AmericanChristianFamily

Death of Pet Brings Life to Children's Religion

2008-05-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last year, after a three-month battle with lymphoma complete with many visits to the vet and a number of desperate attempts to force-feed large pills, our family sadly accepted the fate of letting go of our beloved pet for many years. She was a cat named Cheeta.

Cheeta had been around longer than my oldest child, so my kids had no memory of a time before her. As a result, this not only saddened them as any pet's death would but it even took on a rather traumatizing effect.

We were homechurching at the time, and talking about Cheeta's passing became an invaluable tool in that effort. "Heaven" took on a more prominent and pertinent meaning to them. Now it was more than a place where God, Jesus, angels and saints 'hung out'. It was the place where our Cheeta had gone to.

In fact, we collected up all our pictures of Cheeta and displayed them onto a beautiful framed poster of an artist's rendition of what Heaven looked like. This was our visual focal point as we homechurched.

Since we had wanted to have Cheeta's body buried on our property, we had her cremated (she had died in late winter when the ground was still frozen). After the spring thaw, we held a funeral for her as we buried her in "the bird sanctuary" we have on our property where her burial site had a perfect view of the birds she so loved to watch in life. The children cried and put alongside her box adorning pictures and flowers they had picked. It was a short mass complete with prayers. We then buried and marked the grave.

We continued for a long time afterwards to homechurch using that artwork with Cheeta's pictures attached to it. I cannot emphasize enough the lasting impression this had on my children in their sense of connection to God. We managed to take a very depressing time in our lives and turn it into something so positive and constructive in our faith.

From free Coffee Clutches to expensive Chat Rooms

2008-04-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

I had thought that the generation gap between me and my parents' generation would disappear after my teen years, when I got out of the house and was more their equal as an adult myself. Then something happened. I became a parent myself. Now the struggle we women have with our mothers or other women of their generation understanding us can reemerge as we try to explain just why it is our job of raising children today is so much more difficult than their's was all those years ago. And there it goes again, the generation gap re-emerges with our mothers not understanding or convinced of our point of view.

The first thing we try to explain as proof of our lives being tougher is that life today is MUCH MORE STRESSFUL. This is not a cop-out, this is a fact and while some of it is controllable much of it isn't.

Let's retrace the timeline of what led to this being the case.

While I was growing up in the 70's, most middle-class moms were called "Housewives"--that's "Stay-at-home-moms" to translate into present-day english. Being that there were less working outside of the home-type moms back then, there were more around to have the advantage of what was called "Coffee Clutches", where moms got together for conversation and company and brought along any children not yet in school to play with each other. It was a network of support from fellow moms for babysitting, car pooling, or just enjoying adult conversation while the little ones played...nobody had to be isolated.

Interestingly, an opposite of stress is simplicity. Remember how it was? We grew up with only ONE of most every major appliance and luxury item:

*ONE car, which meant ONE auto insurance policy and ONE consumer of gasoline.

*ONE Color TV set and maybe a back and white one upstairs.

*ONE refrigerator.

*ONE stereo.

*There was ZERO Cable TV. There was ZERO Satellite TV or Satellite Radio.

*ZERO VCRs or DVD players.

*ZERO pc's.

*ZERO playstations.

*ZERO cell phones.

Obviously, families in the 70's had much lower utility bills and think of all the other money they saved by not having these products or less of them!

Life was simpler; families had less with usually just one of everything that had been invented at that point in time. As such, less need for a second income. Family entertainment was usually free because usually it came from other families, not electronic feeds.

Now, let's fast-forward to present day--

Many of us moms work to afford to give our families more and in most cases our little ones go to daycare. Most of our households contain:

*TWO cars (thus two car insurance policies and two consumers of the ever-rising price of gas).

*There are usually TWO if not three TV sets, all color with cable if not satellite of course.

*Most everyone has either TWO refrigerators or one frig and an additional freezer in their basement or garage.

*There are TWO stereos in many instances

*TWO of the not-so-new invention called computers--after all, the kids need their own.

*Most everyone has one VCR and/or DVD player.

*Most everyone has one or two (or more) cell phones

*Most households have a playstation or nintendo.

*Oh, let's not forget the game boys and how nearly every toy today needs batteries (more "power" to those in the 70's who saw it coming and invested in Duracell).

What in fact have we mothers of today done to ourselves? Aside from becoming more financially challenged, did you ever wonder why all of us are so exhausted? Let's go down the list of today's additional jobs for today's responsible mothers, starting with our "gotta have one" (if not TWO) electronic gadgets:

1) With the addition of Cable/Satellite TV, VCR and DVD players, we now need to "police" our TV sets and even our radios ALMOST CONSTANTLY. Forget about relying on responsible programmers like our mothers could. Rated "G" seems almost obsolete and rude humor, or worse, is "in".

2) With the addition of computers and the internet, even our evening news reminds us of how we definitely need to "police" that CONSTANTLY. Chat Rooms are nothing like those Coffee Clutches.

(Cell phones now send pictures and even video---will this mean a new market for pornography? Only tomorrow's news can say. Oh goody, another possible item we get to "police".)

Okay we've gone over what is fair to say is controllable. We really could get rid of all those extra gizmos so in fact we do bring some of it on ourselves.

But fact is, not all of it. Now, with all due respect, our mothers do need to realize what we don't have control over:

1) Our schools have a much more aggressive curriculum and aggressive pursuing of parental involvement. Us moms today are involved in our kids' daily homework, studying, purchasing more supplies than ever before, being contacted all the time for various "volunteer" duties, charity needs (back in the 70's I remember that moms usually went through their places of worship for that or dads gave at the office), and selling our kids' candy bars, popcorn, gift wrap, books, etc., etc., etc. Phew! Yes, we could say no to all of this, but the pressure equates to an emotional blackmail, who wants their kid to be the only one whose parent isn't doing all of the above (although after having been hit recently with three school fundraisers all at the same time, I'm actually starting to find it easier).

2) So many of us sign our kids up for year-round sports at a much younger age. This begs the questions "What are they learning in Gym class?" (Although our mothers are right when they point out that while many of us hold to that image of Paradise, raising that next great pro-quarterback, Pro-ball does in reality have one thing in common with Heaven..."Many are called but few are chosen").

3) Most of us moms of today have had our children later in life due to our years of college then careers (at some point of which our moms reminded us of our biological time clocks ticking away). Although we have to admit, there is something to be said for that. Ever notice that the energy you had at 20 just isn't the same as the energy you had/have at 30? It gets worse. Some of us are now 40 or beyond (no denying now that our bodies are most certainly different than at 20!) and still have a pre-schooler at home...making that group of us almost 20 YEARS OLDER than many of our moms were when they chased after their last toddler!

4) With our being older, our parents are also older. Some of us have become the "Sandwich Generation", an expression which means we're raising children at the same time we're taking care of or are involved in helping aging parents.

5) We do not have the network of support our moms had...with it goes a lot of free babysitting, car pooling, etc. This is also partly due to being the generation that has moved, relocated, moved again. Where have our siblings, high school or college friends, even cousins our own age gone? Many times clear across the country! Result today: Many families have changed. They are not close anymore because they're not close by. What our moms could count on from other mothers or relatives we are now doing all ourselves or paying for.

After being so drained from all of the above plus the things that haven't changed like housecleaning, kitchen work and laundry, we have found that saying "no" to our kids apparently does not count as an answer and leads to the same request being made again and again. This chips away at our resistance and many times results in caving in--translation: as a generation we are definitely not as strict as our parents were. It's OK for us to believe that an old-fashioned spanking is not the answer to everything, although that stated a whack on the fanny is not to be confused with child abuse and in fact dangerously waters down the true definition to the crime. It's just that most of us who are trying hard to be responsible mothers of today fancy ourselves to be a bit more creative about the punishment fitting the crime...that is when we're not too runned down to get those creative juices flowing!

I predict our daughters and sons will not be raising children like us. Not only will they take into consideration the flaws, but life will just change as it always does and they will be dealing with different challenges

"Passion of Christ" Risks Losing Impact

2008-03-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

I have been reading through various blogs and came across much discussion on the subject of violent video games. I have read the ghoulish description of these games which includes decapitation, slashing eyes out, and various other forms of gore.

My first question is why? Why do video game manufacturers need to keep one-uping each other as to whose game offers more gore? And why would anyone want to purchase and play such a game? It makes one wonder about the beastile drive that needs this kind of satisfaction.

It is curious that this form of entertainment is so widely offered and accepted in the very same society that now debates what the definition to torture even is. From the average kid to the most powerful person in the world, our president, they and everyone in between has been affected by this moral blur.

It is my belief that such confusion has been the demon to overtake the mins of certain young people, directly leading to the rise in this nation's much-publicized school shootings.

A couple of years ago, I found out that my son was being exposed to movies at friends' houses that I would have never allowed him to watch. While these other parents were moderately careful about allowing movies that contained sex, they seemed to have no objection to the amount of violence. When their kids came over to my house and found me strict about not allowing movies that had a lot of violence, they thought this was very odd and I would explain to them "That's what's wrong with the world today. If more people objected to violence, there would be less wars and less violent crimes." They were left searching for a response but never being able to find one.

That was when I decided that my son, then ten years of age, was eligible to watch "Passion of Christ" despite its R rating. He had already been exposed to some gorey violence, at that time thanks to one of the popular "Star Wars" films then recently put onto DVD (funny, when I was a kid and went to see the first "Star Wars" ever released, it did not contain this kind of gorey violence and we enjoyed it so much we went back to see the movie more than once proving that this is an unnecessary ingredient for entertainment and film prosperity).

I wanted my son to view "Passion of Christ" while gore still had shock value for him, before he might become as desensitized to it as everyone else around us seemed to have become.

So my son sat with me and my husband and watched "Passion of Christ" when he was ten years old. It remains the only R movie he has ever viewed. He was very taken with the gorey suffering of Christ, and was full of questions. He said he could actually feel Christ's pain during the torture scenes. This time, it was gore with a purpose...and it stayed with him in a way that he better appreciated our Lord's sacrifice.

The great damage that can come from exposing kids to so much violence presented to them in a fun and entertaining manner as found in their video games and movies is that they will see it all as acceptable and risk becoming all together desensitized to it.

Villagers and their children watched Christ get executed in a grisly manner, but did this make it okay? We are to be struck by Christ's suffering, that is why it is called His passion. Passion and desensitzation are two different things. We parents would do well to remember this.

We cannot risk having future generations watch "Passion of Christ" and not be moved by it. Otherwise, we risk waterboarding and school shootings becoming so widespread that they are hardly considered newsworthy.

MOM'S HECTIC LIFESTYLE: Slow Down & Turn Off TV

2008-03-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

I am a stay-at-home mom who started blogging so as to quench my thirst for getting back into journalism. I had hoped to be a daily blogger, but last week reminded me of not only why I don't go back to work but why any daily commitment can be impossible--thanks to a very aggressive stomach virus in my youngest child who was home sick all last week.

There are priorities in life. I have heard my generation be called a "narcissistic" generation, where we put our own wishes before that of our children's or aging parents'. If, however, you are like me and you are the "sandwich generation", caught in between those two generations who need you and you are trying to be there for everyone, then like me you laugh off that description. But it can still be tough to laugh when you have a difficult time finding just a couple of minutes to yourself.

And for us sandwichers, we tend to have a lack of a support system making a mockery of "it takes a village to raise a child"--half the village is under-aged and the other half is getting too old. We are the exhausted left-over segment of the population. Not only are many of us mentally overextended (we try to be at our kid's game at the same time we try to help the other kid do a difficult school project at the same time we are trying to teach the youngest one how to color inside the lines all the while trying to fix a half-way nutritious supper for all of them and in between stirs of the pot we study the calendar in defeat as we try to figure out when to have an aging relative over), but we are also older in having waited longer to have had our children. Let's face it, a forty-year-old usually does not have the same amount of energy as a twenty-year-old.

But using the bible as an empowering tool for one's approach to the hectic life of today, one of my most favorite verses is Matthew 6:34 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Anotherwords, take it one day at a time and don't worry about tomorrow. So relax and realize one-on-one isn't always possible so just take that aging relative to the kid's game.

Another easy way to create more time for yourself...

I did something as simple as cutting out TV viewing and discovered that this allowed me more time than I thought I had. Now I admit to being a news-a-holic, glued to "this just in" or "breaking headlines", and studying all the round-table discussions to see whose argument is the strongest (not necessarily the most honorable one). But even someone like me has realized lately that TV is on absolute overkill with the presidential campaigns. Usually, there are no new developments to report on, there is only one blasted analysis after another and too many predictions that the state of New Hampshire has already proven to be rather worthless.

A couple of nights ago, I asked my children to raise their hands on who they see more of. Is it Daddy or Barak Obama? When the unanimous vote was for Barak Obama, I hit the power off button on my remote.

So I have done what I consider to be the smartest thing in a long time, I have turned off the TV set! Not only have I found more time, my brain has been able to unclog itself and concentrate better. And, oh yeah, my kids are starting to notice and recognize Daddy coming through the door at the end of the day.

CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM OFFENDS CHRIST/THREATENS US

2008-02-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

On the subject of American Christianity in its relation to the rest of the world, particularly as it pertains to the Holy Land, I have been scanning the news stories/blogs from the largest Christian sites on the internet where I as a mother and world citizen have become alarmed over many of these columnists and bloggers who call themselves "Christian" but use hate language against other cultures in the attempt to incite the spread of war, actually cheerleading for it to rush past the borders of Iraq. I have seen their word "evil" to describe Islam, and their word "devil" to describe its founding prophet. The war of bombs has always been preceded by the war of words and I've seen numerous sermonized first strikes. Would Jesus Christ Himself agree with these people, according to His Gospel teachings? More on that in a moment, since it doesn't stop there.

On both the internet and on TV I've seen the consistent misuse of the Old Testament to create a "pro-warism" conviction in the Holy Land itself, promoting this threatening notion called "Christian Zionism" (their unique belief--not the belief held by any mainline Christian religion--that Israel should swallow up what little is left of Occupied Palestine, and expand past the borders of neighboring countries as it propagates more settler colonialism, and even be left free to ethnically cleanse and practice apartheid as much as it wishes against both indigneous Christians and Muslims). Can Christian Zionism be found in the Gospel? No, because its misconception is rooted in the Old Testament. Then why is it called Christian Zionism? Since it can't be found in the Gospel, what would Jesus Christ have to say about it? More on that in a moment.

Let's first look at how the influence of this rhetoric directly impacts American Christians in a less spiritual way--facts on the ground. Right in our pocketbook at a time when we can least afford it. While our families face the very real possibility of dealing with a recession, these radicals have successfully pressured our government to grant Israel $30 billion in aid with no strings attached. It is also noteworthy that Israel's separation barrier which is built by our dollars separates our Savior's Nativity (Bethlehem) from His Resurrection (Jerusalem), and their torturous oppression of the native Christian communities there have caused such massive emigration it is estimated by scholars that there will no longer exist any Christian communities in the Holy Land in just 15 years.

Why would people calling themselves "Christians" hurt other Christians? Especially those living in the Holy Land? This in and of itself should raise the red flag of suspicion.

But still, it doesn't stop there!

This is where it got personal for me. A few days ago, via e-mail, I politely but point-blankly asked one of these individuals about his blog's Islam-bashing if his goal was to provoke hate crimes and even perhaps promote the next holocaust against all these societies and families that follow this major world religion (mind you the majority of which had nothing to do with 9/11 and are not radicalized)--despite e-mailing me a response that spoke of other things, I was shocked to find that this writer would not answer this question!! I had rightfully expected but never received a vehement denial by him. This has been the most troubling preview to date to where these Supremacists are heading, and what has prompted this article from me. Has the world really learned nothing from World War II's Holocaust against the Jews or the KuKlux Klan's onslaught against African-Americans? Could this really be on our horizon again?!

Back to what would Jesus Christ have to say about these people and what they are doing, which I'm sure most of you already know without being provided with Gospel quotes. Like any of you who have taken the time to study the Gospel, I have never once come across Jesus Christ using hateful, inciteful language to provoke violence against anyone--in fact Christ preached the exact opposite. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:38-39).

And I have also read "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:11). Christian Supremacists have perfected cultish methods to draw in people and their life savings, from which generates this special interest group's lobbying power that they enjoy in Washington.

If these Christian Fundamentalists succeed, and with their growing political stranglehold over our politicans this is not impossible, they easily could inflame the war way beyond what our troops could ever possibly cover! Our military has already gone on record to say that it is overextended and could not be stretched to cover another major war front.

Guess what, moms? Here could be another fact on the ground on how we very well could be directly impacted if we let these bigots have their way, this would open the door to the dreaded draft and snatch all our sons (and possibly our daughters) away from what can only be described as the next Crusades! If you do not remember from History class what the Crusades were, please google it! Now stop and think about this, "Crusades" is no exaggeration when you take into account how suspicious it is that our enemy's name keeps changing and with each name-change broadens the definition of who this is--purposely increasing their numbers! First, they were called "Al-Qaida". Then, we started hearing "Radical Islamacists". Now, according to these blogs, any alias and adjective have been dropped in the favor of taking aim at this entire world religion!

My Gospel reading has pointed out that Christ was so concerned about people like this that would abuse His teachings to bring about evil, He had the following to say in Matthew 7:15-23, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" How else could a truly learned Christian person describe trying to provoke the spread of war, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid? Even my Sunday School students as young as three years of age would be able to answer whether or not these deeds equated to "good fruit".

In this passage Christ went on to say, "...every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Ask yourselves, what kind of fruit is the encouraging of further violence and war against so many families and societies who had nothing to do with 9/11, nothing in common with those who perpetrated it, never took part in any terrorist act whatsoever, and whose only 'crime' is that their main religion happens to be different than our own? Are we not America, the very same country where we and our ancestors have proudly declared religious freedom as one of our nation's accomplishments since its founding! Have we not learned anything from our elders or our history books that speak of a western country, not too long ago, having put another major religion through a holocaust? Do not forget that the Jewish Holocaust was itself brought about by the incitement produced from the colorful, provoking language of a master speech-giver!

And for people like these Christian Supremacists, Christ said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?" (it doesn't take much to make this connection that the so-called "devils" being like those on the receiving end of the hateful language and any violence that results from such zealotry). "And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work inquity." (Matthew 7:21-23)

For those who argue freedom of speech, Christ exercised His' as well when He said to the religious establishment of His day who themselves misused God's teachings for self-benefit, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation...you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extorition and excess...Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matthew 23:14)

These words of Christ are as prophetic as any other He ever mouthed. Our Savior knew what was coming even over two thousand years after He spoke those words!

Quesiton is, will we fall into the slothfulness of "I'm way too busy with life, laundry to wash and bills to pay, to think about these things" or will we slam on the breaks of life to rise up and bond together for our Savior's sake and speak out against such a perilous false teaching that could very well bring down our entire world? By being done in the name of our Savior, Christian Supremacy is a major assault to Christ and to all His teachings and what He stood for--it is an enormous threat to us and our families, sentencing us in the world's jury to guilt by association because they chose to use our religion to mask their real intentions and to create a phony but powerful base to work from. Fact is, Christian Supremacy, through their TV shows and big websites, is a voice heard around the world. This creates the false impression that these radical Christians speak for all of us Christians here in America, the picture forming in the global perception is that America has become this fundamentalist, conquering Superpower that seeks to expand its grip on the Gulf while promoting the obese growth of Israel on the region's other side. The archbishop of my church affiliation has traveled to the Middle East, and Christian Zionism is the number one question he gets asked about by Arab journalists.

So do we sit back and allow these Supremacists to falsely represent our religion to the rest of the world and for their own interests inflame the war which could take our own children as well as kill many innocent ones over there? Or are any of us willing to make a stand against these hotheads to protect our Savior and the good name of our religion, and for the sake of our children and the future survival of our country?

Ask yourself what is more painstaking, taking the time to speak out against what these Christian Supremacists are doing, or taking the time to pack your child's suitcase for the last time as they head off to fight in what becomes a world war brought about by the blasphemy and blood money of the Christian Supremacist movement that not enough of the true, mainline American Christians stood up to stop? We are the majority, and in a democracy that's everything. More importantly, we are the true followers of Christ. He died for us, can't we at least speak up for Him? In His judgment this will weigh heavily for us and our families' salvation.

The Video Games Addiction

2008-02-21T12:31:00.000-08:00

For anyone raising kids today, the video games addiction is a constant battle worthy of an intervention not unlike what alcoholics and drug addicts need.

I was the Director of my church's Sunday School for five years. On one occasion, I ordered a poster that showed the type of pictures kids would understand that tied in with the Ten Commandments. I was amused to see the illustration of video games being used to show the breaking of the First Commandment "Thou Shalt Have No Other God before Me".

After this past week with my kids off from school, I am no longer amused. For anyone who cannot understand the comparison, it is this: Addictions take us away from God, more time and energy is spent with that addiction than with God. Simply put, an addiction isolates, removing the addict from God, family, as well as living a healthier life. Video games contribute just as much to childhood obesity as fast food restaurants do!

I played my first video games back in the late 70's/early 80's. Back then, there was a beginning to the game and an end. It was maybe a half-hour experience than on to other things! Today, these games literally have no end, one achieves moving up a level or staying at the same level until mastering it to move ahead.

I did not realize the addictive affect of video games until after we bought our playstation. At first, I was pleased that my son learned about football from Madden 2000, how the game is played, its rules, the names of the players, etc., after which the same went with other sports. But then began the battle of "Time's up!" with the blast back of "I've only got two minutes to go!" and twenty minutes later "I told you twenty minutes ago to get off!" with the return shot of "There's just 30 seconds left on the clock, I want to just finish!" (This is why I never liked football, a game with more time-outs than time-ins, turning twenty minutes into two hours).

Today, my son told me how much he wants an X-Box, and here's the usual plea we have all grown accustomed to.."My friends have one!" There used to be a saying that my mother would use "Keeping up with the Jones'." I do not care about the "Jones", I am a content non-conformist who has never been swayed by what everyone else is doing. Nor am I one to habitually go down the path of least resistance which seems to be the most popular way to parent based on what I've observed. So I bluntly told my son that I was no longer impressed with his friends. I asked him why it is that they keep investing and upgrading in electronic toys but at the very least do not equal this out with investing and upgrading in the types of things that would encourage more outdoor play. For once, my son did not argue (12-year-olds are notorious for needing to get in the last word). He thought for a moment about what I had said, then remarked, "Well, I have one friend that will maybe just play for a half-an-hour then want to do something else". One friend...out of about twenty.

Don't expect your friends' parents to wake up and realize they've created addicts of their own children. Video games get most of today's parents' approval because these never-ending games keep the kids "babysat" and out of the parents' hair. Less overseeing so parents can "get more done" or enjoy adult socializing. Yes, we all need a break from our kids from time to time. But I vote to send them outside, lock the doors if necessary, and force them to mentally reach back in their electronics-cluttered minds to rediscover something they lost at toddlerhood...imagination at work in an outdoor environment!

Introduction to our struggles

2008-02-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to "American Christian Family", where I will be writing regularly about the struggles of maintaining family Christian values while raising children in our American society--which I have found to be painstaking due to today's American way of life both domestically--and yes, globally. To take the lessons of the Gospel and turn this into a parental approach I have found to be both progressive and conservative, depending on the topic.

I am putting myself out there as a "soccer mom" with an accredited writing background, an extensive study in religion, and someone who is willing to put their neck on the chopping block for both those coronated American Christian leaders and atheists to have a field day with. Who would think that celebrated Christian leaders and atheists would have something in common? This speaks to the wolves in sheep's clothing as much as it does herotics. So fasten your seatbelts, put on your helmets, because we are in for that exciting ride all of us regular folk who aspire to be better Christians struggle with!

The first sampling: As a Christian-learned parent who volunteers for everything from Vacation Bible School to ballet, piano lessons and sports, I constantly find myself in the position to defend our values to...my children's friends! Not their parents, mind you. Children today do not hold their tongue because most of them do not do so at their parents' house. Some of my children's friends come over and wonder at various Christian artwork we have in the household and point-blank ask "Are we obsessed with religion or what?" Or what about all these sports and activities that are now claiming Sunday away from worship and family? I am a forty-something and can remember when Sundays were sacred and everything was closed down on this day. No longer the case! Here is the struggle that we Christian-conscientious parents are up against! And the minute we stamp down our foot, we are pointed out by our children's friends and families as strange and so different from everyone else. We are put on the defensive and find ourselves to be the rare exception (seems I can so many times almost hear the crickets chirping).

This all happens at the same time my children join me to watch the evening news--yikes! Here is an opportunity where I am trying to teach them about the importance of truth, human rights justice, and the need for peace--this is reflected in our Savior's teachings. In future editions I will quote directly from the gospel to this effect. But the end result is that good solid Christian-based values have been dissolved--or moreso, wrongly redefined--at almost every level of life! It bares repeating--beware the wolf in sheep's clothing! Why do we let these wolves speak for us?

Since my mother's death five years ago, I look to the bible--particularly the gospel--for advice on the best way to raise children. I tie the bible to everyday living. I can safely say that most, not all, families that claim to be Christian DO NOT do the same. Most American Christian families emphasize attending weekly church services and perhaps encouraging some parish life in addition. But never have I witnessed an American Christian family perform disciplined daily reflections and prayer--unlike many Muslims and Jews. Ask yourself honestly, what Christian do you know of that prays five times daily? Negligence has lent itself to a large detachment from true Christianity. Here in the U.S., this just isn't the American way of life...and here is where those of us with otherwise "strong" Christian convictions fail and thus cannot be taken seriously.

Why is daily devotion so important? Because all of us make decisions, great and small, every single day. Is the decision one Christ would approve of? If you don't care, why bother calling yourself a Christian?

This is your introductory sample of future blogs to come, filled with guidance and quotes from the gospel as we face our daily struggle in this society. I hope you stay tuned and welcome your input, I am especially looking forward to advice from those attempting to achieve the same...a solid American Christian family.