Well, God interests me, and the church interests me. The Bible, and theology (I'm studying the Institutes right now- into Book 4). I enjoyed a book on "Clinical Ecology" (how a person's environment can make him sick, chemical sensitivities, food allergies, etc) I enjoy reading Wendell Berry. I just finished the Institutes!

I like history, especially Puritans, the Reformers and the early church.

I like helping people out, and being a friend.

I'm interested in what a godly society would look like. Beyond individual godliness and godly families there is a bigger picture, including the church, that I think we have lost sight of, but our forefathers envisioned it.

I love my family. They're great.

As long as God has it for me, it's what I want. I think, however, that I would be helped by the right marriage. And maybe I would help someone else, too!

Also, I'm really not single, as long as I'm joined to Christ.

pragmatic, deep thinker, loyal, radical (even iconoclastic, really)

They'd probably say funny, too. I was once told that my humor was my "saving grace." That would be a novel system of merits!

Saving the lost, building the church, caring for the land. I also love music, especially organ music, and especially Bach.

I keep remembering that Jesus told the parable of the sower to suggest that we haven't really reached Christian maturity until we have produced (led to Christ and dsicipled to maturity) 30, 60 or 100 others. I think that would be a very important life work.

Also, this may sound crazy, but as I read the Institutes, I see that what the world really needs is someone to pull all the pieces of Christianity together into a logical, defensible whole. I have a heart for family farming, a culture of family farming, but I think maybe my piece of establishing that is largely to write a book.

Oh, free will (since Adam enslaved himself to sin, only the redeemed have enjoyed it!), civil liberty, God's grace.

I love being made free, since the Son has made me free. I think that civil liberty is too much neglected, too little exercised, and in real danger of being taken away if we aren't careful.

And how could I not mention God's grace, as John the Bpatist said, "A man can receive nothing unless it is granted him from above." Grace is our lifeblood, in a very real way

I enjoy integrity, humility, kindness, patience, and joy. Christian love is the best quality to find in another person, any person, in any sort of relationship we might have.

My own? I've heard: steady, loyal, intellectually ruthless, and compassionate.

This isn't either a character or personality trait, but it seems lke a good place to insert that I'm looking for someone who wants to farm, homeschool, and plant a church in western Maine. Farming is more of a way to reach the lost and a lifestyle than what I'm neccessarily set on doing for a living forever, although I think i'd love farming full time.

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.

For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man, as he stands in relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists; it is a liberty to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes sumus licentia deteriores. This is that great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, which all of the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal; it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, if need be. Whatsoever crosseth this is not authority but a distemper thereof. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. (John Winthrop)

"'Just be yourself' is the worst advice you can give some people." -Mark Twain

"It ain't what you know that gets you in trouble. it's what you know for sure that ain't so." -Mark Twain

"It's great to give God credit, but He can use cash, too." R.G. LeTourneau

Yes.

To take control of my food supply by growing my own. I want a "vertically integrated" food supply, from the seed to the compost bin.

To lead many people to Christ and disciple them in the local church. Maybe thirty, sixty or a hundred, just like the good seed.

To add Greek and Hebrew to my Latin, read more of the Reformers, the Great Books and the Patristics.

To memorize and perform organ music at a professional level, especially in concert, and cut a few CDs.

To build some Stanley Steamers (that one's negotiable).

To be a circuit preacher.

Mid-sized family by homeschool standards- six kids. I'm the oldest. My dad's a pastor. Mom's a homeschooling mother for my three youngest siblings.

I would like to relocate to western Maine at some point. I might even move as far west as New Hampshire. Every so often I think about moving to west Texas for allergy reasons.

Lots:-) Let me say that I'm uncomfortable with making aquantum leap from a very casaul relationship to something serious and exclusive. It seems good for a man and woman get to know each other in a less intense way before committing to something more involved. Some middle ground would be nice. There aren't a lot of Mainers on this site. I only say that to suggest that not placing too much weight on early communication would be good. And an "all business, I'm only looking for someone serious" attitude seems unhelpful. I'd like to consider this kind of site an introduction, where I don't suppose that I even know the person until or unless we meet. Hopefully, just talking can be fun anyway.

Hey, God bless!