Why Not Vote?

Why do so many Christians think that being involved in politics is wrong? If Christians don't run for office or justice positions, we are leaving the running of this country to the unsaved and we wonder what has happened to this God fearing nation?!

The same reasoning holds for schools. I have been criticized for teaching in public schools instead of a private Christian school. First of all and most importantly, this is what God has called me to do. But aside from that, if we take all the Christian teachers out of the schools, what influence have we left for the young people of the U.S. to follow and look up to as role models? If we take all the Christian students out of the schools, what peers have we left for other students to be influenced by. I truly believe my children are missionaries on a mission field.

I am not putting down anyone who chooses home schooling or private Christian schools. You must do what God has directed you to do, but I do think sometimes we try to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world! Not just politically, not just in education, but we do it in our churches as well! We fail to become friends with the unsaved and spend all of our time with other Christians. How are we going to reach the lost if we are never around the lost?

The Bible says we are to be in the world but not of the world. I understand that to mean we live and function in daily lives as normal people. We just don't partake of sinful things. Jesus made his closest friends people that most people at that time wouldn't give the time of day to. They weren't the holy saints from the synagogue. He befriended them, taught them, discipled (trained) them. They weren't "good Christians" when Christ met them!

We are to be the salt of the earth. Salt doesn't just "sit" on the meat or other food and look nice. It chemically changes and reacts with the food, preserving it and changing its flavor. We can't change lives of the unsaved if we don't get involved with them! I don't mean go drinking at the bar with your coworkers. I do mean going to dinner with them. Sitting and chatting with them at work. Spending time building friendships, then they'll notice something in you that they lack.

I do believe this includes the political realm. I had a friend at the school where I worked in Lincoln, whom I loved dearly and still keep in touch with by email. She openly confessed she was not a Christian. She knew exactly where I stood. She would tease me sometimes calling me a closet liberal because I didn't look down on her for her beliefs, but she was keenly aware of my stand on abortion, gay rights or other "conservative" issues. She knew I disagreed with her, but still gave me the opportunity to express why I believe what I believe. She allowed me this right because I had become her friend.

Schools, politics, work, little league, the GROCERY store, these are all areas where we can let the love of God shine through! We should not limit where God wants to use us. We need to be involved in ALL everyday aspects of life! Especially those that affect the moral direction of this country.

Growing Up Pentecostal

I recently read a book titled "Growing Up Pente- costal". It was written by J. Stephen Conn. Some of you may have noticed that he occassion- ally posts comments on mine and Darrell's blogs. You may read seven of the chapters on his blog. Click on the highlighted title or the image to link to that site.

The book tells of experiences both bad and good that Pastor Conn experienced as the 3rd child (of 12) of a Church of God minister. I laughed at many of the antics Pastor Conn pulled as a child. I became angry over the way he was treated at times. I felt saddened at times. I read of experiences like some of my own childhood. And I learned some things about the history of our denomination which helped me to understand why some people do the things they do. WE taught them to be that way!

I wish I could have read this book early in our ministerial lives. Perhaps it would have helped me to cope better with folks I considered to be "holier than thou". Some of the older folks in our denomination can't seem to break loose from the holiness-on-the-outside perspective they grew up with, but I thank God that changes are taking place. I just pray we don't follow the swing of the proverbial pendulum and go too far the other way.

Those who have not been raised in our denomination will find insight into some of the "why we do the things we do" and hopefully learn from the mistakes of our past so that we don't repeat history.

It is an interesting book. A great read-at-the-beach or on the porch swing kind of book. What I liked most is that I didn't have to read it cover to cover. I can choose a particular chapter of interest then go back to another later without losing any understanding. In this give-me-a-tidbit-and-let-me-run-world it is the perfect book.

You can get the book at Amazon.com or your local book store.

"Lucy! You've got some 'splaning to do!"

Well, I'm home again! I went to work on Monday, but was in such pain by 3rd period I was in tears. I called the Dr. At my appointment he prescribed 2 additional meds and took me off work until after he sees me monday. "Great!" I thought because I had a guest speaker and a field trip to Six Flags planned for this week.

The speaker came without me and the Art teacher is taking the physics students on their field trip so they don't lose the money they paid. I'm still trying to convalesce.

I started the meds as directed. I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up this morning with my thighs itching like crazy! I got a slight sunburn on the top of my thighs Saturday so I just figured it was worse than I originally thought and now I'm peeling.

WRONG!!!! Upon taking a closer look I realized I had broken out in red welts all over my legs! I called the Dr. AGAIN. When the nurse called me back, I gave her the low-down. She instructed me to stop taking all meds (Well, duh!) she would call back again after speaking with the Dr. He agreed with my diagnosis that it was an allergy to one of the meds. He called in new scripts. A steroid to get rid of the hives and a new anti-inflammatory. Because the latter was not generic I had to pay $50 just for it. Apparently, insurance companies don't care if you are taking a name brand because you are allergic to the generic!

I ate something and took the flexeril (muscle relaxer). I called my mother to give an update. She informed me that flexeril broke her out into a rash which started on her legs, itched terribly, and moved up her body to her arms and face. DING! DING! DING! We have a WINNER! These were the exact same symptoms as mine.

The nurse had told me if I had trouble breathing to call back or go directly to the ER. I noticed that my tongue had begun to swell as well by now and that I was having the burning sensation inside my mouth and throat as well now!

I called the nurse back relating the new info. Sure enough, I was allergic to the flexeril and didn't NEED to pay $50 for new meds! I took 50 mg of Benadryl (sp?) and started the steroids.

Some of the symptoms are subsiding now, but I still have an unbearable itch and my tongue still feels fat. I'll be glad when I get through this.

The good news? Doc says nothing is broken and I should be completely well in a week or two. In the meanwhile I'm at home lying around feeling groggy and itchy.

Lucille Ball

My mother once asked my husband what it felt like to be married to Lucille Ball. I was a bit offended at the time. My thoughts? Thanks, Mom, for your support! But as time has past, (20 years in fact) I have had to admit she may be right. I seem to have a knack for the er... unusual to occur when I'm around.

This past Wednesday afternoon, our school was having its biennial mock prom crash. The fire and rescue squad, the ambulance service, State police, local police and helicopter were all at our school to dramatize what could happen when kids drink and drive at prom.

The kids were released at 2 pm for the event. At that time of day I'm supervising study hall downstairs. I was expecting a call from the Dr.'s office and had forgotten my phone so when the kids left I took my book upstairs and retrieved my jacket and phone. Sure enough, there was a message from the Dr.'s office. As I was walking down the stairs to the second floor I listened to the message. I was given a direct line to call.

At the second floor stairwell I dialed the number and began the decent down the next flight of stairs. At the next landing the nurse answered. I took the 1st step down the final flight of 18 steps. I lost my footing and went bouncing down about 15 of them! The phone went flying as I lunged to grab the railing to catch myself. All the while the nurse continued to talk. I asked a co-worker who had already reached the ground level safely to please hand me the phone. I apologized to the nurse for not hearing anything she just said and asked her to please repeat. (Yes, I was writhing in pain but it wasn't polite to not listen to someone who had made such a special effort to speak with me.)

When I hung up the phone, Mr. Hughes asked if I was alright. I explained that I did hurt quite a bit so he offered his hand and helped me to solid ground and out the door. I hobbled to the bleachers where the teachers were sitting and asked if anyone had access to ice. One of the PE teachers went to fetch a bag and returned quickly. Upon returning she asked, "Does he (the principal, Mr. Callahan) know you're hurt!?" I shook my head. She quickly marched off dutifully to report the accident.

"Hey, Mr. Callahan, we've got someone REALLY hurt here!!!" (I love, Terry.) Mr. Callahan hurried to my side to check on me. As luck would have it, every kind of emergency personnel in Knox county was immediately available. The director of the county ambulance service immediately questioned me and recommended I be taken by ambulance, immobilized on a board, to the hospital! Pads were placed around my head, a neck brace about my neck, straps across my head, chest, torso and legs; the only thing I could move was my hands. I explained that "I freak out when I'm strapped down" (bet your wondering how I would know this; another time, another post) so the EMT might want to talk to me all the way to the hospital.

I was loaded into the ambulance, lights flashing, sirens going, most at the school none the wiser. Except for a few witnesses, everyone thought it was just part of the "show"!

I received immediate, personable (that is the word I meant) care at the hospital. Everyone was attentive and pleasant. The Doc sent me home citing no broken bones. Three days later, I'm still sore and moving kinda slow, but I thank God I wasn't injured seriously. I also thank God for everone's prayers and that He made arrangements for such timely medical care!

I'll return another time with more evidence as to how I embody Lucille Ball.

Out of Touch?!

My posting has slowed tremendously. I have not been able to read many blogs either. The reason? Over spring break, the powers that be at my school decided to change fire walls because "there have been so many complaints about how many sites were blocked. The new one is supposed to give more access." Well, I can no longer access any blog supported by Blogger. The tech guy has emailed the computer guys who have not responded as yet about getting rid of the block on blogger. (I love our tech guy. He is so real and down to earth. Not a "blogger", however. Guess I'll have to enlighten him.) Because of this my blogging may be slow for me for awhile. (I do get all of your comments emailed to me so I get to read them.)

However, I may get to tomorrow because I fell at school today and the Doc made me take tomorrow off! Take what I write with a grain of salt, though. Not too sure how the pain meds are going to affect me!

Ah well, such is life ;)

CELEBRATE!!!

HALLELUJAH!!! At least TWO people gave their hearts and lives to God yesterday during service! PRAISE GOD! It is wonderful anytime, but the significance of this occurence on Easter just really brings home the awesome sacrifice God made for us! I chose green print to represent the NEW LIFE God has given!

Thank you, Lord for the two that have made a choice for you. Help me personally and our church as a whole to disciple these two new babes.

He is a mighty and awesome God!

I Need New Glasses ....Still

A couple of nights ago, my family (minus the boy child) went to a little family diner in a neighboring town. We had been there before and remembered that the food was good and it was inexpensive so we decided to make the trek. Nearly an hour after we ordered and everyone else in the restaurant had come and gone, we got our food. All I can say is it is still fairly inexpensive.

We had to pick up some dog food (we were still unsatisfied from our meal and thought this might help) as well as a few other household items, rubbing alcohol, fabric softener, toothpaste. You know the kind of trip. You go to the store for $20 worth of stuff and come out missing an arm. Well this trip was no different, so off to the "store that has it all" to shop.

While we were at the store, we saw some pre-paid cell phones. Now my husband and I have phones, but our daughter is getting ready to make a trip to NY next month to sing at Carnegie Hall and we are probably NOT going to be able to go. I'm not too sure about sending one of our phones off with her, but neither do I want to be unable to reach her or her me if need be so we're checking out our options. Two of the young men there politely answered all of our questions, but told us that this route is really expensive. They were right, so we decided to continue weighing out all the options.

My husband was looking for one of our listed items while our daughter had spied something of interest. She had found the portable DVD players... and they're on SALE! "This can be my Easter, birthday AND Christmas present, Mom! Daniel won't go in on it with me and let it be one present for both our birthdays so I'll just put everything together and it will be just mine, PLEASE!"

To placate her, I went to look. As luck would have it, they really did have some good prices. Unfortunately, the $100 off would end Saturday, there were only two left, and no more were on order! We had been looking at buying one for trips for some time so this really wouldn't be a "spur of the moment buying decision", right? We convinced ourselves it was a good decision. Only one obstacle remained. I had no extra money to buy it at this time. I looked to Darrell as if to say, do you want to take it out of savings? Do you want to put it on a credit card and pay it later? Yes, it's a great buy, but "you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip" as my DH likes to say. Well, apparently you can because we told the young man to take it to the service desk. We had made the decision to buy!

We brought our new treasure home. Oh yes, and the dog food, too (Cinnamon was quite pleased with that purchase). And we put it aside. Ashley kept bringing it out wanting to “look" at it. "I just want to look at it!" Then it was, “Can’t I just cut the plastic off? I'll be really careful! I promise I won't open the box!" Then, "We really need to make sure it works, Mom, please!"

After two days of a little fox working on this vine, we're sitting on the couch last night and I'm trying to read the instructions on how to charge the battery. Now the instruction manual is in FOUR languages, 28 pages each all compacted into ONE 1/4 inch thick book that fits into the length of my hand! In addition to having microscopic print, for some reason the printers decided that the actual instructions had to be written in pale gray on a grayish white background!

As you all know, I have just had a birthday and I am old now, so seeing print like this is difficult even WITH my glasses on! I decided to make the effort anyway. I succeeded in finding the page which stated how to charge the battery, but was shocked to find that it had to be charged for 45 to 65 hours! Unbelievable! I turned the light up. Yes, that is what it said. I put my glasses on. Yes, I read it right. I had never heard of such a long time needed to charge a battery. My family and I reasoned it must just be for the initial charge. Surely it would not take that long every time! I proceeded to put all the pieces together and set it up.

Meanwhile, my daughter took the manual and started to read about the charging process. "Mom! It says '4.5 to 6.5 hours not 45 to 65! HAHAHAHA!"

The math teacher in me couldn't resist, "See the importance of a decimal point!" Yeah, it would have been really nice if the printers had made it BIGGER!

My lesson? I'll be making an appointment to see the eye doctor next week.

Kitchen Rules...

...and other Barbara Johnson wisdoms

1. If a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen, my kitchen is delirious.

2. A husband is someone who takes out the trash and gives the impression he just cleaned the whole kitchen. (I have to say. This is not true of my husband, but it is certainly true of my son!)

3. Countless people have eaten in this kitchen ... and gone on to lead normal lives.

The happiest marriages are surely those where love and laughter overcome any brokenness. Between these couples, laughter is a natural part of every day.

Friends help us just by their willingness to laugh at the goofiness that unexpectedly pops into our lives to brighten the dark places.

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out...but she can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.

Encouraging Words

When God permits His children to go through the furnace experiences of our lives, He keeps His eye on the clock-and His hand on the thermostat!

Jesus' gift to us is eternal life, something we don't deserve, didn't work for, and can't buy for any price.

Barbara Johnson

Did you hear....

...about the doorbell and humingbird who fell in love?

They had a little humdinger!

Quotes for the Day

"You never can think what a good place Heaven is without knowing who [Jesus] was and what He did."

Charles Dickens

[Moms] are the world's greatest actresses. We have to act as if our heart isn't breaking when our child comes home from school crying because he doesn't have any friends. And yet we will never receive an Academy Award.... We are th emost overworked and underpaid occupation there is. And yet, we are the most important. (I would have to include Dads.)

Mary Jo Malone

THERE ARE THREE WAYS TO GET SOMETHING DONE:

• Do it yourself.
• Hire someone to do it.
• Forbid your kids to do it.

Barbara Johnson

Daddy's Girl?

My daughter has been a Daddy's girl almost since she was weaned. Before she started pre-school, Darrell would get up, get ready and either start studying or making phone calls for church, whatever was on the agenda for the day. When Ashley got up, she would search out her Daddy and drag him back to bed to snuggle. She had to have her morning time with Daddy. After she started pre-school, she didn't have classes on Mondays so they were celebrated as "Daddy and Ashley Days". They would do special little things together even if it was as small as making breakfast together, going to McDonalds for lunch or just singing a song together. They still sing "My Girl" and "You Are My Sunshine" as a duet on a regular basis.

As she has gotten older, the Daddy addiction hasn't stop. If we're sitting in the living room watching T.V, she's snuggled up to her daddy. If I am sitting next to Darrell, but happen to get up for some reason, she will jump in my spot. When we go out to eat if she can weasel her way into her brother's spot, she'll sit next to Daddy. If we go somewhere and Daddy can't go, she wants to call and tell him every little detail about our day. She even has this little competition with me that Daddy is her man instead of mine. She has told Darrell that if he wasn't already married to Momma that she would marry him when she grows up, but since we're already married that just wouldn't be right. No doubt about it. This girl adores her Daddy.

Having been "2nd chair" for all these years I've been amazed at a change that has been taking place of late. Ashley has started wanting to snuggle me on the couch. She wants to sit on my lap if I am at the computer at home. She begged me to take her to get a curling iron last week to fix her hair for spring picture day. She had never cared much about primping before. She wanted this curling iron so much she offered to pay for it! So I took her to Wally World to get the one she had spied out a few days before. I figured if she cared that much about fixing her hair, I was certainly going to encourage it. It had been a battle just to get her to blow it dry when it was cold outside!

Sunday, she was on the primping path again. She was completely underfoot when I was trying to get ready for church. I was actually starting to get frustrated. When I tried to fix my hair, she was between me and the mirror. When I went to the bedroom to put on my jewelry, she was between me and the jewelry box going through all my brooches. When she tired of the jewelry she started checking out all my colognes. She asked if she could wear some so I let her choose. She started sticking bottles in my face to smell. "Honey, I know what they smell like. They're mine!" I said trying to be patient. She came to my closet wanting shoes to wear, so I let her wear my black casuals. When I had a moment free from her, I remarked to my husband, "What is going on with Ashley? She is underfoot everywhere I go today! She is usually such a Daddy's girl!" My wise husband replied, "She's becoming a little lady and I can't give her that."

His response really touched me. I started thinking of all the kids growing up in homes with only one parent for whatever reason, all the boys who don't have fathers to model being a man, all the girls who don't have mothers to model being a lady. Parents are truly important during all stages of a child's life. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude that God has preserved our family. I am also grateful that at the age when most girls begin to resent or rebel against mom, mine has decided to model after and spend time with mom. The reminder of my awesome responsibility humbled me. I am grateful for my husband's help. I yearn for my Heavenly Father's help. I can't help but pray that my Father in heaven helps me to be a Christ like example for my daughter to follow.

Abba, Father, thank You for entrusting me with this precious one. Help me to be mindful of my words. Help me to be cautious of my actions because my soon to be 13 year old is becoming a woman and she's watching me. Help me to mold her into the woman you would have her to be.