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A Labor of Love

Earlier this morning I was listening to a recording of Kristen Stapp singing Andrew Peterson’s song, A Labor of Love.

I was reflecting on the amazing truths communicated by these lyrics. Perhaps one reason I was so caught up in the meaning is that for this Christmas season I have been thinking about Mary, her faith, and her personal sacrifice. This scripture gives us a glimpse into Mary’s relationship with her God:

…and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me -
holy is his name.

Quite a statement for a teen who finds herself pregnant outside of marriage in a society that is willing to put women in her situation to death. Amazing faith, it really was a “labor of love.”

Sorry I can’t share Kristen’s version, but this video is worth a prayerful look and listen.

Lyrics to Labor Of Love
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Parents Missing the Opportunity to Connect?

Are parents missing the opportunity to connect?

A recent study by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America concluded that “parents who are waiting for the right time to talk with their kids about drugs and alcohol may be missing every day opportunities to connect on this important issue”

Apparently, “Generation Text” has arrived. 63% of teens say they are more likely to communicate by texting than by relying on websites to stay connected. Consequently, parents may be able to use text messaging as another tool to stay in touch with their kids.

“While nothing can take the place of an in-person conversation between parents and teens, for some parents, emails, cell phone conversations, and even texting can help start a conversation with a reluctant teen and reinforce talks you’ve already had…”

What Rick Warren is Praying for Barack Obama

It’s hard not to be impressed with Rick Warren’s thoughtful response to the question about what he would pray for President-elect Barack Obama. What impressed me was that Rick Warren was humble enough to realize that he has exactly the same needs.

Do you agree with Rick’s assessment of Barack Obama’s unique position?

Who is the one doing the influencing and who is being influenced?

A Gift for the Geek in Your Life

Stumped for a great Christmas gift idea for your favorite geek? Here’s a great idea with a great deal.

How about a portable hard drive? Most of us know we should keep backups of our data, but sometimes, it just seems to hard. Well, I have three of these that I use regularly to keep all my important data backed up. They allow me to backup my data easily and carry it to an off site location.

Here’s what I like about these drives:

• Powered directly from the USB port on your computer. There is no need for a separate plug. (The USB cable is even included!)
• Compatible with both Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and Macintosh (OS X 10.4.11+) computers. (I use them on both.)
• Light and easy to carry in your pocket, backpack, or briefcase.
• If you don’t have a backup plan, the drive comes with sync software that includes 128=bit encryption for security. (Windows only.)
• I found a great deal at Amazon where you pick one of these up for just $79.

Just to give you an idea of the capacity, According to the Western Digital site, this drive can hold:

• Up to 71,000 digital photos
• Up to 62,000 songs (MP3)
• Up to 6,250 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
• Up to 19 hours of Digital Video (DV)
• Up to 110 hours of DVD quality video
• Up to 30 hours of HD video

Western Digital My Passport Essential 250 GB | via Amazon

Did Time Get It Right?

Just finished going through the list of Time Magazine’s Ten Essential Sites. There list includes Wikipedia, Yahoo! Finance, CraigsList, ESPN, Yelp, Facebook, Digg, Google, TMZ, and Flickr.

These are the sites that Time says they can’t live without. According to the article, the are “sites that you go to over and over again that never fail.” My problem, I only use five of their sites regularly. However, I did enjoy their take on one of the sites I am on daily:

If MySpace is a PC, then Facebook is a Mac.”

So, what about you? Did Time get it right? How many of these sites are on your list of essentials? What sites would be on your list of essentials that you can’t live without?

Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T

At last, an easy way for logging into the the free hotspots that AT&T offers to iPhone users. Using a new version of Easy Wi-Fi that appeared in the app store over the holiday weekend makes the process dead simple.

The Original Process

While the free wifi is great, the old process for logging in was painful. You had to:

A Better Way

With this app, the process is much easier: Connect to the Wi-Fi network, launch the app and it will log you in.

This version is trivial to set up too – you just need to enter your 10 digit AT&T iPhone number into the settings page.

This link will take you to the Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T page in iTunes.

Note: You may want to act quickly on this. According to this MacWorld article:

The program, which can also simplify access to a number of free hotspots that require you to click through a page, is free for the next for the next few days, but as of December 5th, it will jump to $2. Devicescape also offers a $2 version of the Easy Wi-Fi program that helps remember usernames and passwords for other Wi-Fi hotspot networks that you might access; owners of that program can use it for logging on to AT&T’s hotspots as well.