If God asked you to sacrifice your family to Him, would you do it?

My cousin John Robert, who is an atheist, posted this on my husband’s Facebook wall: If God asked you to sacrifice your family to Him, would you do it?

Prince Charming was at work, so I had all day to think about this before he ever saw it. He posted his reply; now it's my turn.

But first, I asked my kids what they thought of the question. Space Cadet, predictably, didn’t want to think about it.

Cornbread Muffin said, “Sure, and I’ll start with my distant relatives first. Is now a good time for a visit?”

Czarina rolled her eyes and said, “Daddy wouldn’t do that.”

Fashinista said, “I would run away and hide, and call DFCS (Department of Family and Children Services).”

Now, assuming this question is referring to human sacrifice, it is a red herring for at least 3 reasons.

FIRST REASON: God does not ask us to do something that is in violation to his written Word (the Bible).

Many ancient civilizations practiced some sort of human sacrifice. These civilizations include the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Ethiopians, Canaanites, Chinese, Persians, Arabians, & Romans. God has made it very clear how he feels about human sacrifice, and that He did not want His people to participate in this practice.

Deut 18:9-12 - When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.

Deuteronomy 12:31 - You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Jeremiah 19:5 - They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.

Jeremiah 32:35 - They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.

Psalm 106:37-40 - They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.

They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

Therefore the LORD was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance.

Leviticus 20:3 - I will set my face against that man and I will cut him off from his people; for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

2 Kings 16:3 - He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

2 Kings 21:6 - He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

2 Kings17:17 - They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

That’s the first reason. I hope to research and write up the second and third reasons in the near future.

Thoughts, anyone?

If I hadn't moved to Georgia. . .

I might never have had a Chick Fil A sandwich or some of their amazing lemonade.

I wouldn’t know what Cow Appreciation Day is.

I probably would never have heard someone say, “I might could do that.”

I would have never seen a deer stealing off our peach tree.

I would have never tasted Red Velvet Cake.

I would still believe the Civil War ended in 1865.

I wouldn’t have eaten at the Varsity.

I wouldn’t have had to correct my child’s English when she said, “I’m fixing to. . . “

I wouldn’t have known it was possible to “miss” snow. (Just a little.)

I wouldn’t have known that even when they are fixed right, I still don’t like grits.

I wouldn’t have realized I’m a Yankee.

I wouldn’t have seen “Gone with the Wind” at the top of the CNN tower.

I wouldn’t know that ants can bite.

I wouldn’t live 1 ½ hours from my kindred-spirit cousin Cheryl and have the opportunity to get to know her wonderful family.

I wouldn’t understand possum jokes.

There are a lot of wonderful people I would not have met.

I probably would not be using “Hey!” as a greeting.

I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to get Georgia clay stains out of my kids’ clothes.

I might never have actually seen Rock City.

I would have missed out on the Stone Mountain Laser Show, and the Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens.

September 11

Czarina has started a blog as an assignment from her English class at our home school co-op. Reading through her blog and the blogs of her classmates has encouraged me to get back to blogging.

Today my mind is filled with images from September 11, 2001. Tomorrow is the 9^th anniversary of that horrific day. I am wondering how my teenage friends (who were children at the time) and my young adult friends (who were teenagers at the time) remember that day, and the weeks following. My kids were 12, 10 and 6 at the time. I remember Space Cadet and I being glued to the TV, watching the same thing over and over. I would turn off the TV, and a little while later Space Cadet would turn it back on, to see if it was real, or just a bad dream. Corn Bread Muffin handled it the way he has always handled trauma: he talked about it. Fashionista (my new name for Hoodie Girl, since Hoodie Girl doesn’t fit any more) painted water color pictures of tall buildings with smoke billowing out of them.

What do you remember?

Fun with English

Czarina: Yesterday, I saw two people die.
Me: WHAT?
Hoodie Girl: She means she saw a funeral procession with two hearses.


I took Space Cadet to the doctor's because of an upper respiratory infection. I was telling Prince Charming about the medicines the doctor prescribed, including steroids.
Czarina: I thought steroids are bad.
Me: They are bad if you misuse them, like when athletes take large amounts every day to make themselves stronger. They are okay if you use them the way the doctor tells you to, to help you get better when you are sick.
. . . a little while later. . .
Hoodie Girl: Mom? Czarina said you are giving Space Cadet marijuana?

This is how rumors get started. . .

GRRRRR

Last year Space Cadet was approved for SSI (disability) and Medicaid. She could have gotten this years ago, but we figured we would just take care of her ourselves. Well, when Prince Charming lost his job last year, we knew we needed help.

When Space Cadet got her Medicaid card, she was assigned a primary care physician. Since our regular family doctor takes Medicaid, we wanted to switch to her as Space Cadet’s PCP.

Earlier this month I talked to someone from APS Healthcare (the place it says to call on the card) and told them about the change.

Today we went to see the doctor. The receptionist told me that they couldn’t see her because there was a different PCP on the card. I told her I had talked to someone about changing that. She checked with Medicaid, and the change was not recorded in the system.

She suggested I call Medicaid from the office there and see if they would make the switch. I called the number on the card (APS) and they told me I should have called Medicaid (a different number, which is NOT on the card) to make the switch. Well, no one told me that when I talked to APS the first time.

SO, I called Medicaid. Of course all of these phone calls contained the obligatory long phone menus, and time spent listening to how important my call is to them. When I finally spoke to a real person at Medicaid, they said the change WAS in the system (they even told me the address), but that it wouldn’t go into affect until February 1. (Why was I not told that before? And what is the reason for the delay?)

The Medicaid lady said I could call the doctor on the card and ask for a referral to our doctor. Now, why would a doctor’s office we’ve never been to make a referral for us?

THEN the Medicaid lady said that if they got some number from our doctor and a diagnosis code, maybe they (Medicaid) could issue a referral. I asked, how can we have a DIAGNOSIS code when she hasn’t even seen the doctor yet?

Then the receptionist tried to talk to the Medicaid lady. The result was that we would have to reschedule for after February 1.

I said, let’s forget Medicaid for today, and just use our insurance, and I’ll pay the co-pay. GUESS WHAT? We aren’t allowed to do that!

So we’re going back on February 2.

Aren’t you looking forward to government-sponsored healthcare?

Happy Veteran's Day

It was 1960. He was 13, and my birth made him an uncle. I've heard he took great pride in being an uncle. When I visited my grandparents, he always wanted to take care of me.

I remember a couple of Christmases at my grandparents, with him there. One Christmas Eve, he went out for awhile, and while he was gone, Santa came to visit. It was too bad he missed Santa. . .

One night when I was five years old, my parents woke me up to say good-bye to him. Uncle Gary was going to the Army the next day.

I know he got to come home at least once during his two-year stint in Vietnam. It was the week before Easter, and I was shocked to see Easter Baskets for my brother and I. I asked my grandmother why the Easter Bunny came early. My grandmother replied that she had colored the eggs, so we could celebrate Easter while Uncle Gary was home. "Grandma!" I said, "You do a better job than the Easter Bunny!"

A couple of months before he was to come home, our phone rang. I remember my parents crying and telling me. . . Uncle Gary was dead. He was 20 years old. I was 7.

I'm sure I'd been told this, but I didn't remember, and so when I heard this from my brother a few days ago, it was news. . . Uncle Gary died saving the life of a friend. He was behind a boulder, his friend was wounded, and Uncle Gary ran out from safety to help his friend. The friend survived; he didn't.

The picture is the last one he sent my grandparents before he was killed. He is slightly older in this picture than my son is now. I look at that smile, and I understand why relatives used to say that my brother looked like his uncle. (My brother named his son after Uncle Gary.)

Thank you, Uncle Gary. I'm sorry you didn't get to marry, have children (who would have been my cousins), have a career, have grandchildren.

Thank you to everyone who has served or is serving in the armed forces, and thank you to the families who wait at home. Our freedom truly is not free. . . it is paid for by all of you heroes.

I feel like babbling on. . .

BRAIN DUMP:

Prince Charming has been working for CRS (the Canadian company) from home for the past couple of weeks. He planned to drive up to Ontario on Monday, but his transmission died yesterday. Since the car is almost 13 years old and has 136,000 miles on it, it’s not worth it to fix it. So, he will be flying. The room he is renting is 5 blocks from work so he can walk to work, but I know it is going to be COLD at times. He also has to figure out shopping so he can eat, do laundry, etc. Also he’d like to go to church. The closest Nazarene church is in the next town, so he may have to just go to whatever is closest. His cell phone doesn’t work in Canada so he’s going to have to figure that out too. He’ll be back the week before Thanksgiving and hopefully can find a car to buy then.

Our finances are really strained and I am starting to wonder what in the world God is doing, but we are both very grateful the car didn’t die on his way to Ontario!

A local clothing store has a 50% tent sale twice a year. Czarina, Hoodie Girl and I worked there Thursday and Friday for the first time. I am very proud of my girls; they both worked hard and were very helpful to the customers. Czarina could sell a screen door to a person who lives in a submarine. She really should work for commission. They both got commended by one of the bosses before we left yesterday.

Speaking of sales skills. . . Czarina was taking orders for donuts for a choir fund raiser. At church Wednesday night she sold some to the youth pastor. Then she asked his sister in law if she wanted to buy any. Miss Barbara checked her wallet and said she didn’t have any money. Czarina turned to Pastor Steve and asked, “Can you loan Miss Barbara $5.00?” Not only does she sell, she also arranges financing!

WORK ETHIC: The girls were both complaining, after working for 9 hours on Thursday, that some of the teen age boys, who were getting the same pay they were, were just standing around and talking most of Thursday. Well, the bosses noticed who was working and who wasn’t. On Friday, those boys got pulled out of the tent to direct traffic in the parking lot. . . in the rain. As Hoodie Girl said, “That’s a job where if you don’t do it, you get run over!” They both would like to get part time jobs, but first they need to master getting their schoolwork done in a timely manner. Speaking of schoolwork, they have a lot of catching up to do!

After one semester of college when I was 18, I decided I would rather work full time, since I was making almost $3.00 an hour at K-mart (35 cents an hour above minimum wage!) After 3 years my hourly pay had more than doubled, but I realized I did not want to work at Kmart the rest of my life, so at age 21 I went back to school and got a degree in accounting. The past two days reminded me of why I did that. 17 hours and 45 minutes of straightening up clothes and shoes and helping customers left me sore and TIRED.

Space Cadet and Corn Bread Muffin each cooked dinner the past two days. Corn Bread Muffin found a recipe for baked macaroni and cheese online and jazzed it up a bit with turkey bacon bits. It was WONDERFUL!

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME: Hoodie Girl’s science project is how to fix broken and dented ping pong balls. Apparently you can fix them with heat, so she has tried things like putting them in boiling water (worked great) and using a blow drier (not so great, the blow drier overheated). She also used jewelry wire to hang a ping pong ball from the kitchen faucet (it is a very high faucet). Then she tried to use the heat from a lighter to get the ping pong ball hot. She got too close and the ball went up in flames -- about a foot high flame! We have a string hanging over the sink that we use to hang rubber gloves and other things. . . sort of like a mini clothes line. Hoodie Girl quickly got the gloves out of the way and I turned the faucet on. The wire broke, the ball fell into the sink, and the water put it out. No harm done (except to the ping pong ball, but it was already broken.) We both thought of taking a picture, but we thought putting the fire out was more important.