As part of this series regarding parents and children, I like to provide relevant research and practical advice.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs about investing in your children: brain research shows how important parental involvement is in a child's development. The quality and depth of parental input matters greatly.

Affirmative feedback and the amount of time spent in conversation with children has been shown to have a major impact on brain development.

In research by University of Chicago Psychologist Janellen Huttenlocher, comparisons between professional, working class, and welfare families, reveal their children heard 2100, 1200, and 600 words and hour respectively. Furthermore, positive feedback came an average of thirty times and hour for professionals, fifteen for working class families, and just six time and hour in welfare families.

The quality and quantity of this input in directly correlated with brain development and vocabulary in later years. Some children naturally catch up while others do not.

Investing in our families have an overall impact on everyone. When we tell our spouse encouraging words, the marriage grows strong and remains strong. When we interact with our children and remain involved in their lives regardless of age, they grow and develop in ways that contribute to better lives.

This has been understood for thousands of years. Only now is science catching up with the Bible.

Proverbs 22:6: Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

God has given us His word in the Bible. Everyday science continues to prove the Bible TRUE.

As I watched the broadcast Sunday, I can relate to the subject. It referred to speaking encouraging words to your spouse and children. I can relate. In my relationship that lasted three years there was very little encouraging words. It was more of a tug or war than a loving relationship. it had reached a point where I said enough and told her to leave.

Words convey so much and have a lasting impact. Fathers give identity to their children. If you look at fatherless children and adults, you can see how their lives are less than ideal. When it comes to raising children remember you reap what you sow. Children are going to run the world while you are still here. What you instill in them today you will reap the results later in life. Invest before it's too late.

Invest in your marriage, your children, your friends, and those you have authority over. Someday we all have to give an account of our lives to God.

On the radio today there was talk about two brothers who were being persecuted for being Christians in America. It was about their decision to stand with marriage and not accept defamation of marriage. Today Americans are waging war against marriage. Many want to destroy marriage by expanding the meaning of marriage. Many Christians are beginning to stand up against people who are trying to destroy marriage. However there are those who are claiming to be Christians and are supporting the destruction of marriage.

One caller said his church is accepting homosexual 'marriage'. The station made it clear that God is never wavering and His word stands strong. The caller kept trying to push his anti-marriage view.

2 Timothy 4-3-5 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Jesus stated in Luke 11:23 "Whoever is not with me is against me." John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

This statement makes it clear. Those who are not with God are against God. Those who try to change God's word including the meaning of God's word is against God. Those who want to change marriage to something other than One Man and One Woman are against God. This includes those who claim to be Christians.

God is not fooled. He will judge each and everyone of us.

I sin; however, I do not try to justify my sin. I do not try to force others to participate in my sin. I ask God for forgiveness, and work on resisting temptation.

I do not accept the destruction of marriage. I know marriage is between one man and one woman for the bringing about the next generation, the rearing of children, and the establishment of social order.

We must stand for God and fight the good fight. We are either on God's side or against God. Even those who claim to be neutral are still against God. Those who say evil is good are against God. We can not stay in our houses and expect everything to be well in the world. If we stay inside we become weak. If we go outside we can get hurt, but we become strong. It is like my trees.

During the winter I keep the potted trees in the house. They continue to grow. They look good, healthy, and strong. But when I put them outside at the beginning of summer; many of their leafs shrivel and the plant begins to lean over. It looks bad, however, as the weeks go by, the plants grow new leafs and stand tall; even in the strong wind. Being protected inside makes them weak, and being outside makes them strong. Not even the strong wind can move them.

We need to get out of our comfort, and into the world where we do the work of an evangelist. Stand tall in the world for all to see in the good work of God.

It is hard to get a job. That is not in debate. A few days ago I was contacted by e-mail about a job. The e-mail talked about a telephone interview. Immediately my suspicions were raised. My reply clearly stated that I would be interested in a face to face interview. Two days ago she called wanted to set up a telephone interview. This did strengthen my suspicions. She sent me an e-mail with some link and a telephone number to call to hear a recorded message. I listened to most of the message. It talked about multilevel marketing and sales. Clearly out of my skills and interests. This just informed me she did not read my resume. So I began thinking about the coming call and how I will find out how my resume peaked her interest. Yesterday she called and it did not last for long.

She asked if I listened to the message and watched the video. Skipping to the point, I asked he how she got my name and what on my resume says I am a salesman. (By the way I am a businessman with degrees in business and accounting.) She told me my name was refereed to her as a sales professional. I asked her who came up with my name. After pressing her for a few minutes, she finally told me she had come up with my name with a search in CareerBuilder.com. It turns out she never read my resume, only looked at my name and contact information.

I called CareerBuilder.com after this and talked to one of their reps. He told me their system generates job references based on jobs each person applies for. CareerBuilder.com does not currently have any way to set specific job types. Additionally if an employer sets a general job search any name cam come up. the only way is to set your account to private. This will keep anyone from finding your information. Another issue with CareerBuilder.com I have noticed: their system tends to send my resume to jobs I never apply to.

This does contradict the purpose of having a resume out there for real employers to find. I have a cover letter added to my account. Hopefully employers will READ my cover letter and resume to see the job fields I am available for. A few years ago CareerBuilder.com sent my resume to a job posting I never applied to; the employer told me that I need to read the job description before applying to the job. Well for people like

Heather A. Duggan

Regional Manager, HRMC, USA

Office:  (931) 922-0767

Cell:  (931) 316-4880

they need to read the resume of the people she is getting information for. It would save everyone a lot of time to simply READ.

A resume clearly states what kind of work someone is looking for. I know this is true because my resume begins with the education I have, which is the career-fields I am interested in.

If you find yourself being asked questions that seem strange for the type of work you are looking for, as them if they had the courtesy to read your resume. Most likely they never gave you the respect, and figures you are stupid enough to go for the supposed job.

Have some boundaries in your job search. Have some questions to ask them. Certainly ask them specific questions that pertain to your career-field.

When things change and you can not. I have had my cell  phone for over two years. The phone still works, but I have been asked why I have not responded to text messages. I have not received text messages for a while. So am I to believe it is because of my phone or the service?

I have been looking at getting a new phone for a year now. I have one in mind and with the improvements to the model, waiting this long may pay off for me. The other thing is I don't have the money to buy the phone. So I am stuck with a phone that may not work well anymore and not able to get a new one.

As I work on my retirement I am considering if I should buy this phone or just wait until my current phone just stops working.

What would you do?

When a man breaks into a woman's room and jumps into bed with her, people will say he is raping her. But when a man does that to another man that is accepted. Or at least that is what I head today. Supposedly this happens in the military often and is OK. The assailants are rewarded with promotions. I have been in this situation before and what the military did was not honorable. After hearing thins I think it is time for me to speak out.

The following is what happened to me and I wrote this to help myself.


14 December 1997 at 1:58am. I was in the U.S. Army then. I had joined the military the year before with dreams of serving for 20 to 30 years and retire.
On the night mentioned above, 13 men in my unit broke into my room to have their way with me. Somehow they were able to get past the double locked metal door; the deadbolt was engaged. The lock on my door operated like a hotel room. It required the key in order to be opened from the outside.
I woke to one of the men, PVT Derek Byers, trying to climb into bed with me while the rest huddled around waiting their turn. His roommate, SPC Richard Nevell, was part of this group of men whom broke into my room. I managed to escape, passing the digital clock as it changed to 1:59am, and went down stairs. As I was heading down the stairs, I heard those homosexuals rush out of my room and back to their rooms.

That night the two people on CQ were an E-1 private just out of basic training, and an E-5 Sergeant Smith. The E-1 may not have known what to do but you can be certain that SGT Smith did. I don’t know what that sergeant was thinking or why he never called the First Sergeant that night, but his lack of action just showed support for the homosexuals and everything that followed this incident. If you don’t take action against something you are being supportive. It’s like that saying: For evil to win, good people need to do nothing.

I did report this incident immediately to the night CQ. I don’t know if CQ provided them with the spare keys or if they were experts at picking locks, but it turned out that CQ never reported the incident up the chain of command. 

This incident left me constantly feeling I was in danger of another attack, certainly because locked doors were nothing to those men. Clearly the homosexuals could get past any locked door. The Uniformed Code of Military Justice, UMCJ for short, states that homosexual incidents are subject to immediate discharge from service, fine, and/or imprisonment. Additionally, the battalion commander had issued an order for all personnel to be in their assigned beds by midnight every night. Only those who were out on assignment or approved leave were not required to be in their bunks. The following month those same soldiers who broke into my room were given promotions, and PVT Byers and SPC Nevell were given commendations. Their promotions are just the opposite of any UMCJ actions.

I approached my immediate superior about this, and was promised the situation would be looked into. After several months, and not hearing anything about the situation, I was brought into the First Sergeant’s office. I informed him of the incident and the First Sergeant’s reaction was clearly one of anger.

To me it seemed that the First Sergeant was never informed about the incident and was unhappy about this going on right under his command. I do have to give him credit, after all he did make a diligent efferent in trying to get to the bottom of the incident and restore comradery to his unit. After several minutes I was taken to the Sergeant Major to repeat what had happened that night. By now it was the afternoon, and at the end of the day, I was told the incident would be looked into. After that day I had hope those soldiers would be court marshaled and I could feel safe again.

After a month my Master Sergeant called me into a private meeting. He told me that I was not allowed to go to church again and was required to join up with those men who attacked me. Further he told me that I would not be moving on in my military career until I did as he ordered. He concluded by saying “It says in the Bible that you are to follow the commands of man, and I’m telling you that you cannot go to church anymore.” At that time I did not have a very good understanding of the Bible but to me going to church was equivalent to serving and being faithful to God. I took this order in that context: that I was to forsake God and become a homosexual.

Leviticus 18:22: ‘You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.’

Romans 16:17: Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them.

Ephesians 5:5-7: For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Here is the first amendment to the Constitution:

Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; of abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.