Back again!

I'm back after almost a month off of blogging. I have to admit, I am totally addicted to the "drive thru" connecting agent, Face Book. I jump on and quickly scan the front page to see how all my "friends" are doing and then I jump off. I love it for it's convenience, but like most things in our modern world, it doesn't leave much room for thinking or philosophizing. I really am determined to keep my blog going for that.

A couple of other things have kept me away from my blog site lately. First, Stan and I were able to take an 8 day trip for our anniversary, just the two of us. This is the longest trip we have ever made together and even though I missed the kids like crazy, it was really a good time for us. We spent a couple of days in San Francisco, and the rest of the time in Napa Valley.It was beautiful and the whole trip was perfect. I will post pictures soon.

Since we returned from our trip we have been in the thick of a new school year. Joshua and Bryce are officially high schoolers now, so we have more work and more record keeping to do this year. Lyndsey is doing great so far as well, and Graham is learning to read! It is going to be a busy year!

The final thing that I have been doing, which is really going to be the topic of my post today is keeping up with the election coverage. I have to tell you that just about everything I see or read leaves me pretty much furious! I am really disgusted with the media coverage of this election. I have a degree in journalism. In college, I would have told you that joining the ranks of the elite media was what I "want to be when I grow up." Boy, am I glad that I am not a part of that feeding frenzy! When I was in school we were taught that journalists had to be objective. I spent many hours writing articles on a topic that I had strong personal opinions on, and then getting a grade based on whether or not I had communicated my point objectively. Subjection was only for editorials, we were taught. Even documentaries had to be objective. This was the rule for print media or television - my degree focused on newspaper, periodical, and broadcast journalism. I had to grit my teeth and communicate my point without my personal bias showing through. Apparently, they are teaching things differently these days.

The reporters covering this election make absolutely no effort to hide their feelings about the candidates. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who wins in the eyes of the media. The scary thing about this is that the American people are proving to be as stupid as a flock of sheep, blindly following the most charismatic shepherd where ever he may lead. Really, are we going to vote for someone because Oprah tells us to? Sadly, I think we are.

I think that if I see one more interview with one more liberal woman telling the reporter that Sarah Palin undermines everything that American women want, I am going to scream! (Oh yeah, I have already screamed, I'll have to think of something else!) For the record, this American woman wants someone in the White House that is pro-life, against homosexual marriage, and who stands for the Biblical principles that our nation was founded on - and if statistics are correct the majority of Americans want that too! We just don't happen to be as loud as the minority of liberal voters who are in favor of Hillary Clinton for President.

I also want to make it clear that I am not voting for McCain and Sarah Palin because she is a woman. Quite frankly, I am of the really conservative set of evangelicals that truly believes that a woman's place is at home taking care of her children and supporting her husband. However, I also know that God can not be boxed in, and there are sometimes exceptions. It is not my place to say whether she is an exception or not, that is between God and her. However, the alternative scares me too death! If I was not 100% certain that God is in control of everything and that no one will be put in a place of authority unless He allows it, the outcome of this November election would leave me curled up in a fetal position. We stand on the brink of electing as President of the most powerful country in the world, a man with zero experience, who has risen out of nowhere and touted himself as a "savior." A man with much charisma, yet no substance - who offers us the "hope" of "change" but never tells us how he plans to accomplish it, or exactly what he is going to change. I will concede that there is much in our country that could use some change, but I am very afraid that the things he wants to change are the very things that I hold dear. Such as my right to parent my children the way I see fit, my right to homeschool my children, my right to teach my children that homosexuality is not a birth defect, it is a sin, and my right to tell my children that no one but Jesus Christ is a Savior. These are the things he wants to change, and that frightens me very much.

I did some research on the education reform plans of both McCain and Obama. Now personally, I think the entire term "education reform" is an oxymoron. I think that our education system in America is beyond reform, so I usually don't spend too much time on this topic when I am researching a candidate. As long as that candidate is willing to leave me alone in my choices, that is all I need to know. I know that sounds heartless and I know that many parents will always choose public education. I can't do anything about that, except make it my mission to let parents know that they have a choice. However, this time around, we have a candidate who not only wants to take away my right to choose to educate my children at home (see the United Nations website and read the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child if you don't believe me), but his education reform plan includes throwing more money at the current failing system in the form of "rewards" for failing schools, more Head Start programs for children ages 0-5, and new mother training. Does this sound a little Nazi-ish to anyone but me? More money towards programs for the government to train children ages 0-5?!!! New mother training?!!! Are they going to suggest that we drop our newborns off at the nearest government school on the way home from the hospital? As far as I can tell, mothers seem to have this God-given sense of how to care for their own children. They have been doing it for several thousand years without the need of a government program to "train" them.

I know that the supporters of this type of thing claim that there are parents out there who don't take care of their children properly and who need help. I am not stupid. I know that there are bad parents out there. There are people out there who have children and don't know how to take care of them. There are people out there who have children and don't want to take care of them! However, I will stand by my belief that even though there are bad parents in the world, government intervention is NOT the answer to that problem. We can not continue to add a government program that is supposed to "fix" every social injustice. Then we have socialism. It does NOT take a village to raise a child. The church is called to reach out to a lost and fallen world and I am the first to admit that we are failing the lost and the fallen. We need to be reaching out to young moms and coming alongside them, we need to be fighting the injustices of child pornography and the sex slave trade in this world.

God made a promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 - He said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and heal their land." I accept my share of the blame for the state of our nation and I think that as believers we have to realize that those who snarl and fight and get defensive over what they truly believe "women want" are those who have no idea what true freedom is. They are lashing out at what they perceive to be injustice because they have no idea what it means to be free. God did not expect them to behave any differently, that is why He placed the responsibility for the health of a nation at the feet of His people. We are the only ones who know what it means to be free. A woman who is functioning within her God given nature as a woman is free to be all she was called to be. "Those whom the Son frees, are free indeed."