Happy 2010

Well, it's almost 2010 and I feel compelled to make a comment, since it's been a long time since I last blogged. This year will be a big year for our family since Missy will be having a baby in April (Riley Danielle). This will be a fresh start for us as well a bittersweet time. I'm not one for making resolutions or starting new programs or projects, but this year Fred and I do plan to enjoy being grandparents to the fullest extent possible! LOL. Still enjoying retirement and our new church family. God bless you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Comments

I've been wondering why no one posts a comment on this blog, so I went through the settings and made a change. You should be able to post a comment now. If someone would please do a test comment, I would appreciate it so I can check to make sure the changes I made work. Thank you! Cindy

Don't Be Afraid

Our church small group just finished a six-week study of "The Relationship Principles of Jesus" by Tom Holladay, teaching pastor at Saddleback Church. It was a fantastic study about Jesus' commandments to love Him with all our heart, mind and soul; and to love each other as we love ourselves.

My favorite excerpt from the study is a scripture: Romans 12:1 from The Message:
"Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering."

I also liked this excerpt: "The goal of love is not some false ideal we've conjured up in our minds; the goal of love is SEEING GOD AT WORK in our real lives. . . Ask God to help you to love in a new kind of way. Stop waiting for some ideal vision to come true in your life and just begin to love. Love now!"

The book also suggested writing the following words on a postcard to remind ourselves about humility:
"Humility is not thinking less of myself; it is thinking more of others.
Humility is not putting myself down; it is lifting God up.
Humility is not denying my strengths; it is being openly honest about my weaknesses.
Humility is seeing that without Christ I can do nothing, but in Christ I can do all things!"

We don't need to FEEL humble to ACT humbly. If we waited to FEEL like showing mercy or grace, or study the Word, pray, etc., many of us, myself included, wouldn't actually do those things. God calls us to do such simple things: visit the sick and imprisoned; feed/clothe the poor; love one another; spread the Gospel, pray, spend time with Him. He equips us for these very things. He has prepared in advance good works for us to do. He encourages us to not be weary in well doing. He gives us talents, not to build some kind of an altar around but to use while we share the Gospel, visit the sick and imprisoned, feed and clothe the poor and love one another. God is faithful to provide those opportunities.

In other words, don't let excuses keep you from God's commandments. You may be busy; it may make you feel uncomfortable; or you may even say God hasn't called you to do such and such. Do it anyway! What blessings we miss when we try to limit God's work with our own idea of how our talents should be used.

Hope this is an encouragement to you today. We will never be perfect on our own to do what God has called us to do; but with Him we are completely equipped to love Him with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love each other as we love ourselves.

God bless! Cindy

Racism

I've been so discouraged, appalled really, lately about the use of the word "racist" in the media that I am compelled to blog. I have been researching the origins or slavery, and how the democratic and republican parties have handled racism/discrimination for the past 100+ years and have found out some interesting information. You can visit these sites for more info if you have time, but I'll briefly describe what I've found below. http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm#;
http://www.nodnc.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=401.
I found articles about Republican racism, but didn't find much in the way of actual voting records. I researched by typing in "history of African slavery", "democratic racism" and "republican racism" in Google search.

The Portugese started slavery and bought African people to be used as slaves from their own African kings and merchants. They were then distributed throughout Europe and America. Most of the slaves brought to America were sent to S. America. The Republican party was the driving force behind the elimination of slavery in America.

The Democratic party has a long, sad history of racism (KKK was started by the Democratic party). There are racISTS on all sides, but racISM is far more ingrained in the history of the Democratic party. I am not trying to demonize anyone, but we all need to remember not to throw rocks when we live in glass houses.

My main point with this blog is to encourage you not to fall for the judgmental and partisan rhetoric we hear on a daily basis, especially when it comes to the "racist" accusations being thrown around. Sometimes, the racism rhetoric keeps people in business and in the news. It's also a way to divide us, and thus discouraging us from loving each other and really moving beyond racism. The fact we elected a biracial president is maybe the biggest indicator that we are actually doing that.

FYI: Skin color means no more to me than eye color, hair color, gender, height, weight, etc. I confess only one prejudice, and that is against prejudiced people.

Back Home from Texas

We visited Cindy's Uncle Delwin Thompson (age 88) in Texas these past 9 days. Uncle Del is Cindy's father's brother, and he gave her away at our wedding in 1975, since Cindy's father had passed away the year before. We've visited off and on over the years and taken family trips together to Branson, Galveston and San Antonio. Cindy's sister Connie from Colorado and her daughter Gennie and granddaughter Annie came, as well as her sister Cathi from Florida. We had a nderful reunion which culminated with the baptism by Uncle Del of 16-month old Annie and Cindy's sister Cathi. It was a truly special time.

We also visited Uncle Del's church, Lake Livingston Luthern Church, which was a beautiful experience. Very friendly and loving group of people; Pastor Sharon Kapsch was a wonderful and powerful minister of the word; prayer for members of the congregation and to top it off. . . a special dinner in honor of my uncle. This church really loves Jesus and reaches out to the poor, needy, broken hearted, and imprisoned with their time and finances. If you are ever in Onalaska, TX, visit this fantastic place.

It was a great time, but glad to be back home. Our watermelon went from the size of a walnut to the size of a cantaloupe in the short time we were gone! Awesome! It was a lot colder when we got back also! We like that. Texas was rainy on some days, but mostly hot and muggy . . and buggy!

That's it for now. More. . . later. God bless you all!

Why blog?

My (Cindy's) sister in Florida asked me what a blog was (she's new to blogging). Our son Dan said it best in one of his blog entries dated 1/26/07:
"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time." George Bernard Shaw

Dan's blog continues: "This morning I read this and it immediately made me ponder why blogs, to me, are so interesting to read. My favorite blogs are often just people writing about themselves and what they do or think. Duane writing about farm life at Geek Acres; Zach writing about photography or whatever else comes to his mind; Granny writng about her life and observations; Jack ranting erratically, the list goes on and on. Some might consider blogs egotistical and silly, but I find them comforting and entertaining. You get to see the world through other people's eyes in a very personal way. You can see what they see, how they see it, and how they are thinking about it. I enjoy that and I think I gain more perspective and insight about the real world and the day to day grind from that than I get by watching the news or Discovery Channel. I don't know if that is what Shaw was getting at, but that's how I read it."

Dan hit the nail on the head here. Whenever we read his blog entries now, we can hear his voice and his heart. What a wonderful view of his life he left for us, and what an encouragement to continue that process by blogging with you all. He'd love that we are doing this. Our blogs are not as interesting as his - he had such great wit, intelligence and insights; but hopefully we'll provide some interesting tidbits and news - or even light reading on a break at work! :)

Be Still

I have been reading a book by Taylor Caldwell, a woman who wrote novels from 1938 through 1966. I've read a couple of her books, but this one is special. It's titled "No One Hears But Him." It's about different "souls" who go to a Sanctuary built on a hill in the middle of a city, where they can talk to someone. That someone, of course, is God. Each soul has a special problem (the minister, the unbeliever, the suicidal, the old and young, the suffering and the ones who think they have it all and don't need God) that they come to the Sanctuary to talk about. Some come unwillingly or with an "agenda," but all encounter God at their level and with their own needs. Here is an excerpt from one of the stories that is so appropriate for us today, 40+ years after this book was written:

"Be still. Be very still. Be removed from all the busyness of life, if only for a little space, a little time. Be still enough not to hear all the world's pleasant voices, or even the ugly ones. Just be silent. 'Be still and know that I am God.' And in the knowing, know that all is well; and on some day you know not of, all will be explained. [note by CF: this reminded me of the saying that Dan and his friends coined about death: no more questions, only answers.] Be still and know that you can bear your life, that it has a distinct and unique meaning, belonging only to you; important more to God than even to yourself. And that to God, it is of more worth than the sun, than a billion suns. With that importance in his heart, he can walk fearless, joyful with a true joy, peaceful with a peace that no pleasure can give and no busy life can satisfy."

This week

Well, this is our toughest week of the year. The anniversary of our son, Dan's, passing. It seems harder this year than last year - not sure why. When you lose a child, you never really get over it. You just kind of go on, whether you want to or not. We cherished Dan - he was a wonderful person, and have great memories of him, but boy it's tough.

I hope you are all hanging in there through these tough times. There are a couple of websites you might be interested in if you are trying to save money, etc. Everyday Cheapskate is a great little daily newsletter with lots of tips for saving money and living simply. Debt Proof Living is another site that you may want to visit - the same person operates both of these resources. See link on the right side. You can subscribe to Everyday Cheapskate from the DPL site.

Please feel free to leave comments about our site. We are new to blogging, so it is definitely a learning process.

Good morning all! It is a beautiful late summer morning. I've been out "harvesting" green beans and tomatoes. I prepared and froze the beans for future use. I don't can - too much "stuff" so we freeze. The veggies actually taste better that way.

I've been listening to "health reform" debates on Fox News this morning. I also received an email from David Axelrod in the White House. Lots of information out there. I guess if you really wanted the scoop, you could go to the website where the text of the health bill is. That is if you have lots of time and patience to wade through it. Should we really be voting on a bill that is so long none of our elected officials want to read it? I'm for a targeted approach: focus on tort reform; fraud control; pre-existing condition reform, etc. As for the uninsured, that issue really needs to be looked at more closely for a better and more comprehensive approach than what is apparently proposed in this bill.

I visit www.factcheck.org quite often to get a basic understanding of what misinformation is being put forth by both sides. I encourage you to actively check this issue out and then let your representatives know what you expect from them. This is way too important an issue to just sit back and hope the folks in Washington will "get it right."

Catch you next time! I look forward to your comments! God bless!

Welcome to Our New Blog

Well, we (Cindy and Fred Feather) finally decided to give blogging a try. Our son, Daniel, had a fantastic and fun blog site, Atomic Baboon, which we thoroughly enjoyed. He passed away on August 18, 2007. He is greatly missed.

We also have a wonderful daughter, Melissa Rae Mittag, the light of our life.

Well, just a brief note to get this going. More . . . later.