Two Different Marches

Two different groups of people held marches this weekend. The March for Life was held on Friday, and the Women's March took place on Saturday.

The theme of the the first march was "love saves lives." The theme or motivating force behind the other was hate.

The first celebrated life; the second celebrated the right to kill one's own children with continued insistence that taxpayers pay for the dismemberment, no matter how much their religious and moral convictions may oppose the shedding of innocent blood.

The first march unified; the second march divided.

One sang hymns of praise; the other sang obscenities.

One group humbled themselves in prayer to God. The other group blasphemed His holy name.

One group marched selflessly for those who have no voice, deriving no personal benefit whatsoever. The other demanded free stuff (sanitary napkins, birth control, abortion, special entitlements, salary increases based on gender instead of merit, etc.) for themselves.

One group clothed themselves in pink hats resembling the female anatomy which should be kept private. The other group clothed themselves with "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience".

One group accepted everyone who valued love and life. The other only accepted those who hate what progressives hate.

One group has steadily grown in numbers for the past 45 years. The other had approximately 50% fewer participants this year than they had the first year, which was just last year.

One inspired hope; the other stirred up bitterness.

One group represented me, both as a woman and as the product of an unplanned pregnancy. The other is the antithesis of all that I am and was created to be.

A letter to USA protestors and a warning to globalists (which includes the Pope)

Dear USA protestors and NFL national anthem kneelers,

If some distant relative wrongs someone you don't even know, and you find that offensive, would you disown your entire family, including your mother, who endured great suffering to bring you into the world and then continued to sacrifice her own needs and desires to nurture you instead, and your father, who risked his life on numerous occasions to protect you and toiled day and night for decades to provide for you? If not, then why would you forsake your country in which countless heroes have died for you, whose history includes some tainted tales but also tremendous good including great liberation not only for her own diverse people, but for oppressed people around the world? Is it wise to dishonor the flag and the national anthem simply because you disapprove of one small thing that doesn't even affect you when that same collective nation is a beacon of light, hope, and freedom for the entire world? Will you choose to forsake it all because you cannot forgive the one? 

"I don't know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that's providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year ... when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year."

(Quote by Alejandro Villanueva, a U.S. Army veteran, who was the lone Steeler on the field during national anthem)

Have you no gratitude for what your nation has given you while you give nothing but disrespect in return? Take your grievances to those personally responsible without dishonoring all that is good, right, and just. As my Granny liked to say, "Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water." For what has been birthed in America is valuable beyond measure, and when grounded in God's word from which true freedom flows and established in faith as the founding fathers' intended, good will triumph over evil. Remove that foundation, and the tragic, wrongful actions of a few police officers could be the least of your concerns.

From a practical perspective, does anyone really think people are going to listen to NFL protests when the NFL is filled with criminals who have already accrued 32 arrests within the first 3 weeks?

• Assault and battery - 7
• Drugs - 6
• DUI - 5
• Domestic violence - 5
• Disorderly conduct - 4
• Resisting arrest - 2
• Gun violence - 1
• Traffic violation - 1
• Other - 1 (Source: Joseph Curl, Dailywire)

They aren't exactly the best spokespeople against acts of brutality, when they have a long history of violence themselves. Yet, some are foolish enough to let a few extremists use and abuse them at great personal cost without doing anything constructive to correct the grievance at all.

To the NFL players who took one knee,
Next time, kneel on both knees and thank God you are free.

Consider how the globalists who seek to destroy America so they can rule it benefit from your protests.  No one can control America, much less the entire world, until they tear down our foundations and the pillars that strengthen and uphold us.  Marriage, family, faith (or common, shared values which flow from Judeo-Christian precepts), liberty, and our law (the U.S. Constitution) are our bulwarks.  They take priority over the whims of the state, and they guide our votes.  The globalists must remove these foundations to gain power over us. Their hope is that your protests will remove statues, emblems, Biblical references, our flag, and our anthem from the public square, marketplace, and sports arenas, for these serve as reminders of our history, our heroes, our holy allegiance, and our purpose.  They expect the NFL controversy to be resolved by removing the anthem and the flag from these venues, just as they have already removed prayer.  With marriage and family under decades of assault, churches infiltrated with false doctrine and wolves in sheep clothing (paid by the DNC to deceive and divide the church from within), the next targets are patriotism, the flag, and the national anthem.  Ultimately, they seek to dismantle the Constitution and the rule of law which has been happening at an increasing rate since Roe V. Wade elevated the right to privacy (which was added through a constitutional amendment) over the basic right to life which our nation was founded to preserve.  The failure to render justice on the Clinton family for dozens of serious crimes over at least three decades which culminated in the Benghazi cover-up and then the handling of HRC's email scandal in which Comey listed numerous proven legal transgressions, deserving of lifetime in prison for anyone else, while failing to prosecute has removed respect or trust in the rule of law from society.

Even the Pope is now pushing for this one world government concept while flat out ignoring the entire Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament history flatly condemns global power with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) account and Nebucadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2) of the statute depicting powerful civilizations, each of which must be toppled to save the earth from the destruction that ultimate power brings, and following throughout history. The New Testament repeatedly describes he end times judgment coming as the world tries to unite under one corrupt power.  Power corrupts, and ultimate power ultimately corrupts. In His mercy, God has repeatedly saved mankind by bringing down these corrupt superpowers. The only global leader who can and will rule us in perfect righteousness and love is the perfectly holy, all knowing, Lord God Almighty.  Only Christ can reign over us in perfect justice without oppressing His people. Only Christ reigns selflessly, sacrificially, with the greatest long term common good in mind.  Only He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.  He wants for nothing and needs nothing, for He is the owner, creator, and sustainer of all created beings and things.  Only He is perfectly good.  Any other power on earth who seeks ever increasing  power, even global power, is driven and possessed by evil, for such is the spirit of the antichrist.  Beware of globalism, hypocrisy, and false teaching.  Be students of God's truth. Reject the lies, false promises, and folly of this lost, dark, and dying world.  

Here's to Strong Women

A national women's march was held today to promote or protest something.....I'm not quite sure what that something was exactly (see the previous post), but I did notice people carrying signs and wearing T-shirts with quotes extolling the strength of women.  I'm all for strong women - physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, etc.

Then I considered that I'm a lot stronger now than I was back in 20s and early 30s as a competitive runner.  How can that be given how much older I am now and how our muscles begin to atrophy over the age of 40?

So what makes a woman stronger?

Physically, my strength gains were the result of suffering, loss, and a lot of hard work.  Two major car wrecks during my 20s, which left the EMTs telling me my survival was nothing short of miraculous, did some serious damage to my spine, but I did not realize it at the time.  Spinal discs usually have to be at least 90% compressed before pain signals a problem, so I kept running extensively.  Then two pregnancies that involved carrying average sized babies on narrow hips and crisis deliveries that nearly took the lives of my children finished off the disc compression. I was left with severe and chronic back pain and scar tissue throughout my body.  My running days were over, and my back, knees, and ankles were a mess, never to be the same again.

Both males and females grow stronger the same way.  They must put in lots of time, effort, and discipline as they push back against resistance to break down their current muscles and then build them back stronger than before. Part of my rehabilitation involved resistance training.   With paint relief as a powerful motivator, I strengthened my body and escaped the chronic pain that had tormented me for the previous seven years. Before long, I could do 20-30 pull-ups without an assist or a break and plyo-, clap-, and one-armed push-ups, none of which I could do before the wrecks during the prime of my youth.

Academically, I faced a different kind of resistance because of my gender.  In engineering school, men outnumbered women six to one.  I remember struggling in the courses that require exceptional visual-spatial intelligence, partly because I did not play with Legos, building blocks, or other toys that build this type of intelligence as a child as most boys do.  I encountered professors and students who stereotyped me as being unsuited for engineering because I was female, but back then, women received no special breaks because of their gender.  They had to work as hard (or harder) than all the guys.  When I met resistance, I pushed back, and I grew stronger as a result. I graduated at the top of my engineering class.  Since I was given no favors by professors or administrators fearful of law suits, I graduated with confidence knowing that I had competed against all the other students on equal grounds.

Professionally, I do not have the stereotypical engineer's personality.  I remember lots of surprised comments by male executives who had met me outside of work hours and assumed I worked in sales or communications.  I enjoyed the opportunity and challenge of proving myself to them.  It was an amusing game for me that also made me stronger.

Emotionally and spiritually, I have grown stronger by taking risks.  Giving up a career to stay home with one's children (and in my case I even homeschooled them for a few years) feels like a total loss of identity for many and was a risk I assumed would end my career in a fast paced technical field forever, but when our strength comes from within and is based on who we are instead of what we do, taking those risks only makes us stronger. I am back at work today part-time in a consultant role that provides more flexibility and enjoyment than any high ladder job title I may have attained had I never left.  My faith was strengthened with each step I took outside of my comfort zone to follow His leading.

Building spiritual strength also requires us to open ourselves to the truth of our own fallen condition, allowing God to show us the depths of our sin. 

 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.  (Psalm 139:23-24)

This awareness should then humble us and break us, like the physical breaking down of muscle tissue during resistance training, and bring us to repentance where God can then restore and rebuild us stronger than before.  King David expressed his personal experience with this process in Psalm 51.

1Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge....

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

I reference this spiritual metaphor to emphasize a key point.  Our strength does not come from our government, employers, coworkers, professors, spouse, children, family or friends. Our strength comes from the Lord, and the processes used to strengthen us involve resistance, hard work, patience, sometimes pain and suffering, risks, and faith.

  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  (Philippians 4:13) 

The strength God gives is placed within us and flows out from the soul.  We do not suddenly become stronger because we force others to declare, "You are a woman, so you are strong" and insist that they bow to all our other demands as well.

Gender quotas do not make us stronger.  We certainly don't develop professional muscles by loafing within legally imposed gender protections which enable us to do everything wrong or nothing at all on the job or in the classroom without getting fired or expelled. If you are a woman with Latino (or other minority ethnicity) descent who is involved in the occult (or any belief system except Christianity) and identifies as LGBTQ, then there is virtually nothing you could do to get fired, while white males are dismissed without notice simply because their employer found someone else they liked better who might shake things up a bit. We grow stronger and more confident by competing on equal grounds, not by receiving preferential treatment.  EEO laws may help get protected classes in the door, but they do not help them grow professionally, for there is little to no incentive to work, much less improve

We don't become stronger by demanding government funded birth control.  We become stronger by taking personal responsibility for our own bodies and finding the courage and self-control to say no to activities that will naturally result in unwanted pregnancy or by managing birth control ourselves, whether we use free methods like natural family planning or purchase birth control products at a price less than the cost of each sign those women carried at the Inauguration 2017 women's march.

Should a woman still end of up in crisis pregnancy situation, then she will become stronger by accepting and even celebrating that life while resisting the public pressure and demeaning lies (such as "you are too weak or poor to care for baby, and you have no other options") of the abortion clinic workers and carrying that child to term.  I know hundreds of women who have made that choice to birth their children in less than ideal conditions (some of whom were rape victims) and against the pressure of their family and loved ones, yet not one regrets her decision to bring that child into the world alive.  They are among the strongest women I know.

We become stronger each time we stand up for truth and righteousness in a culture that despises both and persecutes all who disagree with the new social order.

We grow stronger each time we risk hearing our children tell us they hate us to discipline them out of pure love and with eyes fixed on their long term gain.

We are strengthened each time we refrain from saying what we feel like saying out of a desire to build others up instead of tearing them down.

We are strengthened with each battle we fight - whether against cancer or other illness, financial hardship, natural disaster, injustice, betrayal by those closest to us, or death of our dearest loved ones.

We are strengthened with each risk taken to benefit another, each sacrifice made to serve our families, each word of ridicule cast upon us because we did not cave to peer pressure, and each humble prayer offered on our knees in confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and authentic praise.

We are strong because we have faced resistance and overcome, not because we manipulated all of society into removing each and every obstacle in our path.

We are strong because He who is in us is greater than anyone who is in the world, and by Him, we have and will continue to overcome. (1 John 4:4)

January 2017 Women's March

What exactly is the women's march protesting?

It couldn't be foul comments Trump made over a decade ago because they didn't seem to mind when Bill Clinton was actually DOING the very same things Trump merely mentioned and worse while still in office.

It couldn't be Trump's foul mouth because Lena Dunham, feminist spokesperson who sexually abused her sister and regularly abuses the public by showing off her privates, says FAR worse to bring out the most carnal nature of both men and women.

It couldn't be a march for women's basic human rights because they celebrate the fact that at least 32,000,000 women have been denied the right to live in an excruciating, barbaric manner through abortion. 

It couldn't be concerns over financial support for moms because the plan Ivanka put forth benefits all mothers in the workplace and those working hard to raise respectable children at home.

It couldn't be suppression of women because they have voiced their support for Islamic extremists who bind and hide their wives in burkas and do not allow them to go out into public, speak out, receive proper education, or live in any way as they please so they can focus only on bowing down to their oppressive masters whose militias take women as sex slaves during their violent conquests.

It couldn't be a march for gay rights because they oppose those who want to to wipe out ISIS - the group that inspired the killing of 49 members of the gay community in just one attack in Orlando.

It couldn't be a march for tolerance because they have little to no tolerance for white males, Christians, or conservatives who are persecuted on a regular basis by groups they support here in America. 

What exactly has them so upset, and what will this march accomplish?  I appreciate the efforts to keep it peaceful, though, so kudos for that.