A boy's best friend is his mother.

From my sermon Sunday on Exodus 20:12, the 5th Commandment ...

4 Ways We Dishonor Our Parents:

1. Disobedience dishonors parents. Ergo ... Obey your father and mother.*
2. Decision making independent of parents dishonors them. Ergo ... Value the counsel of your parents.
3. Disregarding your parents in their old age dishonors them. Ergo ... Make time for those who made you.
4. Making them look bad dishonors your parents. Ergo ... Make mom & dad look good.

*To the extent such obedience does not conflict with God's prescription for behavior.

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Below is the Bear Bryant commercial referenced in the sermon.

And if I find that you are trying to corrupt my firstborn child, I will bring you down, baby. I will bring you down to Chinatown.

I'm reading What He Must Be ... if he wants to marry my daughter, by Voddie Baucham, Jr.

Among other gems, he lists (and elaborates upon) some things that must characterize any potential suitor..

1. He must be a follower of Christ.

2. He must be prepared to lead.

3. He must lead like Christ.

4. He must be committed to children.

5. He must practice the four P's.

"Whatever words we choose to use, it is clear that a young man must be ready to represent his family before God (as a priest), represent God before his family (as a prophet), meet the needs of those in his household (as a provider), and place himself between his family and all who would do them harm (as a protector)."

Apart from omitting sports teams allegiances, it's a pretty good list and a book I heartily recommend, particularly to those entrusted with the development of boys.

There's a drought of young men suitable for marriage and my heartaches for the young ladies who are much more ready for life than the lads who delay adulthood to stay in "Guyland" into their 30s or 40s.

Sadly, women are stuck with such a poor pool from which to choose, being limited to wimps or barbarians, none of which understand nor care to understand what it takes to love another human, particularly making sacrifices for her benefit.

Shomer shabbos!

My sermon Sunday on the 4th Commandment was one of my longest on record. So many things were cut on the fly, including the following quote, which I hated to eliminate.

Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims and His reputation as a political firebrand, only two accusations of personal depravity seem to have been brought against Jesus of Nazareth. First, that He was a Sabbath-breaker. Secondly, that He was "a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners" -- or (to draw aside the veil of Elizabethan English that makes it sound so much more respectable) that He ate too heartily, drank too freely, and kept very disreputable company, including grafters of the lowest type and ladies who were no better than they should be.

For nineteen and a half centuries, the Christian Churches have laboured, not without success, to remove this unfortunate impression made by their Lord and Master. They have hustled the Magdalens from the Communion-table, founded Total Abstinence Societies in the name of Him who made the water wine, and added improvements of their own, such as various bans and anathemas upon dancing and theatre-going. They have transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and, feeling that the original commandment "Thou shalt not work" was rather half-hearted, have added to it the new commandment, "Thou shalt not play."
~ Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)

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And we'll weep for him, in the press, set up a scholarship in his name. Eventually, and I'm talkin' way, way down the road, we file an insurance claim

Dave Ramsey addresses term life insurance versus "whole life" (or "cash value") insurance. (HT Oilcan)

Why Does Dave Like Term Insurance?

Dave has a reason for recommending term life insurance, and he details it here.

QUESTION: Breck on Twitter wants Dave to explain how term life insurance works at the 15-year and 20-year level, and why Dave likes it so much.

ANSWER: There are a couple of parts to that discussion. Term life insurance versus a cash value policy is no comparison. Term life has no savings plan built into it and the others do, but the others are more expensive.

If you take a 30-year old who buys $125,000 in cash value life insurance, he’ll pay $145 a month for it. Built into that is a savings program called cash value that builds up over the years. By the time he’s 50, he’d have $27,000 of cash value built up in there. If instead he bought a $400,000 term life insurance for $10 and invest that difference of $135, he’d have $133,000 in a good growth-stock mutual fund.

That’s not even the big problem. The big problem is that, when you die with the savings insurance, they keep your money. They will give your beneficiary the check for the face value and keep the savings for themselves. Cash value is the biggest middle-class ripoff with the exception of maybe the car lease and the credit card. You could put your money in a fruit jar and it would do better than this insurance!

You buy the term life insurance based on how long you need it. In 15 or 20 years you will have a paid-for house, kids that are not living at home anymore and lots of money built up in your 401k. Buy inexpensive term life insurance and invest elsewhere. [Emphasis Gunny's]

But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are.

A.W. Tozer's Rules for Self Discovery:

1. What we want most
2. What we think about most
3. How we use our money
4. What we do with our leisure time
5. The company we enjoy
6. Whom and what we admire
7. What we laugh at

To make it an even 10, to those I would add the following:

1. What makes us cry
2. What we fear
3. What we pray about