Well here is another bunch of stuff I have been thinking. How many times have you had a young person come to you and tell some of the struggles he or she are going through? Well for most adults here in the village,our first impulsive thing to do is to "Give them God".  Another one of those phrases used a lot in the village. Now I am not saying that we shouldn't give our young people God. We should. We just need to be darn sure that what you are giving to this young person is, in fact, God. Not what you think of the situation. Then there is another thing. Sometimes what these kids need is someone who can listen to them. not say a whole lot. Just listen Let them pour out their fears, struggles and pain. Someone who is there for them and let's them know that they understand and that they can make it.
  There are people who are good at giving our you the things that God has for them. Then there are those who are good at listening and being there for them. A few Are good at doing both. I guess all I'm saying in all this is find out what you are. Be careful when you are to give God to a kid, because if you try to "give them God" at the wrong time or in the wrong way, you could possibly be causing more harm than good.
  We have a lot of good kids in this village. We are very blessed to have them and some times I think we forget just how blessed are. I guess it can be kind of easy to forget when you spitting mad because" hoozit" forgot to tell you where he or she was going. (or something)  But they are great kids.
  So, until next time, this is Josh sanders for My Thoughts.

Howdy folks. I'm Back. my computer has been down for the past couple months or so. Actually, it's still down. I'm working on this piece on the computer at YDI.
  Anyway, I've been reading  Myth of a Christian Religion.  It's an interesting book.
  I got to the part where he was talking about pastors and evangelists doing these great things. Saving and converting people to Christ. But it was all done without the love of Christ. So in the end it all counted as nothing. Paul writes in Corinthians, I think, saying that "I can give money to the poor. I can pray to god, even give my body to be burned at the stake. But if I have not love, it profits me not."   It got me to thinking. Do i have love like that? Well, If i'm honest with myself I think the answer would be no. Oh I love people and all that , but not the way that Christ would have me to be. I condemn when I should be overlooking  that "speck in someones eye". I gossip with the best of them when I should be defending who we are talking about. Get short with people when patience is needed. All of these are relatively small by themselves, but it adds up. Especially when you look at how many things in your life God has already overlooked. There is another saying in the bible "He who has been forgiven much, forgive much. Many times we forget how many times we have been forgiven by both God and man. Often we just see what is in front of us and don't stop and think. "Hey wait a minute! I've done stuff like that before."  We fail to check "The log in our eye." Now when I say "We" I mean "I" as well.
  Christ's love is as simple as "Love you neighbor as you would love yourself." or "Do to others as you would have them do to you." There is another part in M.O.C.R. that talks about the church torturing people for not following Christ their way. He said that there was no way that that was Christ. Christ said "Love your enemies".
  Ok, we don't kill and torture people "in the name of Christ" but do we make people want to be with us or do we turn people away with our "zeal" for Christ?  Boyd talks about how Jesus was hanging out with what the Jewish religious leaders considered the bottom of the food chain. Jesus had a kind of holiness that attracted and drew these kind of people to him. We, as a village, I think, are getting more and more like that. Where people feel safe around us, where they won't feel condemned for their shortcomings. So keep up the good work fellow villagers.