Okay, so, did I write about this before? I can't remember. But I've been thinking about this again, (because I do kinda often) so I'm gonna write about it: If something is wrong, it's wrong. And nothing about that changes when it comes to our country and it's laws. Okay, I guess I should back this up a bit...
We live in a spiritual world in a physical realm. That means that our actions have spiritual ramifications. Honestly, though, I think we often skip over the part were there are consequences before just ending up in heaven or hell. There are blessings and curses in this world that come as result of how we live. (No, we don't earn blessings, but we do open or close the door them, and I think the same is true of curses.) That being said, I don't think blessings and curses are reserved only for individuals; they are also available for businesses, churches, families, and even countries. Throughout the Bible we see that God sends prophets to speak to kings and nations about His will. Usually this is Israel, but we also see Jonah, Daniel, Joseph, and even Balem, go and speak to the foreign nations and leaders. We see repeatedly that when a nation lives by the word of God the nation prospers and flourishes, but when it denies God's word and does it's own thing it eventually faces some type of destruction. God has not changed. His name is still, King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Lord of Hosts (which really means, Lord of Armies.) Psalms, 110 says, "He will judge the nations..." and Joel 3 says, "...I will sit to judge all the nations on every side." So, I think it's safe to say that want my nation to be on God's good side, if you will. I want to have a nation that stands up for the things Jesus would stand up for, I want it to do good and restrain evil.
This is what brings to mind the thoughts that things that are wrong are wrong no matter what. So, if something is wrong, as a nation, we should refuse to let it be legal. Take rape, for example. Rape is wrong, it doesn't matter if you disagree with me, you're wrong. It should be illegal. Now, what about abortion? It's wrong; and it still doesn't matter if you disagree with me. And gay marriage, it's wrong, so it should be illegal. I know you're thinking, these are religious opinions and that we can't force our views on others. But you see, there is a big difference between forcing someone to do something and keeping someone from doing something. Laws are meant to keep people from doing wrong. My beliefs about gay marriage and abortion are no more spiritual than my beliefs on stealing, rape, incest, and the like. Can you imagine if someone were to say that they thought that rape was wrong but could not justify it being illegal because they found out it was wrong through the Bible? Would you ever take that person's views seriously? So, why can we say that about other issues, and who is to say where we draw the line? Personally, I am not so concerned with what other people are thinking is right and wrong, because I already have a definite line. To me, the only opinion that matters is God's. (He is, after all, the one who has the power to build up and tear down nations. Like it says in Psalms.127:1b"Unless the Lord watches over the city the watchmen stand guard in vein.") If God says that a certain thing will bring curses on a nation (and definitely shedding innocent blood is one of those things) then we simply cannot tolerate it as a nation and expect that nothing will happen. In Ps. 2 it talks about the kings of the earth trying to throw off the fetters and restraints of God. I see this happening in our nation when we make laws, or refuse to make laws, that bring in God's divine restraints. And truth be told, if we believe what we say we do, then we are doing a great disservice to people by allowing them to sin so easily. They will have eternal consequences for their sin, and if we care about them we should do all we can to keep them from sinning, even when they want to.
So really, where is the debate? Do we love those in the world enough to try and stop them from bringing curses on themselves? Do we love our nation and want to see it blessed? Do we love God and all of His ways? Do we see the black and white of His commands? What He says is true, and I pray our nation can follow Him.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Ponderings on Manipulation
So, both of my girls got sick recently, and as I was taking care of them I prayed for them to get better. At first it seemed to be working, because Amber didn't puke throughout the rest of the night. Then, I got up, and wrote on my facebook page that the kids were sick, thinking in the back of my head, "Gee, I really hope this isn't like a thing of no faith that will make them sick again." And then, seriously within a minute of writing that Amber was having diarrhea pouring out her diaper and then a few minutes after that throwing up. "Hmm," I thought, "I think I need to change that post." So, I did, I changed it to something like, "I don't like Amber being sick, but I like that she will fall asleep in my arms," trying to be more positive and open a little door for God to work. But the whole thing got me thinking about how many other times I do things thinking that I can kinda make God want to do things on my behalf, or in other words, realized that I try to manipulate God. I think most of the time, although I would never actually think it, I live as though I can twist God's arm into doing things the way I want them to be done. Like, take for example my thinking that if I have Ailsa pray to Jesus for good dreams then there's no way God could dissapoint her; or how about thinking that if I thank Him in hard times then He'll have to give me what I'm asking for because it was hard to be thankful. How silly to think that I can force God into acting the way that I think would work best for me!
So, in light of all of this, I've been thinking about what I do think is our role in partnering with God, because I do think it's a partnership. I think God is like our Husband and like our Father. So, basically, he gets to call the shots. But, there are things we can do to stop His will from being done in our lives, I mean, if we want to; or we can prepare ourselves to go along with His will, slash, we can be willing to go along with His will even if we don't really have a clue what's going on. Like, take for example, my praying that God would stop Amber from throwing up. Let's say God wanted to answer that prayer but I gave her syrup of icka-whatever (you know, that stuff you can take if you NEED to throw up); God could still intervene and stop her from throwing up, but my guess is that He wouldn't, because I would be using the free will He gave me. Or, what if instead, I gave her some water and toast? Giving her water and toast wont MAKE her stop throwing up, or make God heal her; but if that's what God wanted to do I don't think my actions would be standing in His way. Do you see my point now?
I think these kinds of "cause and effects" are pretty clear, but most of the time life is a lot more complicated then that. I'll spare you of trying to come up with more complicated examples, because I'm sure you have plenty of your own life expericance to draw from. But let me just end by saying, (mostly to myself) let's not try and think that by acting a a certain way we can convince God to act on our behaves. God loves us, and wants to bless us. I like when Mike Bickel says that God doesn't just love us, He likes us. He knows what's best for us, He knows how to make us happy, and He wants us to be happy. So lets just go along with what He's doing as best as we can, and let's try to make ourselves ready do receive His blessings by following what the Bible says and by asking for His advice in prayer.
So, in light of all of this, I've been thinking about what I do think is our role in partnering with God, because I do think it's a partnership. I think God is like our Husband and like our Father. So, basically, he gets to call the shots. But, there are things we can do to stop His will from being done in our lives, I mean, if we want to; or we can prepare ourselves to go along with His will, slash, we can be willing to go along with His will even if we don't really have a clue what's going on. Like, take for example, my praying that God would stop Amber from throwing up. Let's say God wanted to answer that prayer but I gave her syrup of icka-whatever (you know, that stuff you can take if you NEED to throw up); God could still intervene and stop her from throwing up, but my guess is that He wouldn't, because I would be using the free will He gave me. Or, what if instead, I gave her some water and toast? Giving her water and toast wont MAKE her stop throwing up, or make God heal her; but if that's what God wanted to do I don't think my actions would be standing in His way. Do you see my point now?
I think these kinds of "cause and effects" are pretty clear, but most of the time life is a lot more complicated then that. I'll spare you of trying to come up with more complicated examples, because I'm sure you have plenty of your own life expericance to draw from. But let me just end by saying, (mostly to myself) let's not try and think that by acting a a certain way we can convince God to act on our behaves. God loves us, and wants to bless us. I like when Mike Bickel says that God doesn't just love us, He likes us. He knows what's best for us, He knows how to make us happy, and He wants us to be happy. So lets just go along with what He's doing as best as we can, and let's try to make ourselves ready do receive His blessings by following what the Bible says and by asking for His advice in prayer.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Funny Things
Amber has learned to give kisses, and the "mmm" part of muah, lasts about 3 times as long as the rest of the word, making it more like, mmmmmmmmmmuah. So cute.
Ailsa has started to say "thank yous" during her night time prayer, two of her recent ones were for water and the letter N.
Amber has also learned how to climb the stairs. But more than climbing them she likes to chased. So, most of the time she'll go over there and wait on the first or second step until she's sure we've seen her; then she'll climb as fast as she can to see how far she can get before we grab her.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Nationalized Heath Care
I know this is a touchy subject, but I just can't help myself. I really want to talk about why I am not for this health care bill that is being passed. I'm not trying to convince anybody to think the way I do; I just really want to share my opinions because I feel strongly about them, and the only people that have time to listen to me go on an on about it would have no clue what I'm talking about (my kids, if they're even old enough to be called kids....) So here are my thoughts, just as they come:
-I'm all about more people having health care, but I think it's really important to look at the root of the problem. People not having health care is just a symptom of the root problem which is that heath care is unaffordable for most people.
-The government is less efficient with money than any private business. This is a fact, not an opinion. I can't remember the numbers that have been quoted to me about how much of every dollar in a government is wasted on the needed red tape, but I do remember it was very shocking to me. So, why would I want the government to try and solve a problem that is, at it's core, about health care expense? It doesn't seem wise to me.
-Why is health care so expensive? Well, obviously there are a lot or reasons, but I think the main reason is the liability insurance/injury lawsuits doctors are forced to deal with. Do you think they are paying out of pocket for these things? No, just like any business would do, they are passing the cost along the consumers.
-So, It would make sense to me to first make health care more affordable through "tort reform" (aka making laws that deal with how much money people are able to get from these types of lawsuits. Obviously still leaving enough to pay for needed expenses, but lets not let people get rich off of these types of things.) This would make health care affordable to most of the population without ever needing a national public option. If nothing else we could just reevaluate at that point, right?
-There's the obvious reason that they are changing the law that prohibits federal dollars from being spent on abortion, and even going so far as to give money to private insurance companies that cover abortion.
-Looks at Canada and England who already have this type of government plans, their life expectancies went DOWN not up!
-In the first version (they have changed it so much, I don't know for sure if this part has been changed or not) they were able to deny elderly people and disabled people.
-By interfering into the free market the doctors offices will overwhelmed. Let me say, I am currently on medicaid, so I'm obviously not against government aid at the sate level. But just to give you a glimpse into my world, when I called the dentist due to a tooth ache I was told that the next available appointment was in two months! Now, this is just a tooth, but imagine if it were something more serious, like say a cancer screening test that I had to wait for. This is what we're looking at if we just add on a bunch of people to an already overloaded system.
Are you still with me? I'm almost done...
-So, let's be logical: You have people finding caners and tumors later, overcrowded hospitals, and sick elderly and disabled people suffering. What would be the "compassionate" way to help them? Euthanasia. No, it is never mentioned in the bill, but it would lead us in that direction, and people will feel the need to have it. (Oh, and did I mention that they want elderly people to have a government official to come to their hose and have a mandatory "end of life counseling" session? I don't know about you, but I don't like that...)
-Of course we know that most of the way we live our lives affects our health. What we eat, how much tv we watch vs how much time exercising, and the list goes on and on. With government in charge of paying for our health, they will want to make sure we are living as healthy as we should be. But who sets those standards and who sets the limits as to how far they can reach into our lives? It's just a little too shady of an area for me to like.
Anyways, there are more reasons I could talk about, but I think those are my main issues. I really do want people to be covered. I don't want people to be sick or suffering, I just think there are smarter ways to go about it than what is being discussed right now. I don't like being painted as a meanie because I see things differently than a lot of the newscasters or vocal democrats. Anyways, no need to pout about it, now I'm just rambling. Like I said at the start of this whole thing, I'm really just trying to get off my chest all my views on this thing that I can't see to find the time to talk to anyone about face to face. So that's all...
-I'm all about more people having health care, but I think it's really important to look at the root of the problem. People not having health care is just a symptom of the root problem which is that heath care is unaffordable for most people.
-The government is less efficient with money than any private business. This is a fact, not an opinion. I can't remember the numbers that have been quoted to me about how much of every dollar in a government is wasted on the needed red tape, but I do remember it was very shocking to me. So, why would I want the government to try and solve a problem that is, at it's core, about health care expense? It doesn't seem wise to me.
-Why is health care so expensive? Well, obviously there are a lot or reasons, but I think the main reason is the liability insurance/injury lawsuits doctors are forced to deal with. Do you think they are paying out of pocket for these things? No, just like any business would do, they are passing the cost along the consumers.
-So, It would make sense to me to first make health care more affordable through "tort reform" (aka making laws that deal with how much money people are able to get from these types of lawsuits. Obviously still leaving enough to pay for needed expenses, but lets not let people get rich off of these types of things.) This would make health care affordable to most of the population without ever needing a national public option. If nothing else we could just reevaluate at that point, right?
-There's the obvious reason that they are changing the law that prohibits federal dollars from being spent on abortion, and even going so far as to give money to private insurance companies that cover abortion.
-Looks at Canada and England who already have this type of government plans, their life expectancies went DOWN not up!
-In the first version (they have changed it so much, I don't know for sure if this part has been changed or not) they were able to deny elderly people and disabled people.
-By interfering into the free market the doctors offices will overwhelmed. Let me say, I am currently on medicaid, so I'm obviously not against government aid at the sate level. But just to give you a glimpse into my world, when I called the dentist due to a tooth ache I was told that the next available appointment was in two months! Now, this is just a tooth, but imagine if it were something more serious, like say a cancer screening test that I had to wait for. This is what we're looking at if we just add on a bunch of people to an already overloaded system.
Are you still with me? I'm almost done...
-So, let's be logical: You have people finding caners and tumors later, overcrowded hospitals, and sick elderly and disabled people suffering. What would be the "compassionate" way to help them? Euthanasia. No, it is never mentioned in the bill, but it would lead us in that direction, and people will feel the need to have it. (Oh, and did I mention that they want elderly people to have a government official to come to their hose and have a mandatory "end of life counseling" session? I don't know about you, but I don't like that...)
-Of course we know that most of the way we live our lives affects our health. What we eat, how much tv we watch vs how much time exercising, and the list goes on and on. With government in charge of paying for our health, they will want to make sure we are living as healthy as we should be. But who sets those standards and who sets the limits as to how far they can reach into our lives? It's just a little too shady of an area for me to like.
Anyways, there are more reasons I could talk about, but I think those are my main issues. I really do want people to be covered. I don't want people to be sick or suffering, I just think there are smarter ways to go about it than what is being discussed right now. I don't like being painted as a meanie because I see things differently than a lot of the newscasters or vocal democrats. Anyways, no need to pout about it, now I'm just rambling. Like I said at the start of this whole thing, I'm really just trying to get off my chest all my views on this thing that I can't see to find the time to talk to anyone about face to face. So that's all...
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Control
So, here are my thoughts about having 2 children right away after getting married: Is this the way I would have scripted my life? No. But do I regret it? Not really. Would I recommend it? I don't know, but I would definitely not not recommend it. Why? Because I know that what I did was give up the control over this area of my life to God. And I've been thinking about that, and I feel like I'm starting to learn that there is such a great freedom when you're in a position of giving up your control to God. I've heard people say things like that before, but I never really got it. I always thought, "Well, if I'm in control I can do anything I want. How could I get more freedom than that?" But I'm starting to realize that when you are in control of everything you do, you also have to (try to) be the one who is in control of fixing all the problems that come your way. See, in my situation, if I were the one who chose to have my children right away I might be questioning my decisions about the timing of their births and scared of my husband losing his job in an economy like this. I very well could think to myself, "You are the one who chose to bring these little people here, and now it's your job to take care of them and make sure nothing happens to them!" I would no doubt have stress and anxiety because I'd be trying to control a situation I had no control over! But, since I left the timing of my childrens' births up to God, I can turn around and say the same thing to Him! (In fact, when I first got pregnant neither my husband or I had a job, and we just worked in exchange for housing, but since then my husband has gotten a great job and we've bought a house, all thanks to God's provision!) No matter what is going on in the world I have complete peace, because I know that I have surrendered my will to God. Whatever happens in my life I know God is the one who is allowing everything in my world to take place. I know that all things have a purpose, and all things will work for my good. No matter how hard or frustrating things may get, I am confidant that it is so so small compared to what I would be going through if the weight of the world were on my shoulders instead of His. So, I guess what the whole point of all of this is, that when you give up control to God you get peace in return, because you no longer have to hold everything together; and I can't think of any greater freedom than peace.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
oh yeah, i have a blog now...
So it's been a month since I've written, probably because nobody but me reads it anyways! =0 It's been a busy busy month in this household. Amber is almost walking now, and getting into everything. She's picking things up a lot quicker than Ailsa did in the "getting mobile" department which brings a whole new game to the table than what I played with Ailsa. Gotta love how they always find a way to keep you on your toes.
As far as Ailsa goes, well she's making sure we know that she has every intention of being a girly girl. Everyday she insists on wearing an outfit (preferably a dress) with flowers on it. I actually felt quite accomplished today when I was able to get her to wear a shirt with pretty hearts instead. :) She also has a new found love of getting her nails painted.
JJ's birthday was last week, and I made him an angle food cake (another check off my list of things I've never made by myself before) and got him a mini remote controlled helicopter. I don't know who likes it more, him or Ailsa.
And, on a sad note, JJ's grandma also died just a few days before his birthday. She was a lovely lady and she is already missed by everyone who knew her.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Hair
For most of my life I have wanted to know how to french braid my own hair. I tried several times to teach myself, but the end result was always... well, embarrassing. But not too long ago I was on a long car ride, I think it was on our way back home from DC, which ended up being an 8 hour drive. So, out of sheer boredom I started fidgeting with my hair, not even really paying attention to what I was doing. Needless to say, I ended up with a french braid! WooHoo! Life long goal: accomplished. I can french braid my hair!
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