Blog
-
The Daniel Fast
Just to get you thinking about food, I threw in this picture of my sister, me and our mother at a restaurant in St. Louis. It’s notable how much of our social lives revolve around food. We normally talk more about politics than our bodies. Yet, if our government is moving in that direction of controlling every part of our lives, I might as well say a few words about our health.
For those who want to get healthy, most diets will work. For those who are not deeply committed, no diet will work. It’s possible for people with medical insurance to feel like it is up to the insurance company to make us healthy and take care of us when we are not. However, even if your insurance company pays for everything, who wants to be sick? Ultimately, it’s still up to us to take our own personal responsibility for our bodies.
The Daniel Fast is modeled from the book of Daniel in the Bible. He ended up healthier as a result. On the podcast today I interview the author of the book, The Daniel Fast for Weight Loss.
-
How About A Fresh New Start?
The picture of Darrell Castle was taken in his office in Memphis,Tennessee
and the picture of me was taken in my office in Missouri’s State Capitol.Every day more news is generated giving us hints about where our Nation is going next. This last year was a rocky road for public policy. The major players were successful at shifting us further to the Left end of the political spectrum. But there is still hope.
Our Nation has lost some of the respect of other nations we used to enjoy. Other countries used to admire us for our stand on the sanctity of life, the integrity of mankind, faithfulness to our Creator and for the freedoms we once enjoyed. Now we are under the burden of inept leadership in our executive branch and elected officials from both major political parties.
The elections in 2016 may prove to offer some surprises and may answer the question: “Did they yank too hard?”
-
Happy New Year!
Pictured from left to right standing: Two of our sons, Matt and Philip, me, Brother, Jeff and then our three Daughters in chronological order, Cathryn, Amanda and Susanna. Seated are my Dad and Mom. The new baby,Joey (seven days old) is the son of Amanda and David (not pictured) —Four Generations! Every year brings with it a new crop of events. We gained three new grandsons this year. That brings the total up to 10 grandchildren for us—five grandsons and five granddaughters. We feel very blessed. However, even as our family circle is enlarging, our country appears to be decreasing in strength, economic stability, respect and moral fiber.
This week I interviewed Bill Federer, author of America’s God and Country and many other books that offer glimpses of the greatness of our heritage. We cannot expect our Country to get better on its own. It takes all of us to be dedicated to doing our part and the Lord’s grace to make things better.
-
Who Owns the West?
Any of you who have ever been a tourist will understand how fun it is to get to visit our nation’s gems. This photo was taken when we were on a trip to study the American lands near the San Francisco Bay. From Left to Right, me, my husband, Bernie, Brother-in-law, Scott, Brother-in-Law, Mike and Sister-in-law, Heidi. We all like to have fun. Having public parks and forests fill that need, but what happens when the government doesn’t know when enough is enough? We are fortunate that Missouri seems to be managing the surplus land just fine. The Department of Conservation is well funded and we appear to have a proper amount of public land for people to enjoy.
However, most of the states on the western half of the United States are not doing so well. The National Government was supposed to transfer the ownership of the bulk of the land to each state when the state was ready to take it over. That never happened. States Want Their Land Back
-
White Flag Congress
I first met Ed Martin years ago when he was the Chief of Staff for Governor Matt Blunt. Since then, we seem to have followed each other around the state involving ourselves in many common causes with a similar grassroots base of supporters. When is enough enough? It’s wearisome to constantly get e-mail messages informing us of the travesty being perpetrated on us by our government. We’re asked, even begged to take action by calling, writing and signing petition after petition. We know the man in the White House is a disappointment, but we expect more from our Republican dominated Congress.
Before October of this year, we had a “Debt Ceiling” that required some restraint from both Parties. This year during the budget votes, our Congress got rid of it.
This newsletter doesn’t allow me to even begin to scratch the surface of the wreckage we face due to the actions of those we sent to Washington. During their campaigns, they all promised to make things better. However, Senator Lankford from Oklahoma produced a document showing some examples of flagrant ineptness from our Congress. This is the article: Federal Fumbles
-
Planned Parenthood
I had a chance to meet a true champion of life at a friend’s house a few years ago. Cal Zastrow was driving through St. Louis and spent the night with a friend, Chris Clegg. Before he left the next day, we were invited over to fellowship together. Standing, from the left side is Cal’s son, me, my husband, Bernie, seated we have Cal and then our son, Philip. What’s the right response to the tragedy at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs?
Here’s an example of the wrong response: Planned Parenthood, the Mayor of Colorado Springs and Mike Huckabee further inflamed the discussion by calling this “an act of domestic terrorism”. Just to get this in perspective, in Chicago, eight people were killed and 20 wounded over the same weekend. Isn’t all murder an act of domestic terrorism? Isn’t all murder a hate crime? At a time in history, it contributes nothing to our public discourse when people attempt to invent new definitions to take us to a deeper level of grief.
Here’s another example of the wrong response: Hillary Clinton quickly seized the opportunity to exploit this tragedy to polarize the people when she declared, “We Stand With Planned Parenthood.”
-
Happy Thanksgiving
Pictured from Left to right Standing: our Daughter, Amanda, Son, Philip, Husband, Bernie, Daughter, Susanna, Daughter, Cathryn, Me, my Dad, Gordon Gosh, my Mom, Marylin Gosh. Seated in front are our Son, Matthew, Nephews, Daniel and David. One of the parts of Thanksgiving I enjoy the most is the political discussions we have around the table. We can certainly thank our President and Congress for providing us with plenty of content for this year’s conversation!
Don’t be afraid of these loud discussions. Some people might be tempted to cower in the corner, but so long as we are respectful, these can be very powerful and teachable moments. A well timed conversation may move our country to a more intelligent and productive place. We can make a difference, one Thanksgiving table at a time.
-
What Is Family Sovereignty?
We had our children and grandchildren in town last week, so we snapped a photo of some of us in the Bookstore. Pictured (back row, L to R) our son, Matthew, husband, Bernie, First Born Son, John, Next row: Me, Granddaughters, Eliana and Penelope. Front Row, Daughter, Susanna, holding our grandson, Timothy, and Daughter-in-law, Emily, holding our Granddaughter, Cora. As much as I enjoy having nine grandchildren in our family, and one more coming next month, I realize these grandchildren belong to their parents. This is an important line that should not be crossed by family members or any government.
There are good reasons why parents should be in charge of healthcare, education and upbringing of their children. Nobody will ever love them, nor have a vested interest in their outcome, to the same degree as those who brought the children into the world. Of course, there will be some anomalies, but this is a general rule that should be understood be and the expectation.
It’s not uncommon to hear of troubled teens. However, government used to allow parents and teens to work out their problems, and all parties were better for having resolved their own struggles. Now, with all the government money, we have a different set of rules, and the government is enabling and emboldening treason against the family.
-
How Do You Like Your New Credit Card Chips?
I was in Moline, Illinois recently speaking at the Women’s Connection and had an opportunity to meet some wonderful people. If you need a speaker for your next event, please call me. Where would we be without credit cards? Yet, when we opened up our bookstore, nearly 27 years ago, we didn’t even have credit cards. I remember going to our first Christian Booksellers Convention when we either paid with cash or wrote checks for everything. It’s interesting to see how much has changed in the way we buy and pay for our purchases.
Have any of you noticed that the new credit cards now have chips in them? I was curious about that, so I did some research and found out they are supposedly safer than the ones we simply swipe.
-
How Do People Get On the Ballot?
Bernie and I were attending a birthday party for a friend and ran into our former Congressman, Todd Akin and his wife, Lulli. A lot of people just want to vote and don’t want to be bothered with understanding how candidates and questions get on their ballots. I can understand that. We expect our government to administrate the ballot printing and give us the maximum choices.
Years ago, people would just write the name of their chosen candidate on a piece of paper and put it in the ballot box. Look at how far we’ve come – from writing whatever names we want on a piece of paper to being handed a ballot containing only the names approved through the criteria set by the two major political parties that make more laws, blocking others from being on the ballot. We have ended up with duopoly democracy.