Quote For The Day
January 26, 2009
“…we… are tempted to allow ourselves be swayed by personal preference. Resist the temptation. A better evaluation tool is to check out the messages being conveyed, not the style or look of the messenger.”
-PluggedIn Magazine
Blue-Collar Christianity
January 26, 2009
A Tender Trash Can Moment
by Ashley Harris on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:30 PM
I just joined the Boundless team on Monday, so my cubical is still a little sparse. I haven’t put up pictures of my roommates or my boyfriend and there are pitiful little books for someone who works at a Webzine on my shelves. It’s safe to say that my cube looks unoccupied.
So, I didn’t blame the custodial crew on Tuesday when they left me without a trash bag for my trash can or again on Wednesday when they took my trash can altogether. I did, however, tape a note to my trash can (that I recovered from another set of empty cubicles) saying my cube was, in fact, occupied.
I expected my little note would end the trash can dilemma, but what I did not expect was that the custodian would write me back. I found this note on my desk this morning:
Thank you,
It is a pleasure to serve you! God bless!
Your custodian
God did bless me by this anonymous employee who did their work “as unto the Lord.” I was moved almost to tears. He or she reminded me, on a Friday when I’m thinking about weekend plans and trading in heels for sneakers, that I’m to commit every task and every hour of work to the glory of the Father.
May you wait tables, cash checks, install satellite dishes, write blogs, sweep floors, or whatever it is you do with a deep gratitude for the work God has given you.
Blessings to you this weekend!
Good thoughts about education…
January 20, 2009
From Boundless.com
I support the idea that government money for education should go to parents rather than schools, which would then have to perform to attract pupils, and parents would be free to use this for homeschooling too.
But government schools, as the late Milton Friedman (a leading proponent of school vouchers) pointed out:
‘Public schools teach religion too, not a formal, theistic religion, but a set of values and beliefs that constitute a religion in all but name. The present arrangements abridge the religious freedom of parents who do not accept the religion taught by the public schools yet are forced to pay to have their children indoctrinated with it, and to pay still more to have their children escape indoctrination.’
Economics professor Walter Williams likewise pointed out that the problem with American education is government imposing a one-size-fits-all system. Conversely, there are no fights over computers or cars precisely because people have choices. But if the government used tax money to provide, say, Toyotas, then non-Toyota drivers would be resentful that they are subsidizing a car they don’t use. See his article Bitter Partisan Politics and Education.
Now THAT’s News!
January 18, 2009
Would-be bride, 107, seeks first husband
BEIJING (Reuters) – A 107-year-old Chinese woman who was afraid to marry when she was young has decided to look for her first husband and hopes to find a fellow centenarian so they will have something to talk about, a Chinese paper reported.
Wang Guiying is worried she is becoming a burden to her aging nieces and nephews since breaking her leg when she was 102 and had to stop doing chores like washing her clothes.
“I’m already 107 and I still haven’t got married,” the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying. “What will happen if I don’t hurry up and find a husband?”
Born in southern Guizhou province the child of a salt merchant, Wang grew up watching her uncles and other men scold and beat their wives and often found her aunt crying in the woodshed after an attack, the paper said.
“All the married people around there lived like that. Getting married was too frightening,” she said of an era when Chinese women had few rights and low social standing.
Many also had their feet bound in an excruciating process aimed at making them look more dainty and marriageable.
After Wang’s father, mother and older sister died, she still shied away from marriage. Instead she moved to the countryside and survived as a farmer until she was 74 years old and no longer strong enough to work in the fields, the report said.
Her nephew in the booming city of Chongqing then took Wang in, but she is worried he and her other nephews and nieces are too old to take care of her now even the youngest is 60.
“My nephews and nieces are getting older and their children are already tied up with their own families and I am becoming more and more of a burden,” she said.
Local officials have said they are happy to help Wang search for a 100-year old groom, and suggested her family get in touch with old people’s homes to find candidates, the paper said.
(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sugita Katyal)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
The Best Sports Story Ever
January 16, 2009
Christ’s Love, Pigskin Style
by Suzanne Hadley on Jan 16, 2009 at 12:06 PM
I love it when I see God’s kingdom in everyday things — like high school football games. My friend Becky posted this story on her blog. “I think Kris Hogan makes God smile,” she wrote. I agree. Consider this story on ESPN:
They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.
It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.
Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?
They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.
This unusual behavior took place at the request of Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan. You see, Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility and every game they play is on the road. Hogan wanted to do something kind for the team.
So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans — for one night only — cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send:” Hogan wrote. “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”
The parents agreed. And though Faith beat Gainesville 33-14, the Gainesville players acted like they’d just won state, giving their coach a celebratory squirt-bottle shower.
After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that’s when Isaiah [Gainesville's quarterback] surprised everybody by asking to lead. “We had no idea what the kid was going to say,” remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”
And it was a good thing everybody’s heads were bowed because they might’ve seen Hogan wiping away tears.
Well done good and faithful servant.
This inspires me.
January 15, 2009
Why Major In Home Economics – Family & Consumer Sciences at The Master’s College?
Fulfill The Biblical Precept
Titus 2:3-5 instructs the older women to “admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God will not be discredited.” This passage implies that the younger woman learns how to:
- Use time management skills in her home.
- Manage the family finances.
- Cook nutritious meals.
- Practice hospitality.
- Joyfully submit to her husband.
- Raise her children in the “fear and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)…
…so that the Word of God will not be discredited.
The Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences discipline encompasses the six areas described in Titus 2:3-5-it’s simply good stewardship to merge the Biblical Mandate with one’s professional pursuits.
Acquire Professional Preparation
Professional opportunities abound in Home Economics–Family and Consumer Sciences! A sampling of career tracks available at The Master’s College include Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Business, Child Development, Clothing, Textiles and Design (both Clothing and Interiors), Human Services (Biblical Counseling with the ability to diagnose and prescribe), Foods and Nutrition, Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Education, Communications, and International Service (Missions). Generating from these career tracks, the course in Entrepreneurship trains our students to establish home-based business. Marketability is a consistent thread throughout the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences curriculum at The Master’s College. Beginning with vocational assessment and investigation of career options in the Orientation to Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences course and concluding with the completion of a professional portfolio in the Resource Management Practicum the concept of professional stewardship is encouraged.
Experience The Department’s Distinctives
Today’s world demands a flexibility and response to change for which many are not prepared. Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences at The Master’s College is designed to train Christian women to meet these changes with confidence! Courses within the department promote individual character development, increase one’s professional skills, develop insights into home and family living, and prepare its students to enter a wide range of vocational options. As a profession, Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences applies the findings of the physical, biological, and social sciences to improving the quality and standards of individual and family life. Additionally, it cultivates a knowledge of the arts to make life more creative, enjoyable, and emotionally satisfying. Master’s students majoring in Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences participate in a number of learning and enrichment activities, which emphasize:
- Maximizing human resources.
- Coping with economic uncertainty.
- Assessing the importance of fibers and fabric in today’s clothing.
- Maintaining lifetime nutrition.
- Understanding growth and development from infancy to aging.
- Creating positive parenting attitudes.
- Interpreting the housing needs of the individual and the family.
- Understanding family differences and cultures.
- Responding to twenty first century issues facing individuals and families.
- Utilizing modern scientific methods and resources to enhance quality of life.
- Generating research to identify the needs of individuals and families.
- Approaching individuals and families with preventative measures rather than crisis intervention.
- Educating the public to ensure productive and harmonious individual and family lifestyles.
The Master’s College Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Department offers both a general and secondary education major emphases:
Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences General
The General emphasis allows the student to acquire a solid foundation in Home Economics–Family Studies and Consumer Sciences. Courses are divided into three categories:
- Character - designed to develop the character of the Christian woman.
Principle - acquisition of the academic knowledge necessary for a strong foundation in the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences profession.
Laboratory - perfection of the skills unique to the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences profession.
Students may focus on a specific concentration in Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences in the junior and senior year. Where possible, they engage in an internship leading to professional employment in such areas as:
- Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Business
- Clothing, Textiles & Design
- Foods & Nutrition
- Early Childhood Education
- Preparation for Graduate School
- Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in International Service (Missions)
- Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Human Services (Biblical Counseling)
Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Secondary Education
Students earn a California Single Subject Teaching Credential that qualifies them to teach Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences in grades 7-12. Additionally, it prepares them to begin Home Economics–Family Studies & Consumer Sciences programs in Christian Secondary Schools, home school and opens a number of career options in the field of education.
Dr. Ennis founded the Home Economics–Family Studies and Consumer Sciences Department at The Master’s College at the request of Dr. MacArthur in 1987.
Hard Work U
January 14, 2009
This is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of or seen. I think more schools should do this. This is amazing.
Apparently most students at the College of the Ozarks get offered jobs before they even graduate. REALLY? I wonder why…
Quote for the day
January 14, 2009
- … let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24)
How Terribly Sad
January 14, 2009
The saddest part isn’t that Natalie Dylan (not her real name) is auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder.
The saddest part isn’t that the San Diego student is using the auction to help raise money to pay for her graduate studies.
The saddest part isn’t that the 22-year-old got the idea from her sister, who spent three weeks working as a prostitute at a Nevada brothel to fund her own college education.
The saddest part isn’t that some 10,000 men have already bid on the young woman’s chastity.
The saddest part isn’t that, four months after Howard Stern helped her launch the auction, Dylan has now reportedly received an offer of $3.7 million.
The saddest part isn’t even that the money she hopes to raise will fund an advanced degree in marriage and family therapy.
No, the saddest part is all of it.
http://www.boundlessline.org/2009/01/the-saddest-part.html
From the Plugged-In Review of Hinder
January 13, 2009
A Greyhound to Guyland
In his book Guyland, sociologist Michael Kimmel notes that today’s young men are taking longer than ever to reach traditional markers of manhood: leaving home, finishing school, starting work, getting married and becoming fathers. In 1960, almost 70 percent of American men had reached these milestones by age 30. Today, less than a third have done so. Kimmel told Newsweek that adolescence has shifted from “a transitional moment to a whole new stage of life” in which young men “see grown-up life as such a loss.” He adds, “What used to be regressive weekends [of partying or reckless behavior] are now whole years in the lives of some guys.”
Newsweek writer Tony Dokoupil concludes, “Today’s guys are perhaps the first downwardly mobile—and endlessly adolescent—generation of men in U.S. history. … The failure to launch is perhaps no surprise given the onslaught of messages that suggest settling down is tantamount to ripping up one’s ticket to the party.”
Hinder’s not riding the bus. These guys are driving it—pedal to the metal.
