It's Party Time

I love parties and celebrations.  This is another reason, when I was young, I suspected that I was adopted—nobody else in my family liked partying.  It may have had something to do with everyone in my family being some sort of scientist.  My science IQ is still very low but I excel in tap dancing! 

I recently found a letter my dad had written to his parents when I was about to turn seven.  He related that I was planning my own birthday party.  I vaguely remember stapling together red crepe paper party hats for the event. 

When my husband and I were first married I threw him a surprise birthday party.  He later informed me that he didn’t like surprise parties.  I let him know that I would love a surprise party.  I waited in anticipation each birthday but everyone was traveling in the summer or some such thing.  He tried one year to throw a party for me.  The plan was for all of my relatives to converge on my parent’s northern California home for a party, which he wouldn’t be able to attend, as he had to work.  My cousins were able to make the party in June and my sister could show up in July.  This was a six weeklong birthday party! 

Finally after forty-seven years of marriage he figured it out!  We had a C.S. Lewis night at our church scheduled.  He, along with our pastor’s help, planned to surprise me and everybody else with cake and ice-cream during a break.  We were even more surprised when we found out that one of the ladies attending actually had her birthday on the day of the event!  On Sunday we found out that two more people had July birthdays and so we celebrated with song and more cake and ice-cream from the night before.  Now that is what I call a surprise party!

I love my birthday because every year I’m one year closer to Heaven!  I learned this song from one of my daughter’s friends:

Heaven is a wonderful place

Filled with Glory and Grace.

I want to see my Savior’s face.

Heaven is a wonderful place.

Boy Scouts, Dr. Laura, TV, and Movies

The Boy Scouts were not forced by the court to accept homosexual leaders or members once again.  They will remain morally straight.  The homosexual activists and the media were given boundaries afresh.  One columnist thought that when the old leadership of the Scouts dies out that the new leadership would allow homosexual behavior.  It may happen unless society uses common sense to realize that same sex people are not built physically to have sex with each other.

When Dr. Laura quoted Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 on the air she received death threats and flaming e-mails.  The New Testament may have helped her out. The Old Testament was given to the Jews so that they would be a separate people.  Now that Jesus the Messiah has come He has given us grace instead of the law.  None of us can live a perfect life like Jesus did.  Jesus also said that we are not to commit adultery and beyond that we are not to commit sexually immoral acts.  Sodomy is an immoral act.   Jesus is willing to forgive all sins if we repent.  In Jesus's day and up until the 60's in the United States it was understood what immorality was.  Paul spells it out for us in Romans 1 and also in I Corinthians 6:9.    

Now my problem is what TV shows and movies should I watch? It seems like all sexual immorality is accepted as normal on most shows these days.  I can stick to some reality shows without worrying that they will have sexual scenes between unmarried people—nudity yes.  I remember on the first Survivor show one of the contestants walked around naked.  On some of the dancing shows the dancers don’t wear much!  Should I also censor my watching of shows that have unmarried pseudo sex?  In other words no sex scenes but it is implied behind closed doors?  I keep hoping that Pat McManus will have his humor books made into TV shows!  Now those are funny and don’t have sex scenes in them!

Another Tragedy

In light of the shooting in Colorado today  --"We must grieve with those who grieve. We must pray for Gospel churches in the Denver area who will be called upon for urgent ministry. We must pray for our nation and communities. And we must pray that God will guard ourselves from evil — especially our own evil. And we must point to the cross. What other answer can we give?"  Albert Mohler

My Mom was a Woman's Libber

The definition of a woman's libber is --a woman who advocates woman's liberation movements; a feminist.  My mom believed that women should go to college and prepare for a career, as well as preparing for a career in home science (in my day it was called Home Economics.)  She wanted to be a teacher, a nurse, a farmer, a musician, and in later years a missionary.  When she was graduated from high school as valedictorian of her classical major class she received a scholarship to Whitman University in Walla Walla, Washington.  At that time she didn’t have the funds for room and board.  She lived at home and went to work at a bank and saved her money and finally was able to attend the University of Washington for one year.  After age 65 she completed her two-year degree taking music and art classes. 

Whether she realized it or not, she did end up being all of those things that she wanted to be, as she was a wife and a mother to 5 children. She breastfed her babies when all other moms were bottle-feeding.  She didn’t buy in to scare tactics like ---your children will become juvenile delinquents if they read comic books.  My older brother read all the comic books he wanted to.  When all the Baptist kids were told not to dance my mom signed me up for dancing lessons.  When the Baptist kids weren’t going to movies my dad would take a Microbus full to drive- in movies.  My parents would pray and then do what they believed.

 I was never encouraged to prepare for home making until I went away to college. Then my mom suggested I take Home Ec but I had no interest in home making, cooking, decorating, having children, (I had two wild little brothers that I couldn’t deal with and was expected to babysit them when my mom went to work or was in the hospital several times with pneumonia.)  I’m glad I had the mother I did as I could go fearlessly away from home at eighteen.  I had a good experience in college, got a good teaching job, and was married to my best friend from college, all because my mom set the example.  

That being said I think that Jesus was the first women’s libber.  He had no qualms about talking to the woman at the well, Martha and Mary, the woman caught in adultery, and many other women. Lots of Jewish men in those days would thank God they were not a woman and wouldn’t even be caught dead talking to one!  Because of Jesus women are valued as well as men!

Technology versus the Brain

Recently I read an article on how technology is causing our kid's education to be dumbed down.  It was by Konstantin Kakaes and called "Why your kids can't add without a calculator." The article reported that old textbooks, which really taught math, should be the ones being used, not the new technology where the computer or calculator does everything.  Below is a guest blog by my spouse, Chris Brown.  He relates how the teaching of math in such a way can be applied to teaching on the water navigation :

As you well know I am involved in teaching marine navigation. The same issues arise in navigation as does with math. To put it simply, the modern world, aka Technology, is taking over. Some of this is good and some of this is bad.

In navigation, it is simply a matter of running down to the marine store and plopping down several thousand dollars and a person has a very complete navigation system that could literally take him around the world. (Actually a simple system could be purchased for a few hundred, but this takes a little more knowledge.) We call the general phenomenon: "Too Much Money, Too Much Boat!"

So the person gets all this stuff installed (probably hiring some professional installer to do so). Then they watch a few videos and maybe even have the installer give them a few basics. From there it is a matter of pushing buttons and the boat miraculously follows a line drawn on the electronic chart, right before their eyes. Basically they don't have to know a thing, or at least very little (like not hit the dock when coming in or avoiding other boats, although there are instruments that can take care of that for the person too).

But, this person doesn't have a clue what is happening in their marine environment. And there is plenty going on. The electronics are flashing away and they are sitting back enjoying the scenery. But without some basic knowledge, these fancy navigation tools can lead them into terrible danger without their even knowing it -- these tools lack intelligence to make decisions that one might face if anything goes other than to plan. Plus, if the electronics fail -- oh, oh, what now?

Without a basic, traditional foundation in marine navigation, or in mathematics for the student, there can be no personal growth. For the student it is even worse. Intellectual curiosity requires a prepared mind. Watching a computer screen won't do that for a student.

It would be like watching people play songs on a piano on TV and then wondering why he or she can't sit down and play "mom's" old upright. 

Potty Mouths

After extensive research, (I looked it up on the internet, read a blog, and asked a couple of people), it is my conclusion that people swear and cuss because they are arrogant.  They believe that they are better than others and so owe them no respect.  Also, some people have a limited vocabulary and don’t know how to express themselves in words. 

When my cousin, at 3 years old, heard the neighbors swearing, he decided to try it out on his mom.  He got an immediate reaction.  I haven’t heard him use such words since.  Some people use these words when they are teenagers to try to get attention.  Apparently many politicians, the military, and Hollywood have used this language extensively.  A few people say words are not important but why use them then? 

Many today use OMG not realizing they are using the name of God in vain or even believing in God.  I wonder what the Muslims would do if people said OMA?  Below is a video about the FCC ruling and a picture of a T-shirt that the President is selling to raise campaign funds.