8 tips for talking about sex with your kids

Super fantastic article here. And yes those superlatives are justified. Here are the 8 points in brief:

1) Don't have "the talk"

2) Partly be proactive, partly be responsive

3) Sometimes it's good to ask them why the want to know something

4) Mechanics aren't the hard part. Neither is the emotional part. Transmitting your morals is.

5) Love your spouse. View sex as a blessing.

6) Note how you talk about babies. NOT LIKE OBAMA

7) Be positive about sex

8) Consider whether your own confusion is the cause of your own troubles

Can't tell you how many aha moments I had reading the full article - check it out here. As for dealing with kiplings, me thinks I'm ready J

Overcoming boredom in young boys

Next time a lad you know complains of boredom with their school-work (or some such) remember this anecdote from a former American president John Adam, and then seek to apply it (appropriately) to their situation. 

As a boy, John Adams found the study of Latin to be boring and grew to hate it. He went to his father to see if there was not something else he could do instead. Deacon John, who had been a labourer, told his son, ‘You might try ditching; my meadow yonder needs a ditch.’ So young John went about the task of digging the ditch and soon found it to be arduous work. By the end of the day, he was ready to return to the study of Latin; but being too proud to admit it, he spent one more day in digging the ditch before admitting he preferred the study of Latin. Adams said ‘toil conquered my pride’ and ever after claimed ‘ditching’ had played an important part in building his character.” 

– Paul Boller, Presidential Anecdotes.

Why pastors should have a library

Because...  “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

- Cicero (106-43 BC)

Abortion breast cancer link

This from Dr Joel Brind, a research biochemist and biology professor in the US:

To those of us who have been studying the Abortion Breast Cancer (ABC) link for years, the growing breast cancer epidemic in communist China was an entirely predictable result of the "one-child policy". But the aggressive promotion of abortion has hardly been limited to China, and a veritable tsunami of peer-reviewed, published reports of the predictable epidemic elsewhere is starting to surface from all over Asia. In South Asia alone, at least a dozen studies have appeared (that I know about) just since 2008: nine in India and one each in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Read the full thing here

Next time you're stressed on London transport!

Remember the joys of travel that exist elsewhere such as these pics showing the all new/happening form of public transport in Kenya! Helmet + full body kevlar armour optional!

Calvin on Christian courage

It often happens that not only censure, but open condemnation, is pronounced on godly men who are convinced in their own consciences that what they do is agreeable to the command of God. Furthermore, they are accused of pride if they ignore the false judgments of the world and rest satisfied with being approved by God alone. Since this is a difficult temptation and it is scarcely possible not to be shaken by the agreement of many people against us, even when they are wrong, we ought to maintain this truth that none will ever be courageous and steady in acting properly unless they depend solely on the will of God.”

- John Calvin, Commentary on the harmony of the Gospels, Volume 3

Polly Toynbee is happy to push people to death

Arguing for assisted suicide, Polly Toynbee writes:

Another bad argument is that the frail will be intimidated into hastening the end of their lives so as not to be a burden on their children. Well, why not? I would not choose to put unbearable caring duties on my four children. I hope not to leave them with a miserable memory of a wretched prolonged and agonising end. That's not a bad reason.

Wow! Read those first 2 sentences again and think about what Toynbee is saying... She is basically saying that those who are diagnosed with acute disabilities or serious illness should be encouraged (intimidated is her word) to end their lives. Wow! Wow! Wow! Welcome to the tragic world of atheism pro-choice actually = pro-death!

The economics of sex

The video below is presented from what patently seems a non-Christian world-view and there are things in it that I'd want to put differently. However, the overall message confirms a recurring Biblical theme namely that when society breaks down, it is generally the women who suffer the worst and the men who 'gain' the most. Check it out...