Liberty To Raise Your Children: Fight For It!

Today, the religious elite in the Church of Nanny Statism has enacted a massive amount of legislation that is incredibly intrusive in all facets of life, especially in the raising of children.  These institutional churches are everywhere, and their priests are as the sand of the sea. They want nothing more than the heart, mind, soul, and strength of your child. 

Where are they?  They are everywhere.  You can run, but you can't hide. 

These churches are government schools, and her priests are the educators and administrators.  You will find them in urban centers and in the far reaches of America's grasslands, farms, and mountains.  Now you are sorely afraid, and you should be.  These statists will go to great lengths to set their will against the family like spending about $8,000/child each year to pay their priests and maintain this massively expensive infrastructure.

However, you must fight for your children, and you can begin by taking them out of government education. Join the mass exodus and raise your child with the liberty that God gave you.  Raise them in truth and righteousness instead of in the gang and drug infested cesspools that we call public schools.  There will be sacrifice and you will have to give up a times of leisure, but the sacrifice is worth it.  God has given you the ability and resource, His Word, to raise your children and educate them yourself. 

Praise Him, for He is The God of Liberty that entrusts families to raise children and not priests of the state. He is the Creator and knows the best means to raise children, and that is via Mom and Dad under the instruction of God's Word.

More Than Luck: Consistency In Disciplining Your Children

Disciplining children can get old rather quickly, but it is a critical element of parenting.  Though it may not seem to bear immediate fruit, you will notice changes over time Lord willing.  For example, our oldest one is much quicker to obey than the younger ones, and both of the older ones can usually sit and behave in Church.  Wow, aren't we lucky! No, it's called work!

The Scripture is adamant that we neither provoke our children to wrath nor exercise too much leniency.  It does take time to discern when and how to be gracious, yet it can be done.  For example, when the child is seriously ill, we are quick to be gracious, though not condoning any particular sin.  However, when there is nothing provoking the child, the rod is always quick to its work. 

Will my children be afraid of me if I use the paddle?  No, if you do it right.  It actually builds respect, and children are out playing and hugging again in just a few minutes after a spanking.  It gets to the point quickly, and then the day goes on.  Bottoms were made for sitting and spanking; that's why they're padded.

Therefore, love your children by disciplining them when it is needed, and, remember, delayed obedience is disobedience.

To Him be the glory! Amen!

Praying for Pregnant Women

Many of us take for granted our own briths and all the hardships that our mothers went through to bring us to the point of birth.  Some women don't suffer as much as others, but many experience a tremendous amount of nauseau along with severe complications during birth.

Pain in childbirth is the result of the Fall as is clearly laid on in Genesis 3. Nonetheless, we are still empowered by the Lord to pray for grace during such times, which can be very grueling and difficult for pregant women. 

If your are married, take special care of your wife when she is pregnant, and be gracious when she is nauseous and can't do much.  Pick up the slack often. After all, you partook in bringing this about, glorious yet arduous at times.

Gossip: A Deadly Sin

Gossip is a despicable sin that each of us succumbs to. The human heart is deceitfully wicked, and we are constantly attempting to build ourselves up by tearing others down. Even if we are not the ones speaking the gossip, our ears often perk up just to listen to it, and, by attentively listening, we endorse it.

Ironically, the same measure we use to judge others (done quite a bit through gossip) is the same measure others will judge us. In this way, if one gossips about someone to another, that same person is most likely to then gossip about the gossiper. In a vain attempt to build oneself up through demeaning another, one has actually torn oneself down even further as the next man gossips to others about the gossiper!

Prayer gossip is a more subtle form, for, we often make a prayer request about someone not because we care but because we want to tear someone down. "Please pray for such and such; they have a bad marriage, and I heard that Jim's been drinking again." Now if the person asks for prayer and also asks that it be made known to others, then that's legitimate, but we must be careful in handling such sensitive matters.

When confronted with gossip, it is important at once to immediately change the conversation to something more fruitful. If tempted to gossip, then take that thought captive to Christ, and think upon Him and His glory and refuse to gossip.

To Him be the glory! Amen!

Children, Anxiety, and Idolatry

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus Commands us not to worry.  "25For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' 32"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

As a father, I am especially prone to have anxiety over my children, which is sin.   We live in a fallen world, and calamity is going to occur, and our love for our children can easily become idolatrous, which is why anxiety sets in.  Because we can set our love for them above our love for God, we do everything we can do preserve this idol.  However, our children are not our own, and, is not God more grieved at this fallen world than we are?

Sometimes we think that God is apathetic to our calamities, yet Christ experienced such things on a regular basis.  He was grieved over the death of Lazarus and the effects of sin in a fallen world.  Because the world is fallen, Lazarus would taste death (twice actually), and Christ wept over the ills that sin had brought into the world since Adam, even though He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead! 

In Romans, 8:28-30, we read "28And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."  God is not going to forsake His beloved sheep, and when we experience hardship, He is not vindictive against us.  He does discipline us when we need it, but He does not hate His sheep.  He is the Good Shepherd, and laid down His life for the sheep (Jn 10:11-18).  

He not only loves His sheep, which don't deserve it, but He is also in absolute control of all things.  Even the hearts of kings are ultimately subjected to His divine will. Proverbs 21:1 states,"The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes."  God is Sovereign in all things, and we must rest in that.  We are commanded to do so, and we reflect that from the heart when we are not anxious.  God is God, and we rest in Him.

Therefore, we humbly bow before the Risen Christ, and submit to the will of our Triune God! Amen!  Anxiety stems from our desire to be in control, and that control stems from pride, and where pride is, the burden is immense.  Let us give Him the burden that we can't handle and thus the glory that we don't deserve.  He reigns, and we rest in Him! Praise Him who is in control of all things! To Him be the glory forever! Amen!

Why are their still Pro-Life Americans?

More Americans are statistically pro-life today than in previous decades as studies have shown. The ultrasound is a huge factor as people can now see in the womb with tremendous detail. Not only do parents and grandparents celebrate the unborn child with ultrasound pictures at work and at home, but their older children see those pictures. See http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/01/24/abortion-debate-returns-now-pro-life-nation

Just like a lot of other parents, we put up ultrasound pictures on the refrigerator and the internet for all the world to see and enjoy. Our little ones also see those pictures, and those images become embedded into them from a young age. This then lessens the likelihood that they will be pro-abortion as the grow up.

The other factor that is beginning to show itself a bit more with each passing year and decade is that of population growth amongst pro-life advocates. Those who are pro-abortion tend to have less children or no children at all. Therefore, by default, when pro-abortion advocates die, they are being replaced by children who grew up in pro-life families that tend to be larger.

Like all false worldview positions, abortion advocacy self-destructs over a period of time, and this, by God's grace, is a built in check against such evil.

In The News: Abortion In Gender and Racial Selection

Of late, legislation has been proposed to combat gender and racial selection in child bearing.  Many children in the womb are murdered throughout the world based on race and gender, yet the voice for the unseen child is small.   Sadly, America has been engaging in such gender and racial selection for quite a while, some explicit and some more subtle.  Either way, it is still murder.  As far as racial selection goes, there is but one race, the human race; anything else implies Darwinism and its mantra against the 'less evolved races'.

It is amazing that staunch feminists who fight for women, so they say, will not defend the whimsical decision to abort a child based on gender. Ultimately, it's not about that to them, it's about advancing a worldview that promotes selfish ambition. 

Ironically, those who advance these causes tend to have few or no children, which by default causes their worldview to destruct.  They mock God, yet they are the ones who are abased in their foolishness.

Let God be found true, though every man a liar! To Him be the Glory! Amen!

Too Many Toys!

A child does not need more toys and presents to know they're loved, and they certainly don't need more of them to have fun.  Here's a case in point.  Recently, our hot water went out, and there was a giant box that went with it of course.  The plumber asked me if could dispose of the box.  I told him I would just give it to the kids to play in and with.  He stated that kids always enjoy the box and paper more than the toy.  That's why I told him that we don't buy a lot of presents. They used that hot water heater box as a picture frame on one end, a slide when folded, a shower when standing up, and a house when they could climb in.  Shocker, kids don't need a lot of high priced junk to have a good time!

Your child will know he is loved by how much time you spend with him, not by how many toys he gets.  Your child will have more enjoyment with fewer toys and more boxes, strings, paper, etc. than with a boat load of breakable expensive gadgets.  He will be able to use his imagination, and he loves it. 

Therefore, take time to rethink about how you view gifts to your children and others. Spend wisely and don't go overboard.  It'll reduce raising spoiled brats, and it'll help out the old pocketbook too.  Say, when that hot water heater goes out or when that transmission goes down hill, you'll be glad you did.

Children and the Prison of Modern Psychology

Initially, one can become enticed to embrace a 'psychological disorder'. For example, if one has no control over being ADD, then it's easy to use the 'I have ADD' line to justify abhorrent and aberrant behavior. It may seem quite useful at times, especially in parenting difficult children who are like wild animals; we have three of them. and one on the way. The reality is that they don't have ADD, they just have energy, yet that energy must not go unchecked, lest it turn into disciplinary/obedience problems. Daily discipline is hard, monotonous, and even frustrating at times, yet that is the answer to unruly children, not a bottle of pills and/or a cop-out label. We live in a fallen world, and punishment (even corporal) for misconduct is required instead of misinformation and parental laziness.

The great tragedy of these labels is that one ultimately finds oneself in a hopeless prison. After using it as a convenient alibi for a while to evade work and discipline, eventually this mindset becomes debilitating. One no longer wants to simply blame 'bi-polar'; rather, one wants to to be set free from such problems. Many professing Christians become entangled in this web also, and much of that is due to defective biblical and systematic theology which leads to impotent applied theology (ie counseling, discipleship, and evangelism). What then is the answer?

Regular digestion and right understanding of Scripture always lays the groundwork for meaningful application. The Lord's Sufficient, Authoritative, Inerrant, Inspired, Holy Word is the only true answer for someone whose attitude and disposition is like a yo-yo all the time, as is the case with many of the 'disorders' that exist. 'Meds' are not the answer; a right relationship with the Living God is! Amen!

Taking Back the Rainbow: The Insult of Gay Marriage to the LORD God

If marriage is not defined as between one man and one woman for a lifetime, then it can mean anything. Gay marriage is only the tip of the ice-berg. Why not polygamy, or two men and three women, or four animals and a woman, or two boys and five men, etc? It just becomes that insane. Believe me, there are plenty of people waiting to jump on that crazy roller coaster of sin.

My greatest beef with the homosexual community is how they have hi-jacked the rainbow. The rainbow is one of the most beautiful phenomenon when it appears in the sky, for it is the great sign of God's grace to humanity as displayed before Noah after the Flood. Now it is a symbol of rebellion and hatred towards the LORD God! It's so bad that if you put a rainbow on your car, people think you are gay! What blasphemous times we live in! Amen!

However, like dinosaurs and every other created thing, we are taking them back as Ken Ham would say. The godless have stolen the things of God and claimed it for themselves, but God will not let His Name be trashed forever. We shall reopen the old wells and let the glory of God shine forth! Amen!

Therefore, may ye who are opposed to the LORD God repent while His grace is extended to you. Ye need not face the wrath of God and continue in your mire of vanity. This world of sin cannot bring satisfaction; it only brings judgment and personal disaster. Repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Amen!

Training Daugters

Daughters are a tremendous gift from the Lord. I personally have three young ones, 3, 2, and 1 to be exact. They have a special place in creation, for daughters today are mothers tomorrow.

Therefore, will you raise your daughters to be godly mothers, or will your raise them to feminists who fail to raise the next generation in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Make no mistake, a woman raised as and to be a feminist has far few children if any.  For this reason, feminism self-destructs because it produces little or no offspring.

Yet again, the Christian worldview reigns supreme, no matter how often her enemies assail her foundation, which is the Word of God. To Him be the glory!