Category: Advent 2015 – Parenting

  Eight days after Jesus was born, Joseph circumcised his son, and just over a month later, he and Mary carried their infant son to the Temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord. You’ll find this account in Luke 2:22-24, but the tradition of dedicating a child to the Lord stretched back around …

    Every first-time parent desires to do a good job. They read books on child-rearing, many seek advice from experienced parents. Joseph received a message telling him his son would be the Messiah, and Mary too learned that their child would grow up to sit on the throne of David. What steps did Mary …

  In Matthew 1:20-31, Jesus’ father Joseph had just learned his wife-to-be was pregnant, and this child, Joseph knew, was not his. After thirty years of counseling people facing crisis pregnancies, I can easily imagine some of the emotions he may have experienced in those first hours: shock, anger, betrayal, grief.