Children | Ain't Complicated

Baring Your Heart, Soul, Mind, Life — via Gmail

Will your old content make you vulnerable in the future?

If you’re not a Gmail user, move along.

Wait, wait — I need to amend that. If you’re not a Gmail user and if you don’t send email to Gmail addresses, you can just move along.

That’s not true either. Here’s the best amendment so far: If you don’t use the Web, you can ignore this post.

I begin with this “reassuring” statement:

The system operates automatically and nobody working for Google is able to see any of the images being examined.

Do people still believe such assurances? 🙄 And even if it were true today, tomorrow’s line may be, “That was then; this is now.” Read it all

Why Do You Exist?

Why were you born?

Are you a child born out of wedlock?

Or a child clearly not planned for by your parents?

Your presence on this planet may well be the result of your parents petitioning God for a gift. Then all I have to say to you here is this: Get on with fulfilling the vision of your parents and the purposes of God!

On the other hand, my dear reader, your presence here may not have been requested by your parents. For all that I know, you may be a so-called “illegitimate child…” Take heart! Not only are you just as legitimate a child as anyone else, you are on this planet by special divine appointment. God chose to put you here! Get on with fulfilling His vision and purposes!

A Child for the Lord

Be faithful to your mission here on planet Earth! Read it all

Jordan Overruns Israel

Hey, Stilton! Ya been brainwashed? Or are ya just in de Nile?

Breaking News: Scholastic Conquers Israel for Islam

Scarab map of Middle East — Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt

Read it all

Only Spank Kids on Their Behinds

So say Manitoba social workers (who actually don't support spanking, just so you know).

Manitoba social workers want parents of an orthodox Mennonite community to promise they will only spank kids on their behinds and not use objects, such as belts, as punishment.

Makes sense to me. (“But I suppose that comma after objects shouldn’t be there,” said the Grammar Guardian.)

The parenting rules and discipline guidelines are spelled out in a recent letter from the government’s Child and Family Services Department to members of the tiny community, where Mounties made arrests over several weeks this summer.

The Canadian version of CSD actually allows spanking?! 😯 Read it all

Kenneth Miller Files Appeal

His federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont

I had forgotten Ken Miller’s appeal was in the works.

A Mennonite pastor from Virginia convicted of helping a woman flee the country rather than share custody of her daughter with her former lesbian partner says his federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont, where he was arrested, prosecuted and found guilty.

Attorneys for Kenneth Miller argued in documents filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the effort to get Lisa Miller and her daughter Isabella out of the country began in Virginia and ended in New York state when the pair crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Canada in September 2009 before flying to Nicaragua.

The documents, filed Monday in New York, said Miller’s right to be tried before a jury near his home could be traced to England’s Magna Carta in 1215, the basis for much of the U.S. Constitution.

[…]

The criminal case stemmed from a custody battle decided by a Vermont family court. Miller turned himself in to federal authorities in Vermont in December 2011, and was sentenced in March to 27 months in prison. His sentencing has been delayed pending his appeals.

U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin in Vermont said Wednesday he had not seen the appeal but would make the same argument as his office made to the trial court — that Miller’s criminal actions became complete once the mother and child left the U.S. and were therefore subject to prosecution where Miller was arrested.

“The crime was not completed until they entered Canada,” Coffin said.

Va. man appeals Vt. conviction in same-sex custody

Ken is called a Mennonite here. Close enough. I think he’s actually Beachy.

How to Ensure a Father’s Success

My number one tip for being a successful father

This is my Happy Father’s Day! tip to all of us fathers:

Walk humbly with your heavenly Father.

This morning, that’s my number one tip for being a successful father. If we don’t walk humbly with the Father, He will resist us instead of helping us.

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble'” (James 4:6, NKJV).

And now for links and/or excerpts from five fatherhood posts from the archives… Read it all