Where's the sense in that?

Did everyone hear about the little girl in Florida who was removed from school by police for bringing a knife to school in her lunchbox? Read the News article if you haven't.

I understand in this day and age that seeing a knife in the school can cause concern but I still can't help but think that there was serious lack of good judgement shown here. Every article I found specifically stated that she did not threaten anyone or brandish the knife. I noticed the police said that it was school policy that they be called because the knife was considered a weapon. What makes a steak knife a weapon? Wouldn't it be at the moment that it was used in a threatening way? Which it was not. All she wanted to do with it was cut the steak that she had brought for her lunch. Why couldn't the knife have just been taken from her, her parents called and she talked to about why you don't bring steak knives to school?

I don't see any common sense reason this child should have been transported from school in the back of a police car and now have the threat of felony weapons charges hanging over her head. Were the teachers hands tied by rules or did they just see what they perceived to be a weapon and go overboard? I'm not sure I'd be happy with either answer if I was that child's mother.

Blame it on Harry

I started reading the Harry Potter books just recently. I can't believe I waited this long! I have plenty of friends who told me all along how good they were but because I had been led to believe by the Church that they were evil, I was not about to get too close.

These books have got to be the furthest thing from evil. In fact they are all about Good triumphing over Evil. And, no, I don't just say that to make myself feel better.Voldemort, Harry's enemy, is obviously a parallel to many evil forces throughout the ages, including Hitler and Satan. Harry as the one who defeats him is an obvious parallel to the Savior. As to the accusations of the books teaching children witchcraft. Um, no. There are no mini-magic lessons hidden in the margins of the books. Magic is done but I don't think I'm going to be able to wave my wand at my sink tonight and watch my dishes wash themselves. Unfortunately.

The church that we used to belong to had good intentions I think. They just wanted to protect us from anything that would lead us away from God. And they felt these books had the potential to do that. I don't think the pastor ever read a page of even HP1, he just heard from other good pastors like himself and spread the word around. The problem I have now, looking back, is that we as Christians need to open our own eyes and make our own INFORMED decisions. That means knowing what we are deciding on with information in hand. I don't even know the stance the pastor at our new church takes on Harry, and that's ok with me. I'm sure there are some at this church who allow HP and others who don't, and that is their own personal choice. It shouldn't be dictated by the church and if you choose to do otherwise you are a "bad" Christian. That's not how God operates and it's not how we should either. Unfortunately sometimes I think that's the impression we gave. We can't tell people, "It's all about a relationship with Jesus", and then once they are in the church throw a bunch of rules at them that they have to conform to. That's not to say that we get saved and then run wild doing what we want. That's where the Holy Spirit comes in, it's His job to guide us and our job to listen to that guidance.

It is about a relationship with Jesus and I believe He's just fine with my relationship with Harry.

Pure and Undefiled Love

I had to share this video. I found it on the blog of someone that I read and it touched my heart. My heart wants to adopt every child that needs a home. I know why and someday I'll have to post about all of that. But tonight I just had to share this. I hope that someone else will be touched and decide to adopt, from where doesn't matter, the age and sex don't matter. Those things are all personal for each family. Adoption is too wonderful for just a few to experience. These children need to be loved, they need to know they were wanted and that there is someone who is going to always be there for them.

It's been said before and is so true. EVERY child deserves a family.

The Santa Files

When my kids were little I decided that I didn't feel comfortable with them believing totally in Santa Claus and having him be the central focus for the gifts they receive or the "magic" of the season. My Aunt started this with her children and she really encouraged me to do the same. It didn't take much for me to decide that this idea appealed to me. You see, I can remember the day I finally accepted that Santa wasn't real. I was sitting on the school bus getting ready to go away on a school overnight field trip. I was in either 4Th or 5th grade. I know, late bloomer. Anyway, I overheard these two kids talking about Santa Claus and how he was not real and everybody knows that except one of their younger siblings or something. And it sunk in, "Santa is not real..." and I can kind of remember thinking something along the lines of, "why did all the grownups I know trick me into believing this for so long?". Every time I would start to question his existence they had another story to back it up. I can remember my grandmother telling me that Santa and Jesus were best friends when I asked her how Santa knew everything about everybody when only God was supposed to be able to do that. That's just one example, my mom always had something whenever I would throw questions her way too. Why not just tell me the truth when I was obviously starting to catch on?

So, all this led me to decide that my kids should know the "real" Santa Claus and I started doing research. All the things that I learned were so much more interesting than the Santa I grew up on. ( Wikipedia has loads of info. ) This guy did some great things and helped some people. As far as I know, my boys have never ruined it for other kids. I actually had another mom tell me one time that they would because they would be jealous that they didn't get to believe. That never happened. I told them that other kids do believe in Santa as being a real person who lives today and comes to their house to bring their gifts and that they would be really disappointed if they were told by someone that he wasn't. I'm surprised when I look back now at how they really seemed to understand this at a young age. They would tell adults though. All the time they were being asked, "Are you ready for Santa?" and they would always answer that Santa was not real. It flustered alot of people. Should I be ashamed of the fact that this made me laugh every time? Last Christmas we ran into this lady who seemed to really believe she was one of Santa's elves and she just was not having it that my youngest son knew that Santa was not real. So, we finally just pretended along with her and left it at that. Poor woman, she may have been traumatized.

I don't have anything against folks who do the whole Santa thing. I used to almost. I kind of had this picture of myself as being "better than" because I told my kids the "truth". I don't buy into that anymore, maybe I've become more open minded but I just do it my way and you do it your way. I do think though that when a child begins to question it's time to tell them the truth about Santa. There's a lot more magic to Christmas than the Santa aspect. I like to focus on the St. Nicholas version of what is today's Santa Claus. In fact, I love those Jim Shore Santas, the ones that remind me of the more "traditional" Santa. If you run into Rickydoodle out and about tell him I want this one this year.