Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 134, No. 103, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 25, 2013 Page: 4 of 18
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4 • Citizens Journal, Wednesday, December 25,2013
Opinion
In light of Christmas
By Robin Aaron
raaron@casscountynow. com
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world
in a conspiracy of love!” -Hamilton Wright Mabie
There were 450 years of silence before one child
broke the quiet and arrived on earth, sending the
heavens and the earth into a roar of joy, hope and
rage. One child was born so humbly, and yet celebrat-
ed so famously, even until today.
As you read this paper, out on Christmas Day in
2013, my heart is overjoyed that He came to be “with
us”, “among us”, “as we are in the earth”.
Emmanuel, Jesus has been called, even before his
birth. That means God with us. And so He is.
It occurred to me recently how ironic the timing of
my job change has been for a number of reasons.
I’ve had a learning curve to overcome on several
fronts. One of those includes a part of our operation
that commonly goes unnoticed.
Before your paper arrives in the mail and in your
nearest news rack, gas station or local Walmart,
there is an entire process that takes place. Often
in the darkest, quietest part of the night and early
morning.
Those coupons and inserts that you receive along
with our publication are inserted by hand. We have
crews who work, often through the night to sort, bun-
dle and insert all these thousands of papers twice
each week.
Until I became publisher here, I had never had to be
a part of that part of the operation.
As I took over the reins here it became important
for me to understand that process. In fact it became
unavoidable.
I took the oportunity to work alongside these crews
for several weeks. I can tell you that I am certainly
not nearly as fast as some of our crew members. But
a good leader never asks their staff to do something
they would not be willing to do themselves, so I lost
some sleep and spent some nights up here at the of-
fice doing that job with them; suffering the loss of
sleep, blisters on my fingers and feeling the deep lull
that happens about three hours in.
I certainly wasn’t perfect, but I now know first-
hand what that is like and what I am requiring of
those individuals. I felt the wear and tear on my
shoulders and feet and the headaches that can hap-
pen as we try to distribute our publications all over
the area.
I was reminded of that recently in light of Christ-
mas.
In a similar manner, Jesus came to meet us in the
darkness and do, with us, what we could not do for
ourselves. Unlike me, He worked through all the
tough stuff and did it exactly right because we could
not.
Jesus came here and He was “God with us”. I love
Robin
Aaron
that verse that talks
about how we don’t
serve a king who has
not been untouched
by our infirmities.
Jesus was here as
100 percent man and
simultaneously 100
percent God. He knew
firsthand the sting of
humanity, the fear of mortality, the threat of insecu-
rity and the pains of death.
He hasn’t asked us to do anything He would not and
has not done Himself.
He modeled what we could be, what we were origi-
nally intended to be.
None of us can offer perfection, only a perfect heart.
And that is what He asks of us. He asks that we offer
our lives in exchange for the life He lived perfectly in
our place.
He was the first and greatest Christmas gift of ah
eternity, and He came to us, as one of us.
It really is mindboggling when you try to compre-
hend it.
A helpless infant born completely dependent on the
creation that He had come to bring salvation to. He
cried. He wet his diaper. He scraped his knees.
Like many of us, he was an illegitimate child. He
didn’t fit in. He was rejected and misunderstood. He
was abused. He was happy. He wept. He laughed and
danced. He celebrated. He lost people that he loved.
I’m sure he underwent a fair amount of discipline.
I’ll bet he even had his tender heart broken a time or
two.
Imagine arguing with a child that you know, as
Mary did, actually did know everything, a child you
knew actually had, in ages past, hung the moon and
stars. I find some humor in that scenario.
And in ah things, He walked perfectly with God.
As a Christian myself, these are the greatest truths
of Christmas that I hold dear to.
Arriving from the atmospheric analogy of Jesus
coming as a gift to the world and realizing the impact
of the knowledge that He came to this earth for me
individually; knowing that He came as a gift to Robin
is nothing but a miracle.
I wouldn’t say I’m anything that special. I’ve lived a
basically average life, by many standards. Knowing
that I was worth leaving heaven for never ceases to
amaze me. If I had been the only one to receive Him,
He still would have come.
What great love the Father has bestowed on us that
we could be called the children of God.
Know this Christmas that we have ah received the
greatest gift of hope already - Jesus, the hope of na-
tions.
Merry Christmas to you ah!
Letters
We’ve ah heard the recent out-
cry calling for the “doubling of the
minimum wage in this country, as
though the people earning it had
somehow magically become “enti-
tled” to this salary windfall.
The minimum wage law was
passed to assure that a number of
our working people aren’t forced to
be compensated at the whim of cer-
tain unscrupulous business own-
ers, some of whom would undoubt-
edly resurrect the institution of
slavery if it were possible for them
to do so.
In this respect it is a credible and
necessary law, protecting a per-
centage of our working people
from such tactics. However, it was
never meant to guarantee a certain
level in society commensurate with
some group or government admin-
istration’s idea of what that should
be.
To double it would be synonymous
with ringing a bell of death knell
for some small businesses across
the country. At the least, lay-offs
would be imminent, and product
prices would definitely go up.
There seems to be a prevailing un-
dertow in this country today, reek-
ing of socialism and putting forth
the notion that the wealthy are
evil, unfair and should share their
wealth by supporting and subsidiz-
ing entitlements (case in point...the
so-cahed “Affordable Care Act”).
True enough, the wealthy are
no different than most other cat-
egorized groups of people when it
comes to producing their own share
of vihains, but the vast majority of
them are legitimate business own-
ers, providing jobs to the very peo-
ple today who slander them and
attempt to hold them hostage for
more wages without due improve-
ment, adding nothing to their bot-
tom line.
Let’s not bite the very hand that
feds us in this country, and let’s not
accept this ubiquitous distortion of
mind currently being cultivated by
our leadership and propagated by
the national media.
In their attempt to punish the
wealthy simply for being wealthy,
they create the potential to cut the
heart out of our businesses, and
diminish our well being. I would
submit a quote from a gentleman I
once knew: “I’ve never worked for a
poor man in my life.”
J. F. Gennings
Atlanta, Texas
City of Atlanta
Mayor
District 2
District 4
Keith Crow
Councilman Arlie Kyzer
Councilman Dean McDuff
114 W. Hiram Street
1306 Choctaw Dr.
P.O. Box 894
Atlanta, TX 75551
Atlanta, TX 75551
Atlanta, TX 75551
Office 903-796-2844
Home 903-824-4491
Home 903-796-6207
N47H@aol.com
Dmcd uff2040@sbcg loba 1. net
District 3
District 1
Councilman James Roy O'Kelley
At Large Seat
Councilman Chris E. Collins, Sr.
301 Hummingbird Trail
Councilman Robert "Bob" Steger
604 W. Miller
Atlanta, TX 75551
503 S. Boggie Street
Atlanta, TX 75551
Home 903-796-9047
Atlanta, TX 75551
Home 903-796-5569
okelleyn@sbcglobal.net
Home 903-796-3291
Breadoflife7777@sbcglobal.net
Dave says...
Model behavior
Dear Dave,
I live in Los Angeles,
and my daughter makes
$3,000 to $5,000 a month
modeling. I don’t want
her to become spoiled
by this job and the in-
come, and I need advice
on what to do with the
money. Should it be put
aside for a car, and do
you think she should have to
like that herself?
Dave
Ramsey
Financial
advisor
pay for something
Lisa
Dear Lisa,
So how do we keep a high-income, high-profile
job from ruining this little girl? I think a lot of
it has to do with her interaction with you, and
how you gently mold her work ethic and attitude.
Don’t let her become a diva. She’s not there to be
fawned over or placed on a pedestal. She’s there
to serve. That means working hard and doing the
best she can. That’s her job whether she’s flipping
burgers or making $5,000 a month modeling. The
money’s nice, but what we’re really doing is mak-
ing sure she learns some important life lessons.
And you’re still being a parent, not a friend or
peer, through every moment.
When it comes to the money, you guys should
sit down and discuss some goals for the future.
I think it’s important that any car purchase be
reasonable, because the best thing a kid this age
could do with that kind of money is save up for
college. Even if she goes to school on a full schol-
arship, she should be driving something low-key.
Just because she gets a free ride in college doesn’t
mean she gets to cruise the streets in a Lambo-
rghini. Set the rest of it aside for when life really
begins—after college.
As her mom, it’s very important that you teach
her these lessons now. It’s essential, too, that you
don’t surrender the position of parent, teacher
and leader. Chances are when this young lady is
34, no one will give a flip that she modeled for a
while as a teenager. The most important things
here are the lessons taught and learned, not the
money.
—Dave
Garnishing
while paying
Dear Dave,
My husband and I have about $60,000 in federal-
ly insured student loans. Can our wages be gar-
nished if we’re paying less than the actual pay-
ment amount? If so, how far behind do we have to
be for that to happen?
Jennifer
Dear Jennifer,
To the best of my knowledge there’s no set for-
mula for making this determination. In counsel-
ing people, we find some folks who are two years
behind making payments before anything is done,
while others are flagged at just a couple of months.
In reality, they can garnish you immediately if
you’re paying less than the agreed-upon amount.
But in most cases they won’t mess with you as long
as there’s reasonable activity on the account.
The thing most people don’t realize about student
loans is that a lawyer doesn’t have to be involved for
them to garnish your wages. It’s a lot like the IRS in
that they don’t have to sue you in order to take your
wages. Congress gave them that power because it’s
a federally insured loan. And in my mind, that’s
way too much power.
If you’re having trouble making your payments,
don’t just throw up your hands and default. Talk to
them about a deferral, and keep sending them what-
ever you can. It’s always better to be proactive than
reactive in situations like these. Let them know you
want to make good on your obligation, and ask what
you can do to make this happen under terms you
can afford.
Good luck, Jennifer!
—Dave
Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money
and business. He’s authored four New York Times
best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than
Enough, The Total Money Makeover and Entre-
Leadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by
more than 6 million listeners each week on more
than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at
@DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
Glttmnui Journal
“Serving the people of Cass County for more than 134 years”
UPS PUBLICATION NO. 114-160
ATLANTA CITIZENS JOURNAL WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1879
Published semi-weekly at Atlanta, Cass County, TX at 306 W. Main St, Atlanta, TX 75551.
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TO: Citizens Journal, Post Office Box 1188, Atlanta, TX 75551.
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HUGH LEWIS - Business Manager
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Citizens Journal (Atlanta, Tex.), Vol. 134, No. 103, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 25, 2013, newspaper, December 25, 2013; Atlanta, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth804140/m1/4/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Atlanta Public Library.