Saturday, June 21, 2008
sometimes i wish people would remove the blinders
So. I think that someone close to me is making a really poor decision. He knows it deep down that it is bad, but he enjoys the company the pleasure of it all. It seems he is so lost that he has given up on God for a quick fix, instead of seeking the root of the issue. I wish more people understood true love. That sex isn't love. Love is so much more than that. And to limit it to that would be cheapening it. It's like cheapening grace, which people do all the time. And to some extent myself included. But I don't want to take love for granted. Love is hard, it includes suffering, patience, self-control, goodness, and kindness. All of these things very essential to love. At times it involves humility and sacrifice. But it always should have the intention of what is best for the other person involved. And should not be selfish. Unfortunately, most of the time we forget that we need to be self-less and not selfish in love. That we need to look deeper into our decisions and figure out how they will effect those around me that I love. Will I destroy this relationship by this. Will I create a false sense of security from this action. And overall by doing this will I offend my God, my savior and my Father.
Friday, June 13, 2008
grrrr....
So yet again, I get another link to join a group on facebook about gas prices. I am throughly annoyed with this type of response. Annoyance without action means nothing. If a person simply complains without having a response, something that they do to change this, then its like being a saved by faith alone protestant. Which completely misses the point too. Grr.
Why don't we try to walk more, ride a bike, take more pubic transport (its free air conditioning with a low cost ride that helps us with our CO2 emissions!), buy local produce, eat less meat, use less high energy devices. Make lifestyle choices that cost less. Maybe getting something used instead of new. Maybe fixing something instead of getting new. And above all recycle!!! To make new of all things plastic requires oil, so just recycle and reduce that dependence. And you know what, it will make us a healthier nation as a whole. In many retrospects. Maybe we will have a better respect for what God gave us instead of taking it for granted.
Why don't we try to walk more, ride a bike, take more pubic transport (its free air conditioning with a low cost ride that helps us with our CO2 emissions!), buy local produce, eat less meat, use less high energy devices. Make lifestyle choices that cost less. Maybe getting something used instead of new. Maybe fixing something instead of getting new. And above all recycle!!! To make new of all things plastic requires oil, so just recycle and reduce that dependence. And you know what, it will make us a healthier nation as a whole. In many retrospects. Maybe we will have a better respect for what God gave us instead of taking it for granted.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
it goes pop
So apparently a lot of americans eat a lot of popcorn. I maybe have it twice a year, and at that its kettlecorn.
Large Popcorn
1,283 calories
78 g fat (49 g saturated)
1,850 mg sodium
Yes, yes, it’s the custom; everyone at the theatre is eating popcorn. In fact, each American consumes more than 200 cups of popcorn a year, and it’s no surprise considering a movie theatre’s large bucket is 20 cups in itself! But snub the butter soak and you’ll save yourself from two-and-a-half day’s worth of saturated fat.
From a Yahoo Health Article: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/8224/6-worst-things-to-eat-at-the-movies/
Large Popcorn
1,283 calories
78 g fat (49 g saturated)
1,850 mg sodium
Yes, yes, it’s the custom; everyone at the theatre is eating popcorn. In fact, each American consumes more than 200 cups of popcorn a year, and it’s no surprise considering a movie theatre’s large bucket is 20 cups in itself! But snub the butter soak and you’ll save yourself from two-and-a-half day’s worth of saturated fat.
From a Yahoo Health Article: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/8224/6-worst-things-to-eat-at-the-movies/
i want to sleep
So the caffeine has worn off. It's after lunch. I have to wait till the calculation steadies one more point. And I want to sleep. What a better way to wait but to talk about how much I want to have a baby and how I struggle with where I am at and what prevents me from doing so.
Well it is pretty obvious to both Keith and I that we are called to be parents. We really want children. And we usually joke that we want to raise little priests and nuns. So I guess that means no grandkids, but oh well. Anyway, I really want to be a mom. Because I want to be able to learn more about sacrificial love and understand what it is to love in another way different than husband and wife love and different then friend love. Sometimes I don't know how to verbalize it well enough.
Keith and I express aloud that we don't want to wait to have children, that we want to be generous parents from the get go (not the GE gas station, :)). Many people have told me that they see me being a mama. I see that right now that is what God intends in my future, however, there are obstacles at present.
First of all, I'm a student in a school without childcare. I'm in a field that is anti-kid, and I am not sure how those around me would react to me bringing a child to work with me, even though I know that it wouldn't be overtly a bad thing. Sometimes I think that would actually make me want to be here, instead of seeing this job as something I have to do so that I get be a mama.
So I have maybe a year or two left here. What will I decide to do. Well Keith and I have decided that for now we will be patient, until September, and then decide if this is something that we can do.
I know that I would not feel bad about making the sacrafices for a child. I don't need to have the latest everything. I actually think that potentially having a baby wouldn't be overtly expensive as long as I stick with attachment parenting, ecological breastfeeding and co sleeping. That means no crib, no constant diaper costs, no baby food costs. A lot cheaper. And all the hospital visits, well, I want a midwife and a doula. Not a doctor. I think that babies were born tons of times without a doctor, and not till the 19OO's did they have doctors for delivery. I don't think its needed that much.
Anyway, so I am a crazy girl, with a supportive husband, who wants to be a mom. Usually this is more than most people get. Probably why they contracept and abort. But yeah God is good, and I know he shares in my sufferings and in my joys as well. So the scary things about having children, well God's there to get me thru it to share in it.
But really in all this, I have learned that I need to pray for guidance. Probably almost daily, and to have faith that if it is God's will, then it will be done and done well if I have anything to say about it. So if anything, all the wanting a baby has challenged me to really think about God and remember that is my focus.
Well it is pretty obvious to both Keith and I that we are called to be parents. We really want children. And we usually joke that we want to raise little priests and nuns. So I guess that means no grandkids, but oh well. Anyway, I really want to be a mom. Because I want to be able to learn more about sacrificial love and understand what it is to love in another way different than husband and wife love and different then friend love. Sometimes I don't know how to verbalize it well enough.
Keith and I express aloud that we don't want to wait to have children, that we want to be generous parents from the get go (not the GE gas station, :)). Many people have told me that they see me being a mama. I see that right now that is what God intends in my future, however, there are obstacles at present.
First of all, I'm a student in a school without childcare. I'm in a field that is anti-kid, and I am not sure how those around me would react to me bringing a child to work with me, even though I know that it wouldn't be overtly a bad thing. Sometimes I think that would actually make me want to be here, instead of seeing this job as something I have to do so that I get be a mama.
So I have maybe a year or two left here. What will I decide to do. Well Keith and I have decided that for now we will be patient, until September, and then decide if this is something that we can do.
I know that I would not feel bad about making the sacrafices for a child. I don't need to have the latest everything. I actually think that potentially having a baby wouldn't be overtly expensive as long as I stick with attachment parenting, ecological breastfeeding and co sleeping. That means no crib, no constant diaper costs, no baby food costs. A lot cheaper. And all the hospital visits, well, I want a midwife and a doula. Not a doctor. I think that babies were born tons of times without a doctor, and not till the 19OO's did they have doctors for delivery. I don't think its needed that much.
Anyway, so I am a crazy girl, with a supportive husband, who wants to be a mom. Usually this is more than most people get. Probably why they contracept and abort. But yeah God is good, and I know he shares in my sufferings and in my joys as well. So the scary things about having children, well God's there to get me thru it to share in it.
But really in all this, I have learned that I need to pray for guidance. Probably almost daily, and to have faith that if it is God's will, then it will be done and done well if I have anything to say about it. So if anything, all the wanting a baby has challenged me to really think about God and remember that is my focus.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Studying Politics....
Apparently, I suck at debating politics. But I am ok with that. I am not very good sometimes at espressing my views. Or rather the views I have due to truth. But this is why I end up being a republican more often than democrat. It is from the priests for life site. http://www.priestsforlife.org/elections/voterguide.htm
FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.
The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.
In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).
Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
4. Human Cloning
"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).
So, yeah, maybe there are a few democrats that get these things, but unfourtunately that is not the norm. However, I am willing to look for those that do line up with the church on these issues. And fourtunately, my family has taught me well for these to be non-negotiable things as well.
FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.
The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.
In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).
Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
4. Human Cloning
"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).
So, yeah, maybe there are a few democrats that get these things, but unfourtunately that is not the norm. However, I am willing to look for those that do line up with the church on these issues. And fourtunately, my family has taught me well for these to be non-negotiable things as well.
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