Going on the record

I’ve decided that I’m going to strive for a normal posting schedule of Tuesdays & Thursdays, but I want something on the record before things start happening.

I watched President Obama’s speech at the memorial service on Sunday and in a “never let a good crisis go to waste” moment, his remarks turned political.

Besides sharing his community parenting views (that is that we cannot be good parents without the help of the community and that parenting is a group affair), he said we were not doing enough to protect our kids. He said that we had to “change” and that he would use the power of his office to stop the violence.

In mourning

I just wanted to put out a quick post in light of the tragedy that happened in Connecticut this morning.

In case you haven’t heard, at least 27 people – most of them young children – were killed this morning in a mass shooting at an elementary school.

Inevitably, this is going to be politicized and used to hold up various groups’ agendas. However, this is not about guns or school safety.

It’s about a truly despicable individual who brutally destroyed the lives of some of the most innocent among us.

This tragedy, especially this close to Christmas and given the age of the victims, is heartbreaking. Let us not lose sight of that is this gets spun into a political opportunity.

I cannot fathom what the families are going through, but God knows.

Today, and in coming days, I hope we can set aside politics and pray for the families and for the gunman. As hard as that is for us, it is what Christ taught.

My heart is with those families. God help us forgive.

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The Insidious Culture of “Nice”

Over the weekend, I offered to do something for someone. Totally surprised by it, she told me “That’s so nice of you.” Hours (and even days) later I was still annoyed by that statement. I spend the rest of the weekend trying to figure out why.

Turns out, I really dislike being called nice. I am not a nice person. The offer I made was not to be nice. I offered because I wanted to do it and because it would make my life easier in the long run.

The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me that “nice” is highly overrated in our culture. In fact, it’s killing our country.