{"id":303,"date":"2013-03-25T21:37:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T21:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=303"},"modified":"2013-03-25T21:37:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T21:37:35","slug":"guns-my-mother-and-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html","title":{"rendered":"Guns, My Mother and Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The news is full of the gun control issue. Everyone seems to be concerned&#8230;I am beginning to wonder if I should go out and buy one just because I can and perhaps one day I will not be allowed to or \u00a0so the pundits would make us think. Members of my family &#8211; even the women &#8211; have armed themselves. I am quite sure that if I had one, I would not \u00a0know where to store it so that I might have easy access in case of an emergency. And I am very sure if there was such an emergency, I&#8217;d be so frightened I&#8217;d never shoot the thing correctly. Plus I don&#8217;t have an extra several hundred dollars to purchase one. Am I being foolish? Naive?<\/p>\n<p>For now I think I will take my mother&#8217;s attitude. Many years ago when the FBI insisted my parents build a fence around their property for safety concerns (there had been death threats against my father) my mother was dead set against it. For one it was ugly even though they tried to camouflage it in the woods. She was overruled. The fence was built. She told those that would listen that she was going to apologize to her guardian angels!<\/p>\n<p>My mother believed in angels. I do too.<\/p>\n<p>What does that have to do with Easter? Easter is about security. Come again? Let me continue&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Where is your security? For our earthly security we take precautions and do all that we can to protect ourselves, our families, our homes, our finances. Security systems are a big business these days. We want to handle our responsibilities wisely. And some might argue that a gun would be a wise precaution.\u00a0My mother used to say, &#8220;We take care of the possible and leave the impossible to God.&#8221; But she never owned a gun. Four of her children do own them &#8211; one is a gun collector.<\/p>\n<p>But earthly security is not what Easter is about. It is about eternal security. All of us have eternal life. Yes all of us do &#8211; we are eternal beings. We will live forever. Think about that. How do you want your life to be? You get to choose. We get to choose where we will spend eternity and we have to make that decision while we are still alive. We will live somewhere for all of eternity \u00a0in a world without God (hell) or a world with God (heaven). I&#8217;d suggest you make that decision now. This Easter.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus was born, lived among us, suffered the horrible death of crucifixion and was raised to life in order to open the door to heaven for us. We can live forever with Him! That is eternal security! But it&#8217;s your choice. The alternative is pretty grim. I&#8217;d love for you to be with me in heaven. And yes, when I die I know I am going to heaven. You can know it too by putting your faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior. It&#8217;s very simple. Just tell Him you are sorry for the wrong things you have done. You want to turn your life over to Him and ask Him to come into your life and help you. No fancy words or posture necessary.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s that simple. As soon as you tell Him that He will come into your life and be your constant companion and guide. Your best friend.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Easter!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The news is full of the gun control issue. Everyone seems to be concerned&#8230;I am beginning to wonder if I should go out and buy one just because I can and perhaps one day I will not be allowed to or \u00a0so the pundits would make us think. Members of my family &#8211; even the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,26,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issues-in-the-news","category-easter","category-holidays"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Guns, My Mother and Easter - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guns, My Mother and Easter - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The news is full of the gun control issue. Everyone seems to be concerned&#8230;I am beginning to wonder if I should go out and buy one just because I can and perhaps one day I will not be allowed to or \u00a0so the pundits would make us think. Members of my family &#8211; even the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-25T21:37:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Guns, My Mother and Easter - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Guns, My Mother and Easter - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"The news is full of the gun control issue. Everyone seems to be concerned&#8230;I am beginning to wonder if I should go out and buy one just because I can and perhaps one day I will not be allowed to or \u00a0so the pundits would make us think. Members of my family &#8211; even the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2013-03-25T21:37:35+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html","name":"Guns, My Mother and Easter - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-25T21:37:35+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-25T21:37:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/03\/guns-my-mother-and-easter.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Guns, My Mother and Easter"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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