There are so many excellent bloggers and nominees. Please take time to visit the blogs before casting your vote. It is tempting to just vote for the blogs you currently visit. But please take the time to visit all the blogs before you cast your votes. And don't forget to view the rules, get more details and vote!

Lastly, the voting system is absolutely awesome! Jake at StillThinking did an incredible job constructing an automated voting system. It will make voting and tabulating so much more easier. Oh yes, and yours truly spent over 4 hours copying/pasting names and URL's into the database.

Get over there and vote!

(Just so everyone knows, I was nominated in Best Teen blogger and Best Inspirational and Beauty from the Heart was nominated for best Group Blog. Now I'm not trying to hint, but I thought I'd let you all know. )

I am going to continue in my study of 2 Timothy. I talked about the first chapter in two different posts (post one and post two). Today I'll be moving on to the second chapter. Take a look at 2 Timothy 2:15:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

As Christians, we should try and present ourselves as good workmen to God. Often, we try and please God and others at the same time. We should not be distracted by what others think in the world or what our friends say. We should be taking our cues from Christ and not from this world. Often times we try and "straddle the fence" or get as close to "the line" as much as possible. Instead we should try and be close to God as possible. We should not be ashamed of who we are in Christ. There are many times when I am. The culture seeks to conform me to its image and keep me from being a workman for God.

How do we come against this? Paul says, "we are to correctly handle the word of truth." It is the Word of God that will keep us from being ashamed of who we are in Christ. We must renew our minds daily with the washing of HIS word. How many of us would think of going without a shower? Our own pride will keep us indoors and away from EVERYBODY. I dread the thought of it. But when I'm not in God's Word that's exactly what I'm doing. The Word of God is shampoo for my brain. It scrubs out the ideas that the world wants to deposit and leaves my mind renewed in Christ.

If I am willing to spend time on my outward appearance, how much more should I spend time studying the Word of God?

Due to the busyness of the last couple of days, I haven't had time to write another post on 2 Timothy (see posts one and two). However, I am not going to stop this series. Look for another post within the next day or two.
~~~~
Don't forget about that the Homeschool Blog Awards are going on. My mom is still taking nominations! Get over there and nominate your favorite homeschool blogs today.
~~~~
David at Oneway Purpose has an awesome post about qualifications and Germany (when doesn't David have an awesome post?). He adds some interesting thoughts to an article from Reuters that you don't want to miss.

Now, I read the article and am going to add my own commentary (not that David's was bad, I am just taking my thoughts in a slightly different direction).

Germans value letters attached to their name more than money, love or having children with nine out of ten rating a good qualification as their most important aim in life, a survey showed Wednesday

In essence, this is making Germany's population severely decline. Many are preferring letters next to their names rather than the legacy of children. I don't know about everyone else, but I sure would much rather have children than a "PhD" or a "Dr." next to my name (I'm not against higher education, by the way). My mom is a classic example of this and she's one of my role models.

She has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. She was making an incredible amount of money by the time she graduated from college. She also got married at 23 and had me at 26. Quoting from her Choosing Home article:

I gave my life to Christ my first year there [at college]. Through excellent discipleship and fellowship God was able to root out many false notions that had been deposited in my youth. Christ also gave me an inner confidence that I had lacked. But I held firm on marriage. It wasn't for me. Many others were there for an "Mrs." degree but I was all business. I majored in computers. This suited my logical and analaytical skills fairly well. And an added bonus, the corporations were hungry for women in this field so I figured finding a job would be easy after graduation.

My mom had no interest in marriage. But God had other plans for her.

This was also the time when I took my first "real" job as a computer sales representative for a company in our area. I quickly excelled in my job. I was learning nearly $4000 a month selling computers. The PC industry was booming and so was my career. Full steam ahead. But then came the choice.

Choosing Home.

Fortunately for my mom, God made it very clear what He wanted her to do. She stopped working and stayed home and had kids. My mom is a great encouragement to me in this area. In a world that encourages women to join the workforce, she's a voice who has encouraged me to keep going "against the current".

Getting back the the original article, it really boils down to what we value and are we open to input from God. If so, we should listen to His leading and not our own.

(See my post on Staying Home and College for more reading.)