Dad sues school district after son is punished for cheating?!!?

​A father is suing his son's Northern California school district for throwing the boy out of an honors English class after he was caught cheating.
The sophomore at Sequoia High School in Redwood City copied someone else's essay, which aside from being just plain wrong, also goes against the "honesty pledge" students sign at the beginning of the class, making it explicitly clear that any cheating will result in expulsion from honors courses.

Clear cut, right?

Well, the dad is pointing out a conflicting school policy that says students won't be punished for cheating until the second time they're caught. Um, can the second incidence of cheating be this dad trying to cheat the school system and bend the rules for his kid?

---Is this lawsuit frivolous or fair?

From www.msn.com website.



You are fUll of excuses.

-Ant, I really want to go to Bible study, BUT my friend needs to meet with me at the exact same time as your study...
-Anthony, look for me this week, I'll be there at Bible study! ... (3 hours later, after Bible study ends ...) Hey, Anthony, I don't really know anyone so I just stood home...
-Anth, I am so pumped about learning more about the Bible, BUT ...

Excuses.    Excuses.   Excuses.

I don't know much, but here is something that I do know: 
If you really want to do something in life, you find a way to do it, if not, you find an excuse.

Listen, don't get me wrong, I often feel the same way as you do before I go to church or attend Bible study.  The warm cozy sheets over my body just seem to perform magic and continually lure me back inside of them ... or the number of reasons to avoid Bible study during the week always seem to pile up extra high just as I hit the front door.
I'd share with you an illustration that I often tell my friends at church.
I have a membership at my local YMCA and I try to get there 3-4 times a week.  Every night I have my gym bag packed and ready by the door so I can easily grab it on the way out of my house.  On the way to the gym, I am dreading it.  I am tired. Nothing inside of me wants to be at the gym.  Then I park my car, walk inside, look at all the machines, look at all the weights, look at all the posters of people with no body fat ... and I start. 

As the time passes, something starts to happen inside of me. My mind starts following my body and I begin to sweat, I begin to push around the weights and get stronger.
My friends, I have never regretted leaving the gym.  Ever.
I leave glad that I went and did the right thing. 
I feel good mentally, physically and spiritually afterward.

I submit that the same will happen to you if you stop listening to yourself & start talking to yourself.

Let's take this illustration a step further for a second because there is another parallel here that I do not want you to miss.
Your faith is just like a muscle.  If you do not find a way to exercise it, if you neglect it; your faith ---like your muscle will atrophy.   

-You want your faith to resemble this guy btw-

Everyday, you and I have hundreds of excuses holding us back; keeping us further from the person that God has called us to become.  This means you will have to be intentional about growing in your faith. Think about it this way: If you miss a Sunday morning or a Bible study, where else are you going to receive that unique type of teaching?
Sadly, the answer for the vast majority of us is nowhere.
So stop the excuses. 
Make growing spiritually a priority and start growing in your faith!

Do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Romans 12:2

“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” ~G.B. Stern

We both have worked at a job where people put in the minimum amount of effort into their day: 
-We see them walk by the trash can with the crumpled up pieces of paper sitting right next to it.
-We see them drink the last cup of coffee and never make more.

And I am sure that we have all worked (hopefully this line describes you) with a person that goes over and above their job description: 
-The person that not only picks up the paper and throws it away, but walks out to empty the trash.
-The person that after using the last drop of creamer brings more in the next day for everyone to use.

As a leader, realize that both groups get paid the same amount of $oney at the end of the day. So do something nice for the people that make all the difference at your workplace.
------Encourage them.

Let me tell you something, as stated above, since both groups are paid exactly the same, this will lead the people that put in the extra muscle to possibley lose their enthusiasm.  Year after year, they will see that their extra effort really means nothing, and then they will become like every other drone at the workplace.

Suggestion: 
I challenge you to take action and put your appreciation into words for those who make the difference in your workplace.

Take a few moments to simply say “thank you.”

Write a on a Post-It, send an email, drop by their office to tell them how much they are appreciated!

One last thing:

Do not delegate this responsibility and do not do this only once a year.  Encouraging your team needs to be personal and it needs to be consistent.   

Take the effort to send a message to your great workers;

tell them how important their work is to you and to the organization. 

One day, I asked God...

One day, I decided to ask God for everything I wanted...

I asked for strength,

And God gave me difficulties to make me strong;

I asked for wisdom,
And God gave me problems to learn to solve;

I asked for prosperity,
And God gave me brain and brawn to work;

I asked for courage,
And God gave me dangers to overcome;

I asked for love,
And God gave me people to help;

I asked for favors,
And God gave me opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted;

I received everything I needed.

-Galatians 6:9

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap,

if we do not give up."

BE-fore you say, "I Do"

Time for a Hebrew lesson.

The word steadfast love translated in Hebrew is: checed (pronounced He-sed).
It is most often used in the Old Testament to express the active good-will and attitude of mutual blessing that exists between covenant partners (people that make a vow with one another, I.e. married couples.)

It describes the feeling and obligation of mutual blessing found between a husband and wife, two families joined through marriage, or two profound friends.

I believe that marriage vows are the strongest pledge of union possible between two people.  Bride and groom pledge their futures together "for better, for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereunto; and thereto I plight thee my troth."

*[You may be thinking: Anthony, excuse me, but maybe you typed in the wrong ending.  Did you mean to write the last phase?  I plight thee my troth?
...Am I marrying a farm animal?]

That last phrase, "I pledge thee my troth" MEANS, "I pledge to you my most solemn vow and trust you to do so as well."

No matter what the future might hold, the bride and groom are melding their destinies for the rest of their lives and promising to do all within their power to protect, provide for and support one another ... no matter the consequences.

Then, the promise is sealed with a Ring.
A Ring that's circular in nature; that has no beginning and no ending...

Like the promise that you two you will make, when you stand before everyone and take. Placing your hopes and fears...and everything in between as your two lives mesh together and become one. 

Why is this so important?

-Because the best marriages have their foundations built on God-

Period.

God sets the tone, He is our Standard.

The closer walk we have with God

The better off our marriages will be.

Healthy Relationship Advice

Below is an excerpt from the book Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 

Every relationship requires a reorienting of goals.
Think about it,  when two people meet and start dating, they must accept certain constraints that each person alone did not have. 
-Schedules will be realigned.
-Plans will be adapted.
-Morphing of new ideas will take place. 
When two people choose to focus their attention on each other, both will have to change their habits; as a result, the pattern of their lives will have to change. 
Getting married requires a radical and permanent reorientation of habits.
Taken a step further, when a child is added to the mix, both parents (presumably at this point in their relationship, have pretty much the same life goals and worked out the above concept) have to re adapt again to accommodate the needs of the infant. 

-Their sleep cycle changes.

-They go out less often.

-The wife may give up her job.

-Etc.

-Let's get real practical for a moment- 

Before you are in a relationship, you are single.
You basically are responsible for you.
As a bachelor, surely you have many goals and plans that are thrilling.
However, when you enter into a relationship with another person, your goals will have to be rethought. 
And when I say rethought, that means sitting together with your significant other and hashing things out.

Let's use the example of Phil.
As a bachelor, Phil may have on his list of priorities to become a high-flying trapeze artist.  Later, Phil meets Katie and then decides to get married.  A couple years later they have a child together. 

Although Phil's heart is filled with high flying spirits, he will have to rethink his prior goals in the light of his new family.  If he does not, you can rest assure that there will be conflict in his relationship as his wife will (generally speaking) not be happy with Phil inches from death on a nightly basis.

What does this mean?



So many people approach relationships like they are the center of the universe. 

Many maintain that they can and will act just like when they were single.

This is why so many relationships fail.

The reality is when you enter into a relationship, a part of you must die.

I know that last statement sounds harsh. However, for you to be humble enough to consider your mate and value them, you must be ready to give up something of your own.  And many times, that will hurt.  But this, I think, is the meaning of true love.  

True love seeks the good of the other person, not just yourself.   

This is why so many marriages lasted in the old days. 

They understood this principle; worked it out, fought it out and continued to grow together. 
And do you know what? 
By living that way they learned the deepest lessons that love could teach. 


I wonder what your thoughts are?

-Do you agree that you should consider your significant other?

-Do you think that you should give up a dream of yours, even if it goes against the grain of your family?

Thirsty?

Don't drink in a sea of wrath

for a cup of pleasure.

King Jesus

A lot of great men & women throughout history have fought various battles, sweat through long fights and suffered in many conflicts.
-Some have liberated entire countries…
-Some have fought to save their families…
-Some other for civil liberties…
-Others to save a single child…
-There are perhaps thousands of reasons why great men and women have fought.

But there is one that stands taller than the rest.
He towers over all the others because of His uniqueness.
-------------------------------I am talking about Jesus.

Sadly, we have all became too comfortable with His name.
It is used so lightly these days, that it often ends up only in our swearwords.

But this Easter Season I want to remind you all that Jesus is unique.

-How so you may wonder?

Jesus came to battle & conquer the ugliest of ugliness; that is Sin & Death. 
The first element He conquered is Sin.
Sin is the base element that tears away at humanity more than any other.
It’s the reason for hate, wars, and everything wrong under the sun.
It serves as the primary reason for our alienation from God. 
And Death. The monster that waits for each and every one of us when we breathe our last breathe. The wretched enemy that tears our loved ones away from us and forces us to stand over caskets and cry over grave sites.

Yes, a lot of great men & women have come and gone.
Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Alexander the Great and Martin Luther King Jr.
They have fought the fight. They have all died. 
Their lives are enduring because they stood for something greater than themselves.

But One towers over them all.

Three days after He was sold out, beaten, bloodied and humiliated; He busted out of that grave with all the splendor of Heaven.

Jesus stands dressed in Purple robes.
Purple for His majesty.
Purple for His Kingship over Death and Sin.

Indeed, there have been many great men and women throughout history.

But it is Jesus alone that came to destroy the deepest enemies that you and I will ever face. 

Farewell to Death & Sin. 

Thanks to Jesus. 

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Happy Easter!

Anthony J. Kladitis

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