Keep Voting For Spunky!

Most of you have probably seen this already but we're at the end of the "campaign" and the strongest effort is needed now:

This is the time of year for the annual Wizbang Blog Awards (think the Oscars for blogs). This year, Spunky (a.k.a. Mrs. Braun, a homeschooling mom from Michigan) has been nominated in the Best Educational blog category. She is currently trailing her two primary competitors—one a Ivy league news, gossip, and sex blog, and the other, a professor at Penn State—by 200 votes.

This wouldn't be so bad by itself—homeschoolers can accept defeat graciously—but both of these blogs, besides being exceedingly secular, are also exceedingly elitist. They seem to have a built in disdain for homeschoolers. A sampling of comments from their blogs:

The important thing is that IvyGate and I crush the homeschoolers."

"Homeschoolers suck!"

"And seriously, we do need to beat the cr*p out of those homeschool freaks."

For all these reasons, I'd like to encourage all of you to get behind SpunkyHomeschool and help vote her to victory. You are allowed to vote once a day (from every available computer) until the end of December 15th. For more information, click here. You can also visit The Rebelution blog for updates.

To vote for SpunkyHomeschool, click here.

Spunky has a tight lead, keep voting to keep her there!!!!

My Hard Thing

My previous post probably left most of you wondering what the point was.

Simply put I was indirectly stating my “Hard Thing”.

My family recently joined a baptist church and upon doing that, I was thrown out of my comfort zone. Affiliating ourselves with the church is not in and of itself hard. The ramifications of that decision, however, is what has turned into my seemingly impossible “hard thing”.

For the first time four weeks ago, I found myself doing something I had been told would never happen. I was in a classroom with about one hundred youths ages 12 to 18. each week, chatter about their latest boyfriend, and last night's football game escalates to an almost intolerable level. I had been told to be there to give a different view and in a sense regenerate the culture. I wasn't ready, but I went anyway.

“But I listened when You said to go
And I set out in spite of my fears
About truth mixed with my imperfection
And the question of what to say when I got here... What should I tell them when
They're thirsty Lord
My cup is empty Lord
Come and lead me here in this place
Cuz I'm honest, yeah, but I'm unprepared
And I'm just plain afraid ”(emphasis mine)

Those verses from “What Should I Tell Them” sums up what I've been facing. The difference is they're not thirsty and my cup isn't quite empty.

The discussions held in the small groups are mere milk, yet no one yearns for more.

I offer meat as often as possible, yet my voice is constantly drowned out – often times glossed over or laughed at. My attempts at trying to show a different angle are blocked at every turn, I seemingly fail each time.

Failure – the thing that scares me more than apathy, a democrat controlled congress, and “normal” guys combined; The one thing that can make me cry every time it strikes. Yet, I seem to repeat it every Sunday morning when my attempts to speak are blocked.

Out side the small group I am drowned out by the chatter and cliques that have been formed. There's no way to jump into a conversation, they seem to speak in Greek.

My Hard thing is two-fold: 1. the constant reminder of blocked attempts and 2. trying to get through the barrier.

My hard thing cannot and will not overcome me, I need to overcome it. My hard thing cannot remain impossible, at some point a hole will be made in it's impervious structure, and it shall be overcome.

"Should I Tell Them?"

"Should I tell them?"
by Shaun Groves:

Walking with you is not without hazards
Trippings this traveler's curse
Price paid for falling is more than my stumble
In a world that is watching and waiting for words

But I listened when You said to go
And I set out in spite of my fears
About truth mixed with my imperfection
And the question of what to say when I got here

And now that I'm here
Should I tell them that
You are the one who has made me
And saved me and set up a home there inside
Should I tell them that I am a perfect example
Of all You can do with a life.
What should I say to them?
What if I'm failing them?
What should I tell them tonight?

Now don't get me wrong
I'm thankful to be here
With this song to sing and a spotlight on me,
But lately I'm wondering if you are mistaken,
If you're seeing all of me there is to see.

Cause on every face I detect
The same questions I've posed to you
Like do you speak through the imperfect
Are we too dirty for your light to get through?
I want your light to get through.

What should I tell them when
They're thirsty Lord
My cup is empty Lord
Come and lead me here in this place
Cuz I'm honest, yeah, but I'm unprepared
And I'm just plain afraid