The whirlwind weekend and the aftermath....

So, last weekend our niece, Lara, married the man of her dream, Brandon. It was a perfect wedding for them. Nice, not overdone, not huge and just a pretty relaxed time for everyone. Then on Sunday our nephew, Nick, graduated from high school. I can't tell you exactly how many miles we put on our car over the weekend but I do know Mike is looking high and low for our next car. Sometime last week I looked and noticed our car has 274,000 miles on it. Yes, that's supposed to be a 2. It has served it's purpose and is about to go to car crushing heaven. And the only request I have is that we NOT buy another white Pontiac Grand Prix. I need a bit more variety in my life than that. Our car before this one was just like it. We started driving it before Jesse started school....he'll be a junior in the fall. So, now the search is on. Jesse believes we should just buy a Shelby GT and let him drive it most of the time. Unfortunately that's about 6-8 times our budget besides the fact that I'm sure we'd just fall over dead at the insurance bill on that with an 18 year old son and a 16 year old son.

We had a discussion in Sunday school this week about what made America a great nation. While I do agree with the first answer given ("Our Founding Father were men of great faith and prayer.") I believe there's more to it than that. I believe our nation was founded by people not only of great faith but also of great determination to do whatever it was that God called them to. They were not deterred by hard times, lack of resources or bitterness. They simply blazed ahead and did whatever it was that God asked of them. I have a huge concern about the work ethic of the majority in our country now. It seems to me that more and more people believe they are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at someone else's expense. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that if a man does not work, he shall not eat. How does that work in our society? Somehow, we've come to the idea that if you don't work, it's ok, someone will provide the food for you. While I'm all for taking care of those who do need help, I believe most people are able to do some sort of work in exchange for food or money. The thing is, our country has fed them the line that it's not necessary. I see commercials on tv offering options to get out of paying off the credit card debt so many have run up, how to get out of paying their mortgages, car loans, etc. I cannot find the words to express how disappointed and frustrated that makes me. IF you buy the stuff, you need to have a plan on how to pay it back. A solid plan at that. During the latest housing crisis many people found themselves upside down on their home loans. Upon further investigation we learned that many of them had been paying interest only on their loans for 5 to 10 years. They actually had no plan to repay the loan. They "thought" they'd get a better job, spend less money, etc, but didn't plan for it. When we look back historically, this country never would have survived as a sovereign nation without men and women who worked hard and put back food and money for the future. I hope that is one lesson our country will learn for our current economic crisis. If not, I'm not sure we'll even survive as a country, much less have the strength as a nation that we had in our parents' generations.