Now mom who was the ‘bad’ parent in this sequence of events is in court trying to have the father found unfit because he wouldn’t give in to the kid’s hissy fit. The father has been beaten down to the point that he is quoted in the story as saying that he wished he had taken the boy to McDonald’s. Now this is a divorce / child custody battle and I am sure that there are many other things involved, but this part is pretty simple no one wins when selfish childish outbursts are rewarded and not disciplined. What do you think about it? - jp
According to a recent news article that you can read at the NY Post site, there are some people who have lost their minds about parenting in our society. What is worse is that they have pushed someone who was trying to do what was right into apologizing for doing the right thing. The gist of the story goes this way: a father was going to take his son out to eat (Not so bad yet). The boy didn’t want to go to that restaurant and threw a tantrum (Ever been there). The boy wanted to go to McDonald’s (No big surprise there). What should a good parent do? Reward the tantrum? I’ll be honest this father was much softer than I tend to be. He told the boy they could go anywhere except McDonald’s or not eat. See I would say forget it you can have a sandwich at home. This boy chose to make his stand ‘take me to McDonald’s’. Do you know why he made the stand? Because he knew he would win (Only he didn’t win, everyone lost). At this point in the standoff mom comes to the ‘rescue’ and takes Junior to McDonald’s just like he wanted.
Now mom who was the ‘bad’ parent in this sequence of events is in court trying to have the father found unfit because he wouldn’t give in to the kid’s hissy fit. The father has been beaten down to the point that he is quoted in the story as saying that he wished he had taken the boy to McDonald’s. Now this is a divorce / child custody battle and I am sure that there are many other things involved, but this part is pretty simple no one wins when selfish childish outbursts are rewarded and not disciplined. What do you think about it? - jp
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If you are interested in the news events in this country that affect Christianity in general, though not the church of Christ specifically and you can handle it without becoming to depressed by the things that are being allowed and promoted around the U. S. you might be interested in this news site. I don't know if it is associated with any specific religious group, but they do keep up with things going on religiously in America.
Your children WILL face thing you never imagined! About three years ago in a meeting with some church leaders and teenage boys, one of the boys asked what to most of the older men seemed to be a foolish and ridiculous question. The young man asked what would happen if you married a woman and then found out that she was not really a woman. Some of the men immediately berated him for even asking such a question, but even though at this point it would be a rather rare event and might seem insane, I have seen at least 3 news stories this past year (one today that reminded me of these events) where just that or something similar had happened, and I imagine it will become more common in the future as people become more and more wicked. I know that sometimes teens are just acting out with foolishness, but other times there are real questions and fears that they have that we need to help them deal with in a Christian way.
Instead of ignoring this question, I helped to point them toward a good way to avoid that and many other dangers involved in marriage. While you can not avoid every danger out there, you can limit the possibilities. We often spend all of our time talking about divorce and remarriage doctrine rather than helping our young people prepare for a successful marriage and then helping those who are married to make it work. That is a huge mistake, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I talked to them about the importance of spending a large amount of time getting to know the person before marriage. Meet the family, learn everything you can about their past, present, and plans and hopes for the future. I impressed upon them that it is essential to marry a Christian, but that even that is no promise of clear sailing. Christians have pasts and some of them are not pleasant. They may have been vying with Paul to be chief of sinners before becoming a Christian. Even those who grew up in a Christian home may have been exposed to all kinds of sinful habits that they are still struggling with. Now that homosexual marriage has been legalized in several states there will be problems that will arise in dealing with people who may be converted out of that sinfulness. What do you tell a young woman who was a lesbian and was married to another woman in one of these states, but who now wants to become a Christian and go straight and might want to find a Christian man and marry and have a family? Many would not even know where to begin. Our children may have to deal with these kinds of strange circumstances and no telling what others that we can’t imagine. The first century church had to deal with new problems on a continual basis, and they might have had some similar problems to those of our society. The church in Corinth had members that had come from all kinds of sinful backgrounds including homosexuality, and it was a challenge for them to keep going in the right direction without falling back into their old sinful habits. How can you prepare for something you can’t even imagine? It isn’t easy, but the best way is to have a deep understanding of Biblical principles so that you can apply them to different circumstances. The concept is fairly simple: there are many things that are not mentioned specifically in the Bible, but that violate principles. When we consider addictions such as gambling, pornography, or even drugs we realize that there is not a verse that says, ‘don’t do _______’, but the Bible does teach us not to be brought under the power of anything, 1 Corinthians 6:12. So, why can’t we learn to do the same thing in all kinds of areas of life? We can, but we often don’t because we don’t know the Bible well enough to actually put two and two together to get four. If we will study and learn the Bible’s teaching and principles better we will make better choices. That is the only way to prepare for things that don’t just have a ‘thou shalt not’ verse. jp We're still here!
As almost everyone assumed, the whole end of the world predicted by the Mayans came and went without killing us all, unless I died and didn't notice. We all joke about it and it is funny in some ways. Obviously for those of us who believe the Bible and know what Jesus said understand the end of the world cannot be predicted. Matthew 24:36 tells us only God, the Father, knows and if He didn't tell His own son He wouldn't tell the Mayans or some wacko preacher either. That being said, there is a side to these end-of-the-world predictions that makes me sad as a Christian. Peter addresses this problem in the third chapter of his second letter. Verses 3 and 4 explain that there will be people who will mock Christians because Jesus has not returned and they laugh at those who believe He is coming back. As a Bible-believer I believe and expect that you also believe that Jesus is going to return for His bride, the church, to take her home with Him not to live here. Now here is the what saddens me about the whole list of failed prophecies about the end: It encourages and emboldens those who are already tempted to resist the gospel because it confirms for them that the end is not coming. What they fail to do as Peter says is look at the facts of history, specifically, the flood of Noah's day. I would also suggest, that while they are laughing at us because we still believe the end is coming even though we did not believe it would yesterday, they are missing a huge fact that stares us in the face every day. According to the statistics the U.S. Census Bureau and World Health Organization provide . . . this world did come to an end yesterday . . . for over 153,000 people, and it will end today for about the same number. Yes, even on Christmas day it will end for about that many as well. These moronic failed predictions have encouraged millions to enter eternity unprepared, and will continue to do so. Don't be deceived, God is not slack concerning his promise. Jesus will return and we don't know when, so we should be prepared every day. - jp What if...? Consider the school where a child you care about attends. Now, imagine there is a substitute teacher who gives that child some advice. The teacher tells the student "Do not dwell in the past." Imagine what that teacher might say when the same child asks "Who said that?" The teacher tells this youngster that it was Buddha. What if the child continued to inquire about who Buddha was and what he said and so forth? What if the teacher helped the child find a book about Buddha at the library? What if the teacher gave his own copy of a book to the child? Would you be upset? Would you be pleased? Would it matter to you? Would you think that was an appropriate thing for the teacher to do? Would you want the teacher suspended or fired?
After you think about that for a while, ask yourself what if I were a substitute and said something like "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". What would you say if a child asked you who said it and what book was it in and who was this Jesus guy? What if he told you he didn't have a Bible, would you offer to give him one? If you did do you think it would be worthy of being fired? Do you think that is something some other people should be angry about? Now, if you said you would give the kid the Bible in that situation, does thinking about that and how others would feel about it make you think any differently about the first situation? Where does answering a question become indoctrination? What is appropriate or inappropriate discussion for people of different religious beliefs to have not only with each other as adults, but also with children. Do we think that we should be able to freely talk about Jesus, but expect that people of other religions will not think that they should have the same right. The truth is never scared to be out in the mix. It can stand on its own feet and go toe to toe with any other belief system. The problem is others are scared of the truth because they can't stand up to it, so, they try to shut it out and shut it up. Notice the following story about a scenario like the ones above that actually happened. http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/teacher-faces-suspension-for-sharing-bible-verse.html jp Another crazy story in the news this week where a woman starved to death because she was convinced that she could live on nothing but sunlight and air. You can read the whole story at http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/25/woman-starved-to-death-on-light-diet/ . I know Jesus said that we should not live on bread alone, but He didn't say we could live without food. Jesus Himself fasted for 40 days, but since there is no mention of it being a miraculous fast, He had to have had water during that time.
It can be good for us to fast and have power over our bodies, Sometimes our spiritual side needs to remind the physical who is boss, but being abusive to our bodies is not being spiritually mature. Let's work to teach our children enough common sense and reason that they will not be gullible enough to fall for something so absurd. I keep an eye out for news stories that give insight into the culture war between the humanistic atheistic, secular side of our society and the religious, Judeo-Christian side of our society. I saw a story about an on-going struggle between these two groups at Vanderbilt University and thought you might be interested. You can read the whole story and look at some older stories on the subject at http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/vanderbilt-tells-group-leaders-can%e2%80%99t-be-followers-of-christ.html and you may even want to check in with Todd Starnes occasionally to see news of this kind if it interests you.
The gist of the story is that there was a religious group on campus that had, as many religious groups would, in their rules that someone who was a leader in their organization had to believe in certain things. In this particular case they had to have a "personal commitment to Jesus Christ". The university said that they had to change that to allow anyone to be a leader. The insanity of these things is obvious to anyone with any common sense. A Christian would not be a good leader in the Atheist group, a Democrat would not be a good leader in the Libertarian group, a Catholic would not be a good leader in the Jewish group, and a Muslim would not be a good leader in a Christian group. The freedom to choose with whom we associate and for an organization to set its own rules for membership and association has been a fundamental right in our society that is now under attack. I wonder if they apply these same kind of rules to the liberal groups on their campus. |