Every day I wake up early to have my quiet time with the Lord. I am reading through the Bible in a year. I have one of those Bible in a Year things. This is now my third year with it...and I have been more diligent since Thanksgiving break...when I began again to make a new habit.
Each morning I spend time in reading, reflecting and prayer. Each day my prayer is to be somehow different...look a little less like the world to my friends and family. It is an earnest prayer...and each day I fall flat. It is often times so discouraging. Yet, I don't want to be one of those people who live life looking backwards, wishing I would have always done it differently.
After work yesterday, I went out to Happy Hour with a bunch of folks from work. On the way there I prayed for common sense, a quiet spirit, and NOT LOOSE LIPS!
You know how it went....
I was ok at first...but after an hour...the real me comes out....and I am suddenly engaging in all of the conversations. I am laughing at the coarse jokes. I am speaking things that do not bring joy to the Lord!
Each day is a new day...I am covered by His grace!
He gives me strength to begin each new day with renewed strength and purpose to try it again!
encouragement
President Barack Obama's radical agenda is prompting family advocates to steel themselves for a four-year struggle.
At stake: the definition of marriage and family, the sanctity of human life and many other issues. It's all laid out at WhiteHouse.gov.
"President Obama is no friend of family values, and that is made perfectly clear on the White House Web site," said Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus on the Family Action. "This is the most bold and comprehensive pro-homosexual, abortion-friendly administration agenda we've ever seen. And this is no time for Christians to remain silent."
On marriage
WhiteHouse.gov: "President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act." (The Defense of Marriage Act is the federal government's definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.)
Focus on the Family: Four key points.
On abortion
WhiteHouse.gov: "He has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Administration."
Focus on the Family: Every human life has inherent value and should be protected, from fertilization to natural death.
On destructive embryonic stem-cell research
WhiteHouse.gov: "Obama is a co-sponsor of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which will allow research of human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos."
Focus on the Family: Supports and encourages stem-cell research using non-embryonic sources of stem cells, including umbilical cord blood, placenta, bone marrow and various adult tissues. No human lives are destroyed in harvesting stem cells from these sources. Tax dollars should not be used to encourage the destruction of living human embryos for research .
On special rights for homosexual employees
WhiteHouse.gov: "President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity."
Focus on the Family: The government should not tell employers whom they can hire based on a category of protection that is not based on an immutable characteristic, but on a changeable sexual attraction, behavior or identity. The goal of laws like this is to silence religious free speech.
On a new class of crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation
WhiteHouse.gov: "President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation (and) expand hate crimes protection."
Focus on the Family: Everyone should receive equal protection under the law. Hate-crime laws threaten the free-speech rights of people of faith who speak out on the issue of homosexuality. These laws also make it possible that pastors could be prosecuted for preaching against homosexuality, as they have been in other countries.
On same-sex adoption
WhiteHouse.gov: "President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation."
Focus on the Family: Children deserve the best chance to have both a mother and a father. Same-sex adoption increases the likelihood that a child will be denied a mom or a dad.
On homosexuals in the military
WhiteHouse.gov: "President Obama agrees we need to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."
Focus on the Family: Federal law states that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. Meanwhile, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a practice put in place during the Clinton administration prohibiting the military from asking about sexual orientation. The Department of Defense must be allowed to set its own requirements for military service.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
