On the topic of the smooch?

God's Boys will be good boys!

Men are the leaders, I believe, especially in the ways of romance. Women have far fewer reserves and are more easily duped and so the man should always be the initiator. It is clearly in your nature to be the leader.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!" My daddy used to repeat into "adnauseatum". This platitude is no more relevant, than in the beginning of a romantical relationship. My advice is, stay friends as long as you can. Invite her to take each step of courtship with you, {if you can help it}. "Do you trust me?" said Aladdin. That is the magic carpet ride you are inviting your intendent on, when diving into the arena of romance. You are now carrying another soul with you, one way or another. Her conscience and yours are tangled in that kiss for life, if not after. Should your kiss go further or not, this is one of the stories to remember in the story of your life and hers. Think twice. Think three times and don't fall in love, walk circumspectly into loving commitment.
Just a little motherly advice.

How can a young man keep his way pure?

THis is the movie! The Big Wheel with Mickey Rooney!

God's Boys will be good boys!

This is the movie where Mickey Rooney plays a young man who loves his mother, so much. I loved watching his interaction with that older actress. When I watched the scene the first time, I was bereft and so longing a son, that it touched me very deeply, since then, I have taken for granted that God has been so good to give me three doting sons in my quiver. I don't remember the ending of the movie, but I hope you enjoy watching it. Know that I am thanking God for you!

Happy Valentines Day, Walkin Man!

God's Boys will be good boys!

Dearest Elder Boy,

God's Boys will be good boys!

I am grateful for your service and gifts and card for my birthday. I am grateful that you care and are attentive to my delicate condition, lately. Thank you for praying for me and telling me about it. I love seeing the heritage of brotherly love passing down from generation to generation. The care for your younger, and even elder siblings is refreshing.
As you swiftly fly into manhood and manly faith, the question becomes more urgent; "How can a young man keep his way pure?"

Christ has much help for the fallen and distressed and He has much protection for those whose hands are in His hand. It looks like a useless thing, to try to keep your way, sometimes. People are prospering in their way and they cheat and carry false balances. But Our Father in Heaven, whose name is always hallowed, carries the true and correct balance. He feeds and cares and shepherds our souls. When we fall, we, in and through Christ, have promises of restoration from His mighty and powerful hand. When we struggle, we know His comfort and grace and peace. When we are cast down, we are most sure that Our Father has reason and purpose and peace for us at the end of the difficult storm. "How do I take heed according to THY Word?" should be my question. Why is the purity of my soul the first to slip from my grasp?
This test is one of your scope into your own soul, before you shipwreck. If you are being guided, sometimes you may see an ice glacier sticking out of the water, so to speak. This is the impurity. Lord, I would not want to shipwreck. Hold me close to Yourself in my distresses, that the ship of my soul would not capsize. I want to be guided and directed by You.
The decision to trust that God is doing good, even when it feels bad, is nurtured by the Holy Spirit. It is the fruit of a well instructed conscience. It is the fruit of the rightly divided Word of God. I know that God is far above my circumstance and knows far more than I do. His way is right, though my soul is blinded to His goodness by grief or sin or ignorance of His ways. I will either put on the glasses that correct my vision, or the glasses that mar it with regards to God's goodness.
The first thing that I lose sight of, when I am determined to go my own way, is the sight of God's goodness. From Adam ie. "It was the woman that "YOU" gave me..." to Saul "It was the people, YOU left me with, demanding a sacrifice". We all blame the goodness of God when we have it in our minds to go our own way.
Lord You are good, should be our prayer. I want to do right, but my heart is bent to this or that evil course. It is not my Good God that has tempted me. It is not my Good God that has deceived me. I ate of the fruit and I beg for the sacrifice of Christ to cover and cleanse me and lead me in a straighter path, that I might not sin against You.
Memorizing the "Act of Contrition" has often blessed my soul when I have found myself wallowing in the mire of selfish sinful persistence. Scripture and the knowledge that it is not Him, it is I that have the problem.
Do I detest all my sins, because they offend Thee my God?Am I truly heartly sorry? Only the Holy Spirit can make those words true in the soul. Not the much saying and not the flagellation of the soul, by some outstanding act of penance, but the instructed conscience, blessed by the Holy Spirit. Open the eyes of the blinded by grief and help them have a sight of Your comfort and goodness, even through the dark foggy night of the soul. Bring Your Church to a place of ministry to the oppressed that will open the blinded eyes and comfort the broken hearted. That You may be glorified on the earth and seen as justified by the people that You have redeemed by Your most precious blood.

What are we thankful for when adulthood is staring at us?

God's Boys will be good boys!

I see the perspective of life, that is advertised today is see the worst and know that you have no ability to change it. That is a godless and very krass attitude. I don't think that you have imbibed it, but it can't help but affect the way that you think and plan for the future. You are looking at manhood and you have men in your life ie. Your father and pastors and ministers and others, who are showing you the God perspective.

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people"

The perspective doesn't start with us and it doesn't end with us. A little that a righteous man has ie. joy, peace, longsuffering, etc, is far more than the entire state of the world. God and you, dear boy are a majority. Do your best to look above the hardships of your limitations and see that God is molding and growing you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

What, My son?

God's Boys will be good boys!

What a pleasure it was to discuss English Lit with my 17 year old! Watching God place the baton in the next generation's hands and cause sympathies to emerge from the soul of the future. It was delightful.
They say a son is a son, till he finds a wife. It is clear that my sons are wedded to the gospel from the earliest days. They are never mine. Not in the way that the girls have been. I must pry and press for any answer of what they are doing or thinking. I saw the word sepulcher on the laptop and decided that it was time to press for some interaction.
I am grateful for every contribution he gives. He said, You know what, I missed the end of the world this time. It passed without a hitch. I am glad, I responded. But what is it about a sepulcher that you are looking at. English is getting me down, was the response. This was the second interaction about an emotional downer in school. I had to tag this second and jump on it with both feet. These interaction are getting fewer and fewer with age. My very aware husband is always trying to keep me from wrapping my apron strings around the boys, because of my over mothering tendency and this keeps me at arms length in most subjects. This emotional stuff is my subject. Walkers don't talk about those kinds of things. We have gotten along for generations without the help of a psychiatrist and I will not have you making my son shrink happy, was the underlying theme, understood. I persisted none-the-less.
The Scarlet Letter was read by my sensitive lad, {that is you Enoch, if you are reading this}. I remembered the heart palpitations that were mine in the reading and the watching of this dramatic story. I remembered other short stories that haunted my heart and still crop up in the midnight hours of a halloween season or other. We interacted on this theme for all of 10 minutes, a very long time on a sensitive theme such as this. Not another word, except to say that, I think that the story is sensitive because it is a part of our personal history and the smoke that could have been the lot of our own souls, but especially my dearest Grandmother makes the story ring more true for us. God sent a godly and Christian family to pray for my Grandma and lead her to see that repentance is the key and not the situation of her state with the church on earth. She was able to see a way out, right from the door into Hell, as it were. I believe that God saved her. The Lord is real and I am grateful that I had memorized the Documents of Vatican II before reading the Scarlet Letter. I think that this gave me some stablization in the reading of it.
Enoch said, Mom, I felt alone in the reading of it. I felt dark and without direction. It is my opinion that we should never leave children without direction in the reading of such things as this. It seems situational. It questions the goodness of God. It questions the reasonableness of all that we profess. Or should we? On second thought, I believe it may have been good to let him to himself in the reading; that if we ever needed the Lord, or call out to the Lord for His realness, it is when we are faced with a dilemma such as the Scarlet Letter, or other such ironies of our own lives. Especially, when we have a tendency to self righteousness, we should look at the chains of our own pride that would lead us to Hell, if not vanquished by the stronger than the strong man, Jesus. We do not know how to pray as we ought. Left to ourselves we would make a mockery, even of the gospel. God gives us both sides the side of righteousness in self, needing cleansing and the side of perversity and dirt, so clearly needing cleansing. God give us grace to walk with You and not to lean to our own understanding.

Seaming, or Seeming to Seam?

God's Boys will be good boys!

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

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Sometimes our doctrine and practice promote life and sometimes not. God doesn't want us to be overly scrupulous, ie. double checking the dotting of the i's and the crossing of the t's in our doctrinal perspectives. He does, however, bid us to know the state of our souls and whether or not our doctrine is lending to life or departing from the snares of death. Are we opening the fountain of life in our souls? The ears of hearing and the feet of doing the Word of God, are we learning to grow in these unstopping the fountains of our disobedience and sluggishness. Are we observing and growing in relation to God and His precepts? In these things, we are seeming our souls to our bodies and to the Body of Christ. And not just, concerned about putting on appearances.
Do these people see me to be a pious Christian? This is not the question unto edification. Am I related to God and does my soul embrace the priorities of the Grace of God, for His glory and not for mine? Do I labor unto the Lord and for His glory and the good of others? Do I use my might to show forth the image of God in my labor and in my rest? This is the fourth commandment. Laboring, in imitation of God and resting in the imitation of God. Stepping softly for our God and carrying a big example of practice is a large testimony in this age.
Many can say that they had a large, visible cross, ever in view. They spoke up at every juncture. God's test is departing from the ways of evil and death. When did we do that, was the question of the Godly people, exemplified in scripture. Evidently, they didn't even know that it was Jesus that they ministered to. They only knew that they were rightly related to Him and did all that they could to preserve life and live out the Gospel.