Praise the Lord and Pass the Maple Syrup

The IHOP - International House of Pancakes is suing the IHOP - International House of Prayer for using its acronym.

IHOP, the restaurant, claims that the dueling monikers confuse its patrons.

I am not sure how that flows out... by "confusing the patrons", do they mean that they fear that typical customers of IHOP, the restaurant, will wander into various locations of IHOP, the church, in search of a Rooty-Tooty-Rich-and-Fruity?

I mean, if the absence of sticky substance on the floors isn't a dead give-away that you are not in the IHOP, the restaurant - wouldn't you notice immediately that there are no booths or tables ... and that the menus bear a remarkable likeness to hymnals?

Or is it the other way around?  Does IHOP, the restaurant, feel concerned that members of the IHOP, the church, may wander into one of their establishments in hopes of enjoying a "heavenly feast" of "eternal delectables"?

"Margaret, I couldn't wait to get out of that service - did you notice how sticky those floors were?  And I couldn't hear a word the preacher said -in fact I never saw him! .... and don't you think the way those folks carried on communion was just a little unorthodox!?"

"Well Nevin, maybe its one of them new-fangledy restaurant churches where they all sit around and be RELEVANT together..."

It seems to me that IHOP, the restaurant, is being petty.  Shouldn't a restaurant be happy about anyone walking in the door - even if they arrive under false pretenses?

I would proclaim myself "done with" IHOP, the restaurant, but I already don't go there.  As my readers know, the Waffle House is my breakfast boutique of choice! You walk into that establishment and hear a hardy "Good Mornin' Sweetie" along with a cacophony of clinking silverware, slapping spatulas and the jukebox - you know you are not in church!

Besides the argument is moot.

I just heard that the church has relented.  They will be giving up their name and as a body, they have decided to go with a new name that better reflects their sense of unity of purpose. 

They will now be called - the Kingdom Fellowship Church.. . . .   or KFC for short....

Okay, I just made up that last part.

The 9-11 Speech

September Eleventh

I presumed that a majority of bloggers would be noting the day with words of remembrance - but so far I haven't seen a lot.

I heard a brief tribute on the radio today and I noticed that as newscasts from the actual event were playing our car grew silent.  It was Ab, AA and me and the car grew silent.

AA wasn't born yet when Islamic Extremists pulled off their dastardly attack, Ab was not yet three.

I still cannot put down the emotions - still don't understand them.  Mixed with anger and deep sadness - there is a sense of pride in the noble character of so many involved.  There is still a taste of unity in the memories as well - that day, we sincerely asked folks how they were doing... were they okay?

Today I am sad though, not so much because of the magnitude of that infamous event, but because we failed to properly respond.  I'm not talking about our military. 

We, as a nation, were handed a great opportunity to turn around.  I want get into the argument of whether God brought 9-11 on or not - it happened.
I do believe that God can use every event that we encounter to make us better. 

For an all to brief time, we were better.  I think it was probably one election cycle. We remained unified, the American flag was displayed prominently everywhere, congressional representatives even through out the bogus "invisible wall of separation"  church and state, junk for a time and Democrat and Republican alike join in an impromptu singing of "God Bless America" on the capital steps.

Then it all changed.  Politics and the urge for power crept in.

Today we are more worried about congress and the President destroying the American Ideal than terrorists.  We are keeping our friends at arms length while embracing our enemies.  Reasonable, honest people with common sense are questioning whether some of our basic freedoms will remain in place for long.

In that brief radio tribute I heard today, I listened to excerpts from then President Bush's first address after the attacks.  Say what you will, that man brought honor to the office of President.  I remembered the confidence his words provoked.

I did not like everywhere he lead us, but he was our last great leader - hopefully not the very last. 

Someone once said that we didn't fail the tests God handed us, we just have to take them over and over again until we get them right.  That may not sync with your theology, but we do tend to go through things over and over . . .  I believe St. James said "whom the Lord loves, He chastens . . ."

Perhaps all of this turmoil we are currently facing as a nation... economic recession, overwhelming overhauls and the like, are just another test. 

Perhaps we could turn back to the right path; maybe we still have a chance.

As we think back to that clear day, nine years ago and consider the near 3,000 that died that day list to the challenge from another time as then - President Lincoln stood overlooking the resting place from another act of war....
"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."                                                                                                           Abraham Lincoln

Laborious Labor Day Weekend

Aside from some down time on Sunday afternoon with my siblings and parents, the Labor Day weekend was fairly non-stop.

Very UNnatural for me.

After a late high school football game Friday night, Saturday was crammed full of yard work until the mid to late afternoon.  That's when we packed up the lawn mower and tent and stuff and headed to some property my father-in-law recently acquired behind their place.  There we cleared a spot and set up camp:

This would be our second camp out of the year and all less than one mile from our front door.

Ab and our faithful friend, Tanner, a constant
at all our "near home" camp outs.

AA took some target practice - it's just an AIR RIFLE ...

and the ammunition is NOT lead.

Status Report

Well it is Labor Day and I am finally getting a few moments of downtime during this leisurely long weekend, to visit the blog.

You may notice some changes if you are one of the three or four folks that regularly visit here: 

• I am putting "playlist" to rest for awhile - I haven't added any new music lately and I realized that the first thing I usually do when I visit the blog is to turn it off or turn my volume down. 
• I have been using Statcounter.com a couple of years now.  This allows me to track traffic to the blog - but I really don't go there very often.  Google now provides some stats so I will probably suspend the other option for a time.
• Some of you are followers through Facebook and  Networkedblogs.com - thanks to all 8 of you!!!  Well, apparently Google is going to stop supporting this app very soon, so that option may go away.

Thanks to all of you that visit here occasionally and especially to those that comment.
As always my hope is that this blog will present items worth reading.

- The Management