Abortion - Alicia Johnson

It has been a while since I have posted, life is busy and so am I.  At some point I will get back to this, got some good stuff coming!  But, for now I have a guest blogger.  My daughters are pretty smart (smarter than me, most of the time), so here is a paper my daughter actually wrote last year, I am just now getting around to posting it (procrastinate much, Cory?).  Needless to say, I am proud of my kids!  Without further adoo, here's Alicia:






Abortion

 The Noah Webster Dictionary defines abortion as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” There are a few different types of abortions but the one that is most common is saline abortion, where they basically pump a chemical solution into the womb.


Abortion is easily one of the most controversial issues in today’s world, but is it right or wrong? Abortions wrong because it violates the principle of the importance of human life and the principle of choice.


Whether people choose to believe it or not when they choose to have an abortion they are choosing to “play God” and end someone’s life. In more than half of America a mother can get an abortion at up to 24 weeks (taken from The New York Times) into the pregnancy, that baby’s heartbeat started at 6 weeks (from What to Expect). Many clinics and pro-choicers try to numb this thought by saying that it is just a fetus nothing more, but doctors have said that the baby is alive! When a mother decides to get an abortion she is deciding that that baby isn't worth anything and that it doesn't mean anything for it to die.


The biggest push that people for abortion have is that woman should be able to have control over their own bodies and that they should have a choice; well those same woman also had the choice not to have sex, and what about that baby’s choice to live? These women can't comprehend the fact that they are destroying a whole life and that they are going to have to live with that choice for their whole lives.


Abortion also comes with its consequences, such as living with the guilt of having taken someone’s life and even the chance that the abortion did not work.


Abortion leaves scars on people’s lives forever. Four out of six women interviewed by DailyMail said that they are now suffering from depression and even panic attacks. These woman are now suffering from an action that they did years ago and it's still affecting them in today’s world.


Another thing people don't realize about abortions are that they aren't guaranteed to work. There are many babies who are born alive with damage to their brain and body due to failed abortions. One woman who this happened to is Gianna Jessen. Gianna’s mother was seven and a half months into her pregnancy when she had a saline abortion. Gianna stayed in the saline for eighteen hours before she ended up being birthed alive, but she was just thrown in a dumpster outside. One of the nurses found her and saved her, now Gianna spends her time trying to make abortion illegal and working towards not just giving the mothers their rights but also the babies theirs. If Gianna Jessen could be such voice for change, then what else could we be keeping from the world.


There were roughly 1.2 million recorded abortions in the United States in 2008 (statistic from Guttmacher) how many of these lives could have been brilliant minds that the world was unable to see because their lives where selfishly ended before they could even begin. In 2012 there were 20 children killed by a mentally disturbed man at Sandy Hook Elementary and the outcry for gun-control and the angry towards the man that killed these kids was massive. How then have we as people become so cold as to think 1.2 million deaths is ok as long as they weren't out of the womb yet. Did these children’s life not count as much as the 20 that were killed at Sandy Hook just because of the weapon of their death?


In Jeremiah 1:5 of the NET Bible it says “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” A prophet is nothing more than one who speaks the truth, whether it in a biblical standpoint, a medical field, or just your “everyday-joe,” life is important. We all have a choice and our choices have consequences whither good or bad, and some of these choices have major consequences on other people’s lives too.


I choose to give someone the chance to make their own impact on this world.


I choose to give someone a chance at living.


I choose life.

The Flaming Mask of Peppermint

My wife uses oils, I have used oils…not a lot, but I’ve used them.  I have mostly made fun of people who use oils.  Rest assured I believe some of them work.  I just like to pick at the folks who are full on voodoo believers.  It’s one of my small pleasures in life.  Sometimes this comes back to bite me on the behind.
 

A couple of days ago, I got to bed with a pounding headache.  My normal procedure is to get up , get a couple aspirin, slime up a little in my mouth, swaller’ em and go back to bed.  But that night my Bride was putting some oils on her knees.  I don’t recall what it was she was using, but I mentioned that I had a headache.  She said, “No problem, do you want me to put some peppermint on your temples?”  I initially thought she said something else, but I won’t go into that.  I thought to myself I don’t want to get out of bed, so “yeah, put some on me”.

She put a little dab on her finger and rubbed it on the sides of my head.  I couldn’t tell she’d put any on me.  I couldn’t yet smell it and must have had the look on my face that said that, because my Bride asked if I wanted more.  Being from the school of “if one nail is good, 10 is better”, I told her to slather some more on there.  I could immediately tell I now had some on me, because I could smell it.  It kinda made my eyes water a little.  Ok truth be told…my sinus’ cleared out and my eyes started watering like Niagara Falls.  But I am a tough guy, so I said thanks and lay back down.

I lay there with liquid running out of my eyes, streaming down either side of my head like the Columbia River in the spring time.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind my eyes watering.  What bothered me was that somehow that peppermint had caught on fire.  I now had flaming streams of liquid fire on either side of my head.  I was pretty confident that somehow my Bride had snuck up on me with a match and lit me up in some kind of morbid game of “let’s see what this’ll do”.  I could even have dealt with this, if it weren’t for the fact that my eyes were also on fire.  It was a little like having welder burnt eyes.  If you never had welder burnt eyes, and want to experience it without the benefit of the welder arc, I highly recommend the peppermint oils.  It will give you that just right burned out eyeballs feeling you’ve been looking for.

The flaming liquid trails on either side of my head or the burned out fiery holes that once had been my eyes would have been tough to deal with by themselves, but together…oh, together…together they were more fun than being whipped with a rattlesnake.  I swear at one point I thought I smelled steak, but I knew that couldn’t be right.  I figured it must have been the meat on the sides of my head cookin’.  All I could hear was this weird screaming sound, I thought it might have been my Bride screaming in horror…but then I realized it was me.

I noticed through the pain glazed fire that was now my eyesight that my Bride, during all of this, was double over shaking.  I thought she might have been crying, seeing all of the pain that I was in.  But to my horror, I realized she thought this was funny!   She just kept saying, “I told you it doesn’t take much”, and then falling into fits of laughter again.  I don’t know why she thought it was funny; after all it was her sheets that were getting burnt up.  I decided that once this burning, screaming, fiery hell that was burning the flesh off my head and my eyes out of their sockets was over; we needed to discuss our empathy/sympathy feelings. 

This liquid fire burned for most of the night, I imagined I lay there looking like some macabre flaming head thing that haunts children’s nightmares.  But at some point I passed out from the pain, or as my Bride says “I fell asleep”.  I awoke to no pain, but figured I was still in shock.  I hurried to the mirror expecting to see my burnt out head, BUT…there was nothing.  Nothing I tell you!  Could this have been that same nightmare that haunted children’s dreams?  Could I have dreamt the whole thing?  I immediately knew this wasn’t true when my Bride started giggling as soon as she was awake enough.

This was a horrible traumatic experience that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and I won’t be making fun of those folks who use oils.   Ok, that last part isn’t true, I will still be making fun of those who use oils…it is one of the small pleasures in life.  But I have learned a  new found respect for peppermint oils.

The Battle With Prehistoric Pterodactyl Bees

One of the wonders of living in southeast Texas, which I still am amazed by, is the fact that if you aren’t making hay…you shred your pastures.  Even after almost thirty years after coming from the Texas panhandle, where grass is a premium, mowing pastures boggles my mind.  But we have had a lot of rain this year, so when my grass/weeds are almost as tall as my horse I knew that I needed to mow my pasture.  You may think this is just a story about mowing, but this is a cautionary tale about the dangers of the giant pterodactyl killer bee (Gingantus Dinosaurus Apis Killus is the Latin, I think).   And lest you think this isn’t about horses, if you have any amount of pasture…at some point you will need to mow it.

 I had all kinds of tractor problems before I started, which leads to the fact that I am a mechanical idiot.  I said it and I’m not afraid to admit it.  Talk to me about a horse, or even a cow or lamb; I can speak semi-intelligently.  Talk to me about anything mechanical, and my eyes will glaze over and I may even drool out of the corner of my mouth.  If I can’t fix it with a set of jumper cables, we are in trouble!

But, I did finally get the tractor rolling and was busily shredding pastures most of the day.  It was hot and I was really glad when I had finally gotten to the last little bit up around my round pen.  To set the stage a little, we have a simple little bridge like thing that my daughter uses to teach her lambs to push.  It is a 4x8 sheet of plywood screwed to 2x8’s.  I have even used it to walk my colts over, so it is somewhat of an effective tool.  Not so, on this day.  I thought I would use the bucket of the tractor to get under the edge of it, lift a little and just push it out of the way while I mowed.  Seemed simple enough and it worked just fine, to a point…

If you have ever used a shredder, you know there is all kinds a grass and brush flying around, so after mowing most of the day I was not paying much attention to  what was flying around my head.  When I picked the bridge up, and started to slide it out of the way, I suddenly noticed that the stuff flying around my head had suddenly increased.  Still I was oblivious to my imminent danger.  All of the sudden somebody shot me in the back of my arm.  That’s when I noticed some giant prehistoric pterodactyl sized bees boiling out from underneath the bridge.  As the second one hit my hand and ripped a hunk a flesh out of it, I realized I no longer wanted to be on the tractor.  But the tractor was still moving in low first gear, so I knew I had a responsibility to shut it off.  It was at the moment that wanted to turn off the tractor that I noticed that my hand was moving in the same gear as tractor (I had never noticed how slow I was before).  The pterodactyl bees were now pinging me with all of the ferocity of pack of velociraptors.  I finally bailed off the tractor and immediately broke out my ninja moves as my first line of defense.  I started karate chopping and high kicking in an attempt to fight off the pack of giant bees.  At some point I realized that my karate skills were not helping in the least bit.  So the next line of defense was kicked in and I started running away from the tractor, all the while flailing…er karate chopping, the bees into oblivion.  I ran toward the house and covered the hundred yards in near Olympic speed, all the while waving my arms around and doing my best to distract the bees by shouting at them (as everybody knows, shouting at bees will distract them).  There were only about four pterodactyl bees that could match my speed, so we had a showdown at the gate.  I fought them to a bloody draw right there at the pasture gate and I am going to claim victory because they cannot dispute it. 
 

Actual Size may have been larger!
 

I knew that I’d been stung a bunch of times, so I thought it was prudent to get in the house and take an antihistamine.  My sprint from the barn area had caused me to run just a little short of oxygen, so I was sucking oxygen like a dying cow when I burst into the house.  My poor bride must have thought I was crazy, but she was trooper and killed the last three bees that had made into the house with me.  She said that she thought I had cut my foot off with the shredder or something…not just a few little bees.  Obviously she had killed the baby bees, because the ones that I fought at the barn were of a much, much larger variety.

As I close, I will just say…be careful out there, it that time of year.  Whether it’s snakes or giant pterodactyl bees; whether you’re on a horse or a on a tractor, pay attention to what’s going on around you.

Grace

This morning we got up to below freezing temperatures and icicles hanging everywhere.  I went down to feed the lambs and the horses.  When I fed the lambs, I got mad.  One of my pet peeves is people who don’t take care of their animals.  They are a responsibility; if you own them…they are YOUR responsibility.  Especially if you’re like me and have just a couple of small traps for the horses, we have a responsibility to make sure they are fed and watered.  Same goes for my daughter’s lambs, they are locked up in a stall so they have to be fed and watered.  Especially the lambs, they’re not the smartest of Gods creations.  But when I fed this morning, they had little to no water.  I knew that she did not fill the buckets last night.

This posed a problem for me, since everything was frozen; my hoses were all frozen too.  So off I go with a bucket to fill, at the house.  All the way there I was thinking about all of the things I was going to do to punish her.  I went from a spanking, to grounding, to extra chores and back again.  Like I said, I was mad.  I got to the house and luckily my beautiful bride was there to rein me in a little.  We decided I would not talk to her while I was mad.  I headed back to the barn muttering about how we were going to get rid of those lambs and not have them again.  I how big and bad her punishment was going to be.

Thankfully, I did get convicted by the Spirit to talk to God too.  I was praying for a calmed mind, still hanging on to the fact that I was mad at her.  Still wanting to punish her for her wrongdoing, this wasn’t the first time and she was now out of second chances…

Then God grabbed a hold of me.

He said, “what about you, do you deserve a second chance?” 

I was convicted of my hypocrisy.  Here I was passing judgment; not offering to my daughter what was so easily given to me…grace.  How could I be mad her for a mistake that she made, when Christ never even hesitated when He went to the cross for my self-righteous anger?  I was, and am, ashamed of myself for that.  I have made the same mistakes over and over and over again, but God…still loves me.

I went back to the house and talked with her about the importance taking care of these animals that God has given us.  We also talked about grace and what it means.  I think she already understood it, but I think we all need a reminder.  Grace is more than mercy, grace is more than forgiveness.  Grace is a divine love that brought Christ down here to pay for my sins.  If Jesus loved me enough to forgive what I have done…then shouldn’t I be able to offer the same to my daughter?  I love my daughters like no other, so we will talk again about our responsibilities...but this morning was a lesson in grace.  For me and I hope for her.

Cow Pie Bombs

When we lived south of La Junta Colorado, my brother and I used to have wars where we threw things at each other.  Depending on the mood, sometimes it was rocks.  But most of the time it was of the horse apple / cow pie variety.  Mom and Dad thought we were gross little rascals, but I do think they thought this was funny…or maybe this was one of those deals that kept us from tearing up the house.  These wars ranged from the long range cow pie bomb, to the close range rapid fire of horse apples.  Just to clue you in, there is a trick to handling a cow pie bomb, to soft and you ended up with a handful of…well you know.  To hard and it just bounced off your target.  It had to be just right to get that “explosion” upon contact.  Sometimes I won, sometimes he won (the real loser was my Mom having to do the laundry).  Sometimes we got the neighbor boys over and it was a team sport, but it was all in good fun.  We were little boys that didn’t see the filth of what we were touching, we just saw the results of a good throw.

Sometimes I’m still like that little boy in a cow pie war.  Today I picked up something that I thought I put away.  In the past I messed around with it and enjoyed it; now, not so much.  But I still want to pick it up and mess around with it every once in a while.  The thing is, I know it’s not good for me.  I know that God has better things for me than this thing I keep picking back up, but still I pick it up.  I’m sorta like a dog with a bone, even after you take it away from me….I still want to pick it up and play with it.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about sin.  God calls us as Christians to live a different life than the world, but we still want to dabble in what the world has to offer.  Sometimes we fiddle around even with the Holy Spirit screaming at us to run away, leave, vamoose, scam…just like Joseph ran away from Potiphar’s wife.  But is that what I do?  I can run away from those public sins, but the ones I hold in my heart are harder to run from.  Those are the ones that keep coming back for me to pick up and play with.  God gives us some pretty specific commands about our sin, in Deuteronomy 26:16-19

“Today the Lord your God has commanded you to obey these laws and teachings with all your heart and soul.  In response, you have agreed that the Lord will be your God, that you will obey all his laws and teachings, and that you will listen when he speaks to you.  Since you have agreed to obey the Lord, he has agreed that you will be his people and that you will belong to him, just as he promised. The Lord created all nations, but he will make you more famous than any of them, and you will receive more praise and honor. You will belong only to the Lord your God, just as he promised.”

So if I read this right, if we obey God’s commands with all our heart and soul, we will belong to God.  Jesus says something that is very similar to this in the New Testament, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and your entire mind.”  (Mathew 22:37).  So if we love the Lord, removing the sin from our lives should be pretty easy…right?  Coming to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ is not like a magic pill.  We still have the same sinful body that covets and desires the things we want.  Coming to know the saving grace of Christ means that we are not prisoners to that sin.  Philippians 4:13 says we “can do all things through Him who strengthens us”, this includes avoiding the evil desires of our hearts. 

The key is to listen and act when the Holy Spirit is telling you to run away.  Joseph didn’t just tell Potiphar’s wife no and still hang around the palace.  Joseph ran away, in fact he ran away so fast that she pulled his tunic right off of him as he ran out the door.  Joseph gives a pretty good example of resisting temptation; don’t just leave the situation….RUN AWAY from it!  Get as far away as you can.

I would like to say that I don’t struggle with sin, but the truth of the matter is I do.  This sin that I keep throwing away and then going back to dig it out of the trash is not pleasing to God.  I know this; it’s not a secret that this is bad for me.  I have sin in my heart that is constantly struggling for control.  Why is this you ask?  Because I let it!  God has given me the strength to leave it behind, but sometimes it’s not the devil.  Sometimes I just like my sin.

The good news is that once you belong to God.  Once you’ve accepted the Saving Grace of Christ.  Once you’ve accepted the fact the Jesus Christ suffered, bled and died to pay for your sins…then you have a chance to repent.  Does this give you a license to do and act any way you want and then get right on Sunday.  No, God calls us to act and live differently.  Will we stumble and fall (like I did today)?  Yes…no doubt.  But, we can repent.  We can pray for the faith and strength to resist the thorn in our sides.

Praise the Lord for a God of second chances!  It’d be pretty hard life if God only gave us one chance and then we were done.  Aren’t we all a little like King David, we stumble and fall, get back up and repent.  I find that I don’t stumble and fall near as often as I used to.  Those cow pie bombs don’t find their way into my hands as much anymore.

Weight Loss and Peter

About a month ago I had my annual checkup with Dr. Doogie.  The most exciting thing that occurred was traveling to a different part of Houston to go to his office.  My GPS’ll Dee-vise that led me down there had me doing so many twists and turns, that I could not tell which direction was north.  (Too many buildings and too much concrete)  But, it did get me down there and back home.  So I can’t complain too much about the insidious GPS’ll dee-vice.

While there we (Doogie and I) covered most of the basics…blood work, blood pressure and such.  We talked about how my family was doing and how his family was doing.  All this time I was thinking about some visits in previous years and how I had not received the dreaded finger test in a few of years.  I was thinking surely he wanted to go down that road.  Thankfully, no…he was pretty much done!

The only thing he asked me to do was watch my diet and lose some weight.  He said he would like me to lose 15 pounds in the next year.  I said, “no problem, I oughta be able to do that in a few months”

A Christmas Story?

The two brothers, Silas and Malachi, had been in business together their whole adult life.  Malachi, being the older brother had inherited the shop from their father, when he passed away.  But, Mal had loved his brother very much and had insisted on making his brother a partner in the shop.  The shop itself wasn’t a smashing success, but they made enough to feed their families.  They made everything from dishes to furniture to managers, really anything a carpenter could make…they made it.  They didn’t always see eye to eye, but generally they got along about as well as brothers do.

Lately, though…Malachi had a bone of contention with Silas.  It had all started the day the centurion had shown up.  He had marched in like he owned the place, kicking and breaking furniture, costing them several shekels at the very least.  The centurion had been very arrogant when he spoke to them.  No, to be honest, he had started barking orders to them about what he needed and what he would pay for that need.  He had stated that this was a long term contract, and they would accept the payment offered and not ask for more.

Silas was pretty excited about the deal.  All Silas could see was the steady income and the chance to make more money.  Malachi was a little more hesitant, after all this was a contract with the Romans.  Dealing with the Romans always had strings attached.  The centurion had wanted an answer right then or “he would offer the deal to neighbors across the street, the Iscariots”.  So Silas and Malachi had asked for a few minutes to discuss the deal behind their shop.

As they stepped out of the back of the shop, Silas said “Think of the money we can make!”

And Malachi responded, “We need to be careful here, dealings with the Romans always have consequences.”

“But, think of the security this contract will bring.  We have struggled for some time now, just trying to feed our families.  That centurion said he would offer the deal to the Iscariots and you know how they would jump at this chance.  They are already doing quite well with their contracts with the Romans, isn’t it about time we got a piece of this action?” said Silas.

They had argued back and forth for several minutes and Malachi finally said, “Let’s at least go find out what he wants us to build”.

As they stepped back in the shop, they saw the centurion headed out the front and Silas started hollering, “Please don’t leave, we will build whatever you need.  Just tell us what it is and we will start immediately on the first one.”

Malachi was a little peeved at his brother and his panic mode response, but he was an honorable man and his brother’s word was his own.  So he said, “Yes, good sir, tell us what we are to be making?”

When the centurion spoke and said, “You will be making crucifixes”.  Malachi’s heart jumped in his throat.  The centurion followed this statement with, “They are to be used for punishing criminals”.

Malachi followed the word of God more closely than his brother did and everything in him was screaming “NO, we will not be involved in these instruments of death”.  But he considered himself to be an honest man and his brother Silas was already accepting the first order and payment.  As he watched his brother, a picture popped into his head and he felt a little bit like Adam watching Eve taking the forbidden fruit from the serpent.  He felt it was wrong, but he could not find his tongue to say no.  They were now committed to the deal and as the centurion left he ordered, “You will fulfill this contract as long as I so desire!”

Malachi was sick to his stomach and he looked at his brother and said, “What have we done?”

“We have signed on to make money, is what we have done”, said Silas.

Malachi turned from his brother and headed back to work on his current project, a manger for Jacob the inn keeper.  His stomach was twisted into knots and his head was spinning.

Silas, meanwhile, was whistling with anticipation.  He was toward the front of the shop selecting lumber, taking measurements.  Almost giddy with excitement!  He just couldn’t understand how his brother could be so moody.  Here was a steady income that was not depending on the locals.  After all the taxes they had paid in…they were finally getting something back!  He started thinking about all the things this money would buy for his wife and kids.  They would finally be able to have some of the finer things in life, live like the Iscariots did for once!  All for building something as simple as a crucifix, he felt a little twinge that maybe he was cheating the Romans.  But, he quickly pushed that aside.  It was the Romans after all; they deserved it…didn’t they?

When they stopped for lunch, Malachi could stand it no longer.  He said, “Silas, why do you want to build something that leads to death?  No good can come of this alliance with the Romans.”

Silas had finally reached the snapping point with his brother.  Malachi was always lording it over him, did he think that he was better than Silas?  Mal had been the first born and Silas had always felt like Mal had thrown him a bone when he made him a partner.  Well, by golly, this decision was his and they were making money!  They were partners and Malachi would treat him as such.

Silas said, “Why do you want to just do business with our neighbors?  Take what you are working on now.  How often does Jacob need a new manger?  Once every 10 years or so?  How much money do we make on that transaction?”

“But, Si” Malachi said, “My manger does not lead to death.  This manger can be used for life.  You feed animals in; if you line it with pitch you can store water in it.  It has so many more uses than your crucifix; you could even put a baby in it if you needed too!  There is only one use for your crucifixes!  Death!”

“Well, Mal” said Silas, “My crucifix will give us so much more than your manger will.  Just think what you can buy for your wife with the steady income that comes from selling these to the Romans.  Isn’t it about time we got something back from these Romans?  Aren’t you tired of always paying taxes, with nothing to show for it?  Look at all of the people in town for this census.  They all had to leave their homes and businesses to come here and be counted.  Are they making any money?  Isn’t only fair that we should be getting something?  We certainly aren’t from all the people here, they want a place to stay and to be fed; we do not offer anything like that.  We will make nothing from this census!  At least with the Romans we are getting some silver for our work.  As far as only offering death, the centurion said it was to be used only for criminals; they deserve to die anyway.  In the long run, we will make more money off of my crucifixes than we will ever make on your mangers!”

“In the long run!?!  In the long run!?!?  You plan on making these awful things for a long run?, “ Malachi said, shocked.  “What is a long run?  10, 20, 30 years?  You, and I, both know about dealing with these Romans.  Eventually this will come back to bite us, even if it takes 30 years!”

“ Oh, Mal, you worry too much.  Just think how much money we will make in 30 years.  What could possibly go wrong?” said Silas.

 

Minus 9 Degrees and 8 Bucks

About 3 years ago, the Queen and I surprised our girls the week before Thanksgiving and went to Denver for about four days.  The purpose was to show them some snow, as they had never seen the stuff before.  Growing up in Colorado I have seen plenty of snow and have come to believe that snow is highly over rated!  But, these are my kids and they wanted to see some real live snow….so….

We arrived in Denver and of course you get the city of Denver snow, after it has been on the ground for a while…gray and piled up on the curbs.  Not what the Queen and the Princess’s had in mind!  But we persevered!  We took them to the zoo, which I had not been to since I was a little button and which I will give a plug to.  Go to the Denver Zoo in the wintertime, it’s a little cold….but all of the animals are outside and like all animals in the crisp air….they were playing.  We enjoyed that for the day and fiddled around Denver for the next day or so…but still that request to see some white snow….

Me Gorg....Cavemen Cowboy

Once you start writing things down, it pretty funny what starts to come back into your mind.  There are just little statements that have a lot of meaning as time goes on.  This lead to the thought that there are some things I am comfortable talking about and there are some that I am not.  For example I am comfortable talking about horses, starting colts, my kids and especially my Bride!   The things I am most uncomfortable talking about have mostly to do with being in mixed company and bodily functions, the natural acts that man does.  If you didn’t understand that…I am talking about the “s” word!

Now my when my kids were about 5, as most kids that age do, they asked a lot of questions.  I once asked Faith why she asked so many questions, she said “Daddy, I just want to know lots of stuff”.  It’s hard to argue with that logic!  I think they struggled mostly with words that sounded the same, were spelled different and had a different meanings.  Words like bread and bred.

A Lesson in Composure or...Was He Rotating Her Tires?

My beautiful bride told me I could tell this story, so before she changes her mind….I am going to get it out there!  This starts after one of her visits with the oncological surgeon, that doctor had sent us to another for the radiation consult (at MD Anderson).  He was very good and gave a scared couple a lot of reassurances, told us he would treat her just as if he were treating his mother or sister.  He said he had a very high success rate with radiating breast cancer.

The doctors at MD Anderson are very thorough and I noticed a patient basically loses all sense of modesty.  Every nurse, physician’s assistant and doctor that came in got to cop a feel!  My Queen joked that she has never gotten so much action in her life!  I am confused as to whether I should feel  insulted or not!

I Am Just Like Sampson

Not in the killin’ a bunch of Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, sleepin’ with prostitutes and tearing a lion apart with my bare hands kinda way.  It’s more in subtle than that.  Ride down this trail with me and I will get you there....

In Judges 14:2, Samson says to his parents,” I saw a hot Philistine woman in Timnah: now you go git her for me as my wife.” (Paraphrased, of course!)

Pretty arrogant, huh!?!  When I studied that verse, my first thought was….what a punk!  Com’on, what right does this punk have to make demands on his parents?  This is one of my pet peeves in the world today.  The only demands kids should have are a safe, loving home.  What kid needs a $200 pair of tennis shoes or an Ipad or their every whim supplied?

That said, my kids both have a cell phone and way more stuff than I did growing up.  BUT, they understand it can go away in an instant.  Everything we have can go away in an instant.  We are not promised comfort here on this earth; in fact the only thing that we are promised (if we belong to Christ) is that if the world hated HIM, it would hate us also!

Back to Samson, in Judges 14:3-4.  When his parents suggested some local girls, of his race, he said, “Git her for me.  She’s the one who lights my fire.”  (Again, paraphrased)

Bein’ Where You Ain’t Supposed To

In the spirit of “Lookin’ Where You Ain’t Supposed To”, I thought I would write another about myself.  I commented to someone last week that sometimes a horse wreck ain’t about a horse.  Sometimes it’s about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But I give credit to Jake Hershey for reminding me about this, even if I didn’t want to.

A few years ago I was happily chugging along in my own little world driving from Waller TX to Tomball TX.  It was about a 20 minute ride, which isn’t long unless you have to relieve yourself of a couple of bottles of coke.  By the time I got to Tomball, my back teeth were floating.  So as I roared into the Wal-Mart parking lot on two wheels and screeched to a halt as close to the door as I could possible get, I was not paying a lot of attention to…well anything!  I was completely and selfishly focused on my issue.  I almost sprinted to the door and as I stood there I was thinking how slow these automatic doors were, but I finally got inside.  Luckily the bathrooms were right inside the front door.  So as I thrust my hand up, to push the door open, I could see between my thumb and forefinger the word “MEN”.  I made it in the nick of time….

As I was standing there, doing my business….I noticed there were no urinals on the wall….strange….after I had finished and pulled that door open….I noticed two ladies in the returns department laughing.  I was wondering what they were laughing about, until I finished pulling that door open and noticed that my hand had covered up the “WO” on the door.  Thank the Lord there was no one in there but me!  I ran out of there like I was being chased by a hog!

Flash forward a year or so.  We were coming back from visiting Felicia’s grandmother and I again had myself in a bind.  We stopped at a little convenience store in Many LA.  I bolt through that door like I’m on fire and go down the hall where there is a bathroom on the right and on the left.  I had my eyes down checking to see how dirty the floor was (that’s how you tell if a bathroom is clean or not, if you didn’t know) and just chose the door on the left.  Went in locked it and did my business…again no urinal…strange….

As I came out, I see my wife and this female clerk cackling like crazy ladies.  My wife had just related my Wal-Mart story to her and I had obliged them by recreating the episode!  GAAHHWWW!  Sound it out, I think I said that exact word.

Flash forward again….hmmm…seems to be a pattern here…..

We were at the Katy Mills Mall in Katy TX.  This time I’m not in a bind, just had to go.  You would think at this point I would pay attention.  I turned the corner and walked into a bathroom and there was a woman standing at the sink washing her hands.  My first thought was “this lady is in the wrong bathroom”.  I don’t know why that would have been my first thought, with my history and all….but it was.  I didn’t want to embarrass her, so I jokingly said, “one of us is in the wrong bathroom!”  She pointed over my shoulder at the door and said, “you are!”.  I turned around and there was that word again…”W-O-M-E-N”…  GAAHWW!

After reliving this….I don’t even know how to end this post.  I can’t even think of a biblical lesson that can be learned here…but I’m sure there is one….what do you think?

Lookin’ Where You Ain’t Supposed To

I have written some of these stories about others and some about myself.  The problem with this is most of the stories about me were highly embarrassing.  This isn’t a story about cowboy wrecks or horse training adventures.  Just one my wife told my kids about, they laughed for a while.  I was just embarrassed all over again!

My nephew, Clint, was the first grandchild, nephew and son in our family.  So he naturally got a lot of attention.  Felicia and I made several trips to Dallas to see him.  We told his parents it was to visit them, but let’s be honest here….it didn’t matter to us if they were there or not.  We came to see Clint.  It’s funny how that works, when my kids were born it didn’t matter if I was there or not, people came to see the babies.  We should have charged admission and had different costumes for them to wear….man, we missed an opportunity!  Could have paid for their college education!

On this particular trip (Clint was a few months old) we got there on Friday night and Clint was already in bed, so we had to visit with my brother and his wife.   They weren’t near as much fun as that kid.  The next morning I couldn’t wait to wake the boy, but they made me wait.  When he finally got up, I was able to get my hands on him.  Looking back, I don’t really know what was fun about him!  If he wasn’t cryin’ or a  poopin’, he was sleepin’!  But, I enjoyed him just the same!

Now to set the scene, Clint was the first baby I had ever been around.  So I was fascinated by everything about him (the cryin’ and poopon’ excluded).  Right after lunch my sister-in-law was sitting on the couch holding him while he slept….I thought…..she had a blanket over him and I just walked over and said, “let me see that boy!”  I jerked the blanket back and there they were……….He was laying there nursing!  There was no going back at that point!

I stood there for what seemed like hours, running through my head all the snappy one-liners that I could have said to cover my embarrassment.  But there was nothing there!  Just one red-faced cowboy and a new mother who was probably just as embarrassed!  After what seemed like 72 hours I turned and walked outside.  Ok, in all honesty….I might have sprinted…..

Now mind you, I have seen one before (a baby, that is)….just never like that before!  Which just goes to prove, if you can’t see where your  a goin’.  It’s best to slow down and review the situation before you just strap the saddle on and ride.  A wreck is a wreck no matter if it is a broncy colt or a breast feeding woman!

If had been a little more patient, I might not have found myself red-faced, trying to think of something to say that would make my “not stoppiin’ to think” actions disappear!

A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11

I Used to Dress Myself

Just the other day I had a realization how much I have come to rely on my wife, when I had to ask my daughter if the pants I had matched my shirt.  It struck me then, I used to dress myself…..

In college I was a pretty snappy dresser, well as far as three pair of wranglers and four shirts is considered snappy.  I didn’t have a lot of choice, but I was happy with my limited choices.  You can hardly go wrong with wranglers, everything goes with them!  What others thought of my wardrobe?  I didn’t really care, I was a sharp dressed man and that’s how I choose to remember it!  I was happy with how I looked and that was all that mattered.

I don’t know when it happened; I started out selecting my own wardrobe.  Felicia would make a few pointers every now and then.  But I was in control of my clothing situation.  Over the last 22 years she has selected almost all of my clothes and has made lots of good choices.  I still wear wranglers, but there have been some changes.  It started when Wrangler came out with the Riata dress slacks, she got me one pair…they were black.  Then it was a khaki colored pair, if you had told me 20 years ago that khaki was a color….I’d have just thought you were making stuff up!  Khaki wasn’t even a word!  Then another color and some of those preppy cinch jeans (I had to start wearing those to work, didn’t want them to be the best looking pair in my closet!).   Before long, it was amazing how worldly my closet looked….well if you consider riatas and wranglers amazing.  It was amazing to me anyway.

I recently started a new job and after 22 years of wearing wranglers to work every day, I was told I had to dress business appropriate.  I thought I had been!?!?!?!  After all, my wranglers were starched! 

So we inventoried my closet and bought two more pair of riatas.  Now there are a couple shades of black and khaki, plus one pair of army green ones.  My wife has kept me color coordinated through the years and I never realized it was happening!  All of the sudden I am in a position of not knowing if something matches….I usually ask Felicia before she leaves for work…..to dress me for the day.

So there I was, walking down the hall in our house, asking my daughter if my shirt and slacks matched…..and it hit me….

I used to dress myself….

Maybe I am, and was not back then, such a snappy dresser?  Surely not……maybe I didn’t have a good sense of style back then….nah!  I dressed just like all the cowboys I knew, I was a snappy dresser back then! 

I just don’t have a clue about what goes together now…..

Big Chief and Some Crayons

A couple of days ago my girls were asking about a tablet and a nook color.  I started asking them questions about what they meant, and as near as I can figure…….

I need to buy a big chief tablet and some crayons they can color in the corner with. 

I thought this was a strange request, especially since they are fixin’ to be 8^th graders.  But I am a dutiful and mostly wrapped around their finger father, so I started looking in the store for the items they required.  The big chief was more difficult to find than they crayons, but I persevered and found what was needed.  Heck I even picked up a pack of number 1 pencils, nothing but the best for my kids!  When I brought the items to checkout…my kids just rolled their eyes!  I don’t understand….

So I questioned them again, they just kept saying a tablet and a nook color.  I am starting to think my kids are a little ungrateful…I mean, come’on….it was a big chief and some crayons!  I still don’t understand why they want to color in a nook….and why can’t they just call a nook what it is…a corner? 

We discussed this for some time and I just kept coming back to the big chief and some crayons….I really like the idea of this.  It is fairly cheap, a lot cheaper than what some kids are asking for.  I mean, do kids really an ipad and one of those thingys you can read books on?  I think that is what is wrong with the world today, kids get what they want without putting out any effort.

Lucky for my kids, their wants are pretty cheap.  They are only going to have to rake grass once to pay for that big chief and the crayons.  If they had wanted one of those ipads or them book thngys, It might have meant the whole summer to pay off those!

P.S.

I love my kids and want to supply their needs, but not without some effort on their part.  I did know what they really wanted, it just was a heck of a lot of fun to wander around in the store with them asking for big chief tablets and crayons.  Hmmm….maybe that is why they are a little embarrassed by me…naww!  That can’t be it.

P.S.S.

How many of you know what a big chief is?

Cowboy Ingenuity

My Dad can be a little old school and before I talk about what his latest thing is….I thought I would give a little background.

I grew up in Higbee Colorado, about 25 miles south of La Junta.  To say we were far from town was somewhat of an understatement.  The bus ride was about 4 hours per day, two in the morning…two in the evening.  A lot of things were learned on that bus, but that is another story.  Our bus driver lived down the road from us and she took the bus home with her for the school year.  One of the things that almost always happened was getting snowed in, every year.  As kids we all enjoyed this, probably not so much for the adults.

One year Dad was having trouble with a tooth, he mentioned that he was going to go to the dentist the next day.  But it was not to be, it started snowing that afternoon and by morning the roads were impassable.  For my brother, sister and I….this was a glorious day.  No school and we could break out our scoop shovel (for those that don’t know, we would ride it down the hill like a sled).  For Dad this wasn’t as much fun.  His tooth was hurting and he couldn’t get to town. 

There were still trails to be broke in the snow, so that the cows could get to the pond, and ice to chop.  So he took a dip of Copenhagen and headed out to saddle a horse at the barn.  By the time he was done saddling that tooth was starting to feel better.  He figured it must have been the dip, so he kept his tooth packed with Copenhagen for most of the week.  I don’t know if he got used to the pain or all that nicotine made it numb.  When he finally got to the dentist he sat in the chair expecting to get a numbing shot and have the tooth pulled.  He barely sat down and the dentist had just stuck his fist in there….and the dentist was done!  Dad asked him if he was going to give him the shot and the dentist turned around, showed him his tooth and said, “I’m done”.  Dad never even knew that he had pulled the tooth!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  We were out in Utopia, Texas for Mother’s Day.  We had a real good visit, probably not as long as anyone would have liked, but a good time was had by all.  Dad gets to telling us about a tooth he broke, said he took one of Mom’s nail files and just rounded it off so it wouldn’t cut the inside of his mouth.  That right….I said he took a nail file and just rounded it off!   No dentist, no plans on going to the dentist....just rounded that bad boy off!

 Price of Broken tooth:  $ painfull

Price of nail file:  $2.00

Actual price of going to the dentist:  $0

 A little cowboy ingenuity:  Priceless!

Life is Tough, are you for the horse?

It has been a tough couple of months in the Johnson house.  By tough, I just mean we had to put to two old friends in our horse herd down.  Not the way I envisioned us reducing our horse herd.

First was Tuff.  Tuff was an Appaloosa gelding named by my niece, Megan, right after the movie “8 Seconds” came out.  It fit him just right.  He came to us from our friend Marilyn Wachel.  In 1994, we went over to buy a foal and he was the first on to walk up to us, I decided that all things being equal…he was for us.  We took Tuff and his mama (ended up buying her, too!) to the house and the rest is history.  Once I started riding him, he spoiled me for riding two year olds.  I compared everything to him after that and nothing measured up.  After three days in the round pen I could take him out in the pasture and lope circles as pretty as you please.  He just picked things up really fast.  He also was a pretty good teacher.  I worked him over with spurs pretty good one time (pretty ashamed of myself after, I have taken them off and not worn any since) and he was still willing to do whatever I asked of him.  He taught me the word forgiveness, horses don’t have our thought processes…but I learned that if he was still willing after what I did to him……that was forgiveness!  Over the years he raised nieces, nephews and my kids.  He was always the faithful babysitter.  Never giving them more than they could handle, despite the legs flopping up and down on his sides!  My girls didn’t ride him as much, but he was always ready whenever they were…didn’t matter how long he had been turned out to pasture.  I could get on to ride and he was all vim and vinegar, ready to travel at whatever speed I needed. 

About five years ago he came home from my brother-in-laws with eye problems.  They had taken him to the vet and were told he had cancer around both eyes.  We cared for the issue, but over time it just got worse.  Last month I took him in and was told that they would have to take an eye out.  I really couldn’t see him wandering around with both eyes out, because I knew that would be the case eventually.  So Felicia and I prayed about it and in the best interest of an old friend, we had him put down.  He was 18 years old.

This last Tuesday, we took Showtime in with colic.  Showtime was a 2 year old miniature that Felicia says was for our girls on their 5^th birthday.  Over time I have come to realize that it was just her moment of insanity, I mean who in their right mind would own a mini?  I laugh at that statement now.  When we first got him he was supposed to be a back yard horse (I know, redneck hillbilly), but he wore a trail on the back fence wanting to be with the other horses.  So one day, I just turned him loose with the big horses.  He never missed a beat and they never bothered him.  He ended up being our babysitter for any weanlings we had.  Annie was the first and they played together all the time.  He used to bite her on the knees and she would drop down on her knees to bite and play with him.  In fact the only problem I had with him was that I never could catch the little turd!  He would not touch feed if you were within 50 feet of him, always on the lookout.  The girls and Felicia could walk up to him anywhere, drove me crazy!  He ended up hanging with us for 8 years, a babysitting yard ornament.  Last Sunday, we noticed him rolling around a lot and since we had wormed him the week before we thought we better check on him.  Good thing we did, he was colicing.  We spent all day walking and putting mineral oils in him, to no avail.  So Monday morning I loaded him up and took him to the vet, where he spent until Tuesday.  Tuesday Dr. Ben told me things were not getting any better, so we went ahead and had him put down.  He was 10 years old.

Neither time was easy walking out of that barn, but we (as horse owners) have a responsibility to take care of them.  To make decisions based on their best interests and not our own selfish desires.  Tuff looked really good, but was in pain and constant irritation.  It was our responsibility to make him as comfortable as possible.  And if we couldn’t do that, then we had to put him out of his misery.  Showtime was a little easier decision to make because he was colicing, he was suffering.  I would encourage any horse owner to think of their horse first, make decisions based on what is best for your horse…not you!  Is it really fair to keep that poor, skinny 35 year old horse that you can’t keep any weight on?  What is their quality of life?  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all old horses need to be put down.  My point is, life is hard and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.  Make sure you are for the horse and not yourself.

Super Ninja Cowboy

There was a time in my life when I didn’t know what the word impetuous meant.  If you look it up in Webster’s, it says:

1.  Marked by impulsive vehemence or passion
2. Marked by force and violence of movement or action

As I’ve gotten older, I can look back and see that I was train wreck on a horse.  There were some things I did, that offered a good deal to a horse….and there were some things that if anyone was watching they would be thinking, “what the heck is he doing up there?”  This is a couple of those times…

The Cowboy Miracle

I don’t often mean to be preachy, but when I see a miracle that speaks to the cowboy, I feel it is my obligation to point it out!

If you know anything about starting colts, you know there is some work involved.  There are not too many operations left that just climb on and let ‘em buck.  As much fun as that was in my younger years, it turns out it was hard on me and hard on the horses.  A more sensible method has a person doing some ground work to prepare the horse for this big ol’ predator to crawl up on its back.

The groundwork now-a-days, at least for me, involves some desensitization (probably not as much as I should, my mind thinks I’m still 20 something….my body calls my mind a fool), driving, more desensitization….my point is this:  There are several days of groundwork before a person should crawl up on a colt. 

Young men are another story entirely and it usually involves being bulletproof and rubbery to the point of bouncing when they hit the ground.  But eventually all young men grow up and start doing some sort groundwork on their colts.

God pointed this out to me a couple of years ago one Sunday morning in Mark 11:1-10

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mound of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” tell him, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly”.

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway.  As they untied it, some people stand there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”  They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.  When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.  Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.  Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David”

“Hosanna in the highest!”

The first thing I noticed was that God’s plan was so perfect, that the only question asked was “what are you doing, untying that colt?”  The (at the time) good people of Jerusalem just took the disciples response, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”  And basically said “ok, no biggy”.

What did they disciples do next?  Why they took their coat and just flung them over that colt’s back!  I haven’t yet had a colt I could do that on the first day!  Then Jesus climbed up and sat down!  Again, not a cowboy out there, that I know, has been able to do that!  Mr. Bronc-y Colt never made a bauble as Jesus commenced to ride him down the road.  First ride, first day, people!  First day, first ride!  Does not happen at training centers or ranches!  On top of all of this the (at the time) good people of Jerusalem were throwing their coats and tree branches, in the road in front of Mr. Bronc-y Colt.  All the time they were shouting and carrying on:

“Hosanna”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David”

“Hosanna in the highest!”

All the colts I know would have been pitching like crazy, scared out of their minds!

That my friends is a miracle of Jesus!  Who takes an unbroken colt, steps on and rides him down the road with people throwing coats and branches on the ground in front of the colt?

The answer is pretty simple.  MY GOD!  MY KING!  JESUS CHRIST!

He died and became our sins!  Paid the price for me!  Doesn’t get much better than that!  I pray that if you don’t know Christ as your Savior today, you will accept this free gift.  He paid the debt we owed because we owed a debt we could not pay!

Praise JESUS!