Dear Sunshine,

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I went walking today. It reminded me of the years I spent in the woods with your mama. She howled and then your uncle howled. Then she howled again. Fun times…

They just cried a lot. Now I understand it better. Then I just aimed to outlive it. Now there is you. Your Daddy looks so happy, so proud and a bit disheveled but I hope he is crazy about you. I hope the whole world is crazy about you all the time.

I have been praying for you. That won’t stop. Nor will it be the first time I have prayed desperately for a baby I love.

Hold tight to God’s hand.

❤

Gladiator Sport

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I am not a football fan and I truly dislike the NFL, it’s sex-driven advertising and superfluous cheerleaders, but I watched today’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Denver Broncos with interest. They are both good teams. The Broncos were the clear favorite–playing at their home stadium at their native altitude in bone-chilling snow flurries.

It was a good game. By the middle of the first overtime I was convinced that both teams could walk away with a sense of victory. They played well.

As a mother I watch these highly trained, gifted athletes pound each other and I worry about the damage they are doing, especially to their heads. I worry also about their hearts. It can be tough on one’s soul to be rich and famous. When you watch a game like the one played tonight in Denver you must respect the power and skill of the men on the field. But I want more than that. I would trade NFL gladiator football for a professional flag league, if I knew that what each man did off the field was as brave and as sold-out as what they do on the field.

Lately with scandals ranging from Notre Dame to Penn State and individual players facing charges of recklessness, violence or worse, we all need to examine our allegiances. We cheer for teams, we will them to win, and sometimes we look the other way when they use their fame and talent as an excuse for terrible things.

The NFL is quick to admonish that the use of their game footage is for the private use of their viewers, however this is a public, national past time. We need to applaud the skill and talent of brave men, and make no excuses for our athletes when they fail at things much more important than carrying a ball across a very long field.

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Elea Lee's avatarflowers in their hair

I home school my children and I write primarily as a child advocate–mother and teacher.

So I was disturbed to find that we have a new category for neglect–educational neglect.

Certainly if children all over this country are being forced to sit around and watch soap operas that would be a problem. But as a legal category educational neglect is a dangerous designation.

1. It draws focus and resources away from other types of abuse.

2. Education can come in many, many different forms. Who will decide what sorts of learning are valid and which are negligent?

3. Where do home schoolers and unschoolers fit? Will we be forced to conform to public school bureaucracy to call off the dogs?

4. I know my children are safer with me than in a public school. They are ahead of arbitrary grade levels. They study languages, play instruments, write adventure stories, practice…

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Nailla Found

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Nailla Johnson was found–alive, hiding under a bleacher in the January cold.

More than anything I am grateful she is alive.

But I am not above raising strong questions about child safety at school. Everyday millions of Americans send their children to school assuming that their children will be safe.

Not a safe assumption anymore.

What will you do about it?

The Strong Man’s House

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Some memories are picture clear. It is a day in late October and we are traveling in the van with my in laws to the Aransas wildlife refuge. I am attempting to school a known pedophile on the need for repentance.

We have reported the abuse. We lock doors at night to make the children feel safer. We are waiting and terribly broken.

The pedophile is merely annoyed. Sullen. We are discussing the human heart as though it were a house. A house Jesus could walk through, clean, excavate.

I remember this whenever I read

Mark 3:25-30 (NIV)
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. [26] And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. [27] In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. [28] I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. [29] But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” [30] He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

… because Charles is the one who taught me…about the strong man’s house.

This parable can and will go either way. Either the strong man is hell plundered by Jesus or He is the strong man robbed on the cross.

Which is it?

You can guess my opinion. I put my money on Jesus.

But for years I lived in that divided house, torn by my adopted children’s violence and anger.

Don’t wanna go back. Don’t wanna live that way no more.

Divided house; broken heart.

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Elea Lee's avataretiology

Mark 3:20-26 (NIV)
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. [21] When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” [22] And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub ! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” [23] So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? [24] If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. [25] If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. [26] And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.

I deliberately break this story up. The next few verses are very important to me…

But…

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Elea Lee's avataretiology

Mark 3:11-19,27 (NIV)
Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was. [13] Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. [14] He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach [15] and to have authority to drive out demons. [16] These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); [17] James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); [18] Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot [19] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. [27] In fact, no one can enter a strong…

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Daemons, spirits oracles and messengers

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We have lost our history of words. The word demon comes from Latin which comes from Greek which is linked to Hebrew concepts of spirits, messengers, idols, and gods.

Socrates wrote about having a guiding spirit which counseled him. Plato discussed these spirit entities with a secular focus.

We moderns are uncomfortable with the idea–an invisible world of possibly invasive personalities?

The English translation of the Bible draws clear lines between angels (malak messenger) and demon (daemon spirit, idol).

Do we think that in our material world these have dissipated like a primordial mist?

Or are they still there? Trapped unless we listen? Perhaps we need to revisit Socrates and look closely at the way evil moves in the world. And good as well, depending on the power of the voices in our heads?