every moment a gift

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The few autumn decorations here and there help to remind me: time passes. This day will flee like the last, and even more so, this moment.

Never mind the exhaustion, the sense of just trying to make it through the day with clean clothes and full bellies. Never mind emotions in upheaval; this is no time to judge too harshly, chastise too severely. No, better just take this moment for what it is, with the energy it’s wrapped in, and love the Lord. Love my husband. Love my boy.

Yes, better to just do that.

So I sleep a bit longer in the morning. I cuddle a bit longer after naptime. I save energy to make sure there’s a smile when he comes in the door, even if there isn’t always a dinner to impress.

And I step around the Little People farm animals on the floor and remind myself that it’s not the end of the world if they lay there for a few more hours.

And when even those reminders don’t seem to work, there’s the Lord. He is a Rock.

a batch of fall goodies

I’ve been slowly chipping away at some fall-inspired projects. These are the first to be finished: five new handbags, designed and made by me. Each bag is finished a bit differently — however I was inspired by the chosen fabric, mostly. (The rule of the game this time around: I could only use materials I already had in the stash.) Buttons, applique, a bit of a fringed kilt theme… Perhaps there is something for everyone? And there are five more on their way to completion.

(See my new flickr feature, “Selling”? You can keep tabs on my creative output [slow as it may be!] there.)

If you’re interested in a bag, contact me. Your purchase will go towards a great cause: our flight back East for Christmas and a wedding. :)

Oh yeah — shipping is $5.

Happy autumn!

from Randy Alcorn’s blog

Gianna Jessen comments on Barack Obama

As an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama twice opposed legislation to define as “persons” babies who survive late-term abortions. Babies like Gianna. Mr. Obama said in a speech on the Illinois Senate floor that he could not accept that babies wholly emerged from their mother’s wombs are “persons,” and thus deserving of equal protection under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment…

When I asked Gianna to reflect on Mr. Obama’s candidacy, she paused, then said, “I really hope the American people will have their eyes wide open and choose to be discerning. . . . He is extreme, extreme, extreme.”

“Extreme” may not be the impression the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have bought Mr. Obama’s autobiography have been left with. In “The Audacity of Hope,” Mr. Obama’s presidential manifesto, he calls abortion “undeniably difficult,” “a very difficult issue,” “never a good thing” and “a wrenching moral issue.” . . . Those statements are seriously made but, alas, cannot be taken at all seriously. Mr. Obama has compiled a 100% lifetime “pro-choice” voting record, votes against any and all restrictions on late-term abortions and parental involvement in teenagers’ abortions.

To Mr. Obama, abortion, or “reproductive justice,” is “one of the most fundamental rights we possess.” And he promises, “the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would overturn hundreds of federal and state laws limiting abortion, including the federal ban on partial-birth abortion and bans on public funding of abortion.

Then there’s Mr. Obama’s aforementioned opposition to laws that protect babies born-alive during botched abortions. If partial-birth abortion is, as Democratic icon Daniel Patrick Moynihan labeled it, “too close to infanticide,” then what is killing fully-birthed babies? (read entire article)

voting: the issue

Here comes November. And now that Palin’s on the ticket, there actually seems to be a bit of a race towards that Tuesday.

I’ll admit that my enthusiasm for this whole campaign significantly waned when Ron Paul’s moment was over. While he was certain to not win, it was sort of fun to actually be excited about a man who seems to get it the way I do.

That said, this whole election process has made me painfully aware of the fact that it seems like Christians (especially my generation) are, umm, bored with being pro-life. Somehow it’s old-fashioned, or simplistic, to think abortion to be the most important issue. Please read what John Piper has to say on the “one-issue” issue.

It’s true that there are so many important issues. Goodness knows that’s why I was excited about Ron Paul: finally, someone who addresses foreign policy and economics and state’s rights and everything else in a way that I think is right.

It’s true that Christians can have a biblically informed response to those issues, too. Yes, my faith does shape the way I think about environmental stewardship.

But name one — one — of those important issues that is addressed point-blank by scripture. Show me where God speaks black-and-white on whether or not we should drill in Alaska. Or whether or not tax dollars should be spent towards American auto research. Or whether or not my husband should have his money simply taken away and distributed to the less fortunate, or given to us so that we can give it away. (Guess where I fall on that one.)

I love to get to the bottom of these conscience issues along with the best of them. I do. And I hope that someday, I’ll be able to see pro-life on two tickets, and then decide based on some of these other issues. Josh Harris awaits that day, too. Please read what he has to say about abortion, “voting John McCain”, and the responsibility of Christians in the upcoming election.

Yes, someday, prayerfully, there will be more than one candidate willing to stand against abortion.

But we’re not there yet.

There’s whole-sale slaughter still happening. Right this minute. As you read this.

So you tell me: is it time to be bored? Is it time to move on? Is it time to wrangle about with tax cuts and public school strategies?

Or should we still be one-issue people?