Monday, March 26, 2007

Praying AS a Nation, FOR Our Nation

During W.W.II there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace.



There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America. If you would like to participate:




Every evening at 9:00 PM Eastern Time (8:00 PM Central) (6:00 PM Pacific), stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, and for a return to a Godly nation.



If you know anyone else who would like to participate, please pass this along. Our prayers are the most powerful assets we have. Together, we CAN make a difference!



Thank you, and God Bless America!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Check For Hotels Here First!

With Spring Break and summer vacation time coming up soon, I wanted to pass this website along. I personally know of too many families that have been destroyed because of p*rnography and I highly praise those hotels who have gone against today's 'norm' and refused to allow this garbage as part of their 'service'.


CleanHotels.com is a network of lodging facilities that - based on some of the best research available - do not offer in-room, "adult" (p*rnographic) pay-per-view movies.

Our primary purpose is to provide a service through which friends like you can book a room for your vacation, business trip or meeting with the expectation, first, that you and your family or associates will not be exposed to pornographic movies and, secondly, that you will be supporting a facility that cares enough about the wellbeing of its customers not to make harmful pornographic movies available.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Turning The Other Cheek vs. Defending Themselves

Some things we teach our children are not nearly as black and white as say, eating vegetables is good for you while eating sugar-filled junk food is not. That one, while some of us may in secrecy not even follow our own teaching, is pretty clear. Most all parents would agree with the veggies vs. sugar issue.




But what do you do when it comes to turning the other cheek vs. teaching kids to defend themselves? This was something we had to decide where we stood a few years ago when our little neighbor boy was being a bit rough on our second son and our first boy let him know that he wasn't going to put up with anyone hurting his brother!




After talking about it and discussing what would benefit our children the best, daddy and I came to a firm decision on how we wanted to train our children in the area of dealing with bullies. We made it clear to them that they had better never be the 'bully' or the one to 'start' something with another child. If that happens, not only are they taking a chance that the other kid might not put up with their behavior and knock their brains out, but they will be in even bigger trouble with us when we find out about it, and believe me, we WILL find out. Parents have a weird way of finding out things their kids do that they shouldn't.




However, IF another child does something to intentionally cause harm or injury to one of our children (or to one of their younger siblings) we fully expect them to defend themselves (or their siblings). Naturally, they are to first tell the bully to 'stop' and walk away from them as to try to avoid conflict, but if that doesn't work, then they know they have our full permission and support in defending themselves. In no way do we encourage fighting, but at the same time, we do not want our children growing up being an easy target for bullying and teasing. We don't tolerate bullying by any child. There's no sense in it, but unfortunately it seems to be an ever-increasing problem with kids. I remember my mom saying, 'kids can be cruel' and the older mine get and the more things they get involved in, I am seeing this more and more. But it seems today that kids aren't only cruel, they're rude, disrespectful, vulgar, and have an I-couldn't-care-less attitude. Not all kids mind you, but far too many.




I'm getting WAY off the whole reason for this entry, but I just remembered an incident that occured last fall at a high school football game we were at. I'm usually one to not say anything because I don't want to be the 'embarrassing mom' to my kids nor do I want to be the 'crazy mom' to all the other kids we're around. However, when two young men walked past my 7 year old son and said, rather loudly, to another young man, 'Your momma s*cks p*n*s', oh honey! Let me tell you. This momma's feathers were more than a little ruffled! Before I even knew it I was all over those boys like oily suntan lotion on a baked bikini bod on a hot summer day! My momma instincts came out in full force and I gave those boys a good scolding, much to their great surprise. I actually get tickled thinking about their faces now. They were so shocked that some crazy woman was getting on to them for their language. LOL.




ANYWAY! Back to my original reason for discussing teaching our children to defend themselves. Others may disagree with me, and that's ok. But it is our desire to raise Godly young men (and women) who also know how to defend themselves and others less fortunate who may not be able to defend themselves. Satan is alive and on the rampage in this world and having the knowledge and skills to protect and defend themselves and others is, we believe, essential.




We are currently looking into this, a homebased Christian karate curriculum on DVD for all of our children. While we knew karate would be good for learning self-defense for our children, we never even considered it simply due to the fact that there are things associated with karate that go against our Christian beliefs. But with this program, we feel very comfortable with the way it appears to be taught. Here is what their website says...





"Being a Christian Homeschool family ourselves, we understand the concerns of the Christian parent wanting their child to participate in karate without having to worry about strange eastern mysticisms often associated with martial arts.

We have made every effort to bring to you a quality product for your home. A Bible based Christian Karate self defense curriculum, appropriate for the whole family."










You can check out Homeschool Karate at HSB's Old Schoolhouse Store and as always, take advantage of totally free shipping!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Oregon Biology Teacher Fired Over Bible References

SISTERS, Ore. — During his eight days as a part-time high school biology teacher, Kris Helphinstine included Biblical references in material he provided to students and gave a PowerPoint presentation that made links between evolution, Nazi Germany and Planned Parenthood.



That was enough for the Sisters School Board, which fired the teacher Monday night for deviating from the curriculum on the theory of evolution.



"I think his performance was not just a little bit over the line," board member Jeff Smith said. "It was a severe contradiction of what we trust teachers to do in our classrooms."



Helphinstine, 27, said in a phone interview with The Bulletin newspaper of Bend that he included the supplemental material to teach students about bias in sources, and his only agenda was to teach critical thinking.



"Critical thinking is vital to scientific inquiry," said Helphinstine, who has a master's degree in science from Oregon State. "My whole purpose was to give accurate information and to get them thinking."



Helphinstine said he did not teach the idea that God created the world. "I never taught creationism," he said. "I know what it is, and I went out of my way not to teach it."



Parent John Rahm told the newspaper that he became concerned when his freshman daughter said she was confused by the supplemental material provided by Helphinstine.




"He took passages that had all kinds of Biblical references," Rahm said. "It prevented her from learning what she needed to learn."



Board members met with Helphinstine privately for about 90 minutes before the meeting. The teacher did not stay for the public portion.



"How many minds did he pollute?" Dan Harrison, the father of a student in Helphinstine's class, said at the meeting. "It's a thinly veiled attempt to hide his own agenda."



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Story courtesy of FoxNews.com