So what happens if you're wierd??

I haven't blogged in a while so this is going to be an update on anything I can think of.

School is going GREAT! I am studying American government and biblical law...Sound boring? Well it's not! I absolutely love it!!! One of the books I'm reading is called Tools Of Dominion. Wen I read the first bit I had to take notes just to understand it, But after a couple weeks I could begin to get it all without writing it down :P. Since then I have really learned a LOT from it.

A couple of days after my 17th birthday I finally got to go and get my drivers licence...Yay!!! So now I can run errands for Mom or go do things I want without having to make sure one of the girls is able to take me.


We went to the North Myrtle Beach with Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lori and had a BLAST!!! It was GREAT hanging out with my cousins on the beach (they live next door but we never get sick of them). We stayed at a beach cottage that had four huge bedrooms and right down the road were three towers that had pools, a game room, and good beach access. A big plus was that I got to play with baby Sarah every day for almost a week :P!!! Aunt Lori took a lot of really good pictures but left her camera at the pool and when they went back to find it, it was gone.



We left the beach a couple days early to go visit Dads family who live in NC while Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lori stayed behind till Sunday. We had a great time visiting with our relatives there. We went shopping with Dads sister and found Mom her mother-of-the-bride dress. Since none of us but Hope like to shop it was nice that we found what Mom wanted right away :) . Finding the dress lessened like all of Moms "wedding stress".



This Sunday we went to church and saw some friends that we hadn't seen in a while cause we have been gone a lot. We went out to eat with some of them and ran into Uncle Kenny, Aunt Lori, and the kids coming home from the beach....Yeah that was weird!!! Now we're home hanging out with all the rest of the family around Shadybrook Acres. So there's the update on the going on's 'roun here.

Later ;D

Good Song

This song has meant a lot to me in the past! I was raised on Twila Paris and I still find so much meaning and encouragement from her music.

Twila Paris
I Am Not Afraid Anymore

I said I belonged to you
But in a secret room, I kept a secret list
I said, "Anything for You"
"Anything but this"
"Anything but this"You knew it all along
You knew it very well
You knew the sturdy walls I hid behind
Were nothing but a prison cell
-
I am not afraid anymore
You have opened all the windows
Opened all the doors
I am not afraid anymore
I feel the wind of freedom like
I never did before
The light is filling up the corners
Dancing on the floor
I am not afraid anymore
-
You have always been the same
I ran away from You
Every time You called my name
I tried to hide the truth
You knew it all along You knew it verry well
You knwe the more I covered up my heart
The more I didn't know myself
-

No room for fear
No room, no room

No room for fear

Perfect love is living here

Thoughts on Harry Potter

About a year ago I read the Harry Potter books because Mom and Dad had realized that they hadn't really looked into what the books contained. First Mom read book 1 and said I was old enough to read them. I read it because I wanted to understand what other kids were reading and I wanted to be able to back up my beliefs.


Now I have read all the books and seen all the movies that are out. I have formed quite different beliefs than I had to start with and I have really tried too look into both sides. I also read two books called What's a Christan To Do With Harry Potter? by Connie Neal and Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger. I have learned a lot from them and I highly recommend both books even if you are not considering reading the Harry Potter books or letting your children read them!!! These books will help bring you understanding of why so many people including strong Christan adults love Harry Potter.

"I am convinced that the fundamental reason for the astounding popularity of the Harry Potter novels is their ability to meet a spiritual longing for some experience of the truths of life, love, and death taught by Christianity but denied by secular culture. Human beings are designed for Christ, weather they know it or not. That the Harry Potter stories "sing along" with the great story of Christ is a significant key to understanding there compelling richness."
-Looking for God in Harry Potter


These are some questions most Christan parents ask in concerns about the Harry Potter books.

Might kids be lured unsuspectingly into occult practices?

My answer is no. I think being afraid of occult involvement is a valid fear and the Bible warns about tampering with spirits and getting involved in sorcery but the Harry Potter books do not encourage "sorcery" or invocational magic. The magic in the Harry Potter books is incantational magic. The difference is?? Well invocational means "to call in" this kind of magic is usually referred to as sorcery and the bible is very against this!!! Incantational magic is magic that shows in a -story form- the human desire for magic beyond the real world we live in. Like wands, trolls, giants, unicorns, invisibility cloaks, talking hats, and other objects that are fictional.

Might kids learn disrespect for Adults and Authority?

Harry has many different authoritie's in his life and some he resents at first but towards the end of the books Harry realizes the importance of all those adults and sees how it would have been detrimental if he had not obeyed them (which he did).

Might kids come to think that Wizards and Witches are cool while non magical people are not?

On the contrary the evil characters are the ones who hate non-magical people. Harry and his friends acknowledge that non-magical people are just as important and interesting as they are. That is the main thing the whole fight is over. The dark Lord Voldemort wants to take over and make non-magical people slaves.

"Perhaps you're wondering if you should allow your children to read or watch the movies. In order to make responsible decisions, you need to know what is really in the stories." -What's a Christan to Do With Harry Potter?

Of Kids and Snakes

This week Pris, Hope and I have been teaching a dance track at church for Camp kidstuff. We are teaching twelve k-5th grade girls a dance to Steven Curtis Chapman's The Great Adventure and it has been really fun!! It's really cool how we've gotten to know all the girls pretty well just this week and they've learned the dance really fast. Yesterday we went a few hours early to hang out with some of the teenage girls and go see a movie.

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Friday morning Abel came in my room to wake me up and as soon as I sat up he bombarded me with a story about how a vicious thing attacked him and gave him a very swollen hand and arm. By the time I could open my eyes I was pretty impressed with the size of his arm. He was excitedly telling me that he thought it was probably a copperhead bite. I wondered if this was what he wanted it to be. After further questioning he told me that he was in the woods, had shot an arrow and went to retrieve it. As he was searching he felt his hand sting and instead of looking at what had hurt him he looked at his hand and thus did not see his attacker. Dad was at work so Mom took him to the doctor who said he should go to the emergency room where we spent four hours there just to find out that it was a copperhead bite and it had injected poison but Abel's arm would get better on it's own. Easy end to an interesting day.