by

Author & Founder

Elisabeth Freeman

copyright@2003, May

Today with all our modern conveniences and drive-thru everything, it seems as though our lives should be less busy and stressed. But sadly, the opposite is true. A normal workday for me is 8-12 hours, besides caring for family, trying to find time for God, and a little solace for myself. It’s tough to swing. A few weeks ago I felt so overwhelmed—I needed a break!

Thankfully John and I were able to get away and vacation in Florida. We arrived just before the rest of America and enjoyed a very peaceful, unseasonably warm first week. During this time, God brought to my mind an interesting perspective on what our country calls "Spring Break".

When we think of Spring Break, here in America, we picture a bunch of teenagers making their way to some hot spot and partying for an entire week. It’s a very exciting thing. However, God began to show me that sometimes we’re more excited about people or things around us, than we are to take a break from our daily tasks and come into His presence.

We do it out of duty. I’m guilty of this myself. I feel pressured at times. It’s almost like religious bondage—I have to do this. God does not want us to feel like we HAVE to.

John and I didn’t go on vacation (Spring Break) because we had to—we did it because we wanted to—it sounded exciting and refreshing. God wants us to look at our daily time with Him as that wonderful escape of Spring Break so He can refresh us! He wants to set us free, give us peace, and help us to enjoy every last minute of our lives with pure excitement.

I don’t know what your situation is, but I would encourage you Every Day to take a break and time out for God—not out of duty—but out of excitement!

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said
"Your name I cannot find.

I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time"

This is an anonymous letter a wife of a recovering addict sent me:

I just read an article titled "Just One Look" by Elisabeth A. Freeman at the Christian Women Today Magazine website. I felt compelled to visit the sites at the bottom of the article because the story touched me so much and because nearly the exact same thing had happened to me and my husband.

We had been having marital and sexual difficulties for months, partly due to my illness (endometriosis) I was usually in too much pain to have sex, and even though we had a strong marriage, we ended up drifting away from each other, and I felt like such a failure, and I blamed God for my pain, and the tear in my marriage. I still loved my husband, and felt that he still loved me, but I didn't know how to repair the wall that had come up between us.

After months of only making love occasionally because of how painful it was, we finally sought marriage counseling and went to a Wholeness through Christ retreat at our Church. At the retreat, my husband confessed to me that he had been looking at pornography on the web for some time now, off and on for our whole marriage, (2 years) and lots more after his brother killed himself, and when I was sick, and he felt he couldn't help my pain. He had turned to pornography when things went wrong in his life or our marriage. He told me that he had lived in fear of me ever finding out.

But he had prayed for God to release him from Bondage and felt that he had to be honest with me. Because the reason he had drifted away was that he felt so ashamed of what he had done. I had thought he had fallen out of love with me or that he thought I wasn't worth the effort it took anymore... but God wasn't done with us. A few months later, He completely healed me of endometriosis. And now I am no longer in such terrible pain, and my life is no longer ruled by it. After that, we prayed together, and I forgave him. Also he had to forgive me, because after he confessed to me, I was mean and cold for a long time. I didn't appreciate how hard that was for him at them time and I was hurt, so I struck out at him, I felt rejected and alone. The Lord healed our hearts, our bodies and our minds, and in 12 days we will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary, and I have never been happier.

You can share my story if you like, because I want other wives to understand
that even though their husbands are looking at porn, they still love their wives and can be helped by the grace of God. And through his wisdom and love he showed me that we could survive this, and not just survive, but be thriving-- sharing, loving, living and having a wonderful relationship.

Thank you Lord.

Anonymous

You Be The Judge!—Author wants to remain unknown

In this article, though the notion may be unpopular to some, I will be discussing homosexuality and some of the problems that this most egregious lifestyle poses to our nation but first let me begin by stating, "for the record" I am not opposed to homosexuals.

We all suffer from the problems that stem from lustful passion. We all, on a daily basis, need to take stock of our own personal struggles that would seek to impede our chances of living a dynamic life filled with the blessings that can only come through the hard work of honest self evaluation and discipline but the agenda of the homosexual activist is not simply to argue their position in order to silence those in opposition to their choice of lifestyle. It is their supreme goal to interpolate an altered set of ethics into American life that would be diametrically opposed to traditional American thought, thereby dissolving any credibility we have in the public forum calling us bigots, homophobes, or whatever else they can come up with so that they are seen as acceptable in our society, even applauded and we as unfeeling racists, hiding behind the cover of the ACLU.

This topic is something that I have been enraged about for some time but just yesterday, my patience hit it’s limit. My 10 year old son brought a booklet home that he picked out of his school, (Hadley/Luzerne) library about AIDS.

Chapter one begins with a full page picture of a middleschooler who has just opened a condom packet. The chapter gives some very important information regarding the subject of AIDS but leaves room for explanations that are (vaguely) alluded to in the following chapters that deal mainly with feelings and the sincere hope for a cure but
there are passages and pictures in this little "booklet" (from the "Library of Social Activism" Rosen Publishing Group 1995) that are clearly pro homosexual in content.

The condom issue is one that particularly puzzles me. Where did they get the idea that condoms protect you from disease? The Center for Disease Control has emphatically stated recently, that the opposite is true. That they do not help at all except for a mere 1% of protection against AIDS. Condoms don’t protect you from STDs, only from getting pregnant and even then, the possibility is still there. They do mention abstinence a couple of times but quite briefly.

Not only do they promote condom use, and passing them out at school, unbenounced to the parents and give explicit details on how to use them, They begin chapter 3 with a picture of a group of gay men from the GMHC (Gay Mens Health Crisis) doing just that. Filling up bags and bags of condoms and begin to explain what bisexuals are, what homosexuals are, the fact that they like to be called "gay"
instead of homosexual, how that many teenagers "experiment" but that "one" or "two" encounters does not signify a "sexual orientation" and that most young people seldom "adopt" a homosexual lifestyle anyway.

Then they explain sexual transmission through "vaginal intercourse", "oral intercourse", and "anal intercourse" ,quote, "In anal intercourse a man inserts his penis into the rectum(anus) of a man or woman..." I could go on, but I am a little disgusted. This booklet is full of lies and inappropriate content. I can just imagine how the other books in the
series make "traditionalists" look. Putting them in the category of the intolerant, in the booklet "Hate Groups" (see bottom), though honestly I haven’t read it, nor do I care to at this point but this one, (AIDS) leaves little to the imagination and is quite blatant, so I don’t doubt it.

I decided to call the school and demand a response. The same day, Principal Barton called me back to get the specifics, which upon hearing them was aghast, stating that she wouldn’t even want these "booklets" in a high school, let alone a middle school! She asked me to put the book in a "sealed" manila envelope and to have my son bring it to her directly. She said that no matter what, even if she had
to bring it to the boards attention, it would be addressed.

Well, I’m going to be following this very carefully and I would urge all the parents in the community to keep the heat on. My children are doing pretty good at the school and I’m thankful for the opportunity for them to be there. We are newcomers to the community and love it here, nevertheless, while we are in the process of restructuring our schools we cannot be complacent regarding things of this magnitude.

Personal preference is one thing but social engineering is something quite different, especially as it pertains to issues of morality and the teaching of ethics. That was, (and continues to be) the focus of the former Clinton administration. To actively incorporate Leftist values into the public school system. In addition, now that Hillary is in power we need to be even more diligent.

Thank God for people like Mrs. Barton who understand how to properly interpret things that are "self evident" without allowing a
political bias to interfere with her job!!!!

GUN VIOLENCE
HOMELESSNESS
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
HATE GROUPS
AIDS
RACISM

*Speeding Juggler*

A driver was pulled over for speeding by a police officer. As the officer was writing the ticket, she noticed several swords in the car.

"What are those for?" she asked.

"I'm a juggler," the man replied. "I use those in my act."

"Well, show me," the officer requested.

So he got out the swords and started juggling them: first three, then more, finally seven at one time, overhand, underhand, behind the back, putting on a dazzling show and amazing the officer.

As another car passed by, the driver did a double take looking at the cop and the juggler, and said,

"My! Look at the drinking test they're giving now."

*Soap and Water*

A minister was asked to dinner by one of his parishioners, who he knew was an unkempt housekeeper.

When he sat down at the table, he noticed that the dishes were the dirtiest that he had ever seen in his life.

"Were these dishes ever washed?" he asked his hostess, running his fingers over the grit and grime.

She replied, "They're as clean as soap and water could get them."

He felt a bit apprehensive, but blessed the food anyway and started eating. It was really delicious and he said so, despite the dirty dishes.

When dinner was over, the hostess took the dishes outside and yelled, "Here Soap! Here Water!"

*Chicken Neighbor*

A man was having trouble getting his neighbor to keep his chickens fenced in. The neighbor kept talking about chickens being great creatures, and as such they had the right to go where they wanted.

The man was having no luck keeping the chickens out of his flowerbeds, and he had tried everything. Two weeks later, on a visit a friend noticed his flowerbeds were doing great. The flowers were beginning to bloom.

So the friend asked him how he managed to keep the birds away. "How did you make your neighbor keep his hens in his own yard?"

"One night I hid half a dozen eggs under a bush by my flower bed, and the next day I let my neighbor see me gather them. I wasn't bothered after that."

*Doctor Keeps Trying*

A man went to see his doctor because he was suffering from a miserable cold. His doctor prescribed some pills, but they didn't help.

On his next visit the doctor gave him a shot, but that didn't do any good.

On his third visit the doctor told the man to go home and take a hot bath. As soon as he was finished bathing he was to throw open all the windows and stand in the draft.

"But doc," protested the patient, "if I do that, I'll get pneumonia."

"I know," said his physician. "But I can cure pneumonia."

*Brightness In Action*

*I worked with an individual who plugged his power strip back into itself and for the life of him could not understand why his computer would not turn on.

*My friend called his car insurance company to tell them to change his address from Texas to Vermont. The woman who took the call asked where Vermont was. As he tried to explain, she interrupted and said, "Look, I'm not stupid or anything, but what state is it in?"

*I was in a car dealership a while ago when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair, the whole thing looking like an extra from "Twister". I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the cruise control, then went in back to make a sandwich.

*I called a company and asked to speak to Bob. The person, who answered said, "Bob is on vacation. Would you like to hold?"

*The Baltimore Police Department, famous for its superior K-9 unit, was somewhat taken aback by a recent incident. Returning home from work, a
woman had been shocked to find her house ransacked and burglarized. She telephoned the police at once and reported the crime. The police dispatcher broadcast the call on the channels, and a K-9 officer patrolling nearby was first on the scene. As he approached the house with his dog on a leash, the woman ran out on the porch, clapped a hand to her head and moaned, "I come home from work to find all my possessions stolen. I call the police for help, and what do they do?

They send a blind policeman!"

*Parenthood*

If it was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor!

Shouting to make your children obey is like using the horn to steer your car, and you get about the same results.

The smartest advice on raising children is to enjoy them while they are still on your side.

Avenge yourself ~~~ live long enough to be a problem to your children.

The best way to keep kids at home is to give it a loving atmosphere ~~and hide the keys to the car.

Parents: People who bare infants, bore teenagers, and board newlyweds.

The joy of motherhood: What a woman experiences when all the children are finally in bed.

Life's golden age is when the kids are too old to need babysitters and too young to borrow the family car.

Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

Grandparents are similar to a piece of string ~ handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of grandchildren.

There are three ways to get something done: Do it yourself, hire someone to do it, or forbid your children to do it.

Adolescence is the age when children try to bring up their parents.

Cleaning your house while your kids are at home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm.

Oh, to be only half as wonderful as my child thought I was when he was small, and half as stupid as my teenager now thinks I am.

There are only two things a child will share willingly: communicable diseases and his mother's age.

Adolescence is the age at which children stop asking questions because they know all the answers.

An alarm clock is a device for awakening people who don't have small children.

*Pulpit Humor*

There was this Lutheran minister who served a predominately German congregation for years. Pastor Heinz enjoyed telling Norwegian jokes from the pulpit, much to the delight of his flock.

One year, Heinz was transferred to a predominately Norwegian congregation and the first Sunday, he told a typical joke from the pulpit. After the service a deacon approached and said that perhaps he should reconsider his choice of humor as some of the people may be offended. Pastor Heinz apologized, saying he would break this habit.

One day, while reading his Bible, Heinz came across a story of the Amalekites and had an idea. He approached the Deacon and asked if he could tell an Amalekite joke.

The Deacon said "I suppose that would be okay, I don't think we have any
Amalekites in the congregation."

Next Sunday, Pastor Heinz was getting into his sermon and said, "This reminds me of a funny story, seems there were these 2 Amalekites, Sven and Ole..."

*Good Guess*

A fourth-grade teacher was giving her pupils a lesson in logic.

"Here is the situation," she said.

"A man is standing up in a boat in the middle of a river, fishing. He loses his balance, falls in, and begins splashing and yelling for help.

His wife hears the commotion, knows he can't swim, and runs down to the bank. Why do you think she ran to the bank?"

A little girl raised her hand and asked, "To draw out all his savings?"

*Animal Thoughts*

Dog: "They keep putting the lid down on the big water bowl."

Goldfish: "Just because I have a three-second memory, they don't think I'll mind eating the same fish flakes ... Oh boy! Fish flakes!"

Dog: "Man, why do they keep rubbing my nose in it? I already KNOW whose
it is!"

Goldfish: "The knight never comes out of the castle to fight me for dominion over the fish tank. So I must continue patrolling, for I am lord and master!"

Parrot: "Tease, tease, tease! But do those greedy clowns ever really give me a cracker? I DON'T THINK SO!"

Cat: "Why are these people in my house?"

Goldfish: "Oh, tap-tap-tap! There's a new one!"