Here's a link to my husband's latest blog entry...here.

The setup: a trip to Walmart, and being behind a woman in line using WIC checks to pay for her stuff. You can probably already tell where this is headed.

Phrases like "family values" and "focus on the family" have become platitudes (or worse, epithets), but there is something behind them. The family is, in many ways, a petri dish for growing disciples. At the risk of mixing my metaphors, I propose the following recipe:

• Start with a husband and wife.

• Add a child.
• Apply heat.
• When mixture boils over, add Holy Spirit to bring back to a simmer.
• Add children to taste.
• Stir constantly.

After a generation or so, voila! Disciples! (And I'm not talking about just the children, either.)

You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.
Deuteronomy 8:5 (NKJV) » read more »

This would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic. It's now the job of police in Britain to prowl around in the middle of the night looking for unlocked doors and windows on peoples' houses. If they find one, they are instructed to roust the inhabitants and haul them outside for a verbal smackdown. What's next, citations for an untied shoestring? Jail time for venturing out in the cold without your muff? » read more »

The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus
by Ogden Nash

In Baltimore there lived a boy.
He wasn't anybody's joy.
Although his name was Jabez Dawes,
His character was full of flaws.

In school he never led his classes,
He hid old ladies' reading glasses,
His mouth was open when he chewed,
And elbows to the table glued.
He stole the milk of hungry kittens,
And walked through doors marked NO ADMITTANCE.
He said he acted thus because
There wasn't any Santa Claus.

Another trick that tickled Jabez
Was crying 'Boo' at little babies.
He brushed his teeth, they said in town, » read more »

Just curious... do you "celebrate" Halloween?

When I first gave my life back over to Christ, I was in a church where Halloween was preached as evil. At that time of year, our church offered an alternative for the children, a fall festival. » read more »

The common dog is sometimes not what they are on TV. Dogs don't just play all day then sleep at night. They do a lot more than that. In my example of a common dog's day, I will use the name Rover.

To start his day, Rover wakes up and goes outside to do his business. Then, he eats breakfast and lets it digest during a little morning nap. After he wakes up, he goes back outside again, and returns to finish his nap. » read more »

Please continue to pray for Kristen for many, unspecified needs.

http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11603305/

I've avoided writing too much about my family-of-origin out of misplaced respect for them, granting them unwarranted, special dispensation. I've worked hard, in fact, to avoid offending them—and they are all so easily offended—but I've also long questioned this decision. Events have taken place that render this decision irrelevant. All but one have severed relationships with my family now, so any unilateral attempts from our end to maintain relationships are now moot. » read more »