Protecting Children from Violence

I was a guest on FamilyNet Radio this morning. The show is called Mornings with Lorri and Larry. It’s a great show on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 161. It’s on Cable TV, too.
I really enjoy being a guest on the show, but I’m always a bit embarrassed when they call me a parenting expert. Shouldn’t that mean my family is perfect? Can anyone with children at home really be an expert on parenting? Isn’t that like being called an expert snow shoveler during a blizzard?
The issue this morning was helping children cope with news of school shootings. I reminded the listeners that God loves us and is ultimately in control. We can assure our children that God is watching over them and has their best interest in mind. Terrible things like school shootings are still going to happen, but we don’t have to live in fear. I think we should be honest with our children, but we can also assure them that their lives have purpose, and that they are loved.
I encouraged parents to impress on their children the importance of being vigilant, keeping an eye and ear out for signs of pending trouble among their peers. We have seen news stories this year of students stopping carnage because they had the courage to tell someone what they saw or heard.
I also suggested that parents limit how much news coverage their children see each day. I think this is especially important in younger children. I’m concerned that if children watch too much bad news they will begin to live in continuous fear.
At this point in the interview, Larry threw me a bit of a curve ball. He mentioned that children may become violent if they play violent video games. I said parents should always seek balance in their homes. Lorri then asked me if I let my children to play violent video games. I sputtered a little because I didn’t want to disagree with what Larry had just said, but I do let my son play some pretty violent games. I said I believe he sees them as challenges to win, not objects to kill for pleasure. For him, it is more of an obstacle course, killing threatening, evil aliens as he goes through. The aliens are trying to kill him and he is trying to survive. There is some “good verses evil” dynamic involved.
We played “army” with sticks when I was a kid. This is the new way to accomplish the same thing and I don’t think it makes kids desensitized, anti-social animals to play video games. It becomes a problem when children don’t seem to care if they hurt someone, become cruel to animals, or show other signs of violent behavior. Again, I think parents should be vigilant and know their children.

Dancin' with Dad

This was our fourth Daddy-Daughter Dance Saturday. A friend took this picture. We had a really good time and I was proud of how many of my friends were there making these memories with their daughters. I laughed out loud at us trying to dance to the old disco songs from my high school days. I haven't gotten any better, that's for sure. I know how to spell YMCA with my arms, but that's about it.

I've Struck Gold

A man opened his mail and read a letter from his ex-wife. It said, “Dear Sweetie, I just wanted to tell you that I have decided that I want to come back home to you. I know I didn’t want to clean the house, wash your clothes, or fix your favorite meals when we were together, but I’ve changed my mind about that. I will do everything you want if you will just take me back. The things we used to fight about look so silly now. I won’t fight with you any more. I will be sweet, just like you want me to be. If you want to play golf on Saturday afternoons, I won’t fuss, and if you forget to put down the toilet seat, I won’t nag you about it. You are the only man for me and I realize that now. If you will just take me back I will make you happy. Love, your darling wife. PS. Congratulations on winning the lottery.”
Perhaps if we could see the true value in each other, we would love each other more.
My wife didn’t win the lottery, but all it took for me to realize her value was to spend a couple of nights without her recently. I was out of town on business. It was a perfectly pleasant trip; I was in Houston getting some schooling for a new business venture. But as I sat alone in my hotel room, I thought about the silly things that bothered me at home – and wanted nothing more than to return there to face them. I was homesick.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and for me, it’s true. Nothing about my life is perfect. My wife struggles with multiple sclerosis. We struggle to make ends meet, and we often find ourselves in a mundane rut. Life offers ample frustrations, and we sometimes get so busy we feel overwhelmed, but all I have to do is remember my nights in that hotel and suddenly my life is wonderful.
I was only alone for a couple of days, but that was enough to remind me how blest I am. I have a loving relationship with my wife and children and I am fully aware that not everyone can say that. We love each other and honestly try to please each other. Of course, we get on each others’ nerves sometimes. We may disagree and even get into occasional arguments, but our home is full of love.
As I sat alone in Houston, you could have offered me all the money in the world to stay away from my family and I would have turned you down without a second thought. What I am saying is that love is more precious than gold or silver. Having good friends or being part of a family is better than winning the lottery. We were designed to connect. We were created for fellowship, and our relationships are more valuable than any possession.
The rest of the story of my trip is that after a couple of days, my homesickness abruptly ended when my family came to join me. I stood and watched for them at the mall where we were meeting. Finally, I saw them briskly walking through the concourse down below. I was never so happy to see them – and I had only been away for a couple of days!
I may never win a lottery, but I’m already a wealthy man. I may never be successful by the world’s standards, but I’ve already hit the jackpot because I am surrounded by friends and family who love me.

Seven Arguments for Intelligent Design:

1. The evidence for the Big Bang
2. Lack of transitional fossils that demonstrate macro evolution
3. Irreducibility of cells in all living things
4. The DNA code
5. The origin of life itself
6. The diversity of life
7. The human possession of self awareness
1. The evidence for the Big Bang. The evidence for the Big Bang is very compelling. The five evidences spell the word SURGE: S – The Second Law of Thermodynamics proves energy had to have a beginning because there is not an infinite supply. U – The universe is expanding. If so, it had to begin somewhere (and at some point in time). R – Radiation from the Big Bang itself can be observed. This was discovered in 1965. G – Great galaxy seeds. Think of ripples on a pond, radiating out from a stone’s splash. Scientists can measure this in our universe. E – Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Einstein proved that time, space and matter are co-relative. In other words, you can’t have one without the others. From this, the mathematical equation shows a beginning point.

    If the Big Bang is in fact true, it proves God exists because the universe had to have a cause. God is that cause. God, on the other hand, is uncaused. (He is outside the time, matter and space of the universe.) That is difficult to grasp, but it means God is eternal. Our choices are either an uncaused universe (which is impossible), or an uncaused creator outside of it (which is difficult to understand, but not an impossibility.) God spoke the cosmos into existence and we call that the Big Bang. Most young-earth creationists reject the Big Bang because it points back to an ancient age of the universe, but the fact that it shows a beginning points to a cause regardless of its age.

2. Lack of transitional fossils that demonstrate macro evolution. There are fossils that demonstrate transitional features, but there is not one undisputed fossil in the record that proves macro-evolution. There should be thousands if Darwinian Evolution is true and Darwin himself said so. And not only should the fossil record show transitions, but so should every living thing today - plant and animal. Everything should be in transition into something else as evolution continues. We simply do not see that.

3. Irreducibility of cells in all living things. A mouse trap will not work if you take any of its parts away. Cells function the same way. Someone took a mouse trap and modified it to work without one of its parts to prove this wrong, but it only worked because of intelligent intervention, which is exactly what I believe in the first place. The point here is that lesser parts could not have joined together to form cells. Therefore, cells were designed.

4. The DNA code. Darwin knew nothing of the DNA code when he wrote his theory. We now know that every one of the trillion cells in our bodies has a DNA strand containing a code more complex than an encyclopedia. Never has a complex computer code ever written itself. Only intelligence can write complex code. If you were walking on the beach and saw the word "Help" spelled out with logs, would you say to yourself, "Oh look, the waves must have accidentally spelled out this word"? What if the logs spelled out the entire works of Shakespeare? To me, this is an open and shut case for an intelligent designer.

5. The origin of life itself. Darwinian Evolutionists basically believe lightning struck the mud and made life. Scientists tried to duplicate this empirically in a lab, but they had to manipulate the atmosphere to the point that life could have never begun to get any results. You don’t hear much about this anymore. Now, some actually say aliens must have brought life here, because they simply have no natural explanation for how life began.

6. The diversity of life. Life is so incredibly diverse and complex, the only logical explanation is a remarkable creator. The fine-tuning of the cosmos, the symbiotic relationship of all living things – it boggles the mind to think it is all a freak of nature, or even that natural selection caused it all.

7. The human possession of self awareness. Only humans can write songs, books, blogs, stories, and fairy tales. Some monkeys and elephants can express themselves in art, but it pales next to the ability to write a single paragraph. Only humans can express their questions about the meaning of life. Only humans can invent complex machinery and technology. Our self-awareness cannot be explained by natural selection or any other natural cause. Clearly, we were created and designed to seek our maker.

So, which designer? Because of the evidences for the resurrection of Jesus, the God of the Bible is the clear choice. We can have a faith that is supported by the evidence, not only of the scripture, but also the world around us.