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1. PUBLICLY PRAY BEFORE MEALS. If it is safe for you to do so, consider offering a public prayer (it can be silent) before meals to show that you are a Christian. Over the past few years many people have begun to not display their faith in prayer before meals and this is something which I have been working to change in my actions. One thing which I can do to help show my faith and support other Christians is to publicly pray before meals, so I attempt to do so although I normally do so silently. This is my way of telling people it is OK to be a Christian.
2. CONSIDER REINFORCING YOUR HOME AS A CHRISTIAN HOME AND LOOKING FOR A GOOD CHURCH HOME. If you believe that all of us are better off when individuals are exposed to Christian morality, then encourage others to join you as a Christian. I believe that the biological family is the basic building block of Christianity and that our morality and beliefs are designed to help create and maintain strong families. The Christian church is built upon the building blocks of Christian families and create a second spiritual extended family for us. Look carefully for strong Christian morality and activities for your family's children because this may be your most important decision in shaping their future lives.
3. Support AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION BOYCOTT of Businesses Against Christmas. America's largest pro-family activist site lists stores that are for and against Christmas. Consider not shopping at those stores which fail to honor our Christian holidays and spend your money at those which do. To have more impact, consider contacting the listed Companies Against Christmas to let them know that you will NOT be shopping in their stores. Several stores that began the season listed Against Christmas have now made sure they are listed as Companies Supporting Christmas. Home Depot was listed as Against Christmas on Oct. 27, 2008 and on Oct. 28, 2008 they made changes that had them removed from the list. Try this link to AFA Christmas List Page http://www.afa.net/christmaslist.asp
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4. Visit the AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION website and if they share your values, consider joining their over 2,000,000 members. Strong pro-family activists, they saved for some years and were able to contribute $500,000 to help pass Proposition 8 to protect traditional marriage in California. Try this link to visit their site http://www.afa.net/
5. Support the AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION'S efforts to boycott businesses which join the culture war against the Christians. The AFA asks businesses to run their businesses and stay neutral on the cultural issues. If businesses refuse to do so, then the AFA boycotts the businesses. AFA boycotted Ford for about two years during which time Ford stock went down from around $30 a share to $5 a share (well before the economic downturn). Other businesses, like McDonalds, have not been so resistant to the idea of staying out of the culture wars. http://www.afa.net/
6. Ask your state's elected officials to sponsor and support a THE RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINT ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACT. After persecution of Christian children in Texas public schools by radical teachers and administrators, Texas has become the first state in the union to pass a law protecting students religious expression (such as praying over their own lunch) in school without persecution by taxpayer paid teachers. Consider sending an e-mail to your state representatives asking them to offer such a law in your state, by filling out a simple form the AFA site and sending it to them. As one commented, our teachers shouldn't be prayer police. The AFA has a great feature where you can fill out an email to your representatives by simply filling out your zipcode, name and address. It does all the work and will send the e-mail to your representative(s). http://capwiz.com/afanet/issues/alert/?alertid=11352286&type=ST
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7. If you believe that the ACLU has been primarily responsible for regularly and repeatedly attacking Christians and Christian activities in schools, consider looking at the Thomas More Law Center. This Catholic Christian association is a legal group which regularly supports Christians and opposes the ACLU in court. If you find this is a group which you can support, I believe your membership will be used to help defend Christians in court. http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf?id=54
8. If you believe that the ACLU has been militantly anti-Christian and fighting to promote a secular progressive agenda devoid of Christian values, then consider supporting the ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND another legal group which regularly provides free legal representation to oppose the ACLU's anti-Christian legal positions. Try this link to a group of Christian lawyers defending Christians in the courts. http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/main/default.aspx
9. Consider joining an organization to oppose politicians that are opposed to your beliefs. A group is forming to provide respectful opposition to President Elect Barack Obama. The group is determined to avoid personal attacks but to strongly resist any efforts to impose radically liberal solutions on abortion, welfare, tax policy, business policy, separation of church and state, activist judges to the Supreme Court and the federal bench, gun control, etc. Grassfire.org is attempting to sign up one million members by Jan. 20 to have our voice heard too. http://www.grassfire.org/home.shtm
10. Take time to celebrate the blessings of your life and THANK GOD FOR ONE MORE DAY. When I visit Daytona Beach, FL, I try to begin my mornings with a brief visit to the ocean. I walk in the salt water and enjoy the sunrise, splashing waves, fish, birds and life in general as I thank God for one more day. On occasion, when things all seem to be going wrong, I will stop, take a break and spend fifteen minutes splashing my feet in the salt water. With my batteries spiritually charged, I go back after the day and find that now I am much better able to fight my way through tough tasks. Of course, I always feel stronger and much more determined when I don't feel alone in the world.
11. TAKE ONE ACTION TODAY TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR CHRISTIANITY: For quite some time, Christians have tended to take a very passive path in supporting your faith. Most religious actions were simply reserved for Sunday at church. Christians tend to believe in playing by the rules, being fair, being peaceful, being considerate of others and being law abiding. But for quite a few years, the anti-Christians have been waging a war against Christians in our schools and universities. If you don't believe that has been happening, take some time today to watch the Ben Stein movie, EXPELLED. The movie shows how liberal anti-Christian activists in the higher education establishment punished individuals for being too supportive of Christian beliefs and particularly for daring to say that people should even consider examining INTELLIGENT DESIGN as a competing theory to EVOLUTION. http://www.expelledthemovie.com/
I try to make sure to do one thing each day to help fight in the cultural wars to protect Christians. One day I might call my state representative to ask her to consider sponsoring THE RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINT ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACT (a new Texas law to protect individual students from persecution by school teachers and administrators in the exercise of their personal religious beliefs like praying before meals, having a Ten Commandments bookcover or a Bible). The next day I try to do something active like take a copy of the American Family Association's Companies Against Christmas list to one of our local companies and politely express why I won't be shopping there. (Some of the companies I have dropped materials off at later changed their policies and joined the Companies Supporting Christmas)! The next day, I might thank a clerk at one of the Companies Supporting Christmas for their store's help.
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THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF:
Take time to celebrate the blessings of your life and THANK GOD FOR ONE MORE DAY. When I visit Daytona Beach, FL, I try to begin my mornings with a brief visit to the ocean. I walk in the salt water and enjoy the sunrise, splashing waves, fish, birds and life in general as I thank God for one more day. On occasion, when things all seem to be going wrong, I will stop, take a break and spend fifteen minutes splashing my feet in the salt water. With my batteries spiritually charged, I go back after the day and find that now I am much better able to fight my way through tough tasks. Of course, I always feel stronger and much more determined when I don't feel alone in the world. (This one is important enough to repeat, so it was #10 above and again here).
Take time to make yourself, the best you can be. I have a problem with my weight. Although I have been as heavy 306 pounds, recently I reached up to 296 pounds. I took action and lost 31 pounds in 74 days. It was a combination of Atkins diet, Slim Fast once a day and one hour of rapid walking a day. It made me feel more energetic and improved my stamina.
My mother smoked most of her life but used an amazingly clever way to quite smoking for eleven years. She saved a number of her last butts and placed them in a ziplock in the fridge. Every time she craved a cigarette, she stuck a butt in her mouth. The small amount of nicotine released from the butt was enough to help her fight her way into not smoking. Sadly after eleven years, she would ride out to a senior center with a smoker. One day she agreed to try a cigarette again and she has been smoking ever since.
READ A GREAT BOOK! It is a rather old fashioned type of entertainment, but reading is a great way to learn and enjoy adventures vicariously. One obvious option, share some Bible reading. But perhaps something reading something else valuable like A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE by Warren can be quite personally rewarding. I haven't read the Warren book yet but believe it is divided up into 40 chapters designed to be read one chapter each day.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHRISTIAN MORALITY ON INDIVIDUALS: Being raised with a strong Christian morality and "THE GOLDEN RULE" provides excellent personal benefits as it helps us get along well with others. Courtesy and helping others out are almost always the right way.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHRISTIAN MORALITY ON SOCIETY: As a teenager, I was often tempted to do some things which weren't always the best moral choice. But because of my maternal grandmother and mother's persistent actions to provide a good moral education, there was always a little voice in the back of my head when I was thinking about doing something that was approaching wrong. Attending the Baptist Church's Stockade Boys for activities, athletic games and Bible study certainly greatly strengthened my understanding of morality. Yesterday, I read of a study among high school students that said that 30% stole something from a store in the past year, and 64 % cheated on a test in the past year. Still 93% "were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, while 77% believe "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know". AND THIS WAS THE KIDS THAT WOULD ADMIT WHAT HAPPENED, OF COURSE, SOME MIGHT WELL LIE ABOUT THEIR ACTIONS AS WELL! In watching public actions, I believe that a lack of Christian moral training has a dangerous impact on young people's actions. Anti-Christian Humanists in Washington DC ran ads asking people to "Be good, for Goodness Sake" but I question if that is enough, without moral training. Without the Golden Rule, how would people treat each other?
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY REUNIONS: My Catholic grandmother insisted on holding an annual family reunion and inviting every family member even if they were fighting among themselves. I now realize what a blessing it was because, without those reunions, I would have probably never even met many a distant relative. I asked a sister of mine living where we had grown up, to start up a family reunion. She asked why she should and I told her of our experience as kids. When she held the first family reunion, her teenage son found out that two other kids at his school were cousins he didn't know about. She later told me that it made his time at school easier because any time anyone thought of messing with him, his cousins would tell them to leave their cousin alone. I guess that blood is thicker than water.
LOOKING FOR GOOD CHRISTIAN ENTERTAINMENT: There was a time when things like Disney meant good family entertainment. These days, almost all Hollywood entertainment is a risky proposition. One bright spot is the development of more main line Christian movies like Facing the Giants and FireProof after the success of Mel Gibson's blockbuster. Some Christian studios like Trinity Broadcasting have been producing good family entertainment for a while. Ironically, the movie rating system has been corrupted enough that one movie was not rated G because it had too much Christian content and so it was given a PG rating instead. Hollywood's rating was trying to protect young impressionable children from exposure to Christian values. There are good family values entertainment around and like coffee-houses, comedy clubs (be careful), gyms, etc. The best place to get some advice is normally someone in the church for family entertainment options. Try this link http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/