This entry of mine has something in connection to this Sunday’s Youth service.
The preaching is about this coming generation, and as an example we were given this passage in the Bible; Judges 2:6 (Amplified Bible)

6And when Joshua had let the people go, the Israelites went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.
7And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which He did for Israel.
8And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old.
9And they buried him within the boundary of his inheritance in Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, or even the work which He had done for Israel.
11And the people of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.
12And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods of the peoples round about them and bowed down to them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

So where am I heading about this?
There are two types of friendships;
The one that you fellowship with, and
One that you deal with;

The type of friend that you fellowship with should be someone who stimulates your spiritual conviction; “as iron sharpens iron.” These friends are usually found in your local church, they are the ones who prays for you in their devotion times, they may support you emotionally but when they see that you’re headed to the wrong direction, they’re not afraid of correcting you with love (Proverbs 27:5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.)

The types of friend that you deal with are those who you choose to hang around with when you’re out of the church, these are the kind of friends that may have different cultures than you have, being a Christian and whatever they have may rub off on you. 1 Corinthians 15:33 Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”

If you’re a Christian, and you go out in the world, you will find people full of broken dreams and heartaches, worst is when you find one with bitterness in their hearts, as a parent, I need to be careful in reminding my children to always choose the kind of people they associate with because whatever these people may have may rub off on them and as impressionable youths are, this may also root their ruin.  Sometimes, it’s easy to get tangled in things that convinces us.  Nowadays, children are confused; girls look at the mirror and tell themselves that they’re a female with a heart of a man, and so goes the same with boys. Men dressing up as women and having unnatural relationships with fellow males.  Even if their reflection tells them the truth about themselves, they are still confused.

I don’t want to raise confused children. This is why children are given parents, and parents are being taught the word of God.

At least, while I’m still alive, I want to let my children know about the Lord than live this life and die, and my children end up worshipping other gods.

I guess when I conveyed my message I was too much of a foreigner, my words weren’t properly understood.

My question is this; in what part of parental discipline does asking another’s parent for permission is too foreign that they make a deal with children?

How hard would telling the child “ask your mom first if she agrees?” than assume too much. These children doesn’t have the say, especially if there’s a long travel involved.

Hey everyone, just to let you know, I created a game site for my one and only daughter; Kid Gamer. Since my daughter loves to play online games a lot, and  I noticed that the games aren’t really appropriate for her; for one they are mostly violent if not sexually suggestive. One example is the Kissing Game in a bowling alley.

While bowling, not easy to put a kiss to her. There are around people who play bowling, very close friends of the couple. I need to get caught. Help them.

The goal is to get caught kissing in public.

So my solution to this dilemma is to create her own site with my only approved games. We are also looking for exposure; she wanted to have a lot of link exchanges, but I told her that I will only accept moms (and dads) and other kids who may have blogs. If you want us to advertise your site or blog for free, please do send me a comment here along with the link of your preferred size of ad banner or box.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead folks!

Lately, changes are getting more and more evident; in my children’s anatomy and behaviours. I’m turning 35 this year, and I can’t help but look back on when they were still forming in my body, the craving times, the pains of walking down to the market and not even half-way there my feet and ankles are starting to complain. The ungodly hours, and the breastfeeding, not to mention the Malunggay pills matching with Malunggay soups my ex-husband’s grandmother cook for me. The trips to their pedia, the frantic cries of hunger and when in pain or with flu. The first steps, the first words, the first time they did something displeasing, and the times when they repeat the same mistake over and the punishment his father and I administer only to find ourselves negotiating with a toddler – which isn’t fair! There’s the parent’s excitement of bringing them to school, their first crayons and the smell of new notebooks and papers. The arguments we had which bag and color to choose, only to find out months later that the strap had broken and we need to replace spider man to hawk.  The warring ponytails, the feeding bottles, the dirty diapers, the ever and tireless hunt for diaper bargains -thank God for Kimbies! These were just few of the episodes of the days of our lives, and now this book has completed and starting to fold to write a new one.

It’s not that I don’t notice my son’s change in his voice – he’s actually sounding more and more like his father. There was a time when I was talking to him and he was at the kitchen that his voice felt like I’m talking to his father. I’m not bitter about the separation, it was actually emancipation. I began to appreciate freedom more and more. Back to my son, he recently entered manhood and I just can’t help but bleed in my heart, he needed someone he can identify with, someone he can share man things, someone he can tell secrets with. I can’t blame him for feeling awkward for telling me about girls, well in a way, I should understand because I am a female, but everything else in him is now a man. People would always say that he needs a male role model, I couldn’t agree more, but I guess a more perfect model would be HIM up there. This school year he will be in Second Year and he can’t wait to start doing his spelling bee activities again. I really can’t help but become heart broken on the fact that, it’s not that I can’t buy him gadgets, but the fact that we have to prioritize and he’s so self-sacrificing. He deserves more.

One thing’s for sure, my children have grown a lot and I am thankful to the Lord for seeing them, sharing every bit of pain and victory in times when they try to overcome the past. True, that from time to time, I am vocal about my frustrations of not being able to work because I have to keep an eye on them every time. There were times when I complain to them their behaviours, yes kids will be kids, but for how long will they be children? Hebrews 5:13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. But now that they’re all grown up, I thank God that they developed maturity and wise understanding, knowing what’s good and bad, the right and the wrong. They are not perfect children, but they are God’s.

Now that life is bringing me to a new page of my children’s lives, I need to prepare myself because I know it’s going to be another wild roller coaster ride.

Our culture preaches that you shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you do anymore, and unfortunately the city is built on the principle that there’s no such thing as guilt, do whatever you want, we won’t tell. So without a conscience, there’s nothing to stop you from killing someone. -Grissom, CSI Las Vegas, Fannysmackin’ Ep.

If we are not careful, if we think that looking to the other way is going to make the bad things go away – think again and see yourself in the shoes of those who are being victimized.

Was it too deep? Too straightforward? I don’t really mean to.
But our society is growing more bitter and bitter, and it’s being an epidemic. It spreads too fast. I’m not saying that we all shall welcome strangers with open arms, of course we might never know.

This is not limited to the movies that our children watch, the music that they hear, it’s also with the culture that they have to live with, the surroundings and the words that they hear everyday.

This entry is for the children of parent’s who are hurting, because of undue and unjustified violence, for the mothers who bore the slash in their hearts because of rebellion, for the hearts of many young children who were left to fend for themselves because of their parent’s irresponsibility.

I pray that, as our names are written in the palm of God’s hands, salvation for the hurting comes as swift as it comes to the righteous whom God predestined for worship and service in the Lord.
In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

Disclaimer: I’m not a hater, but these are my observations –and yes I do have a life offline actually, but it doesn’t take away my sense of wonder on things and my surroundings, thank you.

A while back I posted an entry about Lady Gaga’s music, and it wasn’t long and not a surprise either that now a Filipino is enticing her fans to show a photo of them with a pyramid sign.

It’s kind of unfortunate that she might not understand what she’s taking herself into, are we now being “internationalized”? “Americanized”? “illuminatinized”?

Her photo showing one eye;

Lady Gaga;

Let’s admit, Charice struck gold, however I am not going to let this “fad” pollute my children all the more, because we already are in every day, if you look around you. I’m not mad at Charice, I’m not her hater, what I’m talking about is simply knowledge of the truth learned in a Christian Church.

My children love listening to music, and yes there are times when it’s really hard to keep track, but it doesn’t mean that it should be left like that.

And this is not encouraging either…

Haist, and my daughter even like her songs. So sad.
Kaya tayo pinagtatawanan ng mga taga-ibang bansa, gaya lang ng gaya hindi naman iniintindi kung tama ba ang ginagawa.

]]> http://www.crayonsnpencils.info/1118/feed/ 0 http://www.crayonsnpencils.info/updated/ http://www.crayonsnpencils.info/updated/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:09:14 +0000 admin http://crayonsnpencils.info/?p=1111 For a while I’ve been missing in action, and there are those who doesn’t seem to understand how I can say that I won’t be online but then they’d see improvements or adjustments on my blog. I have ways to manipulate it from my desktop. I can even blog just through my pen drive while using another’s laptop or PC, bu then I can only do that because I already have pre-written articles or thoughts saved on my pen drive and uploaded to my blogs using Blogdesk.

I’m not going to change anyone’s mind, people may not know what’s going on in my personal life and there are only few that I pick that’s written here. It’s not lying, it’s reserving my children’s awareness of their inadequacy which is ethical. I wouldn’t want to have totally shamed kids.

And yes, like everyone else I also have problems that I have to deal with at home and in my personal life, it’s just something that’s not for full public knowledge.

I enjoy blogging, but not taking without reference on someone else’s feelings. I am just blessed that I don’t have haters and/nor stalkers to bug me needlessly.

Another thing is that I also need to work on my spiritual life because I’ve been declining and I’m very unhappy about it.

What else can a burdened heart say?

Another worry of mine is the baby contest winner, I sent her the prize but it was returned to me – Ria, my sincerest apologies, it’s taking a long time!  I will work on it this Monday after school and call the winner as well.

Just why am I posting this?
Two days ago, I accompanied my daughter to the basketball court near our place. As she glides on her new wave board, I realized; she’s all grown. Aside from the obvious fact of her body’s development, she’s gone from plastic pots and pans, from crayons to clay, from sappy cartoons to anime, from Pet Society to Petville, from Farmville to Fishville and yes, even my bil-bil. Now, she’s learned a new hobby that tells me, “the baby is now a lady.”

I wish I could give more, provide more and do more. And right now, education is what I can give her. I just enrolled her earlier and the teacher was amazed and told me that my daughter is a reader, good to know!

How can we explain it to people, especially our loved ones?

A lot of people loved Harry Potter, who wouldn’t? His story touches us of being an orphan and now being established as a great wizard. I do agree that his movies are about good versus evil, but if we’re not careful, we might get deceived.

This is just one of their up-coming promotions of what seems to be is going to be a version of Disney Land.

Universal Studios Orlando unveiled photos and concept art for “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.” That’s right, a whole theme park based around the Hogwarts and all the other cool places described in J.K. Rowling’s books. Plus, details about the park’s signature attraction — “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” — have been revealed for the first time.

From what I read, this resort will enable parents/children/adults Harry Potter’s life.

So now I’m thinking, wouldn’t make this the youngsters (even adults) be encouraged to get involved in witchcraft and sorcery?

What does the Bible say about witchcraft?

The Scriptures condemn all sorcery as opposed to a proper sense of dependence upon God. In Galatians 5:20, witchcraft is listed as being one of the acts of the sinful nature. The book of Revelation contains several passages that condemn sorcery in the strongest terms ( 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15 ).

The Bible asserts that only God has the right to understand the realm of the supernatural ( Genesis 40:8 ). Under Old Testament law, intrusion into the realm of the occult made one worthy of death ( Exodus 22:18 ). 1

Interestingly, several Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “witchcraft” and “sorcery” have the root pharm, from which our words pharmacy and pharmaceuticals are derived. This root refers to “drugs, potions, and poisons.” Those who are familiar with the practice of sorcery, both among primitive tribespeople and modern occultists, know that psychoactive drugs are often used by shamans and sorcerers 2 to induce dramatically altered states of consciousness that provide supernatural knowledge or contact with spirits.

-source: http://www.rbc.org/questionsDetail.aspx?id=45994

Which is better then? Hearing your child chant and wave wands?

or hearing your child pray, kneeling for the Lord?

Proverbs 22:6 (Amplified Bible)

6Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not after to “ruin” Harry Potter to you, if you’re a fan, but as a Christian parent, I have the responsibility to be the “light” to my children, and this is what I teach them; to value God’s word more than anything else, because when judgment time comes, this theme park is not going to save my children from the wrath of God. I’ve seen the movie numerous times, and my children are not allowed to see these kinds of movies without my presence. As parents we should be the MTRCB of our children.

Will post more later.