Has America gone bonkers?

I love my country. Many of my relatives have served in the military including my husband and my brother. I am proud to be an American. I think this is the best place to be in the world. But, I am having a problem with things going on here in America right now. I would hope many others out there feel the same as I do. America is changing, and it is not for the better, although many may feel that it is.

I just read a news article this morning stating that the Colorado Governor had okayed open bathrooms! Transgender has been added to the list for non-discrimination. This means that someone can pose as Transgender, whether they or are not, and have access to either the women's or men's bathrooms in a public setting. I was shocked, to say the least. This is taking non-discrimination a little too far, in my opinion.

Although there was an amendment that would protect churches, synagogues, mosque, or other areas strictly used for religious purposes, others might not be so lucky. A sexual predator could find a victim as easily as visiting one of these open bathrooms.

What is America coming to? We have hurried to accomodate 'all' in order not to offend anyone. But, what is it doing for the average American who is a law-abiding citizen and wants only to live a normal life - something that is quickly dissipating around here? What happens to the employers who are Christian companies and are against this lifestyle? They will be forced to do something against their conscience simply because you have a Governor who is into appeasing everyone at the cost of many!

We've had same-sex marriages legalized in Massachussetts and California. They are being considered in New York. Where will it stop?

In my life time, I've seen many changes and most not for the better. As a student in school, there was always a feeling of peace. We had a morning devotional on the loudspeaker by a student and a prayer. Anyone was able to speak about God opening, and praying was not prohibited at school functions. In fact, it was encouraged. Even then, we had a diversity of religions in our school, but you never heard of anyone being offended. But, as outside religions began to find their way into America, the government steps in along with other organizations to make sure everyone is protected, even if it offends others. As for Christianity, it has begun to be pushed aside to make room for these 'diverse' religions. Christians are discouraged on sharing their gospel while these others are given free reign. We are told not to pray in our schools while some school systems have made room for some to have their 'prayer time' in order to make them feel wanted. This is a slap in the face to Christians!

Where has equality gone? Right out the door! Leave it to the government to become so involved in our lives that they are ruining this very country we live in. Where has their claim to 'separation of church and state' gone when they allow some to do what they have stopped Christians from doing?

Below is something that Thomas Jefferson, principle author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States had to say:

• I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling in religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must rest with the States, as far as it can be in any human authority (letter to Samuel Miller, Jan. 23, 1808).

Regardless to what some might say, God is being shoved out of America little by little. And, I don't believe He is happy with what He is seeing today in America. A nation once prosperous has been going down for sometime. Congress has not allowed oil companies to drill in the US or it's surrounding waters, so we have to rely on outside companies to provide us with what we are in need of. That brings on a higher price, something America is feeling today at the gas pumps. Taxes and wages have gotten so high that many companies have taken their business operations overseas where they get cheap labor, ship it back to the US where we usually get cheap products for a higher price. Today, it is getting harder for a teenager to find a job because companies that hire teenagers are finding themselves slowing going down hill because the rise in prices is causing people to reconsider the need to shop as much as they once did. Also the influx of illegals who will work for less wages has influenced the market as well.

Linked to Conservative Cat
Gribbit's Word

Technorati Tags: America, Marriage, Religion, Christianity, Government, Freedom

It is raining again

It has rained almost continually since yesterday morning. We had a few hours yesterday afternoon that was clear. But, the rain woke me up again this morning.

I’m not complaining because we have needed the rain. But so many times we do complain because of not enough rain or too much rain. Seems our ground is so dry nothing, including the grass, will grow. The grass will parch without water and, with prices as they are and big yards, we can’t afford to water the whole yard. And, if we have too much rain, then we have flooded yards to contend with and everything is soggy. Can we even be satisfied? Is there ever a happy medium?

I think back to the time of Noah when God told him to build an ark. (Gen 6:14) Descendants of Seth and Cain had began to intermarry and this caused a generation of people who were known for their ungodliness. So God entered into a covenant with Noah and told Noah to build an ark to save his people and He was going to destroy the earth by a flood. (Gen 6:17) It took 120 years to build the ark. Noah constantly talked against the ungodliness of the people. I am sure they thought he was a nut, constantly harping on what was going to happen if they didn’t shape up and follow God. But, they didn’t believe him and were destroyed when the waters covered the earth. The ark floated in the waters for one hundred and fifty days until it came to rest on the mountain where God had intended that they land. But Noah and his family had to wait for God to give them permission to come out. So they stayed in the ark for a whole year.

The covenant between Noah and God was the first covenant made between God and man. He granted Noah permission of the earth under this new charter. He had to erect an altar and give thanks and praises to God. God said he would never again destroy the earth by water.

So when I see the rain, it brings back thoughts of the flood. But it also reminds me that God is in charge and we can believe His promises. He will let it rain on the just and unjust (Matthew 5:45), but He will never destroy us with a flood.

Technorati Tags: Rain, Noah, Flood, God, Earth, Covenant, Ark

When you have nothing to write

Third Word Chaos has some great ideas to help you when your brain doesn’t function properly and you don’t have anything to post about on your blog. He gives five good ideas, some of which I may try:

1. Try the Free Articles sites for a post that will fit with your blog.
   
2. Try reposting one of your most popular post from the past.
3. Check out your favorite blogs for content you may be interested in and write it up in your own way.
4. Promote other bloggers that you like. They may, in turn, decide to do the same for you. I have used this action before.
5. Then there is YouTube when all else has failed you. Check out their videos for something that you like and post it to your site.
   

Third World Chaos has some great tips for blogger hacks, too.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Content, Ideas, Third World Chaos

To All Veterans

My husband served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He was stationed both in Thailand and in Vietnam in the DMZ zone. At times, I never knew where he was, but we wrote to each other every day. I believe love and support sustained him through those times. Many of our boys didn't have the support that he did. He often told me that many of the guys never got a letter at mail time, which was so sad. Some never got a package from home.

So today, for all those soldiers who served then and all those who have served since, and who are serving their country now, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have made it possible for us at home to have freedom that we may not have had. We want you to know you are loved, prayed for and thought of often. God bless all those families who have given up a son, daughter, Father, or Mother in any of our wars.

There are many who will follow in your footsteps and we wish them well. May God bless you all for your service to your country - the good ole' U. S.A.!


Freedom Is Not Free
Copyright - Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

Linked at Conservative Cat
Wake Up America
Third World County

Technorati Tags Memorial Day, Veterans, America

Graphic by Doc's Military Graphics

A Must Read

• The Detergent Church by Doug Giles
• The Appeasement Chronicles
• Memorial Day: Time to Remember, Never to Forget
• Appeasement By Any Other Name
  

Technorati Tags: Church, Appeasement, Memorial Day

Life has just begun

Thursday night, we watched a group of 287 seniors walk across the field to get their high school diplomas. Our granddaughter was one of those students.

Most of those students were anxious to get the diploma in hand and head out for a new life. Our granddaughter was among those students that wanted to ‘vacate’ the premises immediately. She will be in college in the fall and can hardly wait. She will be embarking on a new way of life for a young girl. Hopefully, it will be an experience of a life time for her and all the other college-bound students. And, there are many of those from this graduating class.

The crowd was overflowing for this year to see the graduating class walk that last mile in their high school. And we got to see the last funny pranks by those boys and girls, ranging from blowing balloons and bouncing them over the heads of the graduates until they were taken away to giving the principal a bouncy ball when they received their diplomas. The seniors unleashed 1500 bouncy balls for their senior day prank this year. Every year the seniors have a funny prank they pull on the staff. I can imagine how long it took for them to pick up those bouncy balls, too. But, then, it was clean fun for the kids! We wondered why they didn’t just let the blue balloons bounce through the crowd all night instead of taking them up. Clean fun is much better than the kids doing some nasty prank.

When the last diploma was given and the students were presented to the large crowd as graduates, hats when up in unison. And they all got out of their seats, running across the field, ending in little groups, congratulating others on their accomplishment. Of course, a few of those students didn’t get their diplomas that night because of their not passing all their exit exams. That will have to be accomplished before the diplomas are handed out. Otherwise, they will have to take a GED test.

As those students began to disassemble and go their separate ways, I thought about our years in school and those of our two children. We seemed to be grown and most of us were off to jobs. My daughter married and had 4 children, the second of whom just graduated. Our older son went off to college and worked all through his college career. I wonder how these graduates will meet the challenge to grow into mature adults, able to manage their lives as responsible adults. They think they are grown now, having made it through high school. But tough times will surely come for most of them, challenges that they will have to learn to overcome. I pray that each of them have learned it’s okay to come back to their parents for advice and don’t think they are too old to need help with every day problems. They need to realize that parents have gone through similar things and can be a sounding board for troubles. It is much better for them to come to their parents than go to a peer. Peers seem to have the same outlook on life as the one seeking advice, and sometimes their advice is not what the seeker needs to hear.

Technorati Tags: Graduation, High School, Life, Seniors, Peers

America has lost her way

With the decision by the judges in California to over turn the ban on gay marriage tells me that something is wrong here in America. We have become the nation of appeasers. Doesn’t matter whether something is right or wrong, ‘if it feels good, do it’. Or, at least do it for those groups that pressure to have their way or threaten a lawsuit.

It has definitely become the norm for judges to be liberal and go against the desires of most of the public. This is what has happened in the state of California. The people want marriage to be between a man and woman the way God intended. But, apparently, God’s Word has been forgotten and man is doing things ‘his way’. And, that’s when man gets in trouble – leaving God out of the plans.

This nation has been a very prosperous nation over the years. We have been said to be the nation that all the others look up to. But, lately, the appeasers have gone into action, not only about gay marriage but also in many more areas of our lives. Rather than standing firm, we seem to want to do whatever it takes to make everyone like us. But, history will tell us that everybody will never be our friend, and we will suffer the consequences of going against what is right.

Today, America is paying for our past mistakes. We have oil that could be drilled here, but there are those that will not let us drill. So we are paying for that decision at the pumps. Other countries have the gas under control; therefore, we pay higher prices at the pump. The price of groceries has gone up tremendously. Consumers are also paying at retail stores because most companies have taken their business over to other countries so they can pay lower wages and ship it back to America. By moving businesses overseas, it takes away from the job market in America.

When a child disobeys their parents, they usually have consequences to pay. We, as children of God, are going to have to answer to the Father. I know there are people out there that do not believe that God has anything to do with what is happening. But, God has been stuck in the background so long in America, I believe He is letting America suffer because of our disobedience to His Word. We have not done our best to stop those who go against what He wants for His people. God has been ushered out of schools (even some Christians are against prayer or the Bible in schools). A moment of silence in schools is not prayer, regardless of what some say. Christians are being persecuted because of their beliefs while other religions are being given free reign.

God says there will be no other gods before him. (Exodus 23:3) America thinks more of what other countries think of us than what God thinks of us. We do the earthly thing and try to unify all religions. We forget that His Word says “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). There is but one GOD, and He is a loving God, but He is also a jealous God. He wants His creation to serve Him and only Him. And, there will be a consequence to pay if we choose not to serve Him. That will come the day we die – as one person said at my granddaughter’s Baccalaureate service last night – we travel one of two ways – the right way or the wrong way – the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life, or the wide road that leads to destruction: hell.

It is that plain and simple. Either America, as a whole, turns back to God, or we have a hard road ahead of us. He said He would send rain on the just and the unjust. And only those who choose to stay with Him through thick and thin, bad times and the good times, will be able to stand with Him eternally. We personally have to decide which way to choose, not follow the politically correct society.

Linked at Conservative Cat

Technorati Tags: America, Christ, God, Destruction, Consequences

Dottie Rambo - Sheltered In The Arms of God

I heard the news about the death of Dottie Rambo yesterday. The Gospel singing industry has surely lost a wonderful singer and one whom you knew loved the Lord. She had just sang in Granite City, which would turn out to be her last appearance.

Calvary Life Pastor Mark Maynard described her death as “a huge loss for the gospel music world,” saying the concert “was a wonderful night of laughter and tears.”

Singing the following song, Dottie talks about the friendship between her and Porter Wagoner who preceded her in death.



Dottie Rambo Bio
List of Dottie's Songs

Technorati Tags: Dottie Rambo, Death

Happy Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to every Mother. Praying each of you had a blessed day. I believe each child is a blessing sent from God above. Each of us has been blessed tremendously from the day we heard that first cry until today.

I believe God equipped Mothers with that inward feeling of love for the child from the moment she conceives. I know I could hardly wait until the birth of my children, to be able to hold and love on them. It's been the same with my grandchildren. There just seems to be an over abundance in a mother's heart and it could only have been put there by the Lord.

Technorati Tags: Mother's Day, Roses, God, Children

Country legend Eddy Arnold dies

Photo from CMT

Eddy Arnold was one of my favorite country singers. And, he left this world today at the age of 89, just days short of his May 15th birthday.

His song, Make the World Go Away, was one of my favorites of all his songs. I don't know of a song he recorded that we didn't like, though.

I had the opportunity to see Eddy Arnold at the Birmingham Auditorium back in the late 70's. He was on the ticket with Floyd Cramer, and Boots Randolph (Yakety Sax). Floyd Cramer passed away in 1997 at the young age of 64. Boots Randolph passed away in 2007 at the age of 80.

The night of the concert, everyone was excited. They were flashing their cameras all over the auditorium, and some right in front of the stage. I think it sort of got to Eddy Arnold, and he stopped singing and asked everyone with a camera who wanted a picture to come up front and he'd let them take one picture. Then, he didn't want to see the flash anymore. Lots of people went up front, and to the surprise of all of us, he told them to get ready, and then turned his back to them. I'm sure it upset lots of fans. I vowed never to go see him again, but it didn't stop me from loving to hear him sing.

He lived in Brentwood, TN, right next to Nashville. We lived there for 5 years in the 1990's, knew where he lived, but never saw him out. He will be missed!

Technorati Tags: Eddy Arnold, Death, Country Singer, Music, Brentwood, Tennessee

Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone

• Romans 8:21, "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
• Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Technorati Tags: Amazing Grace, Chains, Chris Tomlin

Taking pictures

My husband and I got out in the yard this afternoon and I took my camera. We have lilies blooming in the front and I wanted to get a picture. I have a Canon Powershot S3 IS camera with image stabilizer. My hands shake somewhat when I am trying to take a picture and the image stabilizer lets me get some pictures without them appearing fuzzy.

I really enjoy taking pictures of flower, birds, and other animals. I would really like to go to a wildlife or bird sanctuary in Alabama to be able to take some nice bird pictures. We see lots of birds here in our yard, but you have to sit for a long time just waiting on them to appear. And it is not very often that you see a new bird at the feeders.


Yesterday, I made a picture of a rose bush at my Mother's house. It is called Seven Sisters which is a very old rose and was handed down in her family. I was amazed at how many different colors of roses were on the same bush. I suppose that is how it got it's name.



Technorati Tags: Pictures, Camera, Canon Powershot, Lilies, Roses, Seven Sisters