It has only been a week since Tommy Jordan released his youtube video: “Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.”

In case you have been under a rock week here is the video.

YouTube Video Link -

I have no interest in analyzing this man’s parenting skills. I think all parents can admit to a time when we have made rash decisions and had second thoughts later. I do not care to debate first or second amendment rights and whether or not this man’s daughter had her rights violated.

The lesson to be learned here is simple. The consequences that can result from our actions are often surprising.

I can sit down to a piece of paper, and write down all the pros and cons surrounding a decision I am about to make. Ultimately I really have no idea what reality my actions may develop into.

Mr Jordan’s daughter never saw this one coming. Apparently she was pretty sure her opinion as expressed on Facebook was hidden from her father’s eyes. Mr Jordan never saw the public reaction coming either. Something he admits himself in a series of facebook statuses you can see HERE.

In a moment of pure frustration that so many of us parents can completely understand Mr Jordan has taught a lesson that everyone would be wise to understand.

Our actions do have consequences, and many times those consequences are far different than we can ever be prepared for.

My two favorite bible characters are Kind David and Joseph.

One thing about David that I can relate to is his massive mood swings. I do not show my mood swings on the outside. I tend to hold them in. I am very thankful that David did not do the same thing. He laid it all out in the Psalms for us.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13 NASB)

David knew all about the highs and lows of life. You can probably say that out of all the bible characters he experienced the highest highs, and the lowest lows.

In his early years, before becoming king, David spent some time running for his life. This was after killing Goliath and basically saving the entire Israelite army from the Philistines. After becoming king David killed Uriah and stole his wife then lost his first born son in infancy.

In reading this verse I am reminded that David believed God for good things both in heaven and on earth. Sometimes I think Christians can get so caught up in how great heaven is going to be that we forget that God has promised us good things here on earth as well.

Andy Andrews comments on life: “We are either going into a crisis, in a crisis or coming out of a crisis!”

Both of these men know that in life we will experience many highs and unfortunately many lows. It is our faith that we will see God’s goodness while here on earth that can sustain our hope.

The challenge is recognizing God’s goodness when we see it.

This last Monday I restarted my daily practice of prayer and bible reading. My favorite verse from the morning has really been on my mind.

Proverbs 9:8
Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

At first glance this verse is telling me to be careful of whom I try to rebuke (or correct). If I chose a scoffer I will become hated by this person. If I choose a wise man I will have a friend and someone who loves me. Apparently, I should choose wisely.

I came to the realization that I needed to take this verse deeper and ask myself: “Which person am I?”

How do I respond to rebuke? Am I defensive? Do I respond in such a way that tells others to write me off as someone whom cannot be corrected? Imagine the trouble I could get myself into if I was not correctable.

On the other hand, what If I respond to correction in love? Can I step back from myself and evaluate my behaviors and actions openly? Am I willing to change based on the correction of other Godly men and women? This verse says that someone whom responds in love to correction is wise.

This verse is not asking me to find a wise person to correct.

This verse is asking me if I am found wise enough, by others, to be correctable.

Two weeks ago we took our first General Psychology test. This past Tuesday we were given our grades and spent the class time going over the test as a group.

I was a little nervous going into the class. I really had no clue on how well I had done. It has not taken me long to get real pessimistic when it comes to tests. So far this year I am not doing so well. Early in the semester my instructor explained to us that she is not a very big fan of tests: “I do not feel like tests accurately reflect your knowledge level.” I tend to agree with her but not because I hate taking tests. Let me explain.

Here is the problem with most tests I have experienced this year. They are written by humans. As the test writer it is easy to assume you are a good teacher. You naturally want to tell yourself: “Hey, I’m pretty good at conveying this information. I am an expert in this field. I’m sure my students understand this material quite well. After all, I taught it to them!” I do this all the time when it comes to computers and web stuff. When I am helping someone via email or telephone I sometimes get frustrated when the person on the other end is not grasping the material. “I am good at this stuff and I am a good teacher”, I tell myself. Just because I know the material does not mean I am a good teacher, and being a good teacher does not mean I am always delivering material well. Again, I am just human and cannot create the perfect learning environment.

Our instructor walked into the room and explained what we would do.

“We will go through the test one question at a time, and discuss what I was thinking and what you were thinking. Depending on how the conversation goes I will credit points back to you.”

The room got instantly quiet; she had our full attention. She handed out our tests and I found myself with a 78%.

“Many of you will see your grade increase dramatically after the review.”

“Wow, my instructor is actually inviting us to argue with her”, was the thought going through my head.

The next 45 minutes was some of the most engaging class time I have ever experienced. As we went through each question my instructor would pause on the ones that seventy to eighty percent of us missed; we would discuss them at length. She would explain what she was asking with the question, and what the correct answer should have been and why. On the questions where the majority of us got it wrong she would throw it out completely, making notes to herself on how to better write the question next time, or more thoroughly teach the content next time. When we were done fourteen points were awarded back to me and I ended up with a 92% for the exam.

As an educator (everyone is an educator) we all have to remember that we are still learning. But, learning about our specialty is only half of the equation. The other half is the journey to become a better educator. I good great educator will score themselves just as often as they score their students. A good great educator knows a classroom has two people groups being educated; the student and the teacher. A good great educator knows test questions can often be flawed. A good great educator is willing to examine their own strengths and weaknesses, and be willing to admit them to anyone trying to learn in the environment they have created.

The best educators know we are all in the process of learning, regardless of our official roles.

I do not like the idea of the Government bothering business. I do not believe that tax breaks are some kind of favor. The Government letting a business keep more of its money does not equal charity.

These mega companies are backing politicians into a corner. They sit on billions of dollars in profit while their customer base struggles to scrape money together every week. I feel like I am being held at gun point by grocery stores, oil companies and insurance carriers. These are not optional items. Food has gone up $200 a month for us in just the last couple of years and gasoline has gone up $300 a month over that same period. There is nothing I can do about it. We cannot quit eating or driving.

At one of my part time jobs I am making pretty good money. Five years ago this was more than enough to provide for my family. Unfortunately this income does not hold up anymore and I am forced to achieve advanced degrees to get us back on our feet. I am fighting like heck to stay ahead of a tsunami.

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I went a lot of years without being in orientation at a new job. I ran Builders Installation Group for over seven years. Prior to that all I had were jobs for small businesses where there really was not any kind of orientation.

During the last two weeks I have been orientating at the Jackson Counter Department of Corrections. There is a whirlwind of information to process as a nurse in this environment. If you are new to corrections like I am it is a little overwhelming. There is a lot of protocol to follow to maximize safety.

“Never turn your back on an inmate”

“Follow, do not lead”

“Stay in the yellow area when passing out medications”

The med pass alone takes two to four hours depending on the cart and your experience level. The nurses play doctor most of the time. We do all the assessments and decide which ‘program’ to put the inmate on for all kinds of problems. The facility only has one RN per shift and the three LPNs pass all the medications and do the majority of the medical upkeep.

I am an LPN but last Friday I was supposed to be following the RN so I could get an understanding of what they did for their twelve hour shift. I arrived at the nurses office and found we had an extra RN and were short an LPN. One of the RNs looked at me with puppy dog eyes and asked, “I’ve never passed meds before. Will you do it? I’ll go with you.” I answered her in the affirmative even though I had only passed medications once so far. Apparently orientation is over.

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Sigmund Freud is the world famous psychoanalyst that has been parodied in a variety of ways. From “Start Trek: The Next Generation” to “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” there is something about the man that popular culture has been fascinated with for a long time.

One of the most common known facts about him was his pre-occupation with sex and its effects on a person’s decision making processes. He was of the belief that sex was the primary motivational force of human life. It is easy to laugh and then change the subject to avoid the idea that many of our decisions are based on sex. You do not have to look far to figure out that Freud had a better handle on the human thought process than he has been given credit for, in many circles.

Now that we live in the digital age we see how powerful it can be if you integrate sex into your marketing and sales strategy. My wife and I are very protective of the material that we allow into our home. I do not want my daughters getting the idea they are supposed to be using their bodies to get ahead in life. As I heard Andy Stanley say recently, “If you use your body to get men you will likely end up getting body snatchers.” There is a world of truth in that quote. Sex does sell but the question I want to ask is, “Do you want the type of customers that selling sex will bring to your front door?” When it comes to relationships the answer is no.
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Who has not entertained the idea of running your own little experiment on a group of people? I think we all have our own pre-conveived ideas on people groups and behaviors. Most people find stories of controlled studies entertaining. The success of reality TV is probably as much proof as anyone needs. Most people enjoy reality TV because they have the perception that they are getting an authentic look into the lives of other humans. Most people also know that producers and writers do everything they can to drive the shows into curious and sometimes outrageous situations just for the sole purpose of causing a response from the participants. Simply, humans are entertained by the actions of other humans and the weirder the situation the more entertained we become.

This last week in my Psych class we were separated into teams and asked to come up with our own experiment. Much to my dismay my group chose something tried and old and boring. Do not get me wrong. I like my group. We always have engaging conversation when we are together. In this instance I think we took a dry idea. We decided that our experiment would attempt to determine if men or women were better drivers. That is an age old question that just sounds dull to me.

I have decided to share my idea with you because I think it would be a lot more entertaining and it is also a lot more doable in real life because it would not be very expensive or complicated.

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Last night Carl and I went to see Cowboys & Aliens. Being the sci-fi nut that I am it was very enjoyable.

There was one major distraction I had to hurdle during the first few minutes of the film. The screen that we were viewing had more than one defect in it. During the daytime scenes it was was extremely noticeable and I found myself looking at the actual screen and missing some of the dialog.

While getting used to this problem (which I did) I thought to myself, “I can’t imagine the general manager of this theatre watches movies on his own screens or this would be fixed”.
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“This is where I am”

“This is what I’m going through”

Can you hear the subtle difference between those two phrases? One seems to have a certain finality assigned to it. It’s an air of defeat.

Many are truly experiencing hard times right now. How well we fare will determine largely on our mindset.

Do we see our current circumstances as temporary or permanent?
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