If someone asked my wife, Lisa, ". . . and what do you do?" She would probably reply graciously, "I'm a home-school mom." Lisa does much more than home-school, but home-schooling probably differentiates her identity in the eyes of people she meets. More and more I think of myself as a home-school dad. In previous years, I might say something gratuitous like, "We home-school our children," and by that I would mean that Lisa teaches our children at home. Lately, though, I would like to think that I'm stepping up. I think that Lisa enthusiastically responds to this, but sometimes I think our 12-year-old, Claire, would rather things go back to the way they used to be. My children tell me that I'm demanding.
At the office, my direct reports call me Tyrant. They started calling me Boss, but that made me recall Paul Newman as "Cool Hand Luke," saying, "Nah - calling it your job don't make it right, Boss." Tyrants are always right, and so they obliged me. Together we keep systems processing millions of transactions a week functioning. This blog is personal, so I won't say anything else about that.
I married my high school sweetheart. I was 21 and she was 19 when we married. I turned 50 not long ago, but I still think of her as 19. She says that's creepy. We have four children. The oldest two are all grown, but not yet married. Something about changing their younger siblings' diapers seems to have caused them to defer marriage and family.
I stifle most, but not all, of my political outbursts. Regarding politics, I am very opinionated, but not very original. I take my Thomas Jefferson with a healthy dose of Romans 13:1-7. Romans 13 seems to moderate the Jefferson in me.
I'm a fan of The Wall Street Journal. I once interviewed with another division of Dow Jones. They didn't like me, and I didn't like them, but I kept my WSJ subscription. The Wall Street Journal, for those who are allergic to starched shirts, is wonderfully refreshing and not all business. Even 7-year-old Gabby reads the Journal in our family. Lisa described it this way a few weeks ago, "We subscribe to the Journal rather than cable TV."
I also like reading books such as Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy and The Long Gray Line. I also spend time reading the Bible. I read from the New International Version, the Authorized Version (King James), The New American Standard Version, and the The Jerusalem Bible (1966). When I study, I usually turn to The Apostolic Bible. This is a rather recent discovery, so my book was written without the benefit of The Apostolic Bible. The Apostolic Bible is a Greek-English interlinear Bible that utilizes the LXX (Septuagint) for Old Testament Scriptures. When I was a child, I visited the church my grandfather attended, an old farmer/Sunday school teacher held up his dog-eared King James Bible and declared his loyalty, saying, "If it's good enough for Paul, then it's good enough for me." That's how I feel about the Septuagint.
Several years ago, as I realized that my older kids were no longer under my control, I decided that I would write down important things I'd learned from Scripture. The title, For Your Names' Sake, has a dual meaning. Yes, I write for God's names' sake, but I also write for the sake of my children. Before Lisa and I had children, we understood that their names would be a blessing for their entire lives. We struggled with names until the right name became apparent. It was at that moment, when we agreed upon a name, that I knew the gender of each child.
- Cara Michal: Joy, a little river.
- Daniel Shane: God is my judge; God is good.
- Claire Maddison: Bright and shining warrior
- Gabrielle Sophia: Messenger of God's wisdom
When I write, I write knowing that my children will read. I love to see stats showing that someone on the other side of the world read a post, but I write for my children. They are always my primary audience and for their names' sake I write.
Sincerely,
John D Ramsey