Anyone in the education system as head the phrase "separation of Church and state" uttered until they can barely stomach those 8 syllables. Note that this was term coined after the Constitution - those words appear nowhere in our frame yet they are a mantra for those afraid of the conviction the Holy Spirit might bring and the power that God Almight will wrought throughout our country.
However, the First Ammendement does say:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . ."
The intent: No State Church. They had experienced that in England. They had seen people die and disappear for disagreement with the State Church.
The irony: in "protecting" us with separation of church and state they have often prohibited "the free exercise thereof!"
But do we have a State Religion?
I think so.
History has taught us that National Pride often comes from having a common enemy. It has been England, it has been Germany, it has been Russian and was exercised during the Cold War - we knew who the enemy was and we were going after him!
Yet, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War growing warmer, who has become the enemy?
Mankind.
Society can't blame God - there are too many for the all-encompassing to choose from and, for the atheist, they would have to acknowledge the existence of a Creator.
Society can't accept Grace - they would have to acknowledge God. Still.
So they blame themselves.
And the name of this new religion? Environmentalism.
It's State Color? Green.
And's Motto? Global Warming! Climate Change!
Their High Priest? Al Gore.
Their aim? Global Control.
Control of what? You name! They declare everything "environmentally unfriendly" and accounce it should be regulated! Oil, Gas, Industry - even Education!!
So where are you worshiping?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Troop 1568 in ABQ
Ashley's Girl Scout Troop went to Albuquerque, NM for 3 days in June. It was their own special camp - Hotel Suites, Pool Time, the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Discovery Museum
and dinner at a nice restaurant.
We had a blast!
Shooting Pics at the Zoo
Music fun at the Discovery Museum
Night on the Town!
Peacocks - love 'em!
"Who brought all these Girls?"Summer Piano Recital
Ashley's Summer Piano Recital - June 28, 2009
Our Lovely Little Miss
Mrs. Gurzick - Teacher, Troop Leader, Mentor and Friend
Kayle and AshleyKayle is Ashley's encourager - urging her to try everything!
Camping, Music, Reading and Hiking!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Passion for Life
After a conversation with DW this week, I'm seeing a clearer picture of my passion. A passion which uses my gifts and feeds a dream.
So what is that Passion? The Arts and Families
The Arts - talking about this gets me excited! I lean to the edge of my seat! I talk fast! Ideas flood my mind! So cool to have this realization. (Okay, I hear all the "duhs!" out there!) How cool to have an Arts Festival centered around Christ? Music, Drama, Painting, Photography - you name it!
The Family - Christ loves the family. His blood creates a family. We are brothers and sisters, who are adopted into his family and we cry, "ABBA! DADDY! " If a family is destroyed, lives are as well. This is where my desire to be a Chaplain in Pediatrics comes from. Families with ill children experience divorce at an exponential rate of families with healthy children.
It is so exciting to see what God is doing in my life! (I often speak of "Our" life - but as much as I love families - my family in particular - I realize that God loves ME! The Individual. Kim!)
What's God developing in you? What is your Passion for Life?
So what is that Passion? The Arts and Families
The Arts - talking about this gets me excited! I lean to the edge of my seat! I talk fast! Ideas flood my mind! So cool to have this realization. (Okay, I hear all the "duhs!" out there!) How cool to have an Arts Festival centered around Christ? Music, Drama, Painting, Photography - you name it!
The Family - Christ loves the family. His blood creates a family. We are brothers and sisters, who are adopted into his family and we cry, "ABBA! DADDY! " If a family is destroyed, lives are as well. This is where my desire to be a Chaplain in Pediatrics comes from. Families with ill children experience divorce at an exponential rate of families with healthy children.
It is so exciting to see what God is doing in my life! (I often speak of "Our" life - but as much as I love families - my family in particular - I realize that God loves ME! The Individual. Kim!)
What's God developing in you? What is your Passion for Life?
Monday, June 15, 2009
Memory Box Monday
Memory Box Monday was started by my friend (who tends to start many trends on the Blogging trail!). I've always loved the idea.
At Thanksgiving, I put out a box with paper and people would write things they were thankful for and put in the box and on Thanksgiving Day we read them all. My Fall Spin on the Memory Box.
I've been putting off my own Box - too busy, not the right box, what would I put it in it? You know the procrastinations - you've done 'em too!
While in T-town I was looking for my friend a specific miniature for her Memory Box when I came across a package of two little babies - one wrapped in blue, the other in pink - and I thought of my precious blessings. I bought them. Brought them home. And tonight I put them in a special box. It's a box my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas when he was about 14 years old.
(I love my brother-in-law in my heart. He's a good man. He loves his wife and kids and have always been proud to call him "brother!" Okay, his 7-8 th grade years were tough, but we all survived.)
Back to the box. I've always had this box on my dresser. Sometimes it held jewelry, most recently it was home to the calculator. But now it holds my Memorials.
Two little babies. Two babies the doctors said we'd never had. Two little babies that were not supposed to exist! My babies!
And one little cross. David was given a cross like this on his first Father's Day. Chris was just a few weeks old then. My mother was responsible for gifts for Father's that year and she gave them all little Cross-in-your-pockets. David has carried his every day since then. Then two weeks ago, it was lost at the soccer tournament. He was a little distressed when he called to ask if I had found it in the hotel room. I didn't but I knew where to get another one!
In Tulsa, I bought one to replace his lost treasure, and another for my box - to remember that Christ has always been the center of our family. And He will always be - we will serve the Lord!
So there begins my own Memory Box Monday!
At Thanksgiving, I put out a box with paper and people would write things they were thankful for and put in the box and on Thanksgiving Day we read them all. My Fall Spin on the Memory Box.
I've been putting off my own Box - too busy, not the right box, what would I put it in it? You know the procrastinations - you've done 'em too!
While in T-town I was looking for my friend a specific miniature for her Memory Box when I came across a package of two little babies - one wrapped in blue, the other in pink - and I thought of my precious blessings. I bought them. Brought them home. And tonight I put them in a special box. It's a box my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas when he was about 14 years old.
(I love my brother-in-law in my heart. He's a good man. He loves his wife and kids and have always been proud to call him "brother!" Okay, his 7-8 th grade years were tough, but we all survived.)
Back to the box. I've always had this box on my dresser. Sometimes it held jewelry, most recently it was home to the calculator. But now it holds my Memorials.
Two little babies. Two babies the doctors said we'd never had. Two little babies that were not supposed to exist! My babies!
And one little cross. David was given a cross like this on his first Father's Day. Chris was just a few weeks old then. My mother was responsible for gifts for Father's that year and she gave them all little Cross-in-your-pockets. David has carried his every day since then. Then two weeks ago, it was lost at the soccer tournament. He was a little distressed when he called to ask if I had found it in the hotel room. I didn't but I knew where to get another one!
In Tulsa, I bought one to replace his lost treasure, and another for my box - to remember that Christ has always been the center of our family. And He will always be - we will serve the Lord!
So there begins my own Memory Box Monday!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thunderstorms
Since moving to Colorado, the one weather event I have missed is morning thunderstorms. Some that last all day. The dark clouds that roll in, lightning that suprises you and thunder that rolls over the Oklahoma hills like an ocean wave. The dark blue of the sky makes the lush green landscape even more vibrant like a child just colored them with a fresh crayon. There is no wind, a stillness that, at first, is erie, yet brings a peace that is filled with expectation.
God has blessed my last morning here with just such a storm. I'm sitting at the kitchen table at my in-laws house. Everyone else has left to get dressed for the day. It's quiet and I have a cup of joe (not Joe's though!) and my computer and can look out the breakfast room windows at the approaching rain.
I am constantly amazed at the lessons God teaches through His world - if we look and we listen. These hills are the setting of many Storms in my life. Yet greater are the many wonders I have seen! And the peace He has always given me. As this storm approaches, there is the expectation of rain. Something will happen today. But there is also the knowledge that after the rain, the sun will shine and warm us again, plants will grow stronger, and the lightning will have cleared the air with his mighty electrical charges.
We all look forward to the end of storms. The knowledge that we survived! Yet, maybe we grow greater in grace when we recognize the coming of a storm and the potential for seeing God's hand at work - and we are excited! There is an expectation of great things to come! Instead of "what's going to happen next?" we begin to ask, "how is God going to show himself mighty today?"
Okay, I'm not praying for storms - I've had my share. And in Oklahoma, there's dark clouds often bring tornadoes, something I really hate. We've prayer for God to move many tornadoes from our home - and He has (I'll write about that sometime) time and time again. But if I have learned anything this week, it's to be in this moment. Not looking back - that can't be changed. Not dreading the future - it will come no matter what I do. But living right now.
The wind is now picking up, the sky is almost black and the the wind has arrived. Windows are rattling a bit, but in the house, we're okay. We're safe.
Today's storm reminds me, "Kim, you have never been out of my care. No matter what blows your way - I am bigger. I am Lord of the storm. You are my child and I will not let it overtake you!"
Stay in God's hands today. Let the storm blow around you, but not through you. And stand with expectation knowing that above the clouds, the sun still shines!
Love to all my friends and family. You make each moment so special. Each storm passable. Each day a delight.
God has blessed my last morning here with just such a storm. I'm sitting at the kitchen table at my in-laws house. Everyone else has left to get dressed for the day. It's quiet and I have a cup of joe (not Joe's though!) and my computer and can look out the breakfast room windows at the approaching rain.
I am constantly amazed at the lessons God teaches through His world - if we look and we listen. These hills are the setting of many Storms in my life. Yet greater are the many wonders I have seen! And the peace He has always given me. As this storm approaches, there is the expectation of rain. Something will happen today. But there is also the knowledge that after the rain, the sun will shine and warm us again, plants will grow stronger, and the lightning will have cleared the air with his mighty electrical charges.
We all look forward to the end of storms. The knowledge that we survived! Yet, maybe we grow greater in grace when we recognize the coming of a storm and the potential for seeing God's hand at work - and we are excited! There is an expectation of great things to come! Instead of "what's going to happen next?" we begin to ask, "how is God going to show himself mighty today?"
Okay, I'm not praying for storms - I've had my share. And in Oklahoma, there's dark clouds often bring tornadoes, something I really hate. We've prayer for God to move many tornadoes from our home - and He has (I'll write about that sometime) time and time again. But if I have learned anything this week, it's to be in this moment. Not looking back - that can't be changed. Not dreading the future - it will come no matter what I do. But living right now.
The wind is now picking up, the sky is almost black and the the wind has arrived. Windows are rattling a bit, but in the house, we're okay. We're safe.
Today's storm reminds me, "Kim, you have never been out of my care. No matter what blows your way - I am bigger. I am Lord of the storm. You are my child and I will not let it overtake you!"
Stay in God's hands today. Let the storm blow around you, but not through you. And stand with expectation knowing that above the clouds, the sun still shines!
Love to all my friends and family. You make each moment so special. Each storm passable. Each day a delight.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Summer Time
Summer in Oklahoma means humidity. And lush green vegetation.
And certain smells - hot asphalt after rain, a certain musty smell after the rain, the flowering trees.
Smells are the strongest memory triggers.
I remember fishing on the banks of the creek with my Grandparents. Catching fireflies in the dim light and putting them in canning jars to have "flashlights." Laying in bed at night so hot you couldn't sleep, listening to the crickets chirp outside and praying for a breeze!
Beautiful memories.
And certain smells - hot asphalt after rain, a certain musty smell after the rain, the flowering trees.
Smells are the strongest memory triggers.
I remember fishing on the banks of the creek with my Grandparents. Catching fireflies in the dim light and putting them in canning jars to have "flashlights." Laying in bed at night so hot you couldn't sleep, listening to the crickets chirp outside and praying for a breeze!
Beautiful memories.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Not Our Home
Only two days into our trip here in Oklahoma, and I am very much missing our mountains and our mountain family in Durango.
I love being with my family. Jacob and Addyson have grown so much! What a precious neice and nephew we have been given! Keith and Cade were excited to see us last night and Kelli is pregnant and happy (think PINK!). Mom is good and I'm able to help around her house with some little projects and still visit with friends. This entire county holds memories that built the life we have now.
Yet this is no longer my home. Home is Durango. I love so many people in both places. How can one's heart be so torn?
This is where God teaches us, "this world is not your home!" We are strangers in a strange land (had God been to a Durango festival when he wrote this?).
What is home? A place? A feeling?
Last night, I was asked if my parents being ministers and often moving made me feel like I had no home. "Goodness no!" I replied, "it taught me that home is not made of a building but those who occupy the four walls."
But is that true? Our earthly Home is only for now. Our Heavenly Home is Forever! And the only thing we can take with us to that home is ourselves and the relationships we have made.
Relationships! That's home! The people! Not the things. Not the place. But the people we love.
I love being with my family. Jacob and Addyson have grown so much! What a precious neice and nephew we have been given! Keith and Cade were excited to see us last night and Kelli is pregnant and happy (think PINK!). Mom is good and I'm able to help around her house with some little projects and still visit with friends. This entire county holds memories that built the life we have now.
Yet this is no longer my home. Home is Durango. I love so many people in both places. How can one's heart be so torn?
This is where God teaches us, "this world is not your home!" We are strangers in a strange land (had God been to a Durango festival when he wrote this?).
What is home? A place? A feeling?
Last night, I was asked if my parents being ministers and often moving made me feel like I had no home. "Goodness no!" I replied, "it taught me that home is not made of a building but those who occupy the four walls."
But is that true? Our earthly Home is only for now. Our Heavenly Home is Forever! And the only thing we can take with us to that home is ourselves and the relationships we have made.
Relationships! That's home! The people! Not the things. Not the place. But the people we love.
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