America has a smorgasbord of beauties to choose from every ethnicity.

For particular attributes I find alluring its Colombian and Puerto Rican women...

Not only are authority figures scrutinized for profiling behavior, now with modern technology even in our remote rural county video cam vests and/or patrol cars catch every event so there's solid and mostly indisputable evidence during arrests to take to court if accusations are made.

Our main problem in the USA is overpopulation from forgotten morals and illegal immigrants with no family structure. IMO. But without the taxes of those who pay them to provide what little basic living expenses the system dependents need to survive our country would literally be in chaos.

I know a lot of functional people begrudge the dysfunctional poor and needy who might also be alcoholic drug abusers trying to numb the shame they often deal with as a have not. But there's just as many alcoholic drug addicts in the middle and upper classes too. And the only difference in people's positions in life is accessibility. Doors are open for some that are held shut to others. Again IMO.

OMGoodness... I've had enough for now... between the tender skin on my palms and fingers blistering from the steering wheel to getting knocked in the head with branches laden with apples ready for picking, I've just about had my workout for the day... at least I've got a few rays to put some color back in my cheeks... after all I much prefer the sun kissed look to the pale of the shade... but I think I'll wait until it cools off this evening before I do the detail pushing work.

Well it's time to mow once again... riding the open spaces...



... and pushing the tight spots...



... even have to cut some overhanging limbs... and pull some weeds...

Social scientists have found that children growing up in single parent families are disadvantaged in other ways when compared to two biological parent families.

Many of these problems are directly related to the poor economic condition of single parent families, not just to parenting style.

These children are at risk for the following:

lower levels of educational achievement
twice as likely to drop out of school
more likely to become teen parents
more conflict with their parent(s)
less supervised by adults
more likely to become truants
more frequently abuse drugs and alcohol
more high-risk sexual behavior
more likely to join a gang
twice as likely to go to jail
four times as likely to need help for emotional and behavioral problems
more likely to participate in violent crime
more likely to commit suicide
twice as likely to get divorced in adulthood

Studies have also found that children who live in a two parent family where one parent is abusive or has a high level of antisocial behavior do not do as well as children whose parents divorce if the child then lives in a single parent family with the nonabusive parent.

Read more: http://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Single-Parent-Families.html#ixzz36ghwYkBu



There's so many dysfunctional without prospects for beneficial education, careers, or stable coexistent/loving relationships that drugs either numb the hopelessness or bring excitement to the psyche and become the only form of entertainment and distraction while jails/prisons are their home away from homes.

Prisons often times provides those who've grown up and known only pillar to post with a family type environment where some become the female to their male partner and may live happily ever after with the modern day comforts they wouldn't have on the outside.

Once being paroled etc., they'd rather go back in where the familiar stability is much preferred over the solitude of a branded existence. From what I've learned...

Then there's the innocent being locked up... I'm not saying it's right, but it would seem that something about their lifestyles may have put them in a position to be an easier target for an already quasi-corrupt legal system that doesn't need much of a nudge to incarcerate somebody for the crimes being committed.

And I'm wondering if black men are just being reported about more than white men when it pertains to the % data? And what about Mexicans?

I think it's very telling of the times when the first commandment God gave the Children of Israel after He rescued them from their oppressors was "NOT" to have any other gods to worship in place of Him.

God wanted His children to address Him directly. But feeling the weight of the guilt of sin and rebellion they preferred to have a human intermediary speak for and to them.

By this stage of their journey out of sin and degradation back to the intimate closeness with the Creator, they'd seen what the God of heaven and their forefathers could do to His enemies the Egyptians for turning their hearts and minds away from Him and His innate authority.

So having been psychology broken and scarred by the harsh taskmasters and will of the Pharaohs the Isrealites lacked all faith in His love and tender mercy and instead equally feared Him too.



I think in order to understand the full scope of why God found it necessary to create the Ten Commandments in stone and have Moses present and teach them to His people after freeing them from bondage to unbelievers, we have to go back to the beginning.



According to Genesis God originally created the earth and everything on it for His enjoyment. He also created a man and woman as a married couple, husband and wife, so they could procreate while working together tending the Garden of Eden, His special meeting place where they could socialize with God directly.

Given that God created our original ancestors, Adam and Eve as full grown adults who lacked survival skills and the knowledge of good and evil (rebellion and sin) He instructed them about what they could eat and what they could do for their own good health and safety.

As their Creator/Father, God also instructed them about the importance of resting from their daily labor and taking time to commune with Him every 7th day.



Apparently in the beginning man, animal and bugs alike all were to eat green herbs and fruit for food.

And God gave Adam strict instructions about NOT eating from the ONE and ONLY tree that was forbidden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.



Apparently God created the animals and man alike directly from the ingredients existing in the earth. This is an awesome idea to contemplate even if I cannot truly fathom it.

Right from the onset of creation God bestowed on Adam the power and responsibility to lead.



Then God created a woman, Eve, to stand by a man's side, Adam, to help him rule.



According to Scripture it was Adam that God was speaking directly too when giving instructions. And now a serpent speaks directly to Eve and she carries on a conversation with it. She even trusts it enough to take its advice to disobey her husband and Father, God.

Once guilty of sin and rebellion, Eve talks Adam into eating the forbidden fruit too. Adam knew better but apparently his love for his wife was so strong that he didn't want to lose her so he rebelled too.

I assume that up to this point nothing had died so Adam and Eve didn't really know what the consequences of death truly meant.



Both could feel the weight and shame of the guilt they equally shared and in their naivete they thought they could hide it from their Creator/Father.

But of course Adam, rather than manning up and confessing his own disobedience he immediately blamed Eve for his personal actions.



And of course Eve followed her husband's example and blamed the serpent for her personal actions.

But now Eve was no longer Adam's equal. Now because of her weakness and rebellion she was to be ruled by her husband. And Adam would toil and struggle to take care of his family.

...



Cain was jealous of his brother Abel because God favored Abel's offering of the best of his flock that symbolized his obedience to God's instructions and Christ's future self sacrifice.

While God detested Cain's offering that consisted of the best of his garden. Rather than Cain honoring and obeying God he was showing off his skill and bounty not realizing it was God who made his garden fruitful, it wasn't because of Cain's sweat and toil.

The hatred that Cain felt toward his brother that inspired him to murder is the same hatred Jesus would endure hanging on the cross for our sins of disobedience and rebellion. And His death and self sacrifice would ensure our debts would be paid to pave the way for our reunion with God the Father some day.

When Cain killed Abel it was another instance of good vs evil, Satan vs God. And it was the beginning of the path that would divide everyone's footsteps either leading in one direction or the other.

Those who will humble themselves and become like little children obeying God and His instructions...

Or those who are arrogant and proud of their abilities and accomplishments who follow their own ways and ideals instead...

And just like our first parents, Adam and Eve, rather than accepting personal responsibility for the decisions we make and actions we take we tend to like to blame everybody else for why we do things.

But ultimately, according to Scripture we will ALL answer individually for every word and deed.



You may wonder what genealogy has to do with the Ten Commandments, but unless you know the whole story behind why they were created in the first place there relevance to us today may not be so apparent. IMO.

Plus, if we do take the bible at face value it's cool to see what it says about where all the real talent and sin originally sprang from.



If we know anything about human nature it's that when things are going good we tend not to seek the Lord's guidance or blessings, it's only when something bad happens that we may instinctively call out His name and begin praying, "Dear God, PLEASE HELP ME/US!"

So we assume that it was the same way back then because as the old saying goes, "If we don't remember the past we are doomed to repeat it."

Well, the men began calling on the name of the Lord for some reason, so we have to dig deeper into the Word to appease our curiosity.



Because I find the Scriptures so enlightening, and yes, sometimes they are confusing too, I personally spent about 5 years researching and studying them daily during my first marriage when my ex and I were members in leadership positions at our church.

We didn't own a TV or listen to the radio either so I had plenty of downtime to fill when I was alone at home. Needless to say I developed family tree charts and all just to simplify the bible story in my own head.

And it was a pretty cool experience, although now nearly 30 years after I walked away from it all to get a job in the secular world does my memory need some refreshing too.