Friday, April 20, 2012

Lots of Links

I'm usually on the Internet on my iPad and links don't post very well to Facebook from there (no pretty previews, just a long and ugly URL). So I've got a bunch of links saved up that I wanted to share with the world and decided that there were enough to merit a blog post.  So, in no particular order ...

Paul Tripp, 5 Signs Waiting has Weakened Your Faith. This is really old (February). But I wanted to share it because it reminded me of a few friends in particular to whom God is saying "wait" in this season of life.  AND, it applies to all of us, because even if we have all we want right now, that can be, in a sense, conditioning our souls to have a weakened faith when we, too, enter an inevitable period of waiting.

If you're going to buy a new laptop this year, wait until the autumn! This post has a lot of good reasons to postpone purchase of new laptops until later this year.

10 Ways for Moms to Respect their Daughters. This caught my eye because our Sunday School class on parenting has three main tenets with regard to kids: enjoy them, respect them, listen to them. This list of 10 is chock-full of ways to develop godly character and I can see how they can have lifelong benefits for girls whose parents practice them.

Not to leave out the other 50% of our children, here are 10 Ways for Moms (and dads) to Respect their Sons.

America's Crisis of Character. Peggy Noonan is usually spot-on (in my opinion), but this piece from her is particularly sobering as she examines a week's worth of events that demonstrate the deterioration of American character. Read it, weep and pray, and then read my next link...

Kevin DeYoung responds to both the looming economic and character crises in America by asking, "Give a Rip? Have a Kid." In a nutshell, our culture's fertility rate does not bode well for our economy, but those groups with the highest childbearing rates tend to be religious ... so let's populate the earth with godly little people!

But when you're having all those kids, be careful to protect them. This was my depressing conversation topic of choice last Saturday: 5 Things You Should Know about Child Sexual Offenders. I think every parent and every person who has any exposure to children/youth in our church should read this and be very aware of the potential that there might be predators around us. To give you a taste of why, try this on for size: "One study indicates that child molesters who sexually victimize females outside of the home averaged approximately 20 different victims. That same study found that child molesters who sexually victimize males outside of the home averaged approximately 150 different victims!"  Ummm... I'm so thankful for a church whose nursery policies take these realities seriously, but I still don't want to be naive about the dangers to my little boy.

Finally, on the lighter side (don't we need it!), can somebody who knits please make me this hat? I'm due in October, so you have lots of time :)

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