When I wrote this post last week about getting sick and how hard it can be on a mom, I forgot to mention one very important thing that helps make the days so much better. Or someone, I should say. Micah has one awesome dad.

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I've known for the five years we've been married that I've had an awesome husband. There is no doubt about that. He shows me love in so many ways. This past week he did all the cooking and cleaning when I was too sick to move and slept next to me on the couch while I slept propped up in the recliner (because coughing and pregnancy and reflux don't mix). He doesn't just speak his love, he shows me. And I'm so grateful for that.

But what gets my heart even more excited, is that this man is the father of my children.He is the one they get to call, daddy. 

I'll be honest, I wasn't one of those girls who married a man because I thought he'd be a good dad. That wasn't even on my radar at the time. Everyone knows I married my husband because of his good looks and charm. ;) (Kidding... kinda.)

But while I still love the many qualities that first attracted me to my husband, the ones that I find myself falling more in love with these days are ones I never even imagined being "romantic."

Like, when he gets out of bed first in the morning to pick up Micah from his crib. Or sits on the couch with him and a cup of Cheerios while singing the "Elmo song" together.  Not reacting with anger when said cup of Cheerios gets dumped all over him. Teaching Micah to play ball. Giving him a bath. Changing dirty diapers. And cleaning up the endless amount of toys all over his room.

All the things my husband does are really things that both of us do, but he never just looks at them as "my duties." And that's what I love the most. He sees his role as a father as equal to mine. But, I think it's even more important.

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A daddy represents the closest earthly example we have to our Heavenly Father. God is referred and compared numerous times in Scripture to a father. I believe this earthly relationship can and has been taken for granted in our culture today.

Many fathers are more identified by the jobs they do than by being the fathers that they are. Even though they are not often seen as the ones toting children around in Moby wraps or pushing them in strollers - many times they are the ones paying for those wraps and strollers. They are the ones spending countless hours a day apart from their children, so that they can come home and know that they have been fed, changed, clothed and taken care of without a worry of how it will be paid for. They are providing benefits for their families every day of their life. Some won't be seen until they are no longer living.

If this isn't an example of what our Heavenly Father does for us every day, I don't know what is.

This isn't to say every man has taken his role of father seriously. Because the sad truth is 1 out of every 3 children lives apart from their father. And that number is higher or lower depending on the demographic. And just to offer a comparison... in 1960, only 1 out of 10 children lived apart from their fathers.

This statistic breaks my heart.

Whether by choice or force, something is splitting children away from their daddys. We know the enemy of this world wants to destroy our lives. What better way than to sabotage the only earthly example of a loving, compassionate Father that we have?

That's where the similarities end.

God will never leave and never turn His back on us. His love is unfailing. Nothing can separate us.

For many children the word "father" is painful. Filled with a longing and desire that was never fulfilled for them on this earth. But the good news that is offered by salvation in Jesus Christ is not just of the eternal kind. Oh no, my friend. The good news is that those who have once been fatherless, are now given the greatest love of all by a Heavenly Father.

And just like my son running into the arms of my husband every time he walks in the door from work... they get to call him, "daddy."

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. Psalm 103:13

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My husband sent me this video in a Facebook message the other day and just said... "I love you." It made me cry.

So blessed and thankful that this is our life right now. :)

I have a confession. The Walking Dead is my favorite show on TV right now. I probably wouldn't have admitted that two years ago when I first started watching it. I was disturbed, as most people are, at the amount of gore and gruesome deaths involved. But then I kept watching, becoming more and more attached to the characters and story line. I felt kind of ridiculous trying to persuade my friends and family to watch it. Like I was encouraging them in some kind of "evil deed." But after the numbers came out last week that showed 16 million people tuned in to the premiere of the fourth season, not to mention a ton of those friends and family I once tried so hard to persuade, I now realize I'm not so alone anymore. And it feels like the right time to discuss it.

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To stick with this month's theme of "being content," I want to address contentment when it comes to moral decisions. Specifically, our movie and TV choices.

You may think I'm stretching here. Wondering what contentment has to do with our moral convictions. But I know, from experience, that there is definitely a correlation. So stick with me.

I want to go ahead and say that I don't believe there is a "one-size" fits all moralistic code that we are supposed to abide by as believers. Which means, what is okay for one person may not be okay for another. I used to believe differently, and tried to push my moral convictions on other believers. Then I read Romans 14 and the Holy Spirit convicted my heart.

What I do know, is that we should be content in whatever we have decided when it comes to our moral choices. And be so confident, that we are willing to stand before God one day and give a personal account (because we will, by the way).

What I can tell you about our personal decisions is that we don't watch nudity, sex, scantily dressed men or women or anything that encourages lustful thoughts. Sometimes this means turning off "The Voice" because Christina chose not to cover up the top half of her body that night. Most of the time this means skipping the Super Bowl halftime show, and certain scenes in movies when we pick up on the sexual cues and innuendos. This is a moral conviction we have set in place for our family, and not just for my husband's sake, but for mine and our children too. Lust is not just a "man's issue" in our house.

Anything that falls outside of this issue, we tend to take case by case.

The Walking Dead is one of those case by case examples. There are very few times we have to fast forward this show because of sexual innuendos. I can count them on one hand. It's probably one of the cleanest shows in regards to that. But as far as violence? It's probably the worst.

But I can name another movie that was so violent it received a rated R rating, yet was passionately advocated by the Christian community - The Passion of the Christ.

The reason we take these movies and TV shows case by case, is because we see the value in what they offer. If the show is a nonsense, horror flick about chopping up bodies (i.e. The Saw) you can count me out! But if the show is teaching us a lesson on humanity and the value of life, I can totally get in to (and learn from) it.

I'm not here to encourage you to allow violence in your life, in fact I discourage you from allowing anything that causes you discontentment in your spirit. But let that be the guiding decision for your moral choices and not an invisible code that you believe not only applies to yourself, but to everyone else around you. Trust me, you will never be content when you try to live this way.

I know, because for a long time I wasn't.

This post is part of a series I’m writing for the month of October entitled “31 Days of Being Content.”  See all other posts in this series by clicking here. Or enter your email address in the sidebar on the right to subscribe to this blog and receive posts straight to your inbox!