This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Cindy
Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila
From Sierra Vista, Arizona

On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, Petty Officer 2nd Class Chris Davila raised an American flag over Camp Korean Village, Iraq, he brought with him from Arizona.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Sierra Vista firefighter and emergency medical technician Chris Davila presented that flag to Fire Chief Randy Redmond as fellow firefighters looked on. Monday, May 5, 2008, was Davila's first day back on the job with the department after being gone for nearly nine months, with seven of those months deployed as a Navy Reserve corpsman serving with a Marine unit near the Jordanian and Syrian border area in Iraq.

And, as luck would have it, on his first shift saw him responding to a blaze in Sierra Vista. "Right back to work," he said with a laugh.

You can read the rest of PO 2nd Class Davila's story here.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived.

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Labels: Military, Wednesday Heroes

Creation of Adam (detail)
1510 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican

As of late, I have had many conversations with people and have read even more here in blogland. I have noticed an unsettling trend in Christianity of late. Many, many people have begun to take situational ethics and call it relying on the sovereignty of God! Sounds totally unbelievable huh? Amazingly there are so many who do this and do not even realize they have bought into this way of thought.

Many when confronted with scripture after scripture on a teaching they are not TOTALLY comfortable with, begin to offer reasons why they do not think it applies to them, or at least not to the same degree as it does to others, even though they believe it to be truth. They continue to live the way they have been without feeling the need to make any changes (or only tiny adjustments) in their life because if they are not correct in doing so God is sovereign and will intervene.

Did you see that?

1. believe it is truth
2. not comfortable making the change
3. God is sovereign & will intervene if I am wrong

First, if we truly believe something is the plan of God for life then we will follow through with action.

Second, if truth is revealed to us in scripture our action is to adjust our lives to live that truth!

In Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9 we are called "peculiar". Just for fun, here are some of the synonyms of the word "peculiar":

uncomformable, exceptional; abnormal, abnormous; anomalous, anomalistic; out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element; irregular, arbitrary; teratogenic; lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton; peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious; out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run; beyond the pale of, out of the pale of; misplaced; funny. (adapted from Roget's Thesaurus)

Thank you Lady of Virtue for the list.

Third, who are we to assume that God will intervene even though we have justified our disobedience? This keeps the individual in control, as if they know better than God. Who needs submission right, after all if God is sovereign He will change things. Even partial obedience is still disobedience. Yes, God can and sometimes does intervene when we are disobedient yet, this is not what we should be resting in. This is saying God bless me in spite of my actions rather than because of my actions. Are we testing God and asking for Him to sovereignly overrule us or are we submitting to his sovereignty? There is a difference. A big difference!

Labels: Christianity

We went for our first ultrasound this morning. For some reason, my doctor seemed concerned about dates. This is the only pregnancy that the ultrasound came up with the exact same date as I already had! This little one is due November 22.

So what do you think? This one is a cutie, huh?!

Labels: children, pregnancy, Quiverfull

"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse into the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her."

---JR Miller, a preacher from the 19th century, from the book Homemaking

Labels: children, Encouragement, Quiverfull, Train Up a Child

For the photo hunt this week we get to share any photo we would like to share. I chose this one because I find it beautiful and refreshing! It is one of our tulips after the rain!

Labels: PhotoHunt

Take a good look, this is a rare thing! My camera shy son has actually been caught on camera!! Today is his seventeenth birthday! Where have the years gone? It was not all that long ago he was interested in trains and legos. Time sure does fly by. Happy birthday son; we love you.

Labels: Family

The May edition of The Heart of the Matter homeschool magazine has been published! You can catch me over there today! Stop by, read, and leave some comments! Have a terrific Thursday.

Main Page

Direct Link to my article on schedules.

Labels: Family, Heart of the Matter, Homeschooling, organization

Wow, can you believe it? After several weeks I finally have a new link to share! Two actually!

We are preparing to study World War II and the Holocaust so I did a search. I came across this site: Cybrary of the Holocaust. They have an education page with links and lesson plans, HERE.

Next, I did a search for a study on Corrie Ten Boom and stumbled upon a free cliff note resource. They have a search engine you can use or you can just look through the alphabetical listing. The site is called Best Notes and the direct link for Corrie Ten Boom's Hiding Place is HERE.

For more Weblink Wednesday visit my friend Valerie.

Labels: Curriculum, Homeschooling, Links, Weblink Wednesday

Genesis 1:26-27a
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.

Psalm 8-6-8
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

Often times it seems as if the environmentalist and the Christian are at odds with each other. This is a big frustration for many Christians, I know because I have spoken with them. It is not that Christians are anti-environment. On the contrary, if Christians are honest, they will tell you it is our responsibility to care for the creation. We were created to have dominion over creation. Adam and Eve were caretakers of the Garden. We should be good stewards of all that God has entrusted to us, including creation. We are to govern creation not be governed by it. The problem lies in the fact that the face of the environmental movement seems to place every other aspect of creation above man. They say we must care for the animals and the trees but it is okay to kill an unborn baby! Man is the crown of creation, we are to care for the rest of creation, but we are not secondary to it.

So I recycle, I pick up abandoned dogs and take them to the shelter, I don't litter, I conserve energy. I am not a dark shade of green but I do my part. I do not however, place environmentalism above the sanctity of human life. We are to care for crown of creation with as much, if not more diligence.

Labels: Christianity, enviroment

I have been pondering all day what to share with you. I kept coming back to one thing. I will share a few concluding sentences from our Bible study last night. It gives us something to ponder and brings tremendous blessing when realized and applied in our lives.

It is important to remember that the Lord's dealings with His people have had single ultimate purpose. And, the shocker though it may be, man is not the center point of that purpose.

God's plan throughout history is not one for the glorification of man, but for the glorification of God. That's why it is so important not to discern what God's plan for your life is; it's to discern what God's plan is, and then align your life with it.

Our glorification in the end will be a reflection of His glory being manifested; we will bask in the glow of His glory and thereby be glorified ourselves. Think: If the perfect life on earth is one that reflects Christ's life perfectly, then the perfect glory in eternity must be one that reflects God's glory.

Thank you Bruce for teaching such a powerful study.

Labels: Christianity