Priorities

Saturday -- the Sabbath -- spent worshipping college football.
Sunday -- Son Day -- will there be worship?

Fully devoted followers of -------???

I wonder how many starving children could be fed with the money spent on athletic tickets and the advertising on televised athletic events?

"...feed my sheep."

"My Own Little World" -- Matthew West

Gardening Lessons for Budding Entrepreneurs

Spring seems to be knocking on the door here in the Texas Panhandle.  The high temps all week have been in the 60's.  I'm getting in the gardening mood!  That's not a good thing though because I expect to be traveling much of the time through the Spring and Summer and won't be here to tend a garden if I planted one.

I tend to be fairly traditional in my gardening -- when I do plant one.  My gardens in the past have been fairly simple.  I like to plant tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, green beans, black-eyed peas, squash and okra.  Rarely do I add anything else to the mix -- UNLESS one of the kids wanted to plant something else.  In the past we have added pumpkins for a roadside pumpkin stand that was going to make tons of money but yielded only experience.  We also planted ornamental corn one year.  Similar source of experience.

If they were young and still at home and wanted to do something similar, we would plant some more "experiential" crops for them to tend.  It is the seeds of entrepreneurship that were the most important part of that experience.  Teaching them how to risk their capital, provide their labor, and approach the marketplace in the hopes of profit was the real benefit of planting those pumpkins and ornamental corn.

As a society, we have for the most part failed future generations in the area of teaching them about free enterprise.  It is obvious in the trends we see in our government today.  They believe that a great and benevolent government is the source of their livlihood.  They don't understand that it is not the government that creates the wealth, it is private business.  It is individuals who wake up every morning and risk their capital, their labor, their time, their future -- in the hopes of turning that small seed into a bountiful harvest.  It is time that we return to teaching our children those concepts.

I see hope in some areas.  There are many in the Millenial Generation who see the failure of our government.  They are looking for a better way.  I pray that the pendelum will swing back to a time of personal initiative and self-reliance rather than a collective dependence on Big Brother.

Life is good.

Of Dogs and Kids and Obedience

Every dog has
A unique personality.
We now have two
And they are as different as can be.

Our chocolate lab is the older of the two
And she has a personality like a cat.
She can be aloof and jealous
Or demanding on her own terms.

Our Aussie puppy on the other hand
Is a people loving dog.
He wants to be with you constantly.
He needs lots of reassurance.

It's amazing how much
Dogs can be like children.
Perhaps that is why so many people
Treat them like babies.

I know some folks who treat their dogs
Better than they treat their kids.
Maybe it's because the dogs
Never talk back.

Dogs need a firm but loving hand.
They need to know they will be cared for.
They need to know where the boundaries are.
They need to know disobedience brings penalties.

Children need a firm but loving hand.
They need to know they will be cared for.
They need to know where the boundaries are.
They need to know disobedience brings penalties.

It seems that anymore,
Folks are not inclined
To teach their children these basic principles
But will send their dogs to obedience school to learn them.

Then when the dogs come back home
They spoil them until the dog establishes dominance.
They expect the schools to teach kids obedience
But allow them to dominate their home.

Is it our Socialist-steeped educational agenda that has caused this?
Or is it the societal inculcation of moral relativism?
Is it perhaps the capitalist focus of me and mine?
Or could it be a failure of personal responsibility?

I think it is a failure to recognize God as Creator, Sustainer, Counselor and Father. We are to model after Him.

The Foxhole

When I was a kid we lived in town
Right next to an empty lot
That became a battlefield
Which imagination sought

With vigorous quest for glory
To be just like John Wayne
Defeating the evil forces
That charged across the plain.

With shovel and spoon we dug a pit
That became our hiding place;
A foxhole in the heat of war
Or just a private space

To get away from parents
Who seemed always watching out
To keep us out of trouble
At which they would shout

"I see you!" And we
Would duck back in our hole
And plot some new mischief
That we felt was our role

As spies against the neighbor kid
That we didn't understand
Who was sometimes on receiving end
Of dirt clods from our hand.

We weren't trying to hurt him
But it was World War II
And he was just a Nazi
Who didn't have a clue

That we were laid in ambush
Against the evil foe
Who were trying to kill our brothers
And we knew they had to go

So we hurled the clods
Across the street
Which sometimes struck their house
And then we ran on wing-ed feet

Lest they should figure out
Who fired the shot.
But without fail it seems
We always did get caught.

Why couldn't our parents understand
That it was truly war
And we were just defending them
Against the tyranny at their door?

A Tempering Influence

The most difficult part
Of raising a child
Is letting them make
Their own mistakes.
Love must go beyond
Protection; It must
Go beyond teaching;
It must allow failing.
Failure makes stronger
By strengthening resolve.
Just as steel must be tempered,
So must a child be tempered.
Which in turn tempers
A parent's love.