Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Little Pitchers Have Big Ears
Family lore tells us that one time my parents were discussing some matter of grave importance while traveling down the road. One of them remembered that they were not alone and said, “Little pitchers have big ears.” A little voice from the back seat, where my sister was playing with her dolls, piped up saying, “I have big ears!”
One never knows when a child is listening. One never knows what message is being picked up by “little pitchers”. Our actions, our attitudes, our words – they all reach the ears and eyes of the children around us. What an awesome responsibility we face as parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers and every other category of person who interacts with a child. Jesus Himself warned against causing the little ones to stumble.
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The Voices
Growing up is not an easy task. When one is tiny, new born and newly arrived at home, there are no choices and most things are laid out for one with everything necessary being provided. But as one grows and begins the maturation process one begins to have choices. At first the choices are simple, such as: “Shall I wear the red shirt with stripes or the checkered blue one?”; “Shall I play with the ball or the fire truck?”. But as we grow, we are continually faced with more and more complex choices. To make things even more interesting we also have voices talking to us about the choices we have.
Marriage And Maintenance
Marriage is like a motor. No maintenance tends to cause breakdowns. Are you changing the oil and ensuring proper cooling of the system or is your marriage merely a case of rapid wear and blown headgaskets waiting to happen?
Looking to stake the tent tighter
I do believe that we are but pilgrims and strangers on this earth. We are on a journey, hopefully along The WAY, and therefore our stay here is but temporary. But part of that journey is learning to serve God by serving others and it behooves us to do the best we can where God places us or where He leads us.
We know that God lead us to our current place of residence and ministry. We sought His face and His wisdom and His guidance – and He brought us here and has kept us here in the face of many trials and problems. We also know that our enemy does not wish for us to be here. Read the rest of this entry »
Some thoughts on marriage
This afternoon I was going through my e-mail and came upon the following quote:
“The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person… Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side.” –James Wilson, Of the Natural Rights of Individuals, 1792
This got my cogitation gears to turning and soon I flipped (clicked) to Genesis.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman, ‘ for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Some Thoughts On Pornography
Pornography, porn, dirty pictures, “art”, nasty movies, “eroticism”, freedom of expression… what is it all about? What is, after all, this thing called “pornography”?
The word “pornography” is derived from the greek language. The etymology is as follows:
- Greek pornographos, adjective, writing about prostitutes, from porné - prostitute + graphein – to write
But, what does that mean for us today? And why am I writing about this topic? Today the term “pornography” relates not just to “writing about prostitutes” but also to pictures and videos of women who’ve no more morals than a prostitute. And this “industry” is having a negative influence on our society. Read the rest of this entry »
Thoughts On Facebook
There’s a “social networking” website called “Facebook“. I was a bit leery of such places for a while. The whole “My Space” and such whoopla left me cold. And then I started paying more attention and saw that there’s actually some value to these places. So I set up an account. And then started finding friends, and friends started finding me. The whole thing is interesting, because it shows how we all have rings of influence in our lives. It’s interesting to take a look at friend lists on other people’s profiles. It’s amazing how many of us know the same people – and yet each of us knows oodles of folks the others do not know.
I played with matches
Yep, when I was a kid I wasn’t “Smokey’s Friend” – I played with matches. Never did we burn down a forest nor even a house or anything we shouldn’t. But we played with matches. And gun powder, fireworks, power tools, firearms, airguns, slingshots, bicycles, machetes, axes, lead based paint – etc.
And yet, we grew up. All our appendages were intact (in spite of that one incident where we re-enacted a knife fight from a Louis L’Amour novel and someone got their fingers cut) and our hearing wasn’t too badly damaged (I’m only deaf in one ear but can still sometimes hear out of the other – don’t tell my wife) and the only damage to our eye sight was genetic. We rode bicycles without helmets. We played soccer without pads. We played volleyball in the street. We paddled canoes without lifejackets. We climbed trees and chopped them down. OK – THEY climbed the tree and I chopped it down). Skinnydipping, fishing, bee hunting, wasp nest capturing, campfire building, lead smelting, gun building – all these and more were part of our lives. And we lived and grew up and became reasonably stable, sane, productive citizens. Read the rest of this entry »
Life will kill you
The thoughts below were provoked by an accident in farming country. A well meaning friend responded to news of the accident in a “I’d NEVER let MY kid do that” way. He was raised in San Francisco, far from rural America. And has absorbed much of the overprotection culture inherent in that bed of socialistic “We’ll save you from life” society. Read the rest of this entry »
The Shop
The shop. It sat out back of the house. At first, in our case, it was an old wooden shed that my dad had built for storing our household goods while we were out of the country – back up north on “home service” or “furlough”. When we returned and then built our place the shed first provided living quarters for one of the workers who was helping dig the well and then other such labor. Then when we moved in it was where the generator that provided our electricity and water pumping capabilities was kept. It was full of tools and miscellaneous scrap wood and metal and old bolts and nuts and “junk” that gave us many hours of entertaining occupation as we fabricated one thing or another. Later it was replaced by a brick and mortar building that had proper wiring and a concrete floor that was easier to find things on than the old wooden boards that would let stuff drop through to the dirt below. Read the rest of this entry »
