Today we watched the news as a terrible story unfolded. The pictures and video showed us the faces of terrified children. One little boy no older than 8 sat with his Mom, his hands were clasped tightly over his mouth, his eyes wide with shock. A mother was shown weeping and falling to the ground as she talked on the phone, the look of confusion and pain on her face broke my heart. The pictures brought it all home. Today I pray for everyone involved in this incident, I pray for comfort, and for us to remember this, and fight for a better future. I have never been one for prayer without action, you can't wait around for the world to be fixed.
One day during the first week of school, I was picking up Kaitlyn and she said something that shocked me a little. She said 'Mommy, I'm scared of getting shot at school'. I thought ok, you can't always protect your kids from life, so I asked why she was scared. She said 'we have drills, the teacher says a word and turns off the lights, then we hide and we are very quiet, that way a person with a gun couldn't find us'. My first instinct was to take her home and never let her out of my sight again, but what would that help?
When I was in High School Wedgwood Baptist here in our area was attacked by a gunman, he shot kids at a see-you-at-the-pole rally. Recently a movie theater in Aurora Colorado had a similar incident, kids were killed there too. Last week a man bought a gun and didn't realize a round was chambered, as he got into his car the gun went off, killing his young child. The man tried to preform CPR to no avail, what must he have felt as his child died in his arms? Those are just a few cases of what is going on in our country. We have double the number of school shootings than the rest of the world... COMBINED.
Awful, hateful people are cashing in on this today, 2 of them happen to be professing Christians.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-god-didnt-stop-ct-school-shooting-because-hes-gentleman-who-doesnt-go-where-he-not-w
and this post from Victoria Jackson's Facebook page
My friend Jim Riley posted this today:
"Wasn't the Connecticut killer just doing what abortionists do every day? It's a wonder we don't have more 20 year old "dads" doing what women and doctors have been an accomplice to for years in America. When you forget the TEN COMMANDMENTS, people, THIS is what you get."
This behavior is atrocious, and I'm pretty sure the God I believe in wouldn't endorse this. I am saddened by these attitudes, I wonder if these people know they are turning many away from the Lord.
I am personally a gun owner, we own multiple handguns and rifles. We practice caution first, safety of our kids is of dire importance. So I say this as a gun owner. I would give up my guns if it would cut down on this violence, however I don't think outlawing weapons would help. I agree with restricting weapon types, disagree if you want, but I don't think we need assault rifles. That alone won't help though, we need to educate EVERYONE who purchases a weapon in the US. They need to have safety classes and classes on gun care. This wouldn't stop the massacres, but it would stop some of the singular accidental shootings caused by ignorance of the weapon. Some people feel like the anti-gun agenda is being built on the bodies of innocent victims, but we have to ask why there are enough innocent victims in our country to build an agenda out of it. I don't seek to belittle today's deaths by backing a political goal, don't get that idea.
Besides that there isn't much to say on it. No laws or legislation will give back the lives we have lost. It won't cure the scarred hearts of the kids who survived today. The best thing we can do is make a positive change in the world around us. The good people need to stand up and be heard, because in these incidents we see amazing people who show what is truly right with this world.
-A 13 year old risks life and limb to try and rescue a 6 year old, the younger girl sadly didn't make it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177698/Colorado-cinema-shooting-Kaylan-13-tried-save-life-youngest-victim-Veronica-Moser-Sullivan.html
-A security guard goes back into a Portland mall with an active shooter on scene to save the mallgoers
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/12/portland-mall-shooting-hero_n_2286050.html
-many heroes emerged during the Columbine shooting. A boy jumped on top of people to protect them. A 15 year old held an exit door open so that people could escape, he was killed in the process. Here is a list.
http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/coroner/colhero.html
Do not lose heart, do not lose faith, if you don't believe in a higher power don't lose faith in humans. In the darkest of times we see who is great, because there is usually 1 or 2 shooters, however there are multiple heroes in every case.
(some of the links are bad, copy and paste)
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Friday, December 14, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A rant just for me
As most of my friends and family know, my daughter was baptised last weekend. I was, and am so very proud of her. If you aren't around her often let me tell you a few things about my little girl. She is strong willed, ornery, selfish (she is barely 6 though, so it's pretty normal), and hyper to the point of driving me insane. She is also kind, very funny, so very smart, and beautiful. I love her more than pretty much anything, her and Andrew pretty much tie. Recently when I started going back to church she was all for it. She wanted to hear out of the Bible every night, and shock... she wanted to act better because that is what God would want. Her behavior improved over the next few months, others may not see it, but it makes worlds of difference around here.
This change wasn't all her, since I had been away from the church, not just the church, but ignoring God for so long, my parenting was fairly lacking. I started to change too, no I'm not a great parent now, but I am getting better every day. Kaitlyn and Andrew are such a huge blessing, and I'm just sorry I didn't see Kaitlyn as one right from the beginning. Since she wasn't planned I failed to realize that she was still part of God's will for me, and I thank him every day.
Of course her baptism was marked with some drama. For about 3 days I was very angry about some of the people that didn't come. It amazed me that my newly Muslim friend showed up, it made my day in fact. I had to question though, why some other people weren't there. Kaitlyn asked about a few people, but I just said that they had to work (remember that I may not be specifically talking about you). I realized this was more my hurt feelings than hers though, and that these people didn't even know I was angry, so it was silly, and now forgiven, without them even knowing that there was a problem, and I guess that's best.
Matthew 18:21-22
21Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
It's funny, in the years of drinking, partying, and not showing up to church at all, no one questioned my faith. In the past 2 months, since I started this blog, my faith has been called into question on an almost daily basis, whether on Twitter, or in real life. I say things that people assume mean that I am not a Christian, well let me tell you, I may not be the same type of Christian as you. As long as I believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit... As long as I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, and died on the cross for our sins... As long as I believe that he rose again, and that the Holy Spirit lives in me, then how am I doing it wrong. I try to act right too, lets just throw that in there. If you knew me on the same level my friends know me, then you would see it.
This blog started one way, but why can't it change every now and then? Sometimes I can't research, our net has been down for almost a week. Sometimes Allie can't help me, and it's just a ton of work to do with school going on, not to mention having the kiddos :) I will continue to spend my time talking to Atheists on Twitter, not specifically to convert them, but because they give a unique perspective, and have intelligent debates. I hope to show them that most of the Christians I know aren't bigots, they are loving, caring, accepting people (not accepting of sin, but loving the person, and people always come with sin). I will continue to raise my kids to not hate anyone, and I hope they both grow up to be kind, compassionate people, who always do what they can to help others out.
Thanks again to everyone who came to the Baptism, and to everyone who couldn't make it, thank you for your prayers and the help you have given along the way <3
Psalms 8:2
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger
I struggled with the choice of letting Kaitlyn get baptised at such a young age, but she showed me that it was the right thing to do. She prays a lot, during the summer I told her that God answers prayers, I failed to mention that you don't always get what you want. My then 5 year old decided to dig up some grub worms one night, gross I know, it gets worse. She proceeded to take a bath with them that night, and all of her worms died. Kaitlyn cried, oh how she cried, then she prayed. I was about to go in to her room when I heard her say "Dear God can I please have some more grubbies". So I ended up digging up grub worms outside with my phone is a flashlight. In 30 minutes I had just found two, but that would have to do. I took them in to Kaitlyn, and she said "Wow, God works fast". To be honest I pulled a Moses, in my head I thought, hey, I got those worms, then she climbed down her bunk bed ladder and hugged me and said "God made you get me grubbies". Silly children and their ways of making you see things...
Sara Hatfield
This change wasn't all her, since I had been away from the church, not just the church, but ignoring God for so long, my parenting was fairly lacking. I started to change too, no I'm not a great parent now, but I am getting better every day. Kaitlyn and Andrew are such a huge blessing, and I'm just sorry I didn't see Kaitlyn as one right from the beginning. Since she wasn't planned I failed to realize that she was still part of God's will for me, and I thank him every day.
Of course her baptism was marked with some drama. For about 3 days I was very angry about some of the people that didn't come. It amazed me that my newly Muslim friend showed up, it made my day in fact. I had to question though, why some other people weren't there. Kaitlyn asked about a few people, but I just said that they had to work (remember that I may not be specifically talking about you). I realized this was more my hurt feelings than hers though, and that these people didn't even know I was angry, so it was silly, and now forgiven, without them even knowing that there was a problem, and I guess that's best.
Matthew 18:21-22
21Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
It's funny, in the years of drinking, partying, and not showing up to church at all, no one questioned my faith. In the past 2 months, since I started this blog, my faith has been called into question on an almost daily basis, whether on Twitter, or in real life. I say things that people assume mean that I am not a Christian, well let me tell you, I may not be the same type of Christian as you. As long as I believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit... As long as I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, and died on the cross for our sins... As long as I believe that he rose again, and that the Holy Spirit lives in me, then how am I doing it wrong. I try to act right too, lets just throw that in there. If you knew me on the same level my friends know me, then you would see it.
This blog started one way, but why can't it change every now and then? Sometimes I can't research, our net has been down for almost a week. Sometimes Allie can't help me, and it's just a ton of work to do with school going on, not to mention having the kiddos :) I will continue to spend my time talking to Atheists on Twitter, not specifically to convert them, but because they give a unique perspective, and have intelligent debates. I hope to show them that most of the Christians I know aren't bigots, they are loving, caring, accepting people (not accepting of sin, but loving the person, and people always come with sin). I will continue to raise my kids to not hate anyone, and I hope they both grow up to be kind, compassionate people, who always do what they can to help others out.
Thanks again to everyone who came to the Baptism, and to everyone who couldn't make it, thank you for your prayers and the help you have given along the way <3
Psalms 8:2
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger
I struggled with the choice of letting Kaitlyn get baptised at such a young age, but she showed me that it was the right thing to do. She prays a lot, during the summer I told her that God answers prayers, I failed to mention that you don't always get what you want. My then 5 year old decided to dig up some grub worms one night, gross I know, it gets worse. She proceeded to take a bath with them that night, and all of her worms died. Kaitlyn cried, oh how she cried, then she prayed. I was about to go in to her room when I heard her say "Dear God can I please have some more grubbies". So I ended up digging up grub worms outside with my phone is a flashlight. In 30 minutes I had just found two, but that would have to do. I took them in to Kaitlyn, and she said "Wow, God works fast". To be honest I pulled a Moses, in my head I thought, hey, I got those worms, then she climbed down her bunk bed ladder and hugged me and said "God made you get me grubbies". Silly children and their ways of making you see things...
Sara Hatfield
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)