just to clarify... i don't necessarily think that *i'm* kind of a big deal, but i love how enthusiastic this girl is to wear that shirt! haha

one of my favorite pictures ever!

i concur

One-Issue Politics, One-Issue Marriage, and the Humane Society

By John Piper January 1, 1995

Investigating dog life in Minnesota has solidified my decision to vote against those who endorse the right to abortion. So then what is my response to the charge of being a one-issue voter?

No endorsement of any single issue qualifies a person to hold public office. Being pro-life does not make a person a good governor, mayor, or president. But there are numerous single issues that disqualify a person from public office. For example, any candidate who endorsed bribery as a form of government efficiency would be disqualified, no matter what his party or platform was. Or a person who endorsed corporate fraud (say under $50 million) would be disqualified no matter what else he endorsed. Or a person who said that no black people could hold office—on that single issue alone he would be unfit for office. Or a person who said that rape is only a misdemeanor—that single issue would end his political career. These examples could go on and on. Everybody knows a single issue that for them would disqualify a candidate for office.

It's the same with marriage. No one quality makes a good wife or husband, but some qualities would make a person unacceptable. For example, back when I was thinking about getting married, not liking cats would not have disqualified a woman as my wife, but not liking people would. Drinking coffee would not, but drinking whiskey would. Kissing dogs wouldn't, but kissing the mailman would. And so on. Being a single-issue fiancé does not mean that only one issue matters. It means that some issues may matter enough to break off the relationship.

So it is with politics. You have to decide what those issues are for you. What do you think disqualifies a person from holding public office? I believe that the endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office. It's simply the same as saying that the endorsement of racism, fraud, or bribery would disqualify him—except that child-killing is more serious than those.

When we bought our dog at the Humane Society, I picked up a brochure on the laws of Minnesota concerning animals. Statute 343.2, subdivision 1 says, "No person shall . . . unjustifiably injure, maim, mutilate or kill any animal." Subdivision 7 says, "No person shall willfully instigate or in any way further any act of cruelty to any animal." The penalty: "A person who fails to comply with any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Now this set me to pondering the rights of the unborn. An eight-week-old human fetus has a beating heart, an EKG, brain waves, thumb-sucking, pain sensitivity, finger-grasping, and genetic humanity, but under our present laws is not a human person with rights under the 14th Amendment, which says that "no state shall deprive any person of life . . . without due process of law." Well, I wondered, if the unborn do not qualify as persons, it seems that they could at least qualify as animals, say a dog, or at least a cat. Could we not at least charge abortion clinics with cruelty to animals under Statute 343.2, subdivision 7? Why is it legal to "maim, mutilate and kill" a pain-sensitive unborn human being but not an animal?

These reflections have confirmed my conviction never to vote for a person who endorses such an evil—even if he could balance the budget tomorrow and end all taxation.

* * * This article is from A Godward Life, Book I: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life by John Piper (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), pp. 279-280. Used with permission.
© Desiring God

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1995/1524_OneIssue_Politics_OneIssue_Marriage_and_the_Humane_Society/

tag!!

okay, so jenny tagged me so i am going to... do what i'm supposed to do??? and then tag a few people??? haha. so i am going to copy and paste the rules from jenny's blog.

1. you must make a post called "tag!" (or some derivative thereof) and you must write a fact about yourself for every letter of your middle name.

2. each fact must start with that letter, like an acrostic poem.

3. then you have to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

okay? so here we go!

A: attention deficient. as in: so easily distracted that it even annoys me...but then i forget about it in a couple minutes...

N: nerdy.

N: not my own--i was bought at a price: that i might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead (1 corinthians 6:19, romans 7:4)

so i only have to tag three people! and i tag... sofia, kelli and anne!

on a side note... don't you love wisconsin in the winter??? hmmm....

happy birthday, jesus!

i love you!

this just in...

IT'S SNOWING!

point taken!

i am going to graciously receive the rebuke from christopher and state that, yes, especially when it comes to food, and especially since i followed my bold statement with an "unless" statement, i was probably out of line by using the word "never" and "always" with regards to donuts.

I guess that what I meant to say that I've noticed as I've grown older (I'm so old; I know) that to my appetite, donuts just aren't what they used to be. and I thank God for that, because I would be a lot heavier if they were. because let me tell you, i used to LOVE donuts!!! Now I just usually feel gross after I eat them (the problem being that I still eat them!); hence the frustration in my previous post.

regarding michael's comment, i have to say that krispy kreme never has won me over. (that was an appropriate use of the word 'never'). seeing them float down the river of grease just grossed me out.

this donut would like to say..."happy winter! it's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS! with white frosting and SPRINKLES!" :)

something i've realized...

donuts are never worth it. as tempting as they may look, it's always a letdown in the end.
UNLESS they're from dunkin donuts in guayaquil maybe...

see, the crazy thing is...

that my old computer did the SAME THING!
what's a girl to do?

is it just me...

or does anybody else seem to NOT be able to leave comments on people's blogs because when you open up the comments page your computer starts freaking out?

peru!

i just realized that i never posted pictures from peru... oddly enough... so here they are, anyway. i think i was probably going to make a post, but i never did... so here are some FOTOS!

exciting again!

well, i just must add that late on friday night, around 11pm actually, 10 years and one day after jesus took my life and made me new, and i trusted him for my forever, He invited me to a special baptism ceremony and i was baptized as a believer!!!

it was pretty stinkin special, and to top it all off, i had the HONOR of getting baptized with three of my youth group girls!!!

(next to me, left to right: kacey, anne, brittany...below is...alyssa?)

the world might call it random, but i believe that God had it all planned out.

here are my thoughts from three days later that i sent to a couple of my girls:

"i just have to say that i am really thinking that God set us up. i've been preaching to people over the past several months about how baptism is a gift that He's given to His people--an outward picture of an internal & spiritual reality. we may have done things out of the box as far as church culture goes, but i can't help but have this overflowing JOY in my heart that can only be from Jesus himself!!!! i really think His power was made perfect in our weakness, and He showed up (i mean supernaturally) and really sent his spirit upon that act of faith on friday. i feel like i've experienced the gift like He really created the gift to be experienced. it's not going away. i feel like i've been anointed with the oil of gladness! (meaning HIS gladness--heb 1:9 & psalm 45:7)
is it just me?"

God is good. Jesus is alive! booyah!

ps the water was FREEZING.

exciting!

i just have to say that i am so excited to meet matt & jenny's little baby lucas!!!
i can't seem to be able to leave a comment on their blog because my computer is stupid, but i just wanted to say congratulations!!!
:)
so anyway... if you don't know... the baby is here!!

fine. ;)

i don't know if i should respond to such RUDENESS, but anyway... i guess... you all know what i've been up to, anyway! i've seen you all quite a bit over the past... however long it's been...

WHAT I DID OVER MY SUMMER (not-really-a) VACATION:

1. went to appleton for the shower in honor of jenny and hongbert!!

2. went to noah's ark for kelli's bachelorette party. i went down both the plunge and the point of no return for the very first time ever!! logic: "missy, if you can jump off a bridge, you can go down this waterslide."

3. took the lovely anne to kansas city for her three week summer teen intensive at ihop (prayer not pancakes!)... and i got to spend a few days hanging out in the prayer room, which was awesome.

4. went to ashley's wedding! discovered that aaron likes purses and abby likes deoderant (although i don't know if she likes it as much as me!)

5. went to the barold and sofia's american reception! stood by this really tall guy. cut a cake!

6. painted my fingernails periwinkle.

7. went to k-dawg's wedding!!!!!!! good work, mrs. wood!!!!! it was totally great. both beautiful and wonderful! SU-PERB.

8. took a little road trip the next day back to kansas city (this time with doug and nate) to pick anne up from the sti... QUICKEST ROAD TRIP EVER! (it was even quicker than our trip to florida, jenny!!!) oh, and we totally went to kansas, too.
9. isaac turned one!!! and sandra made a pretty sweet cake.

10. lalala, don't remember...

11. started going nuts getting ready for mission trip!!!

12. left for mission trip!!!! we went first to wyoming for some training at the ywam: western frontiers base and met some REAL COWBOYS!!! ... went to a rodeo... spent some great time with my favorite high schoolers ever, and also spent some great time with jesus... then we went to the northern cheyenne reservation in montana and did whatever they told us!!!! one of the things they told me to do was to go to the doctor, because I GOT SICK. don't worry, i was not deathly ill. i have survived the illness. at first i paid $126 for the doctor to tell me, "yep, you're sick." it was great. so the week was kind of interesting for me, because god kind of let me get taken out of the game, so to speak... not really, but kind of. but God definitely moved that week... He is good!!!

13. went bowling and got a decent score... i think maybe it was like a 142?

14. went to the swaagman house for their barbecue and played ladder ball for the first time!!! and michael and i came back for the win!!! libby is HUGE. and, in a classic combination of fromader+swaagman style, had a wondefully catered and chillaxed time!

15. took a week's vacation and went down to the wycliffe bible translators' midwestern base in west chicago for TOTAL IT UP! a taste of translation and linguistics!!!! it was a pretty sweet vacation, where i got to take classes in things like grammar, translation, and FUN-etics!!!! but really, i loved it. it was one of the best vacations ever. met some awesome people and played some awesome bible trivia!!!

16. lalala, don't remember...

17. officially got OLD and ate a ridiculous amount of mexican food.

18. went to rose's wedding, which was superfun!!!

19. got to spend some quality time with the mcfalls (well, and goodmans too, but you know what i mean what i say mcfalls! it's all-inclusive!!) how i miss that!!!!!

20. went to the dells and devil's lake with some of my youth group!! fun day!!

21. went to kansas city for the weekend with my friend donna.

22. watched as my beloved forever-sixth-graders entered high school!!! *tear

okay, there. there's your punishment, because WHO ACTUALLY WANTS TO READ ALL THAT??? guess i showed you!!!

but either way, some things i learned this summer:

1. my computer is lame.

2. summer goes by too quickly.

3. it's nice to talk to chris regularly.

4. milwaukee is in an inconvenient location, especially when the k-master mcblaster is there.

5. jenny is a huge pregnant lady!!! but we all saw that coming... ;) (compare the first picture on this post to the second picture on this post... that was about a 9-10 week difference. and then i saw jenny two weeks after this picture, and she's even BIGGER! booyah!!!)

6. God really is faithful.