I received a newsletter recently from a nearby Pro-Life Center.  I just loved these numbers...

• 2,176 is the number of abortion businesses operating in the U.S. in 1991
• 700 is an estimate of the number of pregnancy help centers operating in 1991.
• 581 is the huber of abortion businesses operating in the U.S. today.
• 2,452 is the number of pregnancy help centers operating in the U.S. today.
• 87 is the number of abortion businesses closed in just 2013.

Isn't that so encouraging?!  Praise the Lord!

Thank you to Ramona Pregnancy Care Clinic for making these numbers known and to the precious Director, Anita.  

http://abortiondocs.org

estimate by John Ensor of PassionLife.org

http://www.heartbeatinternational.org

RPCC FB page

Yes, I'm still reading David McCullough's John Adams.  Yes, sometimes it takes an eternity for me to finish a book.  No, this does NOT mean it's a bad book.  It is one of the best I have ever read.  I'm just easily distracted, busy, and often a terrible manager of my time, and a flawed person.  :)

John Adams in his retirement correspondence with Dr. Benjamin Rush:

Is the present state of the republic enough?  Is virtue the principle of our government? Is honor? Or is ambition and avarice, adulation, baseness, covetousness, the thirst for riches, indifference concerning the means of rising and enriching, the contempt of principle, the spirit of party and of faction the motive and principle that governs?

My friend!  Our country is a masquerade!  No party, no man dares to avow his real sentiments.  All is disguise, vizard, cloak.

 Absolute power in a majority is as drunk as it is in one.

If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe, because worthless men are at the tail and middle. 

 

This last quote...  As I tirelessly fight and work for the future of a once great nation, I understand the power of the electorate and how greatly we have failed to properly and responsibly perform our duty at the polls.  We are uninformed and ignorant of the policies of these whom we vote for, of the Constitution, of our history.  Granted, it is so time-consuming to pursue these things, but it is so important.  At least, we ought to ally ourselves with those whom we know the character of and trust who are pursuing these truths.  And let them guide.  Question everything.  But as our dear Abraham Lincoln said: "Be sure to set your feet in the right place, and then stand firm."

Friends, know where you stand, and know if that place is true and right...not just aligned to your opinion and/or desires.  Truth exists and can be known.  "Follow the truth wherever it leads."  ...even if you don't like it.  Reality is reality and truth is truth regardless of our perception of it.

Gun play

A friend recently asked me the following question.  Thought I'd share it here in case any of you in the internet abyss ever wonder the same thing.  I don't know that I have the best answer, but it's an answer.  Be blessed!

Kori, I've been meaning to ask you this for awhile now. I really admire and respect you and your FB postings. Can you please give me some sound words of wisdom to share with my friends/ family who are being fearful when my 3 year old son is just involved in imaginary play? He's recently been using his thumb and forefinger "gun" to play the "good" guy, and shoot at people ("bad" guys). He has never played a video game or seen a cartoon with violence (unless you count Veggie Tales and Curious George as violent) - I know it is innate and some picked up from his playground friends. I just told him not to point his finger at someone's face, but he can play "good" guys and "bad" guys. How do I convince the well meaning naysayers?

Hello precious friend, I wish I could tell you the magic words that would change them. We live in a society that has been stripping masculinity from our boys for a couple of generations now. As is often said, "Boys will be boys." I have not encountered the situation you have... mostly because we are not in a public school scenario and the families we are close to are likeminded to us. I do try to be sensitive when I'm with families that I'm not sure are in support of guns. I tell my boys to not point "guns" at people and to not even play guns when I can tell that people are uncomfortable with it. I discourage them from playing gun games at church during their after-service playtime since they play with kids they (and I) don't know very well. I would just be sensitive and state the truth: boys are defenders and protectors. It is in them to be so..and that ought to be encouraged. We certainly don't want to advocate violence and cruelty, but when boys act as the good guys going after the bad guys (my boys have imaginary bad guys unless some in the group their playing in agrees to play the bad guys), then that should be commended and encouraged. It is in us as humans to love epics, to understand that there really is good and evil, to be heroes. We are characters in a real-life, universal epic where there truly is good and evil. And Good will win. Maybe encourage your sweet little guy by asking him what he is protecting. What is he fighting for? And give him noble ideas. Freedom. To protect the oppressed. Against evil dragons. Fighting the beast and the false prophet at the end of time (a real slaying of the dragon that will come). (Even though we won't have to lift a finger because Jesus will open HIs mouth and "one tiny word will slay" our enemy.) I don't know if that helps at all. Mainly, be sensitive to others and don't let our freedom become a stumbling block to another. "All things are lawful but not all things are beneficial." "I become all things to all men that I might win some." If they are lost, keep their eternal souls in mind. Love. Which I know you are excellent at. We can love our friends who are afraid of gun play by abstaining from such play when we are with them. Love you. Wish I had a better answer. 

If anyone had reason to be snooty (and no one on this planet does)...  John Adams was well-accomplished, well-read, brilliant, well-traveled (for his time), yet he understood the real definition of  a public servant.  (Unlike so many that now hold similar offices, err I mean "titles".  i.e.: "Don't-call-me-ma'am-but-only-Queen-senator-because-I'm-better-than-you-pee-ons" Boxer, among others.)

Servant leadership, humble leadership is absolutely the best kind.  And how can it not be?  It was modeled to us by Jesus Himself who knelt to wash 120 very dirty toes, and died a death He could never deserve...for the sake of others.   Give, give, give.  We must be givers.  We must be real.  We must "not think ourselves more highly than we ought."  

Thomas Twining was delighted to find the Vice-President [John Adams]...in appearance to be more like "an English country gentleman who had seen little of the world, than a statesman who had seen so much of public life."

"I was always glad when I saw Mr. Adams enter the room and take his place at our table.  Indeed, to behold this distinguished man...occupying the chair of the Senate in the morning, and afterwards walking home through the streets and taking his seat among his fellow citizens as their equal, conversing amicably with men over whom he had just presided...was a singular spectacle, and a striking exemplification of the state of society in America at this period."

~From John Adams by David McCullough 

Is this the state of society in America now?  No.  We have made ourselves the subjects of celebrities and stuffy politicians...people who put their pants on the same way as the rest of us.  We have allowed an elitist society to be created and we 'ooh' and 'ahh' over them as if they were gods.  And then they behave like the gods we treat them as.

Even if our leaders and "stars" today were superior to our brilliant and humble founders, there would still be no reason to elevate them above the American citizen or any other human being on earth.   John Adams understood that "all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights..."  He understood it because he risked his life, liberty, and sacred honor for this truth.  And then, after much pomp, recognition, accomplishment, work, and yes, even vanity; he actually lived these words.  He knew he was created equal to those he "presided over."  He did his duty and then lived among the citizenry humbly and truly because he understood that "we the people" are the real power, the real world, the real governing force of this great nation.  Which so many now forget.

Wherever you are.  Whatever leadership position you hold.  Whatever influence you have.  Whatever inspiration you may be to others.  Always remember who you are.  We all are sinners.  We all are weak.  Even though we may be knowledgable or even an authority on this or that; we all are ignorant of many more things.  Keep it real, friends.  

"Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up."

I'm bound not to win.

But I'm bound to be TRUE.

I'm not bound to succeed.

But I am bound to live by the Light that I have.

I must stand with any one that stands with right.

And stand with him while he is right;

and part with him when he is wrong.

~Abraham Lincoln

This guy.

Homeschooling/keeping my kids close during these impressionable, growing, never-going-to-get-them-back years is of infinite value to me.

Nick Fury doing his English workbook.

Today, my rock star dressed as Nick Fury (of Avengers) and moved through his day.  He is a brilliant mind.  Kind-hearted.  Sassy. Funny.  A joy.  A party in a 9-year-old package.  I mean, in lieu of a bath tonight he opted for night time swimming (sans swim shorts).  I smiled as I observed bare legs swinging above the water as he executed one of his many stunts:  this particular feat a one-handed hand stand.  

I'm halfway through my training-him-up-in-the-way-he-should-go time.  And I want to laugh deep in my heart at bare legs in the darkened pool for a little bit longer.

Raising heroes is an honor.  A gift.  

I am so thankful.

Magellan...not the GPS contraption

Ferdinand Magellan's fleet was the first to circumnavigate the globe.  But Magellan himself never made it.  He died in battle in the Philippines.

He didn't complete the trip, but is still credited with the feat.

Of his 5 ships, only 1 returned to Spain.
Of his 280 men, only 31 survived.

Welcome to the 1st Day of School!