one knows how to pronounce it. When I realized I may never have a son and my name would come to an end when my daughters married some idiot, it didn’t really matter to me because it was my father’s name. He wasn’t the most outstanding citizen so who cares about his name ending. Now that I’m about to have a son, it’s made me rethink that premise. How many times does one have the opportunity to completely change their family tree? It’s already started.

• My father was lazy and never wanted to work and lost all his money gambling.

• He was never there physically or emotionally. When we look back at old family photos he was visibly absent.

• I don’t have very many memories of him. I do have one vivid memory but I won’t write it here. Sorry, it’s hard to even write it down.

• We went through an extremely stressful time with my stepfather. He was much worse if you could believe that. I kept thinking, “If my father was here we wouldn’t be going through this.”

It took my heavenly Father to firmly break me of my pride, anger, and bitterness and kindly reveal His will for adopting me as His son and lavish me with His grace in order to change me and gain proper perspective on everything that’s happened. All the negative stuff that’s happened in my life has been used to drive me to be better at everything I do. I don’t use it as a license to walk around with a chip on my shoulder, but I use it as a reminder to avoid the path of my forefathers and forge a new legacy as God’s adopted son. So my son will have the same name as my father but an entirely new meaning. That’s the beauty of redemption. God can take anything and make it new.

I hope to be a vessel of God’s grace to my son. I pray my son will receive God’s grace and that grace will forever give him hope, meaning, and purpose that drives him to godliness in a way I could not when I was young.

It's A Boy!

Finally! I’m having a boy!!! Yes, I admit both times I found out I was having a girl I was a little disappointed. Of course, over a period of time I learned to love my girls and now wouldn’t trade them for anything. When my wife told me she was pregnant for the third time I went through my regular routine of denial, “Are you sure?” and then acceptance, “Okay. That’s cool.” I skipped anger, bargaining, and depression because I’m too lazy to go through too long of a process.

After having two girls and genuinely enjoying them and learning to love them well, I came to a place of contentment and became completely satisfied with the fact that I may never have a son. It was a process for sure, but I got there. In fact, I was ready to endure the endless jokes from friends and family about having several weddings to pay for and not being able to retire when I wanted. Hey, if God wanted me to raise nothing but girls then I’d try and be the best father to a bunch of girls and hope they’d end up dating and marrying some godly guy with Division I talent (think Stephen Curry).

Now the day came when my wife surprised me with a gift on the Lakers season opener. It was a bag with baby clothes in it. At first, I pulled out the shoes and didn’t understand why she would get me a pair of baby shoes. But then she asked me to look in the bag further. I did so and found a baby shirt that said, “Baby Brother.” I was so overcome with emotion I might’ve wept a little (or a lot but you’ll never know because you’ll never see the video).

Yes. I’m an emotional sap. I’m even more so now that I’m having a son. I was watching The Lion King the other day and got emotional. It wasn’t even the part where Mufasa died (Although that part gets me every time. Oh sorry, Spoiler Alert!). It was the part after Mufasa rescued young Simba from the Hyenas and had to lecture him. Mufasa was firm and showed the gravity of the situation, “You deliberately disobeyed me! … And Nala could’ve been hurt!” And being the wise father Mufasa was, he saw the flaw in Simba’s thinking, “I just wanted to be brave.” And corrected his thinking, “No son, that’s not being brave” while still affirming his love for Simba, “I was afraid of losing you.” It’s an amazing scene. Let’s break it down further:

• Defining clear roles: “I am your father and you are my son, … you need to obey me.”
• There are consequences to your actions: “You and Nala could’ve been hurt.”
• Correcting a child’s thinking and clearly defining terms and ideas: “I wanted to be brave like you.” “Bravery doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.”
• Yet, not completely destroying his son’s morale but affirming a father’s love by being vulnerable: “I was afraid of losing you.” How many fathers are willing to show vulnerability to their sons in order to affirm their love for them?

That’s pretty good stuff for an animated feature. I guess that’s why it’s a classic. It’s a great father/son exchange that gets me emotionally all the time because, as a parent, it’s not easy to have proper balance between firmness and affirmation and this scene does it beautifully (having James Earl Jones’ majestic voice doesn’t hurt).

I hope to provide this for my son, and my other kids as well, just without the whole “dying in a stampede” thing.

Biola University - More Than Just An Education

I was feature in biolablogs.com You could go to the link or read it here:

It’s been over 10 years since I finished my undergraduate studies at Biola (2003) and nearly 10 years since I finished my graduate work at Talbot (2006). I knew I wanted a strong Christian education and believed Biola would be the place I could receive that. What I didn’t know was how that Christian education would ultimately impact my life and how a place like Biola gave me much more.

It’s much like thinking about getting married or having a child. You have vague notions of what that might be like but when you experience it first hand, it exceeds your expectations and leaves a transformative effect that affects your entire perspective on life. You might be saying, “That’s a little dramatic for a mere college education.” Let me tell you the rest of my story.

I graduated with a bachelor in Biblical Studies and two MA(s), one in New Testament and one in Old Testament. Currently, I am in my ninth year as a special education teacher in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District and in my fourth year as a Financial Consultant for Capital Choice Financial. I get asked all the time, “Why aren’t you using your degrees?” which usually means, “Why are you not in some type of ministry?” because of all my bible degrees. My reply is, “I use it everyday.” So I’m not in ministry as a profession. But I never intended to be. Getting my education at Biola gave me broader vision on how to impact the world for Christ. Being a Special Education teacher, most of my students have learning disabilities and it’s the understanding of the doctrine of humanity and that we are all created in the image of God that helps me view them with patience, care, and compassion. As a financial consultant, I view money the way it was intended to be used by God’s design. I help clients lower their debt, increase their assets, and become generous givers to their local churches. This is all possible with my biblically centered education I received from Biola.

What does any of this have to do with starting a family? Well some background would help. I grew up in a broken home. My mom was a single mother working long hours in order for my sister and I to survive and have an opportunity for a better life. I had very little Christian influence and even less role models. The impact on my life wasn’t merely the biblically centered education but the godly men and women who taught and lived by examples of how our knowledge should be applied in our everyday lives in how we treat people. Without those examples, I’m sure the education itself wouldn’t have quite the impact.

Disneyland, Parenting, and the Grace of God

My wife and I live about twenty minutes away from “The happiest place on earth”- Disneyland. I’m not sure who coined that phrase for Disneyland, but it’s great marketing. People actually believe paying an equivalent of a month’s mortgage after parking, tickets, food, and merchandise while waiting in lines for as long as it takes to learn a foreign language for rides as short as a middle school student’s attention span is indeed “The happiest place on earth.”

Aside from all the negatives, Disneyland can be a pretty fun place. I guess that’s why they’re still in business. About a year ago, my wife and I went on a date and spent the day hanging out and enjoying several rides. It was a great day simply enjoying each other. So the other day we decided to take our three-year-old for her first trip to Disneyland. It was an entirely different experience. Since we had our little one, we couldn’t get on most of the rides because of her lack of size. Initially you would think this was disappointing, and to some degree it was because getting on “It’s a small world” is like watching someone fly-fishing while listening to a high school valedictorian speech at a graduation ceremony. At least the ride is air-conditioned and if you can block out the annoying song you can sneak in a power nap.

Despite all that my wife and I had childlike anticipation throughout the day wondering how our little three-year-old would take things in. As we walked about and saw our little girl look around in complete amazement and marvel realizing she’s entered into a completely different world, where some of her favorite imaginary characters come to life and displays of fictional worlds are real, we couldn’t help but feel the same sense of joy and excitement. It didn’t really matter to us that we couldn’t get on some of our favorite rides because watching our child filled with wonder and awe is an experience to behold as a parent.

She went talking about it for days and asking when she could go back to “Busyland,” an appropriate name she made up herself. Parenting is hard. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. There has been plenty of frustration and anger displayed in inappropriate ways on my part. In those moments of frustration I’ve often thought about how much easier life was before children and all the advantages, both freedom and income, that come with it. It’s easy to think about what is causing the frustration in your life and want it removed. But there lies the problem. My children are not the cause of my frustrations but they reveal the selfishness already within me. Parenting has exposed me to how sinful and selfish I truly am.

It’s also made me more grateful for God’s mercy and has created a greater awareness of my need for His grace. I’ve failed many times as a father, but the Lord isn’t done with me. And days like our daughter’s first trip to Disneyland are a reminder to me how much the Lord loves me. I found so much joy in the joy of my child. This is how God views me. He finds joy in my joy, but the difference is, He is completely holy, full of light and without darkness. He loves me with a pure love, a love that Christ displayed on the cross by taking on God’s wrath in my place and giving me His righteousness. My heavenly Father is slow to anger and has everlasting patience.

My children are His gifts to me and a reminder that He is patient and His love endures forever. I’ll always remember this day as a father. But I’ll also remember this day as His son.