Ever heard of irony?

Right now we're watching a competition on Food Network wherein two people are trying to peel 50lbs of onions in less than 3 minutes, 18 seconds. They interviewed the gentleman before the challenge, when he was quoted as saying, "I just hope I don't embarrass myself! haha" Umm... you're on national TV, in a RACE to chop ONIONS... way too late, man..way too late.

Let's remember

All of these videos and quotes from the gunman at Virginia Tech are completely horrible. How much news coverage has been given to the innocent victims that lost their lives? How about we concentrate on the good, upstanding people who were lost that day, instead of focusing so darn much on a crazy man.

Read this article- every word. Yes, it's long, but how much time have you spent learning about Cho this past week, without even meaning to? Look at the pictures. Take 5 minutes and purposely get to know a little about the families who lost their loved ones.

This is an excerpt about Henry Lee, one of the students:

"Friends continued to post hundreds of messages and remembrances on Lee’s Facebook.com page since he was shot to death, knowing he would never get to view them.

“Remember how you used to freak out when I hugged you all the time?” one read. “I’m not so sorry for that anymore.” "

In an interview I saw with a man from a nearby funeral home who helped recover the bodies, he said that what got to him the most was not seeing all of the bodies, but hearing all of their cell phones ringing... over and over again. Imagine- all these parents, wives, friends trying to get in touch with their loved one... and the phone just keeps ringing.

Please, let's get Cho off the TV and bring some dignity to the departed.

What do you think

Recently I heard someone speak about our thought life. I realized I have a lot of work to do in this area. Like the speaker said, what if, when running errands/grocery shopping/whatever, instead of having a schedule to keep and tasks to accomplish, I went in with an attitude of, "Who might be in this store that I could show kindness to?" Wouldn't that change my perspective on the slow checker who can't get the price check done? Or the elderly lady who's blocking my path to the peanut butter? Instead of getting aggravated at these folks because they're wasting my time, why don't I share a smile or a friendly conversation while I'm waiting? Wouldn't that show the world God's love more than being in a rush to get things done? How many opportunities have I missed because my thoughts were entrenched deeply into this world instead of dwelling on eternity?

I can relate

My Lego Lesson


By Janice Joos, MOPS Council Coordinator

I am a mother of two boys. With this honor comes a very large collection of Legos. For birthdays and Christmas each boys always receives a Lego kit to build. They both love to follow the directions step-by-step until the structure is completed.

For Jacob's ninth birthday his brother gave him a very large Lego kit. Jacob was thrilled as he knew that it would be a challenge and take him a few days. However, there were points in the process when Jacob became frustrated at the challenge, and there were even times where he had to stop and take apart the last two or three steps because he had made a mistake.

During the last day of his working on the piece, I watched him as he became frustrated. He knew he made a mistake but couldn't figure out where he had gone wrong. He reviewed the page of directions again and again, but he could not find a solution. Then I watched him as he picked up the box and studied the picture of the completed starship. Several times he looked at the picture and then his pile of Legos until he figured out the problem. I asked him, "What are you doing?"

"I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture," he replied.

Wow, I was struck at the truth in his words. Not just for building Legos, but for all parts of my life. It's east to worry about the small stuff, but that's when I need to step back and look at the bigger picture of my life and the lives of my husband and children. Who would have thought you could learn this kind of lesson from a box of Legos!

Heavy heart

This morning at our MOPS meeting, we heard from one of our moms who just had premature twin baby boys. To protect her privacy, I won't go into the whole ordeal here, but suffice it to say that things are not going the way we all would have liked. One of the boys is especially sick. Their whole family needs prayer and the Lord's continued comfort and guidance.

Get better, baby boys!!

Something to blog about

I got a new book at the library, "Heaven," by Randy Alcorn. Dave Ludwig spoke in church a few weeks back and said the book had really got him thinking about heaven in a new way, so I thought I'd check it out. I requested it a few weeks back because it wasn't "in stock" at our library, and then when it came in, you had like 3 days to pick it up. Luckily when we were there today, I was able to pick it up because they hadn't sent it back to it's original library yet. If it's like any of the other books I check out at the library, it'll sit on my shelf for 3 weeks and then I'll have to turn it back in, but I want to try and actually read this one. :)

In other news, tonight we got to visit with some family we don't see often. They have a new baby in the family, who you can see here. She's a beauty! :)

First Blogger blog

Well, it seems like "everybody's doing it"... moving to Blogger, that is. More respectable than Myspace, I suppose. So I'll try it out too.

For those who are confused by the name, BACT is the first initial in each of our names. Pretty complicated, I know!