Saturday, July 26, 2008

Reflections on a Beach

"As I was walking on a North Carolina beach one morning, the idea for this parable began to take shape in my mind. Knowing we relate to God in many different ways, I saw those relationships reflected in the people on the beach. This book is about exploring and understanding our relationship to the Divine."

This is the introduction to a little project I've been working on for some time. I finally finished it up this week. Reflections on a Beach is a short parable and guidebook about relationship with God.

I wrote the first version of this parable several years ago and used it in a sermon at Pilmoor Memorial UMC. Since that time I've alternately worked on the story, studied publishing options, and just ignored it for months at a time. The thought of finding a publisher was overwhelming. Then, a couple of years ago, I heard about Lulu.com in a presentation by David Warlick.

The wonderful thing about self publishing through Lulu.com is it does not cost a dime until you are ready to buy a book. The author has complete control over the text, the cover, the price, etc. I uploaded the text as a Word document, uploaded a couple of pictures for the cover, and used their online tools to put it all together.

Even after finding Lulu, I still had trouble getting to a final edit. I blamed it on a new job, courses I was taking, etc. Then, early this year, on three separate occasions in church, I felt compelled to finish the book. Maybe it was God communicating with me, maybe it was my subconcious, but the message was clear. Finish the book.

So here it is. I hope someone finds it helpful.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Porn Talk

This month, I've been working on an Internet safety program for parents of children and youth. I know the subject of sexual predators on the Internet gets a lot of ink and TV time. However, the issue that leads some kids to taking sexual risks is often ignored. That is Internet pornography.

There was a news release out this week from the Adult Entertainment Market Research Company that claims a large increase in the number of people signing up on Internet pornography sites. In fact, they link the increase to the economic stimulus checks that were distributed this spring.

Hiding our heads in the sand and ignoring Internet pornography will not make it go away. It is time we face it directly and acknowledge the effects it has on children. ThePornTalk.com is a website with a lot of resources to help us address the issue of pornography with our children. They suggest we begin these discussions when kids are in the 6-10 year range. You may think this is too early, but remember, the average age of the first exposure to internet pornography is 11.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Devotions for United Methodist Men

For years I have been giving devotional messages at our monthly meetings of the United Methodist Men. I've often thought I should have saved the messages, if, for no other reason, just to make sure I don't repeat one! (That has happened once, but the men were very gracious. Only one person mentioned it. He said, "Sometimes a message is so important you need to hear it more than once.") For the next couple of months, I'll post the devotions to my blog.

Here is the link to the message I'll give tomorrow.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Online safety: Dispelling common myths

I had the pleasure of attending the National Educational Computing Conference, NECC 2008, in San Antonio, Texas this week. This is the premier educational technology conference in United States. Frankly, it was a little overwhelming. I attended several very informative sessions.

There was a panel discussion on online safety featuring several prominent experts. They discussed the research I mentioned on this blog in an earlier post. I encourage you to go to eSchool News and watch the video of their presentation.