4-28-13
When we were getting ready to return home from our weekend getaway, I was trying to keep the excitement going for a while longer. I told the kids they could watch a movie in the car and have some snacks and it would be like a riding theater. My almost six year old daughter was complaining about how small the screen in the van was.
Me: Aren’t you thankful for the t.v. that we have now?
Evie: Well, kind of… not really.
Me: Well maybe instead of a new t.v. you need a new attitude.
Evie: “I’d rather a new t.v.”
Leave it to Evie…
Filed under kids parenting motherhood funny phrases children
This just so happens to be the chapter that I was on in the book of Psalms tonight…
1 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself, [veiling Your eyes] in times of trouble (distress and desperation)?
2 The wicked in pride and arrogance hotly pursue and persecute the poor; let them be taken in the schemes which they have devised.
3 For the wicked man boasts (sings the praises) of his own heart’s desire, and the one greedy for gain curses and spurns, yes, renounces and despises the Lord.
4 The wicked one in the pride of his countenance will not seek, inquire for, and yearn for God; all his thoughts are that there is no God [so He never punishes].
5 His ways are grievous [or persist] at all times; Your judgments [Lord] are far above and on high out of his sight [so he never thinks about them]; as for all his foes, he sniffs and sneers at them.
6 He thinks in his heart, I shall not be moved; for throughout all generations I shall not come to wantor be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, oppression (fraud); under his tongue are trouble and sin (mischief and iniquity).
8 He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he slays the innocent; he watches stealthily for the poor (the helpless and unfortunate).
9 He lurks in secret places like a lion in his thicket; he lies in wait that he may seize the poor (the helpless and the unfortunate); he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 [The prey] is crushed, sinks down; and the helpless falls by his mighty [claws].
11 [The foe] thinks in his heart, God has quite forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see [my deed].
12 Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand; forget not the humble [patient and crushed].
13 Why does the wicked [man] condemn (spurn and renounce) God? Why has he thought in his heart, You will not call to account?
14 You have seen it; yes, You note trouble and grief (vexation) to requite it with Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man; and as for the evil man, search out his wickedness until You find no more.
16 The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations will perish out of His land.
17 O Lord, You have heard the desire and the longing of the humble and oppressed; You will prepareand strengthen and direct their hearts, You will cause Your ear to hear,
18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man, who is of the earth, may not terrify them any more.
Filed under Bible wicked God Helpers Hope
adulting:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
― Fred Rogers
In light of the tragic events at the Boston Marathon today, let’s be helpers, prayers and people of encouragement.
(via bringingupbaby)
Filed under tragedy helpers pray sadness encouragement
As children, we’re told not to be in such a hurry to grow up, because we will have our whole lives to be adults.
As teenagers, we’re told to stop acting like children, to grow up and to start learning some responsibility.
As young adults, we’re told that we still have a lot to learn, as our elders pat us on the shoulder and call us “kids.”
As middle-aged folk, we’re told to stop being so serious all the time, to embrace our inner child and to enjoy life.
As elderly people, we’re told that we can’t drive or live alone, we need to realize we have limitations and we need to eat all of our vegetables and get plenty of rest.
As corpses, we’re told we are loved and will be missed, and we are told to rest in peace… Finally, something we can do… if everyone will just be quiet and let us.
Filed under children adults grown-ups life death
This was the poem that moved me on to round three of the March Madness Poetry Tournament this year. It was an amazing experience. Go to the Think Kid Think Website to check out all the submissions. The word that I was given to write the poem with was “congeal”.
Sleep child sleep, for your dreams lie in wait.
They are hidden away till the hour gets late.
Each morning they melt, and they rise to the place
where the moon finds its home and they float out in space.
But darkness returns to congeal every dream,
then they twinkle on high as they glisten and gleam.
And when, little child, you close your eyes tight,
your dreams fall from heaven to meet you each night.
Filed under lullaby poetry children bedtime shooting stars
I am humbled by knowing that Jesus loved me enough, loved you enough, loved all of us enough, to die a horrible death just to build a bridge between mankind and God. I pray that if you believe that truth at all, that you will seek to follow Christ and take his bridge to heaven, rather than choosing to stand next to the bridge and jumping, in your own strength and good intentions, over what will prove to be an impossible distance. TAKE THE BRIDGE! Take Jesus’ forgiveness, take His hand, take His lead. He wouldn’t have built that bridge if there was another way.
Filed under Easter God Jesus cross salvation invitation family love
3-5-13
There are those moments in life that can only be described as living on the brink. It’s the moment that has you teetering in the unknown, waiting for what happens next. It’s the moment when something is inevitable, but you don’t know what. Are you about to collapse into an unexpected failure, or rise up to a stunning victory? Will your heart be flooded with joy and excitement or will it be overwhelmed with sadness and disappointment? Those are all questions that you must contemplate when you are resting on the brink.
Some might ask, “Why would you go there?” “Why would you willingly place yourself on the brink?” “Why would you choose to put yourself in a place where you could fall and be shattered?”
As many much wiser people before me have said in so many ways, if you never come to the brink, you are most assuredly guaranteed a safe existence with no chance of plumeting to your doom, but you will also most assuredly be guaranteed an existence with no chance of rising to the heights and flying to freedom.
So take a deep breath and head to the brink, I am standing there with you, along with the shadows of all of the people who have been there before us. If you are unsure then look up, you may just see a wingless bird, reaching his arms towards you and with every bit of passion in his soul saying, “Head to the brink, head to the edge, head to the end of yourself, and then…. JUMP!”
Filed under inspiration the edge life flying
Last night after watching an episode of Glee with my husband, I told him that if he would actually sit down with me at the end of the day, then I would gladly watch this show with him. He responded by asking me a very deep and very profound question.
“I wonder how many wives are forced to sit down and watch Glee with their husbands?”
My guess… just me. Still you have to wonder….
Filed under Glee television relationships quality time
The child said, “Blow.”
The wind said, “No!”
The child said, “Shine.”
The stars said, “Nein!”
The world said, “Try.”
The child said, “Why?”
Filed under poetry parenting motherhood trying children
(AT) Read this woman’s eyewitness account of the loss of freedom in her native Austria:
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December 22, 2012 - “What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books,” she likes to tell audiences.
…
“I am a witness to history.
“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.
If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.
“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.
She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.
“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”
No so.
Hitler is welcomed to Austria
“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates.
Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.
“My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.’
“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.
“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.
“Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.
“We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and
everyone was fed.
“After the election, German officials were appointed, and, like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
“Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been re- quired to give up for marriage.
“Then we lost religious education for kids
“Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.
“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”
And then things got worse.
“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.
“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.
“My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.
“I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.
“Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.
“It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.
“In 1939, the war started, and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and, if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.
“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
“Soon after this, the draft was implemented.
“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.
“They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.
“When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.
“Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.
“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.
“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.
“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.
“Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna..
“After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.
“When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.
“If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.
“As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.
“All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.
“We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.
“Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.
“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
“We had consumer protection, too
“We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.
“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.
“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.
“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.
“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.
“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.
“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.
“No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”
“This is my eyewitness account.
“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.
“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.
“After America, there is no place to go.”
Kitty Werthmann
Filed under politics Obama Hitler socialism Democracy
