Where to begin....

There are times when I am blank and feel nothing is worthy of blogging. Today is not one of those days. Bear with me while I rant...

THE NEWTOWN TRAGEDY
First, I can't even express the myriad of emotions I feel regarding the tragedy in Newtown, CT last Friday. Having children the same age as the majority of those victims brings it close to home. I, in no way, can understand what the parents and family members of those innocent children are going through. I visualize parents choked with emotion, trying to answer a younger sibling's question of why his brother isn't coming to bed. I imagine distraught parents having to try to decipher between what is too horrific to comprehend and the life that could have been. Events like these go to show several things: 1. Life is short. 2. Life is full of unexpectedness. 3. Senseless acts of violence can't ever be explained or reasoned. 4. The "Where was God?" question isn't that hard to answer. God is a gentlemen. He leaves when asked, and we've been asking for the last 50 years. 5. Sin has corrupted the minds of our youth to the point of self-destruction and its accompanying collateral damage.
Many churches yesterday tried to justify this event by claiming God's holiness, which is undoubtedly true. God is holy and righteous and he does use cataclysmic circumstances like these to bring more people to Him. However, using this approach and line-of-thinking can be dangerous. Explaining God's holiness to a unsaved person or immature Christian will only make them bitter at God. They have no understanding of God's holiness and therefore cannot comprehend this logic as a reason for why it happened. They look at those who take this approach as pompous, haughty and mightier-than-thou. Instead of bombarding the social networks with this line of thought, try explaining it as what it really is - the effects of sin in American culture. Something most people can understand and relate to. Explain that sin always leads to destruction and without allowing God into our American way of life, we will be unable to combat its effects. The mind of the young man who fired those bullets was undoubtedly inundated with sinful influences. He was the product of divorced parents, a Godless school system and a sin-filled world of entertainment (music, video games, movies, etc). The scary thing is that the majority of children today are being raised in similar home environments.
The one comfort I have through all of what happened on Friday, is that most (if not all) of those 6-year-olds were under the age of accountability - meaning they reside with God in Heaven. For this I am thankful and just maybe God will use this as a way to get us to let God back into our American way of life.

McSCROOGE????
Okay... on a lighter note. There are several McDonald's in my area that are staying open all day on Christmas! How "scroogy" to make your Bob Cratchits work on Christmas! They are one of the largest money-making corporations in the world, so do they really need to sell another Big Mac? For real? If the McDonald's near you is staying open on Christmas Day, I would encourage you to contact the franchise owner and demand they close for this one day. State your disappointment, ask them kindly to close, demand an answer before you hang up and if they refuse your request... ask them to join their unlucky employees who have to work that day. I doubt they will, but I think that is only fair. Oh... and don't forget to wish them a "Merry Christmas!"

CHRISTIAN REPLICAS
A replica is a copy of something else. Kids will be little replicas of something.
Teacher: "How do we grow closer to God?" Students: "Read our Bibles." "Go to church." "Pray." "Love our enemies." "Memorize His Word." "Share the Gospel." 
The answers could go on and on. The teachers in our Christian school beat this doctrine into student's heads day in and day out. Students know all the answers but their ability to make these actions a reality is limited by the hearts of the parents. If it is not in the heart of Dad and Mom to attend church or read their Bible, or have family devotions... why would it be in the heart of the child? The child sees one thing being said and another thing being done, and consequently, he deems what was learned at school as futile. So, the student begins to replicate what the parent does. If parents would be real, then children would be real. One thing is for sure. If parents are being fake, their children will replicate that. It's one thing to be a fake. It's even worse to have a replica of a fake. If parents truly want their children to do what's right and follow a Godly path, isn't it time they take the lead? I recently saw a quote: "The first-generation Christian has convictions. The second-generation Christian has beliefs. The third-generation Christian has opinions." It doesn't have to be this way! Make your convictions known to your kids and maybe they will replicate them in their own lives!

COLD MAKES SICK?!
Despite what your grandmother says... Cold temperatures, blowing wind, rain, snow and sleet DO NOT MAKE YOU SICK! Nor do they make sicknesses worse! Viruses and bacteria do. The only thing cold temperatures do to you is make you cold (hypothermia). So stop telling your kids this! They are still going outside for recess! :)

Okay... I have more to rant about, but that will have to wait for another day. Until then... these will stay Thoughts from Within.