Category Archives: Christian faith

April 6, 2013 · 4:24 pm

“F” is for Future . . .

Day six of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge . . .

What do any of us really know about our future? Not much.

I DO know that God knows my future.

He knows what choices I will make that will affect my future.

I live within His permissive will, which means that although I know without a doubt that should I die tomorrow, I will be in heaven with Him, He allows me free will to make whatever choices I wish.

Because of that freedom, it’s very important that I do my best to carefully consider the choices I make every day, to consider how those choices impact my own life, and the lives of those who are around me.

It means I must consider how those choices cause others to view my testimony, as well, because the last thing I would want is for a choice I make to cause someone else to refuse the free gift of salvation that can come only through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son.

“Future” . . . if you look through the Bible, you will not find anywhere that we are promised anything in the future other than our chosen eternity. For MY future, I chose to accept the gift of salvation by grace, given by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What “future” have you chosen?

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April 2, 2013 · 10:13 pm

Bibles and Boys and Balloons, Oh My!

This is day 2 of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge,

and I’m touching on several “B” words. First, an update on yesterday’s word “agony”, because of my “Back” injury. It’s no better at all, in fact my husband took me to a work in appointment at our doctor, who gave me a prescription for a very strong pain medication. I took the first one 15 minutes ago, and it’s definitely working, so . . . YAY! Along with that, the doctor told me to go ahead and take my prescription muscle relaxer. My back is now feeling MUCH better, at least until the meds wear off, but the hope is that it will allow me to relax enough to actually sleep tonight, and that it will help my back recover from whatever happened when I was cleaning off the ottoman yesterday. Unfortunately, because of this, I was unable to attend Ladies Bible Study at church tonight :-(, but it is absolutely my intention to go to church tomorrow night. After all, I won’t have to drive, Mike can do that! 🙂 Which brings me to my next “B” word . . .

. . . “Bible”. As a matter of faith and practice, our family, and our church, uses only the KJV Bible. We believe it to be God’s preserved word for English speaking people. My Bible . . .

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. . . which of course, anyone who knows me well would immediately know it was mine even if it didn’t have my name on the cover, given that it is purple, is extremely important to me. My Bible reminds me that no matter what happens in my life, the Lord is still in charge, and even if for some reason I get to feeling that He doesn’t care, well, He really does, and everything, even things I may think are bad at the time, will work to God’s glory at some point. My Bible can answer any spiritual questions I really need answered. The words contained within are at times a comfort, at times an encouragement, at times they are instruction, and always there to show me God’s love. My Bible is the manual for the human race, and it is God’s love letter to us.

“Boys” . . . of which my husband and I have four, four boys who we love beyond reason, and would willingly give our lives for, if necessary.

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This was taken right before we left Michigan, on our big move across the country to New Mexico. The boys (“The Batman”, “Mr. Loquacious”, “The Artist”, and “The Puzzler”) are playing in Torch Lake, which is between Kalkaska and Traverse City, Michigan, a lake I grew up going to, and where we wanted to go one last time before moving away. Our boys are very much the joy of our lives, second only to God. We home-school, so I get to spend LOTS of time with them. I have known lots of moms who say they couldn’t stand to spend so much time with their kids. Sometimes I feel sorry for those moms . . .

Having moved to Albuquerque, NM, we see a LOT of my next “B” word, “balloons”, as in hot air balloons!

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This picture was taken from right outside out front door, after my youngest came running to get me after going out to bring in the newspaper one morning. Aren’t they beautiful? We often see several hot air balloons when we have errands to run in the morning, as early morning is when they generally take off. Our city is home to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, which we were fortunate enough to get to attend for the first time last October. It is awesome, seeing so many hot air balloons all at once! Until we moved here, I had never seen one in real life, only in pictures, movies and TV shows.

Another “B” word, “Bed”. Doesn’t go with the other words, but I’m proud to say that for the most part, I’ve gotten into the good habit of making ours look pretty every day . . .

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Our bedroom furniture was a gift from my mother before she passed away, and we purchased it at Emory’s Furniture in Port Huron, MI, in their used furniture department. Isn’t it pretty? I just love it! As you can see once again, proof that my favorite color is purple, LOL!

One final “B” word for the day, “Baptism”.

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Here is “The Puzzler” being baptized in our church back in Michigan, shortly before we moved to New Mexico. He asked the Lord for salvation on the final day of VBS, and was baptized the Sunday right after that. I’m so grateful that he finally understood what salvation was, and that now I can know for sure that all four of our kids will be with us in Heaven when the time comes. 🙂

So, there you have it, just some of the words which begin with the letter “B”, that have importance in my life for one reason or another.

See you tomorrow, with the letter “C”! 🙂

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Filed under Christian faith, family, health, home education, homeschooling, Hot Air Balloons, Kids

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March 25, 2013 · 1:36 pm

My Thoughts on the Steubenville, OH Rape case . . .

As a rape survivor myself, when I was an 18-year-old girl, it still, some 37 years later, brings tears to my eyes, and a gut wrenching pain to hear of cases like this:

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/03/23/opinion/its-unbelievable-no-one-stepped-in-for-rape-victim.html

In my case, I was not a 16-year-old girl who was passed out drunk, or drugged. I was an 18-year-old virgin who was raped by a young man I had gone out on a date with. Some things match, though. He was popular. By the time my case went to court, my family had received many phone calls from people in his family asking what it would take to “just make this thing go away”. The prosecuting attorney pushed me to allow a plea bargain, saying that my little brothers had to go to the same school with this guys younger siblings and their friends, and life would be made difficult for them. I finally agreed, but then, his attorney decided to continue the trial and force me to cross-examination. It was one of the most traumatic times of my life.

When he began cross-examination, I was asked by the defense attorney while I was on the stand, why I had allowed him to take me out, if I had no intention of going to bed with him. I said, under oath, that my mother had not raised a prostitute, and that taking a girl out is not payment for sex. I was asked if anyone in my family had known I was going out with a guy who was black (both of my parents, and my little brothers, were at home when he picked me up, so yes, they did).

The defense attorney tried in every possible way to shake my testimony, and failed. He was, in fact, overheard saying to his client that if he had to rape someone he shouldn’t have chosen someone who could hold her own on the stand. After that, he came back and said they were taking the plea deal, which turned out to be legal at that time. I don’t know if it would be now.

The biggest difference in these two cases is that in the Steubenville, OH case, the rapists were star athletes, the girl was either drunk or drugged, she was unconscious, and there were tons of witnesses, who took video and still pictures of the entire crime, who posted these images to the internet, tweeted them, and did further unspeakable things to humiliate this girl.

In my case, I was an 18-year-old virgin, who fought back, and was had finger print bruises around my neck for weeks afterword from being choked.

In the Steubenville case, a girl went to a party with the “popular” kids.

In neither case was rape in any way excusable.

No, she should not have been drinking, or at a drunken party. But you know what? that is NO excuse for what was done to her! Staying out of a situation like that, dressing in a way as to be completely unnoticed as a female, etc . . . does NOT protect you from being raped. I was not dressed immodestly at all, when it happened to me.

Rape is NOT a crime of passion, or of lust. It is a crime of violence. It is a crime of power. It is a crime of control over another person.

No matter what choices this girl made, to go to a party, to drink, or whatever, these boys had no right whatsoever to do what they did to her, and it is SHAMEFUL that of all the other young people there, not even one tried to help her, tried to stop these boys. That an entire school system, and apparently at least half a town, would be so afraid of going against the popular star athletes to do what is right, speaks volumes.

Parents, please do not JUST teach your girls to stay away from situations where they can be raped. They can be raped in ANY situation, including going from a store to their car, or having their home broken into while they are there. Provocative dress does not make a girl or a woman “responsible” for a crime of violence being perpetrated upon her. If that’s all it took, old ladies and little children would never be raped. I would never have been raped. Being drunk doesn’t make her responsible, either, in fact, under the law when one is drunk or drugged, one cannot legally give consent to anything.

Yes, I still think we need to teach daughters to be careful, and to be wary. We still need to teach them not to advertise their bodies. Not to keep boys or men from attacking them, but because it’s right for them to not advertise their bodies to anyone to whom they are not married.

However, we also, at least as much, if not more so, need to teach our sons to RESPECT girls, for then they will respect women. We need to teach them that they too, would best be served by waiting for intimacy until they are married. That they need to respect THEMSELVES enough not to think a girl is “easy” just because she may wear something a bit tight, or a bit short. We need to teach them what is biblically right, that they are to PROTECT women, not take advantage of them (which, by the way, includes taking advantage of the fact that a girl is being deliberately provocative, which yes, of course, is sometimes the case). We need to teach them that REAL men do not take advantage of women, or girls. Real men are not afraid to stand up and say NO! when their peers are victimizing someone like this. REAL men risk losing the popular crowd, but REAL men are the men we should want our sons to be, and should want our daughters to end up with. A boy who would do what these boys did, and get away with it (as many do), will be a man who abuses his wife and children, if he ever has them.

The responsible parties here are these “star athletes”, along with the coach and the town that raised them on such a pedestal that no matter what they did, or who they hurt, it became better to punish the VICTIM, instead of expecting them to face up to their own choices. And yes, what they did was a CHOICE. It was also a CHOICE for the coach, the school system, the other “kids”, and a good part of the town, to demonize the victim of their attack, and to defend the criminals. This trial did not ruin the criminals’ lives, the very choices they made ruined their lives. And I believe that any and all people who took videos and pictures and posted them to the internet, should be on trial as well, along with each and every person who threatened the survivor of this vicious, violent attack.

I pray this girl gets help, and that one day, like me, she will come to see that she is a SURVIVOR . . . but society needs to understand, we all need to understand, what was done to her will NEVER leave her. It has been 37 years for me, and I still have fears that hit me, which are directly attributable to what was done to me . . .

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March 8, 2013 · 10:56 pm

What a Difference a Year Makes . . .

Today, my husband Mike posted the following on his Facebook status:

“One year ago today, my life (and the lives of my family) drastically changed. It’s the day we found out the office in which I worked would be closing.

We had good options and more than 90 days notice. We could take a severance package based on seniority, interview for a different position within the company, or “move your desk” and keep the same job in a different location.

The first thing I did after the “all hands” meeting where we received the announcement was to call my wife…I did NOT want her to find out first by watching the TV news.

Once I got home, I got on the computer and researched the web site we were given to investigate our options. Lori got on her computer and looked for home school friendly states. We compared notes, prayed, researched and prayed some more…and we decided on Albuquerque.

That was a year ago. We’ve had trials and challenges, victories and defeats. We miss our old friends and old church…but we’re making new friends and love our new church! The center I work in now has a much better morale and is more relaxed then my old one. At this point, I’d have to call this whole adventure a blessing!”

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He’s right, too! For me, it’s been a scary journey, but one well worth all the researching, planning, packing, having the moving sale, etc . . . it was scary when Mike left for Albuquerque at the end of June, knowing the kids and I wouldn’t be leaving for another month. It was really hard to be on my own for that month, without him to help me get us ready and moved. It was scary knowing I had to trust him to choose a place for us to live, too! (but he did pretty well!) 🙂 And it was REALLY scary when the kids and I set out on our cross-country drive, knowing we were about to begin a brand new life, 1700 miles away, at the end of the longest distance I have ever driven without help! But you know, we did it! I had awesome friends back home in Pt. Huron, MI, who helped me get a moving sale set up (thank you, Phyllis Blount and Kim Milton!), and my awesome friend Phyllis who came and stayed with me from early morning all day each day of the moving sale, who kept my kids for me when I needed to do things without them, who took them each day to VBS at our wonderful church back home (this was the first year I couldn’t do it).

There were wonderful ladies at our church (Sparlingville Baptist Church who brought meals for my children and me during the last four days we were there.

There was a very sweet lady at church who asked if I would sing “one more special” before we left, so I sang the special during our final service, Sunday night, July 30, 2012. At the end of the service, I was just floored when Pastor Milton called the boys and me up to the platform and gave us this beautiful plaque:

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Which is proudly displayed in our new home . . .

Yes, it has been a whole new journey for me, for us. It is hard to be so far away from everything and everyone we’ve known and loved. But, we are living someplace where I’ve been wearing sandals all winter! God has placed us in exactly the right church for us (Mesa Baptist Church). We are making friends, and we have an awesome church family here, too! Just as when I had surgery back in Michigan, and our church family helped so much, with meals and such, when Mike had his back surgery this past December, our new church family rallied ’round, and we had meals, and someone to stay with our kids for the day (thank you, Charles & Charlie Wright!). Then, when less than six weeks later, he wound up back in the hospital for surgery on his back AGAIN, with less than 24 hours notice our church family was here for us again. We had two ladies here the next day with practically no notice (thank you, Ann Wright & Rose Yates!), to stay with our kids so I could be at the hospital with Mike. They took them to church that night (it was a Wednesday) and I met them there for service and took the boys home. And, again, ladies from church provided meals for us. As did three different people from our Thursday Home school Park Day group.

We enjoy Albuquerque, New Mexico, more than I thought we would. I’m even getting used to the big-ness of it, in comparison to Port Huron, Michigan. I’m getting used to the traffic, and getting used to spending much more time in the car, as everything is further apart than it was in the Port Huron area (hey, Pt. Huron is about seven square miles in area, and Albuquerque is 187 square mile in area! It’s quite a change to get used to, lol!)

Tonight, we went somewhere for supper that we’ve never been before, Chik-Fil-A, where for the first time in over two years, I was in a restaurant where they had something other than water for me to drink! I don’t do carbonated anything anymore, and no sugar drinks. This place has an awesome fresh squeezed diet lemonade. GOOD, GOOD, GOOD!

Since moving here, I even have worked up the courage to do something I’ve wanted to do for some time, I applied for, and was accepted as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Schoolhouse Review Crew. I’ve wanted to get back into writing, and it is helping me to be more disciplined about getting on here more regularly and writing these posts! I have hopes of writing professionally one day . . .

I have made some good friends at our new church, and have been able to be a help via email to the mom of one of them, who back in October had weight loss surgery herself.

I hope my family is as much of a blessing to our new church family as they have been, and continue to be, to us.

I hope we live here in the Albuquerque area for a long, long time . . . I’ve grown to love it here, it feels like home now, and our church feels like home, too. 🙂

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January 17, 2013 · 7:12 pm

Life’s Little (or big!) Speed Bumps!

So…this past Few days have been very busy! On Tuesday, my husband had a follow up appointment with his surgeon (he had spinal surgery last month). After he went to shower and change in the early afternoon, so as to have time to rest before the appointment, we discovered that his almost closed incision had completely opened back up, was deep, bleeding and seeping. Took him to the surgeon’s office right away at their direction, of course, and they scheduled him for surgery the next morning. So… Now we’re waiting to discover what kind of infection is in there, so they can treat it. Meanwhile, he is in the hospital at LEAST through this weekend, and we’ll see after that. 😦 He’s not having a fun time at all, with all of this mess. I think he originally thought he’d be back to work long before this…

We are discovering more and more what a wonderful church family we’ve become part of out here, two lovely ladies from church came (very early in the morning) yesterday and stayed with the kids, taking them to church last night. I made it to church too, as my husband wanted me to go, and took the kids home after.

Today, I took the kids for flu shots, then to see their dad for a bit, as they were very anxious about him. We didn’t stay too long, because my husband wanted to get his pain med and rest, but at least he was able to see them and reassure them.

Came home and began working on laundry (which never seems to end), and our assistant pastor brought over a couple of meals that ladies had made and taken to the church for us (we live a ways from our church, so it was easier to do it that way). We are now warming a lasagna and a vegetable dish in the oven for tonight’s supper, and my house smells WONDERFUL! 🙂

When my husband is finally better from all of this, I intend to become involved in that ministry, as I have been in previous churches. For any of you considering where you can minister, it is a very important ministry, too. You never know how much it means until you are the recipient of caring people who take the time out of their busy schedule to fix and bring your family a meal when life is a bit overwhelming, whether because you’ve just had a baby, or just come home from the hospital, or you have a husband in the hospital and a bunch of kids to manage at the same time. Ever since the first time I was on the receiving end of this ministry I’ve known what a blessing it is, and always tried to be involved in the giving end of it, too, and I always will!

Right now, I have one child reading one of the new Hardy Boys books he got for his birthday, and the other three are playing and watching Veggie Tales, which allowed me time between laundry loads to write this. As you can see, I meant it when I said I intended to be more intentional and frequent with my blog writing! I’m trying to average at least once a week and go up from there.

Have a good evening, everyone, and remember to see the blessings more than you see the troubles! 🙂

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January 10, 2013 · 2:27 pm

Fret not…

As my closest friends already know, my biggest spiritual struggle is with worry. An old friend back home in MI used to regularly quote the words “fret not” at me…unfortunately, it’s still a major struggle for me.

My husband is struggling to recover from major spinal surgery, and instead of concentrating on his recovery is having to spend much time on the phone with both the surgeon’s office and the administrator of his medical leave. The surgeon wants him to be recovered more before he goes back to work (his incision isn’t even healed shut yet, and it’s only been one month, today, since his surgery), and the administrating company at this point has only agreed to extend his paid leave through tomorrow. So, I am worried primarily about his recovery, because if they make him go back too soon, I don’t believe he will completely recover, making the surgery a waste. I hate bureaucracy so very, very much…

We’ve been trying ever since we moved here to NM to find out how to transfer our guardianship of our adult, developmentally disabled son to a judge here. I made a call this morning to an organization I was referred to by a lady I met at a Scrapbooking day, but the person I need to speak to is out of the office until next week, so I left a voice mail with our phone numbers, and information about what we need. Hoping they can help, worrying, because we are now running out of time to get this done within the timeframe the original judge gave us.

I miss my best friend. I haven’t seen her since May, when my kids and I visited her for a few days before we left MI, and had three birthday parties in three days, for my twins and two of her kids. I miss getting to spend time with my best friend. I know it will never again be like it was, being able to see each other fairly often, even though we lived 2 1/2 hours apart. Now, it’s about 1700 miles, and several states. I miss having someone to talk with, who understands my life. I miss my other friends, the ones who were there to get together with me for just fun get togethers, even if just to go out for girl’s time… I’m lonely, and I feel like maybe I’m just being selfish.

I miss taking piano lessons, but I had to leave my piano behind when we moved, and we haven’t been able to replace it. I even miss practicing!

I am weary.

Lately, I’ve been very stressed and anxious, and am trying to give it to the Lord, but I have such a hard time leaving it with Him!

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” Psalm 37:7

This is SO hard for me, the whole “fret not” thing! I do not do well with the whole “just in time delivery” concept, it makes me very anxious. I guess the only thing I can do is keep trying, but it’s just so hard…

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January 4, 2013 · 10:58 pm

A Fresh Start in the New Year…

As we begin the new year, I want to get a fresh start to the home education in our family. Flexibility is very important to us, for a variety of reasons. We like to be able to pick up and head out to the park if it’s a nice day, so it’s nice to not feel wedded to a specific, rigid structure in our home-schooling.

We use a relaxed/Unschooling/Charlotte Mason method of home education, or what I’ve occasionally heard called the “wing-it” method. 🙂

Now that I’m a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, being flexible is also helpful when it comes to being able to add new things into our educational program when they become available to us. For example, we’ll soon be adding in a beginning Spanish program, which makes us very happy, because we’ve recently moved from MI to NM, and feel that learning the Spanish language would be a good thing in our new life.

As part of our fresh start, we will be getting into the History of Classical Music from Beautiful Feet Books. We bought this shortly before finding out we would be moving, so until now, had done nothing more than check to see that all the components were in the box before taping it back up for the movers. 🙂 This program, along with the Early American History package that we also have from Beautiful Feet, are put together from a Christian viewpoint, which I prefer. We’ve been slowly working our way through the history package over a few years. I also have the guide for Teaching Character through Literature from Beautiful Feet, and several of the books.

We’ll be adding in a math CD program for one of my kids who is very behind in math, to see how it works for him.

My kids love, love, love doing lapbooks, and there are tons of them online, free to download and print out.

For Bible, we are going to use the guide for reading the Bible in a year that our church is giving us.

Several years ago, I received via a grant program online, a huge set of prints of American art. I intend to use them for Art Appreciation with a Charlotte Mason style slant.

other thing I’m looking forward to is getting involved with our church’s home-school group. The home school moms in our church will be having a meeting this coming Tuesday evening to brainstorm activity ideas for the rest of the school year. This is important to me because I want my kids more involved with kids from church.

I also want to look for opportunities for my kids to become involved in service to the Lord, which I think is even more important than academics. More than anything at all, I want them to love the Lord and want to serve Him in whatever way he calls them to serve, not to mention the fact that the more involved one is in service to the Lord, the less opportunities one has to fall for sinful temptations.

Now that I have my NM driver’s license, I can get a library card. Once I do that, we can take advantage of some of the free enrichment classes they offer, not to mention the fact that really, one can home-school with a Bible and a library card.

We want to add walking into our program, beginning with walking the length of our block while my husband is recovering from spinal surgery, building from that, to walking around the block, to eventually long walks throughout our neighborhood.

I will be rebuilding our supply of board games, concentrating on educational games, and instituting a family game night once a week. We have Yahtzee, which we will begin with, as it will help with math and strategy.

We’ve been here in NM for five months now, and finally feel like we’re home, and ready for this fresh start. I’m excited to see what this new year brings to us!

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Filed under adoption, Christian faith, education, exercise, family, home education, homeschooling, Kids, unschooling

December 17, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Stressful Park Day, With a Surprising Conclusion…

So…My children and I have attended regular park days on Mondays since a couple of weeks after moving to New Mexico, with an unschooling group. It was made very clear in the description of the group that “pushing a religious agenda” was not allowed, so we have carefully not done so, rather choosing to simply do our best to live our faith and testimony, and talk about it only if a door is opened. At the same time, I’ve tried very hard to respect different views, whether they be political or religious, by not mocking them. I believe strongly that healthy debate is a good thing, especially here in the USA, but it truly bothers me when those who are adamant about non violent behavior seem to believe there is an exemption for those who choose to be verbally violent (at least in my opinion) in the way they mock someone else’s faith. To quote, for example “I can’t believe that 82% of people in this country are so stupid as to still believe in the rapture”. I believe in it, and at that point, I chose to say so. I was also told (by someone who was being very angrily sarcastic) that it was not Christian to disagree with mandated government-funded health care. It did, in fact, get to the point where I raised my voice right back, although I did subsequently apologize for that. I do NOT believe it’s un-Christian to disagree with forced government-run health care, or even government mandating that everyone MUST purchase health insurance, or be made to pay a fine for not doing so. I think if someone can afford to buy it, but chooses not to do so, then they should not be able to ask the taxpayers to cover their costs if they need medical care. I do wish everyone had access to whatever healthcare they needed, but I believe that the government is inefficient, at best when it comes to running any sort of aid. All that said, again, I believe healthy debate is a good thing. I grew up on it. My parents encouraged it, and we had very lively discussions around the dinner table and elsewhere. I also believe, however, that when one must resort to treating someone like an idiot because of their deeply held faith, they’ve lost the argument,whether they want to accept that or not. I believe that twisting what the Bible says in order to say another person is not acting in a Christian way is not a strong argument, either. I got to the point where I basically threw up my hands and said “whatever…”, and was about to pack up my kids and leave, and probably not come back. I have NEVER done to anyone in this group what was done to me today, no matter how strongly I disagreed with them. I’ve never rolled my eyes when someone refers to the “goddess” as in “if the goddess had wanted me to do (whatever it was) she would have given me (something, I don’t recall what that was)”. I’ve debated, as kindly as I could, the issue of abortion, Obama care, etc, as calmly and carefully as I could. In return, I’ve been yelled at for asking about whether it was the law here to only use call phones hands free while driving, yelled at when I said I hadn’t gotten used to not having to save pop bottles to return for deposit (yelled at that I should be saving them for recycling), and now verbally mocked for my Christian faith, and yelled at because of my deeply held views, both faith wise and political views. This came close to being our final park day, which made me sad, because I’ve come a lot of times because my kids love going, and have friends there. It is one of the few places they have since we’ve been here where they can have an extended, weekly time of fun and play with kids who accept them in spite of all their differences (they are special needs children, with issues ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome, bipolar, ODD, OCD, etc). What changed my mind, you ask? Well, after things calmed a bit and someone got the subject changed, another mom who has only been coming for a few weeks came to me and very quietly told me she agreed with me, and asked me for information about my church. The Bible says we are to be the salt and the light in the world.

Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on on a candlestick, and giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.
And for those who wondered why, if we’re under grace New Testament) the Old testament is relevent to our lives today:

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law,, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

I believe this means we are to influence others by our testimony, and living our faith. I do try very hard to show my faith and testimony in the way I live, the way I treat others, and in the ways I react to what others do to me. As a result, unbelievers have told me that they can see my faith, they can see that I do my best to treat others with a grace that appears to be what someone claiming to be a Christian should be doing. I hope that one day, when I stand before Him, the Lord will say to me “well done, thou good and faithful servant”. And I pray that the lady who came to me today will come visit this Sunday evening for our Christmas candle light service. I invited her, after she asked me several questions about our church, and about where it is. And I came to the conclusion that her doing so, even after the derisive, mocking way I was treated for daring to disagree, means God has me there for a reason, at least for this season in my life.

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