weeklythoughtexchange

I am journeying through the Old Testament again. I am not sure how many times I have actually read through this portion of the Bible, but every time I make the trek I feel like I’ve never read it before. Perhaps it is because each time I’m a little older and at a different place in life which means my spiritual appetite is slightly different from the previous reading. The Bible never grows old or meaningless to the sincere Christian. During this particular devotional reading I was refined by two instances of light.

“And you shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clean oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel.” Exodus 27:20-21
I pondered what symbolism was hidden in the continuously burning lamp. I knew that everything in the Old Testament was preparing a way for the Messiah and those who followed Him. This means there was a truth in those verses that directly applied to me. To me, a continuously burning lamp is a reminder of presence. If a light remains on in a home, one assumes there is someone there. It could also represent expectancy – waiting for the arrival of somebody. A burning lamp thwarts darkness and allows clarity of vision for accomplishing whatever tasks need to be done. This led me to consider references to light in the New Testament.

“Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.'” John 8:12 Here Jesus declares Himself as THE light that the world needs. He thwarts the darkness of sin and despair and shows all of us who follow Him the path that we need to take. Every individual who exists wants to have meaning and purpose. No one wants to think that their life is devoid of meaning. Jesus makes it clear that following Him is why we exist; He removes all darkness. Consequently, we are reminded to “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 As followers of Jesus, obedient to His Word, our lives will reflect His presence to those around us. This will also indicate that we know He is real and are eagerly expecting His return.

However, for Christ’s light to be evident in our lives we have to do more than simply give lip service of our belief in Him. We must seek His Presence and abide in it faithfully. “But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.” Exodus 34:34-35 Those around Moses always knew when he had met with the LORD because his face shone so brilliantly afterwards that they could not bear to look upon him. Our walk with Jesus must be so vivid and so real that people know without doubt that we commune with Christ.

How does this happen in our present times? After all, we are not Moses and there is no tabernacle to visit, no actual lamps to light. We are not even the 12 disciples who can follow Jesus, ask Him questions, and hear audible answers. It’s a bit more of a challenge for us. I think it comes down to how close we want to be with Jesus. If we want, we can be the people of Israel who go through the motions and say the right words; we can be the New Testament crowd that clamors for miracles and makes endless wish list petitions. Or we can pursue Jesus even when it is uncomfortable – as Moses, Joshua, and the Twelve did. They climbed mountains, wrote on stone, endured impatient crowds and hurtful comments, and eventually lost their lives in order to have a personal relationship with the Almighty God. And so it must be for twenty-first century followers. We may have to set aside our social networking, hold on to old-fashioned values, and miss out on the latest TV episodes in order to hear the Voice of the One we love and obey it. But if it keeps the lamps burning and our faces aglow, isn’t it worth the sacrifice?

Discussions regarding education are a significant part of our parenting preparations. My husband had an entirely public education while my primary and secondary education occurred at home. I then attended both private and public universities for my continuing education. Between the two of us we have had a broad sampling of academic and social experiences; being a teacher by trade, I am quite passionate about the intricacies of education. Needless to say, our discussions are anything but boring though we hardly ever disagree.

We have had several people inquire about the educational plans we have for our son. Many assume that we will enroll him at the Christian school where I previously taught. We have made the decision to homeschool and this probably comes as a surprise to few. However, this was not a flippant decision made out of fear or bias. Yes, I was homeschooled, but my husband had a rich and successful experience in public school. Yes, we are conservative Christians, but we know many like-minded families whose children attend public school and are doing well academically and socially. Yes, the school where I taught is a delightful place for children to be educated and is reasonably priced as well. Many factors were taken into consideration as we pondered this critical aspect of bringing a child(ren) into the world, but the overarching one was our biblical view of parenting.

“Now this is the commandment, the statues and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them…so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments…all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged…When your son asks you in time come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statues and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?'” Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 20
This is just one of the countless passages where God makes reference to parenting and training up children in the way they should go. Yes, we need to feed, clothe, and clean them; we need to provide shelter and medical care; they need to learn basic life skills such as tying their shoes, washing dishes, and managing their money; children must learn the core academic subjects and how to interact successfully and peacefully with their fellow human beings. We want our children to learn how to nurture nature and care for the environment they are a part of; we want them to be interested in how their community and government operate. We would like them to be passionate about the arts and know how to compete with integrity. But surpassing all of these things is the personal relationship we pray they will have with their Lord and Savior.

We believe that teaching our children about Jesus and what it means to live a life committed to Him is our responsibility. Church is great and Christian friends are wonderful, but these things are merely supplements to the core values we are divinely instructed to instill in these young hearts. The most effective form of teaching is modeling, followed by practicing. This is not something that can occur solely in mealtime prayers and a Bible story at night (again, excellent things). No, modeling and practicing happen when we sit in our house, when we walk by the wayside, when we lie down, when we rise up (Deuteronomy). We must bind them on our foreheads, meaning that they are in the forefront of our thoughts, and write them on the tablets of our hearts, meaning they must become the motivation of all we do. It is clear that teaching our son that Jesus is real and personal can only happen if Jesus is intricately woven into our daily routines, our family discussions, our special activities, how we discipline, and in his academics.

This doesn’t mean that children can’t learn about their faith if they are not home-instructed. This does mean that they will be spending more time away from their parents than with them, which in turn means that the behaviors and worldviews being modeled in front of them will belong to other people. As involved as parents may try to be, they will never know everything that their children have witnessed, heard, or absorbed throughout the normal school day. As they grow older, children will recognize the differences in the worldviews they are being confronted with, and they might not be able to fully verbalize the conflict this is creating in their hearts. How much better if they are introduced to alternative worldviews through the guidance of their parents so that their parents can guide them in discerning truth from untruth.

Home education is a magnificent, and often daunting, undertaking. We want our little guy to learn everything! It provides us with ample opportunity to do just that. We can tailor his instruction to meet his learning needs; we can move his classroom outside if the weather is gorgeous or have study time in a tent made from chairs and sheets when it’s raining. Field trips can be every week or all summer, and we can finish two grades in one year or skip a grade all together if he is eager to learn, or we can repeat grades if he is struggling with a particular subject. We want to fill his life with inspirational social interaction, ample cultural exposure, and memorable service opportunities. But above all else we want to lay within our son’s heart the undeniable, unshakeable conviction that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, and Jesus is His best friend. The secular world is already waiting to tear that conviction to shreds, and he will have countless worldview battles to fight. Why not be sure that he is fully prepared to fight those battles with all that is within him? Why not have his God-given parents be the ones to love, guide, and prepare him? Why not homeschool?

As of late I have been thinking about my friendships. It has not escaped my observations that others seem to be checking their phones for status updates and answering text messages on a regular basis. I can’t help but notice that, outside of family, I don’t have a lot of the socializing that others seem to have. It made me kind of gloomy while I pondered it. But then a different thought crossed my mind and was shortly confirmed by the video (http://blog.petflow.com/a-video-everyone-needs-to-see/) that is being shared on Facebook.

Cyber-friendships are replacing personal ones. I believe that people collect names on their Facebook friends list as a status symbol. If I have 300 friends than I must not be invisible. We are uncertain of our thoughts and opinions until they have been liked. If no one likes them than something must be askew with our thought process and our opinions need adjustment. If our daily status updates go unliked or uncommented than the quality of our day diminishes, especially if we thought we were doing something pretty cool – like eating out, baking bread, or cleaning the house. We scroll through the newsfeed for our daily social scoop, just to see if anything interesting is going on in other people’s lives. If it’s bad news we kind of feel better about our day; if it’s good news we wonder why everyone else is having a better day than us.

None of this is wrong, per se, except that the inter-personal connection is being lost. People used to mingle in the town square or visit on front porches. They used to chat on the phone and hear voice inflections to better communicate emotions. Conversation was a skill that incorporated listening, pausing, and responding; now it is just another part of multi-tasking – quick text reply, do something else, check for response, do something else, message back, etc. Phone calls, hanging out, and writing letters are becoming awkward, because we feel like we have already informed the world of any new changes using our status updates. What’s left to discuss? In fact, voice-to-voice and face-to-face conversations are often being avoided due to the amount of time that is required to engage in them.

Is this all bad? If keeping in touch is the main consideration, it’s not bad. Facebook, for example, allows one to find people you had once thought were long gone. It encourages reconnection and is a wonderful way of spreading the word around the world about important causes. If information needs to be moved quickly, Facebook is the way to go. As to providing satisfying social relationships, Facebook and it’s family of social networking technology will leave us wanting. An online chat will never meet the social needs that humans crave. We need to feel personal touch, hear voice inflections, see emotions reflected in another’s face and eyes, and experience the sense of our heart being expressed in our voice versus typed out on a keypad. The younger generations are being socially stunted because they are not learning inter-personal social etiquette; they assume that what is provided by technology is all that is necessary.

Personally, I’m not going to delete my Facebook account because I do enjoy it and it does serve it’s purpose in my life. However, I have a growing desire to have people reach out to me and suggest hanging out in person. A picnic, perhaps? or meeting for tea? or going to the library? Nothing grand or expensive, just a way to spend some time with me in person. I wouldn’t mind a phone call from a friend or two a couple of times a week just because they want to hear my voice. I know I try to do that, but people are just so busy these days. It’s easy to feel like if you’ve commented on a few people’s walls you have filled your social quota for the day; but when the pace of your day slows down a notch, you realize that Facebook simply is not enough.

A young friend of mine came for her first day of training to be a mother’s helper. Time flew by as we chatted about nothing and everything at the same time. We spent about three hours together and I had no desire to look at my phone other than to check the time. That felt good, and she told me that it was so nice to talk and know the other person was listening to her.

I remember the forgotten,
The murdered, the abused, the innocent- both human and animal alike.
I plead for justice, for mercy, for hope to win this endless fight.
I seek understanding for my part in bringing healing to a broken land.
I request peace in my heart that I may extend it to my fellow man.
I desire to absorb the calm that only time in nature can bring.
I ask that my being will dance with the flowers as they dance in the wind,
Sing with the birds as they coast on the breeze,
Grasp the sun like the cheerful leaves.
I pray, I remember, I reflect, and I rejoice.

I didn’t start working in the kitchen every day until I was married. So for the last 7 months I have attempted recipes on a nearly daily basis and Friday baking every week. Needless to say, it has been quite the adventure. There have been times when I’ve wanted to laugh but only had the energy to cry after my endeavors. However, after further reflection I realized I could learn more from my kitchen struggles than simply what not to do next time:

*On my first attempt to make wheat bread I used a recipe that called for a formidable amount of honey. Needless to say, this made the dough quite sticky and when I went to mix it with my electric mixer (as the recipe suggested) the dough literally rose up and attacked the beaters – and not just once. I resigned myself to a huge mess and mixing the dough with my hands. Lesson? There are times when we take on challenges that turn out much bigger than we expected, and the usual management tactics simply won’t work. It doesn’t mean you can’t handle the challenge, you simply have to be willing to get a little frazzled and a little messy, and enjoy your warm bread at the end.

*I returned to my wheat bread challenge with renewed vigor and more composure with my second attempt – I used a recipe that did not call for honey; instead, it called for a formidable amount of yeast. Unfortunately, I had to estimate on the amount because the quantity wasn’t specific. This time the yeast decided to take over my kitchen. The dough overflowed the bowl, the loaf pans, and spread itself throughout the oven. Flames sparked and the smoke alarm went off. I had to tell myself that there was a solution and to keep breathing (all while my observant kitties scrambled for cover). Lesson? the Bible equates yeast with sin on a couple of occasions because of how just a small bit can spread so quickly. One can never be too careful when dealing with sin. All of it must be purged from our life or it will take over. Fortunately for me, a lot of active yeast resulted in fluffy, tasty bread.

*Then there was the shoyu chicken. The recipe asked for a cornstarch/water mixture to make the sauce smooth and thick. Since I didn’t have cornstarch I decided to substitute flour instead; not a bad idea, except I poured it in directly rather than mixing it with water first. Obvious result? Clumpy sauce. Lesson? When we try to make our own substitutions to God’s clear directions for a healthy, Christian life we often get frustrated with the lack of consistency we experience. Yet the only ones to blame are ourselves. The Bible could not be more specific about abiding in Christ, the branches needing the vine, and bearing fruit when we spend time reading God’s word. If we substitute any of those things with ideas of our own making, our Christian growth will be sporadic at best, stagnant at worst – unlike shoyu chicken which can still taste yummy despite being chunky.

*My most recent tragedy was meatloaf. I had a very simple recipe to follow and after it was poured into the loaf pan I knew I would be presenting a beautifully successful meal to my hard-working husband, complete with fresh corn-on-the-cob and fresh bread on the side. My mistake? Using a stoneware loaf pan instead of a regular loaf pan. It took about 2 hours before the consistency was anywhere near to being edible and even then it was a very sad sight. It didn’t end there; it was very difficult for me to get the pan clean afterwards. Lesson? If we are not careful in how we live we can end up in situations that not only don’t turn out well, they are also difficult to clean up afterwards. Some examples can be words spoken in anger, lifestyle changes based on emotions only, failure to plan ahead, etc. Thankfully, like my husband still enjoying his meal, God can salvage our worst mistakes but there will still be scars left.

I am not giving up on my recipe attempts and neither am I going to give up on growing in my Christian walk. I am glad that Jesus doesn’t give up on me and neither does my husband.

I believe that I have touched on this subject before, but I would like to return to it today. This is the topic of judgmentalism and intolerance from the Christian community. It is ever in the news about intolerant conservatives or hypocritical Christians. I am sure that you have heard about the CEOs who have lost their positions because they supported traditional marriage; or have you heard about the ever-increasing boundary line around abortion clinics that prevents pro-life counselors from getting too close? What about the florist who is being sued for declining to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding? Or the bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple? When these stories hit the headlines the Christians or conservatives involved are usually portrayed as intolerant, bigoted, or judgmental. “Where is the love of Jesus?” we are asked. It is easy for me to get riled up about these cases, but it becomes a bit more difficult when it hits closer to home.

There are a few people in my life who claim Christianity but are definitely not living according to His commands. It’s not like they are making a simple mistake; they are, in fact, maintaining a lifestyle that directly contradicts God’s Word. I am trying to find that fine line of holding them accountable for their behavior without ostracizing them. I know that they expect me to lecture them; I know because they avoid me, though they once considered me a friend. I don’t like being considered judgmental or intolerant, but I also cannot ignore what the Bible says – that if a believer, or someone who takes that title, sins he or she must be confronted and held accountable. I am certain that I am not alone in my quandary.

The conclusion I have come to is this: The world views any difference of opinion or any negative response to their lifestyle as intolerant of judgmental. If right or wrong is declared, then that declaration is offensive to those who disagree. ‘Values’ have their distinction because they are worth something. We protect what we value; we are proud of what we value; our lifestyles reflect what we value. So it is with the moral values we hold to; everybody has values which reflect their worldview in some way. Christian values respect the Bible and the standard by which Jesus lived. This requires an intolerance of sin in one’s life and a daily judging between right and wrong. Secular values are often post-modern with their position that right and wrong are relative. If I compromise my values by remaining silent when I encounter wrong-doing, then those values obviously do not mean very much to me. I am not being judgmental or intolerant by stating what I believe, standing by what I believe, and expecting others to live according to their declared belief system. Just as I am not saying that my friends cannot maintain their wayward lifestyle, only that their wayward lifestyle is contrary to God’s word, the conservative community is not saying that people cannot be in same-sex relationships. They are simply saying that it is not right to force everyone to condone and embrace those relationships. However, in both cases something is being declared wrong and that is what secular society despises.

Sadly, some people are determined to only be offended by life. They want to be the victim rather than the victor. The only friends they want around are those who will assume the role of yes-man. If you have people like that in your life, do not take their responses personally. Do not allow them to sway you from your convictions. Continue to speak what you know is right and true. Fortunately, the Bible doesn’t just say we should hold fellow believers accountable for their sin; it also gives us clear instructions for how to do so in a way that will hopefully win them over to conviction and repentance. The purpose of accountability is to heal, not harm. And as to the headlines, keep reminding your corner of the world that true intolerance prohibits any difference of opinion. Encourage people to use their minds to consider other options and not be so quick to take offense. If the Christian florist doesn’t want to provide flowers then go to another florist. How is that intolerant?

I have been an official stay-at-home homemaker for one month now. What a colossal lifestyle change! Yet I absolutely do not regret it. For the first week or two I felt torn between the career I had left and the new routines I needed to establish. Being at home was everything my heart desired, and for that very reason I wrestled with excessive guilt. I felt guilty for being at home when everyone else was heading to work. I felt guilty for being in a peaceful state rather than my usual stressed state. I felt guilty about enjoying my chores and trying new recipes and visiting with my mom and reading a book while the working world was still at work. Like I said, it took a couple of weeks to work the guilt out of my system.

But then it hit me! I am living my dream and able to fully focus on the most important people in my life – my husband and son. I can make sure that my husband has all of my attention before he goes to work and when he comes home. I can be at home with him on his days off. If he needs me to run errands for him or do research for him, I am completely free to do so. I am able to make sure that he always comes home to a refreshing environment and has tasty, healthy meals to eat. The last traces of guilt dissipated from my heart when he told me, “I feel so free now that you are at home! I know that everything is being taken care of here and I can fully focus on my responsibilities at work.” This is how it is supposed to be – in order for the provider and protector of the family to be fully able to fulfill his calling, the homemaker must fulfill hers.

In addition to caring for my family, I am now more able to minister to others who have been on the backburner of my life due to my career. I have been able to respond to the prompting on my heart to begin a young ladies’ Bible study on Friday nights. I have renewed my penpal connections and am also staying in better touch with my aging relatives via phone calls. The neighbor girl can now randomly stop by to chat while she is on break, and I can spend more time with my mom during the week. For society to be stable and safe we need to have people who are home. These are the people who are there when emergencies happen, when loneliness sweeps over the forgotten, and when the young ones just need to be around someone who has time for them.

So what does a normal week for me look like right now? Well, after the daily morning routine of fixing breakfast for my husband, packing his lunch, and seeing him out to the car, I make the bed, clean up the kitchen, feed our pets, and settle in for 45-60 minute devotional time. Afterwards, I go for my morning walk with our dog. Then I begin my housekeeping as follows:

Monday – Wash day (this includes ironing) and making the menu for the week (this includes making the shopping list and organizing coupons)
Tuesday – Clean bathrooms and dust all surfaces
Wednesday – Shopping (this includes going to the Farmer’s Market for meat and produce)
Thursday – Floors (Sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming)
Friday – Baking day (my goal is to have us well-stocked in baked goods so we no longer have to buy them)

My chores of the day are usually finished by lunchtime, and I spend my afternoons doing my language studies, completing correspondence, or visiting with other people. Evening chores and dinner prep often begin around 4pm. I realize that there will be another colossal shift in my routine once Baby is born, but this is a general routine that I would like him to settle into. I believe that it is good for children to be raised in a home where there is order so that they can learn the time management skills necessary for fulfilling their responsibilities. Some people believe that a routine facilitates inflexibility; I believe, however, that a routine is actually freeing because it shows how much time is actually available and provides opportunity to do more in a day than one realizes is possible.

With that said, it’s just about time for me to start my evening chores and get dinner ready for the guy who makes my heart beat faster every time I see him.

I would be startled if someone actually said he didn’t want to make a difference. If confronted with the question, “Would you like to make a difference?” I believe each of us would quickly answer in the affirmative, but we might be a little more hesitant to support that answer with action. It’s a fair hesitation. We can’t all be David Livingstones, Neil Armstrongs, Jane Goodalls, or Mother Theresas. We haven’t even had 50 presidents yet! So how many people can actually have an impact on our country, let alone the world?

I have been asking myself that very question. I do like stories of heroism and applaud the spirit of Captain America whenever it appears. But I wonder what kind of difference a simple homemaker can make. You might be asking yourself the very same question. Here is what I came up with:

1. Identify a cause that is close to your heart and what you would like to do about it (don’t hesitate to think big). I have chosen pro-life advocacy as my cause. I want to educate people on the horror and injustice of abortion in order to eradicate it from our society.
2. Start small. While you are thinking big as you set goals, take it one step at a time. Perhaps you need to build up your courage in order to talk to people or you aren’t sure you can answer questions yet. Educate yourself so that you know the ins and outs of your cause and then write about it. Writing helps you clarify your thoughts and it is a more neutral way of spreading the word and filtering emotional responses.
3. Don’t forget to include God. Remember that God likes to help shepherd boys slay giants. Talk to Him about your cause on a daily basis. Ask Him for courage, inspiration, and resources. Commit to praying for your concerns every day and record the changes that come from your prayers, whether in your heart or in your surroundings. For example, find the location of an abortion clinic near you and pray every day for its closure. See what happens.
4. Amp it up. As you write and pray and realize that other people share your cause you may be ready to do something a little more hands-on. Perhaps you want to organize something that would raise awareness, bolster support, and bring in resources to aid your cause. One possibility for pro-life advocates would be to throw a baby shower for a local crisis pregnancy center.
5. Don’t hold back. Eventually you will be ready to go all in and you might want to become a more visible, vocal supporter of your cause. This might include sign-waving, one-on-one conversations with people, or volunteering on a weekly or monthly basis.
6. Don’t give up. It’s easy to be strong in the beginning as you ride the adrenaline rush, but every hero encounters setbacks and letdowns. Expect them, be prepared for them, but never let them have the upper hand as you stand up for your cause. True heroism comes when you refuse to fail or give up in the hardest moment. Jesus is our best example of that. He came to save us and when flesh met the cross He refused to come down.

Go ahead and try the six steps. I would love to hear about your experiences; if you throw that baby shower or pray against the abortion clinic I want to know about it! I would be encouraged by hearing how you are going to make a difference from your small corner of the world.

I was recently informed that the drastic climate change our planet is experiencing is due to overpopulation. I found this thought quite concerning because it left me with the impression that our beautiful sphere was being overrun by an unappreciative, thoughtless, carelessly polluting species. You know, the kind that turns a lush, green Avatar-esque environment into an Armageddon wasteland. Of course I want to do something to stop that! So, the first step is stop overpopulation.

Overpopulation means that the space and resources in a certain area are not sufficient enough to provide for the number of a certain species living there. The claim is that humans are overpopulating earth, thus the planet does not have enough space or resources to sustain people. Managing overpopulation means population control. My mind perused the options and I came up with the following:
-Limit the number of children per household
-Forced sterilization
-Make young couples planning on having a family, and couples with more than one child, a social disgrace
-End the search for cures for cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and other life-threatening illnesses
-End the immunization of infants and children
-Laud Hitler, Stalin, and other genocide-giants as heroes of the war on overpopulation
-Praise the military for civilian casualties abroad
-Ban fertility treatments and in-vitro fertilization
-Prohibit gun control and celebrate all acts of mass violence in the country
-Discourage people from wearing seatbelts and encourage drunk driving
-Support suicide and outlaw the counseling of those who are considering it
-Require the euthanasia of all senior citizens and disabled people
-Eliminate healthcare
-Legalize abortion in all trimesters and allow a one-week window for infanticide.

My list could continue, but I have other things to do today besides blogging. Anyway, as I brainstormed ways to manage overpopulation I realized that our society is speaking from both sides of its mouth. From one side we are focused on ways to sustain a lengthy life, cure cancer, end violence, and live in harmony. From the other side we are bemoaning the destruction of the planet because there are too many of us living on it. If humans really are the parasites of nature, why are we so focused on saving them? Perhaps it is because we don’t view ourselves as the parasites. Everyone else is the problem. We want to live in a secure neighborhood; we want a cure for cancer in case we have it; we want our sons and husbands safely returned from war; we want children if we choose to do so; we want to live forever. But it’s fine to end the lives we can’t see; the lives that are just beginning; the lives that have no concept of pain, until their limbs start being pulled from their bodies.

Perhaps a better solution to overpopulation is to remember that we are just as much a part of nature as the ocean or gray wolves are. Our role is to be caretaker of this planet and to embrace all that it has to offer us. We can learn much from earth, lessons about peace and praise, lessons about our own identity. Do we see the animals purposely aborting their offspring? Or leaving them to die? There is something inside of us that cringes whenever we see the weakest nestling pushed out of the nest, and we rush to save it. If a mother bear abandoned her cubs, we would quickly assume that something was wrong with her. Yes, hunger and disease take their toll on wildlife just as they do on us, but being the caretakers that we are, we have learned ways of managing such problems.

While we haven’t all gone to school to be park rangers or marine biologists, we all have the responsibility for earth in our birthright. Individually we should recycle, conserve, and appreciate what has been entrusted to us; we should set the example for those around us. We should celebrate the fact that we were born human with the potential of doing great good for our planet and all of its inhabitants. We should celebrate that we were even born at all.

Six months ago today I married my best friend. That statement sounds so cliché – just about everybody refers to their spouse or significant other as their best friend. So what does it mean to have a best friend – a term that is quite frequently overused and overrated? I’ve given it much thought, since a best friend is always someone I wanted to have in my life. I assumed that every girl should have a best friend; there were a few times when I thought I had one, only to end up quite hurt by that person in the long run. ‘Best friend’ eventually became synonymous for disappointment and rejection. However, I never quite gave up the hope that my best friend was out there somewhere.

My dear husband has taught me what it means to have and be a best friend. He gets excited when I’m excited, even if it’s over something that he never would have considered interesting before. He is eager in discovering new hobbies and interests if they are important to me. He truly hurts when I am disappointed or hurt. He takes time to make sure that I understand his point of view so that I can trust him even more. He takes time to do little things that show me how much I mean to him. He verbally affirms me every day, yet he doesn’t just say I’m the #1 person in his life, he goes out of his way to show me that I am. We laugh together, play together, work together, dream together, serve together, grieve together, hope together, and simply share life together.

I am learning that a best friend brings out the best in their friend. A best friend sees what your heart wants to be and does everything possible to bring that potential to fulfillment. That’s what my best friend does. I have never felt more complete, fulfilled, or hopeful about who I am and what I am capable of accomplishing; it’s because my best friend believes in me without hesitation. He is able to do this because we share a Best Friend in common. We are both aiming to be like Jesus and this enables us to bring out the best in each other.

Best friends are worth waiting for.