Abstinence and World Peace

Pam Stenzel is a woman on a mission - she is a sex educator that travels the world telling young people the truth about sexual behavior.  She teaches abstinence before marriage as the only way to emotional, spiritual and physical health in so far as it stems from sexual behavior.

Visit Pam Stenzel's website for more info.

In one of her dvds she shares something insightful - at least I found it so. 

She was sharing with delegates from the United Nations about the importance of teaching young people around the world about the importance of abstinence before marrige.  She was asked why she persisted in teaching and pursuing something that would never happen.  "Our teenagers will be having sex." 

Pam reminded the delegates of their own mission statement.  It in essence is "World Peace" (you can google it for all the particulars).  She then asked the group if any of them truly believed that they would achieve a world with no war.  Only one sheepish soul in the back raised his hand. 
"Then why this lofty mission statement?" Pam wanted to know. "Why not just work towards safer war?"- and her point was clear. 

We don't pursue an idea because it is attainable.  We pursue an idea because it is right.

We don't teach our kids absolute truths because we are able to force them to adhere to these.  We teach these because it is right to do so - and what our children do with the truth is theirs to own.

I am a Solution

Everyone has problems.  Some people have really big problems, and some people have little problems that they make into big problems.  The Word says that in this life we will have trouble. 

I had the amazing privilege of listening to Gianna Jessen last fall.  She is a survivor of a failed saline abortion attempt. The induced labor took too quickly for her birth mother, and Gianna was born alive.  The abortionist hadn't arrived yet, and the nurse hadn't the heart to suffocate the baby girl (as was the common fate of many saline abortion survivors). 

Inspite of her cerebral palsy and obvious parental rejection,  Gianna practically shouted, "I am NOT a victim!". 

Viktor Frankl (author of Man's Search for Meaning) is a holocaust survivor. 

"During World war II, Dr. Frankl was imprisoned at Auschwitz, where he was stripped of his identity as a medical doctor and forced to work as a common laborer. Worst was, his father, mother, brother and wife died in the concentration camps. All his notes which represented his life’s work were destroyed. Yet Frankl emerged from Auschwitz believing that, “everything can be taken from a man except one thing:

the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

My favorite attitude in people around me is those who are PROBLEM-SOLVERS. 

If you want to be great in God's kingdom, you've got to be a servant of all.

(why or why can't I ever get Charity Churchmouse's voice out of my head when I hear that verse???)

Great servants are problem-solvers. 

"Solve task problems quickly," says Pastor Leon Fontaine, "because people problems are more important."

I want this.  I want to be a problem-solver.  God is the solution.  God designed us to be a solution when He came to dwell within us;  not a problem, but problem-solvers

SOLUTION - Hillsong, Joel Houston

It is not a human right To stare not fight - While broken nations dream

Open up our eyes, so blind That we might find - The Mercy for the need

It is not too far a cry To much to try - To help the least of these

Politics will not decide If we should rise - And be your hands and feet

Higher than a circumstance - Your promise stands, Your love for all to see

Higher than protest line and dollar signs, Your love is all we need

Only You can mend the broken heart, And cause the blind to see

Erase complete the sinners past, And set the captives free

Only You can take the widows cry, And cause her heart to sing

Be a Father to the fatherless, Our Savior and our King

Good medicine

Proverbs is full of good stuff.  Really good stuff.
My favorite is that laughter does us good like medicine.  That means laughter is healing.
I have a cold right now and have been contemplating various brands of decongestant - I'd settle for a good hard laugh.

More than anyone else I know, I have laughed at the most inappropriate times - take this past Tuesday for example.  We were at a training evening for work (the Pregnancy Care Centre).  The facilitator was my sister, and she was empathetically sharing ways to coach a woman through the pain of childbirth.  I suddenly got this image from when I'd been in labor with my last child, and I gave a little snort and a laugh.

A nurse had been unable to get an IV into my hand, and the other one tried to grab my hand and give it a whirl. 
The first nurse pulled my hand back, and somehow in the fracas, one of them ended up grabbing Dean's hand and going at him w/ the IV needle.  From the fog of my pain, I vaguely heard one say, "Can't you even tell the difference between a man and a woman's hand?"
The funniest part to me (although at the time I wasn't laughing), is that Dean just let them take his hand, and he never pulled away.  I still don't know why.

God has given me several friends that gift me with laughter.  My closest friend from childhood only has to look at me, and we burst into laughter. 

I love hearing my husband's laughter.  It just makes me feel like all parts of my world are alright.  When he really gets going he's got the most contagious shout of laughter.  Of course my kids' laughter is right up there on my list of things I love.  Madison giggles uncontrollably, Adrian belly chuckles, Kaden ducks his head so no one can see him out of control, and Carson's whole face lights up.  When we laugh together as a family I feel like we are being glued together.
Dean and I laugh together a lot.  Last summer we were pulling into a campground, when I saw 2 people out my window.  I watched them awkwardly interacting with each other and said quietly to myself, "They are SO weird."  I didn't think Dean had even heard until he drily whispered, "And they don't even know it." Well, we laughed  and laughed as the kids all begged us to tell them what was so funny.  It's hard to describe, but we laughed b/c we had so totally understood each other right then.

A great memory from our holidays to visit Dean's family this year was when Madison and I had a laugher moment.  Someone said something inappropriate while we were driving along in the truck and she let out the most unladylike snort and clamped a hand over her mouth in embarassment.  Well, the comment had struck me as incredibly funny as well.  Our eyes caught and we both burst into giggles until we cried. 
I loved laughing with her.

 Laugher isn't just good medicine - it's glue.
Laughing together with someone can erase a lot of hurt and misunderstanding. 
Laughter isn't just good medicine - it's the best.


p.s.  Don't you love this guy's lips?

Princesses and all that

I've always loved the story of Cinderella - it was my project story for Children's Lit. in university.  It's still my favourite.

In our culture, calling someone "princess" carries conotations of privilege, being served, and outer beauty. 

I prefer to think of the POSITION of princess, rather than the PERSON of princess.

One of my all-time favourite quotes is from Ever After (the movie) when the queen tells her son, "With great privilege comes great responsibility." (although I heard that exact same quote in Spiderman as well, it doesn't carry nearly the emotional thump for me in that genre)

The names that come to mind when I think of Daughter of the King a.k.a. Princess, are Amy Carmichael and Mother Teresa, among others. 

Amy Carmichael chose mission work in India.  It is reported that she worked for 55 years without a furlough.  Her ministry was to young girls forced into prositution at the Hindu temples.  Respect for the Indian culture had her dye her skin dark, and thank God for her brown eyes that helped her fit in (as a child she had prayed that God would miraculously change her eyes to blue). 
She is quoted as saying "One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."
My favorite quote of hers is

"It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires

which He creates"

For many years Amy Carmichael was known to the children she rescued simply as "Amma" - which means mother.

Isn't this operating at the most influential with all the privilege that she was born with? 
Isn't that "princess-ish"?

Mother Teresa's life is no less inspiring. 
No sequined gowns, servants serving, bonbons or gilded carriages to be found here.  No concern about tiny waists, manicured hands, or perfectly coifed hair to clutter thoughts and emotions about identity. 

That brings to mind another princess... Charity Graff who runs the Gentle Hands orphanage in the Philippines.
In her recent update she writes about the death of a little boy:

Why then, do my eyes search the crowd for his little face. The little smile that showed only rotton black stubs of his teeth. Why is my heart aching? Why are these tears burning my eyes? Why do I feel weak when I think of him? For more than a year, I have tried to rescue him. My cries have fallen on stone deaf ears. And now he is gone.
I didn’t do enough. God, forgive me.
I did not even know his name.
Visit Gentle Hands site

STEEPLES (what a weird word)

 I have a funny fascination with church steeples.  When I'm an old lady going on trips, I hope to go at a slow enough pace to stop and take more pictures of steeples.

  ~all these church steeples are from our trips to Banff and Lake Louise~

I find church steeples very unapologetic.  They are bold, and inspire confidence.  Steeples attract attention, and then redirect that attention - suggesting one consider God for at least a moment as they pass by.


If people were all different parts of the church building, I'm pretty sure I'd not be the steeple. I admire the steeple for obvious reasons, but I think I'm more along the lines of a microphone (at least that's the unsavory title I received when going through a ladies' Bible study one time). I'd prefer to be a window or even a pew, but I'm pretty sure I'm a microphone.

 Reminds me of the verses about all the parts of the body being important.  And I can easily agree that all the parts are important, it's just that we'd all rather be the capable, beautiful, sensitive (and needless to say carefully manicured) fingers. None of us wants to be the liver no matter how important it is. 

So I'm a microphone. The issue that I have with that is that microphones don't ONLY project what you want them to.  They make EVERYTHING more noticable.  Along with the pleasure of sharing truths about God's Word, it's an uncomfortable feeling to know that if I don't deal with the uglies in my heart, they are bound to make themselves noticable to others at some point.  Yuck.  

SO, I'm a microphone.  At least I'm not the orange carpet.

A Favorite Place

A "must" for us every January is to play on the beach in Huntington. 

We can chronicle the growth of our children by the pictures we've taken on this beach.  First just Maddie and AJ, then we added Kaden and Carson to the sandy photos.  From toddlers holding onto our fingers for stability in the oncoming waves, to long pre-teen legs wandering the water's edge, the background of the ocean stays the same, while the kids in the pictures race to grow up. 

It's a healthy dose of perspective to stand at the edge of the ocean and look at forever.  It gives me my yearly reminder of "little fish, big pond" - which only serves to make my Father's attention even more amazing.  The song begins to play in my head: "Who am I that the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name..."   

Blessed...

I don't even know where to begin. How does one comment on God's hand in her life without sounding cliche or trite, or worse - proud.

But I will try to touch on one evidence of grace in the "everyday-ness" of life.
I am blessed to lead 5 jr. high girls on a quest to understand their position as a daughter of the King. Of course you can't give what you haven't got, so I've got to be one step ahead of them - seeking my reflection in Father's eyes. Who am I to the Maker of everything?
His Word says my name is carved on the palm of His hand. What an impacting idea - He so wanted to remember me that I am written on His hand.
Are 12-year-olds able to grasp the big-ness of that? I'm not sure I am.

Can anyone with a daughter not know God's good gifts?  It is said that a child with many names is well loved.  That would describe our girl.  She is Madison, Maddie, Sweetheart, Sunshine, Papa's Star, Princess, and much more.  We wandered the Huntington Beach in Cali one warm January day, and I can't believe that my firstborn is almost as tall as I am.  Wasn't it just a little while ago that she fit curled up against my shoulder with her knees tucked up against my chest.  Sometimes the way time flies makes me ache a little.