Loneliness and the Middle School Blues

April 25, 2006 @ 11:04 am by Kendall

Craig is gone this week to hunt with J.D. Huitt and Rick Thomas in Houston, Missouri. This is the first time that we have been apart, except for a sleepover at the Schatz’s with Briana, since we’ve been married. I cried when he left. Yes, I know that makes me seem like a three-year-old who has just been left with a babysitter, but I was genuinely sad that he was leaving me, even if just for a couple of days…he left Sunday and he’ll be home on Wednesday.

Anyway, three of my “little sisters” from church came to spend the night with me last night and J.D.’s wife, Hannah, came over, as well, and we had dinner together and just spent time catching up. When Craig left, I thought I would be the loneliest person alive and that I would spend my time crying over him and wishing that he would return. I have been surrounded with wonderful friends and family, however, so I haven’t felt the longing of company. Amazing for me, really. I think, however, he is missing home and is excited about returning to the normalcy of life here in good ole’ Sullivan.

Last night was a very interesting one for me, as the girls are having a hard time with allowing me to be their authority. For so long I’ve been their “big sister” and we have done so many things together and shared so much that I guess I’m more of their friend and confidant than in charge of them. This will be remedied with time and patience on my part and on theirs’ and I am not concerned about it all that much. What I am concerned about, however, is the huge burden that these young women deal with every day. One of the girls is in the seventh grade, in which girls she knows are involved in sexual promiscuity. It just boggles my mind to hear these things, breaks my heart to hear the two ninth graders talk about the many partners their friends have had and the parties that have occurred. My co-worker told me today that she is going to lock up her grandchildren. She is currently working with 5th and 6th graders on Sunday evenings to prepare them for the “war zone” they enter every day. When I was in middle school, the most important thing on my mind was which girl’s house the sleepover was at and which lip gloss was the one “in style”. Today, students are dealing with so much more and they are so young! It is up to us, as parents and friends and adults, to share the trials with these students, to reach out to them and be a place of refuge in this mixed-up, crazy world.

Please join with me in praying for our teenagers. They are dealing with so many struggles and burdens and I know that the load is often too much for them to bear. If you have a passion to work with teenagers, get plugged into a local church body and volunteer in the youth group. Be a shining light to these students, someone they can pour their heart out to without fear of retribution. Love them, with all you’ve got.

Kendall

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When Will The Insanity Stop?

April 19, 2006 @ 8:14 am by Pressed

We want to take God out of the pledge of allegiance and off of our money, we want to remove the ten commandments from the courtrooms, we want to remove the cross from memorial sites, and now we want to go so far as to change our whole dating system to a more secular dating method. Is this real? Can you really be serious?

The Kentucky Board of Education has voted to take the first step in redefining how America dates time. The board voted to include a new secular system of dating the calendar, BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era), and added it to the BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, Latin for “in the year of our Lord”) method.

The new secular system of time dating will appear in the curriculum and other materials used by Kentucky educators. This new system is already being included in textbooks across the nation.

The new method will replace the birth of Christ as the dividing point in history. For example, the new system would change 2006 AD (Anno Domini) to 2006 CE (Common Era).

According to the “religious conservatives”, as the media labels them, this is just another move to take religion out of our heritage and to remove any connection with God, Jesus, Lord, or anything else that might have anything to do with religion. On the other hand, the Kentucky educators simply say that this change would help the state’s students on national standardized tests, which use the new designators.

While my disdain for the media and their childish liberal tactics grows stronger everyday I must stop and ask the question: are the Kentucky educators really just trying to help standardized testing or is there something else going on here?

What do you think? Leave your comment below.

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Good Article In The SBC Life Magazine

April 18, 2006 @ 11:20 am by Pressed

I get the SBC Life magazine which is a journal for Southern Baptists that they send out. You can also read it for free online at http://www.sbclife.com/. There is an article this month written by Dr. Akin about Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. If you are interested in this subject you should go have a read, its pretty good. Go to the website and find the article on the side entitled Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility. If you are really interested you should read the article entitled TULIP of Calvinism which is pretty good too.

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An Idiom That Bothers Me

April 17, 2006 @ 10:12 am by Pressed

There is one saying or phrase that really bothers me for some reason. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but every time I hear it I just want to cover my ears and run away. I know that you are going to find this to be an extremely strange problem that I have, but I tell you this is true. I cannot stand it when I hear or see the expression, “the apple of your eye”. When we sing the song “As the Deer Panteth for the Water” our worship pastor always does the verse of that song that contains that dreaded phrase. I can’t even sing it and I shudder when everyone else sings it. I don’t know why, I just do.

So, of course, today I walk into the office and flip my handy, dandy scripture verse calendar to today’s date and lo and behold today’s scripture verse is Psalm 17:8

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” - Psalm 17:8

Not only that, I found it in other places as well.

Deuteronomy 32:10 - “In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye”

and

Zechariah 2:8 - “For this is what the Lord Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you–for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye–”

The expression means that someone is very special to you, or that person is cherished or valued. In fact, daughters and sons were often referred to as the “apple” of their parent’s eye and this phrase originates from King David himself. David is basically saying to God in Psalm 17:8, “God, cherish me, place value on my life, remember me and love me as your own child and hide me from my enemies.”

I have King David to thank for that expression.

It is comforting to think that God might cherish us as His very own child and that He would place that much value on our lives. It’s a powerful prayer that David offered to God and I will follow his example in this prayer, however, I think I will just come out and say it instead of using an idiom to get the point across.

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Oh My Goodness, Look What I’ve Done!

April 11, 2006 @ 2:05 pm by Pressed

I have accidently deleted my entire MSN contact list. This is quite unfortunate for me and it is a bit of an inconvenicence for all of those that were on my list since I don’t have a back up copy or a list of e-mail addresses that would help me reistablish my messanger.

So, here is a cry for help. If you were on my MSN contact list, I have lost you! Could you please either re-add me or e-mail me your e-mail address so that I can add you back to my MSN. If you were not on there and would like to be, then now is as good a time as any to get yourself your very own link to Pressed {themenofgod (aht) hotmail (doht) com}

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