I remember when my oldest daughter was born the greatest desire of my heart was to raise her up in faith, to share my love of God with her, and help her to know Christ. And when my younger child was born, I prayed the same thing...that both my children would come to know the Lord, give their lives to Him for his good will and purpose.

The mistake I made was in forgetting that children are sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear us do. They are imitators of their parents behavior, beliefs, and struggles. Years of a troubled marriage, difficulty, and ultimately questioning and then leaving my faith for a time in their most formative years has resulted in an attitude of cynicism. It doesnt seem to matter that both their father and I eventually found our way back to God, renewing not only our faith, but restoring our marriage and family.

It is my deepest regret that my own failings brought my children to this level of distrust, and I pray God will soften their hearts. I pray that one day God will introduce Himself to both my children in such a way that neither can ignore, and that His grace will change their lives.

Taken from the blog I write for Kristine Remixed @www.bigfishministries.com/kristine

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My former pastor from Alabama, Andrew, has a very bright seven year old daughter who made a comment one day recently from something she’d observed while going to the coffee shop with her dad. Essentially her off the hand remark was that most days the only news she was hearing about was either related to the weather or Barack Obama.

Naturally Andrew thought her quip was quite funny and posted it on Twitter and Facebook. A parent sharing what I’m sure he thought was an interesting look into the mind of his seven year old child.

The interesting thing was reading the reaction to the post. Almost immediately those who commented made it quite clear that they thought this little girl was making some kind of political statement about Obama…and she didnt’ like him. This naturally led into some rather heated discussions about not only Mr. Obama, but the current President, and frankly deteriorated from there. Some people talked about “change” and others aluded to “sacrifice” and some how in the middle of all the opinions and rantings, among Christians mind you, a simple point was lost.

“when the weather’s bad, the news only talks about that. if it’s not, they only talk about obama.” Emma - age 7

We are all guilty of missing the point. I know I have more often than not infered a message into someone’s words that was never intended, and allowed my wayward “tongue” to argue my side to the point of irritation to all. It’s nothing new, in fact in the book of James the writer firmly addresses the issue:

James 3: 2-5 (NLT)

Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.

The truth of the matter is we allow ourselves to be divided for any number of reasons and our “tongues” are often the culprits for many squabbles and misunderstandings…not unlike what has happened in many homes, churches, and across this nation in the past years. Left, right. Conservative, liberal. Charismatic, pentacostal. Evangelical, mainstream.

Thank goodness we have a merciful God who forgives us for being argumentative, arrogant, or willfully ignorant. A God who can help us, teach us how we are to act and speak if we will pay attention to the lessons, be willing to learn. We have the example and words of Jesus as a guide on how we should react, and the grace of God to help us get there in our responses some day.

James 3: 17-18 (NLT)
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

In this “tech savvy” age of Facebook and MySpace it may do us well to remember that the use of our virtual “voice” as we comment or respond to what others post is as every bit important as how we respond in our in person to any given situation. If we get used to being peacemakers in our thinking and speech on the internet, maybe we will translate it into visible action as well.

You know, one of the things I find the hardest is when I hear about an investigation from my friend who is still a ghost hunter, still working with mediums and I know they experienced some crazy things, got some interesting pics or some evp...the hardest thing for me not to do is go...yeah, but do you honestly not get that what you think may be a little girl trapped and needing to "cross over" may actually be something much darker that is luring you away from God?

Because one of the things I have noticed...the more you get into discovering the mysteries of the unknown, the less you want to get one on one with the Creator of the Universe. The more you want to communicate with "the other side."

I dont know...it leaves me wondering what I can say that wont have them rolling their eyes and thinking I'm just being "religious".

My how things do change in a matter of months.

My previous blog I was stating that I was an ardent supporter of Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. Since that time not only have I changed my position, but so have my husband, daughter, and mother.

We all now support Senator John McCain.

There are a lot of reasons for changing suport from Obama to McCain, but I think my daughter summed it up the best when she noticed once a person gets past the "glamour" of Obama and really starts to listen to what he proposes...bigger government, more spending, the reversal of ALL legislation that might prohibit abortion, etc....you begin to realize how very left of center he truly is.

We do need change in America...but Obama is not the one to get us there.