Spiritside

Rude Awakening...

The differences between this world, and the one I sometimes forget is out there hit home with a very hard SMACK yesterday.  We just returned from New York, where we took my daughter to the American Girl Place for an amazing birthday.  She turned ten, and we were an hour away for a wedding, so off we went.   Her attitude was very humble, and she didn't ask for or accept anything once we hit "the limit", even though we may very well never go there again and being the person I am I tried.  She was so thankful to be able to have a little party in the cafe, cake and all, that she was the perfect child.  The next day we saw Lion King on Broadway.  Spectacular!

When we came home, however, there on the counter, with all our mail, was a notice regarding our sponsored child's birthday.  Inside was a paper crown, which we send in to give the message that this person's life is more precious than any gem.  If we choose, we can add to our donation, thus allowing our child to have some kind of celebration, and maybe even balloons.  I don't feel guilty for being born in the U.S., and with Lenny's death I certainly don't feel guilty for giving both my girls birthdays and experiences that will bless their lives.  What I felt though, was humbled.  Humbled by forgetting about those who have so much less, simply because they were born somewhere else, or born here but have difficult circumstances.  Humbled because as I go through this life I forget that this really is a fools paradise, and that I am destined for a real paradise.  Tania's crown, which Colette filled out right away, I mean the second she saw it, reminded both of us that we too are more precious than gems, and that with all the goodies the weekend brought, our true treasure lies elsewhere.  She and I together made a pact never to forget that.

Help!!!

I am Jewish by birth.  I became a Christian at 17, mostly because the man who had been witnessing to me never gave up, and besides have no arguments I wanted him to shut up!  He was my dearest friend of the opposite sex, and has been married to my best friend of the same sex for fifteen years, and together they have three amazing children.  I am the one, if something should ever happen to my friends, that their kids would come to, and same here.  If something ever happened to me I'd want my kids with Kate and Craig!

But Craig really was determined, and I remember being 17, in my bed listening to a radio Pastor pray the sinners prayer.  I prayed it with him, and when it got the part about Jesus dying for my sins, and my accepting Him as my Savior I knew if I said yes there would be no turning back.  At that moment I stopped.  I remember feeling as though I was floating above myself, the room spinning, and when I looked down at myself on my bed I saw me, only hollowed out.  Not really dead, but not really alive.  In that moment I knew who I would continue to be without Jesus, and it scared me into a profession of faith and commitment I'm still trying to live up to.  After, I got up and went about my business, but kept it to myself for awhile.  Not out of shame, but the way a person might keep a new love all to themselves at first, to sort of revel in it and enjoy the secrecy. 

The day came when I informed my Jewish mother of my choice.  I was asked to move out.  Really I was tossed out on my ear, but hey, God provided and I was always safe and cared for.   The thing she didn't understand was that by accepting Christ I was not trying to turn my back on my upbringing but fully living it.  I take great pride in my heritage.  So why the declaration for help?  I don't feel that I have a full grasp of the issues in the Middle East at this point in my life and I have a deep desire to know and understand.  I am hoping to find some reading material, personal insights, anything.  I want to comprehend prophecy, know the place of the Jewish people in God's plan, understand myself as His a little better.  I do feel that "End Times" issues have to do with this very explosive region, and, well, I just want to know more.  I'd really appreciate any feed back, and I live in between five book stores, including a Family, so picking up a few books on the topic is fairly easy to do.

Thanks!

Merry ??????

I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it!!!!

How is saying "Merry Christmas" to someone at school as you pass them in the hall proselytizing?   How is singing a Christmas song doing devotions?  What is happening here?  How far are we going to go to make the world secular?   And why oh why when we spend so  much time and energy on removing God from every aspect of our children's lives are we surprised when teenagers have sex, do and deal drugs and worse, kill their classmates, teachers, parents and the parents of their girlfriends?  Doesn't anybody see the connection? 

Every year is worse.  Every holiday season there is some person who finds some reason to sue an institution or person for having the nerve to use religious words when referring to a religious holiday.  Now we can't celebrate Christmas, we want school vacations for the holiday season removed from school calendars, we don't want our children wishing others Merry Christmas.  Those who are making such a big deal about this could truly better our world if they used that energy toward promoting causes that benefit others rather than spending their energy using the birth of Christ as an excuse to show their own feelings about Him.  We have religious freedoms in this country.  Those who say they are acting on behalf of those freedoms are fooling themselves if they think that by not allowing those who believe in Christ to say so is protection.  I'm all for equal time.  Give all the holidays equal billing, but do not stand before me taking away my daughter's right to say "Merry Christmas" and tell me it's for the protection of her rights.  The hypocrisy makes me ill.  My children go to a Christian school for this reason.  How can someone honestly think that by outlawing religion they are protecting our rights to religious freedom?  Does it offend someone whose not having a birthday on Tuesday to say "Happy Birthday" to someone who is? 

All I know is somewhere someone needs to start recognizing the connection between fighting so hard to remove God from our children's lives and the current state of affairs with these kids.

Just One Child

I only have a minute to write.  I have to go to my kids school and pick them up from singing lessons and volley ball games.  I am so lucky.  They are so lucky. 

But there are others who are not, and can we please pray for these  today?  Can we pray for the more than 15 million children who have lost one or both parents to Aids?  And for the millions of others who are watching their loved ones die in Aids stricken commumities? 

We need to pray also for those who dedicate their lives to caring for these children.  There are places in the world where every living person has either lost someone close or is sick themselves.  How blessed we are to live where we do.  How blessed I am to be on my way to the Christian school my healthy daughters attend.  Tonight we will have plenty to eat, our health and eachother.  Please, please join with me in prayer for those who don't know what that feels like.

Broken Hearted

Sing O heavens!  Be joyful O earth!  And break out in singing O mountains!  For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted.

I am so numb.  Yet again the tragic loss of  innocent life has made it into the headlines.  Other parts of the world are used to this.  Not us.  Mass murders, barbaric killing.  How hard it can be to see the beauty in this world when it seems to go from mourning to mourning.  I don't want to have to think about the dreadful day when I lost my husband.  I don't want to be reminded of the details of death and burial.  No more memorials, no more days to mark on the calendar with words like "Patriot Day".   Why can't they leave us alone?  Why do we have to have another causualty count?

Oh and the aloneness.  To be alone in this world, missing the one I love, during such a crazy time.  That's the irony, isn't it?  The person who protected our family is dead, and in this new and scary world I'm the protector of my family.  I'm the one my girls will turn to to explain the unexplainable, to reassure them they are safe, when all around them is proof they are not. 

Yet what do I hope in?  When God promises to show mercy I must believe He will, or there is no point in continuing.  In our loss He has provided, in our pain He has brought comfort.  As long as people will murder without regard He will wipe away the tears and care for His own.