EXTINCTION...

I was recently sitting in the car waiting for a friend as she picked up her little ones from daycare. I sat and watched a group of 20 or so little tykes all playing in the confines of a little fenced in playground. They ranged in age but the majority were between 2-3 years old. at first i thought of how cute they were and then i was struck with sadness. Here in this fenced area being cared for and fed by strangers were our future. Not unlike the endangered animals in a zoo our children are also endangered.

The values and morals of our youth are in jeopardy. I did some research online and was looking for news articles involving youth. In 2008 the top ten headlines involving our kids were related to school shootings, drunk driving and kids being arrested for a variety of offences from trafficking narcotics, videotaping teens beating another teen, and gang violence. I searched then for top headlines from the the 40's and 50's, the articles involving youth were scarce the ones i did come across involved sports, the occasional rowdy crowd loitering around, screaming trying to glimpse a famous musician and one or two in regards to truancy levels.

This saddens my heart. Since the days of stay at home moms, bread winning men, and God in our schools has passed on, it has made way to divorces, single parents having to work, feminism and the need for over crowed daycare facilities. This has transformed our teens futures in to a bleak reminence of social morality.

our mothers instead of marching there kids back to the store they stole from and demanding the owner make them work it off are now covering up for them and making excuses so they don't have to deal with it right before there shift starts.
instead of taking pride in preparing a meal and eating as a family we are ordering out and watching TV. pushing the ever important conversation out the window to make way for more reality TV, instead of taking interest in our families we choose to watch someone elses on the screen.

Juvenile detention facilities are reaching there max and new ones are being constructed as we speak to house all our misguided and neglected youth. Just as the Siberian Tiger is pushed to extinction due to our over consumption of the worlds natural habitats our teens are being pushed to self destructive extinction due to our under consumption of all the things we are meant to be doing. Our youth need to be heard, fed, talked to, nurtured, disciplined and loved. God said

• "Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul." - Proverbs 29:17


• " Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged." - Colossians 3:21


• "The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction." - Proverbs 16:21


• "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." - Proverbs 3:3


• "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.' And he worshiped the LORD there." - 1 Samuel 1:27-28


• "children are a gift of the Lord..." Ps. 127:1-5


• "poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline" - Prov. 13:18


• "discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death" - Prov. 19:18


• "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Prov. 22:6


• "fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." - Eph. 6:4

Everyone always says i wish kids came with an instruction manual... well guess what? they did... It is called the Bible, it was given to us as an instruction manual to life. There are many more references in the Bible pertaining to child rearing, being good wives and husbands, how to live each day for our Saviour and most importantly how to get to be saved! If you haven't read it you should, all the answers to lifes toughest questions can be found there.

Lets get our world back on track and save our youth from the devastating effects of extinction! pick up the BOOK today it WILL save your childs life!!!!

with many prayers for our future,

Leanne

Church... or something like it!

~ I had the pleasure of meeting a new couple this week who are searching for God, answers and a church. I invited the couple to attend a service at my church so they could see if they liked it. I was asked to give a small testimony at this study (where we met) and much to my own surprise found my self talking about how important church was to me. i have always been the one to tell people " I am a firm believer that you don't need church to be a Christian" which you don't as long as you don't forsake the meeting together in His name. Well until i started talking and sharing i didn't realize just how important my church was to me.

I started to talk about how i was saved at an Alpha Meeting some 6 years ago and how since then i had been nurtured and cared for spiritually by some members of our congregation. How the Sunday Services helped to keep my focus on Him not me during the following week. How my church was an extended family. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Some feel like parents and grand-parents, imparting wisdom, others like wacky younger siblings whom i try to mother, but all in all they are my family. God says that when we come to Him and accept Jesus as our saviour the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us making us part of the family. Nickey Gumbel - who does the Alpha videos - says when we are "saved" we are adopted by God and into His family of infinite believers. Wow, i have a big family!

So while you may not NEED church to be a Christian i would have to say that being a Christian would not be the same without it. God wanted us to gather together in His name, to worship, praise and teach. A building does not a church make. whether you are in a house, an old victorian church, a modern warehouse style building, a school gym or as in the picture above shows an inflatable church for mobile services (*smile*) it is not the building that matters. God is in it if we are. A church is any group of believers whose purpose is to love, teach, comfort, make disciples and spread the gospel, and i would not want to make this journey without the love, support and guidance of my church family.

Father, I praise your name and thank you earnestly for adopting me into your family. For gifting me with a body of believers that i can call on. Thank you for the support of other Christians. Please put it on my heart Lord to BE the example i have SEEN, to others who are searching for a family or may be just signing the adoption papers now. I pray your blessing on all my family in all the world today and always. In Jesus name, Amen

Praising his name

Leanne

Lots of cathing up to do!

Ever have one of those incredibly long weeks that seems to last for months? well mine actually did! The last post i made was in January. there was snow up to your knees, it was bitter and cold. now the sun is out, it is warming up and a new season has begun. with that has come a new phase in my life. It is like i went to bed one evening in January and woke up to a new season, month, week, life!

Many things have happened, some i am well peased with and some that were a bit hard to swallow. My beautiful daughter is fully recovered and doing fantastic, My son is starting to buckle down in school and is pulling off some great grades, my extremly talented and ever humble nephew has recorded for the first time with his band, i am so proud of him. he really underestimates his ability. I have decided to close my store... *sigh* the last day was last week. I have been incredibly busy getting everything finalized but am nearly done now. as a result of this my sister and i are finding more time to spend with eachother, something i missed terribly. We recently found some old letters at a farm i am helping to renovate, they are very interesting pieces of history. check her blog to read them, she has posted what we have found so far. http://allofmydays-liisa.blogspot.com/ It is truly facinating.

With this new found "time" I have on my hands; now that i am not at the shop 12 hours a day has showed me what i have been missing at home this last 2 years. My kids! i missed being a mom first. It was always, "but i have to do the books", or "there is a big sale coming up i need to plan", "my customers need me". i was not prioritizing like God wanted me too. They are both teens now and this is probably the most important time for them to need me around. this is when all the BIG life decitions come into play with regaurds to peer presure, drugs, sex... the list goes on. They need my guidance now more than ever. With a little shove in the right direction from my wonderful Saviour, I have embarked on a wild new ride, motherhood. I am going to take a month off work to get a new relationship renewed with my kids and then get back at it. as a single mom i can't just not work again, someone needs to provide. but in the future i will be picking a job that allows me to be here for them not just in my heart but in every way. Thank you God for showing me, (against my will at first) that there are way more important things in this life than running a shop that caters to everyone but those who need me most. I have my life back and i am so ready to start living it! Let all things that have breath praise your name Lord!

God Bless

Isaiah 41:10