Where's the line?

So, I'm sitting there watching the team play, and it ends up being our second 8-1 loss of the season. I'm frustrated as all get out. I can't believe some of the things I watch them do. It's mind-boggling to me how you can watch as the other team takes the ball and just goes by you and you just watch them go, not even attempting to help in any way. Or watch as the other team takes your ball because you didn't move to it. Or you watch as the ball goes over your head and the other team runs in to score. I hope they got their money's worth.
My question is: Where do you draw the line? When does it frustrate you so much that you actually make a change? When does the pit of stomach start nagging at you to do something different? When does the righteous indignation overtake the lazy habits, or the indifference?Where do you emotionally draw that line in the sand? How do you push somebody past that line? Is it OK to get into someone's head so much that they push past the line? Is that manipulation? When does motivation become manipulation? I want to be a good coach, and I don't want to be a jerk, but these boys need a hot brand to the bajooki. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks for listening.

Six years later...

Time sure flies when you're having fun! I guess it does even when you're not. Six years ago, we were in the midst of the hardest trial of our lives up until that point, I think. I look back on the time with amazement and yearning to be there again.
Being a young, married couple was not easy to begin with. Having no full-time job (which now makes me wonder, WHAT WAS I THINKING?), we were going to have our second child, which felt reassuring after our second miscarriage. December changed everything when Jennie's water broke. She was on bedrest at home in December and January and then finished off January in the hospital. Yuck is right.
Geneva was born and immediately everything changed. There was a measure of joy and peace that was fleeting before and has been hit-and-miss ever since. It's amazing how powerful one person's spirit can be. At times, I wonder what she could have accomplished if she had been born under more "normal" circumstances: with a normal body after the normal amount of time.
How grateful I am that she came to us, that she'll be a part of us forever. I feel like our team captiain got a red card early in the first half and we'll miss her for the rest of the game. It seems liek so much time to wait to see her - not just her frail, human body, but her - who she really is, as she really is. But here I sit worrying about stupid tax forms and when I'm going to get a break from a crazy schedule this week. Six years is about a fifth of my life at this point, but it seems an eternity away.

Because I love my wife...

I love my wife a lot. I mean, a LOT. Here's a link to the site of a friend of ours who sells bows and beanies. We'll have twice as much chance to win because of this post. The bows are admittedly cute, but heaven knows I wouldn't have done this of my own volition. Good luck! The giveaway runs through Wednesday, 2am EST.

http://busybutlersboutique.blogspot.com/

Death of religion as we know it?

It's a sad state of affairs when you feel inclined toward a certain position because of counsel given to you and people dub you a hater.

We went to the Temple last Saturday for a beautiful sealing ceremony (congrats to the Bartholomew fam) and there were people protesting outside with a sign that said "Love Deniers Shame" listed downward with emphasized "LDS". I was happy for them to exercise their freedom of speech and was glad that my freedom of religion was not imposed upon by people blocking my way in.

In reading a lot about Proposition 8 in California, a certain scenario came to light that I could very much see happening. I don't know if I read about it in one place or if it was a culmination of ideas, but I don't claim full ownership of the idea. Tell me what you think.



Imagine that gay marriage is legalized. Gay members of a church ask to be married in any of the number of those churches that don't allow for homosexual relations. Those churches would naturally decline to perform such marriages. The couple sues the church for denying their now legal right. The church is ordered to perform the marriage or stop performing marriages altogether.



I would guess that this could happen in any and every church in the United States, whether or not the church is based in the US. Sadly, I don't think that the huge majority of the people who are for gay marriage would ever think to do such a thing; but it doesn't take a majority to do this. I wonder how many people knew about the case against the Catholic adoption agency in Massachusetts that closed down because a gay couple wanted to adopt and, through the courts, forced the agency to place with them or close. It's always the radicals of any cause that blow for the rest of the respectful believers.

A topic in my thoughts...

Since this is my blog, I guess I'm allowed to get up on my soapbox every once in a while.

Abortion is a topic that's been all over, from politics to local Branch discussions and I want to put in my two cents' worth.
People tend to make the case that abortion is a matter of privacy and choice. It's a woman's body and therefore it is her choice to do what she will with it. No one should be able to tell her what to do, and I get that. No one stops people from doing other things that I find revolting, like tongue rings and the like. That's fine.
My argument against abortion runs along two separate lines, but I think that they both have merit. When someone commits murder, they can't go back and plead that they should be able to choose the consequences of their actions. They used their body how they wanted to. A woman's right to use her body should not be taken from her, but after some three weeks, an abortion doesn't affect her body as much as the baby's. If it just dealt with her body, I could get behind that, but it doesn't. People try to bring agency into the argument, as if it has a place. Moral agency deals with the ability to choose righteousness over evil. Other than those rare situations in which the woman did not have the chance to choose whether or not to get pregnant, the decision to sin was already made when the baby was created. Agency has no bearing on the situation, because it is now gone. Whether or not there is a temporal law in place with regards to abortion, there is already a celestial law in place. If we really want to be helpful in this situation, the best thing we can do is point them toward righteousness again by not having an abortion.
I have made covenant to stand as a witness at all times and in all things, and in all places I may be in, physically or politically I might venture to add, and this is where I stand. God created a law and I have the choice to sustain that law by voting and declaring against abortion, or I can attempt to say that Congress should have power to decide right and wrong over God.
To me, that's the choice you're making. It's not about choice, because the choice will always be there, whether it's legal or illegal (feel free to reference alcohol consumption in Prohibition times). As feelings and desires count for righteousness as do actions, a woman who wants to have an abortion but doesn't, isn't in a much better place spiritually than one who did. At least they won't have to deal with death. Nevertheless, my choice is not to decide what is right or wrong, because God already decided that for me and I know His position.

Stories from Draft...

Alrighty, so it's been a while.

School is going fine, I guess. A lot of the more intelligent kids have gotten a wake-up call that they actually have to study. Fancy that. They are funny as all get out. In an attempt to help them add fractions in an easy manner, I asked, "One quarter and one quarter make...", waiting for the answer one half. To everyone's surprise the shouted answer was, "Two quarters!"
We were making what is called a foldable, where you fold a piece of paper in different ways to make blocks in which to separate information. We folded it in half the long way first, and then folded it into thirds from there to create six blocks. One student, who happened to be the biggest smart-aleck in that class, amazingly said, after unfolding the thirds fold, "I 0nly have three blocks!" Dead serious. I wiggled his paper around and played the magician and opened it again and said, "Mathemagic! Six blocks!" He wasn't too impressed.
I was walking down the hall and this girl seemed to be having trouble opening her locker. When I looked like I was going to come over, she checked again and laughingly announced, "Oh! That's not even my locker!" She's a funny one.

That's enough 8th grade stories for now. More to come...

Tagged!

I was tagged by Grover!
How To Play This Game of Tag:
Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

3 Joys
1) My wife - she is the best at everything it seems, so stalwart and true, joy-loving and fun, caring and kind
2) Our kids - Junior Mint, 6, Curly Fry, 1.6, and Squeaky Bean, .5ish - not enough room to write all of the reasons for this one
3) The fruits of the Spirit in my life

3 Fears
1) My wife will figure out who she really married and bolt
2) I'll go back to school and fail miserably and have no job
3) Failure in general - at learning to play the guitar, in writing on the topic I feel drawn to, at parenting, at life

3 Goals
1) To be a great husband and father
2) Never to stop learning and improving
3) To teach at some upper level institution

3 Current Obsessions/Collections
1) Blogging
2) Playing the guitar, learning to play I should say...
3) Collecting the state quarters

3 Facts About Me
1) I passed 30, wow I feel like I'm getting old
2) I coach varsity soccer
3) We have 3 kids and 1 angel! Who let us pass the class for this?

I tag the Ropers, Galbraiths, my wife, Stylers, and Dunnes.