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FAMILY BLOG


Ordinary people just trying to follow God!
How It All Started

Do We Really Have Time?

11/14/2011

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I love this Mother Teresa quote:
If you judge people,
you have no time to love them.

I know I need to remember this - DAILY!

But...it really breaks my heart when whole communities of Christians - churches, even - fail to remember to LOVE...especially when people need it most.

Criticism never brings healing and it rarely prompts positive change.
Love and support and encouragement are part of helping people make it through tough times.

I recently read the paragraph below. It makes my heart ache at the same time it makes me happy to see someone speak up for this family.

"The adoption community can be small, so if you know this family, they desperately need your understanding and support after having made this extremely difficult decision.  Sometimes the adoption community ostracizes and shows a lack of understanding towards a family who has made a decision to find a new family for their children. We ask that you carefully refrain from anything except love and concern."

We have been THAT FAMILY. We know the pain...and we know God is sovereign!

Please...protect & defend & support & step into the messy lives of the people around you. They are worth the effort.
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Offering Our Children to the Rapists?!

11/6/2011

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Genesis 19:1-8
1
That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there, and when he saw them, he stood up to meet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may then get up early in the morning and be on your way again.”    “Oh no,” they replied. “We’ll just spend the night out here in the city square.”  3 But Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. Lot prepared a feast for them, complete with fresh bread made without yeast, and they ate. 4 But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. 5 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”  6 So Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. 7 “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you wish. But please, leave these men alone, for they are my guests and are under my protection.”

Isn't Lot's behavior appalling?! Well...
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I would dare to suggest that we, as parents here in America, do such a thing - although in very subtle ways - on a daily basis. We hand our children over to the evils of this world to fit in with - to appease - those around us.
Why are we more concerned about "fitting in" than about pleasing the Lord...the one who created us and has the power to destroy us in an instant?!
If our children are our most precious and prized possessions, why do we treat them so flippantly...exposing them to a whole host of evils?
Are we okay with filling their minds with violence, sexual perversion, hatred and fears...just because our society offers it all up as acceptable?
Are we really okay with the murder of babies just because our society has decided a person is not really responisble for their intimacy decisions?
Are we okay with casual sexual relations for our children, despite the way it endangers their physical health and - worse - damages their mental and spiritual health?
If we think Lot was wrong or appalling, that he was acting in an unloving way toward his innocent virgin daughters, if we cannot imagine how he could have been willing to turn them out into that angry mob to be violently devoured...I think we should question what WE are doing with our children little by little each and every day.
If we think Lot should have protected his daughters even more than he attempted to protect the men/angels who were guests in his home, I would suggest that we do that with our children in the midst of the angry mob of society we live in right now.
Why not go against the grain and say, "NO" to media that is damaging and violent?
Why not say, "No" to social pressures that break us down and lead us to send our children out into dangerous or potentially dangerous situations?
Why not stand up to the evils in our world by protecting our children and pointing them to the truth and protection of our Creator who loves them so MUCH more than we do, MUCH more than we can ever even imagine?
God graciously gave us these children as gifts. They are loaned to us and we are responsible to raise them to love and fear the Lord, to know His word and to seek His will. Let's not lazily hand them over to a society that does not care for them at all, whose only desire is to quickly devour them.
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When Do We Change?

11/5/2011

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It has always intrigued me how children totally GET that they should care for each other...but, somehow...it seems several adults can OUTGROW this natural drive. Sad.
Kids don't think about it, they don't weigh the cost, they don't form organizations or boards, they don't establish budgets, they don't wait until the time is right or convenient or comfortable...they JUST DO IT! *sigh*

Lord, don't let me even hide behind: "Let me pray about it." You know that I know...and You have revealed Your will to me very clearly in your word and in my heart.
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Shaking off the stuff...and going...

11/5/2011

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    Lori Balam Smith

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