Do We Believe In Proper Parenting?

"Honduras" means "depth" and is also the name of a country in Central America. Jesus Christ went to great depths to preach publicly and to practice good deeds publicly. He also went to great depths to get away from the public regularly to talk with God privately and to spend private time with his apostolic family.

God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is intensely good. Satan is intensely evil. Satan seeks to split families in various ways. Jesus Chris says in Mark 3:25 Amplified Bible, "And if a house is divided (split into factions and rebelling) against itself, that house will not be able to last."

What are some lies Satan tells to motivate employers to demand too much time from employees? Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

We need copious time with God, family and friends.

Ephesians 6:4 Amplified Bible says, "Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord." If dad is rarely present in relationships, how can he train, discipline and counsel his children?

Satan working through the Iranian government put Pastor and US Citizen Saeed Abedini in jail for his Christian faith and works. Pastor Saeed would like to be present with his family and serving as a Biblical father. We can help him by praying and by doing deeds to pressure Iran to release Pastor Saeed Abedini from Evin prison in Tehran, Iran.

A Chinese proverb says, "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." Sign the petition and write a letter to Pastor Abedini at the website http://www.savesaeed.org.

Workplace flexibility, such as one-year or more of paid leave, and global freedom to parent properly are possible. Proverbs 4:23 Amplified Bible says, "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." Saint Augustine, a North African bishop, said, "What can be hoped for which is not believed?"

Going Beyond Our Expectations

Ephesians 5:1-2 Amplified Bible says, "Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].  And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance."

We serve the God of more than enough. Jesus Christ did not do the minimum to try to help people. God gave his life.

Creyentes (believers) will not always be called to physically die for someone else. We are all called to give our lives completely to God, so that He can show His love for people through us in all ways possible.

A Twi African proverb says, "Love is the greatest of all virtues."

Sometimes God may call us to show love at a level way higher than we expected. Jesus Christ and His apostles had been healing and helping people for a long while. Yet His apostles were offended when a woman poured expensive perfume on Him. Jesus Christ praised the woman because He is interested in healing and helping the poor and everyone else in magnanimous ways.

God wants us to be extremely good to strangers and especially to family. 1 Timothy 5:8 Amplified Bible says, "If anyone fails to provide for his relatives, and especially for those of his own family, he has disowned the faith [by failing to accompany it with fruits] and is worse than an unbeliever [who performs his obligation in these matters]."

God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is concerned with our whole person, spirit, mind, physical body and financial life from conception all the way through death and the next life. Creyentes are to imitate God. 

The Chinese invented the mechanical clock. God isn't watching a clock to figure out when we will turn 18, so that he can stop being our Father.

What are some ways that you have had to help strangers and/or family that were beyond your expectations? Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30. Happy Father's Day!

Balancing Relationships

An African proverb says, "Work is good, provided you do not forget to live."

One thing Soledad O'Brien writes about in her book Latino In America is about the clash between Latino culture's high value on the family and American culture's idolizing economic independence.

1 John 5:21 Amplified Bible says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)—[from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]. Amen (so let it be)." With God number one in our life God inspires us to prioritize and cherish relationships with people while taking care of all aspects of living.

Neither Latino culture nor American culture nor any human culture is perfect. Culture should be checked against the Bible to cultivate the good and chuck the bad.

Watchman Nee writes in his book Sit Walk Stand The Process of Christian Maturity, "Let us be clear that the body of Christ is not something remote and unreal, to be expressed only in heavenly terms. It is very present and practical, finding the real test of our conduct in our relations with others."

Economic independence is desirable because it can be a tool to taking care of responsibilities and desires. It must never replace or became a hindrance to our relationships with God and family.

Watch and pray about all of your life. The devil works to get us out of balance. For example, if we spend too much time on economic activity we will spend too little time with God and family.

What are some other tricks of the devil to get us out of balance? Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Rich, In The Middle Or Poor Family Planning Persecutes All

Just because God loves us does not mean that He does not get mad at our behavior. Some ancient Jews practiced abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing. Psalm 106:37-40 Complete Jewish Bible says, "They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. Yes, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to Kena‘an’s false gods, polluting the land with blood. Thus they were defiled by their deeds; they prostituted themselves by their actions, For this Adonai’s fury blazed up against his people, and he detested his heritage."

The reasons for abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing may change with the times, but sadly the practices are still common today globally. God didn't like these practices in the past, and He hasn't changed His mind in the present. Hebrews 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages)."

God created us as sexual beings. Sexuality has multiple beautiful, balanced, Biblical expressions. One expression of sexuality that pleases God is when a married couple enjoys sexual relations and in addition to the closeness of the couple, a new life is created. While sex is the means through which new life may be created at certain times of the month, God is the one determining if new life will be created. The author of human life is God and not the government or any other human being.

But in China and other places, human beings are trying to take the place of God. China has a one-child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

The New York Times "Chinese Filmmaker Is Investigated by Family Planning Officials" May 10, 2013, article by Edward Wong says, "China's most celebrated film director, Zhang Yimou, is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws, an official said Thursday, confirming reports in the state news media.

Family planning officials are examining discussions on the Internet that say Mr. Zhang has fathered up to seven children with four women. If he is found to have violated the laws, he could be fined nearly $27 million because the fines are based on the offender's income, according to a report in the online edition of People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party."

Chinese authorities do not just use fines to enforce China's one-child policy. In October 2012 Actor and Activist Christian Bale presented Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. Bale said, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit against a local Chinese government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife, Yuan Weijing, and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.

Last spring He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing, so that he could escape house arrest in Shandong, China. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?

After Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy, the US and China worked out a deal, and Guangcheng escaped to the United States.

Guangcheng and his nuclear family got out of China, but his extended family is being intensely persecuted. Freedom Now, a human rights group, has written an April 29, 2013, letter to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking to get Chen Kegui, Guangcheng's nephew, to a hospital for urgently needed medical treatment and out of jail for a sentence that appears to be retaliation for Guangcheng's outspokenness on Chinese forced abortions and forced sterilizations and other Chinese human rights violations. Also yesterday morning, Guangcheng's brother, Chen Guangfu, was beat up by unidentified men who stopped him while he was riding his electric bike.

Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin. The April 2013 Freedom Now letter says in part:

"Chen Kegui is currently suffering from appendicitis, and although prison authorities may have administered intravenous antibiotics, he is in severe pain, has been denied access to a doctor, and has not been taken to a hospital despite reports that his appendix has begun to rupture.

Chen Kegui, 33, was detained by Chinese authorities shortly after his uncle, a prominent human rights advocate, escaped from illegal house arrest and sought refuge at the United States Embassy in Beijing. On April 27, 2012, police, local party officials, and government thugs stormed the family's home and arrested Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, beating and interrogating him about Chen Guangcheng's whereabouts. Authorities returned to the home and savagely beat Chen Kegui and his mother, Ren Zongju. When Chen Kegui attempted to defend himself from the intruders, a local party official was injured. After disappearing Chen Kegui for a number of days, the government formally arrested him in early May and ultimately sentenced him to three years and three months in prison on November 30, 2012, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process."

Families are being torn apart by China's one-child policy. Kegui and his son, Chen Fubin, are just one family that has been separated. Families are also being torn apart due to our American immigration policies.

Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, writes in a "Trust Act Seeks to End Trivial Immigrant Arrests" editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Finally, as a pastor in the Hispanic community, I am constantly confronted with families that have been torn apart when a parent is deported, often times after minor contact with police. The long-term consequences for the children are devastating."

Let's stop China's one-child policy, anti-family immigration policies and abortion/involuntary sterilization everywhere. 

A Yoruba Nigerian love poem called "The fulfilment of this earth's law is love" says:

"The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
With love two can live happily in the smallest of rooms
Without love even in a palace two cannot live in peace.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
Love is above the law, and it is the law completely,
Without love there'll be no help of one another.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
Love comes before marriage of a man and a woman,
Without love cause for separation is not hard to find.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
With love two may enter the closest friendship,
Without love even twins may be irreconcilable.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!"

Please share Nigerian and other people's love songs, poems and prose by writing to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

The greatest love of all is the love of God because it is effective for people in the past, present and forever. God loves people, and He desires from His creyentes (believers) to act like las reinas y los reyes (the queens and kings) He made us to be. God's royalty helps the oppressed. Proverbs 31:8-9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."

A Way To Help Family And Friends

1 Timothy 5:8 Amplified Bible says, "If anyone fails to provide for his relatives, and especially for those of his own family, he has disowned the faith [by failing to accompany it with fruits] and is worse than an unbeliever [who performs his obligation in these matters]." The Llamoca family may or may not be creyentes (believers). They are followers of the practice of provision advocated in 1 Timothy 5:8.

Nelson D. Schwartz writes in the May 6, 2013, The New York Times article "Wave of Immigrants Transforms a Small Town," "Fourteen years after she arrived from Lima, Peru, and started working as a baby sitter, Itziar Llamoca now owns Fiesta Place, which makes traditional decorations and balloon arrangements for family events like baptisms, weddings and the girl's coming-of-age party called the quinceanera. She earned her associate's and bachelor's degrees from colleges in Westchester and bought the store with her sister from its original owners several years ago.

Ms. Llamoca, who now holds American citizenship, did not rely on bank loans to make the purchase. "For us, it was easier to borrow money from the family," she said."

A Twi African proverb says, "Poverty makes a free man become a slave." Owning a business is one of the best ways to escape poverty and to live in the freedom of financial independence. Family can help family find a way to financial independence through financial contributions to get a business going, by working together in a business and by other ways.

Giving donations are better than giving loans. Romans 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor [who practices loving others] has fulfilled the Law [relating to one’s fellowmen, meeting all its requirements]."

Booker T. Washington, an African American leader and head of Tuskegee Institute, believed in combining education and work training. He wrote in his book Up from Slavery, "Great men cultivate love ... only little men cherish a spirit of hatred."

Christopher Yuan, the son of Chinese immigrants, had to overcome hatred of Christians. At one time in his life he was an illegal drug abuser and dealer who had frequent sex with men. Time in prison and a HIV-positive diagnosis helped him to read a Bible. Christopher Yuan eventually co-wrote with his mother, Angela Yuan, the book Out Of A Far Country A gay son's journey to God. A broken mother's search for hope. In the book he writes, "As I continued to read the Bible, I came across Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 (NASB)--passages normally used to condemn gays and lesbians to a fiery fate. "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." But I realized that God didn't call lesbians and gay men abominations. He called it an abomination. What God condemned was the act, not the person. For so long, I had gotten the message from the Christian protestors at gay-pride parades that the God of the Bible hated people like me, because we were abominations. But after reading these passages, I saw that God didn't hate me; nor was he condemning me to an inescapable destiny of torment. But rather, it was the sex he condemned, and yet he still wanted an intimate relationship with me."

God wants an intimate relationship with all kinds of people. God also wants all kinds of people to love each other as much as they love themselves. Family and friendship are for everyone. A Korean proverb says, "The fortunate man has bread and friends."

What are some wonderful ways family and friends have helped each other to be financially independent? Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, VA 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Help To Make A Happy Birthday

What can I do to help someone? Matthew 10:41-42 Amplified Bible says, "He who receives and welcomes and accepts a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones [in rank or influence] even a cup of cold water because he is My disciple, surely I declare to you, he shall not lose his reward."

Many individuals signed petitions over a period of time to have Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday become a federal holiday in the United States of America. On November 2, 1983, former US President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating the federal holiday Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Will you sign a petition and write a letter to help free Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini from Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org? Join the more than 581,000 people worldwide from more than 180 countries who have signed the petition. Iranian authorities put Pastor Abedini under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two young children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for  "threatening the national security of Iran;" Pastor Abedini had been involved in setting up Christian house churches in Iran and also a secular orphanage. Pastor Abedini is currently in solitary confinement, has been subject to physical and psychological abuse to pressure him to give up his faith and has not been able to receive medical treatment for internal injuries resulting from the abuse.

Un Dicho (A Proverb) says, "Una buena accion es la mejor oracion." ("A good deed is the best prayer.") Pastor Abedini's birthday is May 7th. Pastor Abedini and Naghmeh are both from Iran. They are also both Muslims who converted to Christianity and became US citizens. Naghmeh Abedini cannot surprise her sweetheart in person for his birthday because to do so might put her in jail too, but she and others can send a card and a gift by signing the petition and writing a letter to Pastor Abedini via http://www.savesaeed.org.

Asghedom Michael wrote a love poem "Asmeret" that says in part:
"Enthroned in love you are
You're as wise as you are beautiful
I'll spend my life with you if you'll let me."

Jesus Christ loves us and wants to spend the rest of life with us. This is Holy Week for Orthodox Christians. On a Friday more than 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross and died to make a way for God and believers to have a permanent relationship. Then Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday. Thanks to the King of Kings believers have a spiritual birthday as eternal kings and queens.

In addition to parenting the Abedini children without their father's presence, Naghmeh has been speaking publicly to churches, the media and others about her husband's plight in prison for his Christian faith. The red-crowned crane is a symbol of long life and good fortune in China and in Japan. By signing the petition and writing a letter at http://www.savesaeed.org you are helping to free Pastor Abedini from prison and to allow a happy May 7th birthday and a long, happy family life together for Saeed, Naghmeh and their children.

Love Is Like A Flower That Has To Be Cultivated

Discrimination in its multitude of forms is destructive. Sometimes those who are wrong about many things recognize some truths. Deceased Rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur says in part of his song "Letter to My Unborn Child" which he describes as a "love letter:"

"To my unborn child..
To my unborn child .. in case I
don't make it
Just remember daddy loves you
To my unborn child...
To my unborn child..

I'm writing you a letter
This is to my unborn child
Wanna let you know I love you
Love you, if you didn't know I feel
this way.
How I, think about you every day
I have so much to say..."

Fathers, mothers, babies and others are involved in a pregnancy. No matter how much fathers may love their unborn children, in America and other countries the law denies fathers legal rights in the abortion-decision-making.

Nevertheless, fathers are obviously involved in the creation of new human life. Vincent M. Rue, Ph.D., writes in his article, ""The Hollow Men": Male Grief & Trauma Following Abortion," "Men’s responses to abortion are varied, like men themselves. How abortion impacts men is complicated by the decision-making that precedes the abortion. Prior to a woman aborting her child, there are at least seven scenarios of male involvement: (1) he does not know she is pregnant and she aborts without his knowledge; (2) he opposes the abortion and says so openly; (3) he knows about the pregnancy but hides his true feelings or beliefs against abortion from the woman, out of his attempt to “love” her and affirm her rights over her body; (4) he is ambivalent about abortion and simply goes along with his partner’s decision to abort; (5) he supports and encourages her decision to abort; (6) he pressures her to abort, even threatening to leave her if she doesn’t; or (7) he abandons her physically and emotionally and refuses any responsibility for her or her choices."

Chen Guangcheng is a father of two children. He didn't abandon his children or other unborn babies and their families. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.

Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night.

Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."

Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012 and to enter the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.

On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion; that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia. In America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million babies have been killed.

Most of us came to be through God's will and sexual intercourse.

Sexuality is beautiful and designed by God for both singles and married people. God values the rewards and responsibilities of human relationships so much that He teaches us to set aside partner sex for marriage among one husband, one wife and one God.

Pastors Annie and Kermy Otero say in the song "Nuestro Amor" on the album Tu Compania, "Nuestro amor es una flor hermosa cultivada por los dos... Su fortaleza es el Senor (Our love is a beautiful flower cultivated by both of us. Our strength is in God.) 

Love has to be cultivated continuously. Sometimes spouses and people in other relationships fail to pluck up the weeds of aloofness, selfishness, etc. Sometimes we are aware of our weed-like behavior. Othertimes we are not.

Talk to God like David did in Psalm 139. David says in Psalm 139:23-24 Complete Jewish Bible, "Examine me, God, and know my heart; test me, and know my thoughts. See if there is in me any hurtful way, and lead me along the eternal way."

Dr. Derek Grier says in his Ministry Minute "Strong Marriage," audio broadcast, "We really have no idea how selfish and how self-centered we are until we commit to spend the rest of our lives loving and making decisions with another person."

Being able to spend the rest of life with a spouse is a privilege that can be plucked away at any time whether we are a US citizen or a citizen of another country. Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape. Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin.

"He (Chen Kegui) must be heavily injured, I'm worried about his physical state," Liu Fang said to Reuters reporter Sui-Lee Wee for her May 24, 2012, article "Brother of blind China activist flees village." Liu Fang also said about her husband and Guangcheng's nephew, "Inside, he might be subject to beatings."

Torture and reprisals by Chinese authorities are happening to family and friends of Guangcheng since his escape from China to the US.

Chen Guangcheng stood up to China regarding their forced abortion and forced sterilization practices. Pastor Saeed Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight year prison sentence. Write a letter. Sign a petition to free Saeed Abedini from Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, at http://www.savesaeed.org.

God gives us life. Jiroemon Kimura celebrated his 116th birthday on April 19, 2013, in Japan making him the world's oldest living man according to the Guinness World Records. A Japanese woman, Misao Okawa, at 115 Guinness World Records says is the world's oldest living woman. Jeanne Louise Calment was 122 when she died in 1997 in France; she holds the record for the world's longest living person.

Long life filled with the love of God--what a wonderful desire that can be fulfilled. Psalm 37:4 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire."

Ten and More Arrows for Life and Joy

"I don't want to help someone who is clearly in need because I am afraid of what it will cost me, and/or I don't approve of their lifestyle;" how many times has this thinking shown up?

I'm so glad God doesn't look at us this way. We are not perfect. Only God is perfect. We do a lot of things that God doesn't approve of, and we all need a lot of help. God helps creyentes (believers) continuously while also making us better. God also doesn't break off His eternal relationship with us because of our behavior. God loves us each and every day forever. Romans 5:8-10 Complete Jewish Bible says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled!"

We have known for a long time that families don't spend enough quantity and quality time together, yet resistance exists to making substantial improvement. "Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman," says Marian Anderson, singer and civil rights advocate. Creyentes are people of faith.

One area of substantial improvement in family life is for countries globally to adopt one-year or more of paid employment leave.

Let's leave behind the one-size-fits-all thinking. Why mandate that one year or more of paid leave has to be taken all at once? Some may want to split it in various ways. One example is a dad works part of the work day, then uses leave for part of the work day while a mom does likewise in a way that their children are never in day care. I had a former supervisor who told me that quality day care is just too expensive especially when first beginning a career. She and her husband solved the problem by he worked days, and she worked nights before their children went to school. She said while this worked economically, physically and relationally it was exhausting. One year or more of paid leave would have helped this creative couple.

Does anyone have employment benefits that include one year or more of paid leave?

One year or more of paid leave is not just for married people and/or parents. While one of my single, Christian friends did not have as much as one year of paid leave, she would accrue a large leave balance so that she could take mission trips to Africa and Latin America. During these trips she would participate in distributing food, clothing, shoes, medical supplies and the Word of God. Singles with and without children can use one year or more of paid leave.

Earning money is essential to survival and progress (cash is efectivo,) and so is voluntarism in America and other countries globally. Former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."

One year or more of paid leave should be granted without any necessity of giving the reason for its use.

Sometimes we need long-term paid time to grieve the loss of a family member. In America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million babies have been killed. Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion; that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia. 

A lot of lost family members need to be grieved. Chen Guangcheng is one person helping with the grieving process and working to stop loss of life. Chen Guangcheng is married to Yuan Weijing and has two children. Guangcheng, his family, friends and others have been subjected to persecution. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest.

Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer, surprised China by escaping from house arrest in April 2012 and entering the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife and children.

Last Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

A Japanese proverb says, "One arrow can easily break; ten arrows do not easily break."

Many people are needed to speak up and to push for the implementation of one-year or more of paid employment leave and an end to all types of abortion and involuntary sterilization.

Honor, Service and Relationships

"Then she came to the end of that concert, singing "Ave Maria" as nobody else can sing it. And they called her back and back and back and back again, and she finally ended by singing "Nobody Knows de Trouble I Seen." And her mother was sitting out in the audience, and she started crying; tears were flowing down her cheeks. And the person next to her said, "Mrs. Anderson, why are you crying? Your daughter is scoring tonight. The critics tomorrow will be lavishing their praise on her. Why are you crying?"

And Mrs. Anderson looked over with tears still flowing and said, "I'm not crying because I'm sad, I'm crying for joy." She went on to say, "You may not remember; you wouldn't know. But I remember when Marian was growing up, and I was working in a kitchen till my hands were all but parched, my eyebrows all but scalded. I was working there to make it possible for my daughter to get an education. And I remember one day Marian came to me and said, 'Mother, I don't want to see you having to work like this.' And I looked down and said, 'Honey, I don't mind it. I'm doing it for you and I expect great things of you.'"

And finally one day somebody asked Marian Anderson in later years, "Miss Anderson, what has been the happiest moment of your life? Was it the moment that you had your debut in Carnegie Hall in New York? She said, "No, that wasn't it." Was it the moment you stood before the kings and queens of Europe?" "No, that wasn't it." "Well, Miss Anderson, was it the moment that Sibelius of Finland declared that his roof was too low for such a voice?" "No, that wasn't it." "Miss Anderson, was it the moment that Toscanini said that a voice like yours comes only once in a century?" "No, that wasn't it." "What was it then, Miss Anderson?" And she looked up and said quietly, "The happiest moment in my life was the moment that I could say, 'Mother, you can stop working now.'" Marian Anderson realized that she was where she was because somebody helped her to get there," said Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., about international Singer and Civil Rights Activist Marian Anderson in his speech Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool.

Anderson's life showed that it is not foolish to honor your parents. "Honra a tu padre y a tu madre, para que tus dias se alarguen en la tierra que Jehova tu Dios te da," dice Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you," says Bilingual Bible New King James Version.

On April 4th many honored Martin Luther King Jr., a father of four children, who was assassinated on this day 45 years ago. On April 4th deceased parents and other ancestors were honored for the Chinese holiday Qingming Festival.

Treating our parents well and other people well is also treating ourselves well. John Maxwell, author, speaker, entrepreneur writes in his May 2013 article for Success magazine entitled "Taking the Leap Is it time for your big, bold venture?," "People go along with people they get along with.

"Between 70 percent and 90 percent of decisions not to repeat a purchase of anything are not about product or price. They are about some dimension of service," author and former Burger King CEO Barry J. Gibbons once noted. Yikes! If that doesn't force you to put a smile on your face and some warmth in your handshake, I don't know what will." 

Few smiles, few warm handshakes, a lack of parental respect and other poor service issues impact Christian disciplining. The ways in which we live in or out of love have a direct impact on the number and quality of our relationships.

As a part of Qingming Festival people sweep tombs. Ask God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost if there is anything that needs to be swept out of your mindset that is blocking a more influential love lifestyle. Then allow the power of God to change you and cause you to do more of those things that please Him.

La Familia

What would you do for love? Would you go to prison? Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster were teachers and abolitionists who helped Lewis Hayden, Hayden's wife, Harriet, and the Hayden's son escape from slavery.

The Hayden's made it safely from Kentucky to Ohio then to Canada. Fairbank and Webster were arrested and charged with slave stealing. Galatians 5:13-14 Amplified Bible says, "For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], but through love you should serve one another. For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself."

Calvin Fairbank, who was also a minister, agreed to plead guilty if Delia Webster was allowed to  go free. Webster was freed. Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Black people look different from white people. The Haydens, Fairbank and Webster prove difference can be dynamic instead of a reason for hatred and abuse.

Rafael, my son who has autism, and I live in Virginia which is a state next to the state of Maryland. Even though slavery has been abolished in the United States, and Rafael, I and other African Americans enjoy our freedom, racial problems still exist in America along with conflict among all kinds of people. In Frederick, Maryland, a young man, Robert Ethan Saylor, was killed in a movie theater in January 2013 because people didn't understand someone with Down Syndrome.

God made each person different. No two people not even twins and other multiples have the same finger prints, eye prints or scent. God made us different on purpose. God even made some people with disabilities. Exodus 4:11 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "But the Lord answered, “Who makes people able to speak or makes them deaf or unable to speak? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Don’t you know that I am the one who does these things?"

Yellow (huang) was a color reserved for the Chinese Emperor and members of the imperial family. The emperor had to grant permission for other people to wear it.

Partiality puts up barriers to treating people right. James, a brother of Jesus Christ and an apostle, writes in the book of James Complete Jewish Bible, "My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, “Have this good seat here,” while to the poor man you say, “You, stand over there,” or, “Sit down on the floor by my feet,” then aren’t you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven’t you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?"

Welcome and accept whoever wants to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and to join la familia de Dios (the family of God) this Good Friday or any other day. La familia helps each other.

Lewis Hayden raised $650.00 which through a chain of other players helped free Calvin Fairbank from prison within four years.

Novel Submission

"And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ," writes the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:20-21 New Living Translation Bible. These are verses that are violated in so many ways globally with men and women missing opportunities to help each other.

The New York Times February 27, 2013, article "Desperate Hunt for Day Care in Japan As More Women Work, a Shortage Poses a Threat to Economic Growth," implies that fathers and mothers are not equally participating in the rewards and responsibilities of parenthood, which is a global reality.

The article features the plight of Ayaka Okumura in trying to secure day care for her daughter, Ayane. Ayaka, a manager at an accounting firm, does all the hunting for day care, expresses fret that she did not time her pregnancy to put her name toward the top of day-care waiting lists and even wonders if she should have cut short her legally-guaranteed-one-year-maternity leave to better position herself on the day-care waiting lists, which for Japanese-government-subizied-day-care centers is more than 25,000 long and many private day care centers also have long waiting lists.

No where in the article does it talk about a one-year-legally-guaranteed-paternity leave for Ayane's father and Ayaka's husband, Masanori. A one-size-fits all, unequal, imbalanced approach to childcare puts a strain on marriage and parenting in Japan, America and other places. In America one-year of paid leave is not legally guaranteed. "Vive la difference!" is a French saying meaning, "Long live the difference (between the sexes)." Ayane and others like her are not receiving balanced input from their fathers and mothers denying these children the learning of the difference in the sexes and the enjoyment of a close relationship with both their fathers and mothers.  Relationships require both quality and quantity time.

If two or more instead of one were working on child care, maybe Ayane could enjoy two years or more of being cared for by her parents instead of a day care center, and Ayaka, who says in the article, "I'm filled with so much worry, and completely spent," could rest more releasing inspiration for both her marriage with Masanori and her parenting of Ayane. Well-rested wives are more interested in sex than tired wives.  Wouldn't it be nice for husbands and wives to sit face-to-face, hugging each other while engaging in deep vaginal penetration, kissing and eye contact on a frequent basis without fatigue?

What about a men's and women's movement pushing for one-year or more paid paternity leave? Some social rules need to be challenged by creative, courageous, compassionate people. A Hausa of West Africa riddle asks, "Why is a man like pepper?" Answer: "Until you have tested him, you can't tell how strong he is."

Long-term paid leave is good for singles, married people, everyone! Read my articles, "Paid Leave Please" and "Paid Leave is Good for Us."

Also two years or more of paid leave (one year or more for dad and one year or more for mom) is time to work on the heads and hearts of other family members to help with child care. Maybe Ayane and others like her would never have to go to day care before going to school?

The New York Times article says, "Almost 70 percent of Japan's social welfare spending is directed at people 65 or older, while less than 4 percent supports children and families, according to a government-affiliated research group." Elderly family can use some of their free time to help raise younger family. This is an investment that can pay dividends for eternity. International Christian ministers Dennis and Barbara Rainey say, "God designed the family to be a spiritual garden that grows flowers for today and seeds for tomorrow."

Besides day care and paid maternity leave, what are some novel ways to support marriages and raise children?

Showing Your Heart

Last night when Rafael and I came home, our cat, Isobel Imani Fowler, was waiting for us not far from the front door as she usually waits for us when we return from an outing. Even though I've seen this many times before, I felt joy, delight, excitement and other positive emotions to see her perched upright looking at us and waiting for us.

God is always looking at us and waiting for us. He is so excited to see us. He loves us extravagantly. God has high expectations of us. 1 John 4:7-11 Amplified Bible says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him]. He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest (displayed) where we are concerned: in that God sent His Son, the only begotten or unique [Son], into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another."

God loves us with passion and purpose. He doesn't have a problem getting high in holiness. Ephesians 5:18 New Living Translation Bible says, "Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit." David writes about God in Psalm 16:11 Amplified Bible, "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore."

Fill us up, and let us overflow with God who is love, joy and all that is good. God is everywhere. While God does not live inside of everyone, the root source of good that we see in people is God.

A young man wrote on a piece of pottery some time during the Nineteenth Dynasty (1304-1085 B.C.) of ancient Egypt:

"When I embrace her,
And her arms open wide,
I feel like a man in Spiceland,
Who is overwhelmed with perfume.

Then I kiss her;
And she opens her lips, Without a taste of beer,
I am intoxicated."

Love is supposed to be exciting.

Routine and rapture are not an oxymoron. Simple things like waiting at the front door for a love one like our cat waits for us shows her love of us.

A lot of little missed opportunities to show love over a long time will harm and even lead to broken relationships. A lover requests of her lover in Song of Solomon 2:15 Complete Jewish Bible, “Catch the foxes for us, yes, the little foxes! They are ruining the vineyards when our vineyards are in bloom!”

A spouse in a class I taught commented that he really wished his spouse would greet him at the door when he returned home from work, and they would talk. The other spouse did not think this would make much difference in their relationship and refused to do it.

"Do not fear going forward slowly, fear only to stand still," says a Chinese proverb.

Little steps expressing love are possible to take. Es posible for believers to change empowered by God living on the inside.

Maybe you can't wait at your front door for loved ones like our cat does. Nick Vujicic was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of both arms and both legs. He cannot hold his wife, Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara, and son, Kiyoshi James Vujicic in his hands, but he can hold his family in his heart. 

Vujuicic can also speak. He is confident, creative, courageous and compassionate. Perhaps he says things to his wife like Solomon said to his Shulammite bride. Song of Solomon 4:7-10 English Standard Version Bible says, "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards. You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!"
  
What are some simple things we can do on a regular basis to show we care about someone?

Paid Leave Please

"For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ. There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus," says Galatians 3:27-28 Amplified Bible.

When I became a single parent 20 years ago, a distinction between male and female certainly existed. I don't recall encountering full-time single dads, but I encountered many full-time single moms.

Although admittedly today most full-time single parents and most of the parenting is being done by women, I am encountering full-time single dads. One of the things that is good and different today is that a greater push for economic justice is not just being framed in terms of women's rights.

While we don't want to worship money, money matters. A Spanish word for "cash" is "efectivo." Money is a necessary tool for survival and for the advance of the Kingdom of God.

Many women say they have abortions because of concerns about the lack of money. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion."

Proverbs 31:8 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, for the rights of all who need an advocate."

Americans and people of other societies need to reject abortion and to embrace life. One aspect of embracing life is to increase family friendliness in places of employment.

Family friendliness is more than a women's issue. Fathers are not helper-parents. Fathers are co-parents. Read my article "Do Fathers Have a Say in Abortion and Frozen Embryos?."

In the Old Testament God implemented many feasts and Sabbaths. Some of these holidays lasted for more than one day. God is for both work and rest both with generous, abundant economic provision.

It is critical that sick leave and other types of leave from work be paid leave, so that both men and women can meet the spiritual, relational and economic needs of their families. Unpaid leave is partial help. When Jesus connects truth to freedom and life, He doesn't give us a partial package. We must not remain content with unpaid leave. Paid leave is proper. Martin Luther King, Jr. says, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

Change for the better often takes longer than we would like because of misguided, deeply entrenched mindsets. "Pasos cortos, vista larga." ("Short steps, long view.")

Believers are not to worry when they are not working that they will lose income. God promises to give us more than we need, if we do what He says to do. In one of the Sabbaths, God says through Moses in Deuteronomy 15:1, 3-5 English Standard Version Bible, "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. . . . But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess--if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today." Leviticus 25:3-7 New Living Translation says, "For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces."

A Chinese proverb says, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse." It means, "Right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Good sounding arguments do not always produce good results. Stingy employment practices hurt business, families, other people and even animals some of whom need people to take the time to adopt them.

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society," said Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What are some creative and positive results of rest?

A Helping Hand

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else," said Booker T. Washington, an educator, speaker, author and Civil Rights Leader who was born into slavery and rose to the top of African-American leadership during Jim Crow segregation. Wu Yiebing and Cao Weiping may have never heard of Booker T. Washington, but they have wholeheartedly embraced the message in his saying.

Keith Bradsher writes in his "In China, Betting It All on a Child in College" The New York Times February 17, 2013, article, "Mr. Wu and Mrs. Cao, who grew up in tiny villages in western China and became migrants in search of better-paying work, have scrimped their entire lives. For nearly two decades, they have lived in a cramped and drafty 200-square-foot house with a thatch roof. They have never owned a car. They do not take vacations -- they have never seen the ocean. They have skipped traditional New Year trips to their ancestral village for up to five straight years to save on bus fares and gifts, and for Mr. Wu to earn extra holiday pay in the mines. Despite their frugality, they have essentially no retirement savings.

Thanks to these sacrifices, their daughter, Wu Caoying, is now a 19-year-old college sophomore."

The couple have one child, Wu Caoying. Abortions are forced on women in China. Since 1979, Chinese couples have been limited to one child by law in order to control the country's population. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion.

Mr. Wu and Mrs. Cao have invested in their daughter expecting her to get a job or run a business after college graduation and to financially support them in their old age.

Family helping family is Biblical. Proverbs 11:25 Amplified Bible says, "The liberal person shall be enriched, and he who waters shall himself be watered."

The New York Times reports that for seven years it followed the family of Wu Yiebing, Cao Weiping and Wu Caoying. The New York Times also says this family is like other poor families in China.

Bradsher writes in his article, "She has chosen to major in logistics, learning how goods are distributed, a growing industry in China as ever more families order online instead of visiting stores.

But the major is the most popular at her school, which could signal a future glut in the field. That is a sobering prospect at a time when young college graduates in China are four times as likely to be unemployed as young people who attended only elementary school, because factory jobs are more plentiful than office jobs."

God has a unique plan for each person's life, and it is not always the safest route. Someone said there are 365 statements in the Bible encouraging us to be not afraid in living according to God's will in every area of life.

Nick Vujicic was born in Australia with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. He's good with numbers. Family and others encouraged him to pursue a financial career, and they took a while to warm up to him telling them that God called him into motivational speaking and evangelism. But they did warm up. Today Vujicic is an international motivational speaker and evangelist. He is also an author, runs a non-profit group, Life Without Limbs, is married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara and the couple had a baby boy, Kiyoshi James Vujicic, born to them on February 13, 2013.

One of the benefits of receiving and living in a-now-and-eternal relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost is that God will bless us even in economic hard times. Genesis 26:1-3, 12-13 Amplified Bible says, "And there was a famine in the land, other than the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you. Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. . . .Then Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundred times as much as he had planted, and the Lord favored him with blessings. And the man became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and distinguished"

The blessings of God do not mean that every believer will be financially rich. It may be that being financially middle-class is best for most. Agur writes in Proverbs 30:8-9 Amplified Bible, "Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, Lest I be full and deny You and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and so profane the name of my God."

Many people desire to be rich like Isaac rather than middle class. Isaac was never poor. Even though Isaac knew how to work the resources God gave him in Gerar, Isaac had a head start on being wealthy. Isaac's father, Abraham, was wealthy. After Abraham died, his wealth went to Isaac. Genesis 25:5 English Standard Version Bible says, "Abraham gave all he had to Isaac."

A generous, financial helping-hand from those with means to those of lesser means is Biblical. Read my article, "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans."

Touch Time

Genesis 1:23-24 New Living Translation Bible says, "“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one."

Some limit lovemaking to sexual intercourse, but it's supposed to be so much more than that. Sexual relations include multiple skin-on-skin contacts. Touch is good, very good. Touch increases brain activity and heightens alertness. God designed our bodies with sensitive nerve endings that release feel good chemicals like endorphins and oxycotin.

A husband can get on top of his wife and have sexual intercourse with her while simultaneously kissing her feet. Prayer and practice are helpful in perfecting this sex position.

A February 15, 2013, The Times of India "Thai couple smooch to new Guinness World Record" article says, "Hospital security guard Ekkachai Tiranarat, 44, and 33-year-old housewife Laksana locked lips for 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds, smashing last year's Guinness World Record by more than eight hours."

We probably don't need to kiss for more than two days to put positive chemistry into our relationships.

Kissing is a type of lovemaking that is not limited to marriage. Kissing is for family, friends, associates and others. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 16:16 Amplified Bible, "Greet one another with a holy (consecrated) kiss. All the churches of Christ (the Messiah) wish to be remembered to you." He also says in 1 Corinthians 16:20 Amplified Bible, "All the brethren wish to be remembered to you and wish you well. Greet one another with a holy kiss."

Touch is a vital ingredient to good health spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and physically. World-Class Actor Denzel Washington, who has been married to Pauletta Washington more than 30 years, says, "Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life."

We need copious amounts of touch. Implementing a separate Federal holiday for former President Abraham Lincoln instead of one American Presidents' Day would give us more time to touch. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, helped push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which finally freed all the slaves nationwide in December 1865, led the United States through the American Civil War preserving the Union and battled periods of depression. Do we have a Federal, American holiday recognizing the accomplishments of people with mental illness?

Big is Beautiful

When families have more than four children, American culture communicates the idea that the parents must be stupid. Yet what science documents a correlation between inherent intellectual ability and family size? Isn't poverty rather than population the problem? Could reparations play a role in removing global poverty? Read my article, "Faith, Fear and Japanese Americans."

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 the Message Bible, "Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life."

While every amazing person is not from a large family, many amazing people have been conceived in families with four or more children. World-famous athlete and Civil Rights advocate Wilma Rudolph, was the 20th of 22 children, born to Blanche Rudolph and Ed Rudolph. With God on their side the Rudolph family overcome disability and illness. Wilma was a sickly child who had contracted polio at the age of four paralyzing her legs and requiring leg braces on her left leg and foot and an orthopaedic shoe for support of her foot. Wilma also had other illnesses, such as measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and double pneumonia. Read my article, "Disability Cannot Stop Us from Overcoming," for more on the Rudolph's story.

Who are some other amazing people from families with four or more children?

African American husband and wife James Forten (1766-1842) and Charlotte Vandine Forten (1785-1884) raised their nine children not only in material wealth but also in Christian and intellectual wealth. James was one of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's wealthiest merchants. James owned a business producing sails for ships. His business employed his own sons and both black and white people. Charlotte was a businesswoman who invested in real estate. James and Charlotte were leading members in the free-black community in Philadelphia, which was America's largest free-black community. James and Charlotte were both abolitionists. Charlotte along with the Forten daughters were founding members of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. James wrote letters and articles advocating justice and equality for black Americans and women published in various newspapers. James was also actively against forcing black people to leave America, which had become their country, to live in Africa or Haiti. James and Charlotte's home was a frequent stop on the Underground Railroad which helped fugitive slaves to hide from their former slave masters on the path to freedom.

The Forten children are: Margaretta Forten (suffragist), Harriet Forten Purvis (abolitionist and suffragist), Robert Bridges Forten (abolitionist), Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis (abolitionist), James Forten, Jr., (abolitionist), William Deas Forten (abolitionist), Charlotte Forten, Mary Theresa Forten and Thomas Willing Francis Forten. James and Charlotte taught their children to select spouses who shared their values. The Forten children absorbed the lessons and selected spouses who were also speakers and writers for abolition and other justice issues like women's right to vote. 

The Forten Christian activism extended to their grandchildren. Our children follow our words and our ways. With God the Holy Ghost in control of our lives, nothing good is impossible. Galatians 5:16 New Living Translation Bible says, "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves." One of the Forten's granddaughters, Charlotte Forten Grimke, was a teacher to newly freed slaves on the South Carolina Sea Islands. One of the Fortens' grandsons, Charles Burleigh Purvis, became the first black American to oversee a hospital with his appointment at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Who are some more Forten family members who have made notable contributions to society?

In the Forten family instead of men and women waging war with each other, they waged war against evil. Author and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, says, "Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side."

Former US. President Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, helped push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which finally freed all the slaves nationwide in December 1865, and led the United States through the American Civil War preserving the Union, said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Why don't we have a separate Federal holiday recognizing Lincoln?

Some are afraid of large families because they have bought fear-based propaganda. Yet 2 Timothy 2:7 Amplified Bible says,"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." Yes, one can motivate someone with fear. However, love is a more effective and enduring motivator. Fear creates false realities and causes fatalities. Love liberates and lengthens global good.

Pray for the end of China's forced abortion policies for couples that conceive more than one child, sex-selection abortion which is practiced globally and other evils. Naomi Zacharias, director of Wellspring International, says in the Wellspring International blog entry titled, "What Is Beautiful?" on 4/17/2012, "A tragic issue that has significantly impacted several countries in East Asia and is growing in North America, sex-selective abortion is chosen by parents with a preference for a son, who choose to abort their baby when a sonogram reveals the mother to be carrying a daughter. India alone is said to have 20-30 million “missing women,” and predictions estimate that by the year 2020, China will have 40 million unmarried men, a number equal to the entire population of young men in America. As direct result, crime rates, bride trafficking, sexual violence, and even female suicide rates are all rising." For more about abortion, read my article, "Thoughts About Abortion."

God creates different people with different assignments. International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer, is victorious over incest and has four grown children, all of whom have been involved in Joyce Meyer Ministries in various capacities. Some of her children are domestic engineers. Others head ministries like world missions. Joyce Meyer also married a man who committed multiple infidelities. She got pregnant by him, got a divorce and remarried, Dave Meyer, who adopted the son from the first marriage. Eventually, God used Joyce and others to build a broadcast audience for Joyce Meyer Ministries of more than 4.5 billion people reaching two-thirds of the world

Sexual Silence No More

"A lie cannot live," said Christian Minister and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Many women actually enjoy sex, but not sex stripped down to physicality without spiritually and mentality. Sexuality is a relationship. Even masturbation is not isolation; God is present and participating. Dialogue is abrir la puerta (opening the door) to the best relationships. Proverbs 31:26 Amplified Bible says, "She opens her mouth in skillful and godly Wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness [giving counsel and instruction]."

Relationships don't contain identical people, and God made us different on purpose. Compare the mindsets of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles.

Be who you are, and let Jesus Christ keep on making you better. I'm not called to tone it down, but rather to take it up to a heavenly level. What are your thoughts on a Biblical, global, sexual revolution? God created sex and sexuality. What God creates is good, very good.

God designed sex for oneness with Himself, a husband and a wife. Out of this union God sometimes wills for children to be conceived. What God wills, He means to live and not be killed by abortion. While more than one million babies lose their life to abortion in America annually, some survive abortion. Gospel singer Fred Hammond is an abortion survivor. Read my article, "Thoughts About Abortion," for more on his story.

God designed sexuality for singles too, but not in the context of partner sex. What are your thoughts on single sexuality?

Hammond sings about Jesus Christ protecting him and his family in his song, "Jesus Be A Fence Around Me." All of us need God's protection. Satan hates when the Christian Church talks openly, accurately and lovingly about sex and sexuality. Pray for the truth bearers. Satan wants America and the globe to preach and practice promiscuity and portray Biblical sex and sexuality as boring and bondage.

But God built us with an appreciation for pleasure. God is for pleasure. David says about God in Psalm 16:11 Amplified Bible, "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore."

What are some passionate, provocative and pure ways to celebrate Biblical sex and sexuality?

Some believe the truth about sex and sexuality has to be covered up and certainly not discussed by certain people like singles and/or women. Some also believe that sexuality talk should be limited to the night instead of at any time. Some also believe that sexuality conversation is only for married people. But God makes the Bible available to whosoever will read it!

Climbing a tree to seek for fish is a Chinese proverb that means attempting to do the impossible. China is the world's most populous nation with more than 1.3 billion people. What are some Chinese sayings about good sex and sexuality? What are some other good sayings about sex and sexuality? 

What are your favorite books or other media about sex and sexuality? Henry David Thoreau says, "A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."

Reading multiple translations of the Bible can help guard against the sterility of stiffness. Some have a tendency to get stuck in certain wrong mindsets. By looking at Scriptures in multiple ways, God will reveal new insights. What translations of the Bible do you study regularly?

The Apostle Paul was a single man who wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs." How delicious to feast on marital sex for seven or more days. After a fast, does the ecstasy increase? A French saying about sex is, L'Appétit vient en mangeant. (The more you get the more you want.)

Some say that they get tired of marital sex. This doesn't sound true to me in the long-term. I enjoy both cooking and eating out at restaurants. There are times when I feel I can't get enough. Is any Christian feasting on marital sex multiple times daily?

Did your children accidentally or on purpose walk into where you were making love? How did you handle that? Do you think your response was Biblical?

Training our children can be progressive learning for our children and for us. A Japanese proverb says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight times.”

Happier marriages and happier singles would do a wonder for the reduction of HIV, abortion, divorce, promiscuity, infidelity and other evils globally.

Some say we should not discuss sexual positions publicly because they are not in the Bible. Read Song of Solomon and consider John 20:30-31 Contemporary English Version Bible which says, "Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life."

It is curious that what may be the most practiced sexual position, the missionary or man-on-top, is named after spiritual/religious people. What is the history on the missionary sexual position?

Stern-Looking But Big-Hearted

Nothing and no one stops the love of God. This same love flowed out of Absalom Jones who was a slave of a merchant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a slave named Mary King. Absalom married Mary on January 4, 1770, when he was 23.

Living in bondage is not what Absalom and Mary desired for their children. Under Pennsylvania law, children born to slaves would be slaves. Aristotle wrote that human beings are teleological, which means that we are purpose driven. So Absalom and Mary worked to earn enough money to purchase freedom. During the Revolutionary War Absalom worked until twelve or one o'clock at night to assist his wife.

But their hard work was not enough to buy freedom. So they asked everyone they could, friends, associates and strangers, for donations and loans to purchase Mary's freedom. That did it.

No one fulfills God's plan for her or his life alone. God calls all Christians to help as many people as God leads you to help. Philippians 4:5 the Message Bible says, "Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!"

It would have slowed down the advance of the Kingdom of God if people who God gave them the money and resources to help Absalom and Mary purchase their family's freedom decided to keep the resources to themselves. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 the Message Bible says, "Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life."

Hebrews 11:6 Amplified Bible says, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]." God rewards faith with work. After eight years by 1778 Absalom paid back the loans given to him.

Stern-looking, but big-hearted Absalom was still a slave, but he continued to work to buy a house for his family. International Christian Minister Ravi Zacharias says, "The greatest compliment I can pay my wife is to let my children know that I love her the way Jesus loved the Church."

Finally, after seven more years Absalom was able to purchase his own freedom.

Please leave an on-line comment sharing notable African-American love stories.

Lovers like Absalom and Mary are the kind of people who founded the black church in America which was very active in assisting people with various needs. They also give us examples today of how to love our spouses.

Love opens up opportunites. Absalom went on to found the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church on July 17, 1794, and he became the first black American to become an ordained priest.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Like father, like daughter -- Jane Matilda Bolin was the youngest of the four children of lawyer Gaius Charles Bolin who had his own legal practice and was the first black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association in New York state. Gaius was the first black American to graduate from Williams College. In 1939 at the age of 31 his daughter, Jane, became the first black American woman to become a judge of any court in the United States of America. She served as a judge for the Domestic Relations Court for 40 years in New York.
　
Jane in the image of her father reproduced many firsts. Jane was the first black American woman to graduate from Yale Law School where she had been the only black student and one of three women. She was also the first black American woman to join the New York City Bar Association and to join the New York City law department as Assistant Corporation Counsel.
　
This mother of Yorke Bolin Mizelle was also an activist for children's rights and education. Jane served on the boards of the National Urban League, the Child Welfare League and the NAACP. Not one to rest on her past accomplishments Jane also received honorary degrees from Morgan State University, Western College for Women, Hampton University, Williams College and Tuskeegee Institute.
　
Through her work Jane ended the assignment of probation officers on the basis of race. She also stopped the placement of children in childcare agencies on the basis of ethnic background.
　
Speaking on women's rights in 1958, Jane said, "We have to fight every inch of the way and in the face of sometimes insufferable humiliations."
　
Jane would not have been such a fighter if her daddy did not spend quantity and quality time training Jane. Proverbs 22:6 Amplified Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Children can be biological and/or spiritual. The Apostle Paul was a spiritual father to Pastor Timothy and many others. Please share on-line comments regarding people helped by your natural and/or spiritual training, especially father and daughter training success.

Family is part of the foundation of society. Gaius Charles Bolin had the integrity to train his daughter Jane Matilda Bolin. In his book, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, philosopher Francis Fukuyama said that all societies could be divided into two kinds: "high-trust" and "low-trust." High trust societies encourage and respect integrity and are the most law-abiding, free and prosperous. Low-trust societies are characterized by tyranny, thievery, dishonesty and corruption. Low-trust societies are the most undemocratic and poor.

America's first president, George Washington, was famous for his honesty. Please leave an on-line comment sharing your opinion about the current state and future of the American family and society.

Disability and a Dynamic Life

No matter what life throws at us keep moving forward. Dr. Georgia L. McMurray was thrown Charcot-Marie-Tooth Atrophy, a neuromuscular, degenerative disease that left her completely paralyzed. She was physically disabled but not downcast in her outlook on life.
　
From her motorized wheelchair she continued her research as one of the nation's top educators and continued to advocate for families, children and the poor. She founded more than one organization over the course of her adult life. One such organization was the GLM Group which was a consulting firm that provided research, training and technical assistance to government and non-profit organizations working with families, children and the poor.
　
More than two decades ago Dr. McMurray founded Project Teen Aid to help teenage mothers and their babies excel in life. When Project Teen Aid was founded in 1966 teen moms where expelled from school because authorities thought this would help stem the spread of teenage motherhood. Dr. McCurray said that this practice would foster poverty, deny people the opportunity to connect behavior with outcomes and was discriminatory.
　
The devil tries to stop us with many things including disease. Dr. McMurray said often right up until her death at age 58, "I ask God for strength to continue the journey." Dr. McMurray was disabled, but she was not downcast and defeated. She took what God gave her and worked it for His glory. Acts 1:8 Amplified Bible says, "But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth."
　
Excellence should be an example that all Christians display. Dr. Derek Grier, who has battled severe illness in his life, writes in his book, 60 Minutes of Wisdom, "Actor Michael J. Fox made this statement, "I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. The most anyone can ever do in life is his or her very best. Sometimes we find that our best is not enough and in such moments all that we can do is trust God.

The King James Version Bible says in Psalm 138:8, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." I do not know what Michael J. Fox believes about God, but he stated a biblical truth. All of us must make peace with the fact that we are less than perfect. But we must daily wage war against any notion that we should settle for being anything less than excellent."

Dr. McMurray had a short life dying at age 58, but it was a dynamic life. Former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, who battled depression, said, "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." I imagine when Dr. McMurray met God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost (1 X 1 X 1 = 1 or like water which can be liquid, ice or steam) that He said something like Matthew 25:21 Amplified Bible which says, "His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the blessedness) which your master enjoys." Please leave an on-line comment with simple ways to describe the Trinity.

Please also share an on-line comment regarding excellence in persons who are mentally and/or physically disabled. I would love to tweet with you. My Twitter name is "Michelelove30." Please also recommend this article on Google.

In the United States, India and many countries of the world females and the disabled are aborted because they are females and/or disabled. In the novel, Secret Daughter by Shilpi  Somaya Gowda, Kavita and Jasu are married. Shortly after Kavita gives birth to their first-born child, Jasu takes the child away and arranges to kill their baby girl through infanticide simply because the baby is a girl. When their second child is born Kavita conspires with her sister to defy Jasu and gives the girl to an orphanage. When Kavita is pregnant with their third child, Secret Daughter says, "A new medical clinic in the neighboring village offers ultrasounds to expectant mothers, ostensibly to check the health of the baby. But it is well known that those who go there do so to learn the gender of their unborn child. The procedure will cost two hundred rupees, a month's earnings from their crops, as well as a full day to make the journey. They will have to use all the money they've been saving for new farming tools, but despite the hardship, Kavita agrees. She knows if the test shows another girl growing in her womb, all of the possible outcomes are wrenching. Jasu can demand she have an abortion, right there at the clinic if they had the money. Or he could simply cast her out, forcing her to endure the shame of raising the child alone. She would be shunned, like the other beecharis in the village. But even this, becoming an outcast from her home and community, would not be as bad as the alternative. She cannot face the agony of giving birth, of holding her baby in her arms, only to have it taken away again. Kavita knows in her soul she simply will not survive that."
 
Please share an on-line comment about sex-selection abortion and abortion of the disabled.

Many babies are being aborted just because they have a disability, or two or more. With scientific progress perhaps many if not most of the disabilities that exist today will be healed in full in the future. Luke 1:37 Amplified Bible says, "For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment." In a test case in 2005 a man who had accidentally severed off his fingertip was able to regrow it entirely in four weeks! My son, Rafael Damani Fowler, has autism. We don't personally know of anyone who has been healed of autism, but maybe you do. Please leave an on-line comment about someone healed from autism or another disability.