Top ten things for a (young) married man to do:

Top ten things for a (young) married man to do:

1. Be Faithful to the Lord. This includes taking your whole family to church, being involved in Bible study, tithing, and living out what you say you believe. Read the Word and pray on your own. Pray for and with your wife.
2. Be faithful to your wife. Be faithful not only physically but emotionally. Don’t let another relationship take the place of your friendship with your wife. Be faithful with your eyes. Don’t let them wander to things that will cause you to stumble. Look away from the billboards that show too much, change the channel from commercials that are too revealing.
3. Work and provide for your family. Try to earn enough that would enable your wife to stay home and raise a family or do volunteer work in the community or church. Sometimes this is very difficult, even impossible, but it’s always good to have a plan on how you would make ends meet if your wife quits working.
4. Help around the house. Help with the kids, the laundry, the dishes, etc. Both you and your wife need some downtime. Have yours, but give your wife hers. There may be some things you are not good at doing, communicate with your wife on which things you are both best at and trade responsibilities. Something like, “I’ll always take care of your car if you will always take care of the ironing and gardening.”
5. Always discuss major decisions. Agree with your wife what major decisions are. Expenditures over 40 dollars? Job decisions? New child discipline tactics? Do not just say, this is what I am going to do, say “What do you think about this?”
6. Invest for the future. I was tempted to make this number one. It is never to late OR TOO EARLY to start. If there is one thing I wish I had in my early married life it would be someone to sit me down and say, “start a retirement account.” It doesn’t have to be much. $25 a week or $100 a month is a good place to start. Do that for 40 years and you have a good retirement nest-egg. Do not be a burden to your children any more than you have to. No, you don’t know when Jesus is coming back. And No, there may be no Social Security when you need it. Just “Trusting God” is just “presuming on His goodness.” God doesn’t reward presumption. He rewards faith plus works.
7. Be a father to your children. Consider their ages, what they are supposed to be doing. A child’s “job” is to learn and play. Learning involves learning to obey. Be consistent. Keep your word for rewards or punishments. Don’t expect your wife to do all the interaction with your children, meaningfully interact with them DAILY. FATHERS, as your son nears teens it is very important that he has plenty of observation time about how Men behave. Take them to other functions with men at church or sporting or hunting or working in the yard at home or at church. Teach him to change the oil and do a brake job. You have to cut the apron strings. Your wife probably won’t. As your daughter grows older make sure to model proper respect for your wife. Take her on outings. Show her how she should expect to be treated at the very least, and maybe at the very best. Hug her; hold her hand, even if she is embarrassed.
8. Maintain the house, cars, and appliances. Don’t be the house on the street that brings down the value of the neighborhood. Show some self-respect. Don’t make your wife drive a omb around town.
9. Maintain yourself. When you go out of the house, except to do yard work etc., look decent. You will reflect on your family. Bathe, get haircuts, shave or trim your beard and mustache, use proper grammar, do not curse, speak to authority with respect, do not become obese. (Trust me overweight causes many problems.)
10. Do more than work, watch TV, eat and sleep. Have a hobby: yard work, woodwork, model airplanes, trains, music etc. Be involved in the community: volunteer to help the band or little league, help with a hymn singing the nursing home, help at the church.

Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.

(Stay tuned for a Top Ten for Ladies)

Balance, Perspective, and a Republican in Massachusettes

I can't help but think that there are some things that are important in the here and now. Some things really are! Love of family, a daughter's affection, a grandchild's involuntary hug.
One reason those things are important is because they are somehow linked to the eternal. As others have said, Right Now does count forever.
But some things pale before the eternal. Football, movies, food, Wal-Mart, etc.
But where do politics fit in?
Hard to say. IT affects people's lives in dramatic ways sometimes. And on the part of the politician, when you make someone's life much more difficult will you have to give an answer for that?
When politics cause economic disaster that's important. When families are forced to a new level of mental energy on just surviving and it breaks families up in the stress and children are the victims of broken homes because of shattering families - that's important!
But one man's policy is another man's anarchy.
When the conservative tries to float all boats on a rising tide of prosperity. Some are left behind through no fault of their own. Some are left behind because they are lazy. Some are left behind just because they tried but failed.
But some will be left behind and it certainly won't seem fair to them.
When the socialist tries to even out the resources so that fewer will be left behind, that's commendable, but those who worked hard for their prosperity and have to share what they feel is an inordinate amount with those who don't try, it's just wrong. Especially if their prosperity is taken from them by the force of law.
We all remember being taught to share as children, then being taught about the little red hen who palnted the seeds, grew the grain, baked the bread and nobody helped til it was time to eat. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to find a common ground between the lessons.

A republican won in Massachusetts. Yippee. A Republican seat will be lost to a Democrat very soon. So what?

When I look at politics I see instead an eternal Kingdom.
When I look at presidents I see instead a King of Kings.
When I look at a citizen's duty to be involved I see my Savior who died for me.
When I think its time to say something- all I want to say is Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves.

I borrowed this from the organisation listed below. Just thought it was well written. Enjoy. Clark

If Darwin Could See Us Now

By Daryl Wingerd

In a recent U. S. District Court decision, Judge John Jones ruled that intelligent design is a theological argument and not science. This religious belief, he said, is "masquerading as a scientific theory" and has "utterly no place in a science curriculum."

I cannot delve into the vast array of scientific arguments for creationism or the large body of evidence showing that many "facts" formerly thought to support the evolutionary theory have since been proven false or exposed as intentional misrepresentations. I want to examine just one scientific fact—something Charles Darwin understood and wrote about.

In his book, Origin of Species, Darwin appeared to understand that his theory of evolution would be subjected to scrutiny and might be proven false by future discoveries. He wrote,

"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down."

Darwin understood that if any bird, animal, or plant were found to have complex and interdependent operating systems that were all essential for the survival of the species, then it could not possibly have evolved over time. If any single essential aspect were missing, underdeveloped, or out of balance, the organism could not survive, let alone become more advanced. This scientific fact is known today as "irreducible complexity."

Were he alive today, Charles Darwin, an honest and objective scientist, would recognize that his theory of evolution has been disproved by his own stated criteria—the discovery of many plants, animals, and birds that are irreducibly complex.

The giraffe, for example, needs a large and powerful heart to pump blood up his long neck to his brain. But when the giraffe bends down to get a drink, gravity would magnify his blood pressure and burst the vessels in his brain—unless a second operating system were in place. And one is. A series of valves in the main artery to the brain close off sequentially as the giraffe bends down, thus protecting the brain from damage. But even the last section of the artery would contain too much pressure were it not for a third operating system—a sponge-like device at the base of the brain that absorbs the remaining blood and relieves the lethal pressure.

So the giraffe gets a drink without killing himself. But while he is drinking, a lion charges. If the giraffe quickly raises his head to run, the effects of gravity and the closed valves in his neck would cause him to pass out and become lion food. Were it not for the fact that the sponge-like device squeezes oxygenated blood into his brain for this emergency response, while the valves in his neck reopen to allow blood flow from the heart to resume, the giraffe would perish.

Do you see? No massive heart—no blood to the brain—dead giraffe. No valves in the neck artery—lethal blood pressure when getting a drink—dead giraffe. No blood-reserve sponge at the base of the brain—lion attack—unconscious giraffe—dead giraffe. The giraffe must have all three of these systems operating in perfect harmony with one another if he is to survive. If any single system were ever missing, underdeveloped, or out of harmony with the others, the species would have vanished.

Another example is the chuckwalla, a lizard who lives in the deserts of the United States. This lizard's blood becomes very salty because of what he eats. In fact, it would become fatally salty every day of his life if it were not for a desalinization plant behind his nose. Several times each day, when salt levels become high, the lizard's blood is diverted so that it passes through this organ where excess salt is removed. The alternative is simple: No desalinization plant—dead lizard—extinct species.

Lastly, consider the woodpecker. This bird has a reinforced beak for poking holes in trees to get at bugs, a shock-absorbing cushion behind the beak to prevent brain damage, and a long sticky tongue for getting the bugs out. No hard beak—no holes in trees—no food—dead bird. No cushion behind the beak—brain damage—dead bird. No long sticky tongue—no bugs—dead bird. One species even has a built-in sheath circling around its head through the bone of its skull for housing the tongue. So which came first in the alleged evolution of the woodpecker: the long tongue, or the sheath for housing it?

Science involves the examination of facts and the formation of reasonable, rational conclusions based on those facts. Scientific examination of creatures such as these leads to only one reasonable, rational, and scientific conclusion: They could not possibly have evolved.

Yet most committed evolutionists brush these findings off as if they were nothing more than annoying mosquitoes. Rather than agreeing with rational conclusions based on scientific facts, they behave more like closed-minded religious zealots. They redefine terms, gloss over solid evidence, and abandon reason in order to preserve their chosen belief system—their "religion," you might say—one that is "masquerading as a scientific theory" and has "utterly no place in a science curriculum."

Professing to be wise they became fools.
(Romans 1:22)

Copyright © 2005 Daryl Wingerd. Permission granted for electronic reproduction in exact form. All other uses require written permission
www.CCWtoday.org