Personal Indulgence Or........

So what did you get for your 56th birthday? Well maybe you haven't made it to your 56th yet. If you haven't it's okay I still don't believe that I actually had my already.I don't consider myself a 50+er, I still remember getting in trouble for giving away all the peanut butter cookies to the neighbor kids. Wasn't that just last year?


I spent a good portion of my parenting skills on conveying the fact that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We should not defile it in anyway, no premarital sex, no smoking, no drugs, no piercings or mutilations. This also meant no tattoos!!


Leviticus 19:28 "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD."


1 Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;


This seemed to work pretty well until my kids became adults and were on their own, living their own lives. My daughter has always been her own person, some might call it nonconforming. I call it original. A couple years ago my daughter came and talked to me about her getting a tattoo. I told her that I wasn't real fond of the idea. I had seen to many young women with tattoos that I felt were not very attractive. (not the young women... their tattoos) I expressed to her this fact and then she explained the tattoo that she wanted and where she wanted it on her body. I eventually told her that she was an adult now and I appreciated the fact that she asked me before she got it. So if this was really what she wanted then I would not condemn her for it.


After she got her tattoo she came over to show it to me, its not obscene in anyway just not what I personally would have chosen, but I am not her. Then shortly after this my Pastor showed his tattoo that he had gotten as a bonding experience with his son. This caused me to reexamine my conviction about tattoo's. I had by this time gotten a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle. I have several other friends at church who also have motorcycles, we decided to form a small motorcycle group. We call ourselves the WeNaz Spirit Riderz. To promote our group we planned to shoot a video about ourselves. I thought that it would be funny to get a fake obnoxious tattoo for this shoot. This involved several evenings at the computer looking online for tattoos. I found one that I really liked and showed it to my wife and she thought that I should go ahead and get it. Now remember this was going to be a fake tattoo. She proceeded to tell me that I would look good with a tattoo. She suggested that I get a real one.


Well now I am in a predicament, remember I was very much against tattoos for my kids! This got me doing a whole lot of soul searching and bible study, trying to understand what it was that I felt. Was this going to be just a novelty or should this be more of a statement. I am not one to put my self on display, I feel more comfortable blending into the background.


Finally I came to this decision, I would get a tattoo that would cause me to ask daily what I believe. When someone were to see it there would be no question as to my faith. This in turn would cause me to be aware of my actions and my personal witness to non-believers. It also could create an opening for conversation.


So any way this is what I got for my 56th birthday, 2 hours spent with a needle and the chance to talk to a great guy that I never would have talked to other wise. Thanks Doc. ===Skid===

P.S. this is not the one I found online.....this is my own idea that my tattoo artist caught exactly how I envisioned it.