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The New Me

Linda Horton — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:06:01 GMT

I was excitingly telling my youngest son of my after Halloween finds; we desperately need to replace our worn Tigger and Pooh that have stood guard faithfully at our front door every Halloween for eight years. With the greatest of sarcastic tone (that he has mastered) he asked what the 1995 Linda would have thought of my finds: 2 giant pumpkin towers and a sweet-faced scarecrow pumpkin combo. I ignored him and smiled, (which is the best thing to do with sarcasm); after a while I reflected. That Linda would be judgmental and not understand; (smile) but she was the old Linda and behold she has passed away (slowly but surely) and Linda has become new ~ Praise be to God!

If I had known then what I know now; I would have been different; but I didn’t ~ so I wasn’t. I was just wetting my feet with a church full of people who knew so much more about the Holy Spirit then I did and I followed everyone who would spend time with the wounded soul that I had become. Some, like my friends Opal and Lee were strong in the Lord and became surrogate mothers to me; others were flakes, fruits and nuts and I had a hard time discerning the cereal bunch. I had become close to a woman I will call ‘Ellen’ she was radical and I had never in my life met someone so zealous for God, she accepted me warts and all and I found her ways deep and enlightening. I wanted to please God in every area of my life and if something was wrong I wanted to rid myself of the sinful way.

I should have known something was wrong when ‘Ellen’ said that Mary Poppins was a witch. When I questioned she answered “Where did she get her power? She never claimed it to be from God, did she?” I had never given it a thought. She knew more than I, she must be right. Shortly after that the kids wanted to watch Mary Poppins and I bristled, “She is a witch!” I said assuredly. They weren’t convinced and argued a bit, but like me, they too were seeking more of God and didn’t want to do anything to offend Him. I didn’t even have a clue when we were cleaning out the library for our small school and she wanted to throw away The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, after all there was that witch again; she must be right. The associate pastor’s wife bucked her and rebuffed her but to no avail, she wouldn’t back down…”Witch is a wicked word and any book with that word in the title had to go!” she was strong.

I was a Peter; zealous in all that I did but I didn’t understand that I didn’t understand…I was dangerous! I had to have several “Peter” experiences before I started finding my balance and discovering who I was in Christ. As I grew in the Lord and started studying the more mature women of the church that I started noticing some inconsistencies with ‘Ellen’s’ life and her family. Perhaps she wasn’t the zealous woman for God I had first thought; there is a difference in zealousness and crazy. And while it is good to be zealous for God, you also must be well schooled in the Word, well balanced in your life, know who you are in Christ and know what He expects of you, not what everyone else expects of you. She was crazy, in the cereal of life, she was a nut.

I knew a lady one time that left a church because there was a Christmas tree in the foyer, I know people who refuse to decorate for Christmas because it is a pagan holiday, I know people who tell their kids that Santa is real and they have to be good the month of December or they will get no toys, I know people who don’t give gifts for Christmas. I know people who won’t tolerate a pumpkin at Halloween because it is “of the Devil” I know all these people, but I am not following any of them, I am not a fruit, flake or nut. I am Linda, a follower of Christ.

I wrote in my book, The Seven Pillars of Parenting, about wrong associations, and what they can do to a child’s life: the same is true for adults, we must choose our friends as carefully as we choose our church, our spouse, our occupation; friends are imperative to our growth and maturity. I have since found I don’t need to pattern my life after people, I need to pattern my life after Christ; I don’t care what you think about what I do or do not do: what does Christ think? My close friends are few but precious, I cherish their advice and their love; but my final authority is the Word of God.

I feel sad for 1995 Linda, but I don’t have time to grieve; 2011 Linda has things to do, places to go and books to sell; and yes, Halloween decorations to put in the attic for next year!

Compound needed...

Linda Horton — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:05:00 GMT

     I am a person who loves to give my wisdom out to any and all who will listen. My greatest joy is to teach; whether it is one on one or tens of thousands... ready to answer the complicated life questions about family, love, marriage, dating, church, children... willing to give my faults, successes, etc..
    But, there has been one question that I have not been able to answer, no matter how much life experience I have, (well I am sure there is more than one~ but today we are focussing on this one) what to do for those children who have been raised in the church by parents who were spiritually deaf and morally bankrupt.
    This thorn in my flesh raised it's ugly head again this week, as it has so frequently in my Christian life. A young man, whom I have known since he was potty training, needed guidance; he is still at home, his parents confess to be Christians but have NEVER led the life. He has only heard the Word preached, never seen it lived at home, he knows the right way to go, yet, has never seen it walked out daily.
        This is where we reach the dam every time.  He is still a minor, can't move out, has no education, no money, no support from family, but he needs help. Before we go too far, we have talked to the parents on more than one occasion as have pastors and church leaders, they will not change. Prayer works, we know that, we experience the joys of answered prayer every day, but this young man as well as many others need help in the natural...now.
    I am not willing to lose another good kid to the world because their parents are happy living a lie, happy compromising the Word and happy living off the pity of people who don't know truth. I will not lose one more...no...NO... NO!
    I have seen this more in the last ten years of my Christian walk than ever before, maybe I was just oblivious when I was younger, I was busy raising my own brood of little chicks, I couldn't see past my front door. Maybe. But, I think it is more the issue of, like my previous blog, people aren't hearing the truth and therefore they justify how they live and how they raise their kids as acceptable; when it is so far from acceptable~ it is outright sin.
     Years ago, we had the same situation in a church we attended, we wanted to help, but couldn't take the child out of the home, the parents wouldn't admit they were at fault for anything much less that their child was at risk for severe failure if left on the path he was walking. Again, pastors and leaders tried to counsel, the chid was in the youth group, people cared what was happening in this family...but the outcome was as was foretold. This young man is living far below his rights as a believer, and doesn't even know it. His mother and father blame friends, school and even the church, they, after all had done everything in their power to give him a good Christian upbringing....
       How many kids are we going to lose to this same situation? I have great plans for a big compound where all of these kids can live in peace and harmony being taught the Word and getting an excellent education, all the while preparing them to serve their community and help those less fortunate while living a life of integrity and character. I know I am dreaming, I know.   How can we convince these parents to give up these kids that they are raising so wonderfully? That's the crux of it all, everyone with discernment knows where these kids are headed, everyone except the very ones that could make the biggest impact.
      So, we do what we do, educate the parents and pray they get it before it is too late. We plant the seeds, provide the water and even give soil additive. But the ground has to be good ground, not rocky, not sandy; soil ready to give life to new plants.
       What about my young friend?  I don't have the answers, I am praying, asking questions, talking to other people, but as of today, he is still in need of help and I am not sure of what to do....in the meantime, if you see any compounds for sale reasonably...let me know.

Truth will set you free

Linda Horton — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:54:00 GMT

     Truth: years ago there was such a precious weight given to the quality of ones word. A man/woman were known by their ability to keep their word, tell the truth and be a person of integrity.   I am not sure when the shift happened, but it did and it grows deeper and wider with each passing day.
I was taught as a child that any lie was wrong. God is Truth and those who love him will tell the truth. The Devil is the father of lies and anyone who lies, is of their father the devil. It was simple, a child could understand it. The issue was clearly black and white, you would have had to be mentally impaired not to understand this concept.
      Yet, truth has little to no value to even my own generation and you can forget about the generations that follow ~ many wouldn't know the truth if it hit them square in the face!
Honesty sometimes means confrontation; but, in this politically correct world, we shouldn't confront. Honesty sometimes means disagreement; but, in this politically correct world, we should never disagree with anyone...everyone is right, everyone is good, whatever people do, it is ok. HOGWASH!
      Honesty sometimes means that we must separate ourselves from people and/or situations that are not rooted in truth. The truth is when we value truth we have to make some hard decisions, we sometimes have to let people and things go when we realize they do not value truth the way we do.
     When I look back at the people that made the most impact in my life, it was those men and women of God who told me the truth and didn't care if I was offended or hurt; they loved me enough to not let me keep living a lie.  I had a relationship with these people and in any good relationship, when you love someone, you want them to do better, be better, go higher. When you truly love someone, status quo is not good enough.
     When a wife asks her husband if the dress makes her butt look bigger, she should love him even more for saying, Yes, it does, he loved her enough to want better for her. The bigger problem as I see it is, as they said in a movie a few years ago, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
     The truth hurts so we, as an all inclusive society, don't want to see anyone have their feelings hurt, so, we are taught as a society to lie....then, everyone happy! NOT!
     If we want to follow God, if we want to be REAL Believers not the water down version of Christianity that this world has come to love, we must embrace truth~ no matter what, who, when, where~it's about our life not theirs. We tell the truth for us~ so we can be like our father. Yes, we might have to confront, yes, we might have to disagree, we might even have to separate ourselves, but we can do all of that and do it in love and in truth.
     Remember when we were taught on a Sunday morning that there was one Truth, it was the Word of God that His Word was infallible and no matter what the situation God's Truth was always right? Now, so called pastors preach a word so watered down by politically correct "ethics" that we can't even find the Word in their sermons. We are taught God loves us and wants the best for us and we will win ......all of that is right, but it also skirts the truth. No one wants to teach that God expects us to live a holy life or that His Word is full of "if" "then" situations or that God expects us to turn away from wicked people and wicked places or that to live a life of holiness, we must be different then this world. The sad truth is that we could go into most any church today and see and hear the same things we would if we were to go down the street to the local social club. There is no difference.
      I believe maybe now, we can see where that shift happened. It happened in our churches. It happened when pastors became 'seeker friendly'; more concerned with keeping their numbers and their offering up then pleasing God . It became easier to tickle the ears of the people and keep them happy than to give them truth and see them uncomfortable. Uncomfortable sheep might find a greener pasture, with a different more 'world friendly' shepherd. It is sad when the church and the world look exactly the same. It is even sadder that this generation of kids don't even know how the church should really look and sound. They don't know truth, and we wonder why they are so bound. We need to start preaching truth from our pulpits, yeah, it is uncomfortable, but it is worth it to see whole congregations/ generations~ free.

Faith over Fear

Linda Horton — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:57:13 GMT

That dreaded time is upon us. The time all true believers hold their breath in anticipation; what will we do this year? No, I am not talking about gas prices or even the elections, I am talking about how and what to do on Halloween.

When I was young, we lived in the country, we dressed up and went to our grandparents’ house and a few of the neighbors and we were done, no harm, no foul. We didn’t think twice about what would happen on October 31^st. Everyone celebrated the same; we were just kids wanting free candy. No one had the slightest clue to put up decorations, there were no commercials on TV that had anything at all to do with this sleepy little “holiday”.

Fast forward twenty years, I am raising my own boys and not considering changing traditions until I hear a sermon about Halloween, explaining the roots in paganism and how it promotes witchcraft and Satanism. I certainly did not want to do anything that would be seen in anyway shape or form as witchcraft. Halloween was off!

Every year, depending on our friends and church affiliations, Halloween might or might not be celebrated. Most often it was celebrated as a “fall festival” at the church. I was young and easily persuaded; I was just learning about spiritual warfare and how outside influences will affect our children; I didn’t want to open any doors in their lives that would bring them harm in the future. I was young, but so were my boys, and my flip-flopping every year was not only bad parenting it was just plain stupid! All they wanted was candy ~ I was double-minded and consequently, not stable in any of my Halloween decisions! I was in religious bondage and didn’t even know it.

Please, do not get me wrong, in my opinion Halloween has gone more to the dark side every year. Commercials are out of control when it comes to promoting fear. Decorations are getting scarier and scarier, blood on door posts, massacre scenes in front yards, all meant to ‘celebrate’ a day when the kids just want free candy. It has gotten out of control. But, what can us as parents and to a large part we, as clergy, do about this epidemic of evil? How can we be in the world and yet not a part of the world? That is the question that has plagued the church for 20 years. I would like to humbly submit what I believe to be the answer to this age old problem.

For years I thought our enemy was those horrid devil costumes or the evil witch costumes. I finally realized this year as I prepared a craft for our children’s church that the real root of our rejection of Halloween should be against the spirit of fear.

The Bible says over sixty times: “Fear Not” ~ we are taught from Genesis to Revelations that we should put our faith and trust in God and not fear anything. That’s when the light came on…Halloween is really about fear. Every movie that comes out specifically for Halloween is for one purpose only…. fear. That, my dear friends should be our enemy…not the silly plastic costumes, not the fake cemeteries in people’s yards, not the candy that looks like eyeballs…fear.

Our weapon is the Word and education. Instead of teaching our children that Halloween is bad, let’s teach them why they should never fear. Let’s teach them never to watch movies that promote fear, let’s teach them that haunted houses are not the place to go because they cause fear. Let’s teach them about the faith that overcomes fear. Let’s teach them they’re victorious.

1 John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” In my opinion we need to spend less time worrying about October 31^st. and more time teaching our children that we can overcome anything that comes our way when we have unwavering faith in God.

I did a craft for our children’s church on Sunday that had a black house, a bat, a pumpkin and a ghost, and over the top we put in bright purple, yellow and orange letters…Faith Overcomes Fear. I did a lesson on why we should not fear and why fear is our enemy. We talked about staying away on purpose anything that promotes fear. But, mostly we talked about how God is large and in charge and we have a confidence that if our faith is in Him, we need not fear.

Finally, let’s quit fearing the word: Halloween. Let’s quit being double minded about all things Halloween. Let’s be clear….if it causes fear- it is wrong and against the Word of God. Scary movies, witches, the devil, evil in all shapes and forms all cause people to fear and lose faith in God. Pumpkins, candy, caramel apples, and games even in the name of Halloween do not cause fear, let’s quit splitting hairs and get the root of our problem, remove it and teach our children that God loves us and wants us to have fun, but He does not want us to fear ANYTHING.

Why don’t we as believers use this time of year to educate people on the spirit of fear and the power of faith in God.

So, bring on the candy and apples and fun….let’s leave the fear in Hell where it belongs.

Remembering the Past

Linda Horton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:25:28 GMT

I went to a small rural grade school; it was a wonderful setting to learn in, the teachers were home grown, they didn't just teach a year or so and leave, and they taught whole generations and then some.

But, as I was remembering that wonderful time in my life, my mind was brought back to my fourth grade year and a new boy name Jimmy C.
The school was a brick two story building holding grades one through six. The fourth grade class was joined by a wall to the principal's office. Back in 1970, the principal, Mr. Watson, walked soft and carried a big paddle. Yes, he spanked. We all knew about the paddle in his office and some had even seen it up close! I was pleased to say I had never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Watson on anything but good terms. Jimmy, however, couldn't say the same.

Jimmy was a wild boy who didn't make many friends. Our class was close, as was the rest of the school, we were practically raised together, and Jimmy was an outsider. My mom had a friend who knew Jimmy's parents who recounted some very wild and turbulent happenings in Jimmy's home. As small towns go, ours was about as small as it got, so I am sure Jimmy's family had a reputation among the neighbors.

My recollections about Jimmy are few but all very powerful. He drug one of the girls (a new girl) around by her ankles in the gym during recess so he could look up her dress. I don’t know who the fourth grade girls were more disgusted with: Jimmy or the girl who let him look up her dress, but she is another story. He was a terror on the play ground, not playing fair or nicely. He was slower in class then most of us when it came to school work. To make matters worse, he was disobedient to the teacher and was always getting in trouble. In 1970 in a small rural school, you did not cause trouble, if you knew what was good for you. Apparently, Jimmy either didn’t know, or didn’t care. Either way, one day, he did the unthinkable.

It was after lunch and we were in the middle of a lesson when all of the sudden a river of water started to run down the wooden floors of our classroom underneath our desks and right through our feet. It took us a few seconds to catch on, but soon, all the girls were screaming and flying on top of their desks, the boys were laughing and the teacher was steaming. Our neat rows were in total confusion as desks were hurled out of the torrents path. The source of the problem was not hard to detect, the floor of the seat in front of Jimmy was dry. Jimmy had peed right in his chair, in the middle of class! Oh! The humanity! In seconds, he was escorted into Mr. Watson’s office and what we heard minutes later put the fear of God (and Mr. Watson) into the hearts of every fourth grader in our class. Five thunderous thuds followed by horrible wailing on Jimmy’s part. What had possessed this young man to open himself up to be humiliated and ridiculed let alone a trip to the principal’s office?

I had seen all of this as a fourth grade child full of all the knowledge and wisdom of a nine year old. Now, I see this incident from an adult’s eyes, with all the knowledge and wisdom of mature woman of God.

I no longer hold disgust for this poor boy; instead, I pity him and find myself praying for him. He was, after all a product of his home life. His parents fought on a daily basis, his father drank and it was rumored that he physically abused his wife. They didn’t attend church nor did they care to discuss it. They had money problems along with everything that entailed. Jimmy’s life was a nightmare that the rest of us had never even thought of dreaming. We had no idea the horror he lived though on a daily basis.

I hope I get a pass for passing judgment on Jimmy, I didn’t know any better (although I have repented). But what about the adults in his life, who was there for Jimmy? I can point to that one episode in his life, in that classroom, on that winter day and say, no one. He acted out because he was dying inside and no one would listen, no one took notice of his outbursts, his inability to concentrate, but that day, they took notice. And what did they do? Council him, call DCF? No, they punished him for being a lost little boy. In that room that day as that paddle came down, it should have been his parents that felt the weight. It was their problems that had led him to that room, not his own.

I don’t remember Jimmy staying for the entire year. But, in that short time, he made an impression on me. Perhaps that is why I passionately fight for children to be raised in a loving, Godly environment and why I fervently teach and reach out to retrain parents in trouble: to keep the Jimmys of the world safe.

I wonder how Jimmy turned out; it goes without saying that he had some issues to overcome. Did his parents ever get help? Did he ever find someone who would listen? Did he ever find someone to speak up for him? I have learned a lot in my years on this earth, not every child needs punishment, look at the parents, and look at the family, look and listen. I am listening and I will never be silent when it comes to the Jimmys of this world.

Jimmy, if you are out there, God loves you and so do I, and there is hope.

Trial and Error

Linda Horton — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:47:00 GMT

Hey,
I just got set up with this blog and I am trying to figure it out. Please be patient with me as I am new to all things in the blogging world. A big thank you to my sons, Mark and Timothy who made this happen. This should be fun. I am interested in what you think so, if you have a comment, feel free to let me know.

Be Blessed!
Linda

Welcome

Linda Horton — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:21:38 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.