Expelled....have you seen it???

Ok I seldom do this blog, and my guess is most have given up reading it LOL but I feel compelled to write this out. I often process information by writing.

I watched the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed this evening while my husband and daughter watched a Newsboys concert and football game. I love Netflix by the way (shameless plug there LOL) I can watch the movies instantly on the internet on my laptop!

I have to tell you, I like Ben Stein, and I have always been at odds with the whole evolution theory but after viewing this I must say I am convinced Darwinism itself is a religion and that those who serve it are adamant is promoting it and that nothing will ever be permitted to speak against it in the United States if they have their way.

It would be different if the interviews were spliced, the evidence were not there already (I've heard it and read it before) but the compiling of it in one place, the proof of the unwillingness to even open a dialogue to discuss intelligent design as opposed to evolution (NOT creationism but intelligent design or even another theory) and the persecution of those who do question the status quo is down right frightening. Should a respected scientist lose their job and reputation for simply asking them to open the discussion? look at the argument? mentioning the issue?

To know this is a phenomena of the U.S. and that even those nations less free than we are can have open discussions among their scientists about this things is even more frightening. We, the freest nation on the earth, our scientific community wll shut down, destroy and persecute any who even look into the arguments as legitimate dialogue.

I am sure many people will say evolution is proven, no questions etc but having even the leading scientists explore the option that "another advanced species" (read aliens folks) is more acceptable than discussing the option of God is proof that the issue for them is not science it is that they just refuse the notion of God, of faith and of any moral being to guide, create or endow us as humans is evident. The truth is, even the msot educated scientist cannot tell you HOW life began and what led up to the initial life form that started it all. One scientist kept repeating it somehow piggy backed on crystals BUT he could not explain how that could actually happen.

Wherever you stand on the issue I highly reccomend you see the movie, hear for yourself what the scientists have to say. Do some deeper research and begin to ask yourself questions. Once you have asked yourself then begin to ask established science to explain this to you. And then ask them why they are putting up the wall and refusing to discuss it. Science is about questions...

We cannot allow such a thing to happen as we have all seen in history; yestedays exact science is often todays old wives tale! The most dangerous thing we can ever allow as humans, as christians and as citizens is to stop questioning anything. Wasn't it Hitler who said if you tell lie often enough they will believe you????

I've been TAGGED by Michelle

Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged me.
2) Mention the rules.
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.
4) Tag 6 other blogger´s by linking to them.
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.


So 6 uninteresting quirky facts about myself are......

1. I fell down 64 stone steps in Freedom PA when I was almost 8 yrs old. It was Valentines day that year and I was laying in the snow for 2.5 hours while EMT's tried to figure out how to get me in an ambulance.


2. I collect vintage costume jewelry and wear it. I started that when I was 14 and have worn it ever since then too. I have pieces over 100 yrs old.

3. I signed to music for years in our chapel (church for you non military ones) because as I lose my hearing I can no longer sing.

4. I have a weakness for trash TV like Dr Phil, Housewives of Orange County and New York, What Not to Wear and other useless information.

5. At 37 I am still flexible enough to put my legs (yes both of them) behind my ears LOL

6. I have met President Bush and received an award from him. I have also met the Governor of Texas, the Secretary of Defense and The Joint Cheif of Staff.

OK 6 blogs??? wow thats a LOT LOL
I think Nikki at Life of a Soldier's Wife
Chrissy has to do it
We can Try Patti at When Your Soldier Has TBI
Stephanie at In Mom's Eyes
The Prairie Lady might do this at her Prairie Home
and last but not least
Heather at Come Sit a Spell

HELLLLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!

ok silly as this sounds, how do I make my blog pretty?? I cannot figure out how to get pictures on it or anything LOL

Sad huh?

So who is brave enough to help me here? I have realized my blog is VERY boring to look at and that isn't good since I am in real life a pretty interesting and unique kind of lady!

Am I going to have learn something else new *sigh* all by myself????

Avoiding All Appearances of Evil......

We all know this scripture. every time we do something some one disagrees with someone pulls it out. Yet, it is a reality in our walk that we are responsible for how we represent Christ to the world and to those weaker in the faith but, what WE as modern english beleivers think ti says and what was being said are two entirely different things

Recently I was involved in an online discussion as to whether something was permissable or not as a Christian. Now Paul tells us ALL things are permissable but not all things are beneficial. yet, that is another discussion in itself because it seems contradictory to the other scripture and we know God has given us clear guidelines in some areas of our life.

However, I digress, the point is this was one of the best explanations of that scripture avoiding all appearances of evil I had ever read and I am sharing it with permission from the author.


1Th 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil


How do you do this by working in a bar? (THIS IS THE SUBJECT THE DISCUSSION WAS ON...PLEASE DO NOT GET SIDETRACKED ON THIS...IT IS SIMPLY WHAT WE WERE DISCUSSING AT THE TIME)

RESPONSE: May I ask you to take a second look at the Scripture you quoted above. (Boy, I sure hope I am not being offensive. Sometimes, I am not sure if I should say anything, but I am trusting that you will understand that I do not intend to be ugly about this.) Try reading it in other versions. The KJV does not express the intent of the verse as well as some others. The original idea, when it was written in Greek, was to advise that we stay away from things that appear to us to be evil or sinful or ungodly, not that we avoid things that appear evil to others, nor that we judge others regarding what appears to us to be evil.For example, these are the days of unleavened bread. My boss took me out for lunch today for Administrative Assistants Day. I made sure that there was nothing on my plate that even looked like it could have leaven in it, and I ate foods that are biblically kosher, because I will not eat leaven this week. However, my boss sat right across from me and ate salad with croutons as well as clam chowder -- leaven and non-kosher sea food. He looked at his food and saw is as fine food; I looked at it and saw food I would not eat. Yet he, a pastor, is a believer. I did not tell him not to eat his choices, even though to put the same foos in front of me would have appeared to me to be evil. You wrote that "I do believe it is a dangerous situation, but I would never judge anyone who has sought the Lord and came to a decision. Gotcha!

What is truth???

I'm no scholar but the age old question has been nagging me: what is truth? I find myself often discussing with women what is right and wrong, what is true and false so to speak.

As a Christian I find many people (and mayI empahsize women are very formidable in this) are very set in what they perceive as the right way way to live, worship read their Bible, do their devotions, teach their children etc etc etc

To each of , usthe way we do this goes beyond lifestyle, denomination or anything else it is TRUTH for us. It is absolute, no give, no change, no options, foundational truth. When somone sees things differently and say it they not only threaten "truth" but become a problem, a difficulty, a trial (in christian-ese a 'thorn in the flesh"). Why are we so threatened by different if the goal is the same. Now I am not talking all paths lead to god and look toward the light stuff....I am talking christians, working on walking out their salvation.

As my children have grown and I have dealt with each of their personalities, and have moved around and we have dealt with major changes in our lives, I have learned there is a HUGE difference between truth and preference. My preferences in how my family operates in no way defines right or wrong, truth or deviance from but simply that.... my preference.

Truth, as a believer in Christ is rather simple, it is that we have all sinned and fallen short, we all need a savior to atone for us and he was Jesus who died on the cross and rose again from the grave. That the God of creation loves all of mankind and desires to see us reconciled to Him through Christs atonement and to maintain a lifelong relationship with Him. To go into the world and make disciples and preach the good news.

HOW we do that though, aside from some pretty basic standards of morality is left up to us to walk out using Biblical guidelines that are determined as differently as can be from person to person.

So someone tell me....WHAT is truth apart from that? Am I missing something here? I see a God who met each of the people in His word differently and worked through them and in them differently and did very unique things with very unique people. So is it wrong to say then that He is still the same today?

We are ALL one body, joined together by the blood of Christ and to try to tear one another down is to in fact destroy a part of ourselves. In the end I believe such things grieve the Lord.

OK enough rambling for tonight.....

What’s in a Name?

I’m going to delve a little into my past on this one, and it may be a bit long but stick with me here, I think it may be worth reading.

I often tell people either Jesus is real or I am not. See I am from a family who I suppose meant well but by most people’s standards I was a doomed child. Alcoholic parents, from alcoholic parents, my father quit school in 9th grade and never made a lot of money (even though he was a chef) and my mother left when the 4 kids were entering their teen years. Shortly after my sister died and from there it just goes on and on and on……

Sounds like a really bad Lifetime movie or something doesn’t it? Truthfully, it was worse being one of it’s stars, trust me on this. Our family was not exactly the best in the neighborhood. We moved a lot and my older brother was always in trouble. I started drinking with him by the age of 12 and the world had a lot of names for a kid like me from a family like mine who lived a life like I did. Trash? No good? Worthless?

When I ended up pregnant at 17 and married I am sure it just cemented that opinion in the eyes of the world. A statistic waiting to happen? Teen Mom? Slut? Tramp? You get the picture; harsh yes but lets be real here, there is a reason these things are said, because statistically they do happen to lump together for the most part and I was doing a bang up job of living up to the these expectations.

When my husband moved me to our first duty station in Kansas, I was completely unaware it would be to find my salvation. It was while he was away for the Gulf War I was saved watching the 700 Club in the middle of the night.

It took some time, but eventually I did develop a walk and a relationship with the Lord and it made such a difference. I began through the reading of scriptures to understand I was a NEW creation, no longer those old things.

However, it was not until the late 90’s when a song written by Dennis Jernigan touched my heart and really opened my eyes to what a name means. I went to the Night of Praise in Edmond OK with PWOC and he sang This is My Destiny (I really encourage you to find this if you can) and I actually bought the CD as soon as it was released.

In the song Dennis Jernigan sings the names the Lord speaks over us all through out His word. He calls us warrior, new creation, trophy of His grace, righteous, beloved, tells me he delights in me, and so on. I began to truly understand what was in the things we named upon our children.

Now, because of my past, I have never been harsh in how I spoke over my children or others for that matter but after listening to this song and yes, allowing it to bring healing to a wounded child who still lived in me, I began to truly understand those hard things we as parents speak to our children can bring harm to a childs spirit in so many ways.

It is so important that we not only speak the love of the Lord over our children but also, stop other people from speaking horrible things as well. Do I believe what we speak happens? To a degree yes. Because we plant a seed in a child’s mind that grows and allows them to believe that is what they are. When they hear they are no good, they believe it. When they hear they are difficult, then they act it because they believe they are.

So today I encourage you, speak truth, love and mercy over your children daily. Never allow another parent to speak things which will wound your child either. I am not saying have a brawl but stop it the conversation, walk away, do what it takes. Know their weaknesses and grow them but don’t allow their destiny to be what I thought mine was or what you may have thought yours was because of the careless and hurtful words planted by someone.

House Proud???
Am I house proud??? In my case pride always comes before the fall!

I have been married for quite awhile now and have definitely learned the ins and outs of the life I lead. The one thing I have learned for sure is that just as I get a "system" in place to do housekeeping something will come along to DESTROY it. Is this only me or can I get a witness here?

I no longer have little children, my youngest will be 14 in a few weeks and any reasonable person would think now is when my housekeeping days are easy and breezy.......WRONG!

I actually found it much easier to keep up with housework when my children were little and I did not have a job as well (granted, I work from home BUT that has it's own unique challenges). I also knew then that if I did not clean it, someone would either eat it, smear it or make it worse so it had to be done and fast. Now? Well, no one is eating crumbs off the floor or sticking erasers up their nose (well at least now when they do that it is a joke and they can get them right out!).

These days I am much more relaxed and confess I only vaccuum every 2 weeks (did I just "write" that out loud for the world to see???). So you ask why am i saying all this? I will tell you something, I can remember days of being so consumed with keeping everything "clean" and getting "finished" that I didn't pay attention to what was really important. I think I missed some really amazing moments with my family I can never get back. I have no proof of this, no one has ever complained, and I was not one of those women who shooed the children out of the house so I could clean but I know I definitely at times had my priorities mixed up.

Now I am NOT advocating letting it all go, I am not a slob here and the dishes are done nightly for the most part and the house is usually "straight" (we did train our children as they grew up to pick up their messes). What I am saying that sometimes, the dishes can sit in the sink for the night and a game of tickle time can commence instead. Sitting on the couch with the family for a movie or American Idol is more important than the spotless kitchen and front room if you are the only thing missing in the room.

See the floors and counters and fixtures, those are the house. YOU, your husband your children they are what makes it home. Find your joy and comfort not in your house but in your home.

With my oldest headed off to Arizona this next fall and my other 2 growing so fast the one thing I am learning is that time is so precious and short. I am not so much house proud now as home proud.

Blessings
Colleen

Dirty Wounds

Dirty wounds is a term I became familiar with when my husband returned from Iraq. For the life of me, I could not figure out why they would not stitch up his arm and other injuries he had and let them heal.

Lucky for me, my husband had fantastic doctors and they explained to me, that when someone has an injury like his, where there was so much damage and the tearing shredding etc was done by shrapnel that was forced into him form a garbage pile with dirt, cloth other body parts some from other people etc then you cannot just stitch it up.
These are what you call dirty wounds. Unlike a basic cut you cannot just stitch them up and allow them to heal, nooooooo instead you must take them into a sterile place on a regular basis (often daily) and open the wound back up and scrub it out while cutting out any rotten and destroyed flesh so that it does not contaminate and infect the healthy tissue.
The process of cleaning and allowing a dirty wound to heal is painful, long and truthfully a bit yucky. It requires a constant examining to make sure that there is absolutely no chance that something rotten is left to in any way fester inside the body and destroy the healing process down the line. The doctor told me stories of Vietnam era wounds where they were closed up and a year later an infection would erupt that would kill the soldier from what seemed to be a healed wound.
So, what on earth am I telling you this for??? Why does it matter? Well, in marriage we can very easily close up a dirty wound and then 2 months or 2 years later have an eruption that destroys what seems to be a healthy relationship.
When a spouse wounds us with words or deed (or we do it to them) we tend to want to pretend there is no contamination or no in jury so we will simply ignore what is happening. We cannot allow deep hurts to go untouched by a physician, The Great Physician. We must bring these things, these hurts to our lord daily, hourly if need be and allow him cleanse the infected area and cut away and heal the area that is hurt in order for us to truly heal in a way that will best allow us to move forward healthy and not needing to return with a worse problem later.
Now, as a woman I often want to put these things in front of my husband and examine them in depth with him and expect him to be the one to fix them. To an extent that is OK but really, my husband does not have the ability to heal me or fix me only the Lord Jesus does. My husband can be a balm on those wounds by showing me repentance and asking forgiveness but I cannot lay at his feet the responsibility of him healing me.
I just encourage you as wives, when the wounds that are part of marriage happen, and trust me they will, that you do not try closing up a dirty wound but instead take it to your Lord allow him to take you into that sterile (Holy) place and cleanse and cut away all the bitterness, hurt and infection of that wound so that when the time comes for it to be closed it is a healthy skin there and not something simply festering under the surface waiting to blow.

Raising a Daniel in today's world......

Dan 1:8 "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself" NKJ

I do not proclaim to be an expert in child rearing and I am not done yet either but I am the mother of older children and I am beginning to see some of the fruits of our parenting labors here. We have a son nearly 19 now (OK yes I was way to young and NO I do NOT look old enough to have a kid that age LOL) and the thing is, he is an amazing young man. Not the "I'm his mom I think he is great" type of amazing. I mean a mature, responsible, polite, agreeable, smart, funny, capable and able to think things out, but most of all GODLY young man. He is even nice to his little sisters!

It all started back in Hinesville, GA in 1995, early in the year, when Pastor Phillip Byler at Bethesda Church preached about purposing in your heart. At that point I had read about Daniel in my read through the Bible in a year process but had never really paid attention to that phrase......purposed in his heart.

What was purposing in your heart??? The short sweet to the point answer is making the decision on how you will do something before you are faced with the situation. Daniel chose, before faced with any trying circumstance, that he would always honor the Lord in all he did. With his body and his mind. In what he ate and how he acted. He would choose before being tempted to not give in to his human nature but to do things the Lords way.

Now, this was an amazing concept to me, revolutionary! My husband and I discussed it in our next phone call because, as luck would have it, he was in Korea for a year! He asked me to send the tape of the service and I did. Our letters went back and forth.....what if we could raise our kids to be this way? What if WE could raise Daniels?

We started with us. We began making decisions ahead of time for us. We chose at this time (we were newer believers, baby christians) to get out of debt and stay out; to steer clear of questionable movies and music; we made sure we did not swear anymore; we worked hard to steer away from gossip. Basically we cleaned up our own lives and decided that when faced with situations that were questionable we would already have a "plan."

When people would ask us to participate in parties (as often is a part of military life) we would say no if we knew it was going to be an enviroment that would compromise or tempt us. When people wanted us to go out with them to eat and we didn't have enough in the budget for dinner out, we would say no....well you get the picture.

NOW, we began with our children. This was not rocket science, it was a concept we could definitly explain and teach to young children. We look at our children andsee innocence but the Word tells us they are sinful and selfish. So we stopped saying they were naughty or bad and called the bad behavior what it was...SIN. We followed the charge in Deuteronomy to discuss the law of the Lord while we were walking and while we were eating and when we sat and when we worked.

See, early on children can learn to choose ahead of time the Lords way. They can decide before they get angry not to throw a fit. They can choose before they are facing it to not lie. These are the building blocks. As they grow older we begin discussing the other things ahead of time, cheating in class, bullying, talking back, sex, smoking, drugs, drinking. We discussed it before they were faced with it so they were prepared, they had a "plan." They already knew what to do. We discussed scenarios, how other kids would act, what they might say and why.

See in order for Daniel to purpose in his heart he had to know what Gods law was and thus what would be a violation of it and why it was wrong. I think as Christian parents we are pretty good at telling our kids what the "rules" of being a christian are but we don't tell them what the violations would be and why. We are afraid we will ruin their innocence or over expose or frighten them but when done in a Godly ,age appropriate way we are helping them by giving them tools to make a decision beforehand.

Now I am not advocating showing them drug paraphenalia or something crazy, I am saying that not discussing it or presenting the information to them in the right way does not mean they won't get it. So, either you as the parent have to prepare them, disciple them, or the world will do it for you.

Daniel knew the law, it was not a set of rules for him but obviously something living enough that he desired, even without parents or priest around for him to want to keep. He could have chosen to do whatever he pleased and no one would have been wiser or blamed him in his decision. He was carted off to Babylon for heavens sake!

So, who made the Lord law that alive and good to him do you think? My guess....his parents. So don't just teach it LIVE it. We never did revert to "mom and dad" movies, to this day we don't watch things the kids can't; we still don't swear and work very hard to avoid gossip. No credit cards, just a house payment and monthly expenses. It is our job to discipline our thought life and our mouth and our witness. See, in deciding to raise our Daniels we ended up changing ourselves as well.

My son is a Daniel, he stands out among the young men around him. He chose without our urging of any type to go before his youth group and make a purity vow; he chooses to never be alone with his girlfriend they are always with others or in public. He chooses to not defile his body with illegal substances and such. He chooses to lead in his youth group. He goes to church when we don't. He keeps himself set apart for the Lord. Is he perfect? Absolutely not but he is a young man pursuing God.

I can never thank God or Pastor Phil enough for revealing that word to us and letting us see that even in this day and age, with all the trials of a military family, it is still possible to raise Godly children.

Confessions of a Harried House Queen!

Laughably, I have of all things, a degree in Residential Design, and so you would think I am the ultimate in "house proud" with not a thing out of place and all of my knick knacks and decor in place without a spec of dust.

HA! I rarely dust and tell people it is o keep my antiques looking authentic; my idea of organizing the pantry is shoving everything in there and closing the door tight and folding laundry sometimes takes me weeks to get to! Every month or so I discover a whole new wardrobe!

Now, being married to a military man as I was, I knew I had a guy who thrived on structure and order and who would be happiest if that carried over into his home life. So, early in my marriage I discovered I would need some sort of simple system to keep me going since my natural proclivity was toward being a slob!

Then I must add I also had 3 kids in 4 years and lived in a mad cyclone of activity of volunteering for FRG, Church and PWOC. To add to that, like all other miltiary wives, I sent my husband off for TDY and field duty and to Korea twice for a year at a time and the first Gulf war so a system became my sanity!


For mothers with littles, it can seem impossible to get anything done while chasing tiny children through the house but I suggest you put that energy to work for you. Even the smallest hands can safely wipe down walls, cabinets and cupboards with mild safe cleaners (I have always used eco friendly cleaners and mixtures from vinegar and baking soda or bought ones).

Young children love to crawl into a tub with a sponge and baking soda to scrub it down then rinse it while being supervised by a mother who is cleaning the other fixtures. Sweeping with child size tools (found at wal-mart) is just as effective as a large broom. Chores not only teach children responsibility but also give them a sense of accomplishment and capability. Lastly it teaches a child that it takes work for a family to function and they need to participate in that.

Only work for 15 to 20 minutes in each room doing what needs done immedietly then move to another chore. Spending all day on one room should only happen on occasion. In order to keep things orderly allot enough time to do all basics during the morning and one large chore per week day.

A typical weekly schedule may look like this
8-8:30 Breakfast and dressed
8:30-8:50 straighten kitchen and dishes
8:50-9:10 wipe down bathroom
9:10-9:30 straighten main living area
9:30 - 9:50 run vaccum in main living area
9:50 - 10:10 break (take a few moments to sit)
10:10-10:30 get load of laundry in
10:30 to 10:50 straighten childrens room
(Mondays)
1:00 to 1:30 strip sheets and wash
2:00 to 2:30 remake beds
Tuesday
1:00 to 1:30 Mop Kitchen floors
1:30 to 2:00 scrub toilets and bath floor

Continue this schedule allowing for one large chore per weekday and always do at least one load of laundry per day! I usually did 2.

The point is we don't need House Beautiful but order tends to make our spouses and our children feel more comfortable. Not to mention makes it easier to find things. Striving for a perfect home every day will wear you down but maintaining a neat orderly home can be done with a simple schedule and realistic expectations .

Other tips to save time and maintain order:

a weekly menu and shopping according to it will save about 30% on your shopping trips as well as time. Pos tit on the fridge so everyone knows what's for dinner!

Hanging clothes in teh closet aor folding them in drawers in outfits instead of pants, shirts etc saves time. A full outfit can be grabbed by a child without having to pull Mom out of the other room.

Buying snacks in bulk then packaging in baggies for quick snacks for small ahnds is always worth the effort. Celery, carrots and other veggies can last days in a baggie after being cut. Apples sprinkled with fruit fresh also last a few days. This prep can also be done during breakfast time ro worked into the daily schedule.

Too often as busy moms we forget to enjoy the most important thing in our day....our children! With my son now over 18 and my two girls in their teenage years I have realized how quickly that time goes by.
Try to find ways to spend every precious moment you can with them. You will never meet a mom who says I wish I would have worked more or cleaned more. They always tell you I wish I would have spent more time with my children!