Boasting In God's Blessing

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

David’s Final Sin and Our Self-Centered Hearts

At the end of his reign, David enjoyed great victory over all of his earthly enemies. He has subdued the nations around Israel. He and his mighty men had defeated the giants in the land. The land enjoyed rest from warfare and prosperity under God’s hand. Then, David decided to take a census.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem all that bad. After all, Moses had taken two very similar censuses in the Book of Numbers, a counting of all of the fighting men aged 20 and older in the camp of Israel. Yet Moses’ census-taking was ordered by God for divine purposes. David’s came from his own heart and mind and not from the Lord. But just because God didn’t specifically command the census wouldn’t make it sinful, would it?

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Enjoying The Simple Things - A New Routine

By Sandra

Our family started back to homeschool this week. We have a “gradual entry” schedule in our home, which entails half-days of learning blocks for the first week, or sometimes two.  After all, we wouldn’t want the children –or the parents- to go into shock. It is still the season of summer vacations, after all! So far, so good. The children actually enjoyed moving back into a structured routine of learning. They got acquainted with several of their new books today, and seemed rather delighted to pen their names to the inside covers. It seemed to me they were taking pride in the prospective learning ground for the new year. Writing their names in the books and being introduced to the coming units of study, actually helps them stake their territory on the year. They begin to anticipate the coming subjects, characters, discussions and activities.

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Serving Up Success

By Renee, LSWA

"The family that plays together stays together." I LOVE FUN! My family and I recently participated in an all day scavenger hunt. We had an awesome time being silly and focusing on the common goal: getting the most points so we could be the winners! How selfish of us. Well, not really. It was a game and the goal was to be the winner. But if having fun was the only thing my family focused on, I imagine that selfishness would creep in and kill the mood. As much as I love fun, it's not the only life lesson I want my children to learn.

How about the family that serves together? I believe serving others individually or with our families brings joy and a sense of purpose that I cannot even begin to describe. Our own 41st President was quoted as saying, "From now on, any definition of a successful life must include serving others." Regardless of politics, I think he got this right. Wouldn't it be cool if we could combine fun and serving? I think we can!

No matter what age you are, if your children are young or old, there are ways you can teach them the value of thinking of others needs. We are all constantly being bombarded in school, by the media, in the office or on the big screen by the mindset that "it's all about me." As parents, we can often unintentionally send this message to our kids too. As babies, the world does revolve around them, but eventually they have to learn to live as part of a family unit and in community. What better way to teach them this than to expose them to opportunities to bless other members of our communities.

Here are some simple ways to get you and your family having fun and helping others.

1. Serve a meal at a local soup kitchen.
2. Collect school supplies for a homeless shelter.
3. Walk your elderly neighbors' dog.
4. Bake cookies for the new family on the block.
5. Take a meal to a new mom.
6. Participate in Operation Christmas Child-one of my family favorites!
7. Serve at your home church in a ministry.
8. Adopt a road and do trash pick-up.
9. Read a book to a nursing home resident.
10. Send cards to our service men and women.

I could go on and on but I want to know your ideas. What do you and your family do to serve together?

Play together but don't forget to serve together. Joy and peace will abound.

Steerable Humans?

By Alan

Remember the key plot to the Disney movie Ratatouille? The adorable, [and hygienic] rat turned an un-culinary young man into a virtual cooking platform, by mysterious means of grabbing his hair, and manipulating food, spices, cooking utensils, and even knives.

While this got a good chuckle out of the audiences everywhere, and most people thought, "how absurd!" there is actually some good scientific studies behind the idea of subtle adjustments to pressure on the head that will strangely compel people to follow those pressures to go follow directions. Mothers certainly know that grabbing the ear of a child will often get instant cooperation on following, even if considerable whining might accompany it.

No one is absolutely sure about how this works, but already someone at SIGGRAPH has started to exploit the idea using existing technology.

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Is God There?

By Mallory

At the college I attend, we have chapel three times a week. One of our recent chapel speakers talked about the struggle of understanding God's existence. In an anecdote he told, two men fishing were in a lake and discussing the existence of God. One of the fishermen pointed out that everyone knows fish exist in the lake even though you don’t see them. And then a fish hopped around in the water and the fishermen were like, “Ooooh, God is real! This actually isn’t a complicated philosophical discussion topic that people have always struggled to understand!” And so, because of this story, you know the “Fish” exists even though you can't always see the “Fish” or it you don’t necessarily see it every time you look for it (Get it? Get it?).

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