Thank you for visiting, new posts below.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4
Ephesians 6:4
Pages
-
Categories
-
Archives
They make for a great collaborative, self-mastery model catechism class. Each of these technologies are free, they allow for learning at any time of the day and in the case of Google docs they give the opportunity for working together in learning with pastor, catechumen, parents and mentors on a single shared document. Engrade allows catechumens to see their progress at any time and begin a new module. Skype allows the possibility of “face to face” time with the pastor when the catechumen is working.
I am currently retooling our curriculum to be used with these tools and am very excited about the prospects. Anything come to mind when you read through this article? I would love to hear your thoughts.
(CNN) — When Jennifer Nicholas sees television shows or movies where characters “hook up” or have sex with “friends with benefits,” she cringes, because that’s how she got herpes.
“Getting an STD wasn’t even something that crossed my mind,” said Nicholas, 39, who learned that she had herpes at age 22. “One day I’m at the doctor’s office and it was, ‘Surprise! You’ve got herpes.’ “
Experts in sexually transmitted diseases say they’ve become increasingly concerned about the trend toward having what they call “sexual involvement in nonromantic contexts” — the technical term for hookups or “friends with benefits” — because they’re especially likely to spread sexually transmitted diseases.
The concern is that that people who have nonromantic relationships tend to have several partners at one time — “concurrency,” in sexual behavior lingo — in contrast to people engaged in romantic relationships, who tend to be monogamous for the duration of the romance.
“We’re concerned that concurrency is speeding up the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases,” said Tony Paik, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Iowa who recently published a study on the subject.
“This is a direct route for spreading STDs. There are important implications here for public health,” he added.
In Paik’s study, published last month in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, he found that 17 percent of men and 5 percent of women had at some point had more than one sexual partner at a time. Seventeen percent of women and 8 percent of men said they’d been exclusive but their partner had not.
For both genders, having sex with a friend made someone less likely to be monogamous.
“Sex with the ex”
Peggy Giordano, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, studies the sexual behavior of young people, and she’s also concerned about the phenomenon of having sex in nonromantic ways.
“It seems more acceptable now to have nonromantic sexual encounters,” said Giordano, who’s studied the sex lives of 1,300 teens and young adults in Lucas County, Ohio. “When there’s no romance, there’s no basis for demanding fidelity from the other person.”
She says it’s not just the number of partners at one time; it’s that people’s behavior seems to be different when they’re having “friendly” sex in contrast to romantic sex.
When people have sex with a friend, they tend to be more trusting that the person doesn’t have a sexually transmitted disease and therefore fail to use a condom, she says.
“If you’ve known a person for a while, you don’t have that vigilance. You’re probably not going to ask them to go and get tested for STDs,” Giordano said. (To find out whether you should get a test for an STD, you can take this quiz.)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help you find a testing site near you.
This lack of vigilance about STDs is especially true when the sexual partner is a former boyfriend or girlfriend, she adds.
“We’re finding that ‘sex with the ex’ is a very common experience,” said Giordano, who’s been studying the group of Ohio youth since 2001.
“It’s seemingly safe, since they used to be your girlfriend or boyfriend. But of course you don’t know what they’ve done since you broke up. You don’t know their full portfolio of partners,” she said.
What are the chances?
Through her work with the Atlanta H Club, a social and support group for adults with herpes or the human papillomavirus, Nicholas is now more aware of the chances that a prospective partner could have a sexually transmitted disease.
It’s impossible to say precisely what the chances are you’ll catch an STD from any one person, but there are studies that can give you a clue. One important factor to keep in mind: For biological reasons, women are more likely to catch an STD from a man than vice versa.
Human papillomavirus
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About one in four U.S. females age 14 to 59 has HPV, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The HPV rate was highest — 44 percent — for women ages 20 to 24.
HPV is not as common in men, according to a 2006 article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, but is still “highly prevalent.” The study, which looked at 40 studies on HPV and men, found that 56 percent of the reports found that at least one in five men had HPV.
Herpes
Nearly one in five Americans has herpes simplex virus, according to a 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The rates for women were higher than for men: 23 percent, compared with 11 percent. Rates were especially high among African-Americans.
Gonorrhea
Your chances of getting gonorrhea from a sexual encounter are significantly lower than your chances of getting HPV or herpes. A 2007 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed a 0.24 percent prevalence rate. Rates were highest among teens but still less than 1 percent.
Chlamydia
Nearly half of the people in the above study who had gonorrhea also had chlamydia, but again, infection rates were significantly lower than for HPV and herpes.
According to a 2007 report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 2.2 percent of Americans ages 14 to 39 had chlamydia. The rates were highest for teenage girls (4.6 percent) and for black women (7.2 percent).
CNN’s John Bonifield contributed to this report.
Heavenly Father, You have revealed Your wisdom and glory in the universe and entrusted to us mortals the “dominion” or power “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air…and over all the earth.” What a privilege! What a responsibility, Lord! To me You have opened opportunities and insight into the marvels of Your creation. Grant me the grace to always remember that You are the Creator of all things visible and invisible and that all that I discover, create, and formulate is made possible by Your gracious hand. In Your goodness give me the wisdom and the will to use all my abilities to make the world in which I live a better and more useful world, that all the discoveries and inventions be used for the good of humanity.
Above all, grant that I will always remember that all that I am and all ability I possess comes from You, who has given me more than life, yes, also a soul redeemed through Your Son Jesus Christ. Keep me faithful to Him and steadfast to the church and its saving Gospel. This I ask in His name. Amen.
-prayer for “Technicians” from My Prayer Book, CPH.
“the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” John 5:19
Although this has to do with the mystery of the Trinity it certainly gives insight into the complex relationship of fathers and their sons. What a significant influence a father has and how sad that so many are absent! A father has influence whether he is present or not and the son will be present for his sons like his father before him unless the pattern is broken. So I find empowerment and fear in what Jesus says when I relate it to my role as Father.
Origen’s advice to a son – “For we need to study the divine writings deeply in order to prevent ourselves from speaking faster than we think”…”what is most necessary for understanding divine things is prayer…so much I have ventured on account of my fatherly love to you.” Origen teaches from the Father’s heart in the hopes that the son will do likewise. A great witness.
You know maybe honoring your father just means taking the best that your father gave to you and using it for good and leaving behind the bad. I know for some that may only be genetics but honoring can mean focusing on the positive and emphasizing it in such a way that it still makes a difference. While unlike the media that focuses on and in fact seems to enjoy finding fault in people we can take what is good and forgive what is bad and honor our father by doing that.
GPS
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.
When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.
The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.
Something to consider if you have a GPS – don’t put your home address in it. Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.
MOBILE PHONES
I never thought of this…….
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet… Etc…was stolen.
20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says ‘I received your text asking about our Pin number and I’ve replied a little while ago.’
When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.
Moral of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.
Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc….
And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.
Also, when you’re being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet ‘family and friends’ who text you.
Should a parent read their teen’s diary and/or journal?
Posted using ShareThis
This is a subject that has many answers and opinions. First and foremost parents need to remember, “When Safety Trumps Privacy!”
Teenagers earn their trust with their parents. Respecting each others privacy should always be priority, however if you fear your teenager is heading down a dark path, and is not willing to talk to you or a third party (therapist, guidance counselor, relative or adult friend), you may have to cross the line of trust.
What are some of the warning signs that may prompt you to cross this line?
- Is your teen becoming very secretive? Sure, teens do like their privacy, however if you have a “gut feeling” something is deeper than a secret, you may have to cross that line.
- Is your teen becoming withdrawn? Again, teens will develop some attitudes of not wanting to be with adults, however when it becomes extreme, it may be time to cross that line.
- Is your teen changing peer groups? And this is not into a better one, however to one that is less than desirable? You will again attempt to talk to your teen and find out why and what happened to the other friends.
- Is your teens eating habits changing?
- Is your teen sleeping a lot? Bloodshot eyes? Do you suspect drug use?
- Is your teen sneaking out? Becoming extremely defiant? Not respecting your boundaries?
- Overall, is your teen slowly becoming a child you don’t recognize?
When safety trumps privacy you are being a responsible parent. On the flip side, if your teen is not giving you any reason to “snoop” then you should respect their journal and/or diary and not open it.
What happens when you read the journal and find out more than you expected? This can be a very scary and shocking time and the last thing you want to do is explode. If your teen is struggling already, you don’t need to add to this and possibly escalate it and/or give them reason to continue the negative behavior.
More importantly, if you are reading that your child is being bullied or suffering with depression (whether it is from low self worth or not fitting in), it is imperative you attempt to open lines of communication. Starting a conversation about yourself and maybe some of the feelings you had at her age could be a great conversation opener.
If you don’t feel you are able to do this, please reach out and be sure your teen get the help he/she may need. Teens need to know that we do care about them, we are very much concerned about their happiness and we are not trying to stop them from having fun, however if their safety is jeopardized, we need to be a parent first.
Should you read your teen’s diary? That is a personal question only you can answer.
Remember writing can be very healthy for teens (and adults for that matter), so if your teen isn’t giving you any valid reasons to “invade their privacy” – respect it.
From the Lutheran Witness (http://www.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=557&IssueID=34 )
In our culture today a growing number of families are without a “father figure” in the home. If having an adult male to look up to is as vital to a boy’s maturation as I believe it is, doesn’t this place single moms in an impossible situation?
The fact that God’s Word draws so much attention to widows and the fatherless emphasizes God’s special concern when a male role model is absent. In doing so, God’s Word prohibits us from pretending single moms don’t have more pressure, stress, and responsibility. They do! They do double duty by shouldering the responsibilities of both mother and father!
Where, then, might there be help in providing a male role model? Here are some suggestions:
- Extended family. Don’t underestimate the influence of grandfathers, uncles, and older cousins in partially filling the void. My father filled just such a role for two nephews whose father died when they were both under age six.
- Congregation family. Following God’s Word to care for the fatherless, individual members of the Christian community can step in. Often, we are willing, but we don’t know how to volunteer with-out causing offense. Many men in the congregation would be flattered to find themselves asked to be a child’s male role model. Ask.
- Neighborhood family. How would any single mom manage her multiple responsibilities without friends and neighbors? Neighbors can become fictive kin; not really related, but just as close as if they were. Good male role models can be found there.
- Community family. Many communities are already sensitive to the developmental needs of children. “Big Brother” and “Big Sister” programs are designed to help the nontraditional family, and male role models can be found in Boy Scouts, 4-H Clubs, Junior Achievement organizations, and other community-based groups.
Don’t overlook the fact that boys often find their own male role models: a teacher, a coach, a pastor, a scout leader—even a good friend. But at the same time, be careful. We live in a fallen world where predators are lurking. Expect organizations to complete background checks on their employees and volunteers. – John W. Oberdeck
The key term to keep in mind is family, whether extended, congregation, neighborhood, or community. Make family as large as it needs to be for your child.
(From The Lutheran Witness – http://www.lcms.org/pages/wPage.asp?ContentID=556&IssueID=34 )
Are fathers really all that important? Is there a unique contribution that fathers provide for their children, particularly for their sons? Is there something missing in a boy’s life when a father isn’t present?
Our contemporary culture struggles to answer these questions for several reasons, but the most obvious reason single-parent households, usuallyis because there are so many headed by mothers who are working very hard to do the best they can for the children they love. To point out that something’s still missing in spite of their best efforts seems thoughtless, if not cruel.
Nevertheless, if we look at the questions from the perspective of our heavenly Father, as He’s revealed Himself to us in His Word, we can affirm the influence of dads without heaping guilt on overworked moms. The Old Testament in particular has a lot to say about this subject; but it comes from a different cultural setting with different home-life expectations. Women raising children alone were not at all uncommon in ancient Israel either. In fact, the situation receives comment throughout the Old Testament.
God Cares for the Fatherless
Unlike today, when there may be many reasons why a boy’s father isn’t available, in ancient Israel there was generally one reason, the child was an orphan. The significant role provided by the father in the home was most deeply felt by its absence. That is why we find the word fatherless 42 times in the Old Testament ESV translation.
There were three circumstances that put a person at risk in ancient Israel: to be an alien (sojourner), to be fatherless, or to be a widow; and each receives special attention from the Lord. God Himself promises that He will execute justice for the fatherless and the widow (Deut. 10:18). God makes sure that the fatherless aren’t scorned or excluded from the worship life of the community (Deut. 16:14). They are granted the right to glean the harvest fields and to receive a portion of the tithe (Deut. 24:20; 26:12).
Over and over again, not only in the Law but also in the Prophets, God warns His people not to mistreat or cheat the fatherless (Ex. 22:22; Jer. 22:3). To mistreat the fatherless and the widow is to demonstrate the worst forms of evil (Ps. 94:6; Mal. 3:5) but to care for the fatherless and the widow is a sign of righteousness (Job 29:12). No greater curse do we find in the Psalms than this: “May his children be fatherless” (109:9)—and that’s not merely wishing the death of the enemy, but for the desolation of his children, too. According to Scripture, to be without a father is serious business.
How serious? To be fatherless is so serious that the community around the fatherless has a responsibility to be “father” for the fatherless! In today’s world, like the Old Testament, fatherlessness can bring with it severe economic disadvantages. Statistics tell us that the greatest predictor of poverty in the United States is single-parent families. Yet, there is a type of poverty more serious than not having one’s physical and material needs met as one might want. There are genuine spiritual needs. There are deep relationship needs, too. I believe these needs are different for a boy than they are for a girl, and it has to do with a boy’s relationship with his father.
Spiritual Growth
Spiritual growth takes place as the Holy Spirit works through the Word to bring faith, and then strengthens faith through the Sacraments. When I was a child, like St. Paul (1 Cor. 13:11) I thought like a child, and phrases like “Word and Sacrament” seemed vague and abstract. I couldn’t wrap my head around what they really meant. I needed to see what those words meant in action. Because I had the gift of a faithful Christian father, I had the example that I required. I needed someone to show me what it means to be a man of God and a man of faith.
So what’s missing, especially for a boy, when dad’s not around? To answer that question, and in so doing to affirm the importance of a father in a boy’s life, I began to think about what I would have not seen, heard, or observed if I had grown up fatherless. What would I have missed?
Tales of an Absent Model
The first thing I would have missed is my earliest memory of sitting on my dad’s lap in church during the sermon, with his big arms around me and me playing with his thumbs. I wouldn’t have seen both my parents going to Communion (this was long before the time when small children were welcome at the rail), and then when they returned, kneeling in the pew in a prayer of thanksgiving. Had I been fatherless, I wouldn’t have observed that a man of God is humble before the Almighty.
Had I been fatherless, I would never have had my father as my seventh-grade Sunday School teacher, nor watched him study the Bible on Saturday night, preparing as well as his farming and management skills permitted so that he could engage bored, disinterested early adolescents. I wouldn’t have noticed that a man of God does not give up, but persists in trusting the Word and its power.
Had I been fatherless, he wouldn’t have been present for me to test myself against when we were harvesting the crop, racing down the rows to see who was fastest (it wasn’t me). I never would have overheard him speak to my mother as we were washing up for lunch those words that to this day continue to motivate and inspire me: “There’s a boy after my own heart.” After hearing those words, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my dad. If I had been fatherless, I wouldn’t have learned that a man of God is slow to anger, slow to criticize, but quick to praise and encourage those he loves.
Had I been fatherless, I would not have been in that neighboring church on a hot Sunday morning for the adult Baptism and confirmation of one of my dad’s co-workers, a woman with whom he had shared the account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection at the right time in her life so that the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, brought her to faith—a woman whose earthly life wouldn’t be that much longer due to cancer but whose eternal life of faith was just beginning. If I had been fatherless, I wouldn’t have had that example of a man of God sharing his faith in witness to Jesus Christ.
Had I been fatherless, I would not decades later have overheard my dad in conversation with the president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, following the service at which I was installed as an assistant professor. “You must be proud of your son”; to which my father replied, “We are proud of all our children.” Even in my late thirties, had I been fatherless, I wouldn’t have been reminded as a father myself that a man of God loves all ofhis children to the best of his ability, prays for them, and thanks God when those children trust in Jesus.
Comparing Our Stories
I recognize that each of those qualities I absorbed by watching my father—regularity with humility in worship, persistence in the face of discouragement in teaching God’s Word, judicious use of encouragement as motivator and reward, willingness freely to share Jesus with others, and showing no favoritism but appreciating each son or daughter for who they are—could very well have been modeled for me by my mother, and in many ways they were. But it wouldn’t have been the same. I was a boy. I wanted to be a man. A man needed to show me.
Are you a father? Do you hope to be? Who has shown you? For whom are you the model? The great thing about this father-son relationship is that it doesn’t have to be a biological father in order for it to work; not in God’s economy. He’s modeled it Himself for us, first by taking the title “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15) and then becoming our true Father by adopting us as His sons (Gal. 4:5). We have been loved by our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and through faith given us by the Holy Spirit, we are called His brothers (Heb. 2:11).
I realize that these passages are not to be interpreted in a gendered way—all believing men and women are “sons of God” through faith in Christ Jesus, and we are all as much sisters as we are brothers in Christ. Yet, the point I want to make is simply this: a boy as a child needs someone to look up to, and to want to be like, to have as a model of what it means to be a Christian man. Though no Christian man would think himself worthy to assume such a role, for Christ’s sake each Christian man is capable of modeling what it means to confess sins, be forgiven, and live for Jesus Christ. That’s really all that’s needed. That much I think we can do. - John W. Oberdeck
Women More Likely Than Men to Pray, Believe in God
Women are more likely to profess belief in a God, pray and attend religious services than men, according to a new analysis of survey data. Ahead of Women’s History Month in March, the Pew Research Center offered new insight on sex and religiosity
Tue, Mar. 03, 2009 Posted: 01:52 PM EST
Women are more likely to profess belief in a God, pray and attend religious services than men, according to a new analysis of survey data.
Ahead of Women’s History Month in March, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life offered new insight on sex and religiosity based on a previous survey.
After gleaning over its 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, the Pew Forum found that women are more religious than men on a variety of measures.
When it comes to women, 86 percent are affiliated with a religion, 77 percent have absolutely certain belief in a God or a universal spirit, 63 percent say religion is very important in their lives and 44 percent attend worship services at least weekly, according to survey results.
The proportion of men who claimed such religious behavior and beliefs was lower. Compared to women, only 79 percent of men are affiliated with a religion, 65 percent have absolutely certain belief in a God or a universal spirit, 49 percent say religion is very important in their lives and 34 percent attend worship services at least weekly.
Women were also more likely than men to have absolutely certain belief in a personal God, 58 to 45 percent.
The biggest difference in religious behaviors between men and women was their prayer habits. Sixty-six percent of women say they pray at least daily, leading men by 17 percentage points.
What accounts for this difference?
In a 2002 commentary for Gallup Poll, George H. Gallup Jr. suggested that women traditionally have tended to spend more time then men in raising children and thereby also spent more time overseeing their church activities. In the past, women usually tend to have more flexible schedules than men, permitting them the time for more involvement with the church, Gallup wrote.
Other factors, according to Gallup, that might explain why women are more religious than men included their tendency to be more open in sharing personal problems, be more relational and have more of an empirical rather than a rational basis for faith.
The Pew Forum Religious Landscape Survey, released in February 2008, also revealed that men were more likely than women to switch religious affiliation, 45 to 42 percent. Moreover, men are twice as likely to say they are atheist or agnostic compared to women, 5.5 to 2.6 percent.
Women are more likely than men to be affiliated with nearly every major Christian group, from Protestantism to Catholicism. But the situation was reversed when it came to non-Christian religions, including Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, which more men than women are affiliated with.
Elena Garcia
Christian Post Reporter
**
What does this mean for Remember the Sabbath Day?
