While He may be found. A prayer.

"Father, we know that Your hand is gracious to all who seek You, but that Your anger is against all who abandon You.  May we...seek You while You may be found and call on You while You are near." (Beth Moore)

__________________

Yes, Lord.  ...While You may be found.
Society views You as an impotent fairy tale.  Nothing is further from the truth!

You are abundantly sovereign; the Creator of every enormous and ferocious thing, and every intricate and microscopic thing.  We are surrounded by Your fingerprints and yet blind to the obviousness of them, or worse - we intentionally refuse to see because we want our own way...our own absurd and foolish way.  We elevate ourselves above the star-breathing Creator of the billions-of-galaxies universe.  We are arrogant and stupid.  And You are patient with us --- not willing that any should perish but that all would come to eternal salvation.  Professing to be wise, we become total fools.

O God!  Help us to see the truth and to let truth matter more to us than our own selfish and foolish desires.

Reaping what we sow in relationships

I am taking this straight out of Sally Clarkson's book, The Mission of Motherhood.  It is too beneficial to not share.  If you don't have this book, order it now!  (click on the book title to order it.)  It is the BEST mom's book ever written.  I have said many times before that it entirely changed my perspective as a mom and made motherhood fulfilling and wonderful to me.  Being a mom is a woman's greatest calling!  Praise the Lord!  Now that her children are grown, Sally often says, "I have raised my own best friends!"

Beautiful.

Taken from ch. 7- "A Strong Friend"
The Relationships We Reap

Galatians 6:7 tells us plainly that we reap what we sow--and I believe this is especially true of family relationships.  If I sow affection, commitment, and encouragement into the lives of my children, chances are I will reap deep, close relationships with them that will last for a lifetime.  If I don't make our relationships a priority, I risk reaping the consequences of a broken, scattered or distant relationship.

My daughter Sarah shared with us at dinner one night that her friends who spend most of their time with their peers tend to communicate negatively about the guidance their parents want to give them.  She expertly mimicked their complaints: "My parents insist that I can't drive my car because I don't have insurance!  But it's my car!  My baby-sitting job is so close I won't get into any trouble!  It's so unfair!"

Sarah said, "Mom, I see it all of the time.   The kids who aren't close to their parents act as though their parents' rules are unreasonable and even as though their parents have no right to thell them no.  They think they should be able to make all of their own decisions."

The problem with these kids, as Sarah sees it, is not just her friends' attitude but the fact that these kids' parents haven't done what it takes to maintain a close relationship with them.  Though children are rightly told to honor their parents, it is certainly easier to honor those parents who have shown honor to their own children by doing what it takes to build a relationship.

The hunger for love, affirmation, attention, and acceptance is a deep drive that will search for fulfillment until it finds it.  A child's first attachment is meant to be with its mother, so lots of loving touches and caresses from her make a difference in the child's future intellect, emotional stability, and sense of well-being.  Time and affectionate attention from a father and significant others is crucial as well.

However, if a child's need for such attachment is not met in the home, he will tend to look for it from his peers or anywhere else he can find it.  In order to fit in with those willing to give him time, the child will tend to adapt his values and morals to whatever is required.  At the same time, a child who does not learn to make healthy attachments and maintain healthy relationships in her family may have a hard time developing intimate bonds with anyone in the future.

As a mother, I have the ability to provide the love, acceptance, and attention my children need to grow up secure and able to develop mature relationships.  I also have the opportunity to model mature love, commitment, forgiveness, accountability, grace, and encouragement for my children.  The home is an ideal environment in which children can experience the growth of mature relationship where give-and-take are learned in the context of real life.  And this ideally includes an understanding of the true power of God's love.

________________________ 

And so I am working very hard

raising my own best friends!

The Five Thousand Year Leap, Principle 26 - Family

(To read this series from the beginning, click here.)


Principle 26: Protecting the Role of the Family

The family is the foundation of a strong society.

Amen.

And yet as we look around we see the family undermined from every possible angle.  And so we must do everything to protect it.  If the family breaks down, our country breaks down.  I suggest that we are already seeing that now.  There is no doubt that the USA is not the nation of virtue, integrity, and uprightness that it once was.  With homosexuality, feminism, adultery, impurity, child-abuse, abortion running rampant, it is obvious we have all but succeeded in totally subverting the family.

"In Europe almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of domestic life.  To despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasures of home is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness of heart, and fluctuating desires." -de Tocqueville (p.199)

I was watching an "innocent" children's film today.  The devaluing of the family was woven in through a character who says he wants a life of adventure; not bondage to a wife and child.  And thus is the mindset of our culture...thanks to the perverse and upside-down media (not unlike this children's movie seeking to indoctrinate at a young age the degradation of the family).
People don't "settle down," but instead feel their oats and live la vida loca because afterall that's what life's about, right?  Having fun.  No responsibility.  Remaining foolish and childish well into the middle-age years.  And not using one iota of a brainwave to think about any significant purpose in life except "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die."  Utter stupidity and a waste of a life.  Yet culture as a whole embraces it and we wonder why people don't marry until they are in their 40s and 50s (if at all), and then can't make the marriage work because they have spent so many years set in their own ways and not learning to compromise and push their selfishness aside to accommodate a spouse they are committed to "til death do us part."  Also, culture has brain-washed us into thinking that we need to enjoy the freedom of single life before we start a family.  "Live your life.  Have fun before you settle down," is the mantra.  Alluding that family life doesn't hold a candle to the free and easy life of a single person.  OR...people do want to marry but are surrounded by a culture that embraces the afore-mentioned mentality and so the wishing-to-be-married person flounders never being able to find someone like-minded.   Not to mention that saturated feminism has confused men and women of their roles so they don't know what the heck to look for in a significant other or how to be themselves.

Anyway...that seeming unnecessary tangent leads me to say that the family IS being attacked.  And it must remain a pillar if we want a successful government and nation.

"But when the American retires from the turmoil of public life to the bosom of his family, he finds in it the image of order and of peace.  There his pleasures are simple and natural, his joys are innocent and calm; and as he finds that an orderly life is the surest path to happiness..." -de Tocqueville

"I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the seat of government by the officers of state and the representatives of every power in Europe." -George Washington
Washington always preferred to be home with his family at Mt. Vernon than to be anywhere else or to do anything else.

Benjamin Franklin wrote that marriage is the most natural state of man in which "you are most likely to find solid happiness."

"It will be appreciated that the strength and stability of the family is of such vital importance to the culture that any action by the government to debilitate or cause dislocation in the normal trilateral structure of the family becomes, not merely a threat to the family involved, but a menace to the very foundations of society itself." (p.204) (emphasis mine)

TRILATERAL.

If you haven't see The Truth Project, I highly recommend it.  Del Tackett spends a lot of time talking about how often we see sets of 3 in nature and in relationships.

The Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Church: Christ, Leaders, Flock.
Our world (realms): physical, spiritual, social.
Primary colors: red, yellow, blue.
Atom: proton, neutron, electron.
Water: liquid, solid, gas.
Earth: core, mantle, crust.
Man: heart, brain, body.
Egg: yolk, white, shell.
Virtues: faith, hope, charity.
Time: past, present, future.

The Family: Father, Mother, Child.

It is God's design.  Don't touch it.

Schoolhouse Rock got it right.  Three is the magic number.

For the next installment, click here.

alliances (continued)

Ok, considering my what-do-I-think-about-alliances-and-helping-countries-in-need question:

After a short discussion on facebook, and a long one with my fantastic hubby (who thankfully thinks way more clearly than I do), I have come to a conclusion on the above mentioned issue.

Regarding the story of the good Samaritan and James 4:17 which states: "He who knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it, to him it is sin."  These verses are in the context of the individual, and not a nation.

We, as a nation, ought to mind our own business and not involve ourselves in foreign alliances or political affairs unless we are directly threatened or attacked.  Save for the nation of Israel and for this reason:

Genesis 12:3  "I will bless those that bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (re: Abraham)

As a Christian and because of God's faithfulness to His promises, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is absolutely in America's best interest to stand solidly beside Israel.

Charities and individuals should do what they can according to their convictions to help those in need.

We should welcome true refugees (those whose lives are in danger) and offer them sanctuary.  We should also require them (and any immigrant) to jump through the appropriate hoops to gain their American citizenship and prove themselves.  Or help them (refugees) find another ultimate destination in another country.

The Five Thousand Year Leap, Principles 24-25

(To read this series from the beginning, click here.)


Principle 24: Peace Through Strength

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual ways of preserving peace." ~George Washington

"If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war." ~George Washington

Basically, let other nations be too afraid to pursue us in war because if they did, they would be utterly annihilated.  Pearl Harbor, anyone?  Surely a sleeping giant was awakened.  Even after 9/11...it is only the ridiculous global regulations that keep this ridiculous war on terror lasting as long as it has.  If we would be allowed to unleash our fury, this craziness would be over with quickly.

Franklin:  "The very fame of our strength and readiness would be a means of discouraging our enemies.  The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war.  They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent."

...also: "Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you."

If you have read anything about Washington's frustration with Congress during the Revolutionary War, then you know that he battled with them over the provisions the military needed and how Congress refused to comply.  Now, we have a Congress trying to take care of national security and a President that makes cuts first to National Defense.  What?!  Granted, we need to make cuts everywhere, but I'm sure there's a few trillion that can be cut in other areas before we target our military.

The Founders were "peace-loving, but not pacifists."

Here's something that is sobering:  "The foundation for their (the Founders') security in a bustling, prosperous economy with a high standard of public morality; and they saw the necessity for a level of preparedness which discouraged attack from potential enemies by creating a rate so high that the waging of war against this nation would be an obviously unprofitable undertaking." (p.187)  We have trashed our economy, our morality is basically non-existent;  Is National Security next?



Principle 25: Avoiding Entangling Alliances

"Friendship with all...alliances with none." ~Thomas Jefferson

"...the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government." ~George Washington

I think this is true.  As we become a more global society ...able to travel to and fro throughout the earth, we begin to want foreign influence.  But we must remember that we are uniquely American and have been exceptional because of our uniqueness.  I certainly treasure the diverse traditions and people of various cultures, but we ought not to try to make our society like theirs because we are not them.  We separated ourselves out intentionally hundreds of years ago and have prospered as a result.  Now, we have so much foreign influence and so many Americans desire it that we are putting ourselves back into the bondage we once freed ourselves from.  If we were meant to be European, we ought not to ever have sought independence from England and battled to the point of great sacrifice of life in the Revolutionary War.  Yes, let's appreciate the beauty of diversity and cultures, but let's be careful to always treasure in our hearts and lives the great blessing of our beloved USA.

I had no idea that the Founders' original intent was that we would be friendly with all nations solely for the sake of having an open market, and never become involved with other countries politically.  I should've made a list from the beginning of this book regarding all the things the Founders' said we are not to do, that we have now done, and find ourselves in the nearly impossible position to back-pedal or reverse course.  So, obviously, we have become VERY politically involved with several nations.

Another one bites the dust.

I have a little bit of trouble with this idea of not allying ourselves with other countries, and yet knowing the good we must do and do it.

"So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)

Take the holocaust, for example.  Sure, it didn't affect us at all.  We were never in danger. But if you have the ability to save someone from a brutal murderer, ought we to step in and do it if they are totally and utterly helpless to rescue themselves?  (Good Samaritan?)  I just don't know what to think about this.  It seems the right thing to do in the case of the holocaust was to take out the Nazi agenda and rescue the Jews and others who were suffering.  I understand that there are several oppressive regimes around the world and it would not be beneficial (or possible) to be the knight in shining armor in all of these situations...mostly for the reason that we just can't afford it without putting ourselves in an economically compromising position (which we are already in anyway).  This book suggests that in a situation where a group of people are being oppressed or denied such things as food, then we may step in and provide their needs for them, but it doesn't seem to allude that we ought to deploy our resources (military force) to make the situation right.  Still, this one stumps me.

Great!  Now, I'm gonna have to figure out what I think about this whole thing! ;)  Who has time for this?  LOL!  Seriously though, we must know why we stand where we stand and be able to defend our position solidly.  And so, I will be pursuing this in the days to come.


For the next post on this book, click here.

The Five Thousand Year Leap, Principle 23

(To read previous posts on this book, click here.)

Principle 23: Importance of an Educated Electorate

I guess it goes without saying that this is my favorite chapter.  It is one of the main reasons why I do what I do day in and day out for myself, my husband, my children, my blog, and pretty much anyone within earshot.   I want the truth known.  I want enlightenment of the truth of our nation's history.  I want the true purpose of current events, legislation and agenda known.

Don't you think it so cool that it was America that first took on the noble venture of educating the whole society?  For what purpose?  So, they would vote well and be involved in their own government.  

"Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

~G. Washington

Now, there surely is a whole lot of emphasis in our current culture on the importance of voting.  Here's the difference between now and then:  the Founders desired for us to be educated voters and to vote well; today much of the push for voting is for the prevailing agenda of immoral culture and government-run schools.  It's a popularity vote for the one who looks best and sounds the best.  We vote for rock stars and not real leaders.  This must change.

"In the American colonies the intention was to have all children taught the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic so that they could go on to become well informed citizens through their own diligent self-study. (Emphasis mine.)  No doubt this explains why all of the American Founders were so well read, and usually from the same books, even though a number of them had received a very limited formal education.  The fundamentals were sufficient to get them started, and thereafter they became remarkably well informed in a variety of areas through self-learning.  This was the pattern followed by both Franklin and Washington." (p. 179)    

Of course, I LOVE THIS!  We just finished studying Thomas Edison. He had a whopping 3 months of school attendance and then was home schooled by his mother and a self-motivated learner.  (No joke!)  The man patented 1,093 inventions in his lifetime and had practically zero formal schooling (he was in attendance but learned nothing).  Teach our kids the basics: reading, writing, math, true history, Biblical standards of righteousness and morality, current events, and the Constitution.  And the world is their oyster!!  Give them a passion and love for learning by modeling it ourselves!

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."

~Socrates

I just want to throw in a couple of important pieces of advice here regarding what we fill our minds with and the minds of our children:

• Psalm 1:1 "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord..."   We must not accept the counsel of the ungodly.  Choose wisely what you fill your mind with and if it is not God-honoring, then refuse it.  This includes media.
• Ecclesiastes 12:12 "And further, my son, be admonished by these.  Of making of books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh."   As my pastor put it so well in his message a few weeks ago...  Books are in abundance.  So much so that you can never read them all in your lifetime.  You only get to read so many books, choose well and don't waste your time.
• 2 Corinthians 10:5  "...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."  If it exalts itself above God or compares itself with God, or thinks it is God---get rid of it!  Tear it down!  Throw it out!  Have NOTHING to do with it.  

A book is recommended in this chapter which I will soon purchase as we already own The New England Primer and the Blue Back Speller.  I love old school (no pun intended) school books.  (Don't forget the Bible---it is, after all, the original textbook.)  So, we will be getting the Catechism on the Constitution by Arthur J. Stansbury.   I can't wait to teach my children about the Constitution and to learn more for myself too!

"Sermons and orations by men of limited formal education reflected a flourish and style of expression which few Americans could duplicate today.  Many of these attributed their abilities to extensive reading of the Bible.  Such was the case with Abraham Lincoln.  Certainly the classical beauty of the Gettysburg Address and his many other famous speeches cannot be attributed to college training, for he had none." (p.181-182)   

Not only did Lincoln not have any college education, he had less than 1 year of schooling.  He was entirely self-educated by reading.  And he was a lawyer, politician, and arguably one of the very few best Presidents of the United States.  The boys and I attended a President's Day event at the Nixon Library this year where we heard a man give a speech about the Gettysburg Address and how it was written in the language of the Bible since that is what Lincoln was most familiar with.  Beautiful.

Daniel Webster:

"It is not to be doubted, that to the free and universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were much indebted for right views of civil liberty.  The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelations from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow-man."

Click here for the next post in this series.

The Five Thousand Year Leap, Principles 21-22

(To read this series from the beginning, click here.)

Principle 21: Strong Local Self-Government

The importance of local self-government has been diminished in our own minds, I think.  I know I tend to focus on what the federal government is doing instead of taking action in local concerns.  No more.  If we can't manage what's right around us, how will we ever manage it on a national level.  Also, not recognizing the importance of local self-government causes us to give too much power to federal government...something which the Framers never intended.  We  thus "lose the will to solve (our) own problems." (p.169)

I love that the intent is that problems be solved at the level which they originate.  Why climb the government ladder when things can be settled quietly and on our own?  We expect too much from federal government and we have, as a result, made it far bigger than its original purpose.  We are become increasingly more regulated and really don't have to think for ourselves.  But we should (think for ourselves).

Jefferson:

"Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and feral relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each (township) direct the interests within itself. ...the administration of every man's farm by himself..."p.171  (Well, farmers sure don't have that kind of sovereign power anymore.  Heck!  We can't even cut down a tree on our own property without paying out the ear and getting special permission for it.)

The Constitution meant for the States to have far more power than the federal government.  My, how things have changed.

The federal govt was meant to be "small and cohesive and...inexpensive."  Err, uh, what happened?  As I watch our debt clock count upward of $14 TRILLION!!!

"Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which merchants will manage the better... ...a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants."  (Thomas Jefferson)

Principle 22: Government by Law, Not by Men

"To be governed by the whims of men is to be subject to the ever-changing capriciousness of those in power."  Translate: Dictator, Tyrant, Slave driver.  ...where "nothing is dependable. No rights are secure.  Things...are in a constant state of flux." (p.173)

"Even the best of men in authority are liable to be corrupted by passion.  ...the law is reason without passion..." (p.175)

"The American Founding Fathers... Instead of treating law as merely a code of negative restraints and prohibitions, they considered law to be a system of positive results by which they could be assured of enjoying their rights and the protection of themselves, their families, and their property." (p.175)

Obama views the Constitution as a "charter of negative liberties."  Dude!  The cup is half full because of the Constitution, not half empty!  Of course, as I've mentioned in a previous post- they would be negative liberties to him since it reigns in his ability to be the tyrant he so desperately desires to be.  Thank God for the Constitution!  Let us hold it with both hands and defend it with our very lives.  Our freedom is at stake if we turn a blind eye and remain "neutral."

Laws protect us and protect our stuff.  We need laws.  That being said, we have gone slightly (okay maybe more than just "slightly") overboard.  For goodness sake!  Who can possibly keep track of the innumerable laws that have been created out of thin air?  Legislators.  ugh.  Can't they just solve problems that actually occur instead of dreaming up problems that don't exist so they can make laws for the sake of having something to do?  In California particularly, we have regulated everything under the sun.  I just found out today that I am REQUIRED to vaccinate my child with a certain immunization whether my kid ever steps foot in a public school or not.  Who gave the government permission to tell ME what's best for MY child ...in my own home?!  Why am I mandated to do ANYTHING!?  This is a free country, right?  But the government is sliding its slimy hand into my home and demanding that I bow to their wishes for my child.  Kiss my butt!  Protect me and my stuff.  Don't tell me what to do in my own home and family.

Madison:

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood;  ...Law is defined by rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?"

Most of our laws are incomprehensible.  What a mess.




(For the next post in this series, click here.)