For My Friend

Earlier today, I read a friend's Facebook post.  This friend was hurt in an unspeakable way several years ago.  The lies that were told about my friend cost this person in ways that very few of us can imagine.  My friend commented on the struggle with forgiveness and ended the post with, "Guess I'll never be what you could call a good Christian."  I have thought about that all day.

As a flawed, fallen, imperfect person who struggles everyday, I just want to share with my friend my experience, my testimony.  There aren't any "good" Christians or "bad" Christians.  A Christian is someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sent by God the Father as our savior.  It is a gift of love freely offered and we are each free to accept or reject that gift.  There are no strings.  We can't earn His love by being "good" or lose His love by being "bad".  We love our children when they are good or bad.  They may disappoint us and we may wish they would choose another path, but we never stop loving them.  So it is with God our Father.  If we accept His gift of love and salvation, it is what we do with it that makes the difference.  Some call it their Christian walk.  If you accept the gift of love, you enter a relationship.  Like any relationship, if you put effort into it, if you learn about the other person, if you make nurturing it a priority, the relationship will blossom and grow and become a part of who you are that makes a difference in every area of your life.  It is a love that changes you, that lifts you up and takes you places you never imagined you would go.  It transforms you, strengthens you, comforts you and empowers you.

My friend, you knew me best before my journey with Christ really began.  You know I was raised in the Catholic faith, I believed that Jesus is my savior, but I had not yet begun to nurture that relationship.  I went through the motions, going to Mass, teaching the 5th grade Sunday school class, serving on church committees, but that truly personal relationship completely eluded me.

On October 7, 1994 my life changed.  Our baby daughter, Amanda, was stillborn.  It was a complete shock as I had a textbook pregnancy.  The grief and anger and hopelessness was overwhelming.  Mike and I grieved for the loss very differently.  He worked like a machine, almost around the clock.  By day, I could fake holding it together, but I became irrationally over-protective of Kayla, who was just 4 at the time.  Nights were horrible, filled with night terrors.  I was afraid to sleep, afraid to leave Kayla's side, afraid I was pushing my husband away.  I tried to pull myself together.  Several weeks after her death, I found myself curled up in my bathtub in the middle of the night, a towel pressed to my face to muffle my sobs so Mike or Kayla wouldn't find me freaking out, again.  I begged God to make it stop in whatever way He felt best.  I was ok with anything, even dying, as long as He took away the consuming grief and fear.  All I remember after that prayer is waking up in my bed, feeling rested for the first time since that horrible day and the sun was shining.  I can't say that everything was perfect, but I felt stronger and no longer alone.  Day by day, sometimes moment by moment, we started to heal.  We got the thrilling news that we were expecting Cody and on November 14, 1995, we welcomed our son.  The moment he was delivered and we heard him utter that first cry, Mike and I said in unison, "Thank You, God!!"  The God of comfort, hope and new life had introduced Himself to me and I wanted to get to know Him better.

I spent the next several years struggling with how to get close to Him.  We had a string of priests in our church that I could not connect with.  We even tried a different Catholic church.  That was an epic fail.  We returned to my childhood church.  I tried what I thought were going to be Bible studies, but they were solely based in Catholic catechism and we didn't even open a Bible.  Not what I was looking for.  I reached out to people in the church that I had known for years.  They had nothing for me.  In 2004, we moved, so we tried another Catholic church.  I have never felt so unwelcome anywhere in my life.  Mike had had enough.  He was done with church.  By this time, Kayla had gotten through Confirmation and refused to participate in any high school church groups.  She had her reasons that I will not go into.  Mike and I were both raised by devout Catholic mothers and we had promised when we were married in the Catholic church to raise our children in the church, and, to me, a promise is a promise.  So, Cody and I went back to my childhood church until he completed his Confirmation.  My promise kept, we never went back.

I decided that I didn't need people or a building to have a relationship with God.  So, I read the Bible on my own, found faith-based websites to help me guide my study and practiced praying from my heart and not reciting "approved" prayers.

Enter life-changing experience #2.  In mid-2005, we discovered that we had been badly burned in a business deal.  Bankruptcy was looming and I truly didn't know if we were going to pull out of it.  That crippling fear returned with a vengeance.  We talked to an attorney, the bankers, the CPA and everyone else who had a stake in the deal or who could offer advice.  We also prayed about it.  God revealed to us that we bore a lot of the blame because we did not mind our affairs as we should have.  We asked forgiveness for mismanaging His provision.  In a complete act of faith, we heeded the call that we were both getting that I should quit my pretty lucrative corporate job (just what everybody does when they are facing bankruptcy, the IRS and every letter of the alphabet in between!) and devote myself and my accounting talents full time to cleaning up the mess.  We also attended a pretty intensive faith-based financial management class so that Mike and I could strengthen our communication with each other, learn what God's plan is for our finances and be unified in how we manage this potentially very destructive topic in our marriage.  We prayed about everything, every step of the way we turned over our concerns and our questions to God.  In less than one year, approximately half a million dollars had been repaid.  We never declared bankruptcy and we never missed a payment on anything again.  Everything we had lost had been restored.  To this day, I don't know exactly how it happened and I lived in my ledgers for a year but I do know that turning to God made the difference.

God had now rescued me in a huge, it-can't-be-anything-but-God way twice.  I became even more interested in spirituality and my relationship with Him.  I knew He was walking with me and my eyes were opening to all He does in my life.  In about 2009, I discovered Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.  I was channel surfing one Sunday morning and he was the most compelling pastor I had ever heard.  He was speaking to everything I am passionate about.  This little Catholic girl was shouting "Amen" at the television in her living room!  I started watching every Sunday morning, it became my church.  I started reading his books. I began DVR-ing (and still do) the services so I could replay them to catch all the verses that would flash across the screen in reference to what he was preaching.  God decided it was time for me to return to church.  He had left me in peace to heal from my bad church experiences long enough.

I was driving through Dewitt one day, as I had done hundreds of times and I noticed a tiny, white, non-descript church that I had never noticed before.  The sign said Cornerstone Assembly of God.  Hmmm...Cornerstone?  It was as far away from the mega-Cornerstone I had been attending from my living room as a person could get.  I could not shake the call to give it a try.  The feeling not only wouldn't go away, it was so intense that I could physically feel the pull.  On Sunday, July 4, 2011, I couldn't shut it out any longer.  I got up, got dressed and headed to the 8:30 service.  All the way there, I asked God to let me be welcome.  I could not take any more rejection or disappointment from "church folk".  From the moment I walked in the door, I was literally embraced.  The structure of the service was unlike anything I had ever experienced, they actually used BIBLES!!  The people were so kind and it felt right.  After a few weeks, Mike started asking about the services.  I shared everything, what the service was like, what message was preached, what the people said.  It took him almost a year, but one Sunday, he decided to come with me and he has been going ever since.  Praying and worshipping with my husband has brought a depth and a richness to our marriage that we have never had before. 

My point, my friend, is that no where in my story did I do anything to earn God's grace or love.  I am not a "good" Christian.  Those people keep track of rules and judge others.  After a lifetime of Catholicism, I am done with spiritual rules and I am too big of a mess myself to be judging anyone.  I just started taking tentative steps toward Him and for every step I took in His direction, He seemed to take three in mine.  He has opened my eyes and my heart to things I never thought I would see or feel.  Sometimes, He even gives me a job to do for Him.  He has taught me how to watch for the signs.  Everything I give to Him in faith, He responds to.   I could go on for hours sharing what I have seen happen in my life.  What is happening in my life...because of Him.  It is never enough, everyday I want more of Him.  I still have my moments of worry, fear, doubt and all those other destructive human emotions, but they no longer cripple me.  I have peace in my life and I know who I am and I am happy.  God has that for you, too.  It is my prayer that you accept it.

A 17% Shut Down is a Good Start

So, the government has been "shut down" for about 10 days now.  Well, not really shut down.  83% of the federal government is still operating as usual.  The remaining 17% is deemed "non-essential".

Ummm...if it's non-essential, why is the federal government doing it, and why are we paying for it, in the first place?  I am a simple girl, so this is a simple thought, but haven't we just discovered a way to cut 17% pretty painlessly from the federal budget?

I know, that 17% that has been cut includes real people who earn their living working in these non-essential departments.  There are other people in essential portions of the federal government retiring or leaving their positions every day.  Couldn't these furloughed employees be given first chance to fill the positions vacated by exiting employees?

The national parks, monuments and memorials are also really great.  It is important to have them.  They remind us of the history and preserve the beauty of our great nation.  Since the shut down began, the state of Arizona has offered to pick up the tab to keep the Grand Canyon open.  A mountain community in Tennessee has a plan to keep its nearby national park open without federal funding.  Wisconsin has said they can fund these areas in their state.  The point is, individuals and communities are willing to fund the things that are important to them.  They will not wither up and close if the federal government relinquishes control.  Further, the local communities are the ones that have the vested interest in these venues so they are likely to take better care of them and operate them more efficiently than Washington DC ever could.  The problem is that it isn't about where the money comes from, it is all about control.

The most repugnant thing about this so-called shut down is the fact that our veterans are being unfairly targeted with threats to cut their death benefits, trying to prevent them from visiting their memorials and, in general, making their lives more difficult.  Taking care of our veterans is not a budget issue, it is a moral issue.  Period.  Here again, private charities have stepped up and said that they will fund the gap.  We love our vets and they will not do without. Ever.  For an administration that is so conscious of "optics", they sure screwed up on this one.  The smallness, pettiness and stupidity of messing with our vets pulls back the veil of who these people are in a way that nothing else they have done to this point has been able to do. 

If it were up to me, I would keep this shutdown going.  In about 6 months, new plans and procedures will be up and running and everyone will have adjusted to life without government interference in these areas.  Then, let's shut down another 17% of non-essential services and repeat the process.  As the government shrinks and gets out of the way, the private sector will grow, bringing jobs, prosperity and pride back to our nation.  That's the change I hope for.

My Name is Laura and I am a Workoholic

The dictionary defines work as "exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil" and "productive or operative activity".  I need to be productive.  I like being productive.  Nothing feels better than laying my head on the pillow at night reviewing a day of accomplishment.  It can be anything, cleaning the house, cooking meals for the week, gardening, finishing a project, getting our personal finances in order for the month, having the books at Heritage in good shape, getting caught up on my responsibilities at H&R Block, helping friends and family with something, or doing some volunteer work. 

I have a profound fear of dependence.  In my work at HRB, I see too much dependence.  It is shocking to me how many people receive their food, healthcare, childcare, housing, utilities and more through the efforts of someone else's labor.  Many times, these people are working a part-time, low-skill job.  They are dull.  They have no spark, no fire, no passion for anything.  They are merely existing, but instead of foraging for their subsistence like animals, they forage the halls of the public assistance offices.  The look in their eyes, cold and empty and hopeless, puts fear in my heart like nothing else does.  I don't know how to help them.  How do you tell someone that there is more for them, that life doesn't have to be that way, but they have to work for it?  I do know that I don't want to be like that.

I also fear the moral decline I see all around us.  I don't want to be any part of it.  If I am busy with productive activities for my family, I am not tempted by things that will bring destruction to my life.  I am not out shopping for things we don't need with money we don't have.  I am not out drinking in a bar.  I am not seeking the company of another man.  I am not gossiping with other bored women.  I am not letting my intellect stagnate with garbage books and television programs.

Most of all, I fear God's judgment.  He has given me this life, He has a plan for me and, even though I know I do every day, I don't want to let Him down.  It is my desire to meet Him someday and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." I will be accountable for the gap that will exist between where He wanted me to be and where I actually end up.  I want that gap to be as small as possible.  We are all here for one reason, to serve Him.  In serving Him, I serve my family and my country.

One gap that I need to work on is my approach to work itself.  I have become addicted to work and it is throwing my life out of balance.  I have been ignoring God's commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.  Exodus 20:8-11 says:

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

By not taking that day to rest, I am becoming irritable and the quality of my work is not always where I would like it to be.  I am exhausted and my diet has not been good.  Satan may not find me in a welfare office jonesing for a handout or in a bar looking for a one-night stand, but if I don't change course and follow God's commandment to take a day off once a week, Satan may very well work his evil through my short temper and my neglect of my health.

It is my intention to diligently seek a correction in this behavior and encourage my husband to do the same as we share this particular shortcoming.  Today was our first step.  We went to church, stayed for coffee and fellowship afterwards, then went home.  I had arranged an assortment of veggies, cheese and crackers and other simple snacks to be our food for the day.  Mike took his bow out that he bought 2 years ago and finally did some target practice with it and had a great time.  We watched a movie and took a 2 hour nap.  And, for the first time in months, I have had the chance to do some writing, my neglected hobby.  I have also read several more chapters in volume 4 of the American Family series which I am really enjoying.  I think we could get used to this.

The Siege of Boonesborough

In September, 1778 the settlement of Boonesborough in Kentucky, then a part of the Virginia colony and founded by patriot Daniel Boone, was attacked by the Shawnee led by Chief Blackfish.  The Shawnee were allied with the British.  Daniel Boone and a small group of settlers from the fort were hunting in February earlier that year when they were taken captive by Chief Blackfish. Although a prisoner, Boone appeared to be fairly well-treated in his captivity.  In June, he learned that the Shawnee planned to attack Boonesborough on behalf of the British and escaped to alert the settlement.  He made an epic 5 day, 160 mile ride on horseback from the Ohio territory to the fort.  Back at Boonesborough, he and the settlers made plans for the fort's defense.  The Shawnee forces arrived in September and the Siege lasted several days.  The settlement was successfully defended.

While an important battle, it is not one of the more commonly known, but it is the most important to me.  My great-grandfather (x5, I think) was Pvt. Matthias Horn and fought in that battle alongside Daniel Boone.  Matthias, his wife Susannah and their children lived at the fort.  That makes me a daughter of the American Revolution.

The earliest American settler in my family was Johann Kroftt Horn, Matthias' grandfather.  He arrived in Pennsylvania from Germany in 1720.  As lands were opened, they continued to work their way west, making it as far as the Boonesborough settlement by the time of the revolution.

When I think of all my ancestors saw and lived through it explains so much about who I am.  They were here and not only witnessed the birth of our nation, but they were part of it.  They fought for it.  They read the pamphlets of the day first hand.  They were there to vote for our first representatives and president.  They read the Federalist papers and were there when the Constitution was ratified.

As we celebrate this Independence Day, we have allowed our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to be diminished.  Our system of checks and balances is dangerously skewed by an impotent Legislative branch, and arrogant Executive branch and an activist Judicial branch.  Our Bill of Rights only exist to the point that it is politically correct.  Our God, who was repeatedly consulted through the founders' prayers and study of the Bible, has been shut out as our government has become increasingly corrupted.  It is sad to see all that was accomplished being destroyed.  We are seeing a repeat of many of the 27 charges against the crown that gave rise to the Revolution.  It appears as though we are coming full circle.

We have choices.  We can continue to stay on this current path and watch our Republic wither and die, be "fundamentally transformed" or we can remember who we are and stand up and fight for its rebirth.  I choose to fight.  I choose to participate in my country's restoration.  I choose to be like my ancestors and work, explore, learn, vote and do whatever is necessary to protect our precious freedom and the unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator.

As a daughter of the American Revolution, I repeat the pledge made when the 56 patriots committed treason to the crown and signed the Declaration of Independence: 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

The Role of the Family in Health Care

All of my natural grandparents, with the exception of one grandmother, all died by the time I turned 5.  Although I knew my surviving grandma loved me in her own way, she lived a fair distance away and it was just not her nature to be very warm or affectionate.  We enjoyed pleasant visits a couple of times a year and I cherish my memories of her.  She has been gone for nearly 20 years now.



 

When I was 16 years old, I started dating my husband.  His grandmother, Anna Marie Stalder Kauffman Figg, became mine.  I am sure that I never called her by her given name, I have always called her Grandma.  When I first met her, she was 61.  She is now in her 90th year.  The long months that Mike was away in the Marines, I spent many afternoons with Grandma and Grandpa Figg at their antique shop in Buffalo.  I learned how to refinish furniture, appreciate history and Grandpa loved to talk politics, a passion of mine even way back then.  There was an ice cream shop next door and on hot days, Grandpa would go buy us all sundaes.  Certainly, it was not the way most teenagers spent a lot of time, but I had never had the love and attention from grandparents before and I enjoyed finally being able to have the experience.  Grandpa died in June of 1999 and he is still missed.

Grandma has aged very gracefully and is a treasure to all who know her.  She is front and center at family gatherings, attends many games and recitals for great-grandchildren, rarely misses church, and has an active social life with extended family and friends.  She lives her life on her terms and has enjoyed relatively good health.  She made the decision for herself several years ago to start decreasing her driving and except for maybe a rare, short trip to church or the grocery store, I don't think she drives at all anymore. It happened so gradually and sensibly that it isn't something that ever really became a topic of conversation.  She does still have her car and prefers to have someone else drive it when she needs to run errands.  With other things, she is more stubborn.  She still lives in her home, with a large yard and all the maintenance, and 14 steps to go up from the lower level family room entry to the upper main living area where her bedroom and kitchen are.  She fell and broke her hip a few years ago and it was strongly recommended that she reconsider her living arrangements, but no one sees her making a move and it is not something she cares much to discuss. 

She has not been herself for a while, we have all noticed it but she kept insisting she was fine.  Last week, she finally went to the hospital and was admitted for a few days.  Grandma receives the very best health care and it has nothing to do with the Genesis Health System, Medicare, her AARP supplement or the dawn of Obamacare.  Grandma receives the best because she has family and friends in her life who notice when she isn't herself, who make sure she gets checked on and who make sure she feels needed and wanted.  It doesn't fall on one person and it isn't left to overworked health care workers.  Her loved ones each do what we are able by offering a ride, taking her out to eat, taking her to church, stopping by for a visit with a vase of flowers or garden goodies, inviting her to a ball game, checking on maintenance needs of her house, making the trip out to the mailbox and seeing to dozens of other small, ordinary needs.  She is blessed.

As the family is being systematically destroyed by liberal, secular forces so is every other part of society.  Need a house?  Just sign up for a government program.  Can't find the job you think you deserve?  Get an extension on your unemployment or find out how to qualify for disability.  Unmarried and having sex?  Go to Planned Parenthood for birth control or an abortion or rely on WIC, EBT, FIP, Section 8, Head Start and all the rest to provide for your child what a family should be providing.  Once in public school, nearly half the children are being trained that the breakfast or lunch they eat is being provided by someone other than Mom and Dad.  The hand that feeds you is the hand you turn to in times of trouble.  That hand used to be a family, it is increasingly becoming the government. 

As the family becomes more and more irrelevant in meeting a person's most basic needs, the next generation of senior citizens will have an experience very different from Grandma's.  Family-based senior care is going to be replaced with Obamacare.  A healthcare system that will be administered by impersonal government panels on a cost/benefit basis.  Seniors have higher health care costs and they are no longer producing at a level to justify the expense so fewer resources will be allocated to their care.  I fear that my parents, who are now in their late 60s and both healthy and my father-in-law, who suffers from chronic lung disease, will not get the medical care that they will need as they age and as Obamacare is fully implemented.  The voices and the advocacy of our family will be ignored because the voters of this country are being trained, both by monetary inducement and by the encouragement of moral decline, all wrapped up in compassionate, but meaningless, rhetoric, to rely on government to do what's best.  Further, the current generation of children are being raised (not in my house, but in too many others) in a reward-for-no-accomplishment, don't-make-me-uncomfortable, I'm-not-responsible, the-government-is-my-daddy environment.  It will not occur to them when the time comes that their parents need to be cared for to step up and fill that role.  They will believe that all they need to do is vote for the government largesse and they have done their part.  Past generations have accepted the norm that "Mom and Dad took care of me when I was unable to care for myself, so I will care for them when it is their turn."  Not so anymore.  Too many Moms and Dads aren't even providing for themselves, much less their children, so why would these children feel any obligation to help Mom or Dad?  If government has fed you and sheltered you all your life why would it not when you are old?



We must rebuild the family-centered foundation of our nation.  The damage that is being done by liberal, statist forces will destroy our country.  It will leave us financially and morally bankrupt and will place too much power in too few hands.  Someone, whom I love dearly but disagree with politically, said to me not long ago that "the population of our country has grown, so we need more government".  I will argue until my dying breath that we need less government, more family.  I know that my little blog is followed by about 6 people who largely think the way I do, so I'm not changing the world here.  I do look for opportunities to plant seeds.  Teenagers are always welcome in my home for real family dinners, around the table.  I ask friends how their parents or grandparents are getting along, both out of my own genuine interest and to plant the seed that they should be interested, too.  Look for your own opportunities to build family.  Attend reunions, send out those special occasion cards, go on a weekend camping trip, take a group of kids to a movie or fishing, make time for a family vacation and check on that elderly relative.  My healthcare in my golden years will depend on what values I instill in my children and grandchildren and if we can convince this next generation to vote for more family, not more government. 

The Case For Victory Gardens

 

“…every one who creates or cultivates a garden helps and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the nations – and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation.  This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.
Let every man and every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven for ignoring.”

-Woodrow Wilson, in a proclamation to the American people,
nine days after U.S. declaration of war

 

 

 



 

My husband developed a new passion 3 years ago: gardening.  We had small gardens in the past at our previous homes, but nothing we have ever done compares to what he has undertaken now.  I guess he needed something to do while I was walking for candidates in parades, sitting in fair booths and organizing political events during the summer months.  If I am to be totally honest with myself, his was, and is, the far more worthwhile and productive endeavor.

 

 

 

 

Victory Gardens started during World War I under the Wilson administration.  The true history of  Woodrow Wilson is a subject for another blog on another day.  In any case, the quote I shared above shows just how far we have come from a culture of personal responsibility to a culture of dependence in just a century.  We have gone from our government producing posters, flyers and brochures encouraging the production of our own backyard food sources to our government running radio and social media ads encouraging the use of public assistance programs.  According to the US Census Bureau, the population in our country is about 308 million people.  The US Department of Agriculture reports that currently about 48 million people, almost 16%, receive food subsidies in the form of EBT cards alone and the number is rising daily.





 



 

The Victory Gardens of World Wars I and II served two primary purposes.  First, they assisted in redirecting resources from private use to the war efforts.  We had troops to feed overseas.  The increased demand for food would have caused prices to rise.  The government would have had to pay the farmers more to buy the food needed to supply the troops and families on the home front would have had to pay more for the food they still needed for their households.  There were also transportation costs to consider.  If trucks, railcars and ships were filled with domestic food supplies, they did not have room to transport munitions and equipment needed to fight the war.  Again, competition for the shipping resources would have increased the cost for all.  Further complicating the issue was that transportation and factory work was done by men and they were another needed resource for national defense.  The reduction in the traditional workforce of the day coupled with the increased demand for products and services to meet the needs of both the home front and the war effort would have caused tremendous upward pressure on pricing.  Secondly, the Victory Gardens served as an incredible morale booster.  They were a tangible way for the wives, children, mothers and fathers of the fighting force to make a contribution.  Making the cause very personal and making people feel important are classic marketing techniques.  There is no better way to assure peace and cooperation amongst a group of people than giving them a united cause.  By productively occupying the population at home, government agencies were able to fully concentrate on the issues of national defense.  Both purposes are ones that would have served us well in Korea, Vietnam and our current War on Terror, but, again, another topic for another day.

 

 

The results were astounding.  According to historical data, the home front patriots produced 40% of all the produce grown in the nation during the war years.  The participation went across all demographic measurements.  Young, old, rich, poor, city and country all embraced the Victory Garden concept.  There were food plots grown by school children in the school yards (imagine children working in our schools today...and with hoes and shovels!).  People in the cities grew vegetables in window boxes, on rooftops and cooperatively in vacant city lots.  Even public buildings and parks allowed the citizens to sign up for garden plots on the grounds.  The abundance was shared in the communities and preserved for use at the end of the growing seasons.  There was an additional, measurable benefit in food preservation in that the steel used to package commercially produced food was reduced and redirected to equipment for the wars.

 

 

 

Fast forward 100 years.  The Department of Health and Human Services has been running ad campaigns touting the generous income requirements to qualify for food assistance and features actors gleefully sharing how they get their groceries provided every month.  No where is it advertised that EBT cards can also be used to buy vegetable seeds and plants so that "food-insecure" households could grow their own gardens.  It is advertised, however, that the EBT cards are accepted at large farmer's market venues to purchase food grown locally by their neighbors.  It is unthinkable that children would actually do something productive in school or use a tool more threatening than a spork.  It doesn't seem to occur to anyone that if more of our young people experience the personal satisfaction and fatigue that comes from honest work that their developing brains may not seek the stimulation of television, video games and mall-trolling.  They might actually develop (gasp) character and a work ethic.  What has changed in the American psyche in 100 years?

 

I believe that the lust for power is the cause of the change.  With the introduction of the progressive income tax in 1914 under Wilson, the introduction of Social Security under FDR, the Great Society welfare programs under Johnson and the expansion of all of these under every successive administration, the electorate has learned that they can trade their votes for greater and greater government largesse.  Politicians have learned that they can play on the tendency of people to want the easy path by dividing us into groups.  We are sliced, diced and julienned as a nation into tiny little pieces.  Then, they attack the pieces.  They find the one lowest common denominator in each group and poison us with it.  Remember my earlier point:  to attain victory in the wars, they kept the home front satisfied by giving them a shared purpose and productive work.  They accepted rationing and other government-mandated sacrifices (aka austerity measures) and solved their local issues amongst themselves.  Productive, prosperous, purpose-driven people have no need for government interference in their lives and no need for a permanent political class.  Take away production and prosperity and add a mega-dose of mistrust and suspicion and you have all these little groups laser-focused on their one little thing running to whatever politician promises to make it easy.

 

The one thing that the politicians, in all their blustering bravado, always forget is that there are many of us who see what they are doing and we don't like it.  We know what they are up to and we call them out.  We are a threat to their comfortable life in the DC bubble. 

 

 

What we need are Victory Gardens.  They were a tangible, uniting entity for us before and they can be again.  Michelle Obama planted a garden at the White House for the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt, so she's on board.  The environmentalists want us to eat organic, locally grown food, so we've got them, too.  The food-insecure can use their EBT cards to buy plants instead of pizzas and triple the amount of food in their cupboards solving their problem.  The healthcare group would be satisfied with the benefits of a better diet. The redistributers will be overjoyed with the abundance that will flow neighbor to neighbor and into the food pantries.  The always-productive, like my husband, will just keep on doing their thing.  The conservatives can see a reduction in the food-assistance budget and the liberals can see an increase in "fairness".  Pick a group and I guarantee I can make the case why they should be on board.

 

In closing, the fruits of my husband's labor in our mega-garden are always put to good use.  We eat fresh fruits and veggies all through the season.  I have learned to can and freeze so we have a full pantry all winter (still working on eating some of last year's crop).  We shared the excess with our extended family, making sure that our elderly relatives were provided for first.  They in turn shared what they couldn't eat with others.  We shared with our employees and they took it home to their families.  Best of all, last year at harvest time, Mike was working at a senior assisted living facility and he would spread the bounty out in the yard everyday.  As the residents walked by, Mike encouraged them to help themselves and he was so happy to spend a few minutes chatting with them and they were happy to have a fresh tomato, melon, squash or handful of beans.  It is really a labor of love for him. 

 

We need to stop accepting division.  We are the United States of America.  Sow the seeds of victory and plant a garden!

 

 

 



 

 

Politics...Yes and No

I was recently asked if I was still as involved in politics as I was during the last few years.  The answer is yes and no.

Let me address the no first.  I am not as involved in the Clinton County Republican party.  There is not much going on right now.  There aren't any active campaigns and candidates probably won't start coming forward until late summer and into the fall.  Our local county party is also run by old guard types. After the 2008 election and all its ramifications, there was a huge inflow of people who wanted to get involved, myself included, and brought new ideas and energy.  The powers-that-be at the local level would have none of it.  They continue to cling to rubber-chicken dinners at 6:00 on Tuesday nights, when most younger people are just getting off work instead of trying more informal Saturday night mixers or family-friendly events.  The contributions they collected were wasted on ads in newspapers with declining circulations and snail-mail flyers.  We had several offers from some very tech-savvy people and a talented graphic designer to amp up our website and social media outreach.  Again, they were refused.  After a while, these new, fresh faces tired of the fight and found ways to contribute elsewhere.  I stayed the course through the election, but when the new campaign season begins, I will probably devote my time and energy to assisting specific campaigns instead of the party at large.  I also had some major developments in my personal life when I accepted a new job and planned our daughter's wedding, so it was an absolute must that I reduce my obligations in another area and my activities with the party were the most sensible choice.  I have also learned, through my involvement and observations, that politics is not the problem.  People and principles are the problem and that is where the solutions will be found.  I seek solutions.

While my formal affiliation with the Republican party has ended, I remain a committed Conservative.  People have been beaten over the head with political speak, sound bytes, tweets and slogans.  They tune it out and turn it off.  What people are hungry for are solutions that they can see and feel and relate to in their own lives.  They are seeking truth and honesty.  They are tired of both parties. 

My pastor gave me the best suggestion.  He encouraged me to continue to try to influence the people around me.  I, being the most miserable salesperson on the planet, have sought ways to try to gently do just that.  I can't do a hard sell.  I am who I am and I know what I know and all I can do is bear witness to that.  Through this blog, Facebook, conversation and just living my life, I have shared, and will continue to share, as truthfully and as honestly as I can the principles that I believe in and that I think will yield the solutions we seek as a nation.  Hopefully, I can influence at least one other person to become aware and to vote their principles instead of a party at the next election.

I believe that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values.  The Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers and Constitution all recognize the existence of God.  The evidence that the founders relied on prayer, the guiding hand of Divine Providence and the Bible can be found throughout their writings and documentations of what transpired at every stage of our nation's birth.  I believe in those values and the governmental framework that came from them.  I appreciate our Bill of Rights and want to share that appreciation by exercising my rights to freely practice my faith, to freely speak my mind in any forum I choose, to petition my government without fear, to keep and bear arms, to vote and all the rest.  I seek to share thoughts and actions that reflect my belief that we are a Christian nation and the system we are now living under is not what it was intended to be.

I believe that the problems facing our children (generational poverty, poor education, abuse, crime and the rest) can be significantly improved, if not eliminated entirely, by a return to the traditional family, defined as one man married to one woman and raising children together. 

I believe that our country was made great by people who got up everyday and went to work and were productive and provided for their own families.  We cannot long survive as a society if people keep leaving productive activities and jumping into the welfare wagon.

I believe that every person, from the unborn to the elderly, has value and the right to life.  We are creating a culture of death when we allow the most vulnerable of us to be killed before they have even had a chance to draw breath or when they have outlived their perceived usefulness to society. Every life has value and until we get that straight again, evil will continue to have free reign in our country.

I believe that the property you earn is yours and you have the right to use it and defend it.  No one else should be given the opportunity to take it from you.

I believe that local communities, churches and private charities are the best, most efficient providers of education and assistance to the needy.  It makes no sense to take dollars from our communities, send it to the federal government, fund a bureaucracy, and return pennies to the community that can only be spent on very narrow and specific programs. 

Most people I know share these beliefs, yet, time after time, they go into the voting booth on election day and vote for a party instead of a principle.  Or they allow a single sound byte or slogan to become the basis for their vote.  That is my mission, to influence as many people as possible to forget the label, republican or democrat, and become active, educated citizens and vote for the candidates and issues that most closely align as a whole with what they truly believe and how they live their daily lives.  Until we engage more people of principle and change the hearts of the voters we have no hope of changing our course and restoring the Judeo-Christian nation we were founded to be.

Am I still as active in politics?  Not so much.  I am spending my time living in the freedom of the Word of God and the founding documents of our great nation and sharing with as many people as I can the joy that I find in both.

The Chapel and The Candelabra

 

In making plans for Kayla and Dustin's wedding, we wanted it to be unique, personal and meaningful.   The choice of venue, the upper floor of her grandfather's pre-Civil War building on the Mississippi riverfront, raised more than a few eyebrows.  We were called "insane" and told it couldn't be done.  Randy (my father-in-law) and I believed in the project from the beginning.  It took months to get my husband, Mike, on board.   It was Randy's hobby for nearly 20 years.  He worked on whatever project suited his mood and didn't bother to clean up between projects.  Many things were started, but not finished.  Every piece of wood, every door was salvaged from another building that was being torn down or a tree that was cut.  The glass sunroom doors came out of the convent at the old Mercy Hospital in Davenport.  The doors in the bride's room were saved from Tipton High School.  The walnut flooring on the staircase was hand milled by Mike from the trunk of a walnut tree that was removed from a family member's property years ago.  I saw beyond the piles of sawdust and dirt and knew that with a lot of work, a lot of love and probably a divine miracle, it was exactly the place we were looking for.  So, expecting a miracle, we went to work.  Critical projects were finished and a major cleaning was done and, when the day arrived, our daughter was married in a space that sparkled and glowed with the love and talent of her grandfather, her father and countless other family and friends who pitched in along the way.

The story of the candelabra is not so different.  While on a weekend trip to their Missouri lake house late this winter, my parents decided to go for a walk in a nearby wooded area.  During the walk, my mother noticed something sticking up out of the woodland debris and mud and sent Dad over to investigate.  They determined it was something metal and began digging to remove their find.  What they pulled out was a rusty 4-foot tall candelabra.  It was really in surprisingly good shape and they determined that with a little sanding and a fresh coat of paint, it would be a fine addition to the chapel.  So, they loaded it up and brought it home.  Dad patiently straightened out some of the dings and bends, had it sandblasted and painted it a glossy white.  With some new glass candle holders, candles and a bit of ribbon it made a beautiful accessory and suited the salvaged, one-of-a-kind nature of everything else in the chapel.

The story of the chapel and the candelabra have a lot of meaning for me.  Just as we found them dusty, rusty, dinged and unfinished, so God finds us.  We saw the potential in them and went to work to repair, finish and polish so they could be what we knew they could be, just as God sees us and works in us to make us what He knows we can be.  Just as when we were done with our project, there was a glow and sparkle and light shining brightly, when God is done with us, we glow and sparkle and shine with His light brightly.

All things can be made new with love, patience and hard work...places, things, people...all it takes is the hand of a Master Craftsman who knows what He is doing.

Marriage

As we enter the final weeks of preparation before our daughter's wedding, the issue of same-sex marriage is being debated in the Supreme Court.  I oppose same-sex marriage.

I believe in the Bible.  To accept same-sex marriage, I would have to reject all that my faith tells me is right.  I believe that every word of the Bible describes exactly God's plan for all mankind, and that plan is the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow.  Scripture says that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.  To me, that is quite an assurance that God does not change.  The God that created human life and the first marriage in Genesis is the same God that lives in my marriage and who will create a covenant in my daughter's marriage.  To accept same-sex marriage, I would have to accept that God has "evolved" in his views and there is nothing I have read in Scripture to suggest that God changes His mind.   My faith in the Bible as God's divine word will not let me accept that He meant for anything but one man and one woman to share the life-long, intimate covenant of marriage.  The Bible also is pretty clear in how the gift of human sexuality is to be used.  God is not in favor of premarital sex, extramarital sex or homosexual sex.  I am pretty sure that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah would bear witness to that.  I am not prepared, not now and not ever, to let go of my faith and accept the secular, humanist view that marriage can "evolve" and can mean whatever society wants it to mean.  A marriage is, was and always should be the lifelong union of one man and one woman.


I also believe that I am not to judge others.  Just because homosexuality is not a sin that I commit certainly does not mean in any way that I am without sin.  It would go just as much against my faith to persecute people who choose the homosexual lifestyle.  They should be just as free to work and function in society as I am.  But, with every choice one makes to live one way, one gives up certain other things.  When I chose to marry my husband, I gave up the right to be intimate with anyone else.  If I chose now to be intimate with anyone else, I would have to give up my marriage.  Life is full of trade-offs.  The further we lower our standards as a society, the further we get from God. God will judge each one of us on our individual choices.  There is nothing wrong with maintaining the high standard that the benefits of marriage accrue to one man and one woman.  If you freely choose a different standard, you freely give up the benefits that would have come with a different choice.

Success, both personal and societal, only comes when the best and highest standards are sought.  As a nation, we keep accepting the lowering of standards and we are seeing an alarming decline in all ways.  With the acceptance of divorce and unwed motherhood, there are more children today living in generational poverty.  The burden on society of then providing for these children what should have been provided in a traditional, Biblical family is, with other things, putting our nation on a path of financial ruin.  The acceptance of same-sex marriage would be the fatal shot to the family.  First, marriage isn't necessary, then fathers aren't necessary, now, not even a man and a woman is necessary.  Marriage, in any form in secular society, becomes nothing.  So, instead of elevating marriage for the few, we will have devalued it for everyone.  As goes the family, so goes the nation.

We have always had the high standard of religious freedom in this country.  If the government now sanctions same-sex marriage, how is that going to play in our churches?  If my pastor becomes legally required to perform same-sex marriages, he has already said that he will not comply with the law.  If churches are forced to close because they will not go against their doctrines, then the right of all of us to freely exercise our religion has been taken away.  The right to openly gather and worship in the church of our choosing was one of the founding cornerstones of our nation.  Whether you attend church or not, I can say with complete confidence that the absence of Bible-teaching churches in our country will destroy all that remains of our civil society and will be felt in the very soul of every man, woman and child.  You cannot rip away part of a foundation and expect that which is built upon it to last.

When the cracks and crumbles that we see now turn into full collapse, I will put my faith in God's promise that He knows His people and He will be with us.

Just Call Me Baruch

     Our pastor's message this morning came, in part, from Jeremiah 45.  Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch, had hoped for greater success and a loftier role in life.  God's plan for Baruch was somewhat different.  God reassured Baruch that He would protect and provide for him.
     This particular message was one I desperately needed to hear.  When we decided to become small business owners in 2002, we were sure that if we could get through those tough first years, we were going to explode with success and become the premier general contractors in our market.  After all, I am a very good accountant and business person.  I have had all the management training, continuing education and professional experience to really perform that side of the business.  Mike and our business partner Roger (and his wife, Debi) are outstanding master carpenters, true craftsmen with decades of experience and sterling personal reputations in the trade.  Most of all, we were, and are, committed to the highest business ethics.  We will do it right or not at all.  In theory, the very best of business plans.  Reality has been very different.  We have not wavered from our original plan.  We give our very best effort, bid fairly, pay our vendors timely and treat our employees with dignity.  Yet, we continue after 11 years to make just a modest living, most years happy to break even.  Our service trucks have more than 200,000 miles each on them and we patch up tools and equipment to get through one more job.  We repeatedly comb through every facet of our business to figure out where we are missing our big break.  Is it our overhead calculation?  Is it our labor hours per task?  Is it taxes and regulation?  I have even gone back to full time work outside of our company to try to ease the financial burden.  Why, God, are we not successful?
     Pastor's message this morning made it clear to me that I am worrying about my standard of success, measured in dollars.  God measures success by whether or not we are doing our part in His plan.  God has provided for us.  We have a comfortable home.  We have never been hungry or without heat or lights.  Somehow, when a vehicle needs repair or one of us needs medical care, we have been able to meet that need.  We have funded the education of our children and even been able to take a modest family vacation every year.  So, if we have the blessing of God's provision, does that mean that whatever we are doing is part of His plan?  What are we doing?
     We, as fallen humans, can't comprehend even a speck of what God has planned for the universe into infinity.  He already has everything worked out.  Why do we feel compelled to keep the business going and not seek more profitable ventures?  What are we doing with this business that fulfills us in a way that money can't?  After reflecting all day, the only thing I can come up with is the role we play in our industry in training apprentices.  As a small company, we don't specialize.  We take pretty much any work we can get.  We frame, roof, side, insulate, drywall, restore and remodel.  We do residential work and commercial work.  We have worked as a subcontractor on huge multi-million dollar projects and as a general contractor on remodeling office space.  Because of the diversity of work we perform, the administrators of the union apprenticeship program love to send apprentices to us for their work experience.  These young people work side by side with Mike and Roger learning the construction trade.  Being small, we can't afford to pay them to sit and watch or push a broom.  It is an established fact in our market that the apprentices trained by us have a higher success rate, measured by completion of the program and continued employment, than apprentices who have not worked with us.  Other employers seek out the apprentices who have been trained by us.  If we were big and financially successful, it is unlikely that we would be able to give these apprentices the level of training that they currently get working with us.  When I think about it, how amazing is it that we have a hand in teaching people skills that they use to provide for their families?  Who knows what God has planned!  Maybe one of the young people who worked with us will fund the education of his child who will grow up to be a great president or find a cure for cancer.  We will likely never know, but that's ok, because God knows.
     Baruch may not have been well known or considered a success in his day, but we know him today, thousands of years later, because of his role in bringing us part of God's Word.  All work, all service, if done obediently and faithfully, leads to real and lasting success in His ledger.  That, after all, is the only measure that counts.