This blog was originally set up so I could blog about our experiences living in the country on a small farm while raising and educating 8 children. This is still my primary purpose, and it is also a way to share with others the things I have learned and am learning regarding matters of health. Though I no longer work as a registered nurse, my college degree in that discipline has helped me understand the way professional healthcare providers do things and approach treating patients, but at the same time, I know that disease prevention is the best way to deal with chronic health issues. That is to say, if you can stay healthy and safe, then your healthcare costs should be minimal.

Now in case this sounds too simplistic to you, let me just say that besides catastrophic healthcare costs (that would be accidents and/or trauma injuries requiring hospital care), the next most expensive things are hospital births and then children born with special needs that require continual care. There are also the times when emergency surgeries or illnesses requiring surgery present themselves. These types of surgeries or illnesses we long to prevent if possible, and generally speaking, that is what we should all aim to do. Nevertheless, sometimes they happen. Keep in mind that I am writing this as a sort of overview for the purpose of addressing the healthcare issues in the current political campaign. Last week Sen. Obama said that healthcare was a right, and Sen. McCain said it was a responsibility (when a questioner asked if healthcare was a right, a privilege or a responsibility). Keep in mind also that we already have in this country, Medicaid for younger people and Medicare for the older people, as a sort of safety net for the more vulnerable people to receive medical attention. I don’t know the ins and outs of these programs, I just remember studying them in school, and I know people who are in these government programs. We also have to remember that we already have Health Departments where people can receive checkups, immunizations, home health visits, WIC program assistance, and other things for little or no cost. Again, it has been a long while since I worked as a student in a Health Department setting, and certain things may have changed, but I do know that they are there and people use them.

So for a presidential candidate to say that “healthcare is a right,” I would say that in this country, healthcare is already practically a right. The problem of payment for health services is the problem we are really discussing. Healthcare availability is everywhere, and accessible to most people on some level. But the real problem is health insurance, or everyone’s ability to aquire health coverage for a decent price. As I was pondering this, it ocurred to me that we have car insurance, home-owners’ insurance, life insurance — why is health insurance so horribly high for people who are either not employed or perhaps self-employed, and why is it so hard to find reasonable rates? I have a few ideas. If Congress wanted to, they could inspire insurance companies to re-design their programs, and maybe insurance companies could be enticed to lower their premiums by tax incentives as a way to help make health insurance more affordable to more people. They could do this without taking over the entire job of forming another government entity to socialize medicine in this country. If you want things to get messed up really fast, and government spending to go through the roof, and at the same time, lowering the quality of care, this is a good way to do it. Our government has too much on its plate right now to even think of doing this. It is irresponsible for Barack Obama to even suggest that he would or could do something of the sort if he were elected President.

One of the things you have to look at when trying to figure out why medical costs are so high, is the cost of medicine. Drug companies are the ones who make out like bandits here. In fact, as our country’s health gets worse and worse, people take more and more medicine. The idea is that the more dependent people are on medicine, the more money the pharmaceutical companies make. They make billions and billions of dollars off of sick people. Sickness is big business. It really is. I am not trying to pick on pharmaceutical companies, I am telling you the truth. It is good that these companies make legitimate life-saving medicines, but the idea that people need to take prescription drugs to stay healthy is, well, not the way we should all want to live. It is not the way God meant for us to live, I believe. Many chronic diseases have come about through poor diet and health habits, as well as nutritional deficiencies. When these things are corrected, symptoms improve and many times diseases are healed. I know of people who have been cured or healed supernaturally by God Himself. It is not a forgone conclusion that everyone is going to need prescription drugs, even as elderly people. It would be good if medical practitioners could seel the value in looking for alternative ways to treat people with less medicine. This in itself is a tall order for the medical community, and one that will take time, no doubt. But people everywhere can educate themselves on good nutrition and take an active role in health maintenance. People can pray for healing and for good health and for wisdom in dealing with sickness. Perhaps this will lead to less trips to the doctor, less prescription medications, and better overall health. Maybe there should be rewards for people as there is in auto insurance, (for not getting in wrecks or getting speeding tickets), that if you don’t need to use the doctor that much, you should pay less in premiums. For example, a family pays $550.00 a month for health insurance. If they go for a certain length of time – say a year -and haven’t had to use the doctor, or have gone only once or twice, couldn’t they lower their premiums? After all, if they are paying that much, and rarely need to see the doctor (even with children), shouldn’t they be allowed to pay less for coverage? Isn’t it a good thing to have an incentive for taking charge of your health? We don’t want to punish people with health problems they have through no fault of their own, or special needs children. That is not what I am talking about. I just know there are better ways and any number of options for people to be able to get quality healthcare at an affordable price without socializing medicine. There are also Christian groups that have cost-sharing which works in the same kind of way as making insurance payments, but it is not a company trying to make a profit. When someone has health expenses, the money is there for payment.

One of the things I noticed during the Republican primaries was that everyone who was running at that time had valuable opinions on nearly every issue. When I saw the Republicans debate, I saw men looking for answers to problems, and debating about the different ways to solve problems. They talked of specific ideas and plans to address different issues. It looked like if you only had that group of men working together, they could probably come up with a sensible solution for everything facing our nation. By contrast, when I saw the Democrats debating, I saw a lot of government-speak, a lot of vague notions and generalizations, a sort of elitist attitude towards the American people. I am not picking on Democrats on purpose, it was just something I saw. If I could have heard something encouraging from them, I would say so. I will give credit anywhere it is due. The fact is, healthcare, like all of the other issues our nation faces, is best addressed by people looking to solve problems by spending the least amount of taxpayers’ money, in the most efficient and legitimate manner possible. Empowering individuals and private businesses or corporations is good for the country as they encourage competition and capitalism. There are probably a lot of illegitimate government programs now, but the Department of Defense is one area that should never be skimped on. It must remain strong, with the best and brightest people working in it. It is a legitimate job of the government as defined by the Constitution. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are some of the inalienable rights that the Founding Fathers said you and I are endowed by our Creator with. These are rights, according to the Constitution. It is our responsibility, then, to take care of our lives, and use our liberties in profitable ways. We can pursue happiness as long as we are not robbing someone else of theirs. We have so much freedom in this country. But with freedom comes responsibility. In fact, freedom demands it. If you have freedom without responsibility, what happens to you? You begin to think everything is owed to you, and you shouldn’t have to work for anything. And in so doing, the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, should and shouldn’t all begin to blur. Everything is relative. The Constitution was not written for that kind of people. This is why a socialist government cannot rightly exist under our Constitution. It won’t work and it doesn’t need to be tried.

I would really be interested in hearing anyone’s thoughts on this matter. I welcome your comments!

Ever since I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984 (I wasn’t quite old enough in 1980), I have seen the political/governmental scene pretty much in black and white. That is, it is not hard to take a stand on an issue when you fully understand it, have convictions, and can understand the implications. Most political issues are not hard to decipher, and choosing good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, efficient vs. wasteful, etc. is not a difficult thing, except that people make it so. It used to be that governing was fairly simple. Would that we could get back to that as a nation.

It is ideal biblically for righteous men to rule countries. It is preferred that every family would have a godly husband, a godly stay-at-home wife, and a full quiver of believing children. It is prefered that there would be enough income for the wife to hire household help or a cook or an assistant or a gardener so that she could devote more time to educating the children, or more time to running her business from home. It would be nice that the godly man could be independently wealthy enough so that he could hold political office and see to it that his city, state, or country is being run in a righteous manner and in a way that would secure God’s blessing (Proverbs 11:12). Would that all of us could live like that, right?

The truth is, not enough of us do live like that. We might have the ideals or the structure, but not the income. Perhaps there are a lot of godly men that would like to run for office, but they feel they can’t leave their jobs or businesses to run a campaign. Or they don’t want to put their family through the trouble. So the good men sit out of the game, while the lesser men get to play, and make up the rules the good men then have to live by. It doesn’t matter if they make bad rules, the good men can’t do anything about it because they can’t make the sacrifices that are required to challenge them. And some good men try to run for office, but they are never serious contenders because they have tried to make a party (a team if you will) that isn’t even good enough to get in the game. Other times it just takes time and several elections before a man can get elected. But the truth is, most irresponsible and down-right wicked legislation have come into being in the past, because the righteous were not paying attention, and were not involved politically when they had the chance. They were sequestered in their churches, distracted with trying to earn a living, worrying about taking care of their children the way the humanist experts were telling them they had to, and looking forward to when the kids were out of the house and they could retire and travel or have an easy life to do what they wanted to do. Somewhere along the way, humanism and socialism crept into the Church and the Government, and the average common man and woman decided politics was dirty and that he or she had no real say anyway. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that pre-born babies did not have any constitutional right and under the “right to privacy” a woman could abort her baby legally for any reason, at any time. No one noticed that women’s lives were being wrecked, leaving a blood trail that led to, well, the Church, for its failure to speak up for the innocent without a voice, and to those that had appointed the Justices, as well as those Justices that were sitting on the Court. Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty was not only not being won, but was sending the country spiraling into a black hole of debt. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s temporary social programs to help get the country back on its feet after the Depression in the 1930’s, had taken hold on the U.S. Treasury like a malignant growth that would only spread and never go away. The lie of evolution and atheism flourished in the 1960’s and the educational system has never recovered. Even worse, it bred a generation of skeptics that now teach that skepticism in universities across this country. And by the late ’70’s, we realized that thanks to Jimmy Carter and his wisdom, women began wearing combat boots which caused a whole new world of problems, the effects of which would not be fully seen for another decade. At the same time, a new big threat to our country in the form of the massive Soviet Union, was hovering over our debt-laden, ill-prepared, morally- depraved country. Our military had become so weak, beaten down and ridiculed by the spoiled hippy generation and their Marxist leaders in Congress that there wasn’t a whole lot of enthusiasm on the part of young people to serve in the Armed Forces. I honestly believe that if Ronald Reagan had not run for President and put forth some sensible values and ideas that resonated with the majority of Americans, this country would have been on the verge of destruction. This is when some conservative Christians began to wake up and get serious about trying to shape policy in Washington, instead of being shaped by the policy of a minority of Marxist politicians. If you think Marxist is too strong of a word, do a little research and you will see how liberalism is Marxism re-heated, warmed over and microwaved. It is anti-God, anti-family, anti-capitalist, and anti-liberty, with the notion that those elitists ruling over you know what is better for you than you do, hence, you don’t need liberty – you just need them. So if you don’t think we have done enough wrong in this country to provoke the judgment of God, think again.

So enter John McCain and Barack Obama. I guess you could say enter Bob Barr, too, and whomever is the Constitutional Party candidate, and Ralph Nader, and anyone else that just thinks it would be cool to be on the ballot. I think that although any party that wants can run for President, it is really only a choice between 2 parties for the actual winner. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but that is the way it is. You can vote your conscience anyway you want. I heard Glenn Beck tell Mitt Romney that he didn’t have to vote either Republican or Democrat, that he could vote a third party like Bob Barr. He said, “It is not a wasted vote if you vote for something you believe in.” I think it depends on what implications a vote for a third party candidate will be. In 1992, Ross Perot received almost 19% of the popular vote. Bill Clinton won that election with 43% of the vote. Ross Perot’s presence in that election very likely threw the victory to Bill Clinton, when otherwise, Pres. George H.W. Bush would have won. People that voted for Ross Perot, and many I know were Christians, helped get Pres. Clinton elected. Pres. Clinton appointed 2 very liberal Supreme Court Justices.

But back to Barack Obama and John McCain. Folks, we are running out of time. Perhaps in 30 years, after everyone with large, homeschooling families have raised their children and their children have children that are of voting age, perhaps this country will be able to elect only godly men to political office, and make over this nation in the image of its Founders to whom the godly mandate to subdue the land and pursue life, liberty and property ownership was the essence of their vision of a free nation under God. But if Barack Obama is elected and able to put into practice his policies which are guided by principles he learned being a disciple of Saul Alinsky (who by the way dedicated his book, Rules For Radicals to Satan), then that opportunity likely will never come to godly families in this nation. His policies will set this nation back so far it may never recover. Furthermore, is not the voice of millions of aborted babies’ blood crying out to the Lord from this nation? Would we not be guilty, those of us who vote for Obama or a third party candidate who hasn’t a prayer of winning, of having blood on our hands? Are we going to get so hung up on finding some kind of fault with Mrs. Palin or Mr. McCain that we abdicate our responsibility and give the enemy an opportunity to take some more blood? Can someone please, anyone, give me the wisdom in this?

As for Mrs. Palin, a Christian woman, a mother of 5 children, a wife who admires her husband more than anyone else in this world, well, is it just possible that she is doing the will of God? Let us look at Judges 4 and 5 at the account of Deborah. As a general background, the book of Judges records the accounts of Israel’s deterioration after the death of Joshua and its failure to complete the conquest of Canaan. During these times the people go through cycles of oppression and deliverance, lack of faith in God and lack of obedience to Him and drift eventually into moral depravity. The male leaders are failing to lead the nation, and allow compromises and adopt the pagan practices of Canaan. The judges are the military and civil leaders during this period, and Deborah happens to be one of them. How she got to her position we are not told. We know she is a wife, and we know she is a mother. Here is an example of how God used a righteous woman to move reluctant men to obedience to His commands, for the sake of the nation. Read Judges 4:1-9:

“Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. And the sons of Israel cried to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron chariots and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for 20 years.
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging at that time. And she used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgement. Now she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Napthali and from the sons of Zebulun.
And I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon; and I will give him into your hand.’” Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.”

The story continues with Deborah and Barak (interesting that this subject happens to have the same name as Sen. Obama, isn’t it?) and the troops went to face the army of Sisera. During that battle, the Scriptures say that the Lord routed Sisera’s entire army “with the edge of the sword before Barak” (vs. 15), and Sisera jumped out of his chariot and high-tailed it away on foot. Barak took off after the chariots and the army and wound up slaying Sisera’s entire army. Now let me back up to vs. 11 which says. “Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.” I will finish out the story giving you verses 17-24:

“Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kennite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. And he said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No’.
But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.
So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. And the hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.”

You may wonder why I include these gruesome verses. I think if you understand the times that Israel was living through, it seems apparent that Deborah was used to stir up the men to their rightful work. Even so, Barak was unwilling to go and do the rightful work unless she went with him. It appears that he was actually afraid of going without Deborah. That cowardice insured that he would not be the hero to actually snag Sisera, but rather a woman would do it. And we would see that a woman actually had the courage to see to it that Sisera would not get away. It is good to read the Song of Deborah and Barak in chapter 5, but there is one verse I want to note. Judges 5:7 : “The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel.” Did you see that? Deborah defines herself a”mother” in Israel. I don’t know if she had young children at the time or older children, but she must have had some children to call herself a “mother.” This was the title she cherished. It is the title Sarah Palin cherishes.

I think at this time in our nation, we need more good leaders, but until we have enough righteous men doing the job, we have to accept righteous women. There is too much corruption, too much wickedness and too much apathy in many of our elected leaders. There needs to be term-limits in Congress, but Congress doesn’t want to limit itself, because the members there don’t want to give anyone else the chance to do the job. As a result many people become entrenched and corrupted, and deceived by their own deceitfulness, and making up their own rules to satify their lusts and wicked agenda. There are a few good people doing an excellent job, but not near enough. And as wonderful as this country is, and as blessed as we are, if we do not humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and turn to Him and beg His forgiveness for our complacency and take seriously what doth He require of us, then we could be at risk of losing our blessings and freedoms. May God help us do the right thing.

“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

~ II Chronicles 7:12-14