Family Heirlooms
I like the idea of family heirlooms. Something tangible and meaningful that I can pass on to my kids that will give them a lasting connection and memory of previous generations of our family. I often think about what I could give them. My grandfather had a nice Swiss watch that I received after he died, but it isn't working and just sits in a drawer. I also received a Winchester rifle for deer hunting that my Grandfather used, but when I took it to the range, I realized the barrel was worn out. It did not shoot very accurately at all anymore. My mother gave me a wall clock that had been in my family for years. It was beautiful, and I remember its pleasant chime that announced every hour when I was a kid. After winding it up and hanging it on the wall, we realized that it wasn't working either. Its chiming days were over.
It seemed that the only things I had to hand down to my kids were not working, broken and useless. Then I thought about giving my kids one of my old bibles. As I looked through them I found that they were all well worn, marked up and falling a part.
I think these are all reminders that everything in this world becomes broken and useless. Everything of this world that we hand down to our kids will break, wear out or fall apart.
The most important thing we can hand down to the next generation is our faith. It is our faith in Jesus that will never spoil, rot or fade. It will never break, wear out or fall apart.
I don't mean just to hand down the outward expression of faith, like going to church and praying before meals. Those things are important as long as they point to Jesus, but if they become what's most important then they have lost their value entirely.
I realized that I have already been handing down to my kids what is most valuable, a example of walking with Jesus. Every time I pray with my kids, every time we read the Bible together, every time we love our neighbor, we are giving them something that will last for eternity through modeling a relationship with God.
An important part of our model to our kids should be giving and receiving forgiveness. Our kids know more than most people that we are not perfect. We don't model perfection; we model people who live by grace. We can teach them how to deal with our imperfections by asking for forgiveness and teaching them about the forgiveness of Christ every chance we get.
I ended up giving each of my kids one of my worn out, marked up, Bibles that are falling apart. I did that not so they can pass on those books to their kids, but so they can pass down the example of reading it, using and marking it up. The ability and desire to hear God's voice through is Word is what's most important to give to the generations to come.
Don't Wait To Say, "I Love You"
Passengers on board a Delta Air Lines flight were left fearing for their lives after their plane plunged almost 30,000 feet in just seven minutes. Flight 2353 was traveling from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale in Florida when the incident occurred, prompting passengers to text loved ones in preparation. One passenger tweeted: “I texted my wife and dad that I loved them. I told my mom I love her and hugged my son.”
This incident brought to mind what happened on 9/11. When passengers aboard the hijacked 9/11 jets and also the people in the Twin Towers realized they wouldn’t survive the ordeal, many reached for their cell phones and quietly dialed their loved ones. If no one answered, they left recorded messages with their final words: “I love you.”
They could have said: “Don’t forget to pick up the groceries.” Or, “Make sure you feed the cat.” But, of course, they were focused on their personal relationships. They desperately wanted to say, “I love you.”
Let us not wait until we are dying, or we think we are going to die, to give someone a hug and tell them that we love them.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34).
Stick With The Kitty-Litter
Megan Geuss, with arstechnica.com, reports:
The Los Angeles Times is estimating that an explosion that occurred at a New Mexico nuclear waste dumping facility in 2014 could cost upwards of $2 billion to clean up.
... The 2014 explosion apparently occurred when engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were preparing a drum of plutonium and americium waste—usually packed with kitty litter (yes, kitty litter)—and decided to "substitute an organic material for a mineral one."
"The new material caused a complex chemical reaction that blew the lid off a drum, sending mounds of white, radioactive foam into the air and contaminating 35 percent of the underground area," the LA Times wrote. The dump's filtration system, which was supposed to "prevent any radioactive releases," subsequently failed.
... That means that WIPP cleanup, including indefinite housing costs for nuclear waste around the country that was to be shipped to WIPP, could rank among the costliest nuclear waste cleanup efforts in US history, on par with clean up after Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island disaster in 1979.
You can purchase a 25 lb bag of premium Kitty-Litter at Walmart for less the $5, but because these engineers chose to disregard the tried and the true, the cleanup will cost taxpayers 2 billion dollars! They should have stuck with the Kitty-Litter!
Sometimes we’re tempted to think there’s a better way than God’s way. In a world always searching for something new and exciting, Christianity may not seem very enticing, even though its principles are tried and true.
Nevertheless, the world prefers moral and social experimentation. Rather than appreciate the gift of God's wisdom, they choose to rewrite the rules of what marriage and family should be. Only time will tell what the cost will be for the cleanup.
Although the Kitty-Litter worked every single time, they said, "Yes, but let's try this instead!" Likewise, built on the foundation of a Judeo-Christian heritage, we became the greatest nation on earth. Nevertheless, our world says, "Yes, but let's try this instead!"
Don’t allow anyone to persuade you to abandon the simplicity that is Jesus Christ.
“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).