The other day I was putting away some cards and letters in my "sentimental box" and it happened to be too full, so I flipped through some stacks to see what was all there. I noticed a letter from my grandmother and decided to read it because she stopped writing letters to me a couple years ago and I missed them. It turns out this particular letter was the last letter she ever wrote to me.

The majority of the letter is about her back problems (due to a break she had a few years prior) and how because an acquaintance with a similar surgery had fully recovered, she hoped to recover in the same amount of time as he. This despite the fact that he was a middle-aged man and she is elderly. She ended the letter with the following statement of exclamation: "If I make it, I should be better by next spring! One whole winter to go!"

How many people spend their whole lives searching for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - that ever elusive happiness we all long for yet seldom find?

I personally don't think absolute happiness is even possible in this world. Yet everywhere you look, unhappy people are desperately seeking this coveted happiness, all the while sacrificing loved ones, friends, and ultimately themselves in the pursuit.

Perhaps we're searching for the wrong thing; a false god. What if instead of pursuing happiness, we pursued Christ; and with Him, the peace, joy and contentment that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

I never would have dreamed of having a homebirth until two things happened to set things a-percolating.

First, I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in years and she told me she'd delivered both of her sons at home in the bathtub. Then, later, when I was 3 months pregnant with my third child, I watched the Ricki Lake documentary, The Business of Being Born and my perception of modern childbirth was gloriously changed. (I highly recommend this film, by the way! View trailer here .)

A Focus on the Family Poll (October 1, 2003), found that 47% of families surveyed admitted that pornography is a problem in their home.

Porn usage is viewed by many Christians as an addictive lust issue which can destroy marriages; and is discouraged as a form of sexual immorality. The mainstream public, on the other hand, may find porn distasteful in some regards but useful in others. It is not uncommon for magazines and therapists to recommend porn usage as a means of "spicing up" a dull sex-life. It is viewed by such as an acceptable form of adult entertainment as long as it doesn't involve children or become an addiction.

In general, Christians and mainstream alike are making the assumption that women in the adult entertainment industry are there by free choice. The majority of Christian articles I've come across are focussed solely on the sexual immorality of the end user and that's as far as it goes. Now, if all porn stars were truly in the business consensually, then porn usage would indeed be a matter of chastity only. But--if the women posing for both camera and film are actually sex slaves, then the use of pornography is far more sinister than lust. . . .