A sweet friend emailed me to ask that question so I thought that even though it really hasn't been too terribly long I would post my whereabouts on here. We ended the year 2007 with a trip to the hospital emergency room for me on Sunday. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I start talking about health again there goes mine acting up! It's nothing terribly serious I don't believe, my heart just took a spell of beating the wrong way again and we are really hoping that I'll be able to get some rest and that it will get back to normal on it's own.... at least that's what I am asking the Lord to do for me. If it doesn't resolve soon enough then I guess I will have to go back on all the medications that I've been blessed to be free of for the past few years and I would really rather not have to do that because of the side effects.
We did get to make it to the Watch night service for new years eve and it was wonderful as usual with plenty of great preaching. Bro. Hickman preached an especially convicting message on building walls and removing rubble that stirred me and the Hunk O' Honey in some big ways. Our home preachers did great too and our family is really charged up about getting reloaded for the Lord this year. My own little preacher boy (I have to learn to stop calling him little) preached about spiritual anemia....... it amazes me how the Lord has spoken to him about such simple things and given them such depth of meaning in the scriptures for him to share. I think we started this new year off the right way... convicted and praying that the Lord will make us vessels that He can use.
Now that all of the holiday hoopla is finally over and behind us we are really going to knuckle down and get the house in order (again) and get caught back up with our schooling. I spent all of yesterday cleaning out the fridge and making and canning soup and stock. The kids did lots of schoolwork yesterday and today will probably be a repeat of all of that... only with me taking a few more breaks than I did yesterday since I ended up feeling really awful by the end of the day.
We have turned off in a really horrible cold spell here and it seems that extreme temperatures in either direction automatically make it harder for my body to cooperate with my plans. The extra cold also means more work for us with the critters and trying to keep warm. The glass broke out of the fireplace insert late last night so me and the Hunk O' Honey were up late trying to get a piece of metal cut into place to keep it working temporarily since that is the only heat we have. We would really be miserable if the heat in the house was non existent like it is in the car! Thankfully today I don't have to go anywhere except outside a couple of times to thaw the critters water and to get more wood for the fire.
So, now that everyone knows that I haven't fallen off the planet and that things are sorta kinda almost nothing like normal around here.... I better go wake up the kids and get the rest of this day going. Y'all have a wonderful day!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Friday, December 28, 2007
Forgive me for rambling, but
What is it about this time of year that causes us to look over the past 12 months and seriously ponder those things in our lives that need changing? Maybe it's tradition or maybe it's some sort of cyclical emotional response that we just fall into after the highs and lows of so many back to back celebrations, but whatever it is I guess if it causes us to look for ways to improve who and what we are then it's a good thing and maybe we should evaluate things like that more often than once a year. I usually tend to start looking over things toward the end of October and gradually try to figure out what the things in my life are that I am the least able to allow myself to continue doing or not doing that I ought to be and then try to come up with a reasonable solution. This year that list is a lot longer than I want to admit.
I have to say that me and my little family really have come such a long way in such a short period of time that a little part of me almost wants to just excuse all of those glaring shortcomings and go on about my life as is without guilt. Then the (somewhat) sensible side of me that knows that I have to set a better example for my kids every day says "shape up sister! let's get to work"..... so here I have been, perched not so contentedly on the corner of 'Falling short' and 'Walking upward'.... again.
I'm not kidding about coming along way in a short time. 3 years ago we were living in a shack that was literally falling down around us, eating nearly all junk food, telling time by what was on the tv, and for all intents and purposes slowly killing ourselves with the lazy laid back lifestyle that we thought at the time was "fun". We had no spiritual life to speak of other than the occasional memory of attending the sweet little country church a couple of years before that.... and it showed. Now we live in a comfortable home that meets our needs well, and we live here knowing that for now this is where the Lord wants us to be. We eat healthy (for the most part) meals and little junk food. Our tv is rarely even on and certainly not on the trash that used to be so welcomed in our home. We are outside everyday working and learning in fresh air, and our bodies are so much healthier now than what they have been in this decade!
As far as our spiritual lives.... well the difference is night and day. We love the Lord and every day make sure that we spend time with HIM, our church is pretty much our home away from home and we have no intention of making any kind of changes that are outside of what the Lord has for us in His plan.... but even with all of that being said, we could stand to be closer to Him and we could stand to spend more time with Him. So the first thing I plan to improve is how I approach my day to day walk with the Lord. We very faithfully have devotions and prayer time but I think where we really lack is that quiet alone time with the Lord to just have a private study or time to pray privately and I am determined to set that time aside no matter what else has to be pushed back or changed to get it. There are some other things in that vein that will be changing but I won't go any further into it here.
I'm also feeling really burdened about our physical health. I've talked about my health before but sometimes I just have to say it again... I deal with a chronic health disorder. It affects my heart and the way it functions and sometimes I faint, sometimes I feel so tired and grouchy that it's hard to care about anything. Sometimes it feels like my chest is about to cave in and that I may be taking my last breath at that particular moment in time. I get terrible headaches that cause me to be sick and unable to do anything but throw up for days at at a time.A lot of the time I feel like I am looking and hearing through a very long dark tube while being spun around by my feet and it makes me mad sometimes to be so helpless to change any of that. BUT----3 years ago I was fainting up to 6 times PER DAY! But now I faint maybe 3 times in 6 months.... if that much, and the rest of those symptoms are so much less now than before that for sometimes 2 week stretches of time I can convince myself that I'm perfectly normal....almost.
I said all of that to say this.... I intend to do everything I can to help continue to improve my health and my family's health. I am 100% convinced that our diet is a key to having a healthier life. Not just our food but the things that go in and out of our homes are keys too. (I have noticed that since we stopped using so many of those horrible toxic chemicals to "clean" our house we haven't been catching so many colds and such.) I know that even more changes are needed in our diets, and in our habits around our home to improve our health. I've been reading more and more about food lately and it's just scary what kind of "food" we are eating. The fastest, smartest thing you can do to improve your family's health through your diet start reading about MSG and aspartame. I double dare you........ just google it, type in' MSG + obesity ' or ' MSG addiction' and settle down for some interesting reading that should change the way you look at food forever. Here's one link on the truth about MSG to get you started.
My family's health is literally in my hands. I am the person who is responsible for choosing their food, preparing their food, and serving their food. In the last 2 years our diet is what has made the most dramatic change, and it's what changed most dramatically before things went downhill for us in the first place. We went from drinking fresh, whole milk straight from the farm and eating farm fresh produce and meat, doing all of our baking from scratch and using whole natural fats and being in top notch health all the time to almost the total opposite in the first few months of 2001. By the 3rd quarter of 2003 I had required a hysterectomy, Troy had required gallbladder surgery, all of us were catching frequent colds and viruses, I was fainting constantly and on nearly a dozen daily medications, the kids weren't sleeping well, we were all feeling exhausted all the time, and our overall health was definitely on the downward trend.
Now, I can't say that our diet is the sole cause of all the health problems we've had but I can say that when we were eating fresh whole foods and none of this processed stuff with a yard long list of chemicalized and processed to death compounds in the ingredient list we were extremely healthy, and I can say that now that we are working toward weeding out the processed junk again we are improving our health dramatically. High fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and msg are all things that are slowly killing us and they are present in almost everything you buy at the grocery store or restaurant. It amazes me that people won't pay the price or take the time to prepare healthy foods for their families but they will gladly shell out hundreds of dollars (or more) each month for health care and dental bills and medications and time lost from work and spend so much time scheduling those appointments and going to them.
And that's all I have to say about that.... for now. I can tell you that there are changes on the way folks.... big ones and little ones but all have been soaked in prayer and I know that they are necessary. All that talk about food has made me hungry now, and my family is patiently waiting for me so I had better stop blogging for now.
I have to say that me and my little family really have come such a long way in such a short period of time that a little part of me almost wants to just excuse all of those glaring shortcomings and go on about my life as is without guilt. Then the (somewhat) sensible side of me that knows that I have to set a better example for my kids every day says "shape up sister! let's get to work"..... so here I have been, perched not so contentedly on the corner of 'Falling short' and 'Walking upward'.... again.
I'm not kidding about coming along way in a short time. 3 years ago we were living in a shack that was literally falling down around us, eating nearly all junk food, telling time by what was on the tv, and for all intents and purposes slowly killing ourselves with the lazy laid back lifestyle that we thought at the time was "fun". We had no spiritual life to speak of other than the occasional memory of attending the sweet little country church a couple of years before that.... and it showed. Now we live in a comfortable home that meets our needs well, and we live here knowing that for now this is where the Lord wants us to be. We eat healthy (for the most part) meals and little junk food. Our tv is rarely even on and certainly not on the trash that used to be so welcomed in our home. We are outside everyday working and learning in fresh air, and our bodies are so much healthier now than what they have been in this decade!
As far as our spiritual lives.... well the difference is night and day. We love the Lord and every day make sure that we spend time with HIM, our church is pretty much our home away from home and we have no intention of making any kind of changes that are outside of what the Lord has for us in His plan.... but even with all of that being said, we could stand to be closer to Him and we could stand to spend more time with Him. So the first thing I plan to improve is how I approach my day to day walk with the Lord. We very faithfully have devotions and prayer time but I think where we really lack is that quiet alone time with the Lord to just have a private study or time to pray privately and I am determined to set that time aside no matter what else has to be pushed back or changed to get it. There are some other things in that vein that will be changing but I won't go any further into it here.
I'm also feeling really burdened about our physical health. I've talked about my health before but sometimes I just have to say it again... I deal with a chronic health disorder. It affects my heart and the way it functions and sometimes I faint, sometimes I feel so tired and grouchy that it's hard to care about anything. Sometimes it feels like my chest is about to cave in and that I may be taking my last breath at that particular moment in time. I get terrible headaches that cause me to be sick and unable to do anything but throw up for days at at a time.A lot of the time I feel like I am looking and hearing through a very long dark tube while being spun around by my feet and it makes me mad sometimes to be so helpless to change any of that. BUT----3 years ago I was fainting up to 6 times PER DAY! But now I faint maybe 3 times in 6 months.... if that much, and the rest of those symptoms are so much less now than before that for sometimes 2 week stretches of time I can convince myself that I'm perfectly normal....almost.
I said all of that to say this.... I intend to do everything I can to help continue to improve my health and my family's health. I am 100% convinced that our diet is a key to having a healthier life. Not just our food but the things that go in and out of our homes are keys too. (I have noticed that since we stopped using so many of those horrible toxic chemicals to "clean" our house we haven't been catching so many colds and such.) I know that even more changes are needed in our diets, and in our habits around our home to improve our health. I've been reading more and more about food lately and it's just scary what kind of "food" we are eating. The fastest, smartest thing you can do to improve your family's health through your diet start reading about MSG and aspartame. I double dare you........ just google it, type in' MSG + obesity ' or ' MSG addiction' and settle down for some interesting reading that should change the way you look at food forever. Here's one link on the truth about MSG to get you started.
My family's health is literally in my hands. I am the person who is responsible for choosing their food, preparing their food, and serving their food. In the last 2 years our diet is what has made the most dramatic change, and it's what changed most dramatically before things went downhill for us in the first place. We went from drinking fresh, whole milk straight from the farm and eating farm fresh produce and meat, doing all of our baking from scratch and using whole natural fats and being in top notch health all the time to almost the total opposite in the first few months of 2001. By the 3rd quarter of 2003 I had required a hysterectomy, Troy had required gallbladder surgery, all of us were catching frequent colds and viruses, I was fainting constantly and on nearly a dozen daily medications, the kids weren't sleeping well, we were all feeling exhausted all the time, and our overall health was definitely on the downward trend.
Now, I can't say that our diet is the sole cause of all the health problems we've had but I can say that when we were eating fresh whole foods and none of this processed stuff with a yard long list of chemicalized and processed to death compounds in the ingredient list we were extremely healthy, and I can say that now that we are working toward weeding out the processed junk again we are improving our health dramatically. High fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and msg are all things that are slowly killing us and they are present in almost everything you buy at the grocery store or restaurant. It amazes me that people won't pay the price or take the time to prepare healthy foods for their families but they will gladly shell out hundreds of dollars (or more) each month for health care and dental bills and medications and time lost from work and spend so much time scheduling those appointments and going to them.
And that's all I have to say about that.... for now. I can tell you that there are changes on the way folks.... big ones and little ones but all have been soaked in prayer and I know that they are necessary. All that talk about food has made me hungry now, and my family is patiently waiting for me so I had better stop blogging for now.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Count your blessings... Part 2
Thank you all so much for COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS. I've gotten so many emails that I still haven't had time to read them all through! I'll post a couple of the emails that I got now and hopefully I will be able to find the time to put the rest of them up later on today (after I do all of my errands and chores). I'm so happy to read the blessings that the Lord has been pouring out on His people!!!
First, I'll copy and paste the email from my sweet friend Miss Willie. I was so glad to get the email from her, she is one of my oldest and dearest friends back home and clearly remembers living next door to me when our sweet little Fred child was in diapers! I wish I had time for editing but today is busy so here you go.
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Oh dearest Jeannie,
Reading today that you are counting your blessings is a blessing itself. So many times during the Christmastime season people get down and blue over what they can't do or can't have or can't receive and it's terrible but it makes me mad. Tell the children that Psalm 84 is one of my favorite places to read too and that it, just like the rest of God's Word Will Never Fail! I have plenty of pies to bake and am helping the rest of the ladies today with the packages for the shut ins here so I have to get busy and tell you my blessings.
I am blessed and so thankful that I lived long enough after my own salvation to see every member of my family with the exception of one sister who thinks I am crazy get saved themselves. To me it was better and even sweeter than seeing my grandchildren born to see the people I love so dearly come to the cross and claim the promise of salvation for themselves.
I am blessed and thankful that the Lord has given me a good husband and that we are both still healthy despite being in our old age. My man is 85 this year and thank the Lord he is still able to bail his own hay and tend the cattle at the farm.
I am blessed and thankful that I have so many people to love and care for in my life. I have a family that by today's standards is very large and now that my oldest is back in this state we are all , except one grandson who is serving the Lord in Africa, within a half days drive of one another. I also have so many friends to thank the Lord for who have been such wonderful blessings to me over the years. The ones I am closest to that you always called the little old lady brigade come to mind as we have all served the Lord together for so many years now, from the time our own children were young to now in hard times and times when the crops were big we made sure we came together as often as possible to do something for the Lord. That ability to serve hand in hand with family and friends is one of my greatest blessings.
I am blessed and thankful for my home and for my home town. It's been such joy over the years now to see the Lord continue to work in this little place but bittersweet to see how many continue to deny him. Please keep praying for our mayor, you know he still needs the Lord. But also I think of your husband's family here and how badly they need to get close to the Lord. I know how much you used to love this little place and how much it hurt you to leave here but please keep praying for our little town Jeannie.
I am blessed and thankful to know a good number of new Christians and what a blessing to ssee them growing in the Lord! I can think of few things in life that are finer than being a part of a new Christians life.
I am blessed and thankful that I have what I need and that I know that the Lord will continue to provide for my needs every day. Remember that what we need is not the same as what we always want, you know yourself that sometimes people really do need a swift kick in the seat the same way a rebellious child will need the occasional swat on the backside. Life can't always be chocolate and roses but like I've always told you, somtimes there is pie.
My time to sit still today is nearly goen. You know how busy we stay and I have so much baking to do so I can't write much more. I am really thankful that the ice has melted and it's a bit warmer now. I worry so about the old ones and the ill ones here with that horrible weather. I am thankful for you dear Jeannie and how I've seen you growing over the time I've known you and I'm thankful that you've continued to raise your children in the Lord. I'm thankful that our God is gracious and loveing and kind and will give us second chances when we need them too. I'm thankful that you and Troy have surrendered your family to the care of the Only One who can take care of you.
I have to go get my pies working and finish the candys. Much love to the children from us and be kind to yourself for a change.
Willie
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Here is another one from my friend back home ..... Mindy.
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hey jeannie
i don't know why but i'm always scared to leave comments on your blog. we are all doing good and the kids say hi. i wish you were here or i was there but i guess the Lord has us where we are for a reason.
i'm thankful for being saved and for the changes i see in my life now. our preacher says growing hurts sometimes and we should be thankful for it anyway. it hasn't all hurt though and i can honestly say i've never been happier than i am now. please pray that aaron will get saved soon.
i'm thankful that the kids are growing and healthy and smart. michelle and evan are both reading everything they can get to and dwayne is talking up a storm.
i'm thankful for my church and don't know how i could get by from day to day without a good place to worship the Lord and good fellowship.
i'm thankful for my mom getting saved. she says please send more tapes. she is going to church with me all the time now too and seems to be really happy for the first time since i was a kid.
i'm thankful for the Lord helping me when things are hard for me to do. it's awesome how when you don't think you can do something that you know you have to do how you just get the grace you need.
love you, tell everyone hi,
mindy
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That's all I will put up right now, but please don't forget to count your blessings too!!!! Have a wonderful day.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Count your blessings!
I've been having myself a really good time this morning counting my blessings. I truly do have much to be thankful for, and every day that list only grows and grows. I thought it might be fun to "share" our blessings a bit on my blog. I would love to "hear" your blessings too so if you would like to please either leave a comment to this post or email me and I'll post yours anonymously ...... nothing tickles me more than talking about the wonderful things the Lord does for HIS children.
Here are mine (this is NOT a complete list and in no particular order of importance):
- I have a nice sturdy home to live in that the Lord lowered the rent on so that we could live here. We are able to keep our house warm in a manner that we can afford . Our home is far enough out of town that we can keep our critters, have our garden and still only be a ten minute drive from our church!
- I am much healthier now than I have been in years and years and it is only because the Lord has blessed me. I still have some bad days from time to time but they are far fewer and farther between than in the past. The Lord has helped me in finding ways to improve my overall health and manage my disorder (neurological and involving my heart) without a bunch of nasty and expensive medicines and doctors visits. Not only has my health improved dramatically but our entire family is healthier now.
- Me and my sweet Hunk 'O Honey are happier and more in love now than we ever thought we could be. The Lord has healed our marriage and restored what we had nearly destroyed. If the Lord had not intervened in our lives we would certainly have gone our separate ways and farther out into sin and ultimately would have destroyed our family..... but God in His goodness touched our broken hearts and now half the time we are as bad as newlyweds! I'm so thankful that the Lord has worked in our marriage and I pray that it just keeps getting sweeter as the years pass.
- My kids are healthy and strong and they love the Lord. The times of fellowship that the kids and I have in studying our Bibles just gets sweeter and better as they grow. We've been studying Psalm 84 and have found the blessings there to be so rich that we've just stayed there all week long. The kids have even decided to commit that Psalm to memory and have worked on it all week.
- Though our budget is still tight our needs are always met..... sometimes in sudden and totally unexplainable ways! I needed to go to the doctor this week but knew that the cost of the office visit alone would mean not being able to pay one of the bills. After agonizing and nearly driving myself nutso I drove to the doctor's office and received my FREE visit! With no explanation there was NO CHARGE for the office visit!
- From the things like the doctor's visit which was fairly important to me to the smallest details of my day the Lord meets our needs. Just a couple of weeks ago we were running really low on groceries and I had run completely out of sugar and had just not been able to find the time to go to the store. The very same day that I had run out I was pouting because I knew I would have to get up the next morning and start my day with yucky black coffee instead of my mildly sweetened version that I love. That night someone left sacks of groceries on my steps and in them was a bag of sugar!
- The kid's business has done so well that they've sold out of most everything they had! (They will be restocking and moving to a different site soon) They were able to meet their goal of purchasing enough sugar to feed all 3 hives of bees through the winter months and enough of some supplies to get started in the spring with increasing their hives. They have learned A LOT about dealing with people and how to handle losses (some folks did rip them off) and they've learned more about business than I ever thought they would (conversations about "costs of goods sold" and "return on investment" and "product development" are common now).
- Our church and church family are a HUGE blessing to us and it's one of the things that we are most thankful for on a daily basis. I remember so well when we first came here how foreign it felt to us to be under this kind of preaching but now I am so thankful for the preaching of the truth and the fellowship that we have in our church! Church family truly describes our church and I pray that it always stays that way. In all the churches that I've ever been to or visited this is only the second one where the people there truly love and care for one another like a family..... it's sad but true that too many churches are too caught up in their programs and cluttered up busyness to really take the time to love each other the way they should. I'm so very thankful for our church, it's stand on the truth, the fellowship of the people there, and most of all the presence of the Lord there and I pray that all of those things get richer and deeper this coming year!
- I'm thankful that I can look back over the year that's almost over now and see so many answers to prayer and sometimes it seems as though I could just see the hand of the Lord touching my life the way my hands touch bread dough to knead it and shape the loaves or rolls.... just that kind of woven through full contact touching and I'm thankful for that.
I have so many more things that I'm thankful for like good friends and neighbors and Troy's job and other things but my blogging time is over (awhile ago). I'm thankful for having so many blessings that I can't count them all in writing for lack of time! Please do share your blessings too...... I love to hear how the Lord blesses other people too!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Just thought I would share this with y'all
I have read quite a few of this man's articles and always found them thought provoking and interesting reads. This one really stood out to me in light of the increase in senseless shootings and I thought I would share it here.
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Buy A Gun
by Chuck Baldwin
December 14, 2007
"He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV)
Most of us are aware that the heroic actions of a brave woman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few days ago saved the lives of perhaps scores, or even hundreds, of people. However, her bravery would not have counted for much had she not been armed.
On that fateful December Sunday, a man by the name of Matthew Murray entered the church armed to the teeth. According to press reports, he was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, some smoke grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
By the time Murray arrived in the Colorado Springs church, he had already killed four people: two at a missionary training center miles away, and two in the church parking lot. He had wounded several others. No one realized it at the time, but the man was a serial killer in the midst of a rampage. He doubtless planned to kill as many people as he could, as there were thousands of people inside the church. Had there not been an armed citizen in the church house, the death toll would have been massive.
According to church spokesmen, the congregation has over a dozen members who volunteered to serve as security personnel for the church. Jeanne Assam was one of those volunteers.
A former police officer, Assam said, "I saw him [Murray] coming through the doors, and I took cover, and I waited for him to get closer. I came out of cover, I identified myself and engaged him and took him down." Murray died in the exchange. Although Assam shot him several times with her 9mm pistol, the coroner's office said that Murray actually succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After being incapacitated by Assam's gunfire, Murray apparently turned one of his weapons on himself.
Chalk one up for the good guys, or in this case, good gals.
Have you noticed how the media dropped the Colorado story as soon as it was discovered that a lawfully armed citizen ended the potential massacre by using her own handgun? Had the killer been successful in murdering scores of people, however, it would have been at the top of the news for weeks. As it is, the story is already buried in the dungeon section of the news, if it is in the news at all.
One thing the national news media will always ignore is the practice of lawful self-defense. For example, most people are probably not aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.
John Lott, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, agrees with Bartlett. His book "More Guns, Less Crime" documents the fact that--instead of being a cause of crime--firearms in the hands of private citizens are actually a major deterrent to crime.
Another fact conveniently ignored by the major media is the connection between wanton killings and so-called "gun-free" zones. For an example of this, look no further than the Virginia Tech massacre. In spite of Virginia state laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons for self-defense, Virginia Tech forbade its students and faculty from carrying weapons for self-defense on campus. Had a student or faculty member been armed--as was Ms. Assam in the Colorado Springs attack--no doubt many, if not most, of the Virginia Tech victims would not have died. Obviously, bad guys do not pay any attention to "gun-free" zones, except to note that such zones create a free-killing environment.
Is it any wonder that those states and cities with the most restrictive gun control laws tend to also be home to the highest crime rates? The old saying is still true. "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." There is another saying I like even better. "When guns are outlawed, I will be an outlaw."
Even our Lord understood and validated the right of every person to arm themselves for personal self-defense. He said, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV) The old Roman sword was the First Century equivalent of a modern handgun. It was the most practical and convenient form of self-defense available at that time. Also, please note that at least two of Jesus' disciples (one of whom was Simon Peter) were in the habit of carrying their own personal swords, and Jesus never rebuked them. (See Luke 22:38.)
Jesus also acknowledged, "When a strong man ARMED [emphasis added] keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." (Luke 11:21)
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, emphatically, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (I Tim. 5:8) Does "not providing for his own" include not providing protection? Of course it does.
The right and, yes, obligation of personal self-defense is entrenched in both Christian and American tradition. People who would deny citizens the right to arm themselves are either naïvely ignorant or deliberately duplicitous. As Robert Heinlein said, "An armed society is a polite society."
America's Founding Fathers agreed with Heinlein. Thomas Jefferson said, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." He also said, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
Samuel Adams said, "[T]he said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
James Madison said, "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms."
Thomas Paine said, "[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
George Washington called the private collections of arms "the people's liberty's teeth."
America must always preserve the right to keep and bear arms. To do any less is to invite oppression and tyranny, not to mention acts of violence.
Some years back, Alan Rice of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) wrote, "Since 1900 at least seven major genocides have occurred resulting in the murder of 50-60 million people:
*Ottoman Turkey, 1915-17; 1-1.5 million Armenians murdered;
*Soviet Union, 1929-53; 20 million anti-Communists and anti-Stalinists murdered;
*Nazi Germany & Occupied Europe, 1933-45; 13 million Jews, Gypsies, and Anti-Nazi murdered;
*China, 1949-52, 1957-60 & 1966-1976; 20 million anti-Communists murdered;
*Guatemala, 1960-1981; 100,000 Mayan Indians murdered;
*Uganda, 1971-1979; 300,000 Christians and Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered;
*Cambodia, 1975-1979; 1 million murdered."
Rice continued to say, "In all seven of the genocides summarized above, gun control laws were in force before the genocide occurred, in some cases decades before. In five of the seven genocides, the lethal law, the gun control law was in force before the genocide regime took power."
Rice also said, "Gun control laws are usually enacted during a crisis or a perceived crisis." He then said, "Government officials, not hate groups or common criminals, were responsible for these seven genocides. In most of these cases the murder victims outnumbered their murderers; yet they were powerless to defend themselves because they were disarmed."
Do the math yourself. Absent an armed citizen, 32 innocent people lost their lives at Virginia Tech, while the presence of 1 armed citizen resulted in 2 innocent deaths in Colorado Springs. Furthermore, the presence of over 200 million firearms in the possession of the American people has done more to keep America free than any other human element--bar none!
Therefore, to help keep your family safe and your country free, go buy a gun.
© Chuck Baldwin
This column is archived as http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071214.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buy A Gun
by Chuck Baldwin
December 14, 2007
"He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV)
Most of us are aware that the heroic actions of a brave woman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado a few days ago saved the lives of perhaps scores, or even hundreds, of people. However, her bravery would not have counted for much had she not been armed.
On that fateful December Sunday, a man by the name of Matthew Murray entered the church armed to the teeth. According to press reports, he was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, some smoke grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
By the time Murray arrived in the Colorado Springs church, he had already killed four people: two at a missionary training center miles away, and two in the church parking lot. He had wounded several others. No one realized it at the time, but the man was a serial killer in the midst of a rampage. He doubtless planned to kill as many people as he could, as there were thousands of people inside the church. Had there not been an armed citizen in the church house, the death toll would have been massive.
According to church spokesmen, the congregation has over a dozen members who volunteered to serve as security personnel for the church. Jeanne Assam was one of those volunteers.
A former police officer, Assam said, "I saw him [Murray] coming through the doors, and I took cover, and I waited for him to get closer. I came out of cover, I identified myself and engaged him and took him down." Murray died in the exchange. Although Assam shot him several times with her 9mm pistol, the coroner's office said that Murray actually succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After being incapacitated by Assam's gunfire, Murray apparently turned one of his weapons on himself.
Chalk one up for the good guys, or in this case, good gals.
Have you noticed how the media dropped the Colorado story as soon as it was discovered that a lawfully armed citizen ended the potential massacre by using her own handgun? Had the killer been successful in murdering scores of people, however, it would have been at the top of the news for weeks. As it is, the story is already buried in the dungeon section of the news, if it is in the news at all.
One thing the national news media will always ignore is the practice of lawful self-defense. For example, most people are probably not aware of the fact that American citizens use a firearm to defend themselves more than 2.4 million times EVERY YEAR. That is more than 6,500 times EVERY DAY. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.
John Lott, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, agrees with Bartlett. His book "More Guns, Less Crime" documents the fact that--instead of being a cause of crime--firearms in the hands of private citizens are actually a major deterrent to crime.
Another fact conveniently ignored by the major media is the connection between wanton killings and so-called "gun-free" zones. For an example of this, look no further than the Virginia Tech massacre. In spite of Virginia state laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons for self-defense, Virginia Tech forbade its students and faculty from carrying weapons for self-defense on campus. Had a student or faculty member been armed--as was Ms. Assam in the Colorado Springs attack--no doubt many, if not most, of the Virginia Tech victims would not have died. Obviously, bad guys do not pay any attention to "gun-free" zones, except to note that such zones create a free-killing environment.
Is it any wonder that those states and cities with the most restrictive gun control laws tend to also be home to the highest crime rates? The old saying is still true. "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." There is another saying I like even better. "When guns are outlawed, I will be an outlaw."
Even our Lord understood and validated the right of every person to arm themselves for personal self-defense. He said, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36 KJV) The old Roman sword was the First Century equivalent of a modern handgun. It was the most practical and convenient form of self-defense available at that time. Also, please note that at least two of Jesus' disciples (one of whom was Simon Peter) were in the habit of carrying their own personal swords, and Jesus never rebuked them. (See Luke 22:38.)
Jesus also acknowledged, "When a strong man ARMED [emphasis added] keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." (Luke 11:21)
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, emphatically, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (I Tim. 5:8) Does "not providing for his own" include not providing protection? Of course it does.
The right and, yes, obligation of personal self-defense is entrenched in both Christian and American tradition. People who would deny citizens the right to arm themselves are either naïvely ignorant or deliberately duplicitous. As Robert Heinlein said, "An armed society is a polite society."
America's Founding Fathers agreed with Heinlein. Thomas Jefferson said, "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." He also said, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
Samuel Adams said, "[T]he said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
James Madison said, "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms."
Thomas Paine said, "[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
George Washington called the private collections of arms "the people's liberty's teeth."
America must always preserve the right to keep and bear arms. To do any less is to invite oppression and tyranny, not to mention acts of violence.
Some years back, Alan Rice of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) wrote, "Since 1900 at least seven major genocides have occurred resulting in the murder of 50-60 million people:
*Ottoman Turkey, 1915-17; 1-1.5 million Armenians murdered;
*Soviet Union, 1929-53; 20 million anti-Communists and anti-Stalinists murdered;
*Nazi Germany & Occupied Europe, 1933-45; 13 million Jews, Gypsies, and Anti-Nazi murdered;
*China, 1949-52, 1957-60 & 1966-1976; 20 million anti-Communists murdered;
*Guatemala, 1960-1981; 100,000 Mayan Indians murdered;
*Uganda, 1971-1979; 300,000 Christians and Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered;
*Cambodia, 1975-1979; 1 million murdered."
Rice continued to say, "In all seven of the genocides summarized above, gun control laws were in force before the genocide occurred, in some cases decades before. In five of the seven genocides, the lethal law, the gun control law was in force before the genocide regime took power."
Rice also said, "Gun control laws are usually enacted during a crisis or a perceived crisis." He then said, "Government officials, not hate groups or common criminals, were responsible for these seven genocides. In most of these cases the murder victims outnumbered their murderers; yet they were powerless to defend themselves because they were disarmed."
Do the math yourself. Absent an armed citizen, 32 innocent people lost their lives at Virginia Tech, while the presence of 1 armed citizen resulted in 2 innocent deaths in Colorado Springs. Furthermore, the presence of over 200 million firearms in the possession of the American people has done more to keep America free than any other human element--bar none!
Therefore, to help keep your family safe and your country free, go buy a gun.
© Chuck Baldwin
This column is archived as http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071214.html
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Don't ya just hate it....
When you have tried and tried to fight it and you end up sick anyway? Me and Fred have been fighting the latest virus going around for so long and we thought we had it beat. Until last night when I started running a fever and feeling like I was hit by a train. Hopefully though since I've been doing everything I can to fight this stuff off I will have beefed up my immune system enough to handle this better than I normally do! I hate being sick, especially when we have so much to do around here and my time at home seems so limited!
Fred and I had big soap making plans that have now been postponed and trimmed down to accomodate the two of us feeling so yucky. We did manage to make a small sampler batch of our newest creation.... Silk and Honey bars!! We have been playing around with adding silk fibers to our soaps and the batch we tried out we also tried our first stab at hot process soaping. We got so excited to see the saponification process happening so quickly that we totally forgot to add any scent to the soap at all so it's unscented. That's okay too though since we have a special friend who doesn't handle scents so well!
Hopefully we will both get over this virus soon and make lots and lots of soap. We would probably be making more right now but we are out of oils and I feel too yucky to stand and blend it right now. As soon as I am well enough to go to the store look out! There are some really cool benefits to doing the hot process soaps too, like you don't have to wait three weeks to use the soap.... perfect for impatient people like me. I have the oils infusing now for a new batch of eczema soap and oils infusing to make a silk soap with rosemary and spearmint and lemon. The only big drawback to hot process in the crock pot is that I have to do really tiny batches. We'll probably try in the mold in the oven hot process soon to get around that.
Well, I'm off to lay down.... letters are beginning to swim on the screen a bit. See ya.
Fred and I had big soap making plans that have now been postponed and trimmed down to accomodate the two of us feeling so yucky. We did manage to make a small sampler batch of our newest creation.... Silk and Honey bars!! We have been playing around with adding silk fibers to our soaps and the batch we tried out we also tried our first stab at hot process soaping. We got so excited to see the saponification process happening so quickly that we totally forgot to add any scent to the soap at all so it's unscented. That's okay too though since we have a special friend who doesn't handle scents so well!
Hopefully we will both get over this virus soon and make lots and lots of soap. We would probably be making more right now but we are out of oils and I feel too yucky to stand and blend it right now. As soon as I am well enough to go to the store look out! There are some really cool benefits to doing the hot process soaps too, like you don't have to wait three weeks to use the soap.... perfect for impatient people like me. I have the oils infusing now for a new batch of eczema soap and oils infusing to make a silk soap with rosemary and spearmint and lemon. The only big drawback to hot process in the crock pot is that I have to do really tiny batches. We'll probably try in the mold in the oven hot process soon to get around that.
Well, I'm off to lay down.... letters are beginning to swim on the screen a bit. See ya.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Hi there
Things as usual are busy around here but thankfully my sweet Hunk 'O Honey told me to stay home today and try to get rested up a bit and caught up on some of the work needing done around here. With all the extra work going on away from home and then the revival meetings at church we just haven't had much time to get anything done around here. Truth be told I could probably use about 2 months time to just get caught up at home but I don't expect to get it anytime soon.
We are trying to figure out what the best plan would be to get a better set up built for the chickens. We are still very interested in breeding some of the more rare/interesting breeds but with the dog problems and such we are going to have to invest the time and money in building a better home for them first. I have a great idea for a "chicken moat" around the garden but I lack the upper body strength to build it myself, not to mention the tools and the time to spend doing the work.
The chicken moat would be so good for us because it would lower the bug count in the garden dramatically and also keep out the rabbits.... my two biggest causes of loss out there. Plus it would reduce our workload since instead of hauling wagon load after wagon load of compost from one end of the property to the other all we would have to do would be rake it out onto the garden and spread it. The other plus is that we could easily turn the chickens and guineas out into the garden area (while protecting the plants) to scratch and eat the weed seeds and bugs and they can free range here and there instead of being totally confined all the time. Then the old chicken yard and house will be used as the rabbitry and storage.... handy since the bunnies are quickly taking over out there anyway!
We really want to get some speckled sussex chickens too! We are hoping that out of the remaining chickens there is a dominique hen and rooster (instead of them being all one or the other) and the same for the two australorps. Lord willing this spring we'll get the sussex chickens and some buff brahmas too and maybe a few other breeds. I'm trying to learn a less expensive way to feed them all though... at 11 bucks per 50 lb bag of feed these critters ain't cheap! I'm researching raising meal worms for the protein content and then feeding oats and corn and flax seed instead of pre-mixed feeds.
So now I've rambled on and on about the chickens... but we are also trying to get ready for goats. We really would like to try our hand at raising them but have been hung up on whether to get milk goats or meat goats. I think we've about decided to try for a nubian/boer cross that way we would have dual purpose goats. Jared may be going to work for a preacher down the road who is raising goats to get some experience working with them. Taeler is reading everything on the subject she can find and Caleb as usual is willing to do whatever work we tell him to. Troy is just praying that we make wise decisions about the breed and that the kids don't get livestock confused with pet. They haven't had any trouble with that so far but goats and sheep tend to be like large puppies and they have such personalities that Troy is concerned that the kids will give in to the urge to get attached.
The bees are doing good as far as we know. We are planning to inspect the hives later on this week to make sure that they are all queenright and storing food the way they should. If all goes well this winter we'll have the hives ready to begin making splits early in the spring and the kid's goal of 12 hives by mid summer will be attainable. The plan was to sell eggs all winter and early spring to buy the wooden ware and so on that they would need for the splits and the honey supers but with the loss of the chickens that they invested in we'll have to think that over.
Sometimes I just feel very very out of place around here. There isn't anyone else that I know here who is interested in the homesteading/simple living kind of stuff that we are and more often than not we are looked at funny for all the things we do with the critters and the garden and such. I miss living in the middle of nowhere with all the carhart/boot clad kids being the norm! I even miss having to drive so far to get to the store.... it sure did save Troy a lot of money too.
Speaking of saving money.... I was talking with someone the other day about one of my favorite websites in the web world, the Hillbilly Housewife. Miss Maggie has turned that website over to Miss Suzanne for those of you who weren't already aware. It will still have all of the HBHW recipes on it and articles but Miss Maggie just felt ready for something just a little different and she has begun a new website called Frugal Abundance. On her new website there is also a link to her new blog and there is plenty of information about what the changes are all about on the two websites.
Well folks, that's all the blogging time I have for now.... actually I've taken up more time than what I should have but you know how that goes. I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
We are trying to figure out what the best plan would be to get a better set up built for the chickens. We are still very interested in breeding some of the more rare/interesting breeds but with the dog problems and such we are going to have to invest the time and money in building a better home for them first. I have a great idea for a "chicken moat" around the garden but I lack the upper body strength to build it myself, not to mention the tools and the time to spend doing the work.
The chicken moat would be so good for us because it would lower the bug count in the garden dramatically and also keep out the rabbits.... my two biggest causes of loss out there. Plus it would reduce our workload since instead of hauling wagon load after wagon load of compost from one end of the property to the other all we would have to do would be rake it out onto the garden and spread it. The other plus is that we could easily turn the chickens and guineas out into the garden area (while protecting the plants) to scratch and eat the weed seeds and bugs and they can free range here and there instead of being totally confined all the time. Then the old chicken yard and house will be used as the rabbitry and storage.... handy since the bunnies are quickly taking over out there anyway!
We really want to get some speckled sussex chickens too! We are hoping that out of the remaining chickens there is a dominique hen and rooster (instead of them being all one or the other) and the same for the two australorps. Lord willing this spring we'll get the sussex chickens and some buff brahmas too and maybe a few other breeds. I'm trying to learn a less expensive way to feed them all though... at 11 bucks per 50 lb bag of feed these critters ain't cheap! I'm researching raising meal worms for the protein content and then feeding oats and corn and flax seed instead of pre-mixed feeds.
So now I've rambled on and on about the chickens... but we are also trying to get ready for goats. We really would like to try our hand at raising them but have been hung up on whether to get milk goats or meat goats. I think we've about decided to try for a nubian/boer cross that way we would have dual purpose goats. Jared may be going to work for a preacher down the road who is raising goats to get some experience working with them. Taeler is reading everything on the subject she can find and Caleb as usual is willing to do whatever work we tell him to. Troy is just praying that we make wise decisions about the breed and that the kids don't get livestock confused with pet. They haven't had any trouble with that so far but goats and sheep tend to be like large puppies and they have such personalities that Troy is concerned that the kids will give in to the urge to get attached.
The bees are doing good as far as we know. We are planning to inspect the hives later on this week to make sure that they are all queenright and storing food the way they should. If all goes well this winter we'll have the hives ready to begin making splits early in the spring and the kid's goal of 12 hives by mid summer will be attainable. The plan was to sell eggs all winter and early spring to buy the wooden ware and so on that they would need for the splits and the honey supers but with the loss of the chickens that they invested in we'll have to think that over.
Sometimes I just feel very very out of place around here. There isn't anyone else that I know here who is interested in the homesteading/simple living kind of stuff that we are and more often than not we are looked at funny for all the things we do with the critters and the garden and such. I miss living in the middle of nowhere with all the carhart/boot clad kids being the norm! I even miss having to drive so far to get to the store.... it sure did save Troy a lot of money too.
Speaking of saving money.... I was talking with someone the other day about one of my favorite websites in the web world, the Hillbilly Housewife. Miss Maggie has turned that website over to Miss Suzanne for those of you who weren't already aware. It will still have all of the HBHW recipes on it and articles but Miss Maggie just felt ready for something just a little different and she has begun a new website called Frugal Abundance. On her new website there is also a link to her new blog and there is plenty of information about what the changes are all about on the two websites.
Well folks, that's all the blogging time I have for now.... actually I've taken up more time than what I should have but you know how that goes. I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
It's nearly over already
November that is. Time has just been flying around here lately and we are all feeling like we are chasing our tails trying to keep up. Thankfully we are all healthy even though there is a really yucky virus going around.... I know we just can't afford the time for any one of us to be sick right now. We have been using lots and lots of GOOT, Emergen-C, and our homemade Elderberry syrup (like Sambucol), plus we take garlic capsules and cod liver oil every night and drink as much water as we can. I'm praying that all that stuff is helping and the Lord will allow us to stay healthy because even just a little slowing down will make things even more difficult.
Since I've been so negligent in posting I'll do sort of an update.
-My Mom and my baby brother came to visit for 3 days. We enjoyed seeing them again and the kids loved visiting the beach with them and going hiking and to the Airborne museum. Since I've seen some of the folks from home I'm feeling much less homesick. (there's still a bunch of people I would love to see however)
-The price of heating oil for the house this year is ridiculously high and for a time we didn't have anything but the fireplace to keep the house warm with. The fireplace looks pretty but will only keep the livingroom warm so we were trying to figure out what to do about heat this winter. Thankfully our landlord called us seemingly out of the clear blue sky and asked if we would like to put in a fireplace insert with a blower to help heat the house. So now we are keeping warm for just the cost of chainsaw gas!
I have really missed having wood heat too, it just feels warmer to me.... and it is definitely less expensive. The added bonus is now our P.E. classes are 1)hiking and orienteering -aka- gathering kindling, and 2)ergonomic cardiovascular upper body workout with emphasis on core muscle training -aka- using the large splitting maul to split the wood without straining back muscles or holding your breath to heave the giant thing over the shoulder..... we will be warm AND in shape come spring....LOL
- We've been doing our best to doctor up and take care of Garfield, our beautiful tiger striped short haired persian kitty who I love because he kills snakes for me. He was attacked by several dogs while Mom and Corey were here and has a huge chunk taken out of his leg, another out of his head and jaw, and tore the pads off of his feet in the fight for his life. He seems to be healing up very well but we are still watching for infection and absecesses and trying to keep his wounds clean. Have you ever tried holding onto a squirming kitty while putting antibiotic ointment on them? It's kind of like trying to catch a greased pig only with claws! {i love my kitty who eats the snakes and keeps me from losing it in the garden... i would rather feed a kitty and keep him well than see a snake!}
- We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our Pastor's home with some of the families from our church. There was A LOT of PIE!!! and they were all good! The food and fellowship were wonderful and as always since the Lord brought us here we were thankful for the church family He has given us and that He has loved us and provided for us well beyond what we could even have thought to ask for!
-Troy is still praying and seeking the Lord about his job. His current employer has already waffled on the pay rate that Troy was promised *in writing* when he was hired, the supposedly wonderful benefit package (which was supposed to give us health insurance) turns out to cost $999 *PER MONTH* or almost exactly half of what he makes, and for the past several weeks there have been threats to cut Troy's pay in half because they do not have the need for a welder as soon as the current project is finished and they do not want to pay what a welder is paid when they can pay someone else half of that to do the other work. {sigh} The Lord knows our needs and has been so faithful to provide for us that we don't dare try to plan or think our way through it all so we just keep on praying.
-In an effort to make the ends meet and try to provide the funds for medical expenses that just can't be put off any longer we have gone back to something we haven't done since the kids were babies. We are rehabilitating neglected rental properties. Troy is doing the flooring work and plumbing and repairs while the kids and I clean some of the most disgusting carpets, appliances and cabinets and closets and walls I have seen in a long long long time.
We have a lot of fun working together and the kids are so excited that at the end of these long days they can see huge accomplishments. I've been pretty impressed with how hard the kids have worked too.... and with absolutely NO complaining or whining or arguing either! I was trying to fall asleep the other night and the boys kept on talking back and forth about work...
J "can you believe that big ink stain came out?"
C "nope.... did you see how the nasty gum and wax came out, I never thought about using an iron"
J "I thought that carpet was a really dark gray colored carpet but it's lighter than your doves are!"
C " You did a good job on that stain in the hallway, I can't believe you got that out"
J "thanks, you did really good on that gum and mom said you really did that little room all by yourself that's awesome"
C "Did you see how clean Fred got that kitchen!"
T "GO TO SLEEP! We have to go do this again tomorrow!"
It's hard on Troy to go to work so early for his other job and then we don't get home from the other stuff until sometimes 10 at night or later. My poor hunk O honey is so tired, but he's holding up fairly well. We should be finished with the first home by the end of this week and the man who owns the place seems really excited about what we've done. I hope we don't have to wait long for payment, sometimes property owners only pay out on a certain day of the month and I would hate to have to wait a long time (see how impatient I am...LOL). At any rate, he says he has a lot more work for us, so it looks like we will have plenty to do this winter.
- We are feeding the bees nearly every day now. All 3 hives are showing plenty of activity which is a huge relief since we were so worried about Taeler's hive being on the weak side. There is still a long way to go before we get another nectar flow though. We're praying for a mild winter, an early bloom season, no late freezes, and the end of the drought we've been in.... and LOTS more purple honey!! The kids have already had a man talk to them about the possibility of renting their hives for pollination in his watermelon fields this year... talk about excited, the kids never dreamed that they would be getting requests already. The same fella asked the boys if they would be interested in working for him some this summer during the harvest too, and me and Fred may help out with the markets if things work out that way.
- The kids have been dealing with their first business "disaster" lately. They had been working really hard to raise a flock of Black Australorp chickens and a flock of Dominique chickens that they invested their own money in buying, feeding, housing etc. The kids worked and saved for a long time to buy those chickens and to take care of them and they had over $300 invested in them. They had a total of 52 chickens who were extremely healthy, gorgeous examples of breeding stock. The dominiques were due to start laying in about 4 weeks and were going to be ready for sale of chicks in 7. The Austrlorps were only about 4 weeks behind that but were much more expensive chickens. Now they have 6 Dominiques left alive but we're not sure if any of them are hens, and there are 2 of the australorps living but neither of them are roosters!
Saturday night we came home really late from work and before I knew what was going on Jared had jumped out of the car while it was still moving screaming his head off. I hurried up and got out and he was running down the road screaming and crying and Troy pulled in right behind me and started yelling too. Finally my eyes adjusted and I saw what they had seen already.... bloody, shredded little black chicken bits all over the yard and dogs running down the road.
I walked around the yard with Troy to try to figure out what had happened, the best we can figure out is that the dogs dug into the little chicken house and killed half a dozen of the Australorps in the house. Some of the chickens escaped by going out the hole the dogs came in and some flew through a small opening a few feet up the side of the house where it looks like the dogs may have jumped against the side or something and broke it. The chickens who tried to escape were attacked by other dogs who were outside the house.
We picked up dead chickens and chicken pieces that were scattered over the entire length of our property and then spent hours walking around in the woods and all over the place freezing with flashlights trying to find the rest of the chickens! After midnight sometime we ended up with 7 that couldn't be found at all, but we did find 2 alive. One was hiding between the beehives and one was sitting in the woods injured... we aren't sure if the injured chicken will ever be totally healed up or not, her wing is a mess but she seems happy enough with her sister and maybe she will at least give us some eggs we can eat.
The very next day Troy and Jared went to talk to the man who owns the dogs. He has had a literal pack of dogs that has caused most of the neighbors problems of one kind or the other for months now but he just refuses to do anything with the dogs. He will not vaccinate them for rabies, get them spayed or neutered or keep them confined to his own property. Troy and Jared talked with him and he promised to lock the dogs up and told Troy to tell him how much he owes the kids for the chickens. The kids had committed themselves to praying about what to ask the man to compensate them for their loses and we all talked about the importance of guarding our testimonies by not giving into emotion and getting angry with this man or engaging in any unproductive conversation or argument. We locked up the Dominiques and started making plans to build them a better fence and such as soon as we got a break from the extra work and had the time to stay at home and work on it, and we made sure the pregnant rabbits were as far away from the noise as we could get them hoping that none of them would deliver early or freak out and eat their babies.
So on Monday we are woke up to the sound of a car horn just blaring in front of the house. I made Jared go out and see what was going on while I dressed. Our nice neighbor fella that the kids work for sometimes came to get us because he saw one of the dogs running down the road with a chicken in it's mouth. We quickly ran around to the back of the house and sure enough the dogs had taken the Dominique's house apart and killed most of them too. Some that we found were alive but too injured to stay that way and some were just gone to wherever the dogs carried them off to.
We were still walking around trying to find all of the chickens and I kept hearing our nice neighbor man yelling, he was on the phone yelling at the animal control people he had been calling for 2 months about these dogs. I kept on trying to help the kids get this mess cleaned up and find the chickens and pretty soon I hear yelling again and look to see the man who owns the dogs and the neighbor man yelling at each other with Jared standing in between them being fought over! As I walked over to retrieve my son I couldn't help just praying and asking the Lord to keep me from doing anything I would regret (those who know me well also know the struggles I've had with my temper).
I sent Jared to help the other kids and quickly told the men that they needed to keep their arguing away from my children please... we just have had more than enough going on and didn't need the extra stress. The man who owns the dogs just launched off on a rant about how he was out of cigarettes and how he didn't appreciate getting woke up so early in the morning and on and on he went! I told that man just a nicely as anyone could that since he had things he needed to do (like we didn't ... sheesh) that he could just go take care of that and we would tend to the mess the dogs made. It had to be the Lord who made those words sound as nice as they did because in my head I was screaming in the guys face telling him all about his selfish, inconsiderate, cold hearted, ignorant self all with a few well timed physical prompts to encourage his participation in the conversation.... also known as picking a fight.
As soon as the owner left our neighbor calmed down and went right back to his sweet self... he's a man that my entire family has enjoyed knowing and usually a real hoot to visit with but he was so angry over the kid's chickens that I thought he might have a stroke! He kept shaking and yelling and turning purple in the face while the owner was here and I don't know what we would have done if something had happened to our nice neighbor on top of everything else. I talked with the nice neighbor for awhile trying to calm him down which was just another act of God's grace because in my head I was still just venting my own anger and frustration that twice in 3 days time my kids were being forced to deal with the death of animals they had raised from the time they were 1 day old, to pick up and dispose of the investment of their life's savings and watch everything they had worked so hard for in the past months get tossed into a hole in the ground.
Finally the nice neighbor decided he needed breakfast and he left too.... which finally left me the time to call Troy. Somehow during that conversation the Lord helped me to speak in calm tones and encouraging and calming language (instead of my old yelling and threating violence) so that Troy wasn't overly upset or angry and his testimony was guarded while he was at work. As I was getting ready to get off the phone with Troy the owner pulls up to the side of the yard and just stared at us until I went to talk with him... he offered to give us some of his fence wire that he said he doesn't need and told me how he just couldn't bring himself to spay his dog because he thought it was mean to do that and how he thinks it's mean to chain up a dog and on and on.
Again, the Lord was faithful to answer my prayer for His help and I just smiled and told the man thank you for offering the fence wire that I would tell Troy he offered it, then I offered him some of the super strong and tall as I am fence wire that Troy brought home from the job site... all 300 feet of it and the boys to help install it so his dogs would have a nice big yard to run in. Even when the man asked me what I thought of it all I never once was able to give in to the urge to just get mean and let the mama bear with claws side of me come out!!
I did tell him that the dogs needed to be vaccinated for rabies because not only was it the law but that if my kids had been exposed to rabies and needed to have the more than $2000 per kid series of shots I didn't think I would be able to maintain any kind of decent composure and that his dogs didn't have to bite the kids to expose them since it's tranferred by saliva as well. And I did tell him that the kids had just lost their entire investment that they had worked so hard for when he asked me what the kid's had tied up in the chickens I told him the full amount... he raised an eyebrow so I also told him that they had the receipts as well since they were tracking the costs for a business math project for school. But not one word passed my lips to him that was harsh or ugly or spoken with anger!!! The guy finally just asked me to tell Troy to call him and left..... thankfully.
Nearly the entire rest of the day was spent dealing with neighbors and animal control officers and county commissioners and so on but through all of it I didn't lose my temper or speak harshly or anything! My poor sweet tired out Hunk 'O Honey is still amazed to the point of tears that I didn't do anything.... not one thing I feel regret for. I stood amazed all day long as the Lord calmed the storms around me and spoke peace to the ones that raged on inside of me as well, and ended the day thanking Him for doing it all and being thankful that I can even call on Him to do anything for me knowing how undeserving of it I am.
God was so good and so faithful to me in answering our prayers for peace and to help us guard our testimonies as we dealt with all of that!! We are praying that He will continue to do so as we try to bring the whole thing to a state of final resolution without making enemies of our neighbors... we have one neighbor pitching a fit for us to sue the other one and the other one is angry because now most of his dogs were taken away and he will be facing some criminal charges for not vaccinating his dogs, allowing them to run at large during the night and so on.
We were talking about the contrast in our lives between now and before we got saved and gave our lives and the running of our home to the Lord. Before I would have committed several assaults during the course of this all and set some terrible examples for my children that would probably have scarred them for life not to mention really doing damage to our families finances because bail ain't cheap and neither are lawyers and if all else had failed me I would have taken out all that anger and frustration on my husband instead of being his helpmeet the way that I should. Now we have peace that in some way whatever is lost will be restored to our family in whatever way the Lord sees fit and though I still feel the waves of anger and those ugly thoughts still run through my mind I can take those things and make them captive to the power of the Lord in my life! AMAZING GRACE....
Well, if you're still even here after all my long rambling you know I surely have things to do but I had promised to catch up. Believe it or not this is only the highlights of all that's been keeping us busy. We are getting ready for REVIVAL at our church and praying and asking the Lord to have HIS perfect will in the meeting. Take care everyone!
Since I've been so negligent in posting I'll do sort of an update.
-My Mom and my baby brother came to visit for 3 days. We enjoyed seeing them again and the kids loved visiting the beach with them and going hiking and to the Airborne museum. Since I've seen some of the folks from home I'm feeling much less homesick. (there's still a bunch of people I would love to see however)
-The price of heating oil for the house this year is ridiculously high and for a time we didn't have anything but the fireplace to keep the house warm with. The fireplace looks pretty but will only keep the livingroom warm so we were trying to figure out what to do about heat this winter. Thankfully our landlord called us seemingly out of the clear blue sky and asked if we would like to put in a fireplace insert with a blower to help heat the house. So now we are keeping warm for just the cost of chainsaw gas!
I have really missed having wood heat too, it just feels warmer to me.... and it is definitely less expensive. The added bonus is now our P.E. classes are 1)hiking and orienteering -aka- gathering kindling, and 2)ergonomic cardiovascular upper body workout with emphasis on core muscle training -aka- using the large splitting maul to split the wood without straining back muscles or holding your breath to heave the giant thing over the shoulder..... we will be warm AND in shape come spring....LOL
- We've been doing our best to doctor up and take care of Garfield, our beautiful tiger striped short haired persian kitty who I love because he kills snakes for me. He was attacked by several dogs while Mom and Corey were here and has a huge chunk taken out of his leg, another out of his head and jaw, and tore the pads off of his feet in the fight for his life. He seems to be healing up very well but we are still watching for infection and absecesses and trying to keep his wounds clean. Have you ever tried holding onto a squirming kitty while putting antibiotic ointment on them? It's kind of like trying to catch a greased pig only with claws! {i love my kitty who eats the snakes and keeps me from losing it in the garden... i would rather feed a kitty and keep him well than see a snake!}
- We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our Pastor's home with some of the families from our church. There was A LOT of PIE!!! and they were all good! The food and fellowship were wonderful and as always since the Lord brought us here we were thankful for the church family He has given us and that He has loved us and provided for us well beyond what we could even have thought to ask for!
-Troy is still praying and seeking the Lord about his job. His current employer has already waffled on the pay rate that Troy was promised *in writing* when he was hired, the supposedly wonderful benefit package (which was supposed to give us health insurance) turns out to cost $999 *PER MONTH* or almost exactly half of what he makes, and for the past several weeks there have been threats to cut Troy's pay in half because they do not have the need for a welder as soon as the current project is finished and they do not want to pay what a welder is paid when they can pay someone else half of that to do the other work. {sigh} The Lord knows our needs and has been so faithful to provide for us that we don't dare try to plan or think our way through it all so we just keep on praying.
-In an effort to make the ends meet and try to provide the funds for medical expenses that just can't be put off any longer we have gone back to something we haven't done since the kids were babies. We are rehabilitating neglected rental properties. Troy is doing the flooring work and plumbing and repairs while the kids and I clean some of the most disgusting carpets, appliances and cabinets and closets and walls I have seen in a long long long time.
We have a lot of fun working together and the kids are so excited that at the end of these long days they can see huge accomplishments. I've been pretty impressed with how hard the kids have worked too.... and with absolutely NO complaining or whining or arguing either! I was trying to fall asleep the other night and the boys kept on talking back and forth about work...
J "can you believe that big ink stain came out?"
C "nope.... did you see how the nasty gum and wax came out, I never thought about using an iron"
J "I thought that carpet was a really dark gray colored carpet but it's lighter than your doves are!"
C " You did a good job on that stain in the hallway, I can't believe you got that out"
J "thanks, you did really good on that gum and mom said you really did that little room all by yourself that's awesome"
C "Did you see how clean Fred got that kitchen!"
T "GO TO SLEEP! We have to go do this again tomorrow!"
It's hard on Troy to go to work so early for his other job and then we don't get home from the other stuff until sometimes 10 at night or later. My poor hunk O honey is so tired, but he's holding up fairly well. We should be finished with the first home by the end of this week and the man who owns the place seems really excited about what we've done. I hope we don't have to wait long for payment, sometimes property owners only pay out on a certain day of the month and I would hate to have to wait a long time (see how impatient I am...LOL). At any rate, he says he has a lot more work for us, so it looks like we will have plenty to do this winter.
- We are feeding the bees nearly every day now. All 3 hives are showing plenty of activity which is a huge relief since we were so worried about Taeler's hive being on the weak side. There is still a long way to go before we get another nectar flow though. We're praying for a mild winter, an early bloom season, no late freezes, and the end of the drought we've been in.... and LOTS more purple honey!! The kids have already had a man talk to them about the possibility of renting their hives for pollination in his watermelon fields this year... talk about excited, the kids never dreamed that they would be getting requests already. The same fella asked the boys if they would be interested in working for him some this summer during the harvest too, and me and Fred may help out with the markets if things work out that way.
- The kids have been dealing with their first business "disaster" lately. They had been working really hard to raise a flock of Black Australorp chickens and a flock of Dominique chickens that they invested their own money in buying, feeding, housing etc. The kids worked and saved for a long time to buy those chickens and to take care of them and they had over $300 invested in them. They had a total of 52 chickens who were extremely healthy, gorgeous examples of breeding stock. The dominiques were due to start laying in about 4 weeks and were going to be ready for sale of chicks in 7. The Austrlorps were only about 4 weeks behind that but were much more expensive chickens. Now they have 6 Dominiques left alive but we're not sure if any of them are hens, and there are 2 of the australorps living but neither of them are roosters!
Saturday night we came home really late from work and before I knew what was going on Jared had jumped out of the car while it was still moving screaming his head off. I hurried up and got out and he was running down the road screaming and crying and Troy pulled in right behind me and started yelling too. Finally my eyes adjusted and I saw what they had seen already.... bloody, shredded little black chicken bits all over the yard and dogs running down the road.
I walked around the yard with Troy to try to figure out what had happened, the best we can figure out is that the dogs dug into the little chicken house and killed half a dozen of the Australorps in the house. Some of the chickens escaped by going out the hole the dogs came in and some flew through a small opening a few feet up the side of the house where it looks like the dogs may have jumped against the side or something and broke it. The chickens who tried to escape were attacked by other dogs who were outside the house.
We picked up dead chickens and chicken pieces that were scattered over the entire length of our property and then spent hours walking around in the woods and all over the place freezing with flashlights trying to find the rest of the chickens! After midnight sometime we ended up with 7 that couldn't be found at all, but we did find 2 alive. One was hiding between the beehives and one was sitting in the woods injured... we aren't sure if the injured chicken will ever be totally healed up or not, her wing is a mess but she seems happy enough with her sister and maybe she will at least give us some eggs we can eat.
The very next day Troy and Jared went to talk to the man who owns the dogs. He has had a literal pack of dogs that has caused most of the neighbors problems of one kind or the other for months now but he just refuses to do anything with the dogs. He will not vaccinate them for rabies, get them spayed or neutered or keep them confined to his own property. Troy and Jared talked with him and he promised to lock the dogs up and told Troy to tell him how much he owes the kids for the chickens. The kids had committed themselves to praying about what to ask the man to compensate them for their loses and we all talked about the importance of guarding our testimonies by not giving into emotion and getting angry with this man or engaging in any unproductive conversation or argument. We locked up the Dominiques and started making plans to build them a better fence and such as soon as we got a break from the extra work and had the time to stay at home and work on it, and we made sure the pregnant rabbits were as far away from the noise as we could get them hoping that none of them would deliver early or freak out and eat their babies.
So on Monday we are woke up to the sound of a car horn just blaring in front of the house. I made Jared go out and see what was going on while I dressed. Our nice neighbor fella that the kids work for sometimes came to get us because he saw one of the dogs running down the road with a chicken in it's mouth. We quickly ran around to the back of the house and sure enough the dogs had taken the Dominique's house apart and killed most of them too. Some that we found were alive but too injured to stay that way and some were just gone to wherever the dogs carried them off to.
We were still walking around trying to find all of the chickens and I kept hearing our nice neighbor man yelling, he was on the phone yelling at the animal control people he had been calling for 2 months about these dogs. I kept on trying to help the kids get this mess cleaned up and find the chickens and pretty soon I hear yelling again and look to see the man who owns the dogs and the neighbor man yelling at each other with Jared standing in between them being fought over! As I walked over to retrieve my son I couldn't help just praying and asking the Lord to keep me from doing anything I would regret (those who know me well also know the struggles I've had with my temper).
I sent Jared to help the other kids and quickly told the men that they needed to keep their arguing away from my children please... we just have had more than enough going on and didn't need the extra stress. The man who owns the dogs just launched off on a rant about how he was out of cigarettes and how he didn't appreciate getting woke up so early in the morning and on and on he went! I told that man just a nicely as anyone could that since he had things he needed to do (like we didn't ... sheesh) that he could just go take care of that and we would tend to the mess the dogs made. It had to be the Lord who made those words sound as nice as they did because in my head I was screaming in the guys face telling him all about his selfish, inconsiderate, cold hearted, ignorant self all with a few well timed physical prompts to encourage his participation in the conversation.... also known as picking a fight.
As soon as the owner left our neighbor calmed down and went right back to his sweet self... he's a man that my entire family has enjoyed knowing and usually a real hoot to visit with but he was so angry over the kid's chickens that I thought he might have a stroke! He kept shaking and yelling and turning purple in the face while the owner was here and I don't know what we would have done if something had happened to our nice neighbor on top of everything else. I talked with the nice neighbor for awhile trying to calm him down which was just another act of God's grace because in my head I was still just venting my own anger and frustration that twice in 3 days time my kids were being forced to deal with the death of animals they had raised from the time they were 1 day old, to pick up and dispose of the investment of their life's savings and watch everything they had worked so hard for in the past months get tossed into a hole in the ground.
Finally the nice neighbor decided he needed breakfast and he left too.... which finally left me the time to call Troy. Somehow during that conversation the Lord helped me to speak in calm tones and encouraging and calming language (instead of my old yelling and threating violence) so that Troy wasn't overly upset or angry and his testimony was guarded while he was at work. As I was getting ready to get off the phone with Troy the owner pulls up to the side of the yard and just stared at us until I went to talk with him... he offered to give us some of his fence wire that he said he doesn't need and told me how he just couldn't bring himself to spay his dog because he thought it was mean to do that and how he thinks it's mean to chain up a dog and on and on.
Again, the Lord was faithful to answer my prayer for His help and I just smiled and told the man thank you for offering the fence wire that I would tell Troy he offered it, then I offered him some of the super strong and tall as I am fence wire that Troy brought home from the job site... all 300 feet of it and the boys to help install it so his dogs would have a nice big yard to run in. Even when the man asked me what I thought of it all I never once was able to give in to the urge to just get mean and let the mama bear with claws side of me come out!!
I did tell him that the dogs needed to be vaccinated for rabies because not only was it the law but that if my kids had been exposed to rabies and needed to have the more than $2000 per kid series of shots I didn't think I would be able to maintain any kind of decent composure and that his dogs didn't have to bite the kids to expose them since it's tranferred by saliva as well. And I did tell him that the kids had just lost their entire investment that they had worked so hard for when he asked me what the kid's had tied up in the chickens I told him the full amount... he raised an eyebrow so I also told him that they had the receipts as well since they were tracking the costs for a business math project for school. But not one word passed my lips to him that was harsh or ugly or spoken with anger!!! The guy finally just asked me to tell Troy to call him and left..... thankfully.
Nearly the entire rest of the day was spent dealing with neighbors and animal control officers and county commissioners and so on but through all of it I didn't lose my temper or speak harshly or anything! My poor sweet tired out Hunk 'O Honey is still amazed to the point of tears that I didn't do anything.... not one thing I feel regret for. I stood amazed all day long as the Lord calmed the storms around me and spoke peace to the ones that raged on inside of me as well, and ended the day thanking Him for doing it all and being thankful that I can even call on Him to do anything for me knowing how undeserving of it I am.
God was so good and so faithful to me in answering our prayers for peace and to help us guard our testimonies as we dealt with all of that!! We are praying that He will continue to do so as we try to bring the whole thing to a state of final resolution without making enemies of our neighbors... we have one neighbor pitching a fit for us to sue the other one and the other one is angry because now most of his dogs were taken away and he will be facing some criminal charges for not vaccinating his dogs, allowing them to run at large during the night and so on.
We were talking about the contrast in our lives between now and before we got saved and gave our lives and the running of our home to the Lord. Before I would have committed several assaults during the course of this all and set some terrible examples for my children that would probably have scarred them for life not to mention really doing damage to our families finances because bail ain't cheap and neither are lawyers and if all else had failed me I would have taken out all that anger and frustration on my husband instead of being his helpmeet the way that I should. Now we have peace that in some way whatever is lost will be restored to our family in whatever way the Lord sees fit and though I still feel the waves of anger and those ugly thoughts still run through my mind I can take those things and make them captive to the power of the Lord in my life! AMAZING GRACE....
Well, if you're still even here after all my long rambling you know I surely have things to do but I had promised to catch up. Believe it or not this is only the highlights of all that's been keeping us busy. We are getting ready for REVIVAL at our church and praying and asking the Lord to have HIS perfect will in the meeting. Take care everyone!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I'm terrible
I know I am just awful for going so long without posting, I am trying to do better but things are really just crazy busy around here. The last few weeks have heralded the now infamous visit from my mom and baby brother, our family trying very hard to pick up some extra work to help make those ends meet, the new and constant effort to keep enough wood cut/split/stacked to keep the house warm, the birth of another litter of bunnies with a few more litters due soon, a last ditch desperate effort to keep the garden producing despite the cold, and the most recent series of disasters that cost the kids nearly ALL of their investment in the 2 rare breeds of chicks they were trying so hard to raise with their own money and effort. Please pardon the run on sentence, I trust that most of you can make some sort of sense out of it anyway.
I will try to post more later on but for right now that little tidbit is all I really have time for, the kids and I have got errands to run, supper to prepare, chores to do, and evening service at church to get ready for. I hope you are all having a wonderful and blessed week and will be patient with me for just a bit longer!!
I will try to post more later on but for right now that little tidbit is all I really have time for, the kids and I have got errands to run, supper to prepare, chores to do, and evening service at church to get ready for. I hope you are all having a wonderful and blessed week and will be patient with me for just a bit longer!!
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Wow, what an awesome help!
One of my sweet little old lady friends back home knew I was having a hard time with some things lately and sent me this list to encourage me and to help me "keep counsel with myself". Her advice was to simply look myself in the mirror each day and ask myself the same 22 questions that John Wesley's Holy club used in their devotions. This same sweet lady was such a blessing to me years ago when it seemed like life was running away with me and I just couldn't keep up with it all, it was then that she taught me the principal of keeping counsel with yourself as a means of setting apart time every day even if only just a minute or two to really focus on what you need to do to be the best you can for the Lord and for your family. Friends like her are definitely precious blessings from the Lord! Anyway, here is the list for anyone who may be interested.
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?
I imagine that most people are already familiar with this list and all but I put it here as both another reminder to myself and also just because I thought it was one of those things that was just too helpful not to be shared.
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?
I imagine that most people are already familiar with this list and all but I put it here as both another reminder to myself and also just because I thought it was one of those things that was just too helpful not to be shared.
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