Open Letter to Joshua and Anna Duggar

Dear Josh and Anna,

Let me first introduce myself. I am a wife to a man, who like your Dad, welcomes each child as the Lord sends them. With 9 children, we have only half of what your parents do. I respect your parents for their rejection of worldly standards which reject children and the fact that they are willing to raise them in the fear and love of the Lord. I do not respect the fact that you all have chosen to prostitute your family for money. To sell out your privacy for the ogling of many thousands of people is something I do not pretend to understand. Sure, the money is nice...but exposing y'all to the world is something I will never get. That said, I don't watch any of the 18 Kids and Counting. I did watch your wedding show, and I must be honest; it was painful.

I have an oldest son, who just groans over your family. He is 16 and a wonderful big brother. Academically, he is incredibly smart and like him, I can't wait for him to take on the world. That said, I cannot ever imagine filming the father-son chat he and his Dad (who are incredibly close) will have before their wedding. That is private; not something for public consumption.

This brings me to the Monday's Today Show. How lame is all that? To take what should be an intimate, private moment between you, Anna and the ultra sound technician and broadcast it for fodder for people is exhibitionist at best and greedy at worst. What was a punch in the gut, though, is your proclamation that you and Anna, who have 24 siblings between you, will have 2, maybe 3 children. Congratulations. Planned Parenthood must've shouted for joy. I can just hear the conversation now, "We couldn't stop those whacky parents, but, Hallelujah, their oldest son has bought our anti-child mentality, hook, line and sinker". Congratulations, you have bought the majority Christian party line which is so hugely responsible for the troubles our country is in. How about public school? Is that next?

I am hopeful that someday you will be horrified by those stupid, godless, worldly remarks you made, announcing that children #4 and below will not make the cut in your family. What does that say about your parents? What does that say about your siblings #4 and below? You should be thanking your God and parents daily for their dedication to raising so many in the fear and love of the Lord...not announcing that you reject it and will embrace the definition of children as property to be prudently acquired. So....Josh, are children blessings up through 2 or 3? You can't have it both ways, Mr. Duggar. Either you acknowledge children as blessings and accept each and every one that God would choose to send your way, or you acknowledge children as property to be acquired in a limited fashion, much like automobiles. Your intellectual dishonesty makes me grieve for your parents. To reject what they've done is to bite the hand that feeds you. Had your parents only had 2 or 3, you and Anna would not be earning the money from prostituting your family as your parents have chosen. The whole thing is ultimately lame and disappointing. I had expected better from you. :-)

~Lisa H.

Okay.....

Once again it's been awhile. Why don't I blog? It just seems like there's so many things going on I don't know where to start. But...I am of good cheer....the economy is tanking again and maybe people will begin to care once again.

I was SO frustrated at church on Sunday. It was a like a light bulb going off in my head. As Pastor R got ready to receive the offering he spoke how during *economic famine it is important to keep sowing*. Really? While I agree with that, that is not the whole and complete picture....we do need to keep sowing...while contemporaneously paying off our debts (if you have any...we do not), and live within your means. Anyway, the light bulb moment occurred when I realized that the only aspect of our spiritual life, in addition to worship, that is EVER focused on is tithing. Nothing else. Why tithing? Could it be because that's what the pastors live on? We have zero pastoral relationship. Perhaps a pastor will say "Hi" to my husband in the restroom. He has never received ANY encouragement regarding the ministry of being a husband and father of 9. All he's received is snide comments. "Are you done yet?" or something else equally lame and shallow. They have NO idea what kind of people we are....but let's make sure we tithe.

But, wait, I had another revelation. I was talking with a dear friend at church wondering aloud for the upteenth time, "Why are people lame? Why don't they understand things?" And all of a sudden the answer was so obvious and apparent and I can't believe I've spent years wondering. The answer is: (drum roll, please), THEY HAVE NO FEAR OF GOD!

Let's look at the following verses:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is inextricably linked with wisdom. And teaching people the fear of the Lord is practically non-existent. Instead we sing, "I am a Friend of God", which in theory is theologically correct,( I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 ), we still need to NOT forget that the Lord our God is HOLY and we are to fear Him, and it is through that fear that we gain wisdom.

So, really, it is now so obvious to me why people do not have wisdom. They have no fear of God. I assure you, I do. What is now the question that I can't determine is "Why don't people have any fear of God?" I think part of the answer to that is because they mistake God's patience for his approval. One might incorrectly think that God is NOT displeased with pornography, because let's face it, it's financially lucrative. One might say God doesn't mind adultery. I'm thinking of a welfare queen, who was NOT raised that way, who has two children with two different men of different races, (and of course she's married so neither of them), and thanks to President B Hussein Obama, is getting a cell phone with 120 minutes every month (more than my phone has ftr). When her mother asks her, "What do you think God thinks about the way you're living?" daughter replies, "He'll forgive me."

She has a point. God does forgive, but repentance is required. I'll be honest...once again I do not even come remotely close to understanding how the Lord works....and I can almost see how one might interpret the fact that negative consequences to not commence immediately upon sinning (or even shortly thereafter) as God's approval for said sin. But....God is patient.

Hang on folks...things are going to be quiet this summer....but this fall...as the days get shorter and it gets colder and the Chinese don't want any more of our funny money, it's not going to be pretty. There is so much room for economic contraction in this country it isn't funny. I was at the mall 10 days ago and to see the waste...I see 3 teenaged girls drinking iced coffee drinks? Forgive my language, but where the hell do they get that kind of money? In the meantime, the real estate market is collapsing (very interesting sidenote: On zillow.com last week I was checking something and saw a beautiful home with 4800 sq. ft for $765,000 ~5 miles from me. I check on the listing. I see the taxes on it are $11,000/year (insane), and that over the past 6 months its value was $765,000-$1,030,000, but WAIT, it sold on 3.30.09 for $575,000. Zillow then says that although that was the selling price it will not include it in its estimates of other real estate? Really? Then what are housing values being based on if not actually selling prices? People's imaginations, apparently. Well, gee, that's what our monetary system is.....the value of our $ is decided by people's imaginations, because it surely isn't linked to people's labor (which is the true, Biblical definition of wealth....remember, in the OT people brought their crops and animals...not photocopies.) The foundations of our economic system are systematically rottting...and oh, yeah, what does the Bible have to say? "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Matthew 7:24-28 )

Speaking of not fearing God. I am a horrified spectator of the Jon and Kate debacle/train wreck. I don't watch the show (banned it last February...stopped watching it myself ~1.5 years before that), but how can you miss his? Kate....as a Mom of 9, I am horrified and saddened by her blind greed. When is enough enough? How much money will it take to fill her heart? Nothing is ever enough for her. Her cold heart chills me. Jon...I gotta say, I almost understand where he's coming from. Not excusing...merely understanding.

H's cast is off. A started driving in driver ed last week. It's hot. My gardens are pretty good, and we're looking forward to lots of tomatoes. School is almost done. Toddler R is beautiful. The oldest 3 and their father (that would be my husband) are running lots of races. Doing a great job. I'll blog more later. Thanks for reading, readers.