A True Southern Belle

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a blog entitled If I Were My Mother, I'd Tell Myself... Every post is written in memory of this lady's mother, who she lost to cancer some months ago. It is truly an inspiring blog, and I highly recommend it. I especially liked yesterday's post: "Raise Yourself A Southern Belle." When you get the time, you really should check it out.

Is One Life Better Than the Other?

The other day someone said to me, “I am against abortion completely…unless the life of the mother is in significant danger.” How is it that people can call abortion murder in one scenario and then call it a lifesaving procedure in another? Do they think that, because the child has not yet been born, God values the life of the mother more than the life of the unborn child? Psalm 127:3 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” God loves children, even those who have not yet been born. It is not His will that even one be harmed for any reason.

Suppose a mother and her young child are walking alone in a back alley. All of a sudden, a masked man appears out of nowhere with a gun. The mother quickly grabs her child, sticks him in front her, and says, “Here, shoot him instead, but please let me live!” Even the most coldhearted criminal would not have the least bit of sympathy for a woman who would do something like that. Yet that is exactly what someone is advocating who says that abortion is permissible as long as the life of the mother is in significant danger. The fact that the child has not actually been born yet makes no difference. Who are we to say that one life is more important than the other?

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar
with baby Josie

Michelle Duggar was forty-three years old when she became pregnant with her nineteenth child. I’m sure there are many doctors who would have suggested to Michelle that she have an abortion due to her age and the fact that she has a history of preeclampsia. However, I am very thankful that Michelle did not listen to anyone who said such things. She went through with the pregnancy and now is the mother to a very precious baby girl named Josie, who is perfect in every way.

I suppose there are some who will say, “Well, what if both end up dying”? We cannot see the future. And even if we could, murder is still murder. We are to work as hard as we can to save both lives, and leave the rest up to God.

God is the only one with the power to give life and to take life. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). If you are reading this today and you do not know Jesus as Lord of your life, you have not yet truly lived. Jesus also said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). If you have not yet acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord, I invite you to do so today. And I promise you on the authority of the Word of God that, if you will repent of your sin and trust Christ alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Choosing Love and Grace When Anger and Walking Away Are More Logical

Yesterday, I found this wonderful blog post through a friend on facebook. It was written by a friend of my friend about what she has learned from the thirty-nine year long marriage of her parents. I found the last few paragraphs to be very touching, and I feel that they describe exactly what God meant marriage to be. If everyone would take this lady's advice and "choose love and grace when anger and walking away are more logical," oh how the divorce rate would drop!

What Can I Say on Father’s Day?

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

Proverbs 20:7

I wanted to post a special Father’s Day message today, but hesitated because I really did not know what to say. My own father has been dead for ten years. And for ten years, I have tried my best to run from every memory I have of him. For ten years, I have never talked about my father on my own freewill, and I have tried desperately to change the subject as quickly as possible whenever someone brings him up in conversation. Today, however, I have decided to use my story to encourage others, mainly fathers and sons.

Growing up, I had a very distant relationship with my father. I can count on one hand how many times I saw him or even talked to him the last few years of his life. I always thought that I was fine without him, that I didn’t need him in my life. However, I now realize how wrong I was all those years. Children need both parents in their lives. One is not better than the other—they are equal in their importance.

From the very day I was told of my father’s death until about two years ago, I felt nothing but anger and hatred toward my father. I often even told myself that I was glad that he was gone. I have since been able to forgive my father for walking out of my life. And since that day, I have only had feelings of regret—regret that I never got to know him as the man that God always intended him to be.

There is one question that continually runs through my mind. What would my life be like today if my father had not made the foolish choices that he chose to make so many years ago? Would he still be here? Would we be together as a family? I’ll never know the answers to those questions. However, if you are a father, you can give the answers to those questions about yourself to your own children right now.

If I could say one thing to every father in America, it would be this: walk in righteousness and teach your children to walk in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And to children, I would say love, honor, and cherish your fathers. Make this day special for them because it very well could be the last day you will ever have together.

I do not have the assurance that my father is in Heaven. Therefore I do not know that I will ever see him again. If you are a father and you are reading this today, the greatest gift you could ever give your children is to come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And the greatest gift a child could ever give a father is to do the same. If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, I plead with you to come to do so today. If you will simply repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Never Too Young: Learning from Little Joe

Several months ago, I became reacquainted with the television series Bonanza. I have very fond memories of lying in the living room floor and watching Bonanza with me grandmother when I was a young kid. However, watching it now, I have come to realize that the show is not only excellent entertainment; it is a wellspring of wisdom and knowledge. Bonanza is timeless, and it is just as relevant to society today as it was in the ‘60s.

The character I find myself learning from the most is not the wise, gray-haired Ben Cartwright, but his youngest son, Little Joe. You see, I can relate to Joe because I too am still quite young. I am a twenty-one year old college student. When the series began, Joe Cartwright was only seventeen years old. He was very young. He was the impulsive one. He could be hotheaded at times. However, as Ben Cartwright said in one episode, “[Joe] may be young and he may be foolish, but he's honest and he's honorable. I trust him with my life and so can you.”

Little Joe reminds me that we are never too young to do the right thing. I’ve seen him take on the job of temporary sheriff at the age of nineteen and stop two hired killers singlehanded. I’ve seen him put his life on the line for others—even complete strangers—countless times. I’ve seen him stand up for what was right and speak out against what was wrong, even when the whole town was against him. Even at such a young age, Joe Cartwright was a man of unwavering integrity.

Last night, I got to thinking about some of the people God used in Bible times. Mary was but a young, teenage girl when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus. David was just a kid when he slew Goliath. Then there was Daniel who faced the lions’ den for refusing not to pray to the God he loved. And there are many more. I personally believe that Jesus taught in the temple at twelve years old just to show us that no one is ever too young to be used of God.

The fact that I am a twenty-one year old college student is not an excuse for me to act like a schoolboy. I feel that my generation has been ruined because people haven't enough faith in us to expect what they should out of us. I am reminded of this every time I think of Joe Cartwright or watch him in Bonanza. Everyone was so much more mature back then. Oh how I wish it were that way now!

Tell Me This Does Not Mean What I Think It Does

Today I saw this in the online ad for JCPenny. If this picture and the wording beside it mean when I think they mean, it is a crying shame and JCPenny has definitely reached an all-time low.

I have always shopped at JCPenny. Therefore it saddens me to say that, as long as they continue to support the homosexual movement, I will shop there no longer. It is one thing to stand up for the freedom of choice. However, it is another thing entirely to force another person to accept and support the ungodly, heinous, self-destructive lifestyle of someone else. I will not have my money go to a company who will in turn use that money to support something that I feel could very well be the death of this nation.

Hoppy, Gene, and He

Roy Rogers and Daughter

Roy Rogers was my childhood hero. I never watched Hoppy or Gene, but I sure did look up to Roy. And now that I know more about his personal life, I look up to Roy Rogers far more now than I ever did then. Unlike many TV heroes, Roy was as much of a hero off screen as he was on screen, and that is what made him so great.

Roy felt that he had a responsibility to his audience. He felt obligated to be a positive and godly influence to the thousands of children who gathered to watch his movies every weekend. Roy did not act a certain way simply because the script said so. No, whatever Roy said and did came straight from his heart.

Many times, childhood heroes are forgotten. They are outgrown and left in the past. We take their posters off our bedroom walls, stick them in a cardboard box with all of the other paraphernalia, and store it all in the attic to collect dust and never be spoken of again. Roy Rogers, however, is not someone you can do that with. He stays with you for life, and so do the things he taught you. That is because a true hero can never be forgotten.

I am forever grateful for the influence that Roy Rogers has had on my life. He provided me with good, wholesome entertainment when I was a kid. And now that I am older, he is someone who I can look to for guidance and pattern my life after to be the man that God has always intended me to be. I only hope that one day I can be half the husband and father that he was to Dale and their nine children.