This Dairy Queen ice cream cake didn't stand a chance once it arrived home from the drive through! I had hoped to get back to my blog much sooner than this, but circumstances have prevailed concerning love stuff. At the present time we have a young lady sleeping on our couch that is going through her second divorce. In the midst of yesterday we sat down with a couple for an hour and a half to do the first of what will amount to several get-togethers prior to their wedding on April 26. This is the beginning of "wedding fever" season. For some reason it always begins right after Valentine's Day. There are folks who plan these things well ahead of the appointed time and then there are the ones who just get that inescapable urge and it must be satisfied. I suppose my take on this would have to lean very hard on the circumstances surrounding the union. If a couple has been together for a number of years and they share several children which they, as a couple, produced, it is a good thing to consider getting all of the last names in the house to match. I know that may sound a bit "old fashioned" in light of the era we live in, but it is true out here on the Great American Desert that kids have a much easier time in the public school system if they have a family unit that is dependable as the day is long. All too often we deal with the difficulties a single mom or dad have raising children those 12 years of education. Children and young adults can be extremely cruel. Anything that is "different" about folks we seem to have the propensity in our early years to point out with hurtful indifference. Perhaps there might be an explanation in there that could explain(not rationalize)the episodes of peer killings we have seen this past decade. Violence has become the means to an end that may have started with the earliest of experiences on playgrounds.
One of my eldest daughters(the "twins" is what we started out referring to them as)used to state unequivocally that she wanted most of all to be "Different", like everybody else. I thought it funny at the time because the kids were wearing colors that made me gag, not to mention mismatched socks were the "in" thing. There is a point in there. The values of my generation have been thrown, for the most part, out the window, but the cultural mores are the same when it comes to "peer groups." I'm watching this first hand with grands, now. They want to dress the way everyone else does so that they do not stand out. They often choose to be a part of some activity not because it is what they want, but because it is the place to be, thing to do, way to act, etc. When we had the second set of twins(boy & girl)23 years ago we stopped referring to the older set as the "twins" and never did put that one back into the family vocabulary. Each one of them is as different as the day is long, and I'm thankful for that. PKs have always had a tough time growing up. Mine were no different, but they all made it and so did I. The question is, What is happening with people that causes them to go off on their peer group and slay them in bunches? I'm certain there are many in the fields of psychiatry and sociology attempting to figure this one out every day. Is there an answer? Personally I believe it all has to do with the "love factor." Somewhere along the line these folks didn't connect with love the same way most of us do. I think that is another reason why we so desperately need God in each of our lives. That one that will love us without reservation. That one who will always be there for us. That ONE Creator with so much love for humankind that He gave His only begotten Son so that each of us might walk in the light and delight in creation. Love, it's not a simple thing. God bless, Preacher.
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