Now in Dubuque there's this historic building called the Ham House. (Note: this has nothing to do with meat, it involves a guy's last name though. I once thought it was just a meat packaging company and called it the Meat House. Untold embarrassment due to that and thought I'd just share) It's historic 'cause the fellow who owned it was one of the first fellows to start mining in this area. At the beginning we watched a ten-minute video about his life. It seems he hoped to make eagle Point area into a boating harbor but never seceded. He went into various other businesses. Basically, whatever he made in mining he lost in other endeavors. Anyway, we went though the house and saw different things. A minty green paint that i found weird looking and don't like, a frame full of REAL hair from various people in the house, a really cool looking set of red and 24carrot gold china(though what the big thing about what you eat from costing so much that it has to be insured seems a little over the top and ridiculous no matter what type of plate it is or what it's made from. I mean what's wrong with white plain easy to break plates? Though I wish our's where more colorful) an Audubon print, lead, and interesting facts. Then there was something in the house that my Dad really liked. Napolean's sword. (the family that originally had it before they let the Ham house show it was not related to the Hams) What I found interesting was the basic life-styles. Corsets that ruin your ribs, table manners that could get you boy-cotted from houses if you used a wrong fork, the weird stoves, heavy layers of clothing, and the ridicoulous rule that pregnant mothers wore their corsets while pregnant and couldn't go out of the house when they became too large and then had to stay another month in the house after the babies birth. And did you know you could only eat in the dining room if you were of a marriageable age? But it did get me thinking about times people were in.

See, with every thing going down around us in this time about the world crashing and the lord coming back, I was trying to figure out a time where everything was nice and hunky-dory. but I couldn't. Middle Ages-plague, young marriages, corrupt kings and queens, and other stuff. Pioneer period-braving new lands, social decline, living with indians and other stuff. Present day isn't even worth mentioning even forgetting about the end of the world. Even in the 1900s things weren't great. Hippies, wars, WWI, WWII, new inventions clashing with old, Great Depression, commie threat, and all these things we learn in history. It seems that no where in history is everything okay. Even in the bible. Moses sets his people free, but must wonder in the desert for 40 years. Job with his bad wife and loosing everything. Then skip a lot get Jesus back and everything still wasn't good. Backstabbin' deciple, angry crowds, doubtin' deciples. Then after he rises again(not counting as a bad time in history) their were the diciples persecussions and everything. Once I started thinking about everything that went down in history I realized nowhere is there a part in time where something bad hadn't happened, where we weren't recovering from something or a forshawdowing of the time to come wasn't there. And correct me if I'm wrong. But then something my dad said hit me. He said that he'd never be able to live in the Victorian age because of the type of depression they had. Little light, low wages for servants, and everything else. It made me see that i couldn't last in any other time then the one I'm in most likely. I wouldn't be okay with having to think about marriage at 16 and want to hurry and get married so I don't seem like an old maid. I don't know what I'd do without my electricity and present day medical attention. And I don't think any of them could last in our day and age either. Sure in some parts our lives are better. Running water, toilets, showers, and electronics. But then again our life seems more evil too. We have people murdering just 'cause they were angry, people kidnapping little kids, and so many untold horrors. Yes, they had murders and kidnappers, but theirs involved polotics more then just to do something to pass the time with. And when you think of all the filth we have to walk past and mabye even walk through, I can only think how important it is for Jesus to come back and make this world right again. Yes, there's 3 1/2 years of difficulty before us, but how many years did the Jews live in fear of Hitler and his movement? How many years did the people of Mosses had to wonder in the desert day after day, walking even when their feet were sore? 3 and 1/2 years doesn't seem like so much when you consider the reward. Forever and ever with Christ and a perfect world. To sum everything up, I realized I'm in this time and age whether I like it or not, and for some purpose yet unseen to me. And I begaun to even get happy about what is to come.