Look it up...

I heard about something on the radio last night, but just couldn't believe it. So, this morning, first thing, I did a little google search, and sure enough, there it was.

It seems that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has dropped several words from the dictionary.  

I am not going to attempt to repeat the entire article I read, the writer at the Christian Post did a great job of summarizing the story (go figure, a professional writer).  Instead, I will give you a taste, and then point you in the direction of the full article.

Some of the words that were dropped:

"bishop," "chapel," "disciple," "minister," "sin," and "devil"

Some of the words that were added:

"blog," "biodegradable," "MP3 player," "democratic," and "celebrity"

As much as I like to blog, should it really replace "disciple"?!?

Here is another little clip from the article:

The decision by OUP to discontinue particular words is a form of "verbal engineering," Erin Manning recently wrote on Beliefnet’s conservative Crunchy Con blog.

Manning cited Catholic moral theologian William Smith as saying, "All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering."

"Deciding to drop a word that has already fallen out of use, become obsolete, from a dictionary is not a political act," said Manning on Monday, "but removing words still in everyday use just because you've decided they ought not be important in the vocabulary of a modern child most decidedly is."

Here is the full article, in case you were wanting to read the rest.  I do feel a little nervous about talking about it.  I wonder if big brother is watching.  I make a promise to all of my readers (all two of you) that I will refuse to adopt the newspeak on this blog as long as I can hold out!

Upside Down

Great video from Rick Boyne...


Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

HT: Boyne Blog

Sacrifice

I have had a few thoughts bouncing around in my head lately. I haven't had time to "flesh them out" but I keep coming back to them. Here is the first thought. Let me know what you think.

Sacrifice is not measured by how much you give, but by how much you have left over.

This one came to me a little while back. It is based in the story of the Widow's offering. Here is that story, found in Mark 12:41-44:

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.
(ESV)

I don't have the time, or the energy, to develop this thought. It is just something that has been on my mind lately.

Logical Point of View

Great perspective on this controversy. Love the logic.



[HT: Mmmm, That's Good Coffee]

To live...

To live is so startling
it leaves little time
for anything else.
~Emily Dickinson

slightly new

I have a slightly new "look" for my blog.  I am not completely satisfied with it, but it is sufficient for now.  I swithched to the three column layout.  I'm not sure if I like it, but I had too much on the one sidebar.

I also added the third column to my Twenty Seven blog.  Then on that blog and on my Let Me Not Wander blog I am trying to incorporate the new Google Friend connect.  

So, if you haven't stopped by in a while because you are just skimming past me in your feed reader, stop by and let me know what you think of the new look.

It's Him! It's Him!

Can I touch the hem of his garment?

Wow. 

Just in time for the Christmas Season, we get to see what Christmas is really all about.  It's about hope and the promise of change.  It is about the "Son of Promise" and the "Child of Hope" finally coming to us in our time of greatest need.

Rush the aisles this holiday season and pick one of these up for your children.  May they treasure it all of their days.

And for you, maybe you should pick up one of his books... Words that were actually penned by this Great man.

To be honest now.  I don't know if I have ever seen anything scarier in my life.  I thought it was a joke when my mom told me about it, so I had to go online to see for myself.  If you don't believe me, here is a link to the Amazon page:  Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Diet - Day 8

Just a short morning post for the diet today...

I have found that a great snack to have is sugar-free jello (one cup) with a spoon of sugar-free cool whip.  It tastes really good (maybe, I am speaking in a dieting state), and it is almost like eating nothing.  The nice thing is that it satisfies that little craving.

Another snack that I have come to enjoy  is a spoon of natural peanut butter, whith a sprinkle of Splenda.  It tastes a little like a peanut butter cup.

I weighed myself this morning and I came in at a whopping 186 lbs.

Diet - Day 6

I didn't give an update on day 5 because... well... I messed up.  One of my students had a birthday, brought me a cupcake, and I didn't even remember until after I was done that I was on a diet.  I have to say, it was a great cupcake.  The truth is, I was wondering the whole time why it was tasting so good.

Even though that happened, I weighed myself this morning and i weighed in at 189 lbs.  Since I weighed 194 on Tuesday (or was it Monday?) that means that I have lost 5 lbs.!

I am feeling pretty good about that.

serving the younger

I teach a 9th and 10th grade Bible class.  We are currently studying the book  of Proverbs, but I try to throw other thoughts and ideas into the class.  One common theme that I hit on from time to time is the idea of service.  I believe that serving others is so important, but it often gets over looked or misunderstood.  

To help my guys I like to give them opportunities to serve.  Usually it is some mundane little task that involves cleaning, but yesterday I set them to work teaching.  They each had a different grade that they were going to "substitute" as the Bible teacher for that grade.

They loved it.  The elementary teachers loved it.  I loved it.  It was great!  Unintentionally it was on a day when there was a tour going around the school... They loved it too.

Here are some pictures that I snapped with my camera phone.  I didn't want to disturb them, so they are mostly through windows and around corners, but it was heart-warming to watch.

Coined Terms

I got an e-mail a little while back from a site called the Chapeau Blog Awards.  Never heard of it before, but I gave it a glance.

I didn't think much about it for a while, but then one day I got another e-mail inviting me to look at their BlogOh!Pedia page.  I really like the idea of a list of terms for bloggers.  It is fun to look at, as a blogger, so I couldn't help myself... I had to submit a couple of terms.  After a long time of searching through my vast knowledge of blogging (maybe 3 minutes), I came up with two terms.

Here are the two terms that I coined:

Blugh - That feeling that you get when you haven’t blogged in a couple of days and you are sitting in front of you computer with your hands on the keyboard… but nothing is happening.

(Obviously I coined this term because I experience this phenomenon all of the time.)

Conspirablog - A blog, with its small but devoted core group of readers, that is devoted to various conspiracy theories or “sightings”

(If you know me at all, you know that I actually have a conspirablog.  I just wish that I wouldn't have used the word "devoted" twice.  I feel like such an idiot!)

Anyway, I just went over there to get the right links for this post and noticed that they actually used one of my terms and said that it was one of their favorites!  The post where they mentioned me is called Over a Week Without A BlogOh!Pedia Post?  Alert the "Conspirablogs"!

Diet - Day 4

I weighed myself this morning and I have already lost 2 lbs.  I am feeling pretty good about that.

shift

I have seen these slide shows before, but this one is the best one I've seen.




[ht: Rodney Olsen]

Diet - Day 2

I made it through the second day of my diet.  Other than being hungry all of the time, I'm alright.  Breakfast was eggs and turkey bacon.  Lunch was a salad again.  Dinner was chili!  The chili tasted really good tonight, even though I didn't have any crackers.

Should I start posting weight loss?

Sure.  Since I forgot to weigh myself on Sunday, I will do a weigh-in tonight, and then do a follow up later this week.

diet - day 1

We just started a no (low) carb diet, so I thought that I would journal my way through it.  The last time I went on this diet, I lost 10 lbs in the first week.  And that is what I am shooting for.  I just want a jumpstart on my weight.  

Today was the first day, and it wasn't so bad.  Omlette for breakfast, salad for lunch, and leftover fajita meat for supper.  I love breads, so I am missing that, but barely.  Here is a picture of my lunch, just because of what my wife wrote on the plastic bag.  I thought that was hilarious.

The biggest challenge come for me at night.  Supper is over.  The kids are in bed.  I am winding down.  Then it hits:  the stomach starts calling me.  My nighttime savior is coffee.  Just a little cream and a packet of splenda curbs the appetite but I don't consume any carbs!

Thank You

I just wanted to pass this along from my wife.  It is from Steven Curtis Chapman's website.  It says:

Whether you voted for him & love him, or you’ve disagreed with all his policies and dislike him... Could we all agree on this? We owe President Bush a sincere thank you. As the historic Inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama approaches, StevenCurtisChapman.com pauses to thank our outgoing President for his service to our great country. This Thanksgiving weekend, we hope you’ll enjoy a new song by Steven written in President Bush’s honor.

Please click on the site and listen to the song.

Ethics Survey 2008

The Josephson Institute did The Ethics of American Youth Survey, and the results are in!  You can read the full article here, but let me give you a couple of highlights.

• There were 29, 760 high school students surveyed.
  
• 35% of the boys and 26% of the girls (30% overall) admitted to stealing from a store this last year.
• 42% said that they sometimes lie to save money.
• 64% said they cheated on a test this last year (38% did so two or more times)

You might think that those numbers sound bad, but get this:

• More than 26% said that they lied on one or two questions on the survey (The site states, "Experts agree that dishonesty on a survey is an attempt to conceal misconduct.")

And the best part (or maybe the scariest part):

• 93% said that they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character

There is so much that I would like to say about this article.  I would love to discuss how I am not surprised.  I would love to take a few paragraphs  to talk about how it is getting this way.  I would be more than happy to offer discourse on where this is going and how bad it could get. 

Instead of writing our all of that, I am simply going to take a moment to challenge you (and me) with two thoughts:

Number 1 - Re-evaluate your own moral character.  Where do you stand in these areas?  Have you become satisfied with your own "personal ethics"?

Number 2 - Pray for this generation.  Pray specifically for those in that generation who are trying to match their ethics with the ethics of the cross.  It is a challenging world to live in, and students who take a stand for what is right are getting to be more and more alone.  Pray for them today.

The Use of Knowledge

I just thought I would start of my week with a good quote.

"Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom."
Charles H. Spurgeon

I say it is a good quote, but as I copied and pasted it, I have to admit that I felt that little twang inside of me that said, "Listen to what you read,  You Fool!"

I have spent a long time in Christian School, in Church, in Bible Colleges, and now as a Bible teacher.  In all of that time I have learned quite a bit about the Bible.  I, in no way, consider myself a true Bible Scholar, but I have definitely become a true Bible student.  I have a regular flow of Bible knowledge coming at me, and I try to take it all in...  The question on the table, though, is, "Do I have a right use of that knowledge?"

I am not going to seek to answer that question in full on this blog.  Partially because blogs are not the best place to do a true soul-search, but mostly because I don't have the time.  I need to be getting ready for school not visiting blogger!

I will say that my use of knowledge is sporadic.  I know the right thing to do, but I don't always do it.  The areas that I forget the most lie in the categories of patience and diligence.  Quite often I become impatient with people.  I usually keep it hidden, but it is still there.  I let it out on my children from time to time.  Lord, forgive me for my faults.  And even though, in some circles, I have become known for my diligent labors (especially at the moving company) I still grow weary and begin to "demand" my down time.  Which of course leads to more impatience.

So there you go.  A post that was supposed to be a short little Quote of the Day kind of post has turned into something more.  Oh well.  If you read this far, feel free to share:  How are you doing with your use of knowledge?