Sweet Tea With Lemon

What's On Your Nightstand - January 2012

2012-01-25T12:43:00.001-05:00

RECENTLY READ:

The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers: A King’s Ransom (F) - Jude Watson. I started reading The 39 Clues series with the boys sometime back, and this is the latest installment. It didn’t hold my attention as well as the others, but it was okay....and, hey, it’s written for a young teen audience, and, let’s face it, I haven’t been a member of that audience for a LONG time now, so that’s probably why the lack of attention.....

The Limit (F) - Kristen Landon. I liked this one. It is also for a teen audience, I guess, but the story was interesting with a chilling premise. I found it...actually my oldest son found it....through a book order. This book is about a world where “kids are being taken away to workhouses if their families exceed the financial debt limit imposed by the government.” (From the back cover) Believable characters and a scenario that I think isn’t really all that far-fetched --I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine a world where such things could happen. Lots to talk to my boys about while reading it - the dangers of an overreaching government, ahem, and the dangers of materialism and unwise use of credit.

A Journey in Grace: A Theological Novel - Richard Belcher. This was not intended to be the best novel ever, and it isn’t. But, as a vehicle for explaining doctrines of grace in a biblical and understandable and logical manner, it was very effective. I borrowed it from my dad when we were visiting a while back, and at first I thought it might be kind of dull, but I found when I started reading that I had a hard time putting it down. I also found that the very biblical dealing with the doctrines explained was compelling, interesting, and, ultimately, comforting. Here’s a blurb from the back cover: “This is the story of a young pastor with a typical twentieth century theology and his pursuit of a burning theological question which was triggered in his first experience with a pulpit search committee. He cannot and does not rest until he has answered the challenge of the question, “Young man, are you a Calvinist?”

READING NOW:

The Fifth Witness (F)- Michael Connelly. One of my favorite authors....another courtroom mystery/drama involving his defense attorney Mickey Haller character. Enjoying it so far. Language caution.

PROBABLY NEXT UP:

The Poisonwood Bible (F) - Barbara Kingsolver. I picked this one at the library because my mom told me she thought I’d like it. Reading the flap, I think she’s probably right. She usually is about these things.

A Tale of Two Cities (F) - Charles Dickens. This was the first Dickens novel I ever read and I LOVED it. I want to reread it now that I’m an adult and have forgotten so much of it. I imagine I’ll understand it even better now. I downloaded a cheap (I think maybe it was free) copy to my NOOK.

What are you reading this month? You can see and join other lists at 5 Minutes for Books.

Finding Delight - Our God is Jealous For His Own

2012-01-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

Joining Leslie again this week in Finding Delight.

I really love singing in the church choir. Not just the singing, but all that’s involved in being part of this group, especially the midweek rehearsal. Because it isn’t just a rehearsal, it’s an opportunity to worship together with fellow believers in the middle of the week. I’ve been working on this blog post ever since Wednesday because of the comfort each song we sang this week brought to my heart and how I wanted to write it out and think on it. Because this is what I do. I write to think.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have found myself struggling through a period of malaise and dullness recently and am working through fighting to study the Word and rebuke doubt and not rely on feelings, or lack thereof. Recently I read this quote from Alistair Begg on Facebook: “Allow the dictates of God’s Word to overturn the questions of your heart.” Yes and amen. This is bedrock, solid advice, and it’s where I find my greatest source of joy and comfort....God’s word is true and trustworthy.

So, on Wednesday, while practicing and rejoicing that every song we were working on sang about God’s character and His trustworthiness and pondering even as we sang how very much I needed to remind my heart of these things, we came across this in the verse of one song, and I was almost reduced to tears: “Our God is jealous for His own. None could comprehend His love and His mercy. Our God is exalted on His throne, high above the heavens. Forever He is worthy.” This struck me so solidly I had to stop and copy it on the newletter right under the evening’s devotional thought so I could take it home and remember and ponder some more. As I was struggling through the blues, through the malaise, I am thankful for the reminder that God is jealous for His own. None can comprehend His love and His mercy, and He is high and exalted - on the throne, sovereign.

You could do a whole, long, indepth study on what it means that God is a jealous God, but I wanted to focus on this one aspect of it. I recognized this thought, that God is jealous for His own to be a biblical thought, but I wanted to find scriptural support and write about it to flesh it out in my own understanding, to be comforted by the Word. Because this is what I do. I search the scriptures. I write to think and understand and receive strength and comfort from the Holy Spirit as He illumines my understanding by His Word. I want to embrace thoughts that are validly based in scripture - but jettison those that aren’t.

Here’s what I’m finding:

God is jealous for the purity and holiness of those He has redeemed. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20) If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:22-39) He is jealous to conform us to the image of Christ. (Romans 8:26-30) Jesus is ever interceeding for us. (Romans 8:34) Jesus is the sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. (Hebrews 6:19-20) Because of Jesus, for His sake because of the sacrifice He made on our behalf, those of us whose trust rests in Him alone, we can boldly approach the throne of God. (Hebrews 4:14-16) Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:22) He will complete what He has begun in us. (Philippians 1:6) To those of us who love God and are called according to His purpose, He is working all things together for our good and for His glory. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and we are freed from the law and its debt. (Romans 8:1-17) He is our shepherd, in Him we shall not want and He will lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. (Psalm 23) He is jealous to conform our thinking to pure thoughts, godly thoughts, God-honoring thoughts that lead to God-honoring living. (Phillippians 4:8; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:5)

Though everything in our culture is screaming at us and trying to steep us in the depressing fallacy that there is no objective truth and truth is relative and you can determine your own truth, we can stand firm in the word of God which will stand the test of time and every wind of philosophy that wages a storm against it. (2 Corinthians 10:5; 1Peter 1:22-25)

Our God is jealous for His own. Our God is redeeming a people and equipping us to live lives that honor Him and point others to Him and He frees us to live obediently and to be holy as He is holy. You see, that is an impossible command, to be holy as He is holy......apart from Christ. But all the promises of God are yes and have their amen in Christ, and He is sanctifying us and conforming us to His image. Religion foolishly says, “Work hard, try your best to obey and then you’ll be right with God.” Christianity, true biblical Christianity says, “I have been made righteous, therefore now He has enabled me to obey as a joyful servant, as a redeemed child of God.” I am thankful that God is jealous for His own, that He is actively conforming us to the image of His Son, and I know that the longer I walk with Him, the more I find my appetite for things that weigh me down by taking my eyes off of Him growing less. I am thankful for this, because I know that this is all of grace.

And I have found much delight in these thoughts this week.

Interesting Discussion About Postmodernism

2012-01-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

This audio link is interesting, enlightening and, I'll admit it - disturbing. It really explains why I get so extremely frustrated with conversations I've had or comment threads I read on blogs with people who are steeped in this worldview, most without really even thinking about it. As Dr. Mohler points out, it may not exist in full-blown form in the larger culture, but it is trickling down....and this speech was made in 2007, so I think it's obvious that it has trickled even more into the culture at large in the past few years. Postmodernism is pervasive and heartbreaking, a rehashing of the oldest lie there is - an attack on objective truth. To my Christian friends, please pay careful attention to his discussion about 1/3 of the way in to how it even infects our thinking in our circles. I agree with him. And listen to his point about the dominion of therapy: "Everything is reduced to the therapeutic. This worldview infects the entire society. It's all about therapy. When truth is denied all that remains is therapy. The crucial question shifts from, 'What is true?' to 'What makes me feel good?'" If that isn't an ominous picture of our culture and a glorification of the self-centeredness and rebellion toward God that we are bent with innately, I don't know what is. I think you could make the argument that Postmodernism and the denial of objective truth leads to the kind of wrong-headed and dangerous foolishness seen in this article. Like I said, heartbreaking.

Thankful Thursday - on Friday

2012-01-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

A few, but certainly not all, of the things I’m thankful for today, and I didn't get around to writing a post on Thursday, so here it is "Thankful Friday":

One hour delay this morning.....I didn’t get the call until this morning after I’d already gotten up at 5AM, my normal wake-up time. However, the call was early enough that I had not yet gotten the kids up, so I got an extra hour this morning to read my Bible and have some coffee. With the earlier schedule here I have really missed that early morning quiet time. And the kids all woke up on their own, happy and ready to go (some more ready to go to school than others seeing as the boys went to bed just sure we would have a snow day today. But I enjoyed the quiet house for a bit this morning, and I really like that time.

The roads are not nearly as icy and slick as I was fearing last night that they would be today. Yesterday it went from drizzling and raining and wet all morning to snowing and dropping temperatures all afternoon/evening, and during the 45 minutes I was at gymnastics with my daughter yesterday afternoon the doors to the van froze shut and the roads felt pretty slick on the way home as I felt the anti-lock breaks engaging often and slight slides on turns. Roads are better today, it seems, and I’m thankful because....

My husband is flying home for the weekend. :-) Kids and I get to drive to Louisville to pick him up at the airport this evening, and this Florida girl is really glad the roads aren’t slick, after all. I have yet to get used to driving in winter weather. I’m thankful he gets a long weekend break from the Army school he’s doing this winter and gets to come home.

A simple and easy app for my phone that helps me track calorie intake and exercise so I can get on track to a healthier lifestyle. I do want to lose some weight, but the main reason is that I want to feel healthier and more energetic and less sluggish from the extra pounds. Day 3 using it today, and it hasn’t really been too bad. I’ve managed to stay within 20 calories of the daily goal the first two days. I do think it will be even better if I get up and exercise more because it allows more calories when you’re burning more. Anyway, it adds just that added bit of accountability I needed because I have to think, “Do I want to type that in?” or “Do I have room in the calorie budget for this?” before I put something in my mouth.

A lack of desire for soda and chocolate. I know, right? But I can honestly say that I don’t crave chocolate at the moment. This is huge for me. The last bit of chocolate I ate made me feel so....ugh...that I don’t really crave sweet stuff so much. And I haven't had a diet Coke since about January 3. I'm actually craving water to drink and drinking lots of it rather than empty calories and chemical-laden drinks. And I’m thankful, because that sweet stuff really eats up the calorie budget quick.

Real friends who love my family in the name of Christ. I am so thankful for my church family. We really have found a home here, and I pray for my church often that God will protect us and guide us to love and honor His word in obedience. Northside Baptist is a really sweet body of believers and I’m so humbled and thankful that God used this move here to answer my prayers that I’ve prayed for years in allowing us to be here for this season in our lives. I have prayed for years that God would bring a kindred spirit kind of friend to me who would share not just regular life stuff but that I could share about Him and have a real bond as sisters in Christ together, and after all the wilderness years, God has provided and beyond here with not just one friend to share and love and confide in, but several. And I am so very thankful.

Thankful I read this post the other day.

God’s word, and a desire and hunger to know it and heed it. I have been struggling through a kind of malaise again where I feel like I don’t feel anything. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but if you’ve been there, you know exactly what I mean. But I am thankful for sound doctrine that helps me to know that lack of feeling doesn’t equate to lack of faith. My hope, my rock, the anchor of my soul is Jesus, and He is ever faithful, ever interceding for His people, even when I feel distant and cold and that indescribable thing that I’ve got going at the moment where I feel so guitly because it seems I’m just going through motions. Have you ever noticed these betraying feelings tend to come right when you have come through some kind of spiritual victory? But because we don’t trust in feelings but in Christ, I don’t have to become discouraged. Because our purpose in this life is not to seek after some experience or to feel some special thing but to give honor to Him, He grants faith to persevere and lay aside the weights that entangle us. It is not in my ability, or lack thereof, to feel something that I rest my confidence. It is in Jesus, in His sacrifice on my behalf, in His priesthood and kingship, in the fact that He is my advocate who has made me His own. He is faithful and so much more. Jesus is the anchor for my soul and His kindness real and His mercies are new every morning. Yes and amen.

And for that I am thankful.

On a Lighter Note....Once Upon a Time

2012-01-09T10:54:00.001-05:00

On a (much) lighter note.....anyone watching “Once Upon a Time”? If not, you’ll probably want to go ahead and skip this post. It’s a pretty frivolous post anyhow. If you do watch, there’s a tad bit of a spoiler from last night’s episode at the end, fair warning. My husband and I really enjoy it, which, sad to say, usually means it won’t last and they’ll pull the show leaving us with a cliff-hanger and no resolution. I don’t understand why trashy, crummy shows like, oh, say, “The Bachelor” (No, I don’t watch it, can’t stand it, hate it, hate the whole premise of it, saw a bit of it the other day by accident and was reminded why I hate it) keep coming on season after season, but smart and interesting shows like, oh, say, “V,” “The Event,” “Flash Forward,” “Jericho,” and “Earth 2” to name a few, don't last (anyone remember “Earth 2”? I still feel all out of sorts over the way NBC left that one hanging and it’s been at least 16 years or so....). :-)

I don’t think I can name one 30-minute sitcom on any of the networks that I like or even try to tolerate at the moment. Most I’ve tried are - again - trashy in one way or another. But I do like creative, well-plotted mystery/story type shows, like “Once Upon a Time.” I’m also really enjoying “Downton Abbey” on PBS Masterpiece Classic, if you’re interested, and I could share a few other shows we enjoy if you care to know. I liked LOST for most of the show’s run until they totally ruined it with the ending, which I hated, by basically saying ALL of the mysteries and storylines were so many red-herrings and pointless, IMO. I still find myself trying to remember what was the point of that dishwasher scene with Sayid, Hurley, the knives, and the bad guy, whoever he was, because I think about it every time I load the silverware into my dishwasher. I am weird like that. And the Others.....I don’t think that really got resolved to my satisfaction. Saw a funny video about that the other day, though, and it made me laugh.

Anyway, we’re enjoying “Once Upon a Time” and the way the backstories of the characters are peeling away each episode.

Last night’s episode was really good, too. I found myself saying, “Oh, maybe Rumpelstiltskin won’t be so bad, after all.” And then, “Whoa....maybe not. Evil he is...and scary to boot,” And I keep thinking maybe, just maybe the queen/mayor won’t be totally corrupt, but then I think, “Nope, wrong again.”

So, now I’m thinking Emma Swan is going to one day find herself faced with the same decision Rumpelstiltskin had in last night’s episode...only I’m hoping she makes a better choice.

If ABC is patient and lets the show unfold and stay on the air long enough to answer such questions, that is.....

The Sacrifice of Praise

2012-01-08T17:00:00.002-05:00

I was listening to a current popular Christian musical group yesterday, doesn’t really matter who - it is not the point of this to criticize anyone in particular, and I was struck with a thought that I’ve been struggling to put into a blog post ever since. Actually I was struck with several thoughts in rapid succession. One was that I used to like some Christian music that was popular and played on the radio, but I’m finding that I don’t so much like much of it anymore. Don’t know if that’s because I’ve grown up or because the music has changed, but here I am. I do know what I don’t like about the songs I don’t like, though, and that’s where I’m going to go with this post.

The song I was listening to that sparked this post was kind of a love song about Jesus with the phrase, “I’m falling for You,” in it. I have grown weary of shallow love songs about me, me, me and this sappy kind of love that could be for a boyfriend/girlfriend or could be for Jesus - you have to listen really closely to know who the singer is falling for or loving or whatever to determine if it’s a ‘Christian’ song or just a love song. Jesus isn't my boyfriend.

I have to tell you that the songs that lead me to fall on my knees in worship aren’t sappy love songs that endlessly proclaim my feelings for and about Jesus but don’t really point the singer/listener to what is lovely about Him. The songs that move me to the kind of passion these songs seem to want to generate, but don’t no matter how many repetitions of the proclamations of love there may be, are songs that talk about His character, about His attributes, about the depth and height and breadth of the gospel. The more the song is about me and my feelings, the more I’m left feeling empty and distant, but the more the song is about Jesus and His attributes and what He has done for us, the more I’m prompted to worship. What I’m saying is, for example, singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and thinking on the majesty of the gospel that is proclaimed in those verses does so much more to prompt me to worship than a million repetitions of a more shallow this-is-how-I-feel kind of song. This has really nothing to do with music style, by the way, but everything to do with lyric content. One thing I'm thankful for is that our worship leaders at church tend to choose songs that do focus on who God is and lead us to that true worship.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I have a theory. I am becoming more and more convinced that we in the ‘evangelical’ movement have a very shallow understanding of what love is. I think we have somehow bought into the notion that if we don’t feel some emotional giddiness or deep emotional passion that we aren’t feeling love. I think in our culture, our notion of love begins and ends with romantic love, which elevates feelings over all else. If I don’t feel a certain way, then it isn’t love. The thing is, biblical love isn’t so much about a feeling, but about commitment and covenant. Sure, emotion is involved, and even important to an extent, because we are emotional beings, but it doesn’t end there, and it isn't the end to which we need to be aspiring.

We are absolutely commanded to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yes and amen. And sometimes deep and passionate feeling accompanies this love. But what about the times when I feel nothing? What about times when I pray and I feel a dullness that I can’t even describe? Does that mean that in those moments when emotion is at an ebb that I don’t love God? No. That is not what that means. I really think that to expect to always live at an emotional peak is folly. We don’t live there. We live down in the trenches, in the every day plugging along of faithful living, whether we feel it today or not.

Why do you think it’s called the sacrifice of praise? I believe it’s because praise is not easy. I believe that some of the deepest worship happens when we don’t feel whatever it is we seek to feel. Love for God is displayed in obedience - whether I feel like it or whether I don’t. Love for God is displayed in learning Who He is and in worshiping Him for Who He is - when I feel it and when I don’t. Love for God is displayed in believing His word and acting on that belief, believing in His Son whole-heartedly and placing our trust and hope in Him alone- whether I feel it today or whether I feel dull and distant.

Really, feelings can be determined by so many other things that have nothing to do with real faith. My feelings are fickle and fluctuating and I have no control over the dry and dull times that are so unnerving at times. But, by God’s grace, God has granted me faith that supercedes my feelings so that in those dry, dull times when I honestly feel nothing, I still am able to offer up a sacrifice of praise. I still am able to read His word and be reminded again and again about His awesome grace, and the emotions usually follow. But when the dry times hit, I am no less His, I am no less saved, the praise I offer is no less valid than the times when I feel overwhelmed by emotion. Because my faith, my salvation, even my love are based in the fact that I have rested everything upon Christ. My hope is in Christ alone, in the fact that He is my Redeemer who ever lives to intercede on my behalf. It is by His grace alone that I can stand, by His grace alone that I can even offer the sacrifice of praise, it is all because of Him and what He has done on my behalf to cleanse me from sin and clothe me in His righteousness to stand before Him.

I think we err when we focus too much on seeking a certain feeling and emotion, and I think our songs are impoverished when they focus more energy on me, me, me and my feelings and less on the One who deserves our affection. I think our songs are shallow when we describe our love for God as "falling for Him". I think sometimes we are guilty of worshiping a feeling rather than our God. I think often times we have too shallow a view of what love is - love isn’t really an emotion we feel. Love is a commitment we live.

I’m a little hesitant to post this, because I’m not at all sure I’ve adequately said what I’m trying to say, and I have a feeling I’m going to be misunderstood. This is something I think about a lot, and there’s so much more to be said, but I’m stopping here for now.

Finding Delight - Week 1: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

2012-01-07T21:42:00.000-05:00

I’ve decided to join Leslie in her blog carnival, Finding Delight. She is going to be blogging as she discovers the word “delight” in the Scripture during her reading. I hope to share instances where I’ve found delight as I read the Bible each week, too, though I may not be as conciously looking for the word ‘delight’ each day.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am using a chronological reading plan this year to read through the Bible. For quite a few years now I have read through the Bible each year, but I’ve pretty much just gone through it in order, reading some from the Old Testament and some from the New Testament each day, and I also read one chapter of Proverbs each day. This year I wanted to try reading it chronologically because I noticed last year that I found the books of the prophets difficult and I’d really like to read them alongside the history books and get a better understanding of what each prophet was speaking to as the Word of the Lord came to him.

Anyway, my reading this week has me in Job. What I found particularly delightful in reading Job this week is found in 19:25-29: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say, “How we will pursue him!” and, “The root of the matter is found in him,” be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”

In the midst of great suffering, in the face of being vastly misunderstood and wrongly judged by his friends, even in the midst of questioning God to some extent, Job expressed his solid faith that God is his Redeemer. That is delightful. Job’s faith held in the midst of the storm. Job’s faith held in the face of his accusers. He knew that his Redeemer lives and that he would see Him. Though he did not understand his situation and he had questions, and I confess some of his questions make me very uncomfortable, but he does not lose his faith that God is his Redeemer.

When God answers Job, which I will be reading shortly, we see so much about God’s sovereignty. This, too, is delightful to read and know and embrace.

Because another delightful thing I’ve read this week is Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” It is in the right fear of the Lord that I learn to trust my Redeemer, and to know that Jesus is the anchor of my soul, and nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to His cross I cling.

Please join us over at Leslie’s to see what others share as we are Finding Delight in God's Word.

Status Report - January 2012

2012-01-04T15:38:00.001-05:00

Sitting...in the kitchen.

Drinking....water from my new pitcher. It’s a fruit infusion pitcher, in which I put slices of orange, lemon, and lime in the center core to flavor my water. Makes drinking more water tasty, thereby helping me to drink lots more water. Part of the “I need to lose weight” regime I’m starting. I’m also drinking the (unsweet) tea I poured so I could take the picture to make my new header up there. I was feeling like a change. Like it?

Wondering...if I’m lying because the tea in the cup in the picture is actually unsweet while the title of the blog is “Sweet Tea With Lemon.” My daughter noticed the discrepancy and keeps asking me why I’m not drinking sweet tea when it clearly says it’s sweet on the title.

Happy....to have the Christmas decorations organized (better than I’ve ever organized them before, which means they weren’t thrown haphazardly in the boxes) and put away and the routine back to sort of normal. House is even cleanish.

Sad...that I’m an Army-induced single mom for a few months while husband attends a mandatory Army school thing. The first day is the hardest, then you just get about the business of living and routine. At least he’s not overseas.

Reading....the Bible through chronologically this year. I’ve always wanted to read it this way. I use the ESV.

Also reading...Book 2 in the Vespers vs. Cahills series from The 39 Clues - I’ve read the whole series along with the boys. Finding this one kind of boring.... Next I’ll be reading a book called The Limit by Kristen Landon, another book I found through my oldest son. Looks interesting. The boys got a lot of good books for Christmas that I’m interested in reading, too.

Thinking...this is a strange winter. It's been warmish with very, very little snow so far. No sticking snow to speak of yet. It was 16 degrees yesterday, but supposed to be in the 50's this weekend. I'm not complaining, but I'm wondering if this year or last year are the norm for this area. Last year we had already had several snow days and it was cold with no respite until maybe March. Again, I'm not complaining, though. Maybe if the milder weather holds I can do some walking. "I need to lose weight."

Fighting...the temptation to stay home tonight. Kids have Awana, but I don’t have choir practice. We’re going.

Planning...on leftovers for dinner tonight. The chicken and noodles I made last night were so good we need to have them again tonight. :-)

Looking....forward to a new year, and glad our church got to welcome our new pastor and his family on Sunday. Looking forward to the exciting days ahead for our church.

Happy January!

A New Year

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

I’ve never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions, though I haven’t really thought through why, exactly. We were discussing it in Sunday School yesterday, and our teacher made the comment that really we ought to be making resolutions every day, not just on the first day of the year. I think that’s why I feel the way I do about New Year’s Resolutions, too. Dates on the calendar can be arbitrary and man-made distinctions, when you think about it. There is nothing magical about the turning of the calendar from 2011 to 2012.

The beginning of a new year is a good reminder to reflect and think, though, bound by time as we are in this life, and it doesn’t hurt to evaluate where we are and where we need to be going.

During the worship service yesterday, I found myself praying this, “Father, I know that You, our Creator and Lord, are not bound by time, and our calendar dates are things we have devised to help us to measure time and live in this world. But I am bound by time here, and I pray that 2012 will be the year I seek You whole-heartedly. Please put in me an ever growing desire and hunger to obey Your word and to seek You and to live in the light of the gospel, in 2012 and for however many days You have designed for me. Help me to love You more and to live in that light all my days.” I do know that the longer I’ve walked with Jesus, the more I’ve grown to love Him and to long for a gospel-saturated life, and the less desire I have for things that just a few years ago seemed important, and the more I’m able to enjoy the things of this life in a right way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not seeking to live some mystical, heady, emotional existence where I have my head in the clouds on some 'higher plane' all the time. And I’m not seeking to have a purely intellectual faith where I can give all the correct doctrinal answers and enjoy my much learning, but have it not impact my living. This life is hard, and what I desire is to live the life God has called me to live well and for His glory, to glorify Him in obedient living and in going for it when I’m called to step out of my comfort zone and talk to my neighbors and others and live a gospel-saturated life, running the race well and with zeal for my Lord. I’m not looking for a spiritual experience in doing the laundry. But I do want to live each day without forgetting that I belong to Christ and that my heart’s desire is to glorify Him. We talked in Sunday School yesterday about how fleeting our life on this earth is and how differently we would live if we go about our daily walk keeping an eternal perspective.

I saw this video the other day, and it has really stuck with me. I just love how the drawings symbollically capture the message of the song and the mindset we are to have in this life.

“Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Hebrews 13:13-16

A Look Back

2011-12-31T12:55:00.000-05:00

I hesitate to say this is a 'best of' the past year in blogging around here given that blogging has gotten more and more sparse as the year has progressed and I'm not so sure how good any of it actually is, but here on the last day of 2011, I'm posting a look back at some of what I was thinking about during the past year......

In January, I was Pondering and Remembering and Approving What is Excellent as I began the Partnering to Remember project to memorize Phillippians.

In February, I was thinking about Standing Firm, also in response to the Partnering to Remember project. I also shared some of my thoughts about jury duty once it was over.

In March, I did a little thinking about how memorizing scripture is Not Just an Intellectual Exercise.

In April, I was pondering more on Philippians in The Lord is At Hand, and thinking about What I Want My Daughter to Know.

In May, I did some thinking about Confessing Faults, got a hair cut, went camping, and turned 40.

In June, I blogged about my dog.

In July, I shared some thoughts about how God is Not Silent, shared a Book Recommendation, and shared a few random Friday Frazzles.

In August, I shared a few thoughts about stepping out to start teaching second/third grade Sunday School.

In September, I did a little thinking about Learned Desperation, shared An Evening Prayer, and some thoughts about cultural idols in our country.

In October, I shared some thoughts from our recent visit to Disney World, celebrated my 5th blogiversary,
and sort of reviewed a book I'd finished reading.

In November, not much blogging occurred, but I did ponder kind speech and shared a few books I was reading.

In December, again, not a whole lot of blogging going on, but I recommended a book (which I still recommend now that I've finished it!), shared some Christmas season inspired thoughts, and celebrated my 18th anniversary of marriage to Drew.

Probably not my best blogging year, but a good year in general, I think. I do know that I am thankful for the Lord's mercies that are new every morning. He is so kind to us.

Oh, and if you're interested, I guess I'll finish this post by sharing some of my favorite books I read this year. You can check out the full list of what I read during 2011 on the page at the top of the blog. The list below doesn't include every book I enjoyed but they are a few of my favorites:

Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry (F)
Atheism Remix and The Disappearance of God - both by Albert Mohler (NF)
The 39 Clues series - various authors (F)....enjoyed reading these with the boys
Sutter's Cross - W. Dale Cramer (F)
Slave - John MacArthur (NF)
Counterfeit Gospels - Trevin Wax (NF)
Holiness - J.C. Ryle (NF)
King Raven Trilogy - Stephen Lawhead (F)
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (F)
The Eleventh Plague - Jeff Hirsch (F)
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mocking Jay - Suzanne Collins (F)
The World-Tilting Gospel - Dan Phillips (NF)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:54:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!

I'm enjoying a few quiet minutes as I get the traditional cinnamon rolls out of the oven and enjoy a cup of coffee and read my Bible by the Christmas tree before everyone gets up today. For all their big talk about today being the one day of the year they won't sleep in, all the kids are still snoozing quietly away this Christmas morning. We'll have to get them up soon to get ready for church, but for this moment, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet and reflecting on the beauty of Christmas and the fact that while we were yet sinners, alienated and enemies of God, Jesus came and lived a perfect and holy life and died to redeem a people to Himself. "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth." (John 1:9-14) Amazing grace.

I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas hymn with you this morning. I love the Christmas hymns because so many of them are so full of wonderful teaching about who Jesus is and so very full of worship for Him.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild;
God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King."
Christ, by highest heav'n adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord:
Late in time, behold him come,
Offspring of a virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King."
Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Ris'n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King."

18 Years

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Eighteen years ago today Drew and I were married. I'm so thankful for the way God has blessed our marriage, and I'm so thankful to be married to my best friend, the person who probably understands me or at least accepts me better than pretty much anyone else I know. I'm so glad he gave this 'strange girl' from Florida a second glance when we met at Northwest Baptist Church in Gainesville, FL that day all those years ago. I just realized that if I'm doing my math right, I have known Drew for as many years as I'd been alive when we first met. So I guess that means I've now known him half my life. Amazing. I love you, Drew!

Random Thoughts Inspired by the Christmas Season

2011-12-16T15:32:00.000-05:00

So. Christmas is just a smidgen over a week away. Blogging is in a major lull. Think I’ll share a fairly stream-of-consciousness snapshot of some things I’ve been thinking about which could probably develop into blog posts, but most likely won’t this week.

I don’t get too bent out of shape about people saying, “Happy Holidays.” What I mean is, sure, I’d rather we drop the political correctness, but it isn’t WRONG to say it, either.

I do think it’s sort of silly to call red and green tree-shaped cookies “Holiday Cookies” when everyone knows they are Christmas cookies. I mean, that’s the red and green tree holiday, right? It doesn’t really bother me, but I do find it silly.

Being outraged and insisting that “Happy Holidays” is some giant conspiracy and trying to completely eradicate it through Facebook ultimatums is silly, too. Sometimes we get upset about the wrong things.

I get really irritated by e-mails and Facebook status updates that say that if I don’t repost about how bad “Happy Holidays” is or if I don’t repost about what a faithful believer in Jesus I am then I must not be a real Christian or I must be ashamed of Jesus. Um. I think what I blog about and update about should reflect my faith in Christ all the time. If it takes a snotty e-mail forward or Facebook update to prove that my faith is genuine, then something is wrong. Just because I think those forwards are obnoxious and refuse to repost them or buy in to somebody’s misguided test of genuine faith does not mean I am ashamed of the gospel. And saying, "Merry Christmas," obnoxiously to make a point kind of defeats the real point, don't you think? Actually, the way we blog, Facebook, talk, and act on a daily basis has a lot more impact as a witness than a prideful-sounding forward that sounds like we have our noses all out of joint.

I think sometimes we Christians can be a bit obnoxious. See above.

I wonder how many people who post the snotty “I’m not ashamed, and I challenge everyone else to repost this” kind of updates and snotty anti-happy holidays stuff are complaining about how early the church service is on Sunday, Dec. 25 this year? Good article on that here. Peter Beck articulates the point quite well. Really, well said, and I quite agree with his article.

I am guilty of being an obnoxious Christian sometimes, too. I made a little pronouncement on my opinions vis a vis Santa the other day, and I realized I sounded pretty snotty. I didn’t mean to. I’m glad to share my thoughts, but...no one was actually asking for them that day. I need to just go about the business of celebrating Christmas joyfully and enjoy the time watching my children’s joy and keep quiet when it isn’t necessary to speak.

I have decided that though most of the country celebrates Christmas, there are actually two different Christmases going on. There’s the purely secular one, and there’s the one where people who have come to know the Savior spend every year thinking more and more about the wonder of God With Us. It’s silly to expect people who don’t know Him to appreciate the fullness of what we are actually celebrating. So snarky, snotty, arrogant e-mails and Facebook posts only serve to make us look angry and prideful. And I don’t want that to be what people think about Christians, always getting bent out of shape over things that are symptoms and not the root cause, always trying to get pagans to act like Christians rather than spilling over with the joy and wonder and love of the Gospel in such a way that pagans might see the light.

Sometimes we try to overspiritualize things too. Like the Christmas tree. We don’t have to Christianize it and give it a bunch of symbolism we’ve devised so we can feel we are celebrating the reason for the season and not bowing to the pagan roots. We can celebrate the real meaning of Christmas without having to give everything a deeper meaning. It’s okay to enjoy things that aren’t overtly Christian. Sometimes a Christmas tree is just a pretty decoration. And that’s okay, too.

I do find that every Christmas I am more aware of just how awesome the gospel really is. I do know that, for me and my house, the fact that the promise that God made in Genesis 3:15 and furthered and prophesied through the ages was fulfilled in Jesus and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us is where I want our focus to be during the Christmas season and throughout the whole year. Maybe instead of making pronouncements, I can just worship and celebrate and not get too bent out of shape about what other people are doing, and in so doing, bear more of the fragrance of Christ and His mercy rather than adding to the obnoxiousness. The gospel impacts every area of life, and I love that at Christmas I am brought to my knees once again as I ponder the immense wonder of it all. Immanuel, God With Us.

What do you know, I did have a blog post in there after all.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

What's On My Nightstand - November 2011

2011-11-22T19:19:00.001-05:00

Haven’t done What’s On Your Nightstand in a while, but it’s that time again over at 5 Minutes for Books.....

Here’s what I’ve been reading in November:

Finished:

The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer. (F) I liked this one okay. I usually like Brad Meltzer’s books. Fast-paced, action-packed conspiracy thriller kind of stuff.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer - John Grisham. (F) I liked this, too. I like John Grisham generally, and his new kid series is quite good. I read it because my grandmother gave it to my sons thinking they would like it, and I was interested, too, because I've found lots of books to like from things my son likes to read. Good intro to courtroom/detective fiction for kids, and the court procedure is explained really well for younger readers as part of the story without dragging the action down. Liked it!

Theodore Boone: The Abduction - John Grisham. (F) Second book in the series and I liked it as well as the first.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins. (F) I was hesitant to read this trilogy because the reviews I read said it’s pretty violent, but my oldest boy wanted to read it and I finally gave in to the book order and we’re reading it together. I finished this first book in the trilogy this afternoon, and, oh my. I like. Can’t wait until my boy gets done with Catching Fire since I’m totally hanging ready to keep going with the story. I mentioned not too long ago about my tastes in fiction, right? One of the cool things about having a kid old enough to read books I like, too, is the fun of discussing them together. We're really enjoying that. It's like having our own little book club right here at home. :-)

In process of reading:

God’s Wisdom in Proverbs - Dan Phillips. (NF) Very, very good so far. Non-fiction takes me a lot longer to read than fiction because I like to take the time to think about what I’m reading.

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott. (F) This classic came free with my Nook, and I haven’t read it since I was a young girl, and I need something fun to read while waiting on Joshua to finish the next book in the Hunger Games trilogy, so this is it.

Up Soon:

The World-Tilting Gospel - Dan Phillips. (NF)

Catching Fire and Mockingjay from the Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins. (F)

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. (F). I have this on my Nook waiting until I feel ready to tackle it. I’ve meant to read it for a while now - even started it years ago, but got bogged down and never finished it. Soon......

Check out the lists over at 5 Minutes for Books.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

The Teaching of Kindness is on Her Tongue

2011-11-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Proverbs 31:26

I ponder this often and share it often on Facebook because I so deperately need to be reminded of it. Shocking though this may be (ha), kindness is not usually my natural default response. Far more often than I really want to admit here, my default response is sarcasm and a prickly manner and an impatient tone of voice. I cannot tell you how many nights I review the day and realize, rather late, that I’ve said or done something that just plain wasn’t kind, or that I've been too quick to take offense when I ought not to have....and the horror is that I didn’t realize how unkind it was until much later. It’s usually not what I’ve said that’s wrong....it’s how I’ve said it that makes all the difference. Being mom means I have to say things the kids don’t want to hear sometimes, but how I say them can make all the difference in whether I’m kind or snippy.

I am thankful for the gospel. It is in remembering that it is in Christ, in His extreme kindness to me in saving me, that I have sure hope. It is in learning to rest in the fact that I am counted right before God because of what Christ has done on my behalf that my eyes are being opened to the times when I’m living in my natural default of unkindness, and I pray for wisdom to learn to surrender my natural default to Him so that I may learn to live in and by and through His grace. And I am thankful for the heart-work of the gospel that leads me to realize my sin and to confess it to God, yes, but also for the grace to learn to confess it to those I hurt with my unkindnesses. And when God has shown me much longsuffering and mercy in cleansing me of my filth, oughtn't I then to learn to be longsuffering toward others and point them to Jesus?

And I just have to add this here, I am finding that one way to guard my heart against that natural bent toward snarky, sarcastic, unkind responses is to limit my time on Facebook and blogs, something I've not been doing well lately. A too steady diet of that can lead me in that direction, because often the discourse, even among Christians, in those venues can be too sarcastic, and I know from personal experience that it is extremely contagious. Not saying a little well-placed sarcasm never has a place, but I am saying that it's a pitfall for me when I'm not careful with it, and it can easily move from innocent to biting unnecessarily and unhelpfully, and it easily becomes a habit to have a sarcastic or overly critical or impatient mindset. Just a thought on that.

Please, Lord God, guard my tongue and teach my heart to be kind. Teach me to surrender my selfishness and to remember what mercy and grace You have shown me, a sinner, and help me to model kindness - especially and first in my own home, especially and first when I don’t feel like it.....most especially then. Help me to model kindness and mercy to those You have entrusted to me here in this home, and help me to recognize it when my tone of voice is not as loving and kind as You would have it be. Because my desire is, ultimately, to point them to Jesus. In Jesus alone they will find forgiveness for their own sin and the rest and kindness that He alone can truly offer.

Status Report, November 2011

2011-11-02T14:18:00.002-04:00

With nods to my friend, Lisa, who successfully completed her 21 day blogging experiment, something I can’t even conceive of attempting at the moment, here’s my status report for November:

Sitting.....at my freshly organized and sort of paper-clutter-free desk. Spent the greater part of today making it so and then worked on my little girl’s desk area. My, but it was messy over there. She is nicely organized again, though, and it feels good. Now if I will just clean the floors, again, the house will be in decent shape. Floors, bathrooms, and laundry: the never-ending cycle of “to do” items.

Waiting....for the tea kettle to whistle, because then I will be able to be....

Drinking....tea from my blue tea pot. Lady Grey today. A whole pot of it. It is that kind of afternoon.

Thankful....that middle son’s football season is over, but....

Wondering...if it makes me a horrible mother that I was sort of hoping they’d lose on Saturday, and was not too sad when they did, because the loss of the playoff game meant no practice this week and the end of the season, which, frankly felt like it was two years long. I am, however, proud of how hard he worked and how much he improved, this being his first year playing little league football, and tackle at that. In fact, during the after game final talk from the coach, his coach singled him out to mention how proud he was of how far M had come this year.

Wishing....my Apple keyboard had an "end" key that would take me to the end of a row. That's pretty much the only thing I miss from my old PC now that we're using the Mac. Anyone know if I'm just missing something?

Thinking....how interesting it is that when you read a whole passage of scripture like....say....Revelation in a sitting rather than a chapter here and a chapter there, that you gain a whole new perspective on the passage. And for the record, I didn’t read the Left Behind books, didn’t watch the movie, and don’t intend to. I get a little tired of hearing from people who get their understanding of Revelation from them, too.

Pondering....Proverbs 11:22 “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without descretion.” How often do I read that and think, “Sure am glad that’s not me!” Thing is, I’m not always as discrete with my words as I should be. In fact, I’ve been pondering this in light of my use of social media, especially Facebook. For me, there is a huge temptation to spout thoughts there that sometimes don’t need to be out there. Just because I have a thought doesn’t mean I need to share it. And who really cares what we’re having for dinner, anyway? More seriously, sometimes in the midst of a discussion, due to the weird mix of anonymity and familiarity that is social media, I sometimes wish I’d taken a little time to mull over things I’ve written before posting them. So, upon closer examination, there’s more of the pig in me at times than I’d be happy to admit.

Reading....The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer. Took a break from the Nook and went to the library and checked out some real, paper books. Not far enough into this book to know if I like it or not. Planning to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins because oldest boy wants to read the trilogy. Not too sure about it since I’ve heard it’s pretty violent. Which is why I want to read and not just hand it over to him.

Enjoying...the fact that my Christmas shopping is almost, not completely but almost, done. Trying to keep it simple this year.

Taking....this moment to say that I believe I may take a formal break from blogging for a week or two. It’s not like I’ve been blogging regularly, but I think I need to go ahead and just rest from it and take care of the busyness that is my life at the moment, make sure my priorities are in order. I volunteer at the kids’ elementary school at least one morning a week, and November is our month to teach Sunday school again, and the house doesn’t clean itself, and I realize that if I don’t get serious about writing my children’s story soon it won’t ever get written. All that to say, I don’t know if breaking will refresh my blogger’s writing block or even how long a break I need. I hope a short one.

On that note, time to go sweep and mop the floor and enjoy my pot of Lady Grey.

Happy Wednesday!

In Honor of Reformation Day:

2011-10-31T14:05:00.000-04:00

"My conscience is captive to the Word of God...." - Martin Luther

Not Really A Review of A Book I've Just Finished

2011-10-25T14:21:00.000-04:00

I don’t exactly know how to describe my taste in fiction. I can tell you what I’m not a huge fan of, and that is typical ‘chick lit.’ I’m not real interested in romance fiction, though I do like a good fairy-tale now and then. For me, I like a sense of intrigue or interesting mystery or the sense of peeling away layers of understanding in the stories I read. I like multi-faceted, well-developed characters and stories where you find that things aren’t always what they seem at first glance. For me, the fun of reading a story is the journey of discovering where the story is going, especially as the layers peel and you go deeper into why people are doing what they do. I like mysteries and detective fiction and courtroom dramas, things that keep you guessing along the way. I like stories that draw you in and make you care about the characters and that have tightly woven plot lines that make you look back and realize that seemingly insignificant details were actually quite skillfully chosen and placed by the author who, like a chess master, has carefully thought out all the details and plotted his or her story.

All of this is one reason I am afraid to get serious about the writing I very much want to do. I want to write something good and well-plotted and well-crafted, but when I sit down to brainstorm, I realize I’m not at all sure I have what it takes to write the kind of thing that a reader like me would want to read.

Anyway, I was perusing a book order my middle school son brought home and finally, finally, he’s at the reading level where there are books in the book orders that I think are actually interesting. I was wondering what it says about me, though, that most of the books whose summaries made me take notice and want to read were categorized as ‘dystopian.’ I paged past the ‘paranormal romance’ with an upturned nose and bemusement at the sheer numbers of selections, but several of the ‘dystopian’ books caught my attention. I had to look up ‘dystopian’ to see what it meant. I kind of assumed that it was the opposite of ‘utopian,’ and basically I was right.

So, why do I like these settings rather than fluffy love and romance stuff? I haven’t completely figured that one out yet, but I suspect it’s because they tend to offer a more realistic view of human nature with its ups and downs and intricacies and foibles, in my opinion.

So, I say all that to mention that I just finished reading a book called, The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch. As I was reading, especially in the beginning, it reminded me very much of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, except with more hope. The Road was, quite possibly, the most depressing book I’ve ever read in my life, and I still find myself processing it to this day though it’s been over a year since I read it. I’m not going to write a true review of The Eleventh Plague because I have realized that isn’t my gift. When I was looking up The Road so I could remind myself of the author’s name for this post I stumbled across an article someone had written that explored some of the themes, and I read it and said, “Ah. So that’s what it was about.” I missed the point apparently. Which is why I find myself still processing it. I got hung up on the starkness and grossness and missed the deeper meanings, though as I read that article I do remember thinking along similar lines as the article’s author about the spiritual meanings of the book. But what stuck with me was one very graphic and disturbing scene, so over time that’s all I really remember when I think about that book, that and the tiny little glimmer of hope that was held out at the end. Even in its starkness, there was just a tiny little grain of hope left. And now I’ve gone way off my topic on a tangent. Which is why I don’t write real reviews.

Back to The Eleventh Plague. I liked this book. It’s a little scary to think just how close to barbarianism our civilized culture could actually be. It wouldn’t take much to knock us off the grid, and most of us, myself included, would not know how to live without the superstructure our electricity and civilized and interconnected society give us. Groups like the Amish could possibly go on as if nothing had changed, but the rest of us are completely dependent on our modern conveniences. Think about how lost you feel when the power goes out for an hour or two. Then imagine a world where a devastating war complete with a deadly biological weapon of mass destruction has killed 2/3 of America and where not enough people survived to keep the hospitals open or the power on and the cities are abandoned buildings crumbling to dust. That’s the world 15-year-old Stephen Quinn was born into in The Eleventh Plague.

Without giving too many spoilers, after much personal tragedy and difficulty Stephen comes across a community known as Settler’s Landing, that, as the back of the book says, seems too good to be true. What happens there is the bulk of the story.

What I like is the exploration of human interactions and relationships and how easy it is for us to become barbarians when you take away any kind of governmental or societal structure. Anarchy is a frightening thing. It is scary and fascinating to think about the sheer immensity of the task of surviving, not to mention rebuilding after such a massive tragedy. When I read things like this, I can’t help but think of Revelation where instead of turning to God, people still defy Him and shake their fists at Him.

One thing that disturbed me as I read was that the one character who publicly prayed and quoted the Bible was not a ‘good’ character. His quoting of the Bible was done to shore up his own selfish ends and to keep people out and be insular rather than reach out to help people in need with the resources he had. He saw needy outsiders and other settlers as a threat, while others in the community would extend kindness and sympathy and saw them as potential allies.

Where that sent my thinking was, “Is that really how the world sees Christians?” When the onlooking world thinks of Bible-believing Christians, are we so self-focused that they see us as looking out for our own best-interests and not caring what happens to anyone else, or worse maybe that we have a bunker mentality that would shut out anyone who isn’t ‘one of us’? Then I look around at our mega church subculture with our self-contained bubble mentality that caters to ‘felt needs’ but doesn’t always get to the heart of the gospel and move our understanding of the gospel from being sort of the ticket into the club rather than understanding it for the life-changing, desperately needed answer to our deepest need to be rescued from the chains of sin, and I realize why we might be seen that way.

That wasn’t the point of the book. It wasn’t written by a Christian author, as far as I know, but I found it interesting, anyway. Interesting in the sense that I don’t want to live in such a way that my unsaved neighbors could think I don’t care about them. Interesting in the sense that I want to live in a way that points my friends and neighbors to the light of the gospel.

Interesting book, one that got me thinking, and not necessarily along the lines the author intended, but that still made it a good read this week. Obviously there were lots more directions my thinking went as I read and am processing the book, but that’s all I’ll hit on here. This post is long enough.

Has It Really Been Five Years Already?

2011-10-20T13:51:00.002-04:00

I just realized today is my “Blogoversary.” Five years of blogging as of today. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but when I remember that my little girl was just a little bitty baby, not even a year old when I started this blog, and here she is 5 and a half now, well....time does march on. If I were a truly motivated blogger, I could link to some of my favorites today to mark this momentous occasion. I do not feel so moved at the moment, however. I can tell you that back when I started this little hobby I probably wouldn’t have thought I’d still be blogging five years later. I still remember how petrified I was every time I hit the publish button in the beginning. I still am sometimes.

Blogging helped me to fill a very lonely period in my life, the time I called my "Desert time." The time we lived "on the island" in South Carolina was a growing time for me, definitely, but it was a very lonely time, too. I was not terribly sad when the Lord allowed my husband to get the call to go active duty Army and move us to St. Louis after five years of what was a wilderness of sorts for me. God was so very faithful and kind during that time, and I don't regret our five years there at all. But I definitely am thankful for the blogging fellowship that grew out of that time, also. Blogging has really helped me to learn to think through my faith and to learn to even better search the Scriptures as I'm working through things.

I am thankful for this hobby of blogging. Through it I’ve met some sweet sisters in Christ I never would have had the chance to meet this side of heaven otherwise. And though at times I clarify my friends by ‘real’ friends and ‘blog’ friends, I have to say that some of the friendships I’ve formed here aren’t really less real than other friendships, though by necessity they are less close. Thanks to those of you who read regularly and comment. As you know, a blogger’s love language is comments. I’ve enjoyed ‘meeting’ you, blog friends. Thanks, too, to those who read but don’t comment. I hope my ramblings have a few worthwhile posts among them to make your day brighter or encourage you to think once in a while. Whatever the case, I am thankful to have this little space to think out loud.

I really do want to blog more regularly again. I miss it. You’d think after 5 years I would have found my voice here, but I still have shaking fingers before posting most of the time. Maybe those nerves never truly go away.

Anyway, thanks for reading, to those of you who’ve stuck around or stumbled across my little Sweet Tea place along the way. I think I’ll keep going a little while longer.

How Having Children Turned My Head Into a Barometer of Sorts

2011-10-19T15:29:00.000-04:00

Just so you know, there is very little point to this post except that it serves to keep me writing a little more regularly.

I have always been prone to headaches, and bad ones at that.

However, they did not always correlate to weather patterns, as far as I can tell, until after the adventure of motherhood began for me. Let me explain.

When my middle son was about two, we lived in southern Indiana and my husband was deployed to Bosnia for a year. His being deployed has basically nothing to do with this story, but I like those interesting little details in a story, don’t you? Anyone who has lived in southern Indiana or northern Kentucky where we live now probably knows that the Ohio River Valley is notorious for allergy and sinus problems. I was already finding that I was one of those not unusual people who is susceptible to the ORV sinus affliction, and that was a new thing for this Florida girl who had grown up thinking I did not have seasonal allergies. Turns out I may not be allergic to Florida, but Kentuckiana (how I hate that silly phrase that our news people love to say) is another thing altogether.

But I digress. One day while I was in the midst of my Army-induced, year-long single motherhood, I was playing with my little boy and he proceeded to hit his head full force on my nose. Talk about blinding pain. I was sure he’d broken my nose and I was going to have two black eyes. I didn’t, but I do think something inside got rearranged and has forever after turned my head into a kind of barometer.

Now whenever there is a sudden change in weather, I will get a searing headache right down the middle of my forehead and in my nasal sinus passages and then the whole world starts spinning like I’m on a tilt-a-whirl. When this happens, I usually look at Drew and ask, “Is there a big weather front coming through our something?” Most of the time the answer is, “Yes.” I was once awakened out of a deep sleep by that searing sinus pain ripping through my head, while outside I heard the wind pick up and a violent storm just beginning. It is the strangest sensation.

Why am I writing about this now? As I was sitting here minding my own business this afternoon, my head started spinning. I couldn’t even walk straight with one foot in front of the other on the way up to the bus stop. I hope I didn't look a little drunk as I wobbled up the hill. I promise you, I haven't had anything stronger than my pot of Earl Grey tea. While I agree with George Orwell that, "All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes," I am quite sure my Earl Grey has nothing to do with my wobbliness this afternoon.

The temperature has dropped dramatically over the course of the day today. In fact, here is part of the weather alert I found when I checked weather.com for my area: A LARGE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER THE APPALACHIANS TODAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL INTENSIFY RAPIDLY AND MOVE NORTH INTO NORTHERN OHIO THROUGH THURSDAY... DRAMATICALLY INCREASING OUR WINDS ACROSS SOUTH-CENTRAL INDIANA AND CENTRAL KENTUCKY.

I knew it.

I’m loving the cooler weather, though it’s a little disconcerting to go from hot to if it were only about 15 degrees colder the mist we’ve been having all day would probably be snow flurries. Today was the first day of the season that I had to use the heater in the car while I was out and about. Haven’t had to turn it on in the house yet, but I am enjoying the cooler weather, with a bit of wariness because I know how long wintry weather lasts once the cold sets in for good around here.

Anyway, I am one of the only people I know who has to take motion sickness pills when I’m sitting still on dry, unmoving land. Thanks to a friend on Facebook for suggesting that, though, or I would never have thought of trying that to help with my weather-induced dizziness.

So, in case you’ve ever heard that having children just might make you a little loopy, I’m wobbling proof, sort of.

Happy Wednesday.

Just Another Afternoon in the Kitchen

2011-10-17T15:12:00.000-04:00

I see that quite a few of my bloggy friends are attempting to get back to writing daily blog posts! This is something I would like to do, also, but I’m not ready to make promises on that front. My trepidatious relationship with my blog leads me to long dry spells and times when I’m somewhat reluctant to post my thoughts out here at all for just anybody to read, and times of swirling insecurity where I contemplate not posting another blog post ever again. Then I get to where every post ends up being long and, well, too much. Maybe I need to try the everyday blogging thing. Would it help to lighten up the feel of my blog if I didn’t save it all up for the big posts? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

I suppose I could share a snapshot of what this afternoon entailed and therefore a glimpse at what daily blogging might possibly look like, and let you, my few remaining friendly readers, decide:

I’ve mentioned before that I’m something of a disaster in the kitchen. I think my escapade today may just be my most spectacular mess yet.

Trying to make the easy version of banana pudding for my banana-pudding loving kiddos, a feat I have completed successfully quite often in the past, I made a valiant start by placing the first layer of vanilla wafers in the dish, slicing the first banana and arranging it just so. So far so good, yes?

Enter the chaos that intruded upon my moment of domestic homemaker bliss.

I typically use my blender to mix the boxed pudding, so I measured the milk, put in the pudding mix, turned it on, and promptly turned my back to throw away the banana peel. Upon turning back around, I saw my blender spewing yellow pudding mess all over the kitchen. My response? “Ack, ah, what?????!!!!!” Coherence is not my strong point in a crisis moment.

Apparently I had not sufficiently checked to make sure the bottom of the blender was securely attached to the jar. I had carefully checked to make sure the bottom was securely on the blender base, but the jar? Escaped my notice. The jar was slowly turning and pudding was pooling out the bottom and spewing forth in a fine yellow mist. It was quite exciting.

And sticky. Very sticky.

So. In a fit of optimism I started laughing and talking to myself about how I don’t think I’ve made quite such a marvelous mess in the kitchen before. I’ve come close but this one was the worst for today. So far. Laughing beats crying when the mess is that spectacular.

In another fit of.....something, call it optimism if you will, I googled “Homemade banana pudding” to see if I could salvage the treat. Right. Like I’ve EVER made homemade, not from a box, pudding before in my life. Turns out you need eggs for that, and all that I have in the fridge are egg beaters at the moment. In a fit of waning optimism at this point, I googled “homemade pudding with egg beaters.” Suffice to say, unless I find a way to get to the grocery store in the next little bit, we aren’t going to be having banana pudding tonight. Possibly tomorrow....

Take home message: Though I may have lived a mere 45 minutes from Savannah for 5 years of my recent adult life, Paula Deen I am not. There are days my family is lucky to get something resembling a home-cooked meal absent some kind of kitchen incident. But that meal is made with love.....

Status Report October 2011

2011-10-13T21:20:00.001-04:00

Sitting.....in my car - well, while I was hand writing the original of this in my spiral notebook journal I was, anyway. Now I'm sitting at the computer desk in my kitchen, naturally. Well, when you all read this, I don't know anymore where I am, since you could be reading it anytime and I won't still be sitting at the computer desk then. :-)

Pondering....just how much we must love our sons to sit in our cars on a chilly, wet, gray, muddy, intermittently rainy Fall evening, eating Subway for dinner on the run in the car while we wait on our boys to become sufficiently muddy during two hours of football practice. This after 45 minutes of waiting for a certain little girl to have her gymnastics class earlier this afternoon. Just livin' the dream, baby. Or maybe we're just a little crazy. That too.

Eating....Subway ham and cheese on wheat with lettuce, pickles, onion, red vinegar, tomato and oregano. Just the way I like it. And a diet Coke. Rachel's having Mickey D's. Yuck. Michael will get his Subway when practice is over. Like I said, sports crazy. (Actually, see point above. Now that I'm not in the car and everyone but me is going to bed, I'm just about to enjoy a Pumpkin Spice Chai latte here, in my Disney mug, because in spite of that rather long post I wrote, we did have fun family time there and the further out from the inundation that I am the more I can appreciate the parts I like about our fun together there. And Pumpkin Spice Chai latte is just......Ahhhhh. Just saying, "Pumpkin," makes me feel all cozy and snug.)

Missing....my husband and oldest son. Drew took Joshua on a Father-Son field trip to Washington D.C. and New York City. Even got the days officially excused from school as an educational enhancement opportunity. Drew has some really neat stuff planned for them to do. I know they're having fun, and I'm glad Drew wants to spend some one-on-one time with our newly teenaged boy.

Thinking....I have cake issues. There is about half a chocolate cake sitting in my fridge. It keeps loudly tempting me to issue it into my mouth. See? Cake issues. Anyone want to come eat this cake and get it away from me? Which leads me to the other big news. The cake is birthday cake from my son turning into a teenager yesterday. We have a teenager in the house now. Well, when he comes home from his trip we will. Did I mention it?

Wondering....how in the world my baby boy is 13 as of yesterday. How grateful I am that God granted us the awesome privilege and responsibility of parenting him 13 years ago. How grateful I am that God allows us to be Michael's and Rachel's mom and dad, too.

Soaking....up the beauty of Fall leaves. Thankful for the beauty of God's creation as it is displayed in such abundance of eye-drenching colors.

Bummed....because new white tennis shoes and clumsy misstep into ankle deep, rich, red Kentucky mud are not a happy combination.

Relieved....that laundry soap and washing machine took care of my mud and white shoes conundrum. Mostly-ish.

Surprised....that "Mostly-ish" did not get a red or green squiggly line under it when I typed it.

Excited...that my baby, my Kindergartner is reading. She reads out street signs and store signs all the time now. And last night, she read a book to me before bed. Did you catch that? She read a book to me. Woot! Another reader in the Sweet Tea house! Woot! Woot!

Listening....to Addition and Subtraction rap CD. (This was back in the car). It's a little irritating after the first track or two, but daughter requested it, and how can I refuse? She actually likes learning math facts when they are rapped at her by a cat and mouse duet. Shrug.

Reading.....The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Yet another series that Joshua was reading that I find interesting, also. I've liked everything I've read by this author. One very cool thing about having kids who LOVE to read is that they have introduced me to some good books I probably never would have read otherwise. And we get to enjoy discussing them together, too. Coolness.

Thankful, humbled, and amazed.....at God's mercy, compassion, and awesome greatness. What a humbling and truly awesome thing it is when He allows you to see a glimpse of how He is working when you have been praying a gospel-centered prayer for someone. It's wonderful when you walk with the Lord and pay attention and see He is working in all things for His glory. Wondrous grace and matchless joy!

Love....my church. Looking forward to exciting things I trust the Lord has for us to participate in during the near future. So thankful for this family of believers in the Lord Jesus who gather together at Northside Baptist Church.

Happy October!

The Happiest Place On Earth

2011-10-10T14:38:00.000-04:00

We spent Fall Break in Florida. First we spent Saturday night with my parents and had the privilege of attending church with them on Sunday, where, by the way, we were blessed to hear a wonderfully gospel-saturated sermon that I believe may be one of the clearest and most encouraging presentations of how the gospel, and how the gospel is not merely the starting or entry point but it is what we need for Kingdom living, that I have ever heard and which left me in tears and thanking God for His marvelous grace. This thought, especially, hit home for me, that being a slave of Christ means knowing that the only Person who matters in the universe sees me and accepts me, not because of anything I have done or been or could do or be, but because of His sacrifice alone, and that eliminates the need for people-pleasing and seeking the approval of others. It frees me to live a life that honors Him in gratitude. It was a wonderful way to start our week.

We spent the next couple of days at Walt Disney World. Let me just say, I liked WDW a whole lot better when I was younger. WDW today is, as I’m telling my kids, “Not your mother’s Disney World” anymore. As I’ve thought over our week, I think I’ve finally come to the bottom of what my problem was. I liked WDW better when we lived in Florida and had the FL Resident passes and could go for a day or an afternoon at a time and then go home. Several days staying in a resort hotel on Disney property, (actually we stayed at Shades of Green, which is the military resort there on Disney property but not a Disney-owned resort) surrounded by Disney follow-your-dream theology day in and day out for DAYS is too much for me. Yeah, I said, ‘theology.’ I’m probably about to make a bunch of people mad at me, because, well, you don’t diss The Mouse, right?

Anywho....for the record, we had a good time overall. The kids had a blast, and Rachel, at 5-years-old, is probably just the right age to really enjoy the Disney experience the most of all of us. I think the best part of the week for me was watching the kids’ expressions and enjoyment. In all honesty, I think I actually enjoyed our day at Universal Studios more than the days at Disney. The boys really liked the Harry Potter stuff and the Hogwarts castle ride was really cool if you like the books. Universal isn’t as over-the-top as Disney, and therefore it is just more fun, in my opinion. Disney is just so intense nowadays it’s almost hard to enjoy it as much as you want to. Also, for the record, I am not saying it’s wrong to go to WDW and enjoy the Disney experience. What I’m exploring here is why I felt so much less thrilled with the Disney experience this time than in years past and trying to hash out the thoughts that have been bumping around in my brain since we came home.

Part of what I don’t like as much about WDW these days is that it is not spontaneous like it used to be. I remember when you would wander the parks and run into the characters and say, “Hey, there’s Mickey, let’s get a picture!” and a line might spontaneously form there for a bit until Mickey or whoever had to move on to the next spot. Nowadays, there are set times and ‘character spots’ and the line to have pictures can take 30 minutes or more and there’s always a Disney employee ‘handler’ with the characters and professional photographer making sure you get just the perfect photos (for an exorbitant fee if you so choose to purchase them, too). And as for eating at the restaurants? Forget about it. Unless you make reservations months, nay, sometimes years in advance, be prepared to eat obscenely over-priced fast food at one of the non-reservation places. I told my husband one dinner time that it kind of made me sick to pay that much for food when none of the choices were even what any of us wanted.

And you can’t even walk through the castle anymore.

But all of that is just how it is and you pretty much know that going in to the Disney experience these days. Times change, you know, hard as that may be for those of us who cling to our nostalgia to accept.

What got me thinking, though, was the constant Disney indoctrination of the ‘Dreams Come True’ philosophy. That’s always been the Disney theme, no mistake, and on the surface it has some merit. It’s not a bad thing to find something you want to do, are good at doing, and to work hard to achieve it and to succeed. Innovation and creativity and perseverance are all admirable characteristics and desperately needed in our world. But as I watched the show on the castle stage that prevented us from walking through the castle, I was struck with the worldview it was espousing. Mickey and Minnie had the crowd worked up and chanting, “Dreams come true! Dreams come true! Dreams come true!” and just like that, the conflict resolved because we ‘believed’ so hard that dreams come true! The Disney philosophy is basically be nice and believe, really believe enough, in whatever you’re believing in and what you want will come true for you. It’s basically word-faith with the pseudo-Christian language stripped away.

I was listening to Albert Mohler talking on his program a while ago about something called “Therapeutic Moralistic Deism” which a pretty good argument can be made is really the underlying faith system of most of America. Even people who think they are Christians, are really believing something much more shallow. Be nice, be ‘good’, live a ‘good’ life, follow your dreams, be all you can be, find your self-actualization, (it’s all about you!), rest in peace. But that is not all there is. That is not the gospel. It is, however, the very pervasive, subtle message that is in your face in our culture and which just about suffocated me at Disney this time around.

And I think that’s what bothers me when I spend more than a day enclosed in the all-Disney, all the time way we were this past week. Disney sells an image. You should see all the little girls walking around whose parents have spent upwards of $200 dollars or more for a princess dress, nails, hair, makeup, shoes, tiara and who look like those monster baby beauty-pageant contestants. Rachel, of course, wanted to do that. We said, “That’s too much, too overdone.” And, that’s what it boils down to. Disney takes fun and imagination and pretend and goes WAY overboard.....all for a hefty price, too. I’m all for letting my little girl dress up and pretend and be girly and all that, but I will not let her walk around like a little diva thinking it’s all about her. We’re already having some issues there, no way am I going to intentionally feed her little sin nature, not even for a visit to Disney. We in our culture are so prone to take innocent little fun things and somehow make them an idol and go way overboard in the guise of loving our children, and Disney TOTALLY feeds that. Embarrassingly gluttonous spending orgies are all but expected. Materialistic consumerism to excess and beyond. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m kind of sickened by the whole ‘princess’ culture these days. I cannot stand the princess Bibles and stuff in the Christian bookstore. I fear we are raising a generation of girls who are so focused on outward beauty and so convinced they are little princesses that we will be sorry when we reap the narcissistic consequences as these girls grow up into self-centered girls with shallow ideas of beauty and womanhood. Just a little soapbox tangent for a moment there. Could probably write a whole blog post on that topic alone. Anyway, in the case of my own daughter I am constantly praying that we’ll be able to teach her that charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD will be praised.

A steady diet of fairy tales and Disney, as fun as they are, are counter to the truth. Like I said, I think a wise family can go to Disney and enjoy it, but my caution is....be wise. You have to come home again. What Disney is selling is, ultimately, a lie. As long as you know that going in, you can enjoy the rides and leave the philosophy at the door. Problem is, I think an awful lot of people buy the philosophy hook-line-and-sinker. To be honest, I liked our day at Universal Studios Orlando better because it was less in-your-face and more just enjoying ourselves. You don’t so completely immerse in a worldview like you do at Disney, where the ‘cast-members’ are constantly preaching their message. Maybe I’ve just become jaded with the over-the-top feel at Disney, but it didn’t sit well with me this time around.

Thing is, you can dream all you want and be wildly successful and achieve every single thing you’ve ever wanted to achieve and have the acclaim of millions, but if you neglect the one thing that really matters, if you miss the gospel, not one of those fulfilled dreams will ultimately matter. This life is not all there is. So, yes, work to achieve, but keep the Kingdom, the true Kingdom, in mind in all things and motivations.

Lest anyone think I’m over-thinking again, which I am often told I do, Jesus addressed this when he said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)

Just something I’ve been thinking about.

Home

2011-10-09T08:02:00.001-04:00

Home is one of the best words ever. No matter how fun a vacation may be, it's still great to come home. We just finished one of those vacations where we had fun, but we need a few days to recuperate now that we're home. Blog post is brewing, thoughts are swirling, but until I can get to writing them here's a hint about what we were doing during Fall Break:

When Government and Environmentalism are the Cultural Idols

2011-09-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

The following post is long, could probably be turned into a series, but, it’s my blog and I’m not overly concerned with following the conventional blogging wisdom. I’m trying to work out some thoughts I had today, and if you care to read through I’ll eventually get to the reason for the title, though I’m aware it takes me quite a while to get there. Feel free to follow along, or not, as you wish.

I don’t typically write much in the way of political ponderings in this space. Not that I don’t have them, I just don’t share them here often. Part of the reason is that I am working through how to properly live with and hold onto a very real tension between the now and the not yet. I love my country, to be sure, and I am very grateful to live here and for the sacrifices that have been made so that we can have the freedoms we enjoy and believe to be important. I find current events stimulating, engaging, and important. However, I think it is unwise to become too caught up in this world system. I am not saying it is unimportant to care about our politics and unimportant to be involved and to vote and be engaged citizens. Not at all am I saying that. I am saying, though, that I am uncomfortable with being so overly concerned with what happens here in the social and political sphere that we somehow lose sight of our overarching purpose for being here, namely to be concerned first and foremost with the gospel and with being citizens of that city that is made without hands, the Kingdom of God. We live here in the Kingdom of Man, and as citizens, we are biblically charged with submitting to the authorities and being good citizens and, in our society part of that is expressed by voting our consciences and by finding responsible ways to positively influence our culture and speak for things that are right.

Not to spark debate, and way, way, way beyond the scope of this post, I have come to have some qualms about whether the revolution that was the beginning of this great country and which we celebrate, was actually something that someone who truly wants to live biblically should have supported at the time. And, I think a valid argument can be made that many of our founders were motivated much more by the Enlightenment and the exaltation of human reasoning than by a truly Christian worldview, and an argument can also be made that this has led over the years to more of a negative influence in American Christianity than a positive one. Like I said, way beyond the scope of this post, but my thinking for today where I am right now and with what we have to work with at the moment is that we err when we get so focused on politics and the social injustices that we think that the answer is found through political and social activism first, however. The answer is the gospel, and that is where we must have our focus in every endeavor.

Having said all that, I do think that we Americans have a unique gift in the country we’ve inherited, and though not all of our founding fathers were necessarily Christian, they did have some good insight into human nature and the dangers of a too strong government that it’s not a bad thing to remember now and again. But, when I quote the founding fathers, I do it with the earlier caution in mind.

What prompted this post was a story I ran across this morning. You can see it here, and you need to read it to understand what spurred this train of thought. Actually, it piggy-backed with something I was already thinking about because of my study for my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow, as I’ll explain. So, my thinking after reading about the EPA forcing OTC asthma inhalers off the market due to ‘environmental concerns’ went two directions. One worldly, one much more important. I’ll deal with the temporal first.

First, here are a few quotes from some of the founders of our country that I find quite interesting, and with which I agree:

“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge fore more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society.” ----John Adams, Novanglus Letters, 1774

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” ----James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (June 16, 1788)

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” -----Thomas Jefferson

I believe that less government, not more, was the goal of those who founded our nation. After reading that story I linked to, I have been thinking that it is just one more symptom of the wrong-headed thinking that government needs to micromanage everything. I also find it frustrating to listen to liberals go on and on about how we need the government to manage our healthcare because people can’t afford it, but then in the next breath they go making something that lots of people need MORE expensive and hurtful to the same people they claim to be protecting in other conversations. They talk out of both sides of their mouths, and they don’t seem to even see it. The people who insist on shoving more and more government intrusion into our lives in the name of helping people fail to see how instead of helping, they hurt and make things even worse. The role of government, biblically speaking, is to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. (1 Peter 2:14) In a word, to keep order. I am not an anarchist. God instituted government and it is He who is sovereign over it. I also believe that biblically we Christian citizens are to peaceably submit to government, even when it isn’t what we think it ought to be. We are to be salt and light in our culture and to reach out to others in the name of Christ and for the sake of the gospel, so please don't hear me saying we are to ignore social issues. I 'm not saying that. We can use legal means to bring about changes we believe are good, but I don’t believe we are to rebel. The Bible is clear about this. But I also do not think it is wrong to speak up about what we believe is the best way to govern, especially in our country which was founded on the principle of free speech.

Now, to the more important point that struck me forcibly today and the actual reason for writing this post and what I really want to be the ‘take home’ thought. What I originally thought when I saw this story, along with bemoaning the breath-taking arrogance of big government, was that this is what happens when we forsake a biblical worldview. Man was created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth, not the other way around. We were not created to serve the earth, the earth is not our ‘mother,’ and extreme environmentalism consistently gets this out of whack. God created this world, He has a plan and purpose for it and He will do it. God will take care of the environment, and we are just plain wrong, unconscionable even, to downplay or endanger the health of people because of negligible effects on the environment that scientists can’t prove and don’t even agree upon. We have become a people who worship the earth rather than its Creator, and this is what results. While preparing my lesson for tomorrow, I came across this:

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

That was GOD speaking in covenant to Noah, and He hasn’t rescinded it. Yes, we need to be responsible stewards of the creation, but we need not fear to the point where the environment becomes more important than the human life it was created to sustain.

So, while that article I linked is just one story, and not even a gigantic one, for me it shows what happens when we allow big government and environmentalism to become idols. We look to government to take care of us, protect the environment, tell us how to live rather than look to the One who created us. We value the environment more than we value the life that was created in God’s image. In short, we neglect God, the very One who gives us life and holds that life in His hands. It is God alone who sustains our life and the Creation He spoke into existence.

And it is in Christ alone, in the gospel, that we find hope. Government cannot ultimately overcome the evil that is in man’s heart, and being ‘green’ will not preserve the environment. All of Creation is groaning for the restoration that will come when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords brings it. Only in repenting of our sin and bowing before King Jesus, our Savior, can the evil in our heart be overcome.

This Afternoon In Facebook Status Update Format or Laughing About My Afternoon in the Kitchen

2011-09-21T16:21:00.004-04:00

You know how you read status updates that people intentionally write cryptically, causing you wonder what in the world they mean? Here's what my afternoon would be like if I had chosen to Facebook my dinner-making progress:

I was something of a disaster in the kitchen today.

Buttermilk was everywhere!

Everywhere, I say.

If you're going to make a mess, might as well go all out and make it spectacular.

Dinner was such a success, we wished we'd ordered pizza.

Well, that last one probably isn't true. I have no doubt the dinner itself will be just fine. It was the producing of it that was rather eventful.

And just what, pray tell, caused buttermilk to be all over the kitchen?

That's where the cryptic nature of the post comes in. Frustrating, isn't it? :-)

Yeah, I don't like those kinds of cryptic status updates, either.

So, in case you're wondering and in the interested of public service, always make sure the cap is on the buttermilk before you shake it.

But the banana bread will still be yummy.

Have a nice day.

Friday Frazzles

2011-09-16T16:23:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the second edition of ‘Friday Frazzles,’ a collection of tangentially related and fairly random thoughts unworthy of a solid blog post, but plopped out here to keep the blog limping along as they wander through my brain. Can’t promise this will become a regular Friday feature around here, but here’s another one, anyway.

I’m loving the Fall weather we’re having. Windows open, crisp air. Need to be outside soon and enjoying it with the kiddos.

I also love that my house is nice and cool and that the AC isn’t having to run to make it so. I am a fan of Fall.

Pizza dough is rising in the pans for homemade pizza Friday. Yum.

Really enjoyed volunteering in a second grade classroom at my kids’ school yesterday morning and this morning. Second graders are so sweet. It’s going to be fun volunteering in there this year.

Enjoying teaching the second and third grade Sunday school, too.

My son brought tears to my eyes when, after drilling him really hard on his math facts, he said, “Thank you, Mom,” and gave me a big hug. I’m feeling all kinds of mommy guilt for not getting on top of his math struggle sooner. We’re working together on it, though, and it seems that he appreciates it.

I’m thankful for my husband, for lots and lots of reasons, but I’m thinking right at this moment how thankful I am that he can support and cheer for his son at football without being the kind of jerk another dad was as he yelled at the coaches and made pretty much an idiot of himself treating nine and ten year old football like something much more important than it is. I’m thankful my husband isn’t that guy.

Enjoying the book I’m reading, but ready to finish it and move on to the book that arrived in my mailbox from Amazon the other day. That is the newest installment in a series the boys and I are reading together that we had pre-ordered months ago. Looking forward to reading it before oldest son slips and tells me anything about it since he’s already finished it. Also looking forward to reading the series we ordered from his book order. We’re not just ordering books for the kids anymore, now I am enjoying a lot of them, too. Fun!

Reviewed Philippians this morning, and am glad I still have it memorized. I love it.

That’s about it for now. Time to enjoy the afternoon. It’s one of those days outside where you just feel glad to be outside. Have I mentioned that I love the Fall?

Fear Not

2011-09-11T16:21:00.000-04:00

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 10:28-33

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

When things seem darkest here, we are not left without hope. Jesus is the light of the world. He is the anchor for the soul who lashes his or her life to Him.

On a day when we remember a dark day in our country's life, when we weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn, amid calls to never forget, may this be at the forefront of our minds to never forget:

"This is my Father's world
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:

Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!"

An Evening Prayer

2011-09-06T20:58:00.001-04:00

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord, my soul to keep,

My words were sharp, my temper flared

No one in my wake was spared

Though I ask forgiveness still I know

The words forever hang there, so

Please, O gracious, Father, I pray

Grant me the wisdom to watch what I say.

Let the law of kindness be on my tongue

And let my actions match the songs I have sung

Let me think on Your word and fill up my mind

With Your law of love and teach me to ever be kind

And love You with my whole heart, soul and mind

I desire to live in the light of your grace

And point others to Jesus, to delight in Your face

My Savior, my Lord, I'm saved only by Your grace.

What I want to do, so often I fail

But Your mercy, everlasting will avail

To kill the hypocrite I find so often in me

And growing and trusting and just like a tree

That's planted by streams of the living water, made free.

As far as the east is from the west

So humbling to know You forgive me, Who knows me best

Now as I lay this day to rest

Please help me remember how very blessed

To belong to the Shepherd Who leads me beside

Still waters and green pastures and walks by my side

The Shepherd who will lead me home

And cause my heart to forever cease to roam.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Psalm 23:6

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him." Psalm 103:13

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." Proverbs 31:26

May it be so, Lord, in life and in blogging. I think maybe I like me better when I wasn't blogging as much there recently. May I learn to be critical of the right things in the right way and to keep a lot more of my musings private rather than public. I've deleted a post that fits that category, though it's so long past that any who may read it already have. Some things are better left in the prayer closet. And, oh the shame of a too quick tongue and too sharp sarcastic comment at home. I am tempted to shirk responsibility and say it's so much harder to keep my cool when husband is out of town, but really the responsibility for my unkindness is my own. Let me learn, O gracious Lord, to speak less if what I say is not wise and to be kind, even in the midst of necessary discipline or rebuke.

And thank You, Lord, for this: "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.'" Lamentations 3:22-24

Maybe I Shouldn't Blog Every Big Thought I Struggle Over

2011-09-04T13:43:00.000-04:00

You know, even though I struggled over the last post for several days, and I thought it was okay to publish, I'm wondering if maybe it's one that I should have kept to myself. I've been thinking that the curriculum, though not perfect at all, gives me a lot to work with and I'll continue to pray for wisdom to teach it well. And now that I'm calmer and have taken the time to study the lesson on Adam and Eve more thoroughly, it actually does a better job in the adult prep part than I realized at first glance. Yes, I wish they'd done better, but it's not as bad as I first thought. I can't worry about what everyone else does with it, but I can be faithful to teach what God has graciously taught me through His word and allows me to learn from others who faithfully teach His word. I am responsible for the class I have to teach here and the children I have to raise in my home, and I need to be faithful here. As for all the rest, I'm praying.....but I need to be venting and complaining here in this blog space much less. Sorry, y'all. I'll get this blogging thing figured out one of these days.

And, if anyone is interested, Sunday school was good today. I enjoy these kids, am so glad for the opportunity to teach them, love it when they seem to engage with the lesson, and I really hope some seeds are being planted that God, in His mercy, might allow to take root. May He use my imperfect offering for His glory. That really is my desire, and, flawed as that last post is, that desire is what motivates my passionate reaction to what I wish was better.

And I really love my local church and it was a great morning of worshiping our God together today.

Status Report - September 2011

2011-09-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

Following... the lead of my friend, Lisa, and writing a Status Report on this first day of September, and wondering why the word "September" doesn't look right today. Does that ever happen to you? You know, where you spell a word correctly, the way you've always spelled it, but it looks wrong? I'm having that kind of September day.

Sitting....at the computer desk in the kitchen, watching the clock until I have to get the pasta going for dinner.

Thinking...that two posts in one day is quite the unusual occurrence around here these days.

Enjoying....the nice weather....wait, that was earlier this week. It’s hot again and looks like it may continue so into the weekend. But it was nice enough to make me long for fall.

Anticipating...the nice fall weather so much I made pumpkin pie the other day. It just had to be done. Pumpkin pie is good no matter what time of year the calendar says it is. I think Fall is my favorite season.

Hoping...allergy season this fall isn’t too troublesome. I quit taking the allergy medicine I was taking because I suspect certain side effects I was experiencing will go away if I quit taking it. So far, day three sans allergy medicine....my rings fit again, I haven’t yelled at anyone today and don’t feel nearly as cranky as I have for the past...months..., I’ve written two blog posts because I finally don’t feel like I’m in foggy-thinking-land and I’ve been sleeping better. I think a stuffy nose is the lesser of all those evils.

Working...on a blog post that I’m really struggling with how to write. In fact, I’ve been pondering whether I’m done with the blogging part of my life altogether.That may have been the allergy medicine induced funk talking, time will tell. Anyway, one of my biggest struggles with blogging is being concise. That and the suspicion that it won’t matter if my posts are long or short, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I’m hoping to write soon about my soapbox issue: how the curriculum I’m using for children’s Sunday school misses the point too often, and I’ll attempt to do it without naming any names. That’s not controversial at all or anything.

Reading....Tuck, the third and final book of the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. I’m really enjoying this series. Also reading A Praying Life: Connecting With God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller. Also waiting on a book my kids and I ordered from Amazon, plus some books we ordered from their book orders. The boys are finally old enough to be wanting books I want to read, too. And I ordered To Kill a Mockingbird for my oldest boy when it appeared in his book order, because it’s just about my favorite book and he needs to read it.

Hearing...the water beginning to boil, which means it’s about time to wrap this up and go fix dinner. Hungry family to feed.

Happy September!

Learned Desperation

2011-09-01T09:43:00.008-04:00

"Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life."

- Miller, Paul (2009-05-15). A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (Kindle Location 1519). NavPress. Kindle Edition.

I read that quote this morning while reading the book referenced above. As I read it, I was reminded of Matthew 5:3-4, where Jesus tells us, "Blessed are are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

What is 'poor in spirit'? Recognizing that I have absolutely nothing to offer God. Recognizing that my very best offering is filthy rags in light of His holiness. Recognizing that I need Him. I am desperate for grace. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to His cross I cling.

What is mourning? Recognizing the wreck of sin in my life. Recognizing that even in my very best attempt, I have fallen woefully short of His glory, I have tainted every offering with my own pride and lack of understanding of just Who He is. It is bowing before Him, in awe of the grace that would save one like me.

I like the idea of learned desperation. I want to be a praying woman. I want to recognize daily what a debtor to grace I truly am. Why learned? Because I am so steeped in the 'can-do', me-first, individualized, psychobabble 'you-can-be-all-you-want-to-be-if-you-just-work-hard-enough', self-help, self-actualization, positive-thinking, name-it-and-claim-it culture all around me that I must learn to shut out those lies and learn that what I need is not 'self' actualization at all but to study God's word and look intently at Who He is and bow before Christ Jesus the Lord and submit to His conforming me to His image.

In recognizing that, in learning that kind of desperation before my Savior, is where the greatest joy and rest are found. Whatever good works He has prepared for me to do, saved me to free me to do for His glory, He will give the grace to do it, by His power and His Spirit working in me to conform me to the image of His Son as He sanctifies me, sets me apart to be free to walk in obedience to Him.

This realization, that it is all of Him, all of His grace, that I am saved purely and only for the sake of Jesus, gives me the freedom to cry out to Him in prayer and to learn to trust Him daily.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Hear My Prayer, O LORD

2011-08-25T12:36:00.005-04:00

“Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

listen to my plea for grace.” Psalm 86:6

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

I’ve been encouraging my Sunday School kids to memorize the Bible verse that the curriculum highlights as a memory verse each week. I’d really like them to learn the actual verse, not just the paraphrased version that the curriculum gives them, so I print out the verse for them on a card and send it home to add to the ring I gave them for that purpose. I am working to memorize the verses, too, because I don’t want to just encourage them by telling them only, but by doing it alongside them by example.

Psalm 86:6 was the verse a few weeks ago, and I’ve been pondering on it, especially in light of how poverty-stricken I feel in regards to my ability to teach my little class. I thought I’d share some of my pondering.

Far too often I find that I do not step out in faith to serve because I fear that I will not serve well, that I have nothing to offer, that I’m not ready, not equipped, you can probably name all the excuses that paralyze me often. My perfectionistic bent leads to sin when I fail to serve at all as I wait for the time when I feel that, in my own ability, I can do a job perfectly, and when I, in my own comfort, sit and wait for just the right opportunity to feel just right, because that time never comes, and I find that I’m still sitting in that warm pew when I want so much to be living as though I am an attached and usable and teachable part of the Body of Christ, serving Him and serving His Body through my local church. That time never comes because I am waiting on a feeling and trusting my own ability rather than recognizing my abject poverty of spirit, and surrendering my need to know enough, be enough, and start resting in the grace of my Savior and understanding that it is in His strength, and His alone, that I can obey and serve.

I confess to you that I get overwhelmed each week when I look at the curriculum lesson for that Sunday and try to get my brain wrapped around it. So many little things to remember and do. And every week I am assaulted by the thought, "Who am I to think I should stand up and teach these kids? Surely someone else could do such a better job at it." But as the anxiety wells up, I have learned to pray, and pray fervently for grace, mercy and wisdom and for a clear mind as I prepare. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently for Him to develop in my heart such a love for Him and a passion to obey out of heartfelt gratitude for who He is and what He has done in me that it will be evident to the kids that Jesus is the only One worthy of praise. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently that I would rightly teach the Word and not get so hung up in the fluffy details, recognizing that this is the main thing: to teach them rightly about God and His word, not so much whether I remember or do every little activity exactly as the teacher book says. And I have learned to pray, and pray fervently, that He will grow in me a love for the kids I teach so that I move beyond checking the boxes and going through the motions the lesson plan has for me, but that I be communicating with these kids wonderful truths about the God who created them and sent His Son to die and rise again to set them free from the bondage of sin.

And because of who Jesus is, for His sake, God has clothed me in His righteousness. It is for Jesus’ sake that God hears my prayer and listens to my plea for grace and that I can boldly approach His very throne of grace. Finally, finally I am learning what a depth of need I have for grace every single moment of every single day in every single step of obedience I seek to walk. And friends, He supplies my every need, abundantly and more. He quiets the anxious thoughts that spiral and allows me to think clearly. He allows me to see that it is not my perfect presentation that will turn the hearts of these children to Him. I have absolutely no power to convince them of their need of a Savior. He, and He alone, can open their eyes and ears and hearts to the gospel. It is all grace.

So, yes, I want to be a willing servant. And yes, I recognize that I am not able on my own. But He is. He is. He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us, even as He commanded us to teach the gospel. And I know that He will work through me and grant me the ability to serve Him and teach those He has granted me the privilege to teach.

And I know that this poverty of spirit is exactly where I need to be. The minute I start thinking I’ve got this, I can do this without those desperate prayers for grace, that is the minute I’ve forgotten just who I am and just Who He is. I don’t want to do this with my perfectionistic imperfection alone. I don’t want merely a nice presentation with no power. I want it to be all His. I’d rather be a little less ‘perfect’ but very, very real and very, very dependent on His grace and mercy, and I want the kids to hear what a great God and Savior He truly is.

**As I was thinking on this subject and working out this post, I listened to Alistair Begg's radio message today. It was extremely apropos. I'm thankful he shared that today. Truth for Life is the organization, and I highly recommend the messages.

Sweet Fragrances

2011-08-16T13:22:00.001-04:00

I am very sensitive to smells. More than anything, a smell can trigger powerful emotional responses and memories for me. I also am usually the first to notice a bad smell. And super strong, heavy scents like a lot of perfumes give me headaches.

I started making my own laundry detergent a little over a year ago, and I really like the clean, fresh, very light, almost no trace of a scent that it leaves behind....except for my sheets and towels. I really like my sheets and towels to have a clean and fresh smell to them. I’m weird that way.

The story I’m about to tell is what made me decide to write about it today, though. When my oldest son (12-years-old, going to be 13 in October, eep!) was a baby, I used to love the way he would smell when I picked him up from the church baby room at Bell Shoals Baptist on Sundays. I never could figure out what detergent they used to make the blankets smell so nice, but I really liked it.

I think I found it today while shopping at Walmart, not typically a favorite haunt of mine, but sometimes its usefulness slightly outweighs its irritating qualities. I have gotten to where I almost can’t stand to walk down the laundry aisle because the scents are so overpowering now that I’m used to my almost unscented homemade stuff, but I thought I’d try one more time to find something for the towels that would give them a little more sweet smell. I was a little wary because the last time I tried to use my old detergent, which I had always loved before I started making my own, the strong perfumy smell on the blanket I had washed in it made me so sick I had to rewash it in my homemade stuff. So, today I sniffed a few and said, “No way,” until I finally found it. What I found, if it isn’t the same it sure does evoke some sweet memories of those days, is this: Walmart’s store brand (Great Value) liquid detergent, Tranquil Lavender scent. Before anyone asks, I am still making my own detergent, but I like this for my sheets and towels, like I said, and it sure brings back sweet memories.

See, the smell isn’t just a nice smell. It’s a memory of those sweet days of being a new mom and of the friends we shared in that church family there in Brandon, FL. Drew and I feel like that is where we kind of ‘grew up’ together. We lived there as a young married couple, bought our first home there, loved our church family there, and have lasting friendships still today that were forged there, and our two oldest children were born there. So, today’s excursion to my not-so-favorite store ended up being a nice walk down memory lane. It’s so funny how a smell can evoke feelings that just encapsulate a phase of my life so strongly, isn’t it?

I’m enjoying today how laundry is helping me to remember the sweet fragrance that the friendships we made at that time in our early married life and the sweet fragrance of the spiritual growth we both experienced while members of that church have carried over into this time of my life and helped shape us into who we are today.

Kind of glad I decided to go to Walmart today.

Status Report August 2011

2011-08-02T19:43:00.007-04:00

Sitting....and staring at the computer, wanting to write a blog post.

Drinking....cherry Coke Zero, made with the cherry syrup we bought at Gloria Jeans while visiting my brother and his family.

Cooked....chicken and veggie stir-fry for dinner. It was good. The daughter opted for PB&J. Weirdo. :-)

Feeling...a little anxious, depressed and blah over the fact that the kids go back to school tomorrow. I don’t know if it’s because my over-perfectionistic bent toward school and the anxiety I had over school way back when has scarred me for life or what, but I get this way every year. That and my baby enters kindergarten this year, and you see some of the reason for my feeling angsty and sick to my stomach today. Seems like summer went way too fast this year, especially. I haven’t had my yearly nightmare involving a locker that won’t open and classes I’ve forgotten to attend yet, however. Yet, I say.

Enjoyed...visiting my brother, his wife and their 9-month-old little boy over the weekend. Finally got to meet my little nephew in person, and he’s a cutie.

Visited...Mount Airy, NC as we took a scenic route home from visiting my brother. It was fun to see "Mayberry" and reminds me we need to watch some of those old Andy Griffith shows with the kids.

Laughed...at the funny things my kids said in the car on the way home. My daughter talked NONSTOP for the two days we broke the trip into. Seriously. Funniest thing she said was while we were driving over a mountain: "We're having a really fun adventure, Dad!" And my middle boy asking my older boy to kill the flying ant in the car by saying, "I can't get it! Josh, use your wand!" My family is weird, but we have a good time.

Also enjoyed....going to a real mall. Yes, local friends, there was even a food court - with a Sonic and Gloria Jeans, among others, inside. Nice. Imagine that. Bought myself some coffee and the cherry syrup I mentioned above.

Reading....the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead on my Nook. I’m enjoying the first book, Hood, very much.

Surprised...that my husband decided to upgrade my phone to an iPhone while we were at that real mall that also had a Verizon store. I like. Not sure it was the wisest thing to buy me a phone that allows me to Facebook anywhere, anytime, but, I like.

Ready....for church choir practice to start back up now that August is here. I’ve missed it over the summer.

Amazed...that the outside thermometer was reading 130.5 degrees F at one point this afternoon. That direct sunlight is scorching out there.

Thankful...for air conditioning.

Realizing....that this post is entirely fluff. Sorry. That’s kind of all I can manage at this moment.

Thinking....I need to review Philippians. I had memorized it, but when I tried to review it yesterday, I realized I need a concentrated review before I lose it.

Excited....to be entering the adventure of team-teaching the second and third grade Sunday School for our church this year.

Planning....to get writing. I’ve been saying it, but I’m planning to get busy. That may, or may not, mean less blogging. I know, less than my stellar blogging rate this summer? Time will tell, I guess.

Just finished....packing my daughter’s first ever school lunch. Why do I cry over everything? I packed the boys’ lunches for them, too, though usually I make them pack their own since it’s a responsibility-training exercise. But for tomorrow, I did it for them. That way I can slip in a little note, too.

Time...to end this post and go get everyone ready to wind up the day.

Happy August!

What I'm Reading - Some Good, Some Not

2011-07-28T16:58:00.002-04:00

I missed What’s On Your Nightstand this month, and chose not to link up this time anyway, but I thought I’d keep the blog alive and share just here what I’ve been reading this month, if anyone is interested.

Finished:

Pendragon series: Book Five: Black Water - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series: Book Six: The Rivers of Zadaa - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series: Book Seven: The Quillan Games - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series: Book Eight: The Pilgrims of Rayne - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series: Book Nine: Raven Rise - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendgragon series: Book Ten: The Soldiers of Halla - D.J. MacHale (F). Wow. Had I read the whole series first, I probably would have said, "No," to my kids reading it. The twinges I was having as I read the first books are confirmed in the last as the whole worldview is spelled out. Very humanistic, gnostic, New Age, yin-yang life-force balance view of the universe and mankind and the after-life. I did NOT like this. Much to talk about with the kids now that I have allowed them to read it. Knowing the truth - that God is, and that He is the Creator and we do answer to Him and there is 'right' and 'wrong', and that the only hope we have is to repent and bow before Him, trusting in Christ alone, this book series saddened me and left me depressed. Because I know so many people who, though they wouldn't describe it as vividly as what was fictionalized in the book series, think of spirituality in very eerily similar terms to what is presented in the series. 'Spiritual,' triumph of the human spirit as supreme, that is what most people think matters most. Here's a quote that sums up some of the book and was depressing to me: "We proved that the power of the human spirit is supreme. It will always triumph, no matter what the adversity. There are no simple answers in life. There is good and bad in everyone and everything. No decision is made without consequence. No road taken that doesn't lead to another. What's important is that those roads always be left open, for there's no telling what wonder they might lead to." Taken along with all that is said and 'taught' throughout the book(s) it leads to a heart-breaking and impoverished and ultimately dangerous worldview that teaches a kind of moralism that has no basis for deciding what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ other than what seems right to you and faith in the faulty assumption that man is basically good and if left to himself he will choose good enough of the time that mankind will triumph, a view that is insidiously opposed to a biblical view of the world. And I’m really praying for wisdom as to how to talk to my kids about it, and wishing I’d read the series first before giving the ‘okay’ on it.

The Egypt Game - Zilpha Keatley Snyder (F). Summer reading assignment that my son has to read before the first week of school (cannot believe school starts August 3! Soooo not ready for them to go back yet!). I didn't like some reviews I read of it, so I read the book, too. I did find a few things I wanted to discuss with my boy, but I it wasn't as bad as the review I read made it seem. I'm still not sure I see why it was picked for an accelerated English class for 7th graders. Doesn't seem very 'accelerated' for a kid who reads The Lord of the Rings and enjoys it. Anywho.....

Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope - Trevin Wax (NF). Very, very much recommend this one. In fact, I will probably read it again and again. Refreshing reminder of what the true gospel is and how it impacts and transforms believers, and a sobering look at subtle counterfeits that creep in and to which I have found myself to be prone to allow to slowly take hold at times. May I continually preach the gospel to myself and my family and stay true to my Lord and Savior Jesus Messiah King. I want to be so gripped with the gospel of grace with my heart so full of gratitude to the Savior that I will faithfully live a life worthy of the calling He has placed on me when He made me His own. And I pray for my church that we would be a people so gripped with the gospel of grace that we as a body of believers will live that life of gratitude to our King that would lead us to be a glimpse of the restored heaven and earth as we live in true, biblical community, truly forgiving and loving each other and having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and sharing that good news in our community and world.

Holiness (Abridged) - J. C. Ryle (NF). I am quite sure this is the best book I've read in a long time, and I know I'll be reading it again.It was especially refreshing to read it while I was in the midst of the gnosticial, New-Agey mess I was reading in the kids’ series I mentioned above. I found Holiness very thought-provoking, saturated with the gospel, and deeply encouraging. I found myself often stopping to think and pray over what I was reading, and found great encouragement to grow in love for Christ Jesus my Savior. I don't think I can recommend it highly enough. It is seldom that I find a book I can recommend without qualification or hesitation, but this is most definitely one.

The Black Echo - Michael Connelly (F). One of my favorite authors, and this is a re-read, but it’s been so long since I read it I had forgotten enough of it that it’s a good read again. I got it for $0.99 for my Nook this month and couldn’t pass it up. I want to read all the books in the series again, in order this time.

Last month I said these were next up:

The rest of the Pendragon series. Finished today, as I wrote about it above.

The King Raven Trilogy (includes Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck) - Stephen Lawhead (F).

Starting this today.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman (F). Also haven’t gotten to this one yet. So, it’s still on the next up list.

New to the ‘Next Up’ List:

Little Women - Louisa Mae Alcott (F). I read this a long time ago, and I’ve wanted to read it again. I don’t remember much of it, but I remember that I liked it. Also, it came free with some other books on my Nook. Bonus!

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (F). I bought a copy of the unabridged version of this for my Nook for $1.00. I tried reading it when I was in high school (I think) but got bogged down in some of the social commentary sections and never finished it. I’ve always wanted to try again. So many people talk about what a great story it is, and I just want to read it. I didn’t want to read it abridged, either, so this will take a while. Not sure when I’ll get to it, but it’s there waiting for me.

Reading Out Loud With the Boys:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling (F). Yes, still. We’re slow. We don’t get to read it together every night, but when we do, they are always begging, “Just one more chapter, Mom!” Even when my voice is giving out, they never want to stop, even though they have read the books and it is not new to them. They like it when I try to do voices. They really like my Draco Malfoy, I must say. Joshua said, “Oh, you read that just right.” Not quite sure what it says about me that I can read him just right, but anyway. As I said, we really enjoy that time together.

Reading Joys

2011-07-23T07:59:00.002-04:00

Woo-hoo!

I’ve been working to teach Boo to read using the same program I used with the boys. It’s been a little difficult until last night. All along she has wanted to work on it and asks to ‘do her reading book.’ She has loved books since she was just little bitty and has always loved having Drew and me and even her brothers read to her. Let me tell you, it all kind of melts my heart when she asks one of her big brothers to read to her and the answer is, “Sure!” I love seeing her brothers read to her. She really enjoys looking at and listening to books, and I know she’ll be a big reader just like her brothers.

She has been ready for a while and we’ve been going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I’m so thankful my friend, Heather, pointed me toward that book years ago when I asked her for a recommendation when I was working with my oldest son when he was just ready to learn to read. It has served me well (and is still) through 3 emergent readers now. Anyway, I had all these grand ambitions about how quickly we’d get through it when we started, but life intervened and it’s been slower going than I had been sure it would be.

The last several lessons have been a struggle. Even the day before yesterday as we worked on her lesson, I could tell she was getting frustrated, and I was feeling kind of discouraged, too, though I tried not to let her see it. Last night when she begged to ‘work on her reading book’ - instead of a bedtime story, no less - I was really tempted to say, “Let’s wait and do it tomorrow.” I was tired and just didn’t want to have to pull every sound out of her like I did the day before and thought I’d rather wait until the morning when we were both fresh. Then it occurred to me that I’d better take every opportunity that she’s wanting to work on it, so I said we could do one lesson. None of the lessons are very long.

And she nailed it. Had an easier time reading the little story than she’s ever had - read it ‘the fast way’ the first time through. She even giggled at one silly sentence as she read it, meaning she was comprehending, not just sounding it out. Seriously, it was a whole new thing. It’s like a little light bulb all of a sudden came on for her. We’re about 5 lessons shy of being halfway through the 100 lessons, and I sense we’re turning that corner from painfully sounding out the words to READING the words. I remember when each of her brothers turned that corner at about the same point in the program, too.

I just love it when they start to read!! And I just love how excited she is about it.

Friday Frazzles

2011-07-22T15:39:00.007-04:00

Welcome to ‘Friday Frazzles,’ a collection of tangentially related and fairly random thoughts unworthy of a solid blog post, but plopped out here to keep the blog limping along as they wander through my brain.

I think I have decided that I like the idea of coffee more than coffee itself. This observation has spawned a rather lengthy and light-hearted discussion over on my Facebook page, but I wasn’t really looking for advice on how to like coffee better, merely stating what is at the moment in my rather mundane little world. I think I’ve decided, and which deep down I’ve actually known all along, that I just like tea better. Loose tea is best, but I can’t always find it around here.

In related news, I think I may need to wean myself off of caffeine again, since I would like to limit my exposure to aspartame and Splenda as well as the fat and sugar in my particular habit of coffee-drinking. I heard that aspartame can contribute to depressive thoughts - don’t need anymore of those hanging around, thankyouverymuch - and I have strong suspicion and anecdotal evidence that Splenda makes my feet hurt. Weird, I know. I can tell you the story if you wish.

Speaking of depressive thoughts, I’ve been having a few recently. I am having a really hard time with ‘back to school’ this year. My baby starts kindergarten and it will be the first time in almost 13 years I won’t have a baby or preschooler at home all day. This makes me sad. It makes me come to grips with how relentless time is and how short a time I have before the empty nest thing is for real. It makes me examine and ponder anew, “Am I teaching them well and consistently? Am I discipling them well and consistently? Am I pointing them to Jesus well and consistently?” In this, as in so many ways, I see how very, very much a debtor to grace I am, how vital the gospel is to all areas of life and how constantly I need to be preaching it to myself and my children. I am trusting God to draw them to Himself, and praying for that with tears often, and grateful for the professions of faith two have already made and the evidences that they are growing in grace, and praying for the youngest to be drawn to her Savior as well. It also makes me sad for my parents that we live so far away and wish I were doing a better job at writing letters and calling home more often.

Related to that, I’m having trouble not listening to the lie of our culture that of course I’ll be going to work outside the home now that the baby is starting kindergarten. Yes, that’s already been said to me in a not unjudgmental sort of lecture recently. And when I mentioned that, no, I’m still a stay-at-home mom - they still need me here, thanks, that didn’t go over real well.

Related to that, sort of, I’ve mentioned before that I’m trying to get back to writing again. More of the depressive thought-patterns I’m fighting are that as long as I’m thinking about writing, I can keep the dream alive. What happens when I sit down and really get busy and I find I have nothing to say? Writing is a terrifying endeavor. Have I mentioned it?

If you can stand it, one more depressive thought....I've decided too much time on the internet can be depressing. It's not smart to look up a favorite actor/actress if you don't want to be really depressed by the confusion most people live under with their worldview. We really do live in an age when evil is called good and good is called evil. It's depressing. Even more depressing is when 'Christians' display horrid theology and lack of discernment. I read a comment on Facebook today about how of course dogs have souls and free will...said to comfort a friend who may be losing a beloved pet, but still. Sigh. I love my dog, y'all. He's as much a part of the family as a pet can be. But he doesn't have free will or a soul. He's a dog. Nothing wrong with grieving the loss of a beloved pet, it's not even necessarily wrong to pray about our pets when they suffer and we grieve, but let's not get our theology out of whack over it, yes? I really need to turn off my computer....

It’s not all depressive, though. You should see all the tomatoes on my tomato plants. Now I’m just waiting for them to ripen. When, exactly, should that be happening? Anyone a gardner out there? I’m not, but we started small with tomatoes this year. Some of them seem to have been hanging around for a while and really seem to enjoy their greenness....

......Patience is not often a strength in which I can boast, see tomato discussion above.

Not related at all, but also not among the depressive thoughts, I’m enjoying reading on my Nook. I think, as I’ve read elsewhere, it’s definitely best suited for lighter, fictional reading, but I like it.

Speaking of reading, I finished book 9 in the series I’m reading with my boys. Took a break to read the book I mentioned here, and am extremely thankful I was encouraged to read it. Anyway, now I have to wait for oldest son to finish reading book 10 so I can finish and finally learn the answer to the mysteries, which he keeps assuring me we find out in the first few chapters of book 10, though I repeatedly ask him not to reveal spoilers, any spoilers, nothing at all, please. I knew I should have read first. I really do enjoy our reading adventures together.

Another series we like together is Harry Potter. Though we’ve read the Harry Potter books individually, we’re now reading through them out loud together in the evenings. It’s slow going when busyness happens, but we have so much fun. My husband said he loves hearing them laugh with me when we’re reading together. I like that, too.

Speaking of HP, I liked the last movie. As I said somewhere else, if you give up expecting the movies to get the story right in all details and just go for the mood and feeling of the books, the music and costuming and great casting make for an enjoyable movie. Except for Dumbledore. They don’t get him right, IMO. Definitely want to have read the book first. You miss too much without it.

Trying to get a handle on the depressive thoughts and banish them, I spent some time this morning writing out a suggested schedule for myself for each day of the week. I actually scheduled in time for exercise and writing. Two goals are now scheduled in, which for a person who thrives on having a ‘To Do’ list to check off hopefully will make it harder for me to leave them off. I am really hoping to be disciplined enough with those two goals to be able to come back here at some future point and announce that I have finally shed the last of the weight I keep saying I want to take off and that I have made progress in the writing area. That’s just a little scary writing it out here. Just a tad.

Speaking of scary, well, this isn’t scary, but it’s something....I may have mentioned it before, but I can't remember now and it's my blog, so if it's boring that won't be anything new, but.....I noticed the other day while standing next to my oldest son during church that I felt very short. He is almost as tall as I am now. That is a strange feeling indeed. And it makes me cry again if I ponder it too much. He also has that creaky voice boys his age get and peach fuzz on his upper lip. Wasn’t he just the cute little toddler talking about ‘go-go cars’ and ‘crucks’ like yesterday? And then I realized his brother isn’t all that far behind. He and I had to go on a shoe-buying errand a few days ago and his feet are now officially bigger than mine. And they eat enough to make our grocery bills seem to be ever expanding, as well. :-)

And you know what? In all of it, I’m thankful.

And with that, I say, “Happy Friday!”

Book Recommendation

2011-07-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Holiness (Abridged) by J.C. Ryle. I am quite sure this is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I know I’ll read it again. I found it very thought-provoking, very biblically based and sound, Christ-exalting, saturated with the gospel, and deeply encouraging. I don’t think I can recommend it highly enough. It is seldom that I find a book I can recommend without qualification or hesitation, but this is definitely one such book.

I started putting slips of paper to mark quotes I wanted to pull out and there were just so many. I also find it hard to pull out short quotes because you miss the context and full argument he’s making when I do, but I’ll give you a few that I found interesting, just to give you an idea why I like this book so much. The first quote really made me think, and he spends a lot of the book kind of developing the why of it. I especially loved the final chapter of the book, “Christ is All.” Like I said, I found it deeply encouraging, and thought I’d share a recommendation here.

“Most men hope to go to heaven when they die; but few, it may be feared, take the trouble to consider whether they would enjoy heaven if they got there.”

“May we never think that we can love Christ too well, live to Him too thoroughly, confess Him too boldly, lay ourselves out for Him too heartily! Of all the things that will surprise us in the resurrection morning, this, I believe, will surprise us most: that we did not love Christ more before we died.”

“Christ’s sacrifice and death for sinners, and Christ’s kingdom and future glory, are the light we must bring to bear on any book of Scripture we read. Christ’s cross and Christ’s crown are the clue we must hold fast if we would find our way through Scripture’s difficulties. Christ is the only key that will unlock many of the dark places of the Word. Some people complain that they do not understand the Bible. And the reason is very simple. They do not use the key. To them the Bible is like the hieroglyphics in Egypt. It is a mystery, just because they do not know and employ the key.”

Status Report - July 2011

2011-07-09T11:12:00.002-04:00

Well, here we are nine days into July, maybe I’ll write a status report. The blog seems to be stalled, and I’m in something of a funk writing-wise. For one thing, I’ve been reading a lot, and for another, just not really able to sit and write in the summer this year for some reason. Anyway, thanks again to Lisa for her useful status report format:

Sitting.....where I’m always sitting when typing at the computer, in the kitchen.

Drinking....hot Constant Comment tea. One of my favorite things. Yes, even in summer, hot tea is a good thing.

Ate....French toast and bacon for breakfast today. I had started cooking the bacon, and husband came in and took over that chore, knowing how I do not like to cook bacon, and then he proceeded to cook the French toast I had prepared also. I have mentioned that I love him, right? Kids enjoyed their special breakfast today

Wondering....if I’ll ever take up regular, or even semi-regular, blogging again.

Sure....I shouldn’t make any pronouncements about blogging or not blogging, because I know from experience that it often comes in spurts for me.

Pondering....several topics that I’d like to flesh out into a blog post soon, among them the influence women can have over the people in their lives, more thoughts on silence related to my last post and the misuse and misunderstanding of a certain scripture passage on being still.

Still laughing....about overhearing my daughter yesterday while she was playing with a friend. She said, "I don't like peace and quiet. I like peace and loud." Friends, if you only knew....... :-)

Shocked....when I checked the school calendar and realized they go back on August 3. I was sure we had more time than that! Where has the summer gone?

Thinking....about the fact that you can lie without actually saying something that is not true by choosing carefully which facts you share and which you leave out and thereby allowing someone to draw a wrong conclusion, and if you choose not to correct that wrong conclusion, it could be argued that what you’ve done has the same effect as if you’d lied. Think about it. Yes, that’s another topic I’ve been pondering for a blog post.

Enjoying....reading with my boys. I’m really enjoying this strange series we’re reading together. Definitely have had some things to talk to them about, but overall it’s been interesting reading. My oldest boy is getting better about not spoiling the plot as he’s a couple of books ahead of me. Not perfect yet (grrr), but better than in the past.

Staying.....on top of things regarding reading with the boys, too. Had a bit of drama when I got a letter from one boy’s school about him being eligible for an accelerated English class this year complete with a book that is required for summer reading before school starts (Aug. 3, did I mention it? Ack! Not ready for school to start back!!). When I looked at some reviews of the book, I was concerned and sent an e-mail to the teacher asking for information. I then read the book before giving it to my boy. It turned out that I didn’t really feel as bad about the book once I’d read it as the review made me think it was, and after talking with my boy about what concerned me, I think it’s not as bad as I feared. Staying involved is key, though.

Reading....well, besides the stuff I’m reading with the boys, I’m also reading this: Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope by Trevin Wax. So far, I’m really appreciating this thoughtful book. In a day and age when we seem to be muddling the message of the gospel, and realizing I've had to firm up my own thinking and jettison wrong thinking along the way about the gospel, I think it is a very important, vitally important, topic. I stand on my soapbox again and say, read the Bible, know it, hide it in your heart and know God, and be discerning! Just because someone can spout a lot of Bible verses doesn’t always mean they are a good Bible teacher. Be like the Bereans and search the scriptures to see if what you are hearing is true.

Hearing... my boys squabbling at the moment. Again. Sigh. Need to discuss this Proverb with my children and drill it into them, again, today: “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.” Proverbs 17:15.

Praying...for my church family.

Looking forward....to gathering together to worship our Lord again tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I love Sundays? It is good to meet together and worship our Lord with fellow believers. Praying for a sweet time of fellowship and worship and learning from His word as we anticipate Sunday.

Needing...to get on with the day. But at least the blog lives another day in this goofy post.

Happy Saturday!

God is Not Silent

2011-07-02T20:38:00.003-04:00

I’ve been pondering on something recently. I hear people talking about what to do when God is silent. The more I’ve thought on this, the more I am convinced that God is NOT silent. Hebrews 1:1 makes it clear that God has spoken: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” Notice, in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. We, the redeemed of the Lord who are saved by the blood of Christ Jesus, are not left scrambling in the dark to hear our God. We have His word. There have been times in history when the common people did not have the word of God readily available, and probably would have been unable to read it if it were, and had to trust what the priests told them about it. We are not in that situation. We have God’s word and can read it and study it and hear from Him what His will is if we but have ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to accept it.

I have heard people take the prophecy from Amos 8:11 which says, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declared the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” They take this passage and apply it to what they see happening in our churches today. They say we are in a famine of hearing the word of the Lord when they perceive things as going badly in the church. I am not sure this is a good understanding of this verse. This was fulfilled when the people of Israel were scattered - first by captivity by the Assyrians (the Northern Kingdom) and then by the Babylonians later (the Southern Kingdom). This was in judgment for their national sin of not worshiping God wholeheartedly and repeatedly bowing before the idolatry of the surrounding nations. Following the last of the prophets, God was silent for hundreds of years until He broke that silence when He Himself, Immanuel - God With Us, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ came and made the final sacrifice that would redeem His people to Himself.

I believe a more appropriate reading of what we see in American Christianity is not a ‘silence’ from God, but more what Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 3:1-7: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” and 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” I believe the reason it seems so hard to find good, solid Bible teaching in so many of our ‘evangelical’ churches anymore isn’t because “God is silent,” but because so many of us do not want to hear what He says, so we refuse to listen. Blunt, but there you have it. Too many people in our churches today are willfully ignorant of God’s word, spending more energy reading what other writers/teachers/bloggers/speakers/etc. are saying about the Bible and too little energy being like the Bereans and doing the hard work of digging in and searching the scriptures to see if what their itching ears are hearing is true.

So, what does someone mean when they say that God is silent to them today? I think we err, and err gravely when we equate a dryness or a lack of feeling or hurt feelings that seem very justified or a sense that someone has wronged us and we don’t seem to see justice in that with a silence on God’s part. I think we all face those dry times or times when we just don’t understand things that happen in life. It is in those times we must allow the dryness to drive us to His word and hang on and persevere through until we can find His joy, trusting in His absolute sovereignty and promise that He is working all things for His glory and to conform us to the image of Christ. He is faithful! He will complete what He has begun in us. We are too prone to seek after an emotional experience to confirm that God is speaking to us. We are too prone to look inward and get too self-focused. Just because I feel dry does not mean God is not speaking. Look at Elijah (1 Kings 19). He was feeling dry, alone, mistreated.....and God let him know that he was mistaken. There were yet 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Elijah was feeling dejected and depressed, but he was wrong in his estimation of the situation. We can struggle in just the same way. Feelings are real, but they are not always a true barometer of the big picture. We err when we think that God is silent because we do not ‘feel’ Him speaking to us. If you think about it, it is arrogant to think that we are owed some explanation for every perceived hurt or suffering we face.

So, no. God is not silent. When we are feeling hurt, or dry, or alone, or rejected, or depressed, or just distant....persevere! Get into the Word. Pray for wisdom to understand it. Keep on pressing on because Christ Jesus has made us His own! Pray for wisdom to reject lies and be girded and guided in the truth, and stand firm. Remember that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood. (Read and re-read Ephesians 6:10-18. Get that into your thinking daily.) God is faithful! Do NOT trust the feelings that lie and say He is silent. Do NOT focus on seeking after emotional confirmation always. God has spoken. Listen! Heed His word. The emotions may follow, but stand firm, beloved!

What's On Your Nightstand - June 2011

2011-06-28T15:54:00.009-04:00

It's that time again. Though June has shaped up to be a light blogging month for various reasons, I have more books to list than I did in May, so to keep the blog alive for the summer, I’m joining in and posting a “What’s On Your Nightstand” post this month. Once again I found myself with too many books going at once and almost felt swamped under them but I finished one yesterday and one today, so I need to finish what I’m reading now and wait before starting another that I’m really wanting to start. Here’s what I’ve been reading this month and what I’m planning to carry over for next month:

Finished earlier in the month:

This Body of Death - Elizabeth George (F). I started this in May but didn’t finish, so I’m listing it here in June. May wasn’t as empty as it looks in my ‘Books I’m Reading’ page, but it was still a slow reading month for me. This book is the latest in Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series, which is a favorite of mine. With No One as Witness in the series left me crying for days after I read it. Yes, I am weird. Rich characterization and intriguing stories mark these books, though, as crime/detective novels, Ms. George holds nothing back with regard to the language and subject matter her detectives deal with, so it may not be for everyone. Use your own judgment about what you like to read.

Finished more recently:

Christianity and Liberalism - J. Gresham Machen (NF). I started out reading along with Tim Challies’ reading the classics group, but found it so interesting I went ahead and finished it yesterday, several weeks early. Though written in the 1920’s, I found it eerily appropriate still today, even down to some conversations I’ve had/heard recently in my life. Highly recommend it.

Slave - John MacArthur (NF). Finished this about 30 minutes before writing this post today. Very good look at what it means to be a Christian - submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Much food for thought and practice, and I recommend this one as well.

Reading along with my sons:

My oldest son discovered the Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale and wanted to read them. I wasn’t too sure about them, but I said he could and I’ve been reading them, too, so I’d know what he’s reading. Turns out they are pretty interesting, which I am finding more and more now that the boys are both reading at a much higher level. I’m glad they tend to like books I find interesting, too. I do find it hard to find books for them that they will enjoy and I can be okay with them reading which aren’t too dark and disturbing. Slight aside: does it bother anyone else that the shelf of ‘young adult paranormal romances’ at the local book store is by far the largest shelf in the young adult/teen section???? It does me. Capitalizing on the Twilight phenomenon, I guess. I’m not a fan. Anywho.....though I have found some worldview kinds of things to discuss, and they are getting weirder as we go along, we’ve been enjoying the books and the discussion. It’s fun to share the reading experience with the boys, and I think it’s fun for them, too, to have me to bounce ideas about the stories with them. Here’s what I’ve read this month from the series:

Pendragon series, Book One: The Merchant of Death - D.J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series, Book Two: The Lost City of Faar - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series, Book Three: The Never War - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series, Book Four: The Reality Bug - D. J. MacHale (F).

Pendragon series, Book Five: Black Water - D. J. MacHale (F). - Just started this one, so probably won’t finish it before the end of the month on Thursday, but then again, I might....

My oldest son is reading ahead and is already on Book 7. When he finished Book 4 he asked me to please hurry and finish it because he was dying to talk about it. He was great about not spoiling the plot, though he did let it slip that there was a twist ending. When I finished it, I realized why he was dying to talk about it. Did NOT see that ending coming. And I was very proud of him for not spoiling it for me, as he’s been known to do in the past.

Next up:

The rest of the Pendragon series through book 10, though our local Barnes & Noble didn’t have 9 when we bought the rest of the series, so I’m ordering 9 & 10 this week.

The King Raven Trilogy (includes Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck) - Stephen Lawhead (F).Been wanting to read these for a while. I read Hood a while back, but I could never get the others at our library. When my husband got me my Nook for my birthday, I bought this for a decent price and am excited to read it. Did I mention I got a Nook Color for my birthday??

The Princess Bride - William Goldman (F). Yes, I’ve read it before. I love it. Funny!!! And I got it on my Nook, also, because I want to read it out loud with the boys. We really enjoy our time doing that. Speaking of......

Reading Out Loud With the Boys:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling (F). We’ve each read the series, but it’s fun to read them again out loud together. As I said, we really enjoy that time together.

Whew. Pop on over to 5 Minutes for Books to see other reading lists for this month.

Summer Blogging

2011-06-20T16:36:00.007-04:00

This summer, for various and sundry reasons, seems to have sapped my blogging ability. The blog is quiet, not because I have nothing I’m thinking about, but because I’ve been busy and distracted, finding that maybe I need to be little better about scheduling our time this summer, and though my mind and journal are full, I find that I cannot write about my thoughts out here. I have found that when I’m burdened about things in my real life that are not things I can blog about, that tends to force out the things I can blog about, if that makes sense. So, I’m checking in here at the Sweet Tea place to say that all is well with the family, but there is much busyness ensuing around here, and some things that are weighing on my heart but that I am praying and trusting God to work mightily in bringing understanding and wisdom and reconciliation for His glory as we seek to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, by the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting in and submitting to the Lord Jesus who loves His church. I do have more substantial posts I’m mulling if I can ever get a moment when I’m not too mentally tired to work them out.

Until then, I’ll share a few random mundane things:

Waved good-bye to the church bus this afternoon as the boys left for kids’ camp. I miss them already, but I know they will have a great week. I have prayed for them, and continue to pray for them that they will not only have a lot of fun, but most importantly that they would be encouraged in their walk with Jesus and grow in love for Him.

Just realized that I am not a fan of the ice-cream truck that drives through our neighborhood. For one thing, the driver is smoking as she drives through the neighborhood, and that just is not appetizing when I think about buying ice cream from her while she smokes. It just grosses me out. Sorry, that’s where I am at the moment on that one. I dunno, maybe smoke that cigarette while out on the highway and stub it once she gets into the neighborhood where all the kids are? Soapbox over. Also, Rachel just yelled downstairs after looking out her window and seeing the ice-cream truck drive by quickly, “MOM! We missed the ice-cream truck AGAIN! How come we always miss it?” Two reasons, I seem to have entered a cash-free phase of life, meaning there is almost never a dollar or two lying around here on the afternoons when the ice-cream truck flies through here. Speaking of flying through, that’s the second reason. By the time I hear and see the truck, she’s off our street before I’ve had time to search high and low in the event I do scrounge up a dollar or two to buy a popsicle identical to the ones sitting in my freezer. That’s why Rachel can have one of those from the freezer and be happy, I say. Not to mention the irritating songs that play over and over and over and over as it files down our street. I’m an ice-cream truck scrooge, according to one very vocal 5-year-old. Bah popsicle.

My husband got my belated birthday present the other day: a Nook Color. I really like it. Now I’ve got to finish the library book I was already reading so I can read the Nook book I bought for my Nook. Of course the Nook purchase included the necessity of buying a wireless router so we can have WiFi in the house (secured of course) so I don't have to go to Panera whenever I want to connect the Nook to the internet. Not that frequent trips to Panera are a bad thing, but I digress. Drew said I’m like a kid in a candy store as I peruse the Nook books online. I can see I will have to put myself on a budget and strictly enforce it. So many books...... Bad thing is, I put some fun game apps on it, too, for the kids I said. However, they are addictive. Not sure how much reading is going to happen there after all. I told you I’ve been distracted. And I wonder where the brain power for blogging is seeping away.

Oh, and I find it really funny that, according to sitemeter, the top search phrase that lands people on my blog is "my dog is driving me crazy." Must be a lot of crazy dog-owners out there, judging by how often that lands someone here. Sorry I'm not more helpful on that topic. LOL

It’s hot here. I said I wouldn’t complain once it finally warmed up since winter seemed to drag on interminably long this year, so I’m not complaining. I’m just stating a fact. It’s hot, hot, hot. My thermometer is reading 121.6. I am making sure not to stand in whatever direct sunlight baking spot we have that thing placed. Weather channel says it's 89, feels like 93. Hot enough. We have been enjoying the pool membership.

And with that, I’ll sign off for now. Hopefully with a somewhat quieter house this week I’ll take the time to write out those blog posts I’m mulling. Hopefully.

Happy Monday!

Dog Days

2011-06-13T08:00:00.010-04:00

There are ‘cat people’ and ‘dog people.’ We are definitely ‘dog people.’ I don’t hate cats, I like them okay, but as to pet preference, it’s definitely ‘dog.’ Ol’ Yeller and Because of Winn Dixie make me cry every time I watch them.

I did not have a dog or cat growing up. Since Drew and I have been married we’ve owned two dogs. Our first dog was a purebred Miniature Schnauzer we bought from a distant cousin of Drew’s. That dog’s name was Oliver. I loved that dog. I wrote about him here, here, here and here, and other places if you want to search 'dog' and see. I was heartbroken when we lost him, especially the way he was lost, and I felt silly about how sad I was for how long. But he was my dog. I’m a ‘dog person,’ like I said.

Anyway, the kids really wanted a new dog soon. I wasn’t ready and we were getting ready to move to St. Louis that wnter, so Drew and I told them to wait until the move and spring and then we’d think about getting another dog.

Enter Roscoe. We survived our first winter in St. Louis (COLD!) and in March of 2009 I started looking online for local pet-rescue shelters and looking at pictures of available dogs, because the kids were really begging, “Mom, Dad, you said in spring we could look for a new dog, it’s spring!!” Of all the pictures I looked over, I kept coming back to this cute little black and white dog on a no-kill shelter’s site. I told Drew, “This is the dog.” So we e-mailed them and began a long conversation. Turns out Roscoe had pneumonia and wasn’t yet well enough for them to bring him to an adoption event. We spent several weeks e-mailing back and forth, checking on his status, and finally went to an adoption event and filled out the paperwork that would allow us to take him home once we finally got to meet him. Finally we got word that he was recovering enough for them to bring him, and we went that Saturday to meet him. Of course we all fell in love with him. I was worried, though, because after the heartbreak of losing Oliver, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take in a dog that had health issues - didn’t want to risk losing him soon.

Roscoe ended up thriving once we got him home in late April. I think he just needed freedom and people to love on him. And he certainly has that with us.

Now that we’ve had Roscoe for two years, Drew and I have been making some observations about differences between purebred and rescued dogs. We have no idea what kind of dog Roscoe is....he’s just a cute little mutt.

Here are some observations:

Purebred, pampered from birth: If the door to the house was open, Oliver was out and exploring. He might wander home on his own when he good and felt like it, but he was a wanderer.

Rescued dog: If the door to the house is open, Roscoe will stay right there on the couch sleeping. If not, he’ll stand at the door looking at it like, “Why would I want to go out there? It’s nice and comfy in here where the people are.” If he does get out, he races around the yard and comes right back to the door. He is not about to risk getting lost. He’s been ‘out there’ and doesn’t think he needs to see any more of the world, thank you. We’ve nick-named him “Boomerang.”

Purebred: We never could teach Oliver to sit and wait for a treat no matter how hard we tried. He sort of acted like we owed him a bone just for being there.

Rescued dog: If I’m in the kitchen, Roscoe is there with his tail wagging, looking expectantly at the pantry door waiting for a bone. He’ll look at you earnestly and sit, tail still wagging, like he’s saying, “Please? A bone for me? I’m sitting.....”

Purebred: Oliver might come when you called him in from outside, if he was good and ready to come.

Rescued dog: If you call Roscoe, he’s scrambling to get there. He wants to be with his people, and isn’t about to risk being left outside.

Purebred: Oliver liked to snuggle, but it was usually on his terms. He liked to be where we were, but he liked his space, too.

Rescued dog: If I sit, Roscoe is right there, tail wagging, begging for a cuddle.

Purebred: Oliver would NOT go outside in the rain. No matter how long it had been raining or how much he must have to go potty.

Rescued dog: Roscoe doesn’t seem to mind the rain or even notice it.

Purebred: Oliver was TERRIFIED of fireworks and thunder.

Rescued dog: Roscoe sleeps through it all, and if he’s awake, he wags his tail happily and acts like nothing’s going on out of the ordinary.

But both dogs have been good little buddies. I’m thankful God gave us animals who can be little companions. I know it’s nothing like human friends and family, but I’m thankful for the little joys our dogs add to life. Roscoe’s happy, constantly wagging tail just makes me smile. There’s a sign at our vet’s office that says, “A dog smiles with his tail.” If so, then Roscoe is the smiliest dog I think I’ve ever known. Though Oliver was a really good dog and will always have a special place in my memory, I’m glad we found Roscoe when we went looking for a new dog that spring in 2009.

Funny......

2011-06-11T12:50:00.005-04:00

......how when life gets busy, the blog gets quiet. My blog of late has not been a reflection of my life, that's for sure. The silence here has an inverse relationship with the noise elsewhere, but that's how it is. Probably will be continuing on the quiet side for the foreseeable future, but wanted to check in and let anyone who cares know that I'm still kicking over here in Sweet Tea land. I do have some posts percolating. Sometimes when my blog is quiet, my private journal is full, but that's just life, too. One thing I've learned over the four years I've been blogging is that it's better to hash out some things in the journal and not on the blog. But sometimes that means a quiet blog, too. Hoping to get back to the blog soon.

God has been merciful this week, and I'm thankful. I had a major bout of sinus troubles again, resulting in a very stuffy ear on Sunday morning, making singing in the choir Sunday morning.....interesting. It got worse. Monday morning I woke up so very dizzy I was feeling sick, meaning the congestion had moved from outer ear to inner ear and was doing a number on me. I took the sinus medicine I usually take when I have these troubles and it did nothing, so I called my husband and asked him to bring home some motion sickness pills so I could try and see if that would help. Did I mention that our VBS started up on Monday night? I was scheduled to work with the 4th graders, and as of early afternoon on Monday I was not at all sure how I was going to manage getting to the church, much less being a crew leader for a bunch of 4th graders. But, in His mercy, God allowed the motion sickness pills to settle my roiling equilibrium and by time to leave for VBS I was feeling stable and ready to go.

Doctor visit on Tuesday morning resulted in me feeling much, much better by Wednesday. Follow up visit next week and I'm going to be asking for a referral to an allergist. I think I'm allergic to Kentucky.

VBS was exciting, and I was happy to get to talk to one of my kids about some questions she was having. I'm praying for her that the gospel will truly take root in her heart.

My daughter told me last night that she wishes we could have VBS every night. Personally, I'm really glad we had it this week. Every night, however, no, I don't think so. I'm exhausted after one week.

Looking forward to going to dinner with some friends tonight. Babysitter coming over to our house is brave enough to watch our three and their four, and I've been cleaning floors and bathrooms like a crazy woman all day to prepare. House got a little behind what with me being dizzy for two days and VBS late nights and all. We're good now. Anyway, looking forward to adult conversation and fellowship and prayer together tonight. We share a burden with this family to pray for our church together. I love fellowshipping with friends who are also brothers and sisters in Christ and knowing we can gather together to pray and knowing the Lord hears us and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus when we do.

Interesting week. In lots of ways. Those things were just the tip of the iceberg. There've been ups and downs and in-betweens all week. Just like always. And in the midst of it all, God is working all things for His glory, and I am trusting Him for this, and find great peace and joy in knowing it.

Status Report June 2011

2011-06-02T14:02:00.004-04:00

With nods to Lisa, here’s my status report for June:

Sitting.....in the kitchen, enjoying the air conditioning.

Drinking....Tea, Earl Grey, hot. Mr. Data, warp speed, please. Couldn’t resist an obscure Star Trek reference. College roomies, remember Star Trek every afternoon? Like Captain Picard, I enjoy a nice, hot cup of Earl Grey.

Reading.....Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen and looking forward to reading the discussion over here. I’ve got a little catching up to do already, though. Also reading This Body of Death by Elizabeth George, the latest in the Thomas Lynley series. Also reading Slave by John MacArthur. Once again I’ve gotten myself in the position of having too many books going at once.

Enjoyed....watching my boy at his awards ceremony this morning. He got several awards for his progress in reading - he’s in fourth grade and reading at least at a 12th grade level with scores off the chart. This being the boy we weren’t sure was going to be much of a reader when he was younger. Once he decided he liked to read, he took off. Yes!! So much fun to share the joy of reading with my kids.

Also enjoyed....a little trip to Target where I treated my girl to a popcorn and a drink as a thank you treat for being so well-behaved at the boring-to-her ceremony.

Celebrating....that today is the last day of school! So looking forward to summer break. I paid our family pool membership fees today, and I’m planning to use that pool A LOT this summer with the kids. Summertime, summertime!!!

Pondering....getting a Kindle. I've been researching and asking opinions on this. The whole e-book thing is new to me, and a little overwhelming and confusing. I know that e-books won't replace real, paper books for me....I just love the feel and smell of books and I love seeing the progress as you flip through the pages. But, there are a lot of books I'd like to read but don't really need paper copies around, and the Kindle seems so portable it is interesting to me. Anyway, I thought briefly about the iPad, but decided I really don't need the temptation to be online any more than I already am, and that would be the only reason for going with it over strictly an e-book reader for me, I think. Now it's to decide between the Kindle and the Nook, but I'm leaning mostly toward the Kindle. I've already asked my Facebook friends, how about here? Any opinions or experience with e-readers? Any advice?

Thinking....about how I want to not only run well for a time, but to finish well. I was reading in 2 Chronicles about King Asa, and I got excited when I read 14:2, “And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.” It’s always a breath of fresh air when reading about the kings when one of them gets that commendation. However, near the end of his life, Asa did something foolish and rather than repenting when the prophet confronted him, as King David did years earlier, he got angry with the prophet and put him in prison. That, to me, is very sad. It got me to thinking about how my strength and ability to stand firm are rooted in Christ, not in my own fickle heart. It also got me to thinking, as we discussed in our devotional at choir practice last night, that I do not want to position myself in an attitude of pride before the Lord. I am so grateful for grace and for the fact that it is Jesus who is the anchor for my soul, and it is He who will complete the work He has begun in me and will bring me safely to the end, secure in Him. I want to live for Him, faithful to the end, because He has made me His own. And because He has made me His own, I trust that He will cause me to stand.

Thankful.....for so very many things. God’s mercies are abundant and more toward those who are His, and I am grateful.

Forty is Not a Bad Word

2011-05-31T09:27:00.005-04:00

Psalm 139:1-6

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

3 You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

5 You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Though "40" seems a surreal number to apply to myself, that day has come, and it is today. Some women get all morose about that number. I don't think I'm one of them. Today, I am thankful that it is the anniversary of the day the LORD chose to give me breath, as someone reminded me. I am so thankful for the 40 years He has given me, and even more thankful that in His amazing grace He has chosen to allow me to walk so many of them with Him, saved by His grace, forgiven because of His blood shed for me, growing in His grace, surrounded by His mercy, blessed to be hid in Christ, belonging to Him for His glory. With such high and wonderful thoughts, how could "40" be anything less than joyful today? Thank You, my Jesus, for another day, and another birthday, at that.

Camping!

2011-05-31T08:42:00.019-04:00

We got to go camping over the weekend at a state park about an hour from home. It was a first ever for me, though Drew has taken the boys before and he used to go camping as a kid with his family. We went with two other families we are friends with from our church, and I'm so thankful our friends, J & D, invited us all along! All in all there were 17 of us on three campsites, counting adults and kids and we shared the evening cooking duties among us and just had a really good time together all weekend. The kids got along great, and I know they had a fun time. The only thing I don't like (besides the nasty showers, which were decent at the beginning of the weekend but pretty gross by the last day) was missing church on Sunday, but we had a really nice family worship time that morning, and really enjoyed the little Bible study we did with the kids. All in all, I really enjoyed our first family camping outing - having friends along made it perfect, too. I'm still not sure camping will be my vacation of choice, though. I could not WAIT to take a real shower in a clean bathroom and get the smoke smell off me once we got home. Lots of work before and after the relaxing, but it was definitely worth it.

Just like less is more in blogging, and I haven't gotten the hang of that, I'm sure less is more with picture sharing, too. However, I had a hard time narrowing it down, so even though there were LOTS more pictures I wanted to share, here are a few - still more than a decent sized blog post should allow, I'm sure. Enjoy or not.....

One of the cool things about Drew being active duty rather than just Reserves now and actually working on post and being stationed at a real base is that we get privileges on post. One privilege is that we were able to rent a cute little camper from Ft. Knox at a very reasonable price. And I do mean LITTLE. Imagine all 5 of us sleeping in there. But it had a microwave, so Joshua and I got to have tea, which was a good thing, let me tell you. And it made for some cozy family bonding time. I am extremely thankful for how well the kids behaved and got along for the most part this weekend. Made it a fun weekend.

Rachel was glad to have her best little friend along....sometimes a little too glad. She wanted to be wherever W. was no matter what. But he doesn't seem to mind.

Me trying to read my Bible before the day got going. Not sure why I was standing, but Drew thought it was interesting enough for a picture. Also the very last moment I needed a sweater. We had beautiful weather all weekend. After all the rain we've had recently, we really couldn't have asked for a nicer camping weekend, though the lake was closed to swimming due to flooding, and it did heat up A LOT Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

Our family went off for our own little nature walk on Saturday. I'm so thankful for the people in this picture!

Because the boys got to do some things she wasn't old enough to do, Drew took Rachel horseback riding. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but then she loved it. Drew said the boy helping her was really good with her - talked to her the whole time and she got more comfortable and really LOVED "Shorty" the horse. I'm glad she got some bonding time with her daddy, too.

Rachel with "Shorty."

I just love this picture! Rachel and Daddy.

Of course, we had to have bacon one morning - Michael's favorite thing.

The older kids got to do some archery one day. Being at a state park was cool because they had all kinds of neat, free things for the kids to take advantage of throughout the weekend. This is Joshua in the yellow shirt.

Michael in the middle.

S'mores on the last evening.

The kids really all had a great time playing together. Lots of fun!

Thankful Thursday and Thinking About Prayer

2011-05-26T15:47:00.003-04:00

Hmm. I just realized as I went to post this that it's been a whole week since I last posted here. Time just flies. Blogging may continue on the lighter side this week as well.

This is, I think, the third post in which I’ve mentioned the ladies’ retreat we had a few weeks ago, but I have to say something about it again in this Thankful Thursday post. I have been concerned for a while now that I’m not very focused in my praying. One thing I’ve made it a habit to do is that when I say I’ll pray for someone I try to pray right then because I don’t want to forget. I tend to say little conversational kinds of prayers throughout the day, but, when I sit down to pray in a focused way, I tend to be a bit ADD in that I no sooner start to pray then I’m thinking about the 1 million chores I need to be doing or my mind is wandering all over the place.

One thing I’m thankful for is that on the ladies’ retreat, our speaker gave us a little outline that has worked for her in organizing her thoughts as she prays. Basically it begins with bowing to worship, taking cares to the Lord and laying them at His feet, confessing and asking Him to search your heart, praying through Eph. 6:10-18, thinking on an attribute of God from the Scripture and thanking Him, praying for others, reading the Bible and praying about how you need to respond to and obey His word that you’ve just read. Taking the basic format, I’ve been making myself a prayer notebook with an outline that works for me and helps me focus during my quiet time in the morning which I’ve typed up and put in page protectors in a little notebook, along with a list of people I pray for every day, and then I’ve broken up other prayer concerns and assigned them a day of the week when I will be praying over them - things like my family and church (those are on the every day list), my country and leaders, neighbors, friends, extended family, and some other things (certain days of the week). I’ve also started listing out scriptures as I’m reading the Bible that I find I can pray for people on my list.

One thing that I thought of today is to print out a list of my Facebook friends and blog friends for one of the weekdays. Each week I’ll take a few friends from those lists and pray specifically for them, and when I actually know of specific needs I’ll remember them, too. I got to thinking what a special way that could be to take a hobby and make something meaningful of it. As to the blog friends list, if you’ve interacted with me in a somewhat regular way, you are probably on that list. If you want to be on that list, please leave me a comment or send an e-mail and I’ll be happy to add you. I’ve also added to my list the bloggers I read regularly, whether I have actually interacted with them or not.

So, I’m thankful for the encouragement and practical organizational tips the speaker at our retreat gave me to help me to become more organized and diligent in praying. For all the talk about prayer these days that tries to make prayer out to be some contemplative, wispy, unmindful thing, I don’t want to be caught up in seeking after some elusive, hyper-romanticized experience. I want to pray and love God with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. I want to be grounded in God’s word and fellowshipping with Him in a way that truly honors Him and is biblical and will teach me to grow in Christ as I submit to Him and love Him more and be living for His glory throughout the day.

Thankful Thursday

2011-05-19T21:04:00.003-04:00

I’m thankful for the ladies’ retreat we had last weekend. I already wrote about it, but I received some very needed and practical encouragement about daily prayer that has stuck with me this week. I noticed something, too, and I must thank God and give Him glory and praise for the work He is doing in me. I have written before about how I struggle with my temper and impatience. I noticed this week after thinking and praying purposefully through Ephesians 6:10-18 each morning that though my circumstances haven’t changed at all, looking back over the past several days I’ve been much more even keel in how I responded to frustration this week. Friends, that is all God’s amazing grace, and to God be the glory, great things He is doing as He is working in me to conform me to His image. God is so very kind to us!

I’m thankful for a sweet time of prayer together with my fellow choir members last night. Rather than practice, we spent the entire rehearsal time praying for our church.

I’m thankful for a sunny afternoon walk with my daughter today, and I’m thankful that she is coming around about my hair. She still doesn’t like it, but she is dealing better with it today. I said on Facebook that you don’t take a walk with a 5-year-old if you’re looking for a heart-pumping workout. But if you want to look at weeds and see them to be beautiful yellow flowers and enjoy the magic of dandelions and remember that S-T-O-P spells stop at every single stop sign and enjoy amiable chatter, then a walk with a 5-year-old is just the thing for the first sunny afternoon in ages.

Did I mention sunny afternoon? Yes, I was thankful to see the sun again. It’s been a gray spring so far.

I’m thankful for my parents. They taught me, and continue to teach, much about loving Jesus and His word, and I am so grateful. I’m thankful I got to Skype my dad yesterday and tell him happy birthday.

I’m thankful for music. I ordered the soundtracks from Tangled and Enchanted because I just really like those movies and the music. Had a great time listening to them in the car with my oldest son and youngest daughter today as we drove to son’s trumpet lesson. Son tolerated it and read his book, daughter laughed out loud as song after song that she recognized from her favorite movies came on.

I’m thankful for my husband and his love for me. He says he likes the hair. I’m quite sure he doesn’t love it, but he does love me, and I love him, too.

My Daughter Hates My Hair

2011-05-18T13:10:00.004-04:00

I got my hair cut today. I was thinking I needed a change, but I didn’t actually go in today meaning to make a radical one. However, the more I thought about it and talked to my hairdresser, the more we thought maybe it was time to try something different, something shorter. I have this really coarse, really thick, really difficult hair. So we’re thinking try it short.

Boy howdy.

It’s short.

I think I like it, but it will definitely take some getting used to. Ask my daughter.

I had to go straight from the hairdresser’s to Rachel’s preschool, so I didn’t get to go home and mess around with the hair and make it look less....severe. I usually like my styling better, you know. Anyway, she almost wouldn’t come home with me. Her teacher said, “Rachel, your mom’s here,” and Rachel looked at me, eyes immediately filled with tears, and said, “You cut your hair.” Teacher looked up and said, “Oh, wow! You did! It looks cute!” Rachel said, “I don’t like it.” And proceeded to cry. Loudly. All. The. Way. Home. In the car, into the house, “Please put it back, grow it back, Mommy.” She wouldn’t even look at me. This is the child who, when her then-favorite toy, Pink Bear, lost its nose wouldn’t look at it and covered it up in a blanket for MONTHS, even after I glued the nose back on and you couldn’t tell it had ever come off. We have issues.

So. My hair is short. I think I like it. I think I’ll get used to it. I think my daughter will too. She’ll have to. It grows fast, but not that fast. Good thing I don't get all my self-esteem from the 5-year-old's opinion.

I think I’ll e-mail my husband and suggest he look at my blog before he comes home and tell him if he loves me at all, to please lie if he hates the hair. I can handle the rejection from the 5-year-old...I think. Honey, just lie.

Rachel did come in here to find out what I was doing and wanted to take a picture with me...so there's hope, right?

Full to Overflowing

2011-05-15T19:01:00.006-04:00

It's been a busy, but oh so good weekend.

Our church had a ladies' retreat this weekend, to which I almost did not go. A friend asked if I was going, and I waited until the very last minute to turn in my registration - and I only did that because my husband all but insisted that I go. He said I needed it and I am always glad when I go. He was right. Again. I told my friend on the way there that I was the least prepared - spiritually, emotionally, physically, and every way - than I'd ever been for any retreat I've ever attended. But....it was good....good for me. I needed the fellowship, and even more importantly, I needed the encouragement I received from the speaker and the encouragement she gave in reminding us to rest in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and to seek Him first with all our heart and then to serve out the overflow of His love as we spend time in prayer and feasting on His word daily.

Last night we had a Sunday School fellowship. Again, I almost didn't go because I had just gotten home from the retreat and thought I just wanted a night at home. But, again, husband all but insisted that we go. He was right. Again. Are you sensing a trend here? It was a relaxing evening of enjoying the company of friends we got to know a little better, and I have not laughed so hard or so long in a very long time.

What a blessing the reminder to rest in Jesus and savor His word and the joy of laughter has been. What a balm to a sinking heart that was struggling with the blues for quite a while now. I needed this weekend.

And top it all off with a lovely day with my church family today. I said on Facebook this afternoon that every Sunday I find that I want to say something about how full my heart is after meeting with my church family and how words are never enough to describe what I want to say. There is something very powerful about gathering together to worship the Lord corporately that words just really cannot express fully. And when you think about it, that is only a glimpse through a glass darkly of what heaven will be like when the Body of Christ made up of the saints from all the ages and all people groups worship Jesus and know Him fully and see Him face to face. What a glorious day that will be.

For now, I am grateful for the blessing of being part of the Body of Christ here. May I love Him more and more, and may I serve for the joy of knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and may I learn to serve from the overflow of His merciful, gracious love that has redeemed me to be part of His people. May I remember that God will use me here where He has planted me and it is good.

And I am grateful for my husband who lovingly encourages me to quit being a hermit and enjoy what he so wisely knows I need.

From My Recent Reading: A Quote From Octavius Winslow

2011-05-10T17:02:00.002-04:00

I’ve been slowly reading my way through Soul Depths and Soul Heights by Octavius Winslow. The following quote from chapter 7, “Hoping in the Lord,” is one of the reasons I have really appreciated this book. It is not a quick read, but it is good and worth thinking through. In light of the fact that we need to be discerning as we read and listen to any writers or speakers but especially those who claim to be Christian, I so much appreciate Winslow’s exhortation to have the Word of God as our ground and proof for truth.

“A few practical deductions will close this chapter. It follows from the preceding exposition that it is of the utmost importance, of vital moment, that we make sure of the nature and foundation of our hope. There are false hopes of heaven, as there are false hopes of earth. It was a most holy prayer of the Psalmist, which every believer should, in a daily examination of his real state before God, breathe - ‘Let me not be ashamed of my hope’ (Psa. 119:116). Oh, what multitudes are cherishing a spurious hope of heaven! building their hope, not upon the Rock Christ Jesus, but upon the quicksand of their own righteousness! Look well, my reader, to the nature and foundation of your hope for the future! In settling the question of its reality, assume nothing as true which has not God’s Word for its ground and its proof.

It is written: ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ It is written: ‘If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature.’ It is written: ‘Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.’ It is written: ‘He that believeth not shall be damned.’ Heaven and earth shall pass away, with all their greatness and grandeur, but God’s Word shall never pass away! Look well, then, to your hope after death. See that it is built upon Christ alone - a divine Redeemer, a personal Christ, a sin-atoning Saviour-Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, yes, the all and in all of your hope of glory.”

Quote of the Day

2011-05-08T15:41:00.003-04:00

My husband and 12-year-old son are preparing to build a swing set in the backyard. Son is looking at all the pieces of lumber and reading the very long set of instructions. He looked up and said, "This is a lot different from Legos."

I thought that was hilarious.

Math Makes Me Cry

2011-05-06T11:47:00.007-04:00

My husband and I were talking today about how long it looks like we may get to stay here if the Army decides the way we think it will regarding his career path. Yeah, that sentence is clear as mud....I don’t know how else to express it.

Anywho...he was saying a certain time frame looked likely (no promises just thinking out loud, this is the Army you know), and I started doing the math on how old the kids will be, because that’s basically how I measure time these days. Then I choked up and started to cry while we were on the phone together, because it doesn’t really seem all that long, but when you start putting the kids’ faces on it, it makes you realize how fast time flies, and my little girl is turning 5 on Wednesday, and she’s the baby. That means the older ones are not babies, either. In fact, the oldest boy is almost as tall as me and entering that awkward stage boys do when their voices get all crackly and they still are kids but....not so much anymore. He really, really doesn’t want Mom to hug him anymore, and that makes me cry, too. He still likes Legos, though, and our read-aloud-together time in the evenings. The middle son still likes hugs, but don’t tell his friends, okay? I’m hugging our youngest girl every chance I get, because, well, did I mention she’s turning 5? It’s really been five years already?

I have much joy over the people they are growing to be, and I find that I enjoy them with every stage they grow through, and I find joy as I pray for them that the Lord will continue to draw them to Himself and teach them to have a heart for Him. I pray, too, that my husband and I are teaching them well and using the time we have well. I don’t want to waste the short time we have, but I also know that one thing I grieve deep down in my quiet heart is that too often in the busyness of the everyday we don’t always remember how short those everydays really are, and I know we've missed some things we should have been more on top of, and I know we've been impatient over things that really aren't all that important, and we've made mistakes along the way, and we've been, in short, sinners who have had to confess such to each other and to our children at times. In those moments, I pray for mercy and grace and wisdom, and I pray for the wisdom to use well the time we do have. And our God is so kind, so good, so very, very kind to us. And I am grateful.

So, math makes me cry. Anybody have a tissue?

Allergy Season

2011-05-05T12:59:00.006-04:00

Working with a couple of sweet two-year-olds this morning while their mommas went to their MOPS meeting, when one of my little friends looked up from the paper he was coloring, grinned right into my face.....and sneezed. Not just a little sneeze, either. I do not think I’ve ever had so much sneeze sprayed all over my face and right into my eyes before. My inner germophobe began silently freaking out. I looked at my co-worker and said, “I’m sure it’s just allergies, right?” She smiled sickly and said, “Uh-huh.....” And then we looked at my little friend’s gunky nose, and my coworker and friend said, so reassuringly, “That doesn’t look like allergies to me.” And then we both laughed, because, what else are ya gonna do at that point?

We spent the rest of the morning assuring ourselves it’s just allergies. ‘Tis the season, after all. Meanwhile I contemplated whether dousing my face and eyes in Purell would blind me or not, and whether it might be worth it. Kidding. Sort of.

Yeah. Hand me a nice big bottle of vitamin C and the orange juice. I’ll be guzzling it straight from the jug....

Don’t you just love that sense of baited anticipation that follows such an event? Wonder what the incubation period is for this particular strain of Kentucky crud....

Confessing Our Faults and the Self-Esteem Culture

2011-05-04T11:14:00.007-04:00

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:16

A group of us at our church had a conversation recently where the question was asked, “Why is it that we find it so hard to be real with each other?” We walk through the halls at church, “Hi, how are you?” “Fine, how are you?” You may have had a horrible morning, screamed at the kids, everyone fuming on the way to church after the hustle of getting out the door, but you pull into the parking lot, put on your smile and mask over the hurt inside. We talked about how you don’t want to just dump everything onto everyone who asks, “How are you?” and you probably shouldn’t air all your dirty laundry for just anyone to see. But the question we discussed was, why is it so hard to find anyone with whom you can take off the mask and be honest? In the church, shouldn’t we be a family who bears with one another and helps each with burdens? Why are we so often not able to do that? Is it the fault of the one with the burden, too afraid to let anyone know they don’t, in fact, have it all together? Is it the fault of the one whom someone would want to ask for help - are we not being the kind of person someone can trust with that? Or is it a combination of both? How do we move beyond superficial ‘how-do-you-do’s’ to finding the kind of community that can be real?

I don’t have a complete answer for the how part, yet. I do have a little bit of thought on the why, though.

As I said during that conversation, part of the reason I don’t often open up and share is because when I do, someone either jumps all over my ‘wrong thinking’ or tries to ‘fix’ my problem. In my experience, most people are uncomfortable with honesty. When asking, “How are you,” we really don’t mean, “How are you,” we mean, “Good morning” or “Hello.” If someone, in a moment of desperation, begins to answer our implied, “Good morning,” by answering our spoken, “How are you,” and begins to tell us how they are, we get uncomfortable. TMI.

I am not saying we need to be the energy-draining person who is always down, always complaining, always sharing too much information with people we don’t know well. But we do, each of us, need the kind of friendship where we can open up and share one another’s burdens - and joys - honestly with people we have come to know well. And we, each of us, need to learn to be the kind of people who can be that kind of friend and genuinely ask, “How are you,” and mean it.

I’ve been thinking about something, and I hope I can say this without being offensive, but it’s on my heart today. One thing I’ve noticed is that we in the church do not really understand how to hear confessions of sin from each other or how to respond to them in a gospel-understanding way. One thing I’ve noticed repeatedly over the years is that if you ever do share a failing, people are really quick to reassure you and let you know that you are a really good person, you are really okay, stop being so hard on yourself, etc. You know something? As well-meaning as those attempts to boost my self-esteem are, they aren’t what I need. For example, whenever I say anything about failing in a test of patience with my kids or about messing up in an area of mothering, I get people telling me I’m a great mom, it makes them sad when I say I’ve failed as a mom, etc. I know that is well meant, but I wasn’t expressing a lack of self-esteem. I was expressing an area of sin in my life that I regret deeply and want to change. I wasn’t beating myself up unnecessarily. I wasn’t saying I thought I was an abject failure as a mom in all areas generally and woe-is-me. I was honestly admitting my fault. I know that God is in control and I am not. I am extremely grateful that He can take my faults and forgive my sin and capture my children’s hearts in spite of me.

But you know what? I am not a great mother inherently. I am not even a very nice person. I can play a pretty nice person outwardly, but you have no idea the sinful struggles I have in my mind and heart as I seek to daily die to myself and live for Christ. By God’s grace, I am a better mother than I could ever have been if I were not in the process of being sanctified by God’s grace, and I am daily learning to trust Him for the strength to parent well. But I don’t really need the guilt trip laid on me that by admitting my fault that I’m somehow being too hard on myself. Because the lectures telling me that I’m a great mom really only make me feel like now, not only did I blow it in losing my patience with my child, now I’m blowing it for admitting I have struggles, too. Saying I blew it doesn’t mean I’m despairing over my general mothering skills. It means I’m being honest and saying I sinned, today, in this very specific incident, and I know that this is an area where I tend to fall to temptation and I would welcome someone to come alongside me and pray for me and even to share that they, too, struggle with this issue. I know my heart better than people from the outside looking in do. By God’s grace, He is sanctifying me so that, by His grace He is growing His fruit in my life and overcoming the sinful me and pruning me and growing me in His grace to be the mother my kids need me to be and to be the person He would have me be. I know, desperately, my daily need for His grace, and my daily need to be preaching the gospel to myself and my children.

So, when we confess our sins to each other, we need to learn how to hear that from each other, and rather than seeing it as a self-esteem issue, which it isn’t - trust me, a big part of my problem is that I already think too much of myself - let’s learn to see it is a grace issue. Let’s learn to, instead of bolstering up self-esteem, let’s learn to come alongside with something like, “Wow. I’ve been there, too. May I pray for you? And will you pray for me?” And wouldn’t it be wonderful if then you and your friend could even search the scripture together and see what God says about this thing you’re dealing with and seek to hide God’s word in your hearts together so that you might not sin against God and so that you can spur each other on to good works. And as a sister in Christ, wouldn’t it be awesome if we would learn to preach the gospel to each other, rather than try to shore up a lagging self-esteem?

Status Report - May 2011

2011-05-02T16:29:00.003-04:00

Sitting.....in the kitchen, smelling the ham and bean soup that is simmering for dinner. Mouth is watering. Corn bread will complement it nicely.

Sipping....Earl Grey tea, hot. A delightful afternoon treat.

Thinking....how strange it is that right when I’d decided to take a blogging break for a while, I all of a sudden felt like blogging again.

Resigned.....to the thought that I will probably never get the hang of short blog posts. I must learn that less is more. Somehow.

Pondering....how wrong it is that I get most of my news from Facebook lately. I may need to take something of a break from that time distraction. Social media doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but time wasting sure is.

Wondering....how it is possible that my baby is going to be five next week. Also wondering if I have the energy to survive the birthday party that will be at our house on Saturday.

Excited.....that The Lady and the Tramp DVD I ordered from Amazon was shipped today. I think I’m more excited to see my little girl open it than she will be to receive it. Lady Dog is her special toy - goes with her everywhere. Finally she’ll get to see the movie. I find it irritating that Disney locks away certain movies in the vault. Marketing genius, but I wanted Boo to get to see it before she doesn’t care anymore.

Thankful....for my church family. I’m constantly at a loss for words to describe how full my heart is on Sundays and after. I love how the gathering together on Sunday spurs us on to worship and serve throughout the week. May I have ears to hear and eyes to see!

Praying...for those who have been so drastically affected by the tornadoes. My heart is heavy as I hear of the damage and loss. May God have mercy, and may those who can help have strength and wisdom and compassion and resources.

Glad...there are only five weeks left of the school year. Looking forward to summer with the kids.

Realizing...that working with preschoolers on a weekly basis isn’t really my gift. I like kids, but didn’t so much love the job. Now to find where I am supposed to be serving.

Once again, I’m thankful for Lisa’s status report format.

Justice in a Fallen World

2011-05-02T15:52:00.004-04:00

I did not know that Osama bin Ladin had been killed until I turned on Facebook this morning. Sad that I get my news from there a lot of times. Anyway, when I turned on the news this morning to check it out (because just because it's on Facebook doesn't mean it's true), I found myself very disconcerted at the dancing in the streets with people treating it like the kind of celebration over a football victory or something. I pondered a while over why I found it disconcerting, and my brother summed it up well for me when he commented on my FB query, "Why it's so disconcerting: because it is so similar to how that part of the world reacted to 9/11. We have shown that we are not above that level." I agree with my brother on that.

Later I listened to Albert Mohler's episode of "The Briefing, " and I appreciated his thoughts on it, which are even better spelled out on his blog today. So, while I am thankful for our intelligence services and military and the fact that a threat has been removed, I sincerely wish my fellow countrymen would treat it more soberly in the eyes of a watching world rather than give fuel to those who already hate us. Anyone who thinks this will end it isn't paying attention. And I'm really not looking forward to how this will be spun for all the political capital possible in the upcoming election cycle, either.

What I Want My Daughter to Know

2011-04-30T10:45:00.010-04:00

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

I’ve been pondering something for a while now, and I’m pretty sure I will not be able to write all I want in a short post. Short posts do not seem to be a skill set I have developed yet. I know I haven’t adequately said all I want to here, but I’ve tried to get some of my thoughts organized.

I don’t know if it is that I am relatively new to parenting a girl, my two oldest being boys, or if it is something that truly is growing in our culture, but it seems that there is a whole culture of the ‘princess’ and extreme ‘girly-girlness’ that is not sitting well with me. I briefly mentioned it a while back in passing, but I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit.

First of all, I’m going to state up front that I am glad my girl enjoys dressing up and wearing dresses and pink, and I think it is healthy to engage in ‘dress up’ play and using her imagination, and I want her to embrace true femininity. I like that she is girly. So, this is not going to be some feministic rant about boys and girls being the same or any such nonsense. Boys and girls are different, by God’s design they are different, and I celebrate this. I want my girl to embrace and celebrate who God has designed her to be, and I am not trying to squash her creative playfulness while she is little.

What I am seeing, however, is an extreme version of ‘girliness,’ that too much emphasizes glitter and glam, and what it boils down to, in my opinion, is teaching our little girls that they are so special that the world revolves around them and that they should get whatever they want right when they want it. We are teaching our girls to be so self-centered and spoiled that it turns my stomach. Too much focus on being a princess can be a bad thing, I think. Maybe what I’m saying is I want my girl to be a little more balanced. Much more important than being a princess, I want her to learn to be a girl who honors God.

For instance, it’s okay that pink is her favorite color, and I don’t mind dressing her in pink often, but when she pitches a fit on a given morning because I insist she wear an outfit that is perfectly nice and pretty but doesn’t happen to be pink, then we have a problem. I have a daughter who was born with a sin nature. What she needs is for me to be teaching her that showing disrespect to her mother by throwing a tantrum over little things is not honoring to God. She does not need me excusing her behavior by simpering and saying, “Oh, she’s just such a princess, such a girly-girl,” and then bowing to her whim. She does not need to be appeased, she needs to be taught to obey.

Because she is so interested in princessy things, I recorded the royal wedding yesterday and we enjoyed watching some of the highlights together. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. She ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over how beautiful everything was, and then I sat her down and we talked about how being a girl who honors God is much more important than being a princess. A woman can be exquisite and classy and beautiful and all that, but if her heart doesn’t belong to Jesus, all the rest is empty. She will be five in a couple of weeks. I am quite sure she doesn’t yet understand what I’m getting at, but I pray that with careful training, she will, one day, understand. And I am realizing that I have not been diligent enough to be driving home the point that how beautiful she is inside is much, much, much more important than how pretty her hair or clothes are.

I have a daughter who is very strong-willed. This is a gift from God, I am convinced of it. But it is a challenge as a mom, I won’t lie. I have noticed recently that her extreme interest in girly-girl pinky princess things is leading to some things that I am realizing I must constantly and immediately address. She is very easily frustrated - typical for her age, but not something to be excused. Lately, when she doesn’t get what she wants or can’t find something she’s ‘needing’ right now, she immediately ratchets up to a screaming fit. I have been taking her aside, every single time, and sitting her down and telling her that her job right now is to obey her mother and father and to learn to be respectful of us and others. This is God’s command for children, to honor their parents. She needs to learn that the world does not revolve around her and to treat others as more important than herself. She needs to learn to ask, gently, for help rather than immediately screech because her will is thwarted. She does not need me to simper and say, “She’s such a little princess,” and excuse away selfish behavior.

Anyway, I was shopping for new Bibles for my kids the other day, and I ran across some Bibles and devotional books that are marketed to girls as princess Bibles and princess devotionals. I will admit to you that I am not a fan of audience-specific Bibles, anyway - youth, boy, girl, women’s, men’s, etc. - and we can discuss that at length another time perhaps. But as to the princess Bibles, I really do not think this is wise. Search Amazon for ‘Princess Bible’ and you’ll see some of what I’m talking about. I don’t doubt that some of the topics covered are probably good - hiding God’s word in our hearts, manners, etc. are all things little girls need encouragement to practice, no argument from me. But I’m not so sure that as Christians we really want to cash in on the princess mentality. (And ‘cash in’ was an intentional word choice.) There is something that, for me, is inherent with the princess mindset that is very self-centered and shallow. I think Disney’s Little Mermaid, Ariel, sums up the knee-jerk reaction I have to the ‘princess’ mindset.....she is spoiled, self-centered, disobeys the direct word of a father who loves her and wants her best, and gets everything she wants at great expense to others who are hurt directly because of her actions - and this is the ‘happily ever after’ ending we are conditioned to want for her.

I want more for my daughter than for her to be a princess. I want more for her than a focus on shallow, worldly, outward things. I want her to know that a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. I want her to know that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. I want her to understand biblical modesty, and that her true adornment is a heart that is seeking truly, diligently after God. I want purity and true beauty to be her passion. I want her to learn to love others and be interested in their needs and in caring for them. I want love for Christ to motivate her. I pray for her that she will understand that being a girl who honors God is so much better than being a princess. And I pray for wisdom to train her well in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And I pray that God, in His mercy, please draw her to Himself and that she will find her fulfillment, satisfaction, and beauty in loving and obeying and enjoying Him forever.

Sweet Tea With Lemon

What's On Your Nightstand - January 2012

Finding Delight - Our God is Jealous For His Own

Interesting Discussion About Postmodernism

Thankful Thursday - on Friday

On a Lighter Note....Once Upon a Time

The Sacrifice of Praise

Finding Delight - Week 1: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Status Report - January 2012

A New Year

A Look Back

Merry Christmas!

18 Years

Random Thoughts Inspired by the Christmas Season

Recommended Reading Just in Time for Christmas

What's On My Nightstand - November 2011

The Teaching of Kindness is on Her Tongue

Status Report, November 2011

In Honor of Reformation Day:

Not Really A Review of A Book I've Just Finished

Has It Really Been Five Years Already?

How Having Children Turned My Head Into a Barometer of Sorts

Just Another Afternoon in the Kitchen

Status Report October 2011

The Happiest Place On Earth

Home

When Government and Environmentalism are the Cultural Idols

This Afternoon In Facebook Status Update Format or Laughing About My Afternoon in the Kitchen

Friday Frazzles

Fear Not

An Evening Prayer

Maybe I Shouldn't Blog Every Big Thought I Struggle Over

Status Report - September 2011

Learned Desperation

Hear My Prayer, O LORD

Sweet Fragrances

Status Report August 2011

What I'm Reading - Some Good, Some Not

Reading Joys

Friday Frazzles

Book Recommendation

Status Report - July 2011

God is Not Silent

What's On Your Nightstand - June 2011

Summer Blogging

Dog Days

Funny......

Status Report June 2011

Forty is Not a Bad Word

Camping!

Thankful Thursday and Thinking About Prayer

Thankful Thursday

My Daughter Hates My Hair

Full to Overflowing

From My Recent Reading: A Quote From Octavius Winslow

Quote of the Day

Math Makes Me Cry

Allergy Season

Confessing Our Faults and the Self-Esteem Culture

Status Report - May 2011

Justice in a Fallen World

What I Want My Daughter to Know