Year: 2012 Page 2 of 11

I fully intended to put these pictures up and say we decided to go to IHOP for Thanksgiving, but family is no longer any fun.

Day 459 of 1000

Life is in upheaval here. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but we will be very, very busy for then next few months or even the next few years depending on what we decide and what is decided for us. I took this photograph late Thursday night, spent a few days out west, and am now back home with the family. I type this with the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. Christian is cooking the turkey and has some buttermilk homemade bread in the ove while he takes a shower. Lorena and Kelly are working on ambrosia salad, sweet potatoes, green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  I will try to put some Thanksgiving pictures up after a bit.

Day 451 of 1000

Someone bought our old house in Albany.  We put in the lawn, virtually all the trees and the brick wall, trees, and shrubbery around the services.  Almost nothing has changed except the fence which was a nice change for someone who does not have kids.  We loved that house.  Amazingly, this picture is a screenshot taken from Google Maps street view.

Day 449 of 1000

I am not a fan of NPR, but as they say, “Even a broken clock is right two times per day”.  Kelly sent me a link to this article about the differences between learning styles in the East and the West.  The reason Kelly studies statistics and Christian studies math in college is because we wanted them to do something hard for their undergraduate degree.  We told them it is not a bad thing to study Business, Sociology, Psychology, English, Economics, or some other soft degree, but they would be better at it if they first studied a hard degree. 

The article was quite an interesting article.  What was especially interesting was what was said by some of the professional “educators” in the comments section.  I had lots of ideas about what I might write about the article and the effIcacy of the American government school system, but after thinking about it a little, believe the article and comments speak for themselves.

I have a William Lane Craig book I want to finish before I go on to anything new, but a review of a book come out in World Magazine this month that I really want to read.  The book is titled Through the Eye of the Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West by Peter Brown.  Here is the quote from Brown that piqued my interest:

Brown summarizes Augustine’s view that “pride, not wealth, was the true Last Enemy of the Christian. The real division of the world was not between the rich and the poor. It was between the proud and those who were enabled by God’s grace to be humble before God and before their fellows. … For once the rigid stance of pride was removed, wealth and power could be used without inhibition to promote the concord of a Christian society.” 

Augustine, Brown notes, “was relentlessly even-handed in his treatment of the sins of both the rich and the poor.” Here’s what Augustine preached to the poor about whether the rich who were evil could get into heaven: “Certainly such people will not get in. But you too, just see whether you will enter. What if, as well as being poor you are greedy; what if you are both weighed down with want and on fire with avarice?”

This helped me realize that our recent exercise in voting and its result are nothing to celebrate.  When people vote out of pride and narcissism, no one is well served.

Day 447 of 1000

I have given a lot of thought to a comment made by a friend on this blog the other day.  The verse he cited in his comment says this:

This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. –Daniel 4:17

I think the vote we have here in the United States is a blessing and a curse.  When the people justify and embrace those things God hates, he gives them over to what what they want.  If we chose to live the basest of lives, he will give us over to the basest of men to rule us.

Day 446 of 1000

We read a lot of books during the time we homeschooled.  We read books aloud to each other.  The kids read their textbooks, literature books, how to books, magazines, and just about everything else on which they could get their hands.  Kelly read Gothic novels, mysteries (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayer, and the like), and books on how to create comic strips for pleasure.  Christian’s side reading mostly included the reading of manuals.  I read some manuals, too, but also read a lot of books about History, Homeschool, Science, and (of all things) Rodney Stark’s books on Sociology.

For some reason, probably having to do with time pressure and easy access to the Internet, we quit reading books.  I feel diminished by that.  I really think it is time to get off the Internet and start reading again.  The thing that is especially sad is that it is significantly easier to buy a book than ever before in history.  We have three Nook’s laying around the house and my cell phone is great as a reader, too.  The only thing I miss is browsing for books at book stores and libraries.  If I am going to do that anymore, I better do it soon because I do not think they are going to be around too much longer.

I think I will try to download Rodney Stark’s new book a little later this afternoon to start reading while I walk on the treadmill at the YMCA.

Day 445 of 1000

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. –Revelation 3:16

Kelly talked about some friends and acquintances over the last few days who described themselves as apathetic about what they call politics.  They would also call themselves Christian.  There will be great suffering because of this apathy.  I just finished reading a blog post titled Preparing for Persecution.  The author of that post plans to write a series of six posts on the following topics:

1. We must go deep in Christ. He himself is our guide and our sustainer.
2. We must know clearly what we believe, and why.
3. We must train ourselves to be able to explain those beliefs and reasons, for we will be challenged on them.
4. We must demonstrate God’s goodness through self-sacrificial love.
5. We must act in unity, to the greatest extent possible consistent with our principles.
6. We must see God as greater than whatever may come our way.

The topics themselves encouraged me.  I am looking forward to reading the posts.  I think the results of the recent election were a great gift in that they have reminded us that Christ only is our king.  Even though we have not been perfect, we are more thankful than ever that we yanked our kids out of government school to “train them up in the way they should go” with the most important effort being the teaching of the kids what we believe and why we believe it.  We had rededicated ourselves to topics 1, 2, 3, and 6 before I read this post, but I think we need to add the other two.

Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle Of Democracy (1770)

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.

A friend posted this on Facebook (Hat tip Kayleen).  I thought it was apropos.  It is time to batten down the hatches because it certainly seems to be happening.

Day 444 of 1000

Leviticus 20

¹And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ² Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.  ³ And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.  ⁴ And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:  ⁵ Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.

In the Old Testament, God condemned to death by stoning those who killed their children.  Not only that, he harshly judged those who do in any ways hide their eyes from the man who killed their children.

Day 443 of 1000

It surely seems like in our time and place (2012 A.D. in the USA), voting is how we render onto Caesar what is Caesar’s.  Kelly voted for the first time in this round of elections.  Christian will not be eligible to vote until next year.  These elections feel more like sports to us than sports.  The consequences of the results are much greater, but God has his hand in it all, so it is not anything about which to worry too much.  Still, I usually stay up later than I should on election night, so this year I am going to make my best effort to take a long nap right after work.  Hopefully, we will know something before we go to bed.

Some fun news arrived today from Christian’s Foundations of Advanced Math professor. She recommended him for the math honors program. It would require him to take at least one really ugly class (Complex Analysis) that is not currently on his schedule. He will schedule a meeting later this week to talk about it with the professor who runs the program. If he can coordinate his current undergraduate research out of the Electrical Engineering department, I think he might go for it. Mostly it was pretty gratifying to be recommended for it half way through his Junior year.

Day 442 of 1000

I am gun shy about enaging in a political discussion with a fellow Christian these days.  That seems wrong somehow.  Many if not most political issues do not seem to have profound spiritual importance.  How to fund the community college is generally a subject on which Christians can disagree agreeable–if you know what I mean.  On the other hand, I do not understand how someone who calls themself a follower of Christ can admonish someone that abortion, traditional marriage, parental rights, and other such subjects are in the domain of politics and Christian’s can disagree about them and still be Christian.  In these cases where the bible is so clear, there is no room for Christian’s to waffle.  It is wrong to support politicians who support those things God hates.

My guy was not nominated this year, but my choice is clear.  I did not so much vote for Romney (although I am a big Paul Ryan fan), rather I voted against the guy who supports partial birth abortion which I believe is infanticide.  I also voted against the guy who wants to redefine marriage in the eyes of the law–thankfully he cannot redefine it in the eyes of God.

Day 441 of 1000

These are Phoebe and Lucia, the little matching fashion plates of our meeting.  They are a joy to watch!

Kelly was so excited when she went to vote that she thought she better write Paul’s and Mitt’s names on her hand so she would be sure to remember all the guys on the “handsome” ticket.

Day 437 of 1000

Kelly is taking some very hard classes this semester.  From before they started college I frequently reminded the kids they needed to visit their professors often.  There is more reason to do that than for instruction and socialization with the instructor.  Face to face visits were always motivational for me, especially when I was not doing so well in a class.  Somehow, I was more invested in doing well after a professor visit than if I just hung back and tried to get it on my own.  That advise paid of BIG time with Kelly today.  I hope she continues to make use of this essential academic behavior.

Lorena’s brother Rigo flew up from Toluca Mexico to New Jersey a couple of days ago to a town that is dead center in the path of Hurricane Sandy.  The will not let him leave his hotel.  Toluca’s temperatures ranges from a daily high of around 66 degrees to around 75 degrees in the summer.

Update:  Minita just sent a note telling us Rigo had gone to work at his companies home office, but will return to the hotel as soon as he can.  He is not in too much danger.

Day 435 of 1000

Early voting started her in North Carolina a few days ago.  Lorena and I just voted for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.  Kelly will vote for them tomorrow.

Day 426 of 1000

We had some folks over for dinner last night.  They mentioned they liked Mexican food.  Lorena loves that because she not only loves to eat it; she enjoys preparing it, too.  I took this picture while she was preparing the salsa yesterday afternoon.  The reds and greens of Mexican foods are vibrantly colorful and I could not resist taking the picture.  It was vry good to eat, too!