National School Choice Week: Freedom Always Works
January 27, 2012
A good education is critical for a child’s future success, but too many children are trapped in low-performing schools with discipline problems and failing students. Parents should have the freedom to choose the school that is best for their children. January 22-28, 2012 is National School Choice Week, “shining a spotlight on effective education options for every child.”
A Tale of Two Missions with Juan Williams dramatically demonstrates that when it comes to education, freedom always works.
Now Choose Life, so That You and Your Children May Live
January 22, 2012
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. ~ Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court chose death and made abortion legal in the United States.
Since that day, nearly 55 million children created by God in His image have been murdered before ever being given a chance at life.
This joyous story of a reunion of a birth mother with her daughter conceived in rape and given up for adoption is unlikely to happen today. Children conceived in rape are routinely aborted, as if the children should be punished for the crimes of their fathers.
Added 1/23/12: I learned about a pro-life advocate who herself was conceived in rape. Rebecca Kiessling has a dramatic story to tell that changes hearts and minds about exceptions to abortion.
Through the years, I have written a number of posts about abortion and the sanctity of life, especially on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that made the lives of unborn children less valuable under the law than the convenience of their mothers. Here are links to some of them:
- Absolute Truth vs Personal Opinion
- Abortion: Legalized Murder
- A Thirty-Six Year Tragedy
- The Most Basic Human Right: Life
- Slavery and Abortion – Moral Relatives
- The Case Against Abortion
O Lord Jesus Christ, who dost embrace children with the arms of thy mercy, and dost make them living members of thy Church; protect unborn children from being murdered in the womb; turn the hearts of lawmakers and people to end the evil abomination of abortion; and allow every child created by thee to fulfill thy plan for their life; through thy merits, O merciful Saviour, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest one God, world without end. Amen. (adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
photo credit: Caitlinator
Twenty years ago today …
January 22, 2012
… I walked into the chiropractor’s office at the end of a long and busy day. My head throbbed from one of my frequent migraines, and I was hoping for relief. The chiropractor directed me to sit on a stool, then he took my head in his hands and twisted. Instantly, I felt like I was hanging upside down from the ceiling. The world was spinning below me, and I was hot and cold at the same time.
The chiropractor told me to step over to the table in front of me. He helped me up, but I just fell face-down on the table.
“My body is heavy,” I said. “I can’t turn over.” Of course my body was heavy. I had always been overweight, but that wasn’t what I was feeling. I just didn’t know how to describe the sensation, but I knew I couldn’t move.
The chiropractor helped me get all the way onto the table, then he started massaging the back of my neck with an electric instrument. I started throwing up over and over and over again. I begged him for help, but he ignored me.
He said, “You have a bad case of the flu. I’m going to call your husband to come get you. I don’t think it’s safe for you to drive.”
“Not safe?” I screamed. “I can’t even move, much less drive.”
He just walked away and reached for the telephone.
For the rest of the story, read My Stroke: The Beginning. That post links to two others continuing the story of my stroke. Through the years I have written a number of posts on stroke, including risk factors and symptoms.
Now, twenty years later, I still have what doctors call “deficits” as a result of the stroke, but the good that has come from it has far outweighed the bad.
My wonderful loving husband cared for me throughout my recovery, but he always pushed me to do as much as I could on my own. His faith that I would recover, his confidence in my abilities, and his constant support meant more than I can say. We are closer and more in love today than ever.
I learned valuable lessons from the limits imposed by the stroke. I realized that what I can do is far more important than what I can’t do, and that I can do far more than I imagined.
As a result of the stroke, I finally realized my dream of becoming a full-time writer. I always planned to write “someday,” but after the stroke I decided “someday” is today.
If you had told me twenty years ago when I stepped through the door of the chiropractor’s office that I would be carried out after having a stroke, I would have turned around and run the other direction. But today, I know that I am a stronger person and I am living my dream with my soulmate because of the experiences I have gone through.
Religious Freedom Day 2012
January 16, 2012
Religious Freedom Day is observed on January 16th, which is the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1786. That statute, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution.
We are so blessed to have freedom of religion in this country. In many parts of the world, people do not have the right to worship as they choose. Christian pastor Youcef Nedarkhani is facing execution in Iran because he was raised in a Muslim home and converted to Christianity. In the United States, we can be raised in a Muslim home and convert to Christianity or raised in a Christian home and convert to Islam. In matters of faith, we answer only to our God, not to our country or to anyone else.
MOST gracious God who gives us more than we deserve, we yield thee unfeigned thanks and praise for the freedom to worship thee without fear and for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee, show thy mercy upon thy servants who live where they lack the same freedom; give them strength to stand fast in their faith in the face of adversity; protect them and give them thy peace that passes understanding; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour, world without end. Amen.
Thanks to December 2011 Commenters
January 13, 2012
Thank you to the 63 commenters who left 116 comments in December. Your comments extended the conversation and added value and interest, and I enjoyed replying to every one of them.
Every month when I post thanks to commenters, I get questions about how I compile this list. I have explained my system in detail in Compiling Thanks to Commenters.
