Thanksgiving Day prayer

Parents and children's obedience

I am writing this to plead with Christian parents to require obedience of their children. I am moved to write this by watching young children pay no attention to their parents’ requests, with no consequences. Parents tell a child two or three times to sit or stop and come or go, and after the third disobedience, they laughingly bribe the child. This may or may not get the behavior desired.

Last week, I saw two things that prompted this article. One was the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa, California, by police who thought he was about to shoot them with an assault rifle. It was a toy gun. What made this relevant was that the police said they told the boy two times to drop the gun. Instead he turned it on them. They fired.

I do not know the details of that situation or if Andy even heard the commands. So I can’t say for sure he was insubordinate. So my point here is not about young Lopez himself. It’s about a “what if.” What if he heard the police, and simply defied what they said? If that is true, it cost him his life. Such would be the price of disobeying proper authority.

A Tragedy in the Making

I witnessed such a scenario in the making on a plane last week. I watched a mother preparing her son to be shot.

10 Ways Introverts Interact Differently With The World

Introverts and extraverts may seem the same on the surface, but if you look at the waythey respond to life's everyday occurrences, differences begin to emerge.

Last month, for example, Science of Us writer Melissa Dahl reported on findings from psychologist Brian Little's latest book on personality science, Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being, which showed that introverts are better off avoiding caffeine before a big meeting or important event.

Little cites the theory of extraversion by Hans Eysenck and research by William Revelle of Northwestern University, explaining that introverts and extraverts naturally differ when it comes to their alertness and responsiveness to a given environment. A substance or scene that overstimulates the central nervous system of an introvert (which doesn't take much) might cause him or her to feel overwhelmed and exhausted, rather than excited and engaged.

10 вещей, которые нужно знать, если вы любите экстраверта

1. Экстраверты не строят близкие отношения со всеми подряд

Вот и удивительное открытие номер один. Да-да, у нас могут быть сотни знакомых, приятелей, людей, с которыми можно потусоваться и просто поболтать, но близких друзей практически всегда можно пересчитать по пальцам одной руки. То, что окружающие могут принимать за предельную и шокирующую откровенность, на самом деле ею не является. Большинство фактов о себе, которые экстраверты охотно вываливают в беседе, — это информация, находящаяся «в свободном доступе». Мы можем поделиться ей безболезненно, не опасаясь дальнейшего распространения — просто потому что вы, скорее всего, уже далеко не единственный, кому она известна.

Настоящее доверие заслуживается долго, проверяется временем и — что немаловажно — взаимностью. И оно всегда достаточно хрупко — это с психотипом никак не связано.

2. Экстравертам не нужно все время находиться рядом с любимым человеком

Помните эти картинки, где бедный-несчастный интроверт забился в хрустальный шар, а гадкий экстраверт тянет к нему свои ручонки в попытке вытряхнуть страдальца, скорее прижать его к себе и присесть ему на уши? Так вот, мы не маньяки. Мы не будем вышибать из вас общение и любовь всеми правдами и неправдами. И мы точно не прилипнем к вам намертво и не начнем всюду таскать за собой, вцепившись в вас руками, ногами и зубами. Нам это не нужно: хотя бы потому, что мы черпаем энергию из общения с разными людьми, соответственно, вы никогда не станете нашим единственным контактом.

Конечно, нам хочется проводить больше времени с любимыми. Но экстраверты вполне представляют себе, что значит личное пространство и время. Кроме того — удивительное открытие номер два — иногда нам очень нравится молчать с любимыми. Честно-честно.

Sow a thought, reap an action

Sow a thought, reap an action.

Sow an action, reap a habit.

Sow a habit, reap a character.

Sow a character, reap a destiny.

-- John Stott

Quote from Jennifer Rothschild's video study Me, Myself, and Lies.

116 considerations to marrying a Russian woman

116 Considerations to marrying a Russian woman

The women you see on the internet really do exist and their expectations a much more greater than simply having a male foreign pen-pal. The difficulty lies in finding an agency which is reputable and in sifting throught the scammers and real women. Russian women on the internet are young and beautiful. Their culture deems they get married at a young age.

1. If you contact a woman and win her heart, yes you can marry. You cannot marry her unless you win her heart.
2. Yes some Russian women are desperate to leave Russia. However, most are not. Russian women are highly intelligent and will not marry you unless they are made to feel secure in their choice.
3. Ghandi once said, "Be the change in the world you desire." This is so true. If you want your women to love and respect you, please love her and respect her too.
4. If you marry a woman for her body, do not be surprised if she married you for your money.

Holocaust Survivor: “I Did My Best Acting During the War”

Reading about a theatrical production in England, put on by older adults, we came across the inspiring story of a Holocaust survivor. Ruth Posner, who will be sharing her memories of the Holocaust, is an actress who saved her best performance for her escape from the Nazis:

By the time she was just 12, and the Second World War was underway, Ruth had lost both her parents and her world as she knew it. She was in the middle of the Holocaust.

Now, 72 years later, Ruth is re-enacting her story in a play. She is taking part in a production called Who Do We Think We Are?, which sees 10 older actors share their personal memories and covers the last 100 years of human history.

Ruth, 84, is acting out the story of how she escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto.

She lived there with her parents, and tells me: “The unfortunate story is that my father wanted to save me.”

Her father helped Ruth and her aunt – whose two children had already been killed by the Nazis – get a job working at a leather factor outside the ghetto. He also managed to acquire false passports for the women, giving them Catholic names and identities.

The plan was