WOUND REOPENED

Your birthday is coming up. I do not cry as often, and when I do, it is out of a sublime mix of joy, peace and a bit of sadness for you, for what you are missing. When I think of you and your children I am reminded strongly of how much God loves His children and cares for them in spite of us and in spite of what we do wrong. What a blessing! Your children are soooo good! I cannot begin to justly describe their goodness, kindness, beauty, sense of humor and their love of God. They are EVERYTHING you would have wanted them to be and then more. I know you would be so proud of them. I am. And Johncito, I am so glad that they had a godly man to show them and teach them the things you would have wanted to teach them yourself. I still have memories of you with them when they were little and of conversations we had. You were a good man with a heart of gold. I still miss you. Your name comes up in every family gathering and I tear up. Harold is not you, but if you could have chosen anyone to replace you, I think you would have chosen him. He treats your children as if they were his (and they are), and treats us (your sisters) as if we were his sisters, and we love him back for you and for us. I would not be surprised if he told us that in his heart he thinks of you and how you are missing these beautiful kids and thinks of giving them a double portion of love – one in your name. I am a grandma, Johncito. One of my grandchildren’s grandma is probably up there with you. When I hold that grandbaby I think of her and how she would love to love on this child—and I love him for both of us. I wonder if Harold does the same. His heart is so tender- full of love and pride for your kids. He speaks of them and his eyes tear up and his voice quivers a bit sometimes. He considers their needs and sacrifices himself for them. He counsels them and provides for them. I just wanted to tell you that, my dear brother. You will always be missed, but your children are doing ok. Isn’t God soooooo GOOD!? Your boy is married. We just attended his wedding this week. Oh! he looks soooo much like you. God has blessed him with a sweet girl (like Cat Steven’s” hard-headed –woman” –sweet ☺) and an awesome Christian family. His dad’s father married them. The wedding homily was unique. He used Titus 2 to charge both the bride and groom with living a godly marriage. Nice! He also said something so obvious, and yet I had never heard it said before: the woman gives herself so totally to the groom, that not only does she leave her family behind, she leaves her name behind and takes on the groom’s name. (He said it much better than I have) Though it is obvious, for the first time it struck me as how a husband and wife are now one! Two of your girls are equally blessed with wonderful Christian husbands… and their weddings were equally beautiful. It is truly a blessing when we are with the family, Johncito. Your Kristie is amazing. They all are, but Kristie is strong, Johncito. An amazing woman! (I want to grow up to be her—any of them, really) Each of your children has a unique personality and they have all found their gifts and they honor the LORD with their gifts. They ARE gifts to us. I love you, brother. Still miss you.

As we go through life we make choices...[ Not a new revelation..:-) ] We choose somethings on purpose,deliberately, and ---by default neglect others... kind of like those online tests where you can only choose one answer, and if you try to choose two, one of them gets unclicked ....you know what I mean? Ex: Button clicked: " spend lots of time at work or away from family"--> button unclicked: "build strong relationship with spouse and/or loved ones

Other tests, however, automatically choose a second button for you when you click on the first one. Ex: click on "exercise"--> the "get fit" button gets clicked, or click on "read Bible, and associate with other believers"---> the "increase your faith" button gets clicked. :-)

Sounds simple? It is!

God had Paul write in Hebrews: "Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of God"--Romans10:17
In Hebrews 11 we have the great "hall of Faith"....yes, the faith was given to them-- not their own works that any should boast--.
To Nicodemus, Jesus said, to be like a little child and be born again---
Have you seen the faith of children, their tenderness?
It IS simple!--- yeah--- I know what you are thinking, if you are still reading---"You first have to believe the Bible"--- Authorship is tied to credibility--- Right! That's why we need faith--- we are skeptics, wise in our own eyes!
Wise men sought Him, and still do.... Those "wise in their own eyes" hardened their hearts toward Him. [( click button: "worldly wisdom"-
and another one clicks----> "hardening of heart toward God")....
Romans11:25.]

One of my favorite verses was Jim Elliot's favorite: I Cor 3:18-20 "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.."
Yes, my dear family, "He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose"--Jim Elliot's translation of the above.

May WE grow in wisdom and faith today and throughout our lives, for the good of others and to God's glory

The pursuit of Privacy

Exhausted! Both Rex and I are beyond tired. Rex is doubly tired since he did most of the work with my directions or assistance.... The two wax myrtles that we planted by the swing are GREAT! They look pretty and returned us our privacy, yay! They took all day to just get out of the trailer and place them in their destination--- the process was slow. Each 150-200 pound tree was pushed off the trailer to the ground where Rex placed a dolly under the tree, then we put plywood on the ground and took them to where they were to be planted. What a chore. Rex dug the holes then we had to try to figure out how to get the trees out of the "pots". He used his "saws all" to cut the plastic pots while the trees were on the  ground; and then it took forever to be able to put them correctly in the hole he dug. We only did 2 of the three because we were not sure how to fix the rest of the privacy  problem.... The second and third structures- treehouses built by HGTV for our back neighbor's backyard, have clear view of the backyard garden area. The bougainvillea hides the view directly in front of the 2nd tree house--- BUT the lovely HGTV people started to trim it to put new sections of fence and for decorative purposes.... And they left branches cut inside the tree! We started to take them out and trim the rest --- always a very unpleasant job due to the gigantic thorns---- and soon realized that with all the trimming, now we have even Less privacy!  I think We have decided to bite the bullet, and buy 4 more wax myrtles and cut down the terrible bougainvillea  once and forever. When will this take place.... Let's see.... We need to fix the car, save for Spain, fix the pool pump, fix the yard, finish Rex's boat..... I give up!
Maybe I need to learn whatever lesson the Lord wants me to learn---

Debate chart

Hmmm... The creator of the chart uses the chart as a tool to argue for atheism..... the theory that there is no god, no creator of humankind or earth. How can one argue for or against the existence of One Who is Invisile?
Atheism is anchored firmly in the theory of evolution..... As if evolution can prove  or disprove the existence of a creator.

There is plenty of evidence to support today's theory of evolution through natural selection -which makes it difficult for a well educated, logical person to accept the idea of a creator
- but not impossible. In the very least one can challenge a person's thinking about it.
The Language of God--- a book written by the present head of the human genome project--- (http://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scientist-Presents-Evidence/dp/074328639) brings up some interesting points---- why do humans and other species put themselves at risk to save another? That goes against the theory of evolution through natural selection aka "survival of the fittest!"
  A problem encountered by Christians when defending their faith, is the need to put down evolution-- which is now the central dogma of science-- especially biology..... And while it is undeniable that natural selection is easily observed in bacteria and viruses, due to their rapid multiplicative reproductive       patterns, they are still bacteria. Other species evolve much slower, but even then---- they only differ in speciation, not genera, family, orders, and definitely not classes. 

The thread for the theory of evolution runs tightly woven in every explanation given for physiological processes, for example: "why do men produce sperm daily, while at birth, women have all the ova they will ever have? According to evolutionists, women are going to be more committed to the offspring (for 9 months in a human female uterus and an indefinite time nursing) ---while men do not have a reproductive commitment (aka evolutionary  need) to guard ova so carefully. The answer to anything in biology is nowadays related to the theory of evolution.... But be not deceived-- there are other plausible explanations to the same questions.  So...... Going back to the chart.... What/who will define a fallacy in proof/evidence for evolution? What will suffice?  Will it be vestigial structures ( remember how the tonsils were once in that list? --- now we know they are NOT vestigial), will it be embryology, (remember the now defunct phrase, "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"). Will it be fossils?-Remember how we used to think that dinosaurs were more related to lizards than birds? Will it be homologous and analogous structures, or just DNA? The latter is causing an upheaval of the phylogenetic trees we have been using for years!!!! 
I guess what I  am trying to articulate is that one ought not forget that  theories are the best explanations we have at the time with the information we have at the time. They cannot be proven correct , but with updated information, can be proven wrong. 
So was the case of Lamark's  giraffes, the spontaneous generation of life theory debunked by Francesco Redi and many others.
Not understanding a principle, does not make that principle wrong or false or untrue-- a point that both atheists and Christians can agree on. Different groups access different sources of information... and as information is updated, so are theories..... Faith on the other hand..... well....is rooted on the evidence of things hoped for--- so as far as we can tell both groups, atheists and Christians are operating on faith, for neither was there when it all began, and no offense to Oparin (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Oparin's_Hypothesis)
 or Miller and Urey (http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise_chem/Exobiology/miller.html) no one can know or replicate what it used to be for sure. (Hebrews1:1-2: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for." NIV 
If we just wait long enough, another theory will evolve... wait for it .... It takes a looong time.....
Eileen Roach

Glad reunion

The demons in my head seem less powerful as I ponder God's infinite love and forgiveness. Today was the first Sunday back to church after Dad's death. It was the first Sunday in church, for the last 6 years, without Dad. I sensed him dancing and clapping, hugging Mom, Johncito, Robert, his parents, and all his own siblings- worshipping his God  in fullness of His glory- face to face-- no more need for faith. No more pain. He finished his race praising God. At the very end he shared the visions he was seeing-- family and people, who according to him, " are everywhere, lots of people and all look very decent". I interpreted that as the "great cloud of witnesses". Well done, Dad! Thanks for showing me how to live and even how to die.  

Day 61

We are content with whatever lot we have in life yet we also need to strive to attain the goal that Christ has for us. Let's not give up. He does not give up on us.