Mood:  a-ok

Who is/was the most influential man in your life? Tell us about him?

Here's the rules:

1. This is a man's meme, so the answers must be the answers from a man. Either the man can answer on his blog, or a wife can interview her husband for her blog. However, if the wife puts it on her blog, she must stay true to what her husband said.
2. You are encouraged to put one of the Men's Monday Meme buttons found to the left on your blog. Just copy the code below the button of your choice. The more folks who link, the more readers you may have to visit your blog.
3. You may answer the question any time during the week up through next Monday. After you answer the question, add the address to your post to the Mr.Linky below. If you could, please only add the direct link to the post to make it easier for readers to find the entry.
4. My answer along with a new question will be posted next Monday. The new Mr. Linky will be added at midnight Monday night or sometime within the next couple of days after that .

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Mood:  a-ok

It would seem that with all of the things that we have gone through with our family, John Allen's cancer, Joshua's autism and now this, that I would be used to the stress. But, I'm not. I may not be as bad as I used to be, but I still get stressed out. As most of you know, just plain old raising kids is hard, let alone having medical problems with the kids. Add that to ministry, jobs (our job just happens to be our ministry but for many folks it's two different things) and just plain old day to day life, and it ends up being very stressful. 

So, here's the question(s) for this week.

How do you deal with stress? Is there really a good way to do it? Is there a Biblical way? Is there a medical way?

Let's get a discussion going! If you know me by now, you know that I am forever late in not getting a new question up. Although it is called the Men's Monday Meme, I usual don't end up posting a new question until mid to late week (or week end as today), so I will give you a few extra days to answer. I won't change the question until Thursday or Friday of next week. 

Let me recap the rules:

1. This is a man's meme, so the answers must be the answers from a man. Either the man can answer on his blog, or a wife can interview her husband for her blog. However, if the wife puts it on her blog, she must stay true to what her husband said.
2. You are encouraged to put one of the Men's Monday Meme buttons found to the left on your blog. Just copy the code below the button of your choice. The more folks who link, the more readers you may have to visit your blog.
3. You may answer the question any time during the week up through next Monday. After you answer the question, add the address to your post to the Mr.Linky below. If you could, please only add the direct link to the post to make it easier for readers to find the entry.
4. My answer along with a new question will be posted next Monday. The new Mr. Linky will be added at midnight Monday night or sometime within the next couple of days after that .

And here's the new Mr. Linky:

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Mood:  don't ask

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,  30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. 

Notice it says nothing about homosexuality or anything of the sort here. Now, don't get me wrong, I think that those things are abhorrent, but in God's eyes so are all sins! God hates sin and speaks out about all sin in the Bible. It's society that has put values on sins and not God. We either need to minister to ALL sinners or throw all of us out of churches because we are ALL sinners. John 13:34&35 says this:

³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

It doesn't say we should only love those who haven't commited some major sin that is way up on the abhorrent sin list according to men. Those verses look to me to include everyone!

Can you tell that I've had my dander raised a couple times this week? Okay! Let me finally get to the topic of the week:

What do you think about my above rant? Am I being to harsh on churches and Christians? Are there certain folks that should not be allowed into a church because of their sinful behavior?

I expect that there are some folks that are non-church goers or have been turned off by this exact behavior that will have one opinion and then there may be church goers that will have another. I want to hear them all. I want a lively discussion! What do you all think?

Here are the rules:

1. This is a man's meme, so the answers must be the answers from a man. Either the man can answer on his blog, or a wife can interview her husband for her blog. However, if the wife puts it on her blog, she must stay true to what her husband said.
2. You are encouraged to put one of the Men's Monday Meme buttons found to the left on your blog. Just copy the code below the button of your choice. The more folks who link, the more readers you may have to visit your blog.
3. You may answer the question any time during the week up through next Monday. After you answer the question, add the address to your post to the Mr.Linky below. If you could, please only add the direct link to the post to make it easier for readers to find the entry.
4. My answer along with a new question will be posted next Monday. The new Mr. Linky will be added at midnight Monday night or sometime within the next couple of days after that .

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Mood:  lazy

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Mood:  quizzical

I've read a couple of interesting things lately. Things that have made me really think. Things that have made me wonder what this world is coming to, or maybe what have we become.

The first was when I read a retweet from one of my friends on twitter. It was about a lady who was an advocate for giving our children more freedom. She asks why we aren't the way we were in the 60's and the 70's. We would let our kids ride bikes all over town, We'd let them go to the park by themselves. It wasn't a crime to leave your 12 year old at home for a few minutes while you ran to the store. This advocate claims that the crime rate today is less than it was back then, but we shelter our kids and we don't let them learn on their own. Her organization proclaimed last Saturday as "Leave your kids at the park alone Saturday". You were to drop you kids off at the park for a half an hour or so and say goodbye. You weren't to go and watch them from behind a tree or anything else, you were to LEAVE! I really made me think about how we treat our kids these days. Are we overprotective?

The second thing that I read was a question that a lady posted on a forum. It seems that there is a bus stop close to her home and everyday she sees the same "older" lady waiting there for the bus. Occasionally she has said hello as she pulled out of her driveway but that was the extent of their relationship. One day, as she was pulling out with her kids in the car, the "older" lady came up to her window and asked if she was going "by the shops". Apparently you can't go anywhere in this town with out going by the shops, so she said that she was. The women then explained that she had missed her bus and asked if there was a way she could catch a ride to the shops and she would then ride the bus home. The mother then promptly answered "No! I hardly know you." The lady was taken aback and responded "I'm a mature lady", but the mother refused. After telling her story, the mother asked the forum if she were right. Some on the group were aghast that she would do something like that, others defended her decision.

Okay, here is my Men's Monday Meme question(s) for the week.

Are we being overprotective? Are we so cautious that we have lost sight of what it means to be kind and generous and outgoing with one another? Are all of the warnings correct or have we become a worrisome society? Or, should we be more wary these days? Have times changed and there is no going back? What are your thoughts?

As usual, here are the rule reminders.

1. This is a man's meme, so the answers must be the answers from a man. Either the man can answer on his blog, or a wife can interview her husband for her blog. However, if the wife puts it on her blog, she must stay true to what her husband said.
2. You are encouraged to put one of the Men's Monday Meme buttons found to the left on your blog. Just copy the code below the button of your choice. The more folks who link, the more readers you may have to visit your blog.
3. You may answer the question any time during the week up through next Monday. After you answer the question, add the address to your post to the Mr.Linky below. If you could, please only add the direct link to the post to make it easier for readers to find the entry.
4. My answer along with a new question will be posted next Monday. The new Mr. Linky will be added at midnight Monday night or sometime within the next couple of days after that .

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