Escape/Engage Cycle

How many times do we just want to check out for a while? Life is hard.

For many people the daily grind is monotonous and maybe frustrating, with the constant struggle to meet expectations. Our expectations and the expectations of family, friends and associates can be more than we can easily handle.  People expect not only their needs met, but their desires for gifts on occasion.  Then, things break or wear out and need to be fixed or replaced.  Time and money have a way of taking up our lives.

What are we actually here for?  We might ask ourselves on occasion, but I wonder how many people keep the question in front of themselves and stay true to their answer.

I always told my children that they could only fight about life and death or heaven and hell questions.  Nothing else is important enough to argue or fight about.

For people involved directly in ProLife efforts, there is always something to fight about, because it is always life or death conversations.  AntiTrafficking activists have similar exposure.  We are constantly engaged with intense situations.  The subject matter is intertwined and seriously tragic. The lives and eternities of people are always in the balance in cases of trafficking, rape, abortion, euthanasia and Obamacare. 

Social media gives us a great potential to interact on a large scale.  However; it also has the potential to overwhelm us with too many fronts and too many tragic stories.  We must fight for innocent and vulnerable people who cannot fight for themselves.  Obviously, a pre born baby cannot stand up for themselves.  Neither can a disabled infant or a severely disabled older person.  Many very elderly or brain inured people cannot defend their own right to life.  So, similarly, a trafficking victim cannot defend his or her rights.  Many know that to speak at all is to invite severe pain or even death.  We, who are able, have a moral obligation to defend those among us without a voice.

But what about when one looses the ability to laugh and have fun, to relax and refresh?  It is my strong belief that we must retreat on occasion. God required one full day of rest for every six days of work.  He also required feats, which were like worshipful vacations and even one full year every fifty years that were for times of refreshing, rebuilding and reconnecting with Him and with each other.

Sometimes, just playing cards with pleasant people or watching a nice movie is enough distraction from the constant barrage of trauma, death and despair that is so prevalent.  At other times, we really need to unplug the world and just plug into God and His Word.  Spending time away from the demands of daily American life as part of the escape and engage cycle is healthy and will help us be more productive when we are in the fight and will help us maintain our support system, so we can fight for life.

As we get closer to electing people who can influence laws to protect the right to life and other rights, we need to be ready to go to battle. How do you plan your times of refreshing?

• Family night
• Worship Gathering
• Trip to a Park
• Movie night
• Structured retreat
• Conference
• Weekend away
• Staycation at home

Choice, Whose Choice?

We can choose just about anything if we have the money.  

You can have an $80,000.00 treehouse or a luxury vacation or just a new toy.  You and I still live a a great country.  We can even buy most new laws if we have enough money.  Bailouts and unfunded mandates are just the beginning of opportunity for the ultra rich.   There is literally no end to what you can do, because you can make more money with the money you already have.

But what if you don't have money?  What if you are born into a poor family, in a poor part of the country?  Being poor is more mindset than anything else, right?  That is what many, so called, success coaches will tell you.  Can you choose what car to drive, if you cannot pay for it?  Can you choose what school to go to?  Can you choose where you live?  No.  That  is silly.  

Is it?  Or is it temporary?  People are amazing.  We can change.  We can change our circumstances, our income, our behavior, our circles of influence and everything changes by the choices we make.

Some will say that they have no choice.  This may be a very rare case, but most of us can change everything by a series of small and big changes over a period of time.  I would venture to say that even the person who cannot choose, the incarcerated or victim of imprisonment or severely disabled poor can still change their circumstances over time.  Unless you are in a coma and are not thinking, you can change your mind.  

Change your thinking and your world takes on a new form from the inside out.  I can tell you from experience.  This is how things change.  The people who have known me for a long time will tell you.  I used to apologize for taking up space.  I didn't think I had any value and neither did others.  I changed my thoughts, exchanging them for God's thoughts.  He said I am a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.  I am the righteousness of God in Christ.  

When I began telling myself that, our family came out of real poverty: the poverty of spirit.  I began to always tell my children that they are important, they matter, they are leaders and people of influence.  I told them when they made mistakes that they could learn from mistakes and build a better future.  I told them that there was nothing they couldn't do with time, determination and right thinking.  I told them the Truth of God's great love for them.  I told them that no matter what happened that all things work together for the good of those who love God and a the called according to His purpose. 

I was telling them.  I was telling myself. 

Tell the people around you the things you want them to think, the things you want to think, even if you don't believe it right away.  Soon, you will.  Then, you will see that you really can choose.  

You can choose a better life.  You can choose eternal life.  You can choose the direction of your life and the direction of the lives within your circle of influence.  Your choices may not be tremendous power or control over situations or people though.  Some choices are wrong.  

What will you choose?

POWOWs

At my workplace the television is on, nearly all the time.  There are a few stations that are frequently playing.  The Military Channel, The History Channel, The Travel Channel and the like are often left on for hours and hours without anyone changing them.  

Last week, prisoners of war were the focus of the day.  As I listen and work, I think.  Usually there are some life skills or perspectives that I will incorporate into my thinking that I expect will make me a better person.

One of the main take aways of my time there this week was when interviewing the POWs from the Hanoi Hilton, a common theme was the thing that helped these brave men make it through was their ability to find each other and communicate.  “Communication is everything.” one man said.  It allowed them to know what to expect, to share new torture techniques and anything anyone found that would help them get through it and that gave them a general sense of hope, because they knew they were not alone.

I was immediately transported back in time. A time when as a 14 year old girl, I was sold to men at an illegal gambling hall.  I had a pimp nearby, but I was terribly alone.  Often death would have been welcomed and dreamed of as a means of escape. It really was the aloneness, the absolute feeling that even though there were other people there, they saw me as an implement of their own gratification and not as a person.  I existed as a solitary object. 

The real War on Women is the extreme objectification of women and girls.  

I was a prisoner of this war on women.  There in this prison, sometimes there were physical barriers.  I’d been kept in apartments far from home or watched over, knowing one wrong move or saying the wrong thing, or crying out at all would mean much more pain.  

I learned that quietness was key to staying alive and getting out with less bruises and no broken bones.  I’ve never had a bone broken in all the times I was abused, bruised, hurt, despairing, diseased, but no broken bones.  

At other times it was all in my own mind.  Fear and flashbacks kept me from enjoying life after I got free.  Even now, there are times when I want desperately to do something, but fear keeps me from reaching out to try.  I wonder how many women have the same prison walls that keep them, both physical and mental.  

The objectification of women is all around us, in every art form, from tv, movies and music to magazines, advertising and the mall.  A girl doesn’t have to be used and abused to be in the prison of contempt for self.  All she needs to do is look around and compare herself with the airbrushed models and unrealistic expectations abound. 

Alone, all alone, girls are sold every day. Each of us can make a difference.  We can communicate the value of every life we come in contact with.  We can provide a community where the POWOWs can break free.  By talking with the people around you, you may be able to release them or help keep them from the prison in the first place.

People are of inestimable value at every stage, at every age.  

How will your communication defeat the real war on women?

I am, Are You?

We think about things all the time.  We think about what we have to do, what others are doing, what we want done, how a conversation went, what we which we'd said, what someone else said.  We think about work, bills and investments.  We think about the way we feel or we think thoughts that others think.

By reading or watching media, we allow the imagination of other people dictate our thoughts.  It may be that while we watch a show we engage in the story only to forget all about it later, but sometimes the stories we see or hear stay with us.  Some stories haunt us, some inspire us toward greater living and some make us sad or disheartened.

You and I can decide what we think about. Dr. Caroline Leaf has a streaming broadcast of videos that encourage us to take control of our thoughts based on 2 Corinthians 10:5.

...casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring all thoughts into the captivity to the obedience of Christ...

That is a very powerful passage.  I could spend a long time right here.  Basically, we have the power to choose what we think and what we delete from our thinking.

It doesn't mean that we won't be exposed to hurtful things, bad situations or difficult circumstances.  It does mean we can choose how we will process the information we receive.

I love that it is the obedience of Christ, not our obedience.  While I do try to obey God's Word, I could never do that the way Christ did, in perfect obedience. When I think about His obedience, I recognize that He loves me and the He is ever making intercession for me in Heaven.

Those are some good, healthful thoughts.  Thought like that bring freedom and comfort.  So many times the thoughts from media: TV, movies and music bring worry, torment or despair.  I don't want to live in bondage.

I am bringing my thoughts captive and not allowing them to run wild.  Are you?

Dems Hyde Intentions

New Hampshire’s democrat congresswomen advocate for abortion as part of health insurance plans. 

Abortion is NOT healthcare.  Healthcare implies the improvement of health by providing care.  Abortion brutally kills a tiny person with no trial, no defender and no legal protections.

ABORTION COVERAGE IN HEALTH LAW: Voting 227 - 188, the US House passed a ban on the federal subsidized insurance policies that pay for abortion from the Affordable Care Act’s state and federal marketplaces, with your tax dollars. Sort of.

Representatives Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster, both Democrats, voted against the bill.  Just in case you hope that these women voted against the measure because it would comply with the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits tax dollars to kill pre born children, except in the case of rape, incest or maternal endangerment, be not deceived.  These women want abortion on demand at any stage, for any reason and paid for with your money, even if they need to force it from your hands.

WOMEN’S MEDICAL PRIVACY: Voting 192 for and 221 against, the House on Tuesday defeated a bid by Democrats to prevent HR 7 (above) from violating the medical privacy of any woman, including rape and incest victims, with respect to her choice or use of a health insurance policy.

The motion addressed privacy issues that could arise as insurance companies seek to document a woman’s claim to have been raped and thus eligible for taxpayer-funded abortion coverage under the 1976 Hyde Amendment.  The Hyde Amendment destroys proLife logic.  If human some babies should be protected, all should be.

The legislation would rather keep the stigma of rape victimization on the victim and keep the perception that she should kill that baby, should one be conceived of the tragic event of rape.  There were no provisions for extended counseling or provision of assistance that I could find.  There were no special services that would really help the survivors of rape, no, just the expectation that any child conceived by rape or incest should die and his or her death should be paid for by our tax dollars, taken from us by law.

Democrat Representative Lois Capps, from CA, said the bill would “squarely put the government, namely the IRS, in the exam room by effectively raising the taxes of those who choose an insurance plan that happens to cover abortion services.”

Obamacare has the IRS in EVERY exam room already.  When the entire healthcare infrastructure fails due to the ridiculous regulations and multitude of compliance issues, the revamp will be an entirely one payer system, wherein the 15 member panel, established by our current president, will devise a utilitarian system to compliment Common Core for an ordered society. One of compliance and servitude for the masses and supreme luxury for the few. 

I have read the end of the book, though.  It appears that the few will call the mountains to fall on them in the end and those who have not received the free gift salvation from God.

For now, let us continue to stand against abortion.  About 1% of all abortions are committed on rape or incest victims or babies with fetal anomalies.  That is about 3500 babies every year.  The victims of rape or incest and the parents of those imperfect babies need help, healing and support, not abortion.  Let us Savethe1.