Prayer Request for a soldier

If you have a list of soldiers you pray for, please add our friend Jordan to it. He is a wonderful, Christian, young man the same age as our 19 year-old daughter. He just arrived in Afghanistan and begins his duties there this week. Please pray especially for his safety, but also that he will find Christian friends for support and that God will comfort him as he adjusts to being so far away from his family. It is a privilege for us to know a young man with morals and convictions, who loves God and is willing to serve his country.

What an outrage! What a contrast!

Two items I read today:

From Yahoo News: Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas. Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington's northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon. The vandals struck again on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the San Juan County sheriff's office said. This time, the vandals left 33 of the hand-drawn swastikas.

From WSJ.com Opinion Journal from an article by Peter Collier: One of Mr. Thorsness's most vivid memories from seven years of imprisonment (Hanoi Hilton, Vietnam War) involved a fellow prisoner named Mike Christian, who one day found a grimy piece of cloth during a visit to the nasty concrete tank where the POWs were occasionally allowed a quick sponge bath. Christian picked up the scrap of fabric and hid it.
Back in his cell he convinced prisoners to give him precious crumbs of soap so he could clean the cloth. He stole a small piece of roof tile which he laboriously ground into a powder, mixed with a bit of water and used to make horizontal stripes. He used one of the blue pills of unknown provenance the prisoners were given for all ailments to color a square in the upper left of the cloth. With a needle made of bamboo wood and thread unraveled from the cell's one blanket, Christian stitched little stars onto the blue field.
"It took Mike a couple weeks to finish, working at night under his mosquito net so the guards couldn't see him," Mr. Thorsness told me. "Early one morning, he got up before the guards were active and held up the little flag, waving it as if in a breeze. We turned to him and saw it coming to attention and automatically saluted, some of us with tears running down our cheeks. Of course, the Vietnamese found it during a strip search, took Mike to the torture cell and beat him unmercifully. Sometime after midnight they pushed him into our cell, so bad that even his voice was gone. But when he recovered in a couple weeks, he immediately started looking for another piece of cloth."

A blog you need to read

I just came across a very interesting blog, Truth Observed, that will challenge the way you see the world. Dr. Del Tackett works for Focus on the Family on their Truth Project. Please check this out.
www.deltackett.com

Homeschooling and socialization

In case it pertains to my thoughts, I have one child who went entirely to public schools, one who was homeschooled through third grade, and one who was homeschooled this year for Kindergarten (and we are now deciding whether to continue or send her to public school).

With the experiences my daughter has had with a bully at school, and now another blogging friend has had the problem with her son in Kind, it brings up one of my pet peeves: people who think homeschooling isn't good because the kids lack socialization. What are homeschooled kids really missing out on? Learning how to be able to learn when other children don't care and are disruptive day in and day out? Learning to wait because the teacher has to take time with those kids and with the ones who don't understand the lesson? Learning what it is like to have hurt feelings or physcial cuts and bruises from kids who are just plain mean to them? Learning that the popular kids are not necessarily popular because of good character traits? Learning about things you would never want your child to know at that age because other kids are talking about it on the playground? (The first day my daughter came home from 4th grade at public school after having been homeschooled previous years, she had a question for me. "Mom, what's a wh*re?) They do not learn to interact with adults in everyday situations, or kids that are different ages than themselves. As someone who myself was teased in grade school (for reasons I have never figured out) I know how it hurts and how it can affect you the rest of your life.

With the exception of only a few children, the greatest majority of homeschooled kids I know are bright, normal kids who get along well with others and know how to carry on a conversation and interact with people regardless of their age.

So while there are pros and cons to both homeschooling and public schools, please DO NOT tell me that socialization is missing for homeschooled children!

The ants go marching

Does anybody else have a breed of invincible ants invading their house?! Little tiny red ones that do not seem to care for any poison that I have tried. I really hate to spray bug killer in the house, but am beginning to think I may have to give that a try. Anybody have any other ideas for me?
Although, maybe I should just start collecting them and make an ant farm for my 6yo. She has been enjoying watching them; she even got out the magnifying glass. A homeschool mom always sees an opportunity for a science lesson!

Let the games begin!

The first softball game was tonight. I can already tell that we absolutely made the right choice by changing teams. She had fun and even got to try pitching a couple of innings without being badgered when she didn't do so well. We played an older team, so had no chance of winning, but did manage to score one run!

Dawn Needs

I saw this on another blog and thought it looked like fun. Google your first name and the word needs and write down the first ten comments. I did not click on any of the links, and there were a couple that I would never repeat. Here is what I got:

Dawn needs a tripod. (actually I already have one.)

Dawn needs a headcount before Thursday.

Dawn needs to get over herself. (never been accused of that before!)

Dawn needs to be on TV Land. (ok, it was really Tony Orlando and Dawn, but I couldn't resist!)

Dawn needs to seriously reconsider the amount of clothing she wears to the snow. (I don't go to the snow, it comes to me.)

Dawn needs to develop more speed endurance. (any kind of endurance would be nice!)

Dawn needs a plan. (enough said)

Dawn needs the participation of every jurisdiction in targeted metropolitan areas. (huh?)

Dawn needs $40 million to complete, but will cost $10 million to kill. (you didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?)

Dawn needs a friend. (Don't we all? But seriously, I always need one more.)

Hide and Seek

I have been thinking about this since we discussed it in my Sunday School class. As Christians, we should be praying for, and helping each other. But, how can you do that when you have no idea what struggles others are facing? Everybody sits in church on Sunday with their mask firmly in place--"Everything is wonderful in my life and I am so happy to be here to learn about God in a nice, generic way". When actually almost everyone there is fighting a battle against Satan in some way. But we can't admit that because we may be judged. Not sincerely prayed for, but judged. I realize there are many people there who would actually have a genuine concern and love for the one who is struggling. But there are enough of the others there to prevent us from speaking out. The prayer requests are all for healing, or safety, or government, which is all certainly worthy of prayer. But we are not praying for each other! Why can't I request prayer for my struggle to eliminate the sins that entangle me, or the man behind me request prayer for his alcohol addiction, or the teenager who is being pressured by a boyfriend and our culture. We only find that kind of sharing of needs in small groups where the members have become confident that they can trust the others.
It is not just the church I attend now that I am talking about. I'm sure it is this way in just about every church you could find. And I know how devastating the judging and rumors can be. I've been in a church that was torn apart by that. And after being wounded it makes it even harder to share the problems you face.
Do I have a solution? No. I just wonder what impact Christians and the church would have on each other and the world if we truly shared and prayed with each other and left the gossip and judging at the door.
And, no, I am not brave enough to share my struggles.

UPDATE: This was in my e-mail this morning.
"It was so hard for me to learn to let my guard down. It was like I had this shell. I acted nice and polite, but people didn't know the real me."
Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I think that one of the reasons so many people live with chronic loneliness is that they're not willing to die. Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." Of course, He was talking about His own death and resurrection. But in these words, I think we can also learn something about our relationships.
If we're constantly trying to protect our pride, we're going to be lonely. When we hold tight to the hard, outer shell called self, no one can get close. But the true path to intimacy is humility. It means dying to our own reputation, our own rights, and our own ways of doing things.
Being willing to humble yourself will transform your relationships with others.
With Seeking Him, I'm Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Quick check-in

I have something I want to post about, but since it is almost midnight I also want to get to bed. Just wanted to say that I am still here, though rather the worse for the wear. I spent the last couple of days tearing the carpet out of our main floor (everything but the kitchen). Hubby is super swamped at work and not available to help, so I cut it into controllable pieces and carted it out to the curb for our town's Clean-up Day. Now the work of refinishing the wood floors! I am hoping I can get them sanded down without ruining them. Lots of work ahead of me, but I can already tell I will enjoy having wood floors.

So I will think about my other post and see if I have it ready in the morning.

More from the saga of girls

My daughter signed up to play softball, and wouldn't you know it she was put on the team with the girl who has been giving her so much trouble at school. Long story short, but she was originally supposed to be on a different team, so she was pretty upset when she found out the change. She said she would rather not play than be on the same team. So, as a parent we end up doing things we say we do not like people doing. Yes, I complained and got her moved to a different team. I always hate causing problems for those who volunteer their time and energy, but sometimes your kid comes first.
I was told she was moved to another team, though I haven't heard from that coach, yet and we have heard from others on the team that the first practice is Friday. I may have to call the coach tomorrow and see what is going on.

CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS!

We need to contact our Senators and Representatives in Washington, to tell them not to vote for the Hate Crimes Law. The vote in the House of Representatives could be as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday), but will most likely be sometime this week. It is called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act and is HR 1592. In the Senate it is S.1105. If passed this bill will give special protection to homsexuals, and can even be used against a pastor preaching that homosexuality is wrong.
We MUST let those who represent us know that we want this bill stopped!

For more information and an excellent column on this, visit Chuck Colsons website at www.breakpoint.org.

Focus on the Family also has information at www.citizenlink.com.

Please Call!