“Bros before Dominoes” I said to Joe as we were playing a game of Chicken Foot or Mexican train dominoes and he kept winning. Joe is my best friend, but he is more like an older brother and his family is definitely like my family.
On Saturday we went to a UK football game and before that we did a little tailgating Kentucky style. There was a plethora of people camped out around the stadium hours beforehand with their UK Blue pop up tents, televisions, generators and ice chests overflowing with beer and brats. We hadn’t eaten lunch and so I gorged on a some chicken wings, 2 hot dogs, chips and dip and some serious dessert.
After the tailgating we went to the game and UK lost in overtime, but wow, what a great experience. The crowd was really into the game and there is nothing quite like watching sports live. There seems to be this community of people who come together for a moment all hoping and wishing for the same thing – VICTORY. The battle raged on the field and in the stands as we cheered on the Wildcats with a C-A-T-S – CATS! CATS! CATS! but alas, Tennessee defeated us in the end.
The rest of the weekend was spent playing racquetball and eating as well as hanging some with Joe’s wife Amber, Amber’s best friend Nicole, Joe’s daugther Abi and of course Amber’s parents Steve and Thel.
Steve thought he would take his 58 year old body and play some racquetball against Joe and I and what a mistake! After a few falls and a tight hamstring we finally called it a day. But it was so fun playing one of my favorite sports with two of my favorite people.
It was a great Thanksgiving weekend and I’m thankful for the friends and family the God has put in my life.
I’m thinking of writing a new book called “Cheeseburgers with Eddo”. It will be a true story based on a series of people who come by my house, pick me up and then take me out for a cheeseburger.
We’ll got to places like Angry Dog and Twisted Root all in the hopes of curing my insatiable need to consume the perfect cheesey burger goodness.
The super sweet part of this deal is you get to eat lunch with me and then possibly get to be in my novel which will most likely be #1 on the New York Times best seller list.
Drop me a comment and let me know when you’ll be by to pick me up.
While I was at the Song of Solomon conference on Oct. 2-3rd Mark & Grace Driscoll took some Q&A’s from the audience. People would text in their questions and then they would answer them live on stage.
Question: As a single woman, what do I do to satisfy my sexual desires? Don’t give me a pat answer.
Now the assumption here is that you should not be having sex before marriage. Take that one step further and you can say that you should not be masturbating before marriage. Why not? The Bible never mentions that it is a sin, therefore, we can clearly rule out that the act is a sin.
However, the Bible does clearly state that lust is a sin and so you can infer that if you are lusting while masturbating that is a sin.
I thought Grace gave a very good answer…
While masturbation and self-gratification aren’t a sin, feeling the need to satisfy your sexual urges without self-discipline can lead to destructive behaviors. Looking at Pornography, Fornication, Adulterous affairs, etc.
I thought that this was an interesting way to answer a difficult question and it applies to every area of our lives. In our American culture we are very used to instant gratification and pleasing ourselves. We have instant everything and self-discipline gets put way on the back burner.
The Only Way To Rid Yourself of Temptation is to Yield to It…
So personally I think that sexual urges are like any appetite of the flesh. It is obviously both biological and mental and anything that is biological and physiological are going to require some sort of restraint. Food is necessary to survive and without it you would die, but that doesn’t mean that you should eat sugar at every single meal.
So what do you tell your kids? If you are a dad what do you tell your son? Should you tell them that sex is bad, but when it comes to masturbation limit it to one time a week? What about your daughters? How do you talk to them about sex? Masturbation? Do you talk to them at all or just hope that this is something that they aren’t tempted to do?
I found this line on a website with some good information that you should share with your students probably as early as 10 or 11:
Remember, you need to master your behavior, or else sin will master it for you. Even a good thing can become sinful without the right heart. Even if you don’t believe that masturbation is a sin, if it is controlling you then it is a sin.
1 Corinthians 6:12 – “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but I will not be mastered by anything.”
In my own childhood sexual topics were always very taboo. I’d say not talking is much more harmful than talking. It’s amazing how much being educated about something can help you make an informed decision. It might not always be the right decision, but you can’t look back and say, “Why didn’t someone tell me?”
I recently saw this movie and not only was it good, it was therapeutic.
Sometimes when we are hurting we build up walls and push people away when they are trying to help us. Why is it that pain is often something that we become accustomed to? Why is moving forward so hard?
There I was in this room filled with women. Literally hundreds of women who seemed to be thriving on each other’s estrogen the way trees benefit from cross-pollination.
It was Blogher. It was July. It was Chicago.
I was there with a couple of great friends, one of which works for Blogher and I was amazed at all the “real” women and how they came out in droves to share thoughts and ideas about being women and blogging. To me it was sort of a granola crowd. I mean, being from Dallas and all there is a definite need to dress=to-impress anytime you are out in public and especially if you are going to be around a group of women. But… at Blogher there were very few men around and so there was nothing to cat-fight over. The weapons, push-up bras, concealer, girdles, make-up, eye-brow waxing, manicures, scoop-necked shirts revealing ample cleavage, seemed to be stowed away and I was reminded of my days on campus at Texas Women’s University.
The setting was very similar, lots of women, very few men. This is actually a world I am comfortable in seeing how I grew up with 2 older sisters and a mother who loved to shop more than a father that liked to fish.
The conference was fun and at times ferocious. It seemed that these women were lining up for a variety of different workshops and everyone was handing out business cards like human Pez dispensers. “Hi, My name is Candy, but my blog is CandyCaneRocksYourBrain.com!, here have a business card.”
I always took the cards politely and smiled. Most of these women were older and married, none seemed to be on the prowl for anything other than a vodkatini or a strawberry margarita and some girl talk.
One of the things I noticed was the women who brought their babies with them to the conferences – even late at night. They would wear them strapped to their chests like decorations or badges of honor. The women would run on them and ask questions like, “How old is she?” or “Do you breast feed?”
I posted recently about the woes of single people and our desire to have children, but what I might not have mentioned clearly is that I “get it” when it comes to family and kids. I think all parents have this other connection with parents because they suffered through the nine months of morning sickness, swollen ankles, weight gain, sore nipples, and mood swings. After that 9 months they had to pass another initiation where they learned what it meant to be humbled by a dirty diaper of a fresh stream of urine sprayed in their face. They laughed and cried and wondered miserably, “Will I ever be good enough?” “Will it ever get better?”
Not only do new parents feel like they are part of some special club, they actually are. They have been granted this special privilege, they have earned those badges of honor and they have every reason to hold their heads up high when others watch their children with delight. Even Jesus said, “let the children come unto me.”
So when I see my friends pull away from things of this world I truly understand why. Suddenly a dinner with friends seems like a frivolous waste of time when you could be spending that time with the most important people in the world to you. There is nothing like family. There is nothing more special than that bond you have between parents and siblings. It is a special world that you should protect and nourish and invest your time and money.
I hope one day to have a family of my own. To watch my wife grow heavy with pregnancy and to see her body change the way only motherhood can change you. I look forward to the challenges that a relationship bring. The challenges and rewards that come with being a husband and a father and I applaud those that have already made this admirable step. My only request is that you never take it for granted. One you have that family cherish it, hold on to it and don’t let your own selfish desires ever stop you from putting that family first.
