I love my God ...

wanna try to build this one? ^ ^

ilovemygod — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:11:59 +0000

art, creativity ... seeing is believing! =)

the greatest gift you can make to your children

ilovemygod — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:37:01 +0000

The greatest gift you can make to your children is: healthy marriage
A healthy marriage will produce a personal security in your children.
Rev. Andy Stanley

“What will matter is who you love, who love you, and what you do together the service of the Lord.”
James Dobson

7/25/08 Focus on the Family radio

Iron Mom

ilovemygod — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:14:25 +0000

Primal Quest is an adventure race, an offshoot of the French sport that spread abroad in the mid-1990s. It appeals to would-be explorers seeking to test their resolve against weather, uncharted terrain and chance run-ins with wild animals. Ultra-endurance racing has grown fivefold in the past decade, with more than 400 races a year. During the Gobi March, for example, runners face sand storms and brutal heat as they cross 155 miles of China’s Gobi Desert. There’s a 150-mile race through subfreezing temperatures in Antarctica. And in California’s Badwater summer race, runners risk heat stroke and worse in a 135-mile march through Death Valley.

The sport draws mostly amateur athletes in their 30s and 40s, men and women who have honed the mental discipline to race for days. Most have full-time careers, but they devote three to six hours a day to train. Some work out in sports labs that circulate the lower levels of oxygen found at high altitudes. The most fanatic have their toenails surgically removed to head off foot injuries and infection.

Ultra-races test minds as well as bodies, says Timothy Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town Medical School in South Africa. “In ultra-endurance races,” he says, “you’ll find that the winners are the most mentally fit.”

Source: WSJ July 26, 2008

Bobby Jindal’s Spiritual Journey

ilovemygod — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:01:34 +0000

In 1988, 16-year-old Piyush Jindal totaled his father’s new car a few weeks before graduating from Baton Rouge High School. Piyush — who then and now prefers the nickname “Bobby” he adopted from “The Brady Brunch” sitcom — had to assess more than fender damage with his parents.

“Which God do you have to thank for your safety?” Mr. Jindal, now governor of Louisiana, remembers his mother, Raj, a practicing Hindu, inquiring after he escaped from the wreck. For the child of Punjabi immigrants who had announced his Christian beliefs the previous summer, the question was difficult.
….

Hinduism is a diverse religion, with varying interpretations. Mr. Jindal, speaking from his office in Baton Rouge this month, said his parents raised him “in a monotheistic home with a firm belief in a God with traditional values — the same sort of values you find in the Ten Commandments and other mainstream religions.” Recalling their religion as “not a faith that was necessarily tied to a particular historical scripture or revelation,” Mr. Jindal said, his parents “made their faith their own.”

It is rare for Hindus to convert to Christianity or any other religion. According to a survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life earlier this year, eight in 10 American Hindus who were raised in the faith remain so as adults.

“I did not have an overnight epiphany like so many people do,” said Mr. Jindal, calling his conversion a “very intellectual-based journey,” where he studied countless religious texts. “Given my background and personality, that was an important part of the process.” But, he notes, “I don’t think you can ‘read’ yourself into faith. I had gotten to the point where I knew what history had to say about this person named Jesus and what he had done on Earth. . . . I think at some point you have to take a leap of faith.”

As a teenager, Mr. Jindal said he sought out chaplains at nearby Louisiana State University as he grasped for a religious identity to call his own. During a youth group’s Easter season musical production in 1987 at LSU’s campus chapel, a black-and-white video of the Passion played during intermission. “I don’t know why I was struck so hard at that moment,” said Mr. Jindal. “There was nothing fascinating about this particular video. . . . But watching this depiction of an actor playing Jesus on the cross, it just hit me, harder than I’d ever been hit before,” he said. “If that was really the son of God, and he really died for me, then I felt compelled to get on my knees and worship him.”

“It was liberating,” said Mr. Jindal about his moment. “Up until that point, my prayer life was like a child talking to Santa Claus — making deals with God saying ‘I’ll be good, but this is what I want in return.’” Soon after, Mr. Jindal began to pray and fervently read the Bible, principally parables in the New Testament. “It was like the words were jumping out of the page. It was literally as if it had been written just for me,” he said.

Revealing his Christianity to his parents was difficult. “I was scared to approach them,” said Mr. Jindal. “I didn’t know how they’d accept it. I wanted to make sure they didn’t view it as a rejection of them, that I still loved them and still shared many of the values they instilled in us.”

Source: Excepts from WSJ July 25, 2008

Discerning God’s Will

ilovemygod — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:53:07 +0000

Our Will:
Self-serving, convenient/feels good, peer pressure, cost effective

God’s Will:
Scripture, consistent with God’s character, confirmation of mature christians, prayer

Christian principle of stewardship from Harper’s biblical dictionary:
the Christian principle of stewardship of possessions, time and personality is the outgrowth of the fundamental teachings of Jesus concerning a person’s obligation to make any needful sacrifice for the progress of God’s kingdom (will)

Source: Trinity Baptist Church, NY

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Penn’s graduation in 2008:

ilovemygod — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:50:59 +0000

There ‘s a saying Ilike,” he continued: “In God we trust. All others bring data.”
…
Find something that teaches, humbles, and exhilarates you. And don’t despair if you career path doesn’t follow a straight line. Plenty of successful people are doing things that are radically different from where they started.

Bono’s Conversation with Michka Assayas

ilovemygod — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:20:35 +0000

Bono: Yes, I think that’s normal. It’s mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.

Assayas: I haven’t heard you talk about that …

Bono: At the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics–in physical laws–every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so will you sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I’d be interested to hear that.

Bono: That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.

– from Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas

wedding quotes

ilovemygod — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:16:56 +0000

a nice one
“a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”
Germaine Greer

a funny one
“you will love being married. it’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life”
Rita Rudner

pursuing your dream

ilovemygod — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:10:07 +0000

Notable & Quotable
Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2008; Page A15

Arthur Laffer speaking last month to graduates of Mercer University:

Pursuing your dream of prospering will benefit everyone . . . When I graduated from Yale University, we had a serious commencement speaker not like the one you are stuck with today. The commencement speaker was President John F. Kennedy. And the point I’m making today is the same point he made all those years ago. He said, “No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off.” He concluded by using the analogy that “a rising tide raises all boats.”

Never forget or be ashamed of the fact that pursuing your own self interest furthers everyone’s interest. Without you, the poor would be poorer.