Time Flies

I read a blog post that I wrote last year in February... I could still remember that my friend had left a lovely encouraging comment on it and it seemed like yesterday..... but it wasn't yesterday, it was a year ago....

I tend to think things over.  I kick them around in my head for a bit before I do anything.  I examine them, I unpack them, and repack them and get them out and think them over again.  Some things take longer than others, some thoughts are catch and release, some are mulled over, some are constantly there.  The ones that are most often with me are of my children.  These are the ones that I think over, puzzle, replace, and then think over again...

So tonight I am thinking about my boys.  They impressed me today.  They were laughing and joking and smiling and listening to each other and I got to see a snap shot of them, a flash of their personalities, and that is when I saw it..... they are becoming their own people. 

Of all the things I spend time on each day, math, science, writing, guitar lessons, drama class, band, football....... the thing that makes the most difference is just talking to them. Just spending a minute or two getting to know them is the thing that is most worth my time.  I miss this.  So often I am focused on the finish line, completing the problem, accomplishing the goal, that I miss the day to day ordinary discussion. The time spent talking about things that will matter in the long run. 
So today when they laughed and talked at the doctors office, I paused and took a mental snap shot of our time together. Thank you Lord for stopping time for me for a moment to appreciate my boys.

Soon spring will be upon us, and rather than the mad rush for the finish, I think we may need to take a few more days like these and treasure the things that won't last forever.

Christianity and.....

 

 

 

 

The language on this video is very bad.... watch at your own discretion.

In the clip, he says that all 'freedom' is equal.  It's not.  Freedom protected by the Bill of Rights, that says I can say what I want, I can bear arms, I can assemble for no reason or every reason - these freedoms do not exist - even in Canada, or in most of the 'free world' in fact NO country is as free as the United States and yes that does make us star spangled awesome!  Freedom from search, seizure, the right to a trial by a jury of my peers - these things are not available in 180 of 207 sovereign nations.  To say that Belgium  freedom (where I can not legally home educate my child, own a gun, or have a trial by a jury of my peers) equates to our freedom in the United States, is a lie. This globalizationist thinking it is a part of a larger agenda to dumb down our citizenry and convince them that all ‘freedom’ is the same, and we don't really need all those rights, do we?

While this video gives no sources for the information that it presents, here are some facts from the Mundi Index, the CIA fact book, the SIR world report and the International Mathematical Olympiad.

The video claims we are 7th literacy, However, 99.99% of our CITIZENS are literate.  Based on this we would be 4th in literacy – only Finland, Greenland and Luxemburg would have a higher literacy rate at a claimed 100% literacy.

He claims we are 27th in math, a difficult statistic to find and one you can't even google.  Yet for the past 15 years we have placed 2^nd or 3^rd in Math overall – in 1996 we placed 1^st.

Another assertion is that we are 22th science, while 9 of the top 20 world scientific institutions are US colleges or institutions – including some public colleges – and the other countries represented are Russia, China, Belgium, Austria, Japan, Canada, Brazil and France.

This video accurately highlights how easily one can skew statistics.  He says we are #4 in labor.  Labor force is determined by total population.  It is a calculation of the number of citizens who are working age.  The USA is #3 in labor, we are surpassed only by China and India, who have double and triple our population.

He claims we are #4 in exports – In reality, we are #2 in exports, following China.

Claims we are #1 in defense spending - our spending, based on our GDP, doesn’t even make the top 10.

 

Finally, here are a few thing this man failed to mention in his rant....

We are #1 in our airports, railways and roadways.  We have the best internal infrastructure, both real and virtual. We also boast the most web hosts.  The USA owns virtually the Internet, we ARE the Internet (nerd pun =)  The wealth of accumulated knowledge of the ages, sits on servers and websites largely hosted in the USA.

We send the most economic aid to other countries.

We have the highest GDP and the 12^th highest per-capita GDP (individual wealth) . 
Qatar was #1 in individual wealth, the Falkland Islands, Lichtenstein, and a few other known billionaire escapes/tax havens also made the top 10. 

I point all of this out because I disagree with the man's assertion of certain facts, and not to start an argument.

But I think the thing that disturbs me most is the manner in which the man is portrayed speaking to the girl.  He calls her generation the worst generation, he calls her stupid because he disagrees with her.  This is a television show where the people are acting.  They are playing a part.  The part that this network thought would be best played, best watched, best received, best rated, most loved, most accepted, most appreciate was what we see in this video. An opinion, based loosely on fact (very very loosely) that is humiliating, shocking and followed by a grandstanding speech that only the speaker knows what is best. That is truly frightening.

What is even more frightening to me, are these same attitudes that I see emerging among members of the Church.  The attitudes that say 'If you don't agree with me, you're not welcome here.' and while this may be the correct, biblical approach for someone preaching heresy, this is not the case if someone doesn't home educate their child with a certain curriculum, or doesn't wear a conservative hair style, or has a certain political view.

What I am seeing is best described in the words of CS LEWIS in his book The Screwtape Letters where the character of the elder demon is advising his apprentice on how to best destroy his charge, the Christian....

What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call “Christianity And.” You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research,Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing. The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart—an endless source of heresies.

 

How many relationships have been sacrificed to divisive words? I suppose what most aggravates my sense of respect for other people is that I would hope, at the heart level, we would have the desire to help and encourage one another even if we do not agree.  I wonder how desensitised we have become to this sort of argumentative culture? I wonder what our children will inherit from this?  I wonder if people realize that all this fighting makes Christianity look ridiculous?

 

Can we agree that we can have conversations, and maybe even disagree, and yet still remain close friends? Can we agree, as brothers and sisters in Christ, these things will fade away and are not really even worth arguing about?

 

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. ~Isaiah 40:8

 

Am I a Christian? or a Christian and.... 
Something to think about.

Goodnight,
Amanda