OK, it's time to admit I'm a bit of a government and political nerd. I do not belong to any major (or minor for that matter) political party. In fact there are things I hate and like about both the Democrats and Republicans. I just like the political process and am fascinated with elections in particular. I memorized the Presidents of the United States when I was in 8th Grade and still know all of their first, middle, last names, and party affiliation. I am pretty accurate and stating their time served as well. NERD!
After watching the results of last night's Iowa Caucasus, it surprised me how many people have no idea who is actually running for President of the United States. So let me help you out a little bit. A couple of good web-sites to go to for some information are CNN's Election Center 2008 or Fox News' You Decide 2008. Both these sites give you a brief biography of each candidate, what their ideas are in some of the major issues and how many delegates towards nomination they have.
Now I present to you a list of all the candidates for the two major parties who are still in the race. Just click on their names to go directly to their official Presidential Campaign Site. Just to let you know Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen. Chris Dodd officially dropped out of the race after poor showings last night in Iowa.
First the Democrats
Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois
Sen. Hillary Clinton, New York
Former Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina
Gov. Bill Richardson, New Mexico
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio
Former Sen. Mike Gravel, Alaska
And now the Republicans
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Arkansas
Former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, New York
Former Gov. Mitt Romney, Massachusetts
Sen. John McCain, Arizona
Former Sen. Fred Thompson, Tennessee
Rep. Ron Paul, Texas
Rep. Duncan Hunter, California
Now I'm not endorsing any candidate at this point! I'm just presenting you the information so you can make an informed choice when you state goes to the polls soon for the party primaries. I strongly urge you to look at each candidate and see what their views and positions are, not only for President but for your Federal State Senate & House seats, as well as State and local candidates. Be an informed voter and choose wisely!
Update: Jan. 10, 2008 -- Democratic Candidate, Bill Richardson, has announced he is withdrawing from his bid to become President. (click here for official announcement)
About ME
- Mr. E
- Grand Prairie, Texas, United States
- Mr. E is a Christian, Husband, Father of 2, former Army Officer and Texas Rangers Baseball fan.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
How Many More Days Until the Next Break?
Today everyone in my family returned to our normal routine of school and/or work. (Actually my wife returned to work yesterday.) The kids were glad to be able to see their friends again, but were sad they didn't have more time to spend with some of their new Christmas goodies. My wife said she had a good day at work yesterday and it felt good to be back in the swing of things.
As for me...I'm bored! As a teacher, I tend to have to return to work a couple of days before the students arrive in order to do lesson preparations. Me being "obsessive compulsive" I already had the majority of this done before I left for the holiday break. So after being at work for about 30 minutes, I have finished my lesson planning and am looking for something else to do. I think we have some student evaluation paperwork to do, but that will only take up another hour or two at the most. That leaves 6 hours today and another 8 hours tomorrow to sit around, be bored and look busy. I am going to pray (after I blog) that God leads me to something productive to do to help me be a better teacher and be better prepared for when the students arrive on Monday.
It's always tough to return to work after a long break. Now I'm just wondering How many more days until the next break. (I think it's the 21st, to celebrate MLK Jr.'s B-day!)
As for me...I'm bored! As a teacher, I tend to have to return to work a couple of days before the students arrive in order to do lesson preparations. Me being "obsessive compulsive" I already had the majority of this done before I left for the holiday break. So after being at work for about 30 minutes, I have finished my lesson planning and am looking for something else to do. I think we have some student evaluation paperwork to do, but that will only take up another hour or two at the most. That leaves 6 hours today and another 8 hours tomorrow to sit around, be bored and look busy. I am going to pray (after I blog) that God leads me to something productive to do to help me be a better teacher and be better prepared for when the students arrive on Monday.
It's always tough to return to work after a long break. Now I'm just wondering How many more days until the next break. (I think it's the 21st, to celebrate MLK Jr.'s B-day!)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
The Pains of Being Disciplined
One of the hardest things to do when you are a parent is to effectively discipline your children, and yourself on occasion. It's hard not to let emotions take over and ruin good teachable moments or take the focus of the lesson you want your children to learn. For example...
Near the end of last year our family changed our rules system in an attempt to be more fair and be more ordered in our approach to discipline. The rules we adopted are based upon a book called, FAMILY Rules: Positive Parenting with a Plan (Grades K-12) by: Matthew A. Johnson. As a part of this system, when a family rule is broken, the offender must pull a card, or cards depending on the rule broken, to try an re-enforce positive behaviors rather than the negative behaviors we chose to do. Even parents must pull cards when they break rules. I have had to pull more than anyone since we started the system. (I accidentally ran a red-light {10 cards}, I have cussed twice {3 cards each time}, I was sarcastic in my words three times {1 card for each offense}, I failed to have my part of the parent's room straight in a timely manner {1 card}, I failed on my one day of the week to feed the dog {1 card})
The hardest part is when your children must pull cards when they feel they were "justified" in what they did or they feel they did nothing wrong. It's not hard to make the decision to have them pull cards or to even explain why what they did was wrong. It is hard to see them, when they genuinely feel remorse and they have to struggle to do the "punishment/good behavior re-enforcer" the card tells them to do. It's hard not to run over to them and just hug them and forgive them of all wrong doing. It's hard not to "take back" the punishment to stop their hurt. But we can't!
We can't stop them from feeling remorse. It's the feeling of remorse that causes our "pride" to hurt. It is that kind of pain that causes us to look inside ourselves and seek what can truly stop all of our pain and suffering. It causes us to seek our Father, Our Creator. It causes us to see that what wrongs we have done not only hurts ourselves, but it also hurts others. Our wrongs hurts other family members, friends, and most importantly it hurts our God. When we finally come to grips with this fact. We can seek forgiveness and accept His grace for what it really is. Not just an excuse to keep doing our bad behaviors, but the freedom from having to do the bad things in the first place.
So we watch our children as they cry and attempt to sort through their budding new emotions and feelings. We watch them and attempt to guide their feelings in positive ways so they don't feel that they are "totally evil." We listen to them as they try their best to relate their feelings to you. Sometimes it comes in angry outburst. Sometimes it comes in confused bits of conversation or writings on paper. We do our best to be patient and understanding. We know, sort of, what they are going through because we were kids once ourselves. It's just hard.
So really the hard part is just watching them learn. It's hard and painful sometimes, but they will live through it. I hope I'm not just rambling on and on. I tried to make a point. Maybe I am still learning as well and need to just write a few minutes to sort through what I am feeling as well. After all I am still a child myself. I am a child of the King!
Near the end of last year our family changed our rules system in an attempt to be more fair and be more ordered in our approach to discipline. The rules we adopted are based upon a book called, FAMILY Rules: Positive Parenting with a Plan (Grades K-12) by: Matthew A. Johnson. As a part of this system, when a family rule is broken, the offender must pull a card, or cards depending on the rule broken, to try an re-enforce positive behaviors rather than the negative behaviors we chose to do. Even parents must pull cards when they break rules. I have had to pull more than anyone since we started the system. (I accidentally ran a red-light {10 cards}, I have cussed twice {3 cards each time}, I was sarcastic in my words three times {1 card for each offense}, I failed to have my part of the parent's room straight in a timely manner {1 card}, I failed on my one day of the week to feed the dog {1 card})
The hardest part is when your children must pull cards when they feel they were "justified" in what they did or they feel they did nothing wrong. It's not hard to make the decision to have them pull cards or to even explain why what they did was wrong. It is hard to see them, when they genuinely feel remorse and they have to struggle to do the "punishment/good behavior re-enforcer" the card tells them to do. It's hard not to run over to them and just hug them and forgive them of all wrong doing. It's hard not to "take back" the punishment to stop their hurt. But we can't!
We can't stop them from feeling remorse. It's the feeling of remorse that causes our "pride" to hurt. It is that kind of pain that causes us to look inside ourselves and seek what can truly stop all of our pain and suffering. It causes us to seek our Father, Our Creator. It causes us to see that what wrongs we have done not only hurts ourselves, but it also hurts others. Our wrongs hurts other family members, friends, and most importantly it hurts our God. When we finally come to grips with this fact. We can seek forgiveness and accept His grace for what it really is. Not just an excuse to keep doing our bad behaviors, but the freedom from having to do the bad things in the first place.
So we watch our children as they cry and attempt to sort through their budding new emotions and feelings. We watch them and attempt to guide their feelings in positive ways so they don't feel that they are "totally evil." We listen to them as they try their best to relate their feelings to you. Sometimes it comes in angry outburst. Sometimes it comes in confused bits of conversation or writings on paper. We do our best to be patient and understanding. We know, sort of, what they are going through because we were kids once ourselves. It's just hard.
So really the hard part is just watching them learn. It's hard and painful sometimes, but they will live through it. I hope I'm not just rambling on and on. I tried to make a point. Maybe I am still learning as well and need to just write a few minutes to sort through what I am feeling as well. After all I am still a child myself. I am a child of the King!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Dying to One's Self Is Not Easy
It seems the past few weeks or so I have been reading or hearing things that point to the need for Christians to "Die to their former selves and be reborn into their new life with Christ!" At first I was dismissing these "cues" as if to say, "I was baptized and I have repented of my sins. God loves me now and that is that!" I think God wanted me to hear more.
In my Sunday morning class at my church...we have been talking about how you must undergo a severe humbling process in order to turn your life fully over the the will of God. You must give up your own will, not only in mind, but in body, to the will of the Father. Even if the desires to continue in our sinful ways pull hard on our hearts, it's what the body does that shows the true desires of our hearts. We may confess all day long that we want to give up our sins, addictions, and selfish behaviors, but when we continue to choose to wallow in our hopelessness and choose not to act on our faith in God, we are showing that we are still giving in to the desire of our hearts to do what We want to do not what God wants us to do.
I have also been reading a book called "When Heaven Weeps" by Ted Dekker. In it the main character keeps referring to how Christians as a whole refuse to join Christ in His cruel and terrible death in order to show His love to others. He states we are perfectly fine to confess the love of Jesus, but we refuse to get our hands dirty to work to show that love. We say we love others, but if it means pain and suffering for ourselves, we will choose Self over Others every time.
God calls us to die our old self and join Christ in death. It is absolutely necessary to do this in order to fully understand, accept and act upon His Grace. There is a quote from the book that stands out..."Is the death of the will any less painful than the death of the body? Call it figurative if it makes you comfortable, but in reality the death of the will is far more traumatic than the death of the body." " In the death of the body the nerve endings soon stop feeling. In the death of the will the heart doesn't stop its bleeding so quickly."
Giving up our selfish will is hard to do. It's something I myself need to come face to face with. I am scared to death to do it. I have been a Christian for some time, but It's hard to show any tangible evidence of my faith as far as actively loving others is concerned. Recent events in my life have caused me to be much less judgemental when it comes to looking at the sins and actions of others, but I still have a hard time actively loving them.
My New Year's Resolution is to pray that God allows me to die to old self and be reborn a person who is fully capable of loving others the same way that He loves me. I am terrified of how God may choose to do this, but I know it will be the best thing for me. I am ready, I think. Pray for Me!
In my Sunday morning class at my church...we have been talking about how you must undergo a severe humbling process in order to turn your life fully over the the will of God. You must give up your own will, not only in mind, but in body, to the will of the Father. Even if the desires to continue in our sinful ways pull hard on our hearts, it's what the body does that shows the true desires of our hearts. We may confess all day long that we want to give up our sins, addictions, and selfish behaviors, but when we continue to choose to wallow in our hopelessness and choose not to act on our faith in God, we are showing that we are still giving in to the desire of our hearts to do what We want to do not what God wants us to do.
I have also been reading a book called "When Heaven Weeps" by Ted Dekker. In it the main character keeps referring to how Christians as a whole refuse to join Christ in His cruel and terrible death in order to show His love to others. He states we are perfectly fine to confess the love of Jesus, but we refuse to get our hands dirty to work to show that love. We say we love others, but if it means pain and suffering for ourselves, we will choose Self over Others every time.
God calls us to die our old self and join Christ in death. It is absolutely necessary to do this in order to fully understand, accept and act upon His Grace. There is a quote from the book that stands out..."Is the death of the will any less painful than the death of the body? Call it figurative if it makes you comfortable, but in reality the death of the will is far more traumatic than the death of the body." " In the death of the body the nerve endings soon stop feeling. In the death of the will the heart doesn't stop its bleeding so quickly."
Giving up our selfish will is hard to do. It's something I myself need to come face to face with. I am scared to death to do it. I have been a Christian for some time, but It's hard to show any tangible evidence of my faith as far as actively loving others is concerned. Recent events in my life have caused me to be much less judgemental when it comes to looking at the sins and actions of others, but I still have a hard time actively loving them.
My New Year's Resolution is to pray that God allows me to die to old self and be reborn a person who is fully capable of loving others the same way that He loves me. I am terrified of how God may choose to do this, but I know it will be the best thing for me. I am ready, I think. Pray for Me!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Shows My Kids Watch (Cartoons at least!)
I always make it a point to at least try to watch what my kids are watching on television. You never know what kind of messages and values the world is trying to instill in your children that is contrary to what God's truth is. Mostly our family does not watch much network television, but my kids, thus I by default, watch a few of the shows on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and the Disney Channel. We do not watch them all the time, we just pick these if we have nothing else to do. (Most of the time they would rather play outside or play video games.) After watching some of the "newer" cartoons, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the new animated shows are stupid and are very annoying. It makes me miss the classic cartoons I used to watch as a child.
A brief list of some of the shows my kids watch from time to time (I try to steer them away from these shows as much as possible) are: Naruto (This is an excessively violent and annoying Japanese cartoon with a lot of yelling that hurts my ears. It also had some vulgar language and the main character harnesses the power of a demon, that he has inside of him, to try and do good things.), The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (This show features an extremely rude and disrespectful girl whose parents are afraid of her, an extremely gross and stupid boy with very stupid parents, and the Grim Reaper. It teaches kids that parents are dumb and easily manipulated and that stupidity and outright cruelty are acceptable behaviors.), Ed, Edd and Eddy (Yet another show with greedy, stupid and annoying sounds that get on my nerves. It teaches kids that its OK to cheat or injure others in order to achieve what ever goal you want, especially making money.), My Gym Partner is a Monkey (A show about a boy whose is sent to an animal school because of a mix up in his last name. It features a monkey who is obsessed with his butt and anything else gross. It also has annoying sounds that just grates your nerves.), Code Name: Kids Next Door (This show portrays parents as dumb people who are dictators and should be controlled by children who are really the smartest and dominate people on the planet. Grown ups in general are the enemy and should not be respected.) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (This show is another Japanese import that features a kid possessed by an Egyptian Prince? and it teaches kids that demons and false gods are real and their powers can be harnessed through sets of "playing cards".)
There is at least one show that we watch regularly that I am starting to grown concerned about; Pokémon. This show started out as something even I liked, but the more I watch it the more I am growing concerned that the show is teaching nature worship. The more recent episodes and books based on the series also teach that the universe was possibly created by the creatures called Pokemon and that they are responsible for the balance of the nature, time, and humanity as well. I am not sure this is the message I want my kids to be indoctrinated with.
Some current "family" shows I will not allow my kids to watch at all are: The Simpsons (The epitome of a bad TV show. A stupid and abusive father, rude and disrespectful children, not to mention the crude and gross behaviors of everyone else on the show.), Futurama (from the creators of the Simpsons, this show is outright vulgar, sexual and crude. Lucky for us it comes on very late at night.), and South Park (vulgar language, crude behavior, racist attitudes, and violent.)
Not all of the newer shows are bad though (At least as far as I can tell). Some shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Code Lyoko and Back at the Barnyard may have annoying things in them, but so far I have not found anything I particularly object to. I am still forming an opinion about the newest show my kids are watching called, Chowder (The show is about a little "kid" who eats almost anything and wants to be a great chef. Funny thing about this show is that all the main characters are named after foods. It is a dumb show but nothing objectionable yet.)
What happened to the good shows that taught some basic good moral values like: Rugrats, Doug, and PB & J Otter? Those were some good shows! Some shows I am glad to see off the air, such as Beavis and Butt-head and Ren and Stimpy.
At least I keep track of what my kids are watching. Some parents don't even know anything about the shows that their kids watch. Let me know what you think?
A brief list of some of the shows my kids watch from time to time (I try to steer them away from these shows as much as possible) are: Naruto (This is an excessively violent and annoying Japanese cartoon with a lot of yelling that hurts my ears. It also had some vulgar language and the main character harnesses the power of a demon, that he has inside of him, to try and do good things.), The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (This show features an extremely rude and disrespectful girl whose parents are afraid of her, an extremely gross and stupid boy with very stupid parents, and the Grim Reaper. It teaches kids that parents are dumb and easily manipulated and that stupidity and outright cruelty are acceptable behaviors.), Ed, Edd and Eddy (Yet another show with greedy, stupid and annoying sounds that get on my nerves. It teaches kids that its OK to cheat or injure others in order to achieve what ever goal you want, especially making money.), My Gym Partner is a Monkey (A show about a boy whose is sent to an animal school because of a mix up in his last name. It features a monkey who is obsessed with his butt and anything else gross. It also has annoying sounds that just grates your nerves.), Code Name: Kids Next Door (This show portrays parents as dumb people who are dictators and should be controlled by children who are really the smartest and dominate people on the planet. Grown ups in general are the enemy and should not be respected.) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (This show is another Japanese import that features a kid possessed by an Egyptian Prince? and it teaches kids that demons and false gods are real and their powers can be harnessed through sets of "playing cards".)
There is at least one show that we watch regularly that I am starting to grown concerned about; Pokémon. This show started out as something even I liked, but the more I watch it the more I am growing concerned that the show is teaching nature worship. The more recent episodes and books based on the series also teach that the universe was possibly created by the creatures called Pokemon and that they are responsible for the balance of the nature, time, and humanity as well. I am not sure this is the message I want my kids to be indoctrinated with.
Some current "family" shows I will not allow my kids to watch at all are: The Simpsons (The epitome of a bad TV show. A stupid and abusive father, rude and disrespectful children, not to mention the crude and gross behaviors of everyone else on the show.), Futurama (from the creators of the Simpsons, this show is outright vulgar, sexual and crude. Lucky for us it comes on very late at night.), and South Park (vulgar language, crude behavior, racist attitudes, and violent.)
Not all of the newer shows are bad though (At least as far as I can tell). Some shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Code Lyoko and Back at the Barnyard may have annoying things in them, but so far I have not found anything I particularly object to. I am still forming an opinion about the newest show my kids are watching called, Chowder (The show is about a little "kid" who eats almost anything and wants to be a great chef. Funny thing about this show is that all the main characters are named after foods. It is a dumb show but nothing objectionable yet.)
What happened to the good shows that taught some basic good moral values like: Rugrats, Doug, and PB & J Otter? Those were some good shows! Some shows I am glad to see off the air, such as Beavis and Butt-head and Ren and Stimpy.
At least I keep track of what my kids are watching. Some parents don't even know anything about the shows that their kids watch. Let me know what you think?
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Who is a God like You?
I have been a Christian for the majority of my natural life. In all the years I have been a Christian I have to honestly say that I have read the Bible from cover to cover only twice (maybe three) time ever. I am just about to finish it for the third (maybe fourth) time. The hardest part of reading the Bible, to me, is reading through the major and minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament. The prophetic language is sometimes hard to understand and it seems very repetitive.
In my most recent attempt at reading through these books, I have tried to look at them with open eyes and with an open mind. What I discovered made me very sad, then angry and then extremely happy. The sad part was reading about the punishment that God was going to inflict on his people if they did not repent from their sinful ways and return to a life of righteousness and relationship with God. The angry part was that despite God's many warnings of what this punishment was, the Israelites and Judeans kept on sinning. I mean God warned them over and over again, that if they would just repent, He would save them. He wanted to show them mercy, but they ignored Him right on up to the point where they were carried away into captivity by their enemies. The happy part was knowing that God loved them enough to delay their punishment until everyone had heard the warnings and had a chance to repent. He loved them enough, that even when the punishment was carried out, He took care of the few who were faithful and blessed them anyway. Wow!
What a God! I think the prophet Micah sums it up best in his book. Micah 7:18-20 says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our iniquities into the depth of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago."
God does not want to punish us! He does not want to send any of His children to captivity in Hell! God wanted to show His love for us so much, that He died for us in the form of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. He wants to show us His mercy and grace. He wants us to listen to the warnings. He wants those who have received Him to share the warnings and the good news of Grace to others. I pray that those who deny Jesus and continue to ignore the warnings wake up and accept His offers of mercy before it's to late.
In my most recent attempt at reading through these books, I have tried to look at them with open eyes and with an open mind. What I discovered made me very sad, then angry and then extremely happy. The sad part was reading about the punishment that God was going to inflict on his people if they did not repent from their sinful ways and return to a life of righteousness and relationship with God. The angry part was that despite God's many warnings of what this punishment was, the Israelites and Judeans kept on sinning. I mean God warned them over and over again, that if they would just repent, He would save them. He wanted to show them mercy, but they ignored Him right on up to the point where they were carried away into captivity by their enemies. The happy part was knowing that God loved them enough to delay their punishment until everyone had heard the warnings and had a chance to repent. He loved them enough, that even when the punishment was carried out, He took care of the few who were faithful and blessed them anyway. Wow!
What a God! I think the prophet Micah sums it up best in his book. Micah 7:18-20 says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our iniquities into the depth of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago."
God does not want to punish us! He does not want to send any of His children to captivity in Hell! God wanted to show His love for us so much, that He died for us in the form of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. He wants to show us His mercy and grace. He wants us to listen to the warnings. He wants those who have received Him to share the warnings and the good news of Grace to others. I pray that those who deny Jesus and continue to ignore the warnings wake up and accept His offers of mercy before it's to late.
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