Tales From Another Planet

I overheard a conversation at a party recently, by a self-professed "Church-hopper". I didn't hear the whole conversation, but the gist of it was, that she had been looking for a church for awhile, but it was just too difficult to find a good one. I've been there before, especially if you're in a new town, or in an area where there just aren't a lot of Bible-based churches. However, I think we have to be careful not to look too long for a "good" church. Why not? Should we settle for less than perfect in our walk with Christ? No, in our personal walk with Christ we ought always to be seeking to grow and mature in our faith. However, in our walk with our fellow believers, we have to keep one very important thing in mind, they are all human and failures just as we are. You can search for the perfect orator in a pastor, only to find out he is careless with his flock. You can search for the perfect children's ministry, only to find out that the ad...

God help me think of You best Not going over my to do list Or my who's better than who fest Or my self-centered subconscious When waves of life cross my path And no one knows my name You hold Your face towards me And wipe away my shame No gift of mine No guilty scribe No praise I lift Can cross the rift Until Your blood Grace like a flood Washed me whole Cleansed my soul Made me new And more like You So today I sit here Thinking of You

I have a 5-year old son. Needless to say, he's finally starting to wonder a little more about this Santa person. He knows that Santa isn't real, but we still read books about Santa, and talk about the idea of Santa, and a general "Christmas spirit". We also talk a lot about the reason for the Season. Of course, he's also very interested in receiving gifts, especially toys, and even video games. As a side note, it's a bit hard to believe that my 5 year old can beat certain levels of Mario Kart, I'm not sure I could even do that. So, what's the big deal about Santa and wanting gifts? Isn't that part of what Christmas is all about? Let's talk about the real reason behind the gifts that Christ was given by the Wise Men (which by the way was not at his birth, but probably 2-4 years after he was born). We know that Jesus received, at a minimum, gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the wise men. Why these three? I believe there was a very practica...

I overheard, and tried to participate in a Facebook conversation recently (I know, even I am amazed that we can call what takes place on Facebook a conversation) about the price of food and groceries for an average family. After the conversation, I started thinking a little more about the average cost of food across the world. Thinking of the millions and billions of people living on what most of us would consider "spare change". It's fine to compare your organic, vegetarian, super food grocery budget to my conventional beef and rice, and canned vegetable budget, but it's also not a fully valid comparison until you compare it across the world. Especially around Thanksgiving, it's important not only to give thanks for what we've been given, but to give back to those who don't have as much as we do. Maybe you can donate a farm animal through a charitable organization. Maybe you can contribute to a microfinance company to enable more people to be self-emp...

Someone recently asked a group, "You don't really start up conversations with people in the grocery store, do you?" I hadn't really thought about it much before, but we actually do, especially when we're there as a family. I blame the adorableness of our two kids, but strangers will make a comment to us about them, and then we'll respond with something back, and it often ends up being an actual conversation, about everything from where our families grew up and who we're related to, to where we went to college and where their kids are going to college. I think it's a pretty amazing thing actually. I thought we had community when we lived in Louisville, and I would often see people I already knew at the grocery story (from work or church) and we would have casual conversations. Even though there are a wider variety of grocery stores around here, it still feels more like a community. I may see the same stranger we talked to at Ken's Korny Maze a...

Recently, I started ordering books from the library after researching various book lists ( Honey From a Child's Heart and the books used in Five in a Row ). I've noticed some amazing differences in the quality of literature from reputable lists versus what my children randomly pick up at the library. It's not always a good thing to be able to pick from thousands of books when such a large percentage of them have terrible themes, iffy artwork, and in general promote ideals that I don't agree with. If I ever felt bad that my child was "missing out" on the school experience, I am forever cured after listening to a Dan Gutman book on tape. Now my son can spout off such excellent quotes as "So's your face" and learned fabulous lessons like "girls like school and boys don't" and "I don't want anything boring for Christmas like clothes or food". A whole year's worth of lessons on humility, kindness, and a love for read...

A friend of mine, who has gone through some hard times the past few years, mentioned that she gets along better with her grandparents generation than with her generation, or even her parents' generation. The oldest generation includes the people who grew up without "modern conveniences". They are the people who understand that sometimes bad things happen, and there doesn't need to be a reason or explanation. They are the ones who "stand strong" in the face of adversity (not all of them, but many of them). So, when I listen to the baby boomers complain about their retirement (where they will still make more money than I would if I were to re-enter the workforce now), or Generation X complain about divorce or house prices or kids, or "my" generation complain about having to do anything that requires effort, I wonder what the difference is. I theorized earlier in my blog that maybe it's just life experience, but is it truly something more? W...

What if I told you that your child could have a private tutor for several hours per week to completely individualize his or her education plan, and there's no cost to you! Whether you work full-time, part-time, or are a single parent, the answer is - that private tutor is you! We can talk a lot about what's broken in our current education system, but I think the biggest breakdown is that parents have taken a step back from their child's education. Sure, they may "help with homework" or go to parent-teacher conferences, but most parents of public or private school children rely entirely on "the system" to educate their children. Education is not an institution. There is no one-size-fits all. Even homeschoolers can fall into this trap if they rely on the "curriculum" to educate their children. My husband challenged me in a discussion on our education system by asking if I really "individualize" everything for my child - mainly be...

I've seen quite a few posts over the last few years from other bloggers regarding a "social economy" and how that works. I never quite understood why I didn't agree with them until a neighbor mentioned that, because some friends of hers hadn't been coming to church or small group lately, she wouldn't be supporting the girl scout troop that their kids were in. Here's the problem with the social economy. If your only reason for giving to, spending time with, or helping someone is what you get out of the relationship or what you might get back some day, you will be living a very dissatisfied life. To be fair, I don't think that's what was really happening in this particular situation with my neighbor, I think she truly would not have wanted to help the girl scout troop anyway and this was a handy excuse not to. But let's look at some of the pitfalls of a social economy. My value in my self is inherently higher. I remember that time I sacrific...