Parental Behavior

My hubby of 29 years and I recently took a little shopping trip to Atlanta for our anniversary. We both love to bargain shop, me for about anything, him for tennis racquets. We found some great bargains, mostly Plus Size clothing for ladies and tennis racquets. You'll find them soon in my eBay store, Mimi's Discount Boutique.

Being an educator, I guess it is second nature to want to "educate." Today I have a shout out to a parent in the Marietta area. We had been to a lot of Goodwill stores and various other consignment shops and thrift stores. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of "bad parent behavior," not bad child behavior. In an attempt at control, parents (and sadly, some grandparents!) yelled at their children, threatened to call the police, yanked, pulled, or just generally ignored child behavior that did need correcting. But this one dad needs applauding. He was coming from a store and was holding his child's hand. The child evidently wanted Mom (who was back in the store.) But Dad did not yell, he used a calm voice and continued to tell the child that, "We are going to the car; we are not going back in the store," as he gently pulled the child along. The child was probably around 3-4 yrs. old. But I just loved that Dad stayed in control of himself and his child. It was wonderful!! No need for yelling and useless threats (and by the way, just an editorial comment - PLEASE, PLEASE do not threaten your child with the police, fireman, teacher, nurse, doctor, etc. - they may actually have to depend on these people for their lives one day and I would hate for them to be scared witless because of threats from their parents!!)

So here's my cudos to an in control parent - it can be done!!!

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Nothing special tonight but Brotherly Love...

I am a member of an eclectic group of entrepreneurs called OSI Rock Stars. The amount of love and compassion they show for one another is simply phenomenal. Recently one of our own, Janieruth, experienced an awful accident at eBay Live in Chicago. She was visiting an art museum and fell 10 feet from a banister. Since then, she has been hospitalized with a serious head injury. OSI Rock Stars have shown an outpouring of love, prayers, concern and even developed a fund to help with her expenses. And most of this comes from folks who have never even met each other. Amazing.

Another one of our own, Rina, recently lost her sister unexpectedly. Again, OSI members showered her with love, support, and prayers. In a response to this, Rina reminded us...If you have a relationship "fence" in your life that needs some mending, please don't delay ... act today! I know how hard it can be to take that first step, but "too hard" can turn into "too late" faster than you can possibly imagine. Wow.

I took that to heart tonight and called my only brother. I had not spoken to him in over 6 months. There were really no hard words between us. Lack of communication was mostly from lack of effort, I suppose. At times I thought, "Well, the phone works both ways." And it does. So what?

It felt really good to hear him answer that phone, to hear his voice. Just to chat. Nothing special except "brotherly love." Yeah, really good.

Thanks, Janieruth & Rina, for reminding me how special family really is.


But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13

Bittersweet Fellowship

On Saturday, May 3, I had the bittersweet pleasure of hearing Mrs. Sherri Burgess (wife of Rick Burgess of Rick and Bubba Show) speak to a large group of ladies at First Baptist Church Center Star in northern Alabama. I have never witnessed the power of God come on someone as it did Sherri. This was her first public message since the loss of their precious son, William Bronner Burgess.

I think many people wondered if she would share a lot about Bronner but she did Bronner the honor of sharing about his heavenly Father instead. You could certainly tell her heart was broken as she shared a little about that day but as she continued, she mostly focused on the Lord Jesus and how He was able to help them survive this tragedy. What an awesome, bittersweet time it was to witness just how the Lord was using this couple. Many in that audience were in tears and left to wonder if we could survive a crisis and have the faith that they have so strongly exhibited.

Her theme was from Matthew 7:25 - "The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." That rock, of course, is Jesus.

May your foundation be on that Rock also.