Great moments in parenting.

My daughter asked me the other day "Daddy, do you think the earth is young, or is it billions of years old?"
"It's billions of years old." I said, "Only wackos think the earth is young."
She says, "I think the earth is young."
"Why?" I said.
"Because the Bible doesn't say it's old." says she.
"That's wacko." I said. She walks away, done talking to me.
"The Bible is not a science book!" I call out.
"Whatever." she says.


How did I do? (sheepish grin... :-)

Google Blogger

Now that I migrated my Blog over to the new Blogger platform, that is run though Google, my UTube account is hopelessly screwed up. So now, and possibly forever, I can't post videos to my blog from UTube. I've tried everything I can think of. Small loss, I guess.

Pissed

It drives me nuts that nearly every time I buy something it's ,"What is your phone number." or "What is your zip code." And if you try to return something, it's "What is your phone number, and address, and zip code." I'm not in the habit of giving my phone number out to strangers. It pisses me off. If I have my item and receipt, that should be enough.
Some times I tell them I'm a spy and the information is classified. Other times I ask for there address, and phone number. Usually I just refuse. But in some cases they decline to do business w/o the personal info. There ought to be a law.

NFL Notes

Thanks for the thoughts/comments on forgiveness. I just haven't got on here sooner to say so.

Anyhow, this should be a great football day. I don't watch much pro ball but do like the playoffs.
I'll pull for both underdogs. The Colts have a tough day ahead to get by NE once and for all. Manning and the Colts are a class act. I'd like to see them pull it off. And I'm backing the Bears for no other reason that I lived in Chicago for awhile when I was a kid.

Tulsa is ending our ice storm/winter blitz. We basically lost a week...or gained one, depending how you look at it. Tomorrow it's back to the routine.

The hard part....more about forgiveness.

The hardest thing to me in following Christ is forgiveness. Contempt, the opposite of forgiveness, sneaks up on me. Sometimes it's from events long ago, and I have to revisit them and extend mercy to those I felt did me wrong. The first time I heard about forgiving parents was from a preacher/teacher. (Gary Delashmutt) During a teaching, he said, "if you refuse to forgive your parents you will never be truly free". There is a girl in my neighborhood who was sexually abused by her own father. She is bitter and her personal life is a mess. But when I talk to her I see this same need. She needs to forgive her father. That will be the hardest thing she ever does, and it will release her from her demons...truly.
That reminds me of another aspect of this. Forgiveness does not mean you are saying something is OK. Child abuse is not OK. This guy still needs to go to prison, and should not be around this girl, maybe ever.
Forgiveness means we are personally letting the violator off. We personally write off the debt. This is an important subject for me. I see it as key to a great deal. I pray the Lords prayer everyday. I paraphrase it so it won't get dry. It is a brilliant prayer model. In it..."forgive me for my sins, and I forgive those who have sinned against me...and I provide detail. It is the hardest thing.
(Leave a comment...do you agree, or disagree?)

The basic problem in the world is....

Contempt....
And the answer is forgiveness. There are other problems. In fact isolation, like The Pentagons New Map asserts is a problem that is unrelated in many (not all) ways to contempt, so I am not disagreeing with Dr. Bennett. Contempt is solved by forgiveness. It is the root cause of most, if not all problems. Dallas Willard discusses this in "The Divine Conspiracy" (another Sean book recommend/is there a pattern here?)
It is an intensely personal thing, as well as a corporate one. Children; which includes all of us, need to forgive our parents for not being the perfect superheros we hoped they would be (as well as for their sins). We need to forgive spouses, and friends, and even strangers. We all need copious amounts of mercy. And we need to give it.

Wandering Thoughts

I'm reading The Pentagons New Map, by Tom Barnett. He is some think tank guy in the government. Sean, who comments here a lot (thanks for the comments Sean!) works for him and recommended the book. I've really enjoyed the read. He spells out the worlds security problems from a different point of view. He integrates globalization, and economic clout with the problems of isolation, terror and national security. He is able to show how, when, and why we end up in situations like Iraq. What intrigues me most is how he distills the problems of humanity to a basic few. It got me thinking, what is the basic problem for humanity? Is it poverty, or lack of education, isolation, or religion? Sure these are all problems, but what if I had to choose one? Hmmm. Dr. Barnett argues that the basic problem is isolation. Very compelling; however, I still need to finish the book. Could there be a problem more basic than isolation? Could it be a spiritual problem? Is that to ethereal? Like I said...wandering thoughts.

The last of the bragging...

I get started with bragging on one kid...then I think everyone needs equal time. So...
Max received the Principals Award at school!! (This is not the kid who was sent to the principals the most times, no.) It is a leadership award. I'm very happy for him. It's funny, I see he's a leader, and so does his school, but he doesn't see it. Maybe it's from being the youngest. I don't know.

How about that opening kick off return!

Well, the Bucks got mauled. But the opening kick return, now that was something.
It's only a game, right?
I wonder if I jinxed this thing. At dinner I told my family we would substitute the evening prayer with our family singing the Ohio State fight song. (A kind of "repeat after me" thing.)
Maybe God didn't appreciate that. Just kidding, of course...except about the song.

Buckeyes #1 ?

It looks like the line will be 8 pts or so . I think it will be more one sided than that myself. No one has been able to stop Ohio States offence this year. Michigan was supposed to have the top D in the country when they played the Bucks, and OSU walked all over them. Michigan might be over rated given their bowl outcome, but still. Troy Smith is getting touted as one of the best quarter backs in Buckeye history. Top 5 at least, maybe top 3. Florida is a popular media team, so they are getting over hyped. This is the most confident I've been before a big Buckeye game since I was in college and they played USC in the Rose Bowl!
They lost that game.... :-)

There's only one!

"The Sun" magazine had an article on Bruce Springsteen this month, and I got his 1975 live CD for Christmas. Maybe it's a comeback.

Bragging

My little girl made All American Scholar! I'm proud of her, and shes gonna kill me when she sees this.

Odds and Ends

The tree is down, and the decorations stored away. Now tomorrow it's back to work. Christmas was nice. One of my gifts was a Springsteen CD, live in London (1975). It's fantastic, Yeah, I'm showing my age, but I'd recommend it to anyone. Very high energy stuff.
The Big Ten did alright in bowls yesterday, with the notable exception of Michigan. They just didn't come to play. They are a better team than that. The Fiesta bowl was the best game of all although OU will never live down the loss...well, not for a long time.
I saved a video copy of the Saddam hanging. I don't know why, and I'll probably delete it since it is disgusting. It's an uncensored look inside Iraqi political life. There is no order, or security. It looks like a mob lynching. Pathetic. And I think it speaks volumes, nothing good.
Last, another Christmas gift was an Ohio State neon sign! I'll have in the front window on the 8th. Go Bucks!