A Christmas Story - A Triple Dog Dare You

I came across this on Fox News a few minutes ago. If any of you have watched the movie, A Christmas Story, with Peter Billingsley as Ralphie, you will get a good laugh at this article. I have a 9 year old daughter, and can't imagine her doing something like this. Here is the link, but I don't know how long it will be on there.

Indiana Boys Left With Bleeding Tongues After Licking Flagpole

Saturday, January 26, 2008

CHESTERTON, Ind. — Two fourth-grade boys mimicking a scene from the movie "A Christmas Story" wound up with their tongues stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Gavin Dempsey and James Alexander were serving on flag duty at Jackson Elementary School Friday morning, with the job of raising and lowering the school's flags. They decided to see if their tongues really would stick to the cold metal.

"I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong," Gavin said.

Karen Alexander, James' mother , said her son told her he got the idea from the movie, which is based on stories about a boy growing up in the northwest Indiana community of Hammond in the 1940s.

"I can't believe he did it, but they learned their lesson," she said.

James said he plans to eat a lot of ice cream to help nurse his wound.

"When you're young, you're just messing around," he said.

Billie Dempsey, Gavin's mom, said a nurse called them to tell them the boys' tongues were bleeding.

"The nurse asked them, 'OK, who double-dog dared who?"' Billie Dempsey said, a reference to a phrase that a character in the movie used to dare another child to stick his tongue to the pole.

Hailey Pictures/Evangelism.

Here is a picture of our daughter in law, and granddaughter that was taken at Christmas.



Our son and daughter in law will be married ten years in February, and we are very blessed to have her in our family. They've been together since they were in high school. Our son came over with the baby today, and I laughed and told him this is a big year for both of us. He'll turn 30 in March, while I will turn 50 in May.

Our church is taking the School of Biblical Evangelism class from The Way of the Master. We just finished up the third week, and it's been an exciting class so far. Years ago I took Evangelism Explosion in an Assemblies of God church believe it or not. I learned alot from EE, and it was a good program, but for me it was hard to implement. I'm finding The Way of the Master easier. I've even been successful with memorizing bible verses so for, and for that I thank the Lord.

Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron teach the law and the gospel. Until someone understands the bad news, they will never understand the good news. I look forward to implementing more of what I'm learning.

In the first lesson, they had three questions they wanted us to ask at least two others. I'm going to throw the questions out there, and would be interested in your responses. I'll list the questions, along with my answers.

1. Do you share your faith regularly? No

Do you go out of your way to verbally share the gospel with strangers? No

2. If not, is there any reason why you don't? Yes

3. What is the main reason you don't share your faith more often? The main reason is fear - the fear of saying the wrong thing, and the fear of not being able to answer their questions. Another thing is that I seem to run into JW's and Mormons.

I also used the excuse that because I am a housewife, I don't encounter people often. It's an excuse because I DO get out. It's not like I'm locked up in my house day after day, I do go to the grocery store, and places like that.

So, what are your thoughts, and answers?

To God Be the Glory

To God be the glory, great things he hath done!
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son,
Who yielded his life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that we may go in.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear his voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father through Jesus the Son,
And give him the glory, great things he hath done!

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood!
To ev'ry believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus forgiveness receives.

Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.

Raising Teens

My daughters and I did surprise my husband the night before his birthday. It didn't go exactly like we had planned, but it went well enough. He was very surprised and when the girls jumped out of the car and yelled SURPRISE, he was looking for whoever it was visiting us, lol. We're enjoying this car very much.

Now on to what's been on my mind lately. Raising children is not easy, and so many times I feel like I'm just floundering, especially now that we're raising a teen, with a younger daughter watching, and following, her example. And I just happen to be seen as Mrs. Mean Mom, and that's not an easy thing to be seen as. I guess you could say I've been in the Woe is Me state of mind lately, and having quite a pity party. I'm not quite sure that I actually was, but I do know the Lord gave me much encouragement this morning in that whatever it is I'm doing, I'm on the right track. I still feel like I'm failing in so many areas, but I did find myself encouraged this morning.

I searched online to see if I could find something that might help me in raising my daughters, and I came across a very good article on parenting teens on the NANC site with excellent articles. It was a most convicting article for me to read. Here is a link to the article, and just a portion of the article itself:

The Bible tells us how frequently God displayed His awesome power and majesty in the Old Testament. How He showed His love and concern for His people in His one-sided covenants, knowing that we would fall, but He would be true to His Word. He knew that we would frequently reject His counsel and then need to come back to Him and repent. We know,
understand and appreciate all this as long as it is about others, or even us -- just not
our children. Please, God, not our children. We have raised them better and they don’t
appreciate “how much we have done for them.”Beloved mom and dad, (I hate to tell
you this, but...) one sinner marries another sinner and they produce little sinners. I could go on. I could probably make you thoroughly depressed and anxious if I discussed all the counseling cases I have had with rebellious teens and their parents. The forces we are fighting against are
incredible. The evil that our teens are exposed to can literally overwhelm them. So much so that, by the time most parents come in to see me about their children, they are hopeless and reflect the countenance of the Proverb that says, “Hope deferred maketh a heart sick”
(Proverbs 13:12).

The highlighted part seemed to hit me the hardest, although the entire article was helpful, but convicting. Lately I've been dealing with a lot of disrespect from them, and even outright telling me no on some things. This morning I had a talk with them, (and they were bored to tears) and the talk was more like the highlighted part, a woe is Mom kind of talk.

I've been thinking about getting a couple of books by Paul Tripp, one is Age of Opportunity, and the other one is War of Words. Have any of you read those two books, and would you recommend them?

I tried to correct the paragraph that isn't lined right, but I couldn't fix it, but I'm leaving it that way.

Psst - Let Me Tell You a Secret - Shhhhhhh

I have been keeping a secret from my husband since last Thursday afternoon. I kept it from my daughters until yesterday. This little secret has not been easy to keep. I told only one other person, my online friend Mrs. Cheese (teehee).

Last Thursday was one of the best days I have had in a long time. I went out to lunch with a friend, and you can read about that here. In that same post, I told you I had a surprise for my husband. I'll let you in on this little secret, which he'll find out about tonight.

After I got home, I got a call from another friend of mine from church. She told me that her father had a car that he was GIVING away because he was buying another one. He asked if she knew anyone who needed a car, and she immediately thought of us. We have an old 1989 minivan that is on it's last legs, and it was the only car we had. The power steering went completely out during the summer and I was unable to drive it, my husband can but it's getting more and more difficult for him. So, I have been unable to drive for a long, long time. The window on the passenger side, my side, would not roll down, and the air conditioning had broken down last spring. So it was one long, hot summer. Because of all of that, I just stopped going anywhere and rarely left the house. We were planning on buying a used car with our tax money sometime in the middle of February. So we were in desperate need of another car. Another thing is that our van had only lap belts in the backseat that my daughters used. Whenever we went anywhere I trusted the Lord that He would protect them.

My friend and I made arrangements for yesterday, that she was going to pick me and the girls up in the morning to pick our new car up. I still had not told the girls, but I did tell them I had a surprise for them. I sort of blew it when we got near her house because I said something like "so when I leave, I turn right, right?", and my older daughter, being the smart girl that she is, picked up on that. What was pretty funny though is the girls were sitting on the couch, and Toni gave them a late Christmas present. They opened it up, and it was those Lifesavers in a book things, and my younger daughter looked like "that's it, that's the surprise?", lol. When Toni's father pulled up, I told the girls to get up to come see our new car. Brooke, my younger daughter's eyes got big, and her mouth was open wide. She was so surprised and just couldn't believe it. She has been praying for the Lord to provide another car for us, and this has been such a good faith builder for her. Heather was surprised too, but Brooke's expression was priceless!

Our new car is a 1992 Chrysler Fifth Avenue New Yorker, and it is absolutely beautiful! It rides so nicely, and I absolutely love it. It is in excellent condition, and I am so thankful, and grateful to the Lord for blessing us in this way. I pray He will bless Toni's parents too. They are so sweet, her dad reminds me of my late father. If I can figure out how to do the disk to the computer from my new digital camera, I will take a picture of the car and post it.

I parked the car out front, almost to our next door neighbor's. Having a car parked there is not unusual because sometimes our neighbors have friends who park there. So, here's the plan for telling my husband. We're all going to go out tonight, and the girls are going to go out to the car first and hide, and I'm going to sidetrack him while they do that. They're going to get into our new car, and when my husband and I come out, we'll go to the van, he's going to open my door (like he always does), he'll look in and see that the girls aren't there. Then, the girls are going to open the car door and yell SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is his birthday, and so this car is a combination late Christmas present for all of us, and an early birthday present for him. It's going to be our family car.

You guys just don't know how thankful I am - both to the Lord and to Toni's parents.

An Enjoyable Day

I went to lunch today with a good friend of mine from church, and we had such a good time. It was so nice to be able to do that. I enjoy her company, and I have not done anything like that in a long time.

My husband's birthday is coming up on the 11th, and boy have I got a surprise for him, Lord willing. And, no it doesn't have anything to do with babies, or anything like that, lol. So if anyone from church is reading this, or anyone else who knows him, shhhh don't tell him. All I can say is I have heard of things like this happening, but never to us, but it will be truly a blessing.

I'm reading Winnie the Pooh to my younger daughter, and tonight we read about Pooh and Piglet's encounter with a Heffalump, which is one of our favorite chapters. I may be an adult but Winnie the Pooh is a favorite of mine, all of the books by A. A. Milne.

I read to my younger daughter every night before she goes to bed, and I need to find something that I can do with my older daughter. She's 14 years old, and one of the things we have in common is a love of theology.

We've been going to our church for over two years, almost three years. We've been praying that the Lord would bring a girl around her age to our church, and He did that a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Elizabeth, and she's 15 years old. That was such a praise report.

I did get a call from our son today telling us that our granddaughter has pneumonia. He said our daughter in law noticed that she was not being herself, so she took her temperature. It was around 101.9 so they took her to the doctor, and was told she had the pneumonia. They put her on antibiotics, and thankfully, she is doing much better now, and that is another praise report.

Thoughts on Trials

While thinking about trials this morning, I read the following verses from James:

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 1:3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

James 1:4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We're told to "count it all joy" when we go through trials. I don't know about you, but I have to admit I have been anything but joyful while going through these trials. It hit me hard this morning that my less than joyful attitude is sin. It shows a lack of trust in the Lord, a lack of trust that He knows what He is doing, and of what He wants to accomplish in my life. I'm sure I've been aware before this that my less than joyful attitude was sin, but it seemed to just scream out at me this morning. What pride to think that I'm wiser than my Father in Heaven. I had to repent of that attitude.

Tonight, while thinking about it some more, I thought of my granddaughter. As my children did before her when they were babies, she too fights sleep. She fights something that is good for her, something that is best for her, something that she needs. Yet she fights it. Like my granddaughter, and like my children did when they were babies, I fight. I fight against the trials, I fight against them because I don't want these trials. I want my own way. I think I know what's best for me. A little while ago I was reminded of a Rich Mullins song called Hold Me Jesus, except in my case, it's something I, at least in my own mind, think I want.

Well, sometimes my life
Just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

CHORUS:
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart

CHORUS

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees

And this Salvation Army band
Is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin

CHORUS

You have been King of my glory

A Praise Report of God's Protection

While my heart is still pounding, and it's still fresh in my mind, let me tell you of God's protection towards our family just now.

I was planning to bake a pumpkin pie, so I turned on the oven to get it heated while I got my ingredients together and mixed it up. I needed to open a couple of cans, so after I got my ingredients together, I walked over to the sink. As I walked towards it, I happened to glance at the stove, which had smoke coming out of it. I opened it up, and there was a fire inside the oven. I immediately called my husband into the kitchen, and he blew it out. It was not a small fire inside, and I thank the Lord that He had me walk over there at that time. And I thank Him for His protection. For some reason our smoke alarm didn't go off.

My husband cleaned out whatever it was that caused the fire, so now I'm off to get my pie together and bake it, all the while my heart is still pounding.

Thank You Lord for your protection over our family today.

Happy New Year! The past two days I've been reflecting on the past year, and how the Lord has brought me safely through it. My meditations did include the blessings He bestowed upon our family as a whole, but I wanted to focus here on His mercy and grace towards me.

The past several years have been pretty rough ones for me in many ways, but I see the goodness of the Lord in them too. It is only through His mercy that I am here today. The biggest thing I learned this year was this: "it's not about you, it's about Him," said to me by a very dear online from of mine. Mrs. Cheese knows who she is.

I want to thank Mrs. Cheese because those words were a life saver to me. During those times that I became discouraged, ore even despondent, and I hate to admit this but there were many days I felt like that, and they still come, her words came back to me, and do come back to me, sometimes to haunt me lol. There were times I didn't want to hear that little voice, and wanted it to go away, lol. But, I am so glad she said them to me because they have never failed to bring me hope, and back to my senses.

The trials the Lord has brought into my life, and continues to bring, are not fun, they hurt. But every day I see more and more how the Lord is taking the crutches, ie the idols I had, and still have, in my life, away so that I am left with the ONLY thing that really matters in this life, and that is HIM. Sometimes I don't think I can be crushed anymore, and then boom - there it is again. Through it all, the Lord has proven Himself to be so faithful, full of grace and mercy.

I want to leave you with two things. First, a reminder that it's not about us, it's about HIM, and HIS glory.

Finally, I want to leave you with this to ponder today, and this passage is 1st Chronicles 16:8-37:

1Ch 16:8 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

1Ch 16:9 Sing to him; sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!

1Ch 16:10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

1Ch 16:11 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

1Ch 16:12 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered,

1Ch 16:13 O offspring of Israel his servant, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!

1Ch 16:14 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

1Ch 16:15 Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

1Ch 16:16 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,

1Ch 16:17 which he confirmed as a statute to Jacob, as an everlasting covenant to Israel,

1Ch 16:18 saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, as your portion for an inheritance."

1Ch 16:19 When you were few in number, and of little account, and sojourners in it,

1Ch 16:20 wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,

1Ch 16:21 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,

1Ch 16:22 saying, "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!"

1Ch 16:23 Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day.

1Ch 16:24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

1Ch 16:25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods.

1Ch 16:26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

1Ch 16:27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place.

1Ch 16:28 Ascribe to the LORD, O clans of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
1Ch 16:29 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;

1Ch 16:30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

1Ch 16:31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns!"

1Ch 16:32 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it!

1Ch 16:33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.

1Ch 16:34 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

1Ch 16:35 Say also: "Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.

1Ch 16:36 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!" Then all the people said, "Amen!" and praised the LORD.