The Ones about...Stuff Archives - Page 2 of 4

Every 24 Hours…

April 4, 2012 by Jules 6 Comments

EVERY 24 HOURS…

17, 297 students get suspended from school
7,883 students are reported abused or neglected
4, 248 students get arrested
2,861 students drop out of school
1,329 babies are born to teen moms
367 student are arrested for drug abuse
180 students are arrested for violent crimes
9 students are victims of homicide
5 students commit suicide
1 student dies of HIV infection

*based on calculations per school day (180 days of seven hours each) C Children’s Defense Fund
via Barry St. Clair’s “Jesus focused youth ministry”.

Yes, we know these are horrible stats but what are we going to do about it. We don’t need more programs. We don’t need more punishments. We need more relationships; Relationships that mean something; Relationships that are not manipulative but intentional; Relationships that lead to THE relationship with Christ. Not just to change behavior but to change the belief systems that affect actions. We don’t need a better acting world. We need a world transformed by the love of Christ fleshed out in His followers who trust His guidelines for a healthier, safer, fulfilling life.

What are you doing with your 24 hours?

Filed Under: The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The Ones about...Stuff

Thank You!

November 24, 2011 by Jules Leave a Comment

God has blessed me so much in the past 9 months with the opportunity to vent, share, encourage, or just blog out into this space we call the Internet. I just wanted to say I'm thankful for You! Yep, YOU!!!

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for participating.

Thank you for praying.

Thank you for just clicking round and going on this journey with me!!!

How was your thanksgiving? Please share! I love hearing from your side of the net ;o)

And your thoughts Julie? {on Homosexuality}

September 22, 2011 by Jules Leave a Comment

This post came about in a response to a post my Sarah Mae {please read here}.

As a Christ follower, I believe that the entire Bible is the word of God and therefore I attempt to line all my believes, convictions, and {inevitably dictated} action up with the Bible. That being said...
The Bible always list homosexuality alongside other sins. So I believe the Act of homosexuality is a sin. I also believe that, like any other sin, some people are more pron to be tempted with certain sins than other people (possibly 'born' with it). {Satan is not creative; he finds something that works and sticks with it.} Again like any other sin, having homosexual thoughts (if not lustful) is not an act of sin.
We, "Christians", quickly excuse away 'simple sins', ya know the ones that aren't as bad as so-n-sos.

lying- "I just told a little white lie"
materialism- "Well, I needed ______"
or plain old disobedience- "I'm not called to _____".

Unlike this list of other sins we do seem to shy away from discussing other "gray sins" like homosexuality because they baffle us. Fewer people in the past admitted to this sin so we think those in the minority sinful category must be worse than those in the majority. "Just because everyone's doing it doesn't make it right" or better or less wrong or okay. Ignorance is often the key to any sin, in this case our hatred of 'gays' or the stark contrast which is still a sin and that's assistance of 'gay' action. As Christians we are to

"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Tim 2:22

Fellow Christians should be helping one another "FLEE" these desires that lead to pits of sin if not handled.

Sin is sin, no matter what kind, it land us all in the same place {hell} if not saved by Grace Himself! Christ did not pay the ultimate price for us so that we can go on sinning. I love where Paul talks about this in Romans ch 5 and 6!

"20 God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" Romans 5:20-6:2 NLT

{Read the entire context here to get an even better picture}

Romans 6:2 in our translation says, "Of course not!" in its original Greek language has the same emphatic tone as saying "HELL NO!" according to my friend and Greek scholar. Paul wasn't playing around! Jesus lived as one of us and knows we sin. We are 'born' with a sin nature. Jesus didn't shy away from that. "Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin.'" John 8:11.

We are to love people. I agree with Sarah Mae when she says "Just, listen. Let’s start there." Time is the best way you can love people. Don't avoid something/someone because of your ignorance about it/them. Educate Yourself!

~~~

I pray all my views represent Christ and His word. If you feel (and can give me scriptural backing) that something I've said is wrong; PLEASE tell me so I can correct myself.
I am interested to have a discussion here about this topic. Thoughts; Christian or otherwise are welcome? Comments are monitored before "approval" so please keep it clean.

Filed Under: The Ones about...Stuff

Awe, the memories they made

June 13, 2011 by Jules Leave a Comment

Memories...good, bad, awkward, fun, silly, painful, deep- all have a special place in God's perfect, absolute, complete, flawless plan!
This past weekend, my family and I took a trek up to Fayetteville to hang out with my parents, niece and nephew for a couple of days. After the tasking of simply (hehe) getting packed and out-of-town the adventure began! Traveling with a potty training (almost) 3-year-old, a napping 1.5-year-old and nursing 5 month old while was a task; attempting to keep everyone from melting down by stopping for 3 potty breaks, grab a snack which was then tossed with happy meal toy (that had been collecting in a bucket) to the back of the van over our bags, stroller, and stuff- 4 hours later we arrived right on time for their bed time. But we still needed to eat dinner and get in some Much needed play time with the cousins! We all met the chicken's and ducks the grandparents bought at Easter time in honor of all the grandkids. The girls played with naked barbies and chased remote control trucks. We attempted to set up camp with our three little ones who are very set in a routine. Maggie's sharing a bed with someone for the 1st time. Izzie was scared to sleep in a room with her cousin in a strange new place. Jamin passed smooth out from exhaustion never to be heard from again until 6:30 a.m. Poppie ran to get a pillow to lay with Izzie until she went to sleep. And night 1 was over.

After a long night of trying to keep everyone in their beds we woke up EARLY. The day was packed with tons more playing, grocery shopping, lunch at Chick-fil-A (AMAZING every time!) and my mom and I got ready for the party (that's what we call any gathering with food and friends).

Party'n with family was fun. Catching up, telling stories, eating steaks, mac-n-cheese, and duck booty cupcakes, snapping pictures, and laughing!

(these pics of the girls were captured by my cousin Lisa- THX!)

El Shaddai showed up this weekend- my God is all-sufficient!

Filed Under: Being a Help-Meet, Parenting, The Ones about...Stuff Tagged With: chickens, cousins, dinner, ducks, El Shaddai, exhaustion, kids, memories, perfect plan, sleep, sleepover, travel, trucks

Kid’s Book Club

June 7, 2011 by Jules Leave a Comment

Yesterday, the kiddos and I went to the White Hall (or any) public library for the 1st time! A friend from our amazing Sunday school class met me there with her 3 kids and showed me the ropes. While her 3 and Mags ran into the children's section and peered of rows and rows of books, Leann and I signed up our kids for the summer book club where you read 10 books with your toddler/preschooler per week to get their name in a drawing and I got my 1st library card. Don't get me wrong, I've used my mom's as a child but after heading to college there was no need, hello- college campus library. After a full card of info, a failed attempt at using my driver's licence as a form or ID/verification of where I live, another failed attempt at using junk mail for verification, and 3 references later, I had my card! After all the paper work the adventure began.
I'd forgotten how much fun a library can be. Endless amounts of books. Shelves of movies. Desks full of computers. My reader (loves to look at and have books read to her), Maggie was in HEAVEN! My non-reader (squirmy worm, look at the book when I feel like it), Izzie loved it because their were bigger kids there, a riser for children to sit and read on (she climbed) and a Giant Clifford dog for hugging! Great place! Angel, my friend's oldest, had been walking Mags up and down the ales of books telling her all about them and showing her just a few favs. I then got to show Maggie her section trying to give a simple explanation of how all of this world of wonder worked. She then got to get a 'shopping' basket from the front desk and select 10 books to check out for the week. What books did she pick you ask? 9 Curious George books and 1 called Aaron's Hair. She has been a huge fan of that "silly little monkey" for a long while now but these books are a little different from the movies and small board books we have at home.
When we got home and began reading them I noticed a basic plot in every one of the CG books- George disobeys the Man in the Yellow hat, makes some really bad choices followed by one good choise, and ends up walking home a hero with no repercussions. WHAT? I'm sorry but that's the opposite of what I'm trying to teach my children day in and day out. If that wasn't snareled-nose enough; Aaron's Hair is about a boy who has hard to manage hair which leads him to one day tell it, "HAIR! I HATE YOU!" HUH? I continued reading after trying to skim past that part attempting to excuse it. The hair jumps off the boy's head and proceeds to run all over town where it tries to grown on other people in random places on their body. Aaron, in an attempt to get his hair back, keeps instructing these individuals, "tell the hair you don't like it" which leads the people to yell, HAIR! I HATE YOU!" When I realized this would be the theme of each encounter I no longer read the words I just quickly went through each page talking about where the hair was going/doing. The only reason I kept reading was to get to the end where there would obviously be a moral...you guessed it- NOPE!
This adventure (which we will continue to journey through despite this rough week of book selection) has taught me once again that no matter how beneficial, fun, memorable an activity with my child it will always demand my discernment as a Christian parent. I let my guard down. This is such a "good" place and reading is such a healthy thing, I thought to myself. You should never expect godly behavior, ideals, or basic lifestyle out of something/someone who is not a Christ follower (and even more scary, some who hold the name Christian). God has entrusted me with these amazing little blessings. I am responsible for what they are exposed to, taught, and even their actions at this age. It's a high calling; with blessings, fun, laughs, miracles, joy, but not without tears, exhaustion, aches, stress, and LOTS of mistakes hopefully followed by learning. We will check out all kinds of books and use each one to have discussions about the chooses, language, attitudes, etc good or bad, that comes up in that time.