I watched two movies recently that I highly recommend. The first is Fireproof, a movie that many of you have seen and appreciated for its straightforward message to couples to keep their marriages together. Though I recommend watching it, I am about to heap some criticism on it.

Fireproof is about a struggling marriage. The husband, Caleb, is in a rush to divorce before his father steps in with a challenge: stick it out for 40 days. Caleb accepts the challenge and begins to take steps to keep his marriage together. Caleb’s father gives him a handwritten book applying a principle of relationships for each of the 40 days. Caleb slowly starts putting his wife before himself in all areas suggested in his father’s book, learning the difficult process loving once more.

My dad and I, both writers, said that it was a good movie, but was unrealistic. (Don’t get me wrong: I still recommend the movie. It is worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet.) Picture a divorced person seeing that movie. They will come out of the theater disgusted because, they would reason, it doesn’t always work to love a spouse who doesn’t love back. There was an us-vs-them thing going on, too. Caleb became a Christian in the process of his 40 days, and suddenly everything worked. All sorts of things just happened to work out, like Caleb living next to a Christian campground with scenic walks and wooden crosses.

The Christian walk seldoms works so simply. What if your spouse still divorces after your conversion, or perhaps because you became a Christian, does that invalidate Christianity? Life can be ugly, and our faith doesn’t clean it all up in a snap. The movie seemed “preachy” and I couldn’t help but wonder how non-Christians would respond to its message.

Writers differentiate between “telling” a story and “showing” it. While Fireproof walked through principles of marital relationships by “telling” them with the help of Caleb’s father and his 40-day journal, better stories will “show” the depth of truth through the actual events.

I recall a sermon by Dr. S.M. Davis years ago of when the prophet Nathan confronted David of his adultery. Nathan didn’t go to him and shout, “You are wicked to do what you did!” Instead, he told a story of a rich man with many sheep killing the poor man to take his one lamb. David became enraged at Nathan’s story, making the truth of David’s sin so vivid.

There is power in story, which is why Jesus spoke many times in parables. In the same way, movies could be written so that basic morals are “shown,” rather than merely “told.” The audience wouldn’t feel like truth was thrown in their face.

Fireproof was good, but I liked Pendragon: Sword of His Father, a movie that was made by a handful of large home-school families and lots of volunteers, better. My sister, Lydia, and I bought it for my brother’s 13th birthday, and we watched it as a family last night.

This is an ameteur movie, but the acting, score, plot, costumes, cameras, editing, sets, and choreography were surprisingly well done. Rather then sit with his friend over coffee to discuss whether God should be followed or not, Artos (the main character) refuses to choose power or riches over the lives of others. I loved princess Wenneveria, who was played by Artos’s real-life sister. Her character was another example of showing the audience clearly what a strong woman looks like. No one needed to say, “Artos is a great guy” or “Wenneveria is a great woman”; the events of the story proved it.

The old saying “practice what you preach” reflects the conflict between showing and telling. I sometimes “tell” others of my faith, making sure they know I’m a Christian by my words. Showing my faith to others must be so much more obvious. The actions I take need to say that I am humble, and I am in love with Jesus. This doesn’t mean that I’m always going to succeed at showing, but my actions are critical to reflecting Christ.

Get these movies and watch them. They’re both worth your time. You’ll see what I mean: actions speak louder than words. This reminds me of the Brennan Manning quotation used in the prelude to DC Talk’s song “What If I Stumble?”:

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

The Rocky Mountain Classic Tournament took place over the weekend in Denver. Tournament season typically turns our lives upside down, but it is so worth it. Cynthia, Lydia and Isaiah all competed. The only sour news is that Isaiah (13) didn’t qualify to the Regional Tournament with his Calvin & Hobbes humorous interpretive speech, but it was his first year in speech. We’re quite proud of his hard work nonetheless. Cynthia and Lydia did quite well.

Cynthia didn’t qualify in two events, though she’s sort of relieved. She had two scripted speeches, one Open Interpretation and one Persuasive. They were both good, but scripted speeches just don’t do well with her. She is much more of a limited-preparation speaker: Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Impromptu. The latter two she had secured qualification in previous tournaments, but the RMC was her last chance to qualify in L-D debate.

Cynthia did fantastic! Not only did she enter outrounds with a 4-2 record, she advanced to quarterfinals. She was beat on a 2-1 decision by one of the best limited-prep speakers in the country.

Lydia again did very well with her Original Oratory on “Creativity in Family”: all the way to the final round. She said she sort of biffed it in the last round stumbling over some words. This may not have mattered in the preliminary rounds, but by the time you get to the final round, these little things count. She took 8th place (last) in the final round. Still, she’s excited to once again go all the way to the end, and she’s even more determined to practice hard for our Nationals Qualifier, two weeks away in Colorado Springs.

Does all this sound like fun? SpeechSupplies.com is having their end-of-the-year clearance sale on resources that can help you get a speech/debate program started. Visit their website here and get 50% off anything (good only through tomorrow). Also, the top competitors of the tournament are alumni of our Training Minds Ministry program: see here.

The Jeubs are super-duper busy this weekend. Cynthia, Lydia and Isaiah are all competing at the final regional qualifying tournament, and Micah will be attending as an 11-year-old timer (competitive age begins at 12). The kids will be staying with friends in Denver for the event, while I’ll be commuting to and fro. Cynthia has two events and debate to qualify in, and Isaiah has his Humorous Interpretation. Say a prayer for them!

Would you like to come judge at this tournament? I spoke with the judges’ coordinator this morning (she is also the events coordinator for Training Minds Ministry) and she said they were short 50 judges. Hard to believe, really, because the hospitality for volunteer judges is phenomenal–fantastic food diced up by homeschool moms–and the entertainment is worth it. The speeches and debates are better than you will ever see. If interested, visit rmc.homeschooldebate.net and click on the “Judge Registration” tab at the top. Though this is a 3-day event, you need only select the rounds you are able to make.

By the way, little Zechariah is doing great! He slept through the night Saturday night (a blessing from heaven!), but was sort of restless last night. Maybe it had something to do with his circumcision yesterday.

We usually have a doctor do circumcisions, but this time we connected with a Jewish Rabbi from Denver. He is quite the character! Funny and quick with a joke, he had the circumcision finished in a few minutes, and he filled in the family with the history of the surgical procedure. Call us nutty for thinking so, but it was a great experience.

No, we will not post pictures.

We’re enjoying our little guy, Zechariah Ronald Jeub. He’s perfect. Many of you know the feeling. You could spend all day staring at your newborn child.

But I need to take a break from this perfect little child because I am concerned over his future. Good gravy, check out this video:

Did you catch the recent news? Congress bailed out AIG for over $150 billion of tax-payer money. Remember two months ago–this was part of the $850 billion bailout that Congress didn’t have enough time to read. Congress’ response to some of the fine print was to tax AIG manager bonuses 90% (bonuses that amount to 1/10 of 1% of the total bailout) to cover for their sloppy policy making. Government is now in the business of demonizing companies and managers. Barney Frank is vowing to make these managers names and addresses public. Is this the role of government, to tar and feather managers of private companies? McCotter’s rebuke is right on. This is unconstitutional heresy, McCarthyism turned upside down. If you dare to work hard and strive for bonus incentives, Big Government is coming to make you pay!

Meanwhile, the Feds are taking the biggest risk in the history of the US by printing unprecedented amount of money in order to “save us from deflation.” This is economically moronic. Read this article to shake some fear in you: “Is this the end of America?” This image in the article says it all:

See that spike at the end? That’s printed money. Watch the price for basic groceries skyrocket in coming months, perhaps years. Even the foolish Carter economy didn’t print money to “save” the economy. Now that the price of oil is climbing back up, there is little to stop this economy from tanking further.

Our president was on Jay Leno last night, another historical precident. Just the kind of move to strike confidence in the American people. Funny stuff. He talked about how evil those AIG managers were and how surprised he was that they took incentive-based bonuses. He wants to restore the country to American fundamentals, like politicians actually reading bills before they signed them into law. (Just kidding, he didn’t read the TARP bill, the most expensive spending bill in all of US history.)

Any of you hear about this? Why are you reading this on a family blog for the first time?

Here’s another thing Obama did. He laughed about how his bowling score resembled the Special Olympics…

The Politico quickly covered for this distasteful attempt at humor, claiming the president apologized “in a way that was very moving.” What a spin. The mainstream media is blind to the flaws of the president or the democratically-controlled Congress. Funny, these policies are driving them out of business, yet they still “hope” these policies succeed. While US media keep harping about how Rush Limbaugh dared to hope the president policies fail,* the English papers are having a few laughs at our expense (see the Top 10 Gaffes of Obama and Biden, published in the UK).

There is some good news. We are in the midst of a baby boom, did you know that? The people in charge of our current government and mainstream media claim this to be a bad thing. I know better. As I have always said, people are the driving force of the American economy. When these babies grow up and have to work so hard to pay back all the debt we’re getting them into, I’m sure they will be economically smarter than the lackies we have now.

The funniest cartoons are the ones that are oh-so true. A friend sent me this one. Keep smiling!

Zechariah Ronald Jeub
23 inches (the longest Jeub yet)
9 pounds even

Doesn’t Wendy look great? I snapped this picture of her this morning. Wendy showed strong signs of labor throughout the night, but the Lord blessed her with plenty of sleep. Water broke at 2:00 a.m., but things putsed around all morning. We even took a walk together: an entire mile down our country block and back! Things didn’t start picking up till about 2:00 in the afternoon. That’s when I called our midwife.

The afternoon picked up and Wendy was a fantastic pusher. At 4:40 p.m., the 6th Jeub son surprised us all! God is good!

Isaiah 55:8-9 says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

My Christian walk is often about opposites. I naturally tend to go in one direction, while God calls me to much better. I sometimes don’t understand Him, but neither do the angels or demons, the latter which will use our misunderstandings and weakness against me. In spiritual battle, God’s strategy is high above the Enemy. In the mental world of doctrine and law, God’s way is high above mine: he cares more about me working through the difficulty of relationships than my own tendency to love trivia and knowledge. And in the face of physical illness and death, God sees how I can appreciate my gifts better due to the pain or loss.

I was at a speech and debate tournament last week. I won 6th place in an event that I had just started in two weeks prior to the competitive events and 14th place in a completely random and improvised speech. Nevertheless, I came away disappointed. I had every intention of winning a majority of my debate rounds. Instead, I won only two of my six debate rounds. There were three rounds that I thought I should have won. I even discussed one of these rounds with the opponent I lost to, and he said that he agreed: I deserved to have won. I came home with the seeming failure in debate, feeling confused that so many judges could overlook the kinds of arguments that were so crucial to the issues discussed.

The interesting thing about my experience is that could have gone in two directions with it: Follow the whispers of the spiritual Enemy, or continue to follow the loving guidance of my Father in Heaven. The Enemy was telling me that I’d never succeed because I wasn’t good enough; God was telling me that I was to keep faith, keep trying, and remain content with the results. My dad mentioned in our church meeting Sunday that the Enemy will tell you to be arrogant and refuse to keep challenging yourself, while God’s commands are to remain humble and keep encouraging others.

What I need to learn is to take from experiences like a 2-4 loss in debate and find a level of contentment in it. This goes for all experiences, because if I rely on that particular thing to bring me happiness, then I need to rethink not only happiness itself, but also contentment. I can’t control the results of my actions, but I sure can control my actions.

To illustrate this, let’s look at two songs in popular Christian music. The first is Stacie Orrico’s “More to life”. This particular artist likes to play the game of making her songs to present the problems the world has, without necessarily including the answer to the problem. The lyrics of the song go like this:

I’ve got it all, but I feel so deprived
I go up, I come down and I’m emptier inside
Tell me what is this thing that I feel like I’m missing
And why can’t I let it go

There’s gotta be more to life…
Than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me
Cause the more that I’m…
Trippin’ out thinkin’ there must be more to life
Well it’s life, but I’m sure… There’s gotta be more

It’s no wonder the song is so popular, because so many can relate. I often listen to the song and think to myself, “What is missing?” She concludes that you can’t just be chasing simple short-lived enjoyments, but doesn’t provide the answer. There are a few problems with this mindset, and we’ll name them before getting to the other song.

1. The mindset of temporary “highs” places the expectations of fulfillment too low.

2. The mindset of temporary “highs” allows for a self-centered guide of actions.

3. The mindset of temporary “highs” tells us that all life has to offer is empty, worthless, wasted time.

While these shortcomings are clear, we’re still asking the question, “What’s the answer to fulfillment?” Rebecca St. James answers this question in her song, “That’s what matters”:

I read about this guy once
He seemed to own the earth
As far as big shots go and people in the know… well
He was definitely top of the list
Anything he wanted- he’d get it
Society’s dream
Had lots of stuff- had lots of money
But you know what’s funny?
He said it all was useless
Meaningless- Meaningless
He said “Everything is meaningless…
A chase after the wind”

Don’t wish for a better day
Be glad and use the one you’re in
Fear God and do exactly what He says
That’s what matters
All else fades like the flowers

Of all the things we can spend our lives doing, the only way to attain true fulfillment is to follow God’s teachings. You know what’s great about that? Fulfillment doesn’t have anything to do with circumstances. You can come in first place, last place or somewhere in between and still be fulfilled. It’s crucial for me to remember that my calling is to obey God–not necessarily to win, come out on top, have the best testimony, be among the most talented, or have the best score. It’s all about being the opposite of what the worlds thinks, about doing what God says. All else fades like the flowers.

Colorado just finished its first state qualifier in speech and debate last weekend. It was an exciting weekend! There were three Jeub competitors: Cynthia (16), Lydia (14) and Isaiah (12). A friend sent us this picture she took when Wendy went to judge:

BTW: Wendy is due at the end of the month!

There were two big surprises of the tournament. First, Cynthia went to finals in Extemporaneous Speaking. She’s a great speaker and already qualified to regionals in Impromptu, but she jumped on board Extemp just two weeks ago! Another club in the state allowed Cynthia to join their team. Students are given 30 minutes to prepare a 7 minute speech on a current event topic. We’re so proud of Cynthia for making it so far in Extemp!

The second big surprise was Lydia’s Original Oratory on “Creativity in Family.” She has done quite well with the speech in other tournaments, and this one she made it all the way to the final round. After she preformed in finals, she came out very disappointed in herself. “That was the worst performance I made this entire tournament!” she said. She was shocked as the finalists were called off in the award ceremony:

In two weeks the three will be attending a tournament in Denver. This will be the last chance at qualifying to our regional tournament. Cynthia has two events she still needs to qualify in, and Isaiah needs to make it with his Humorous Interpretation. We hope to post some videos later on these speeches.

I graduated from the 8th Grade with Paul Ryan in Janesville, Wisconsin. He is now a Republican representative taking leadership in the opposition of the government’s economic policies of late. He is published in the Wall Street Journal today: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123595257066605147.html.

Go P.D.!