If you are in TN, visit www.tnrtl.org to contact your state legislators today!  Session ends next week, and we still have time to get this done!

Someone forwarded me this e-mail and picture today (thanks Merilyn!), so I have no idea where it came from and take absolutely no credit for it. But the image and message IS AWESOME, even though the quote isn’t from Abraham Lincoln, as the e-mail stated.  I added the second quote, however, and it is from Lincoln.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

- William J. H. Boetcker

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
– Abraham Lincoln

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Today I am grateful for heroes that are not afraid to stand up for the unborn babies in our state and nation.  Heroes that will do what is right and fight for the chance for children to be born instead of killed for convenience sake.  Heroes like Mother Teresa, who said:

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

And:

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love – that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

So today I am thankful, especially, for the 77 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives who voted in favor of SJR 127, a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make our state once again neutral on the issue of abortion and undo the extremely wrong 2000 state supreme court ruling by activist judges appointed by liberal pro-abortion individuals that stripped our state of all abortion regulations by “finding” a right to abortion in our state constitution even greater than that granted by Roe v. Wade.

They are my heroes.

Now we just have to do it again in 2 years.

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Today I am grateful for family bonding.  It seems like we have all been running in different directions lately.  Friday night and Saturday morning, though, hubs and I went to a family conference at church that would hopefully prepare us for the dreaded “teen years” that are fast approaching.  You have no IDEA what a miracle that is in and of itself.  But we had a blast, and he really enjoyed it.  Then we all hung out at home on Saturday night (Valentine’s Day) and ate lasagna (prepared by the HUBS!) and watched a movie.  Sunday we started implementing some of the new discipline strategies we had learned at the conference, and so far things are going great!  Then Sunday afternoon I got a call from my boss telling me to take Monday off since my son was out of school.  Sweet!  I got to spend the day hanging out with him and reinforcing some of the stuff we talked about on Sunday.   And I got to make lunch for the hubs!  Something I never get to do.  All in all, a nice relaxing weekend!

 

Today I am grateful for snow days and days off from work.  Getting ready to play Risk with Austin and make lunch for hubby.

 

SeaWorld

Dolphins! I love SeaWorld.

Me and Austin and some fake manatees.

 

Shamu!!!

Hollywood Studios

They don't call it the Tower of Terror for nothin', folks.

Brian and Austin at the entrance to Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster. Very cool.

Finale of stunt show. Incredibly cool.

Magic Kingdom

The happiest place on earth!

 

Space Mountain. 'Nuff said.

Best picture of Austin and Brian EVER.

Pretty . . .

Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest roller coaster

Safari truck. Way cool.

Heffalump

Rhino

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!

Austin, Brian, and a really big gorilla.

Prettiest sunset ever. Over the lagoon.

Epcot

Us and Spaceship Earth

Austin in front of the GM Test Track

Me and Austin in front of Mission Space

Snow White and Dopey!

Austin and Brian in "Morocco"

"Canada"

Posted a quick update over at the other blog:

http://pilgrimwanderings.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/quick-update/

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Today I am grateful for God’s unending goodness and the many blessings He has given our family over the last few weeks. 

• awesome new job
• upcoming family vacation (1st one ever!  Yay!)
• renewed sense of purpose
• beautiful fall weather
• moments of laughter
• good times with friends
• peaceful hearts

Click on image to visit Laura's blog for more Gratituesday posts!

“Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”  – Deuteronomy 4:39

“. . . For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all.  Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all.  In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.”  – I Chronicles 29: 11-12

“Everything under heaven is Mine.” – Job 41:11

“For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. . .  God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.” – Psalm 47:2, 8

“That they may know that You, whose name alone is LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.” – Psalm 83:18

“All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.”  – Psalm 86:9

“. . . surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.  Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.”  – Psalm 93:1-2

“The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.” – Psalm 103:19

 

Do not keep silent, O God!  Do not hold Your peace, and do not be still, O God!  . . . That they may know that You, whose name alone is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.  – Psalm 83:1, 18

Today I am thankful for my sweet, compassionate little boy, Austin.  I say “little” even though he is almost 12, almost 5′5″ and 130 lbs.  lol 

This past Thursday night Austin and I went to a Phil Wickham/Fee concert at our church.  One of the ministries highlighted during the concert was Compassion International.  We had sponsored a child years ago, but had to stop before moving to our current city due to financial difficulties.  I had been wanting to sponsor again, but had not gotten around to doing so. 

Anyway, when Steve Fee was talking about Compassion, Austin, who had been hanging out out front near the merchandise and ministry tables before the show, turned to me and asked if we could sponsor one of the kids he had seen while looking at the table.  Before I could say anything, he then said, “They have two girls from India, one was born on November 20, 1996, and the other was born on December 12, 1996.  I would like to sponsor one of them since they have almost the same birthday as me (November 30, 1996).  I can use my allowance money to help.” 

How can you say no to that?  I’m tearing up right now.  lol

So we went out to the table, and he decided to pick Sunita Biswas, whose birthday was December 12, 1996, because she helped her family by carrying firewood like I used to do when I was little and because he thought she looked sad. :(

I told him that since he had gotten straight A’s this grading period in school, the first month was on me.  lol  It is only $32 a month to sponsor a child, and we are going to half the cost.  He gets $10 a week for doing his chores around the house, and he is going to give $4 of that each week to sponsor her. 

I would encourage anyone out there to sponsor a child through Compassion International or Worldvision.  Both organizations spend over 80% of all funds directly on the children sponsored.