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How to Protect of Kids from Predators

9/28/2018

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Cosby, Kavanaugh, and Catholic clergy grab the headlines - some convicted, some accused - and I wonder how, in this sex-soaked culture, we can protect our most vulnerable - the kids. The statistics turn my stomach: one in four girls in America is sexually abused before the age of eighteen; among guys it’s one in six. At a seminar on child abuse I attended as a volunteer for an organization, I watched a video interview with a teen perpetrator who spoke blandly of fondling more than 500 children. I could have thrown up.
Who are these abusers? Ninety percent are known to the victims and their families. Only 10 percent are strangers. That means people we know and trust the most - relatives, friends, teachers, coaches - are those to watch most closely that they don’t cross boundaries “accidentally” or surreptitiously.
     But parents aren’t helpless to protect their children, says Margaret M. Ochoa from the Colorado School Safety Resource Center. At the seminar I attended, she said a valuable weapon parents hold is to teach kids correct anatomical terms for their private parts. Instruct them that it’s not okay for people to touch private parts or to display them, she said.
     Armed with this understanding, a child signals to a sex offender that he or she has a close relationship with parents and won’t be groomed easily into a relationship. The predator will realize the child could testify against him using anatomical terms, instead of slang that could be confusing as court testimony, says Ochoa, who is an attorney.
     What are private parts? “Tell them that anything under your swim suit is private parts,” she says.
     For those of us who grew up not using anatomically-correct words, this may make our faces burn, but if it keeps our kids safer, it’s worth it.
     Further information about sexual safety training is available here.

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Would Jesus Jump on My Political Bandwagon?

9/22/2018

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My parents warned me, “Never discuss sex, politics, or religion because they’re explosive.” Alert: I’m talking about two of them here.
     I’m a Christian, I’m thankful to be an American, and like you, I’m concerned about the spiraling down of our culture. That’s why some Christians yearn to make America great again. But would Jesus jump on this bandwagon? Building up a country wasn’t his priority because he declared his realm isn’t in this world. When his supporters sought to make Israel great again by crowning him king, Jesus shunned their efforts. And when offered all the kingdoms of the world, he turned them down.
“Evangelicals claim to follow a Savior who relinquished worldly power,” historian and evangelical John Fea says. “Yet they continue to place their hope in political candidates as a means of advancing an agenda that confuses the kingdom of God with the United States of America.” I’ve done that, too.
In contrast, Jesus’ early followers understood that our primary citizenship is God’s kingdom, while nationality is our secondary citizenship. They perceived that we are aliens and strangers here, and that our hearts should long for God’s heavenly country.
But you say America is an exception because we’re a Christian nation? Evangelical theologian Michael Horton disagrees. “The only Christian nation in the world today is the one gathered ‘from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (Rev. 5:9) to be addressed by its king.” Horton points out that Jesus commissioned his followers “…to proclaim the gospel, not political opinions; to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not in the name of America or a political party; and to teach everything that he delivered, not our own personal and political priorities.”
     Then how should we Christians function as American citizens? I look to Billy Graham here. He learned that aligning himself politically was negative in representing the gospel. Therefore, he warned the religious right not to seek political power. “I came close to identifying the American way of life with the kingdom of God,” he said. “Then I realized that God had called me to a higher kingdom than America.” Graham declared he would no longer be “closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left.”
     For me, this means gratefully exercising my privilege to vote for those I believe will do the best job, while not granting unquestioning loyalty to any politician, party, or platform. Then I’m free to embrace what is right and to call out what is wrong.
Scripture exhorts me to display the fruit of God’s Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - a stark contrast to arrogance I may be tempted to exhibit in my zeal. Therefore, I shouldn’t excuse or applaud lying, bullying, name calling, and mockery from either side of the political spectrum, even when it’s used to advance a goal I support. I am to walk humbly, reflecting God’s heart by seeking justice and mercy for society and wholeness for individuals.
So would Jesus jump on my political bandwagon? I don’t think so. I am to jump on his - a quiet revolution in hearts that leads to a contagious reform in culture.
Interestingly, when we Christians seek first God’s kingdom, we’ll be good Americans, too, by fulfilling our nation’s motto: “In God We Trust.”
***
Image from Clipart Panda with text added.

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Am I a Bad Samaritan?

9/14/2018

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Along our hiking trail we spotted a rickety wheelchair turned over and empty. My husband Duane and I ran toward it and discovered a man on all fours struggling to crawl toward it. He’d tumbled out and spent the night trapped between rocks.
     We lifted him into his chair and asked what we could get him. He motioned to plastic bags scattered in the dirt. “My beer,” he slurred.
     I dug into the torn bags and found jars of peanut butter and jelly, a dirty plastic spoon, and two liters of beer. I handed him a liter, and he cradled it.
     He wanted to get to a 7-Eleven across a busy intersection, so Duane maneuvered him over the six lanes. “You gotta get sober to figure out what to do,” Duane called above the car noise.    “I’m okay.”
     He insisted on going the rest of the way on his own, but we called 9-1-1 to report him. They’d send a paramedic to check.    Confusion ran through me, that helplessness I always feel when I come across someone in poverty and don’t know how to truly help. Am I a Bad Samaritan?
     I remember Charles Spurgeon, who reached out to London’s orphans 150 years ago. How did he make an impact in such overwhelming need? “The repetition of small efforts will accomplish more than the occasional use of great talents,” he said.
  With that in mind, each week I help bag hundreds of sacks of food for children. They receive meals at school. But on weekends, the cupboard may be bare, so we give them food to carry home. I'm confident here that although our small efforts are just a dent in their needs, they still accomplish much.

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What's Eating You?

9/7/2018

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This beetle and his cousins camped out on a lush vine covering our arbor and devoured it like some Biblical plague. Little things have been chewing on me lately, too. Irritations that bug me. Interruptions that chomp holes in my foliage. I finally slowed down enough to run a diagnostic on what’s eating me: I haven’t been nourishing myself with enough pure and simple quiet time.
     I remember a song by John Fischer that claims we’re made to live a still life. A life “quiet enough to notice what is important,” Fischer says. Don’t we all long for that?
     Is anything gnawing on you, too? Then let’s search for some green pastures to rest in, some still waters to drink from, even if they're only in our imaginations in the corner of our living rooms.
     My thanks to Fischer, who posted “Still Life” here . The lyrics follow:

Still life…
We were always meant to live a still life,
But somehow we got trapped into the fast life--
The cast life--
Where everyone plays a part.

You lose yourself in the fast life,
In the fast pace of the rat race,
Where no one knows who you are
And nobody cares.
If there really is a God,
And He has something to say,
We would never hear it
’Cause the noise is in the way.

Still life…
We were always meant to live a still life
Where everyone can see our real life.
Be still and know who is God.

Our arbor in better times and now chewed up.

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Croutons...
Chew on these seasoned bits of life for a little hope and humor along your highway.

JOIN ME ~ I’ll send brief, occasional posts to lighten your backpack. We're on this journey together.

How to Protect of Kids from Predators

Would Jesus Jump on My Political Bandwagon?

Am I a Bad Samaritan?

What's Eating You?

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