A Family: Learning and Growing

Friday, June 12, 2009

Learning and Growing

Dalon with friend Adie watching their volcano erupt.

D'Artagnen and Preston want more vinegar!

Creating Easter Cakes!

Dalon loves the Eggs.

D'Artagnen took his decorating seriously.

Learning and Growing.

Yes, D'Artagnen is driving.

So, How long do we have left until we are steak dinners?

Dalon and Mom visiting with Cisco.

Donkey, Donkey, We love You!

To Be Educated

If I learn my ABC's, can read 600 words per minute, and can write with perfect penmanship, but have not been shown how to communicate with the Designer of all language, I have not been educated.
If I can deliver an eloquent speech and persuade you with my stunning logic, but have not been instructed in God's wisdom, I have not been educated.
If I have read Shakespeare and John Locke and can discuss their writings with keen insight but have not read the Bible and have no knowledge of its personal importance, I have not been educated.
If I have memorized addition facts, multiplication tables, and chemical formulas, but have never been disciplined to hide God's Word in my heart, I have not been educated.
If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein's theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders our universe, I have not been educated.
If I can classify animals by their family, genus and species, and can write a lenghty scientific paper that wins and award, but have not been introduced to the Maker's purpose for all creation, I have not been educated.
If I can recite the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the Constitution, but have not been informed of the hand of God in the history of our country, I have not been educated.
If I can play the piano, the violin, six other instruments, and can write music that moves men to tears, but have not been taught to listen to the Director of the universe and worship Him, I have not been educated.
If I am a good citizen, voting at each election and fighting for what is moral and right, but have not been told of the sinfulness of man and his hopelessness without Christ, I have not been educated.
However, if one day I see the world as God sees it, and come to know Him, whom to know is life eternal, and glorify God by fulfilling His purpose for me, then, I have been educated.
Caroly Caines

Study the Founding Fathers

It is true, I love reading the writings of the founding fathers. I have my favorites of course. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams and probably my favorite.. Benjamin Franklin. It is amazing how they truly understood the role of government. I feel very strongly that each of us should study their works and our nations history. Their hard work and many prayers are slowy being lost in the mists of money and power. God has been forgotten in our government, our schools and all the other public institutions and as Thomas Jefferson warned...
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with this wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson

How did Jefferson know?

The following are quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who do not.

It is incubent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

To compel a man to sbusidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson said" I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until children wake -up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Getting an Education was never so much fun

St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is America's oldest permanently settled European city. Colonial, Spanish Victorian and Flager-era buildings stand as grand tributes to past explorers and early american architecture. We have visited much of the city (in the past 2 years) and have had a great time in the process. The Castillo de San Marcos (the fort) is most everyones favorite. It is absolutely amazing, even down to the bathroom quarters.
The fort's walls are built out of a stone called coquina. A natural sedimentary rock native to this area. The stone makes a very good material for forts, particularly those built during the period of heavy cannon use. Because of coquina's softness, cannon balls would sink into, rather than shatter or puncture. The fort's design is thought out too with not too many ways an enemy could scale the wall without being shot by someone inside the fort. Just the fort itself proves to posess unending lessons in history, architecture, spanish culture and much more. We are loving it.