If you didn’t before, you may now believe in miracles. Read the article at FoxNews.com.

This essay by Tony Woodlief will move you and make you appreciate the blessings of life God has given us all. I couldn’t help but think of the eight precious children God has given me and how I must cherish each moment with them. His thoughts make me realize that life is a precious thing best lived mixed with large amounts of faith.

As a mom of eight I know firsthand how precious children are. We live in a society that tends to think of children as burdens instead of the blessings that God intended them to be. I’ve been listening to a series on “Revive Our Hearts” with Nancy Leigh DeMoss on the topic of “Embracing God’s Gift of Children.” Her guest this week is Holly Elliff, a pastor’s wife and mom of eight. I appreciate hearing encouraging programs like this on the topic of children especially living in a world where people look at me as if I’m crazy for having a large family.

You can read the transcript of today’s program or listen to the show on the internet.

Monday’s and Tuesday’s programs
Monday, August 26, 2002
Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Family Life Today currently is doing a series on home schooling with Michael
and Vickie Farris. You can listen online.

If you’ve missed the previous days you can listen to those as well. It’s
very encouraging and if you homeschool like I do, you know we can all use
some encouragement from time to time.

Are you disgusted with the current state of major league baseball? Here’s a
refreshing article about a baseball player from a bygone era.

If you spend any time on the web - and you must if you are reading this - you owe it to yourself to use a decent browser. Mozilla is shaping up to be a decent browser and I’m impressed with the latest release, Mozilla 1.1. Mozilla beats any version of Netscape all to pieces is giving Internet Explorer a serious run for it’s money. It is well worth the download. Link via WorldTimZone

OK - I had major MovableType problems with the site tonight. I think everything is back where it should be. I don’t have all the comments back in place yet so if you see your comments missing from certain posts I did not delete them intentionally. It’s very late now–I must go to bed.

Oh ya - I finally convinced Carolyn to start posting. See her first piece below and stay tuned for more.

Here is an interesting piece about Condoleezza Rice. She is an admirable person in many ways. However as a staunch pro-lifer, I have reservations about her stance on abortion. For some insight into her views check out this article.

My Mom’s birthday is today and if anybody deserves an award it’s her for putting up with me and my shenanigans. I’d list the dumb things I’ve done but I’m sure you don’t have that kind of time. Instead I think I’ll tell you about her.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Very cool to find out this morning that The New York Times, in an article about weblogs mentioned blogs4God.com. (You’ll need to register to read the article if you haven’t already done so, but it’s free.)

By: Maynard H. Belt
State Representative
Michigan Association of Regular Baptist Churches

We all were on pins and needles recently when the news came of the nine miners who were trapped 240 feet underground for 77 hours, in a Pennsylvania coal-mine. My father, for a brief time as a young boy, worked in the coal mines of West Virginia and I recall him telling me of the dangers and constant fear of
working “underground” in the darkness and dampness of unknown terrain. After a torrent of ground water, due to a fallen wall near them, was released into the area where they were working, rescuers, after three round-the-clock days of digging and drilling a 26-inch wide rescue shaft, lifted the miners to safety one by one. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated that, “Those who saved them and those who prayed for them reflected on the remarkable triumph of engineering, technology and, most significantly, the human spirit.”

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

I’ve appreiciated the music of Chris Rice for some time now. I think the Cartoon Halleluja Song grabbed my attention first. You can read the lyrics but you have to hear the Cartoon Song to fully appreciate it. Associated Baptist Press shared an interview of Chris Rice recently. I especially appreciated these comments from the article;

Rice might be the most unlikely star in Christian music. He’s a recording artist who shuns publicity, a songwriter who doesn’t listen to music, an amateur theologian who doesn’t read much.

Each summer he chooses to lead music at youth camps rather than tour Christian music’s big venues. He’s more comfortable around children or in front of a group of secular college students than he is around adults, particularly Christians who expect him to behave and perform a certain way.

How refreshing. Now go get one of Chris’s CD’s
and enjoy some music.

OpenOffice.org, hits version 1.0.1. OpenOffice.org is the free Microsoft Office replacement and a nice one at that. If you aren’t familiar with this free office suite you may want to check out my previous article, How Does Free Sound?.

By Kenneth L. Pierpont
(Ken is my favorite older (only older) brother. He contributes reagulary here. For more of his great writing be sure to check out his site.)

Get in your car some evening this week. Get out of town. Let the radio rest in silence for right now. Listen to the sounds of the countryside. Notice the honest smells of soil and living things on the evening air. Turn off the air conditioner and roll down all the windows. Drive slowly down a country road with the cool of evening coming on. Breathe deep and look close. Do you see it? Do you feel it? There is abundance all around you.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

My article posted at Blogs4God.com this morning is available for your review.

I don’t mean reading blogs I mean reading about blogs. Blogroots has realeased chapters 3 and 8 of We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs with the remaining chapters due to be published online in the future. Link via Bene Diction.

In this article at the Pacific Research Institute, Lance Izumi makes an accurate assesment of California’s not-so-hidden agenda in it’s attacks on home schooling when he says “Educational quality is not the issue here since home-schooled students are often among the most well-educated kids around. Rather, these bully tactics by government educrats are nothing more than turf protection and self interest.”

As I promised I’ve got a couple more photos of our new arrival - Josiah. As you can see he is hard at sleep which is what he does best.

Thanks so much for your prayers. Carolyn is home now as of Saturday and she is doing much better. All the kids are happy to have momma home and I am too!

[Click the photos for larger images]