Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the well known German composer, was far from being handsome. Along with a rather short stature, he had a grotesque hunchback.

One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Frumtje. Moses fell in love with her. But Frumtje was repulsed by his misshapen appearance.

When it came time for him to leave, Moses gathered his courage and climbed the stairs to her room to take one last opportunity to speak with her. She was a vision of heavenly beauty, but caused him deep sadness by her refusal to look at him. After several attempts at conversation, Moses shyly sked, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven?”

“Yes”, she answered, still looking at the floor. “And do you?”

“Yes, I do”, he replied. “You see, in heaven at the birth of each boy, the Lord announces which girl he is to marry. When I was born, my future bride was pointed out to me. Then the Lord added, ‘But your future bride will be humpbacked.’ “Right there and then I called out, ‘Oh Lord, a humpbacked woman would be a tradegy. Please Lord, give me the hump and let her be beautiful.’ “

Then Frumtje looked up into his eyes and was stirred by some deep memory. She reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand and later became his devoted wife.

A father’s broken promises are a terrible testimony to the God whose word cannot be broken.

As is plain from the parallels that Scripture draws between God the father and human fathers, children should look at a parent and see their something that mediates and models the character of God.  A child should look at a father’s relationship with a mother and ultimately think, “If that is a faint reflection of the love of Jesus for the church, then that is a Jesus I want as my Saviour.”  The child likewise, from the experience of being fathered, should be drawn to think, “If my father’s love for me is a faint reflection of the heavenly Father’s love for his children, then I want to be a true child of God.”

When we make our children promises, we must underwrite them with a “God willing.”  But we must never give our children an excuse to imagine that God is not true to his promises of blessing or, indeed, his threatening of punishment.  We must never make a promise that we do not have the strictest intention of fulfilling to the best of our strength and ability; we must not make extravagant or vain promises for the fulfilment of which we have no capacity.

As God’s constituted authority and representative and teacher of his truth, if we say that we will be somewhere or do something, barring genuine providential hindrances, we must be there or do it.  If we lay down a condition upon which blessing will follow, that blessing must follow.  If we make plain that there are sanctions that will follow transgression, those sanctions must fall as promised.  Anything less opens the door for a child to doubt, disbelieve, neglect or even scorn the truth of God.  I know men whose word I simply will not take because they have made promises and given assurances that have turned out time and again to be nothing more than airy semi-intention.  Their word is not good.  The word of God is sure.  Pity the child who grows up not knowing that when God or those who communicate his truth and character speak, their words can be relied upon.  Even when we fail because of genuine providential hindrances, we can take the opportunity to remind our children that the power and wisdom of God prevents his ever falling short.

At the same time, I was reminded of a nuance of this.  Returning home recently from a day serving another church, I had a phone call from my oldest son.  He likes to chat with Daddy before he goes to bed if Daddy is somewhere else.  The usual questions: “Where have you been?  What have you been doing?  Where are you now?”  I overhear the muttered encouragements of my wife in the background that it is time for the boy to hit the sack.  Then, the promise: “I will come and see you when I get home and give you a kiss before I go to bed.”

I got back in reasonable time and, as I went up to my own bed, I stopped in on the boys, as I do, and made sure I gave Thing One a goodnight kiss (Thing Two is still in a cot, and covered in snot, so I just looked!).  Well, Thing Two was struggling with his cold and was up repeatedly in the night.  After my wife went a couple of times to calm him, I went to give him a shot of medicine (were the teeth also giving him grief?) at about 4am.  A few moments after getting back to the warmth of the sheets there was the soft padding of Thing One heading for our bedroom.  I glanced at the clock: 0400.  Yoicks!  A voice: “Daddy, you didn’t kiss me goodnight!”

I opened my arms for a high-grade huggle (a quite delicious combination of a hug and a snuggle).  How glad I was that I could say in good conscience, “I did give you a kiss!”  Then a plaintive complaint: “I didn’t feel it.”  A couple of big smooches quickly followed, and a now-happy son curled up in my arms and went to sleep.  After a few minutes I returned him to his own bed.  (Those who like completeness in these things will appreciate knowing that he was back forty minutes later when the storm woke him up, complaining that it was too dark.  I gave up on sleep, got dressed, carried him to his bed, turned the light on, and got on with the day.)

I spoke the truth to my son, and I was able to make good on my promise.  But he did not feel it.  That is not the same as a promise being unfulfilled.  It is worth remembering that our experience of the promises of God may be similar.  God has spoken words to us, given particular assurances, and held out for our future unshakeable promises.  We hear the words, we understand the assurance conceptually, but we do not feel it concretely.  We look at the future, and it seems that the providences of God are pointing counter to his providences.  We wonder whether or not God does love us.  Are the everlasting arms really underneath us?  Is he always with us?  Is he giving us wisdom in response to our desperate cries?  Why do we seem to walk in darkness when we are children of light?

We may not feel what is nonetheless true.  God does kiss us, he showers us with blessings, he encompasses us with deeds that that work out his words, but we are not always aware of it.

But God is faithful and true.  He is pleased to bless us in accordance with his promises, whether we immediately and concretely feel it to be so or not.  We have no cause to doubt him, even though we may sometimes go to him with the plaintive cry, “Father, I don’t feel it.”  He is our loving heavenly Father.  At those times he may sweep us into his arms, shower us with kisses, and gently ask, “Do you feel it now?”  Then we can go to sleep.

Admittedly, this cartoon is more about the cat than the child, but it made a nice Thanksgiving edition!  The cat in question truly had never jumped on a counter before.  Yet, the words literally had not finished coming out of the girl’s mouth before the cat was spread eagle on the Thanksgiving turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  And a special Happy Thanksgiving to parents and other adults who are blessed to have a child / children in their lives!

Arloa Reston

–  “Wenn man jemandem alles
verziehen hat, ist man mit ihm
fertig.”
(Sigmund Freud)

Oggi nasce la rubrica Font, infatti ogni lunedì posterò un nuovo font.

Questa settimana vi segnalo il Font Evolution un font, creato da paulw, in perfetto stile web 2.0 ideale per creare loghi. Unica pecca è il fatto che non comprende i caratteri maiuscoli.

Neon95

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My nephew Xander may still be a child, but he is already turning into quite the ladies man!  I’m not sure what his father has been teaching him, but I was able to witness his confidence with the women on a Chuck E Cheese outing.  I spotted a cute little girl in a T-shirt from his elementary school and asked if he knew her.  He got a devilish grin on his face and gave me a confident “Not yet…”  What a little flirt!

November 22, 2009 By Kevin Morrow

So it’s 5:45 am and I am awake before the birds. I spent most of the night sorting through ideas that were flooding into my mind. I should be sleepy, but I’m not. This is very cool. Temperature wise as well, it’s kind of cold right now in Corona.

I will be at University of California Irvine in a couple hours winning a basketball tournament. Just putting that out there. Moving on…

My gut told me to make a post listing 5 ways to be yourself.

Drum roll please…

For some fun and enjoyment I’ve placed one of my favorite music videos below…

1. Decide for yourself

In my life that I experience, a lot of people defer their decisions to me. I started catching on to this not to long ago. People will always say, “what do you think?” or “What should I do?” For even the most simple things like grape jelly or strawberry. I have also done the same.

I’ve found that this leads to indecision and to be myself I must be decisive. I even started to realize that if so many people are asking me what I think, maybe what I think is pretty valuable.

I don’t require the approval of others, only the approval of myself. So when my inner self is directing me nothing else is effecting me.

This means that I must make my own decisions using my intuition. The more I become decisive in my decisions, the more I actualize who I really am. My decisions must reflect the fact that I see myself as perfect love. If my decisions are cloudy then they are not my decisions.

So the first way to be yourself is “Decide for Yourself”

2. Be Fearless

This one is simple, if you know who you are, you can’t become what you fear you are not. If someone calls me “stupid” I won’t believe it unless I fear that I am.

Also to be fearless you must redefine what failure is. To me there is no failure. If you do “fail” put it out there as a way “not” to do something and move on.

I know who I am, which is perfect love, anything other than that is not real to me. Being fearless is just recognizing who I am.

Remember there are different levels of fear, I’m talking more along the lines of social fears.

3. Don’t be afraid to be wrong

Here is what most people fear, being wrong. Let’s look at this for a moment. You are punished in school for being “wrong”, punished at work for being “wrong” and punished at home for being “wrong.” But what is wrong?

Does everyone have the same wrong? When I say don’t be afraid to be wrong, I mean don’t be so afraid to get “it” wrong, that worry becomes your minds “cell mate.”

If you worry about getting a question on a test wrong, chances are you will get it wrong just because that’s how you feel. If you worry to much about that girl or guy liking you, then chances are they won’t like you. But if they don’t , okay move on. See what I’m saying?

In relationships someone usually feels like they have to be right in an argument. I look at it like let me save us both some time and just acknowledge that I don’t have to seem right, and I can admit when I make mistakes. Everybody does. Just like everybody eats and sleeps, am I wrong if I don’t sleep as long as you?

People tend to have varying points of view.

Number 3 was “Don’t be afraid to be wrong.”

4. Confidence and Responsibility

These to are deeply related.

What is confidence?

To me confidence is loving yourself and others. Where there is no love, there is no confidence. Because where there is lack of love there is fear.
So from my point of view fear does not exist.

When I fear I am not confident in myself. When I’m not confident in myself I’m not responsible for myself.

Let’s look at an example. If I am living with my parents because I fear that I can not make enough money to support myself, then subconsciously I fear and have no confidence in myself in that department of my life.

In order for me to change the situation I have to build my confidence up by realizing that the fear is an illusion. I’ve seen many parents who belittle their kids and break their confidence as if that will motivate them to get out on their own. But in my opinion that will only make it harder for them.

A person has to feel their inner confidence to achieve anything there is to achieve, and that’s just how life goes. I have to take responsibility and choose to be confident, because confidence comes from within.

5. Face Your Fears

Things like depression and failure are fears. If you don’t face them you will remain in their illusion. It’s just like the “Santa Clause” issue for a lot of kids in the United States. What they believe is real is really just a representation of an idea. As soon as they free themselves from it, they come closer to what is really going on.

Fears just show you what you are not, and when you face them you find out who you ARE. If I fear success and fear is not real, then my success must be real. The fear of my success is the santa clause of the situation.

When you know yourself you succeed even in failures, because “failures” are more like unwrapping your birthday present. Failures are just the wrapping paper to what is really underneath. You can shake the gift and try to sneak a peak, but until you unwrap the gift you won’t see what it is.

Facing your fears is a way to tear apart the wrapping paper. A person who is not them self will hide from fears and remain the same person they are not.

There you have it, 5 ways to be Your Self

The suggestion for today is to acknowledge and express thanks for those who have improved the human condition – for humanity in general and for myself in particular.

Today is known in the United States as ‘Thanksgiving Day.’ Here in Australia we know no such day – something which could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, in that it is not another day commercialised and bad, in that there is no particular day for acknowledging our gratitude to those that have improved our lives, etc.

But why do we need a particular day for this – can we not be thankful and express our gratitude on a daily basis? I think we can. I am not calling for a false expression of gratitude and thankfulness, but that which is real and true – surely we can all find something to be thankful for? I know it isn’t hard for me to find plenty to be thankful for throughout each day.

A response to reading ‘365 Ways to Change the World,’ by Michael Norton

Think About it!

GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

The song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
Let him give me the kisses of his mouth: for his love is better than wine.
Sweet is the smell of your perfumes; your name is as perfume running out; so the young girls give you their love.
Take me to you, and we will go after you: the king has taken me into his house. We will be glad and full of joy in you, we will give more thought to your love than to wine: rightly are they your lovers.
I am dark, but fair of form, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Let not your eyes be turned on me, because I am dark, because I was looked on by the sun; my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vine-gardens; but my vine-garden I have not kept.
Say, O love of my soul, where you give food to your flock, and where you make them take their rest in the heat of the day; why have I to be as one wandering by the flocks of your friends?
If you have not knowledge, O most beautiful among women, go on your way in the footsteps of the flock, and give your young goats food by the tents of the keepers.
I have made a comparison of you, O my love, to a horse in Pharaoh’s carriages.
Your face is a delight with rings of hair, your neck with chains of jewels.
We will make you chains of gold with ornaments of silver.
While the king is seated at his table, my spices send out their perfume.
As a bag of myrrh is my well-loved one to me, when he is at rest all night between my breasts.
My love is to me as a branch of the cypress-tree in the vine-gardens of En-gedi.
See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove.
See, you are fair, my loved one, and a pleasure; our bed is green.
Cedar-trees are the pillars of our house; and our boards are made of fir-trees

The holy bible – Solomon’s Song 1: 1 – 17

Come back to home click here.

Sarah apareceu aqui em casa pra gente sair. Fui tomar banho e quando saí flagrei sarah vendo mulher pelada no meu notebook! Falei: Porra Sarah, que que tu tá vendo mulher pelada ai no google imagens?

“melhor ver mulher pelada do que te ver pelado!”

é… Agora Sarah Falou uma Verdade!

“Sleep with me tonight?” Probably a multiple personality disorder like Sybil. “Sure, but I’m kind of tired, I might not be at peak form.”

“Oh yeah Tarzan? What’s that rocket in your pocket?”

“Oh that? That’s my jewels”

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Look don’t you remember what I said about me not having sex with my neighbors? Don’t you take me seriously.”

That cinched it. I WAS asleep. And having one helluva bad dream.

“I asked to SLEEP with you. Not ‘go-to-bed’ with you!”

A real asshole would have make a gender joke right then and there, to lighten things up. I didn’t, only because I was too tired think of one.

“I’ve had insomnia worrying about my boyfriend coming to visit. You’re my best friend, you make me feel relaxed…p l e a s e.”

It made no sense to me at all, so we went to bed. I mean, we went to sleep.

I eventually lost the tax man. He had probably seen the stones at the club and wanted his share–all of them.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” Maybe I was already asleep, dreaming.

Suddenly, I found myself riding one, red-hot, bundle of joy.

I turned and ran.

So there I was, alone. Couldn’t believe it: I thought I’d be keeping the neighbors up all night for sure!

! C R A S H !

“You really have to observe things more. Are you aware you were followed here tonight?”

Slam…I guess you guessed what that was.

“Your place or mine?”

This was getting me nowhere. Except, FRUSTRATED!

“Voodoo? Don’t you need to believe in that stuff for it to work?”

Oh, yeah! Now she’s starting to make sense…

“Here. Take these.”

I was right, right from the start. Right from the very first phone call: Wac-Ko!

Locked up forever
Here in this human body
Escaping means death…

Central Florida Future – http://bit.ly/8KleHL

By Cassie Turner

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Published: Friday, November 20, 2009

Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009

Caitlin Bush

"Most Americans do not know slavery not only exists in the world today, it flourishes," said Ron Soodalter, co-author of The Slave Next Door, in his presentation in the Pegasus Ballroom Monday morning.

"Somewhere around 27 million people are in bondage in the world today. Now, that’s over twice the number as were trafficked in chains in the entire 350 years of the African slave trade."

Soodalter, an active abolitionist and historian, kicked off International Education Week at UCF as the keynote speaker for the Second Annual International Breakfast. The Slave Next Door presentation concluded the three-part series on "Slavery’s Resurgence" facilitated by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Global Perspectives and the International Services Center.

The series began with Somaly Mam, a Cambodian human rights activist, former slave and author of The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine, when she shared her experiences in September.

In October, Micheline Slattery, a human-rights activist and former restavek, or domestic child slave, in both Haiti and the United States, addressed about 300 attendees.

Modern-day slavery includes around 800,000 men, women and children trafficked each year around the world. According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site, about 17,500 of them end up in the United States, with a high percentage received in Florida.

Soodalter suggests a simple Google search on human trafficking for astounding results.

In spite of major federal legislation and anti-trafficking laws passed in 43 states, 103 human-trafficking convictions have resulted, Soodalter said.

Trafficking remains hidden, is largely unreported and difficult to identify. According to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons, or TIP, report, published by the U.S. Department of State, forced labor/involuntary servitude represents the majority of human-trafficking cases in the world. The co-author of Soodalter’s book,  Kevin Bales, wrote the original 156-page TIP report, titled “Trafficking Persons in the United States — A Report to the National Institute of Justice.”

“The whole thing is disserving and extending,” said retired UCF foreign language professor David Gurney. “It contributes to the antagonism from people in underdeveloped countries to Western civilizations or Western countries.”

In the 1850s, purchasing a slave ran roughly $1,200, the equivalent of around $40,000 in today’s money. The reality is purchasing a slave today costs as little as $100, which makes them affordable and disposable, Soodalter said.

A trafficking victim lives in fear of violence or the threat of violence daily, he said.

Shawn Cox, victim witness coordinator and licensed clinical social worker with the United States Attorney’s Office, advocates that trafficking is a crime of absolute power over someone. According to the report Cox co-authored, “Victims of Human Trafficking and Trauma,” the psychological consequences of a victim are similar to the consequences of severe or chronic child abuse or experiencing acts of terrorism.

"In case you thought slavery doesn’t touch you, guess again," Soodalter said. "Chances are, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, has been touched by slavery."

The good news is there have been some inroads made recently in the area of agricultural servitude, Soodalter said. When Taco Bell refused to stop buying produce picked by enslaved workers in an effort known as the "Ban the Bell" campaign, it set a precedent that several other companies, including McDonalds, A&W, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut, Whole Foods, Chipotle and Burger King, have followed, Soodalter said.

"The message is clear," Soodalter said. "Slavery and worker abuse will not be tolerated. Not here, not now, not ever."

Mark Freeman, public affairs coordinator for the Global Perspectives Office, said they are hoping to continue the series next spring since response has been incredible. Because of the series last spring, students on campus were so spurred into action they formed the unofficial student group “Students Against Slavery @ UCF,” Freeman said. “Students Against Slavery @ UCF” has a Facebook page, and Harry Coverston serves as the faculty advisor for the group.

"Spreading the word is the most important thing," said Frank Hegedus, a senior political science and international relations major. "There is only right now."

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/abolitionist-historian-wraps-up-global-perspectives-series-1.2093273