A Sunday Afternoon

On Sunday afternoon, my son and I decided to take a walk through Memorial Gardens in downtown Concord. During the spring, this centuries old cemetary transforms into a magnificent show place. I decided to take our new camera to play with and I encouraged my son took our "old" camera and take some of his own photographs. He was really cute looking for just the right flower to photograph.

Then, we went to Cabarrus Creamery - downtown - it is an old fashioned ice cream parlor - delicious. We sat on a bench right outside the store front and talked. I shared with him how we used to shop in downtown stores like those we were looking at before malls came along in the late 70's and early 80's and before we had internet shopping - most of our stuff comes by UPS now. It was a fun afternoon.

It was really sweet - a lady saw us in the gardens and at the ice cream parlor and she told my son to enjoy the day - that he would never forget these memories and she told him how her mother used to take her to the gardens every spring and how she still remembers it today. She said, "Now she lives in heaven."As we drove away in the car my son said - "Mom, aren't you amazed at how many people that we don't know - Know God. Like that woman - she said her mom was in heaven and we don't her - I am sure there are a lot more."

I love kids because they are self-centered at this age and stage.....but by his conversation today I can tell that he is just starting to realize just how vast God's creation is.....

Poor thing, I had to give him some benadryll before we went to the gardens to keep his allergies at bay - he fell asleep on the way home. He had a great afternoon...I'd say. A walk, an ice cream and a nap....what more could a Sunday afternoon hold.

Kim

Loving Lowe's....

Well, about 1:45 this am, I finished scraping, peeling, tearing....mumbling and grumbling and I am happy to report that the bathroom stripping is done. I begged hubby for help....to which he replied, "Why do you always WAIT until 11:00 at night to begin again on a project?" I said, "you know that I am a night owl - so grab a scraper and get with it....Please? And once the highlights of the Masters ended, he did pitch in and help me get it completed. And then I cleaned and tried to make things appear as "normal" as possible - now to the fun part. Spackling all of the oooopppps that I made while scraping and peeling....then sanding and prepping the walls for paint. So what will it be? Motor City Blue, or Blue Coal or Rogue Blue or Pitch cobalt? Whatever we choose, it will be some shade of navy....my hubby's choice - to which I relied, "That is really going to be dark...you have no natural light in there....and then he said, "You watch to many of those decorating shows on HGTV!"

Well, I talked him in to going to Lowe's with me tonight (poor fellow does love me) to select paint chips and then I had to get a few prep supplies for painting, spackling and sanding - some more wallpaper removal stuff for little man's STUBBORN border...this is the only product that I have not tried....it will probably work like a charm....if so, I promise to represent their company well....because I will let everyone know what worked! My goal is to clean that border off so that I can put up a new one....I know I said that I would not but it is either paint the whole room or put another border up.....I do love Lowe's....I walk around and imagine the things that I THINK that I can do while shopping in there.....I found a light fixture that I want for my bedroom because hubby and a friend put up a ceiling fan in there today so now I want new fixture to replace the plain one that the fan overshadows now. Oh what next? I will just have to go to Lowe's for more inspiration.....

Have a great day of worship tomorrow - personally, I am looking forward to a day of rest!

Kim

If We Could Just All Love One Another Like Jesus Did....

Good morning! Thanks for all the emails and comments about my wall paper project. Someone suggested Windex and it does remove the glue residue so I am working with dueling projects. I spray the border in one room......spray the paper in the bathroom which happens to be next to the room with the border and then I scrape one while the other absorbs product and then I scrape the other. I am about one third of the way through and I know that you will notice my skinny arms next time you see me - Just kidding! I am thinking about having hubby take the bathroom mirror down while I am working on this project because I am tired of viewing myself in my jammies from every time I reach to scrape a bit. I mean, even Tyra Banks, would not look hot doing that would she?

Back to my title, I just finished reading my second book by Josh McDowell this week. I have personally heard him speak several times and most recently at the Apologetics Conference in the fall. Let me tell you, that man is on to something BIG. In the first book, he warns that if we do not teach our children to view the world the way that God sees it; then we may very well be the Last Generation that surrenders our lives to Jesus. Is that not a frightening thought? But it is oh so true, Ladies. Once I finished that book, I picked up another title by him: The New Tolerance. It is a MUST read for you girls.....especially if you plan to educate your children in public schools. He gives you advice for what you can do to guard your children's thinking when they are faced with a curriculum that embraces this new tolerance.

What is The New Tolerance? I am glad you asked. To adults, tolerance used to mean that we respected one another for having differences in opinion. It did not mean that we necessarily AGREED with them, but that we understood their right to a different opinion. The NEW TOLERANCE says that what is right for me is okay but may not necessarily be right for you. There is no longer a moral compass. It is a "Live and let live' philosophy....It is why a parent earlier this year stood in my classroom told me: "Mrs. Staples, I know better than to live like I am living right now. I was raised in this church and went to Sunday School in this very room BUT, it just doesn't work for young people anymore. Jesus loves me and I know he wants me to be HAPPY!" For those of you that are reading this, you know my response.....did I accept his theory of justifying his sin because Jesus wants him to be HAPPY? Absolutely not. But The NEW TOLERANCE that our culture embraces feeds him this line of baloney and a young man who was once raised in the church who claims that he knows better has bought in to this one size fits all type of thinking. Tragic, I tell you - just tragic.

According to the new tolerance, who you are is inseparable from what you do and think and believe; your identity is wrapped up in your culture and conduct. Therefore, if you express any disagreement over some one's beliefs, you are disparaging them! If you say that their behavior is wrong, you are judging them! If you criticize the culture, then you are criticising them! If you cannot accept their lifestyle, you are being intolerant of them! In other words, if you do not approve of a person's lifestyle, then you do not love the person.

My friend that could not be further from the truth, but our culture has embraced this and it seems as though everyone has rights today but Christians (and it is going to get worse) and it began with a multicultural curriculum that made it's way into our public school classrooms about 15 years ago.

Scripture does not teach that what we do constitutes the whole of who we are; the Bible says that "God created man in His own image....male and female He created them." Gen. 1:27 He created human beings as individuals made in His own image and with His own hands (Gen. 2:7) not just as products of their cultures and communities. Our beliefs and behaviors affect us, OF COURSE IT DOES! Isaiah wrote "Your iniquities have separated you from your God" in Isaiah 59:2, but his words how us a clear distinction between WHO we are and WHAT we do - in this case our iniquities. But praise God that what we do is NOT the same as WHO we are!

Yes, Jesus loves everyone but He loved them enough to tell them the TRUTH during His time here on Earth - remember the woman at the well? He spoke the truth....Do you/

Please read this book and talk about this with your children....our choice is simple - are we choosing the cross or the culture?

Have a great day in Him,
Kim

Border Blues

We are on Spring Break this week and so far it has been awesome. I started on Friday clicking some home projects off my list. I also read a book. I am such an avid reader that if I pick up a book, I cannot put it down until I am finished. I read Josh McDowell's The Last Generation and I promise to post about it soon. He has some incredible wisdom and insight about this generation that you and I are raising today.

We are also having a conference at our church and it is a mountaintop experience. If you read this today and you did not attend either service yesterday - DO NOT MISS tonight's service at 7:00 pm. The music was EXCELLENT! I am telling you - they were bringing it! I came home in such a peaceful mood - so I decided that before going to bed last night, I would QUICKLY remove the transportation border from my son's room. I followed directions using the paper tiger scorer cutting small holes in the border that my friend and I put ALL THE WAY around his room five years ago. I read the directions TWICE on the DIF wallpaper stripper NO DRIP - NO MESS gel. I waited 15 minutes as the bottle recommends and then I scraped and NOTHING happened. So I read the directions again - decided to wait a little longer to let the product take effect and I scraped again and NOTHING happened. So I decided to sleep on it and the border would fall of while I was dreaming about it - SURELY......NOT. I woke up to a border slathered in dried gel.

PLAN 2 : According to the EXPERTS on the Internet (what did we do before we could GOOGLE something?) I should have tried a mixture of fabric softener and hot water in a spray bottle. Hubby is on the way to Wally World as I type this......Come on Border.....I have other plans for today.....submit....surrender...Please?

My plan for the remainder of the week was to remove the tartan plaid wallpaper from hubby's bathroom - it is done is a golf motif - and I woke him up last night to break the news that his bathroom may just be tartan plaid for the remainder of our stay in this home. Just kidding - if this fabric softener thing works.....I will be stripping it this week. Nikki, if those six little hands get bored this week - I will take the girls and put them to work. My little man does not find such things entertaining.......even with bribery.

So I will keep you posted and in the meantime, I am looking forward to another revival service tonight. I am going to need one!

Kim