Something Other Than God

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could "be like gods" -- could set up on their own as if they had created themselves -- be their own masters -- invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history -- money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery -- the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

C.S. Lewis

Mere Christianity

I Love That Story.

Sissy loves telling stories. They all follow this exact formula:

Once upon a time there was beautiful (pronounced "byoo-ful") princess named {insert name here i.e. Ariel, Jasmine, Afton, Ponder, Jessie, Veggie Tales}. She was very beautiful but she was not mean or foolish. And you know what happened? I don't know! And that's the end.

I love that story. It never ever gets old.

Speaking of Veggies Tales Afton recently approached me about something I could tell she had been thinking about for a while. "Mommy, Larry and Bob kinda look like food. Is that crazy?"

I had to be honest and say "Yeah, it kinda is."

These girls make me laugh.

It's a lot of fun living in a castle full of byoo-ful princesses. And that's the end.

Jesus I Come

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair, into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

~ William Sleeper

Twenty Poohs.

I never want to forget that when Afton has little she used to call Winnie the Pooh "Twenty Poohs" and I almost did.

Love her.

My Friend Self-Control

I've been reading this book:

I am not very far into it, but so far I've found it very helpful. Today I was reading a chapter on self-control and came across these two statements that capture the blessedness of that virtue so well.

"Self-contol is our wall of defense against the enemies of our soul."

"We desperately need the grace of self-control to avoid sin's destructive cycles. When we recognize self-contol as the virtue that spares us from sin's negative consequences, we will welcome it eagerly as our friend."

Reading those words made me want to do just that. Welcome self-control as my dear friend.

My Invincible Territory

A friend of mine shared this quote on Facebook today. I have no idea if it is from a book or a sermon or what. All I know is it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear and it is EXACTLY what I need the Holy Spirit to work into my heart today. Sometimes conviction reaches up and smacks my hand pretty hard and I all I can say is "Yes, Sir!" I call that feeling "getting in trouble". I kinda love that feeling. I mean no one likes getting in trouble but it sure does feel better than hanging out in sinful grumpiness. For those of you who know what I mean about liking the feeling of "getting in trouble" and who maybe, like me, have been a little too focused on your own needs or your boundaries, if you will, all I can say is enjoy:

"If you get angry, upset and irritated and then blame it on your circumstances, you're deceiving yourself. The problem isn't your circumstances. The problem is the preoccupation of your mind that you're important, that your rights matter, that your territory is invincible." John MacArthur

Do Not Be Overcome With Evil But Overcome Evil With Good

1. Today for lunch my kids had apple sauce, provolone, and turkey. With milk. Afton calls provolone "holes cheese". Some might think that is swiss cheese, but not to Afton. For some reason that is the name she has given to provolone.

2. Tonight for dinner we are trying a recipe I got from my friend's blog. Brie Chicken. Oh my goodness that sounds so yummy. Find the recipe here. Not sure if I should use my whole wedge of brie or just part of it. Is there such a thing as too much brie? I doubt it.

3. I've been reading Romans 12 everyday with the kids at lunch. Wow.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil: cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep you spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:9-21

and hear the angels sing!

And ye, beneath life's crushing load

Whose forms are bending low,


Who toil along the climbing way


With painful steps and slow,


Look, now! for glad and golden hours


Come swiftly on the wing


O rest beside the weary load


and hear the angels sing!



IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR
Edmund H. Sears

Amen.

A prayer from The Valley of Vision :

SPIRITUS SANCTUS

O HOLY SPIRIT,
As the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water,
Heaven full of glory, so may my heart be full of thee.
Vain are all purposes of divine love
and the redemption by Jesus
except thou work within,
regenerating by thy power,
giving me eyes to see Jesus
showing me to the realities of the unseen world.
Give me thyself without measure,
as an unimpaired fountain,
as inexhaustible riches.
I bewail my coldness, poverty, emptiness,
imperfect vision, languid service,
prayerless prayers, praiseless praise.
Suffer me not to grieve or resist thee.
Come as power,
to expel every rebel lust, to reign supreme and keep me thine;
Come as teacher,
leading me into all truth, filling me with all understanding;
Come as love,
that I may adore the Father, and love him as my all;
Come as joy,
to dwell in me, move in me, animate me;
Come as light,
illuminating the Scripture, moulding me to its laws;
Come as sanctifier,
body, soul and spirit wholly thine;
Come as helper,
with strength to bless and keep, directing my every step;
Come as beautifier,
bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos.
Magnify to me thy glory by being magnified in me,
and make me redolent of thy fragrance.

So be it.

Afton's Dictionary

Afton is getting more and more words everyday. When she says things wrong it is way to adorable to correct her so I never do. I want her to keep talking like this forever! I know someday soon she will speak plain English and I will miss trying to decipher Aftonese! So I will never forget her delightful little language here is a small sampling of some of my favorites:

A - coloring, drawing, or writing; crayons
ahh ahh - music
amen - (uh MEN) amen; the church building; the end of a song
baby - anyone Afton's age or younger, baby dolls, stuffed animals
bey - obey (usually said as she is getting caught disobeying)
bite - (bi -eet) all food
blanks - her special blanket
bondt - bonked or got hurt in anyway
call - phone
cat - cats or rabbits
come - take me with you
cup - (cu-pah) all cups and drinks and anything resembling a cup
dog - (dohg) all animals besides ducks, cats, and rabbits
dut - ducks
eres - where is (as in eres daddy? eres Scout?)
eyes - eyes, glasses, sunglasses
go - the stroller
happy day you - happy birthday to you
keese - kiss 0r keys
moosh - spoon
nates - naked
natz - snack
nigh nigh - bedtime; bed; sleeping; i'm tired; all blankets except blanks
pay - pray or play
pooze - pillows
potty!! - anything having to do with potty, always said with lots of enthusiasm
telp - (also pronounced yelp) help
toss - apple sauce
un - I want (as in un bite! un cup!
watie - bath; water; rain; swimming pool
wotz - I want to watch a cartoon
wotnews - cartoons
yehrios - cheerios
yotes - yogurt
yous? - shoes
yous! - juice

"Mates" is a word she has been saying for the past several days and I still haven't figured out what it means. Anyone have a guess?

The Throne of Grace

"for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is -- limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death -- he [God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played them man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it all well worth it.

~Dorothy Sayers
Letters to a Diminished Church

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have on who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15 & 16

The Promise Is To You and To Your Children

"And I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

Genesis 17:7

Praise to the Lord!

Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e're have been granted in what he ordaineth.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee!
Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
Ponder anew what the Almighty will do, if with his love he befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee,
Decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee.
How oft in grief hath not he brought thee relief, spreading his wings to o'ershade thee!

Life Itself.

A sweet lady, whom I had the pleasure to know briefly, passed away much earlier than she was expecting to this week. She is with Jesus now. That jolting reminder of mortality along with having my husband so far away and out of reach has really been pressing on my mind what a wonderful and precious gift life itself really is. In thinking on these things I have been reminded of a beautiful quote I read many years ago. I think all would be well served by remembering the truth in these words:

I like living. I have at times been wildly, acutely, despairingly miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. ~Agatha Christie

Hard Labor

I had to stop reading this book at least for the time being because I was starting to have pretty stressful dreams about it. It is extremely interesting, fascinating really, but not necessarily a good read for someone who, like me, will be giving birth in the next three months. If you are not in that category and like reading real stories about childbirth you may find it very enjoyable. One word of caution though. It is surprisingly rife with profanity for a book on this subject. I am not naive enough to believe that an awful lot of cussing does not go on in delivery rooms, but it seemed a little over the top and unnecessary to me. I don't know, maybe I am just not "raw" enough. I also haven't read the whole book so I can only speak to pages 1-91. Within those pages, however, I found some of the best advice about approaching the childbirth experience that I have ever read. I thought I would share it here:

Bring your written birth plans to the hospital, review them frequently with your OB in your weekly visits, go into the experience with all your hopes and dreams, but always be ready to go with the flow and cooperate if there is any untoward event that challenges your plan. In this way, you establish yourselves as informed consumers who can participate in the the team effort at the hospital, while allowing yourselves the necessary flexibility to deal with unexpected events, without wrecking your self-esteem and your dreams about this birth.

On the Golden Rule

One of the things I hate most in life is being misunderstood. I hate saying something the wrong way and sounding cold or rude or unconcerned or indifferent or angry or annoyed or...you know anything that I actually am not trying to be at the time. I hate the feeling of knowing what someone thinks I think or feel and knowing they have it all wrong. I especially hate the feeling of not being able to explain myself well enough to be understood. I hate being sized up and mentally classified by someone I know sees me all wrong. I hate people thinking they know my motives or intentions or what I will do next when they really do not know me at all. I really, really hate these things. I hate being misunderstood.

Why am I bringing this up in a post about the Golden Rule? Well, because when I really sit and think about the Golden Rule, when I think about what I wish that others would do to me, this is what I think about. My ultimate wish for how I would like others to treat me is that they would really listen and take the time to understand me and until they do they would assume the very best of my motives and intentions and give me a huge benefit of the doubt and tons and tons of room to grow. Humble mercy, I guess, is what I would call it.

So with that in mind, how am I doing at following the Golden Rule? In a word? Horribly. I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character. I size people up in a moment and almost irreversibly make my mind up about them. I have never met a stranger I couldn't almost immediately classify. I am no better with non-strangers, with friends and loved ones. I assume I know them so well that I know their every reason for doing something and exactly what they will do next. I have a terrible habit of jumping to conclusions and leaving no room for the chance that I may be wrong about someone. This is a sad, sad picture of myself I am painting. But it is an all too accurate portrayal as well.

How ironic that the kind of treatment I desire most from my fellow man is the kind of treatment I can be so very stingy with; the exact kind of treatment I find it so difficult to offer to others. It reminds of a quote I heard once that was something like the sin you despise most in others is often the one you struggle with the most in your own life. That is not the exact quote, but it was something like that. I am wondering if anyone else has the same struggle. When you think about how you want to be treated by others, does what comes to mind kind of mirror one of your biggest struggles or weaknesses in the way you treat those around you? I would be interested to hear.

Christ As A Light

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! To celebrate, oh and I do so love to celebrate every possible holiday, I wanted to post the prayer of Saint Patrick, himself, here on my blog. I only know it as the exquisite song by John Michael Talbot that we played at our wedding. It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Do yourself a favor and go to iTunes and purchase his song "Christ As A Light (The Prayer of St. Patrick). I guarantee it will be the best 99 cents you spend all day.

Anyway, like I said I wanted to post the prayer of Saint Patrick today and I figured it would be more proper to post his actual prayer than to simply post the song lyrics I love so much. My Google search for the actual words, however, came up with many, many different versions. Being neither Irish, nor Catholic, I had no idea which version was the real prayer of Saint Patrick! So I am posting JMT's lyrics, which I am more than happy to do. These words were the prayer of my heart on my wedding day three and a half years ago, and continue to perfectly capture my longing that Christ, Himself, would both surround and pervade all of me, and that my service as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend would be nothing less than service to Him.

Also because this song always happily reminds me of my wedding I am going to throw in a little wedding picture for free. One of the three snapshots I still have after my hard drive crashed last December. (It's not as bad as it sounds. I still have all the photographer's pictures and I know our parents have tons of snapshots too.)

The Prayer of Saint Patrick
According to John Michael Talbot

Christ as a Light illumine and guide me.
Christ as a Shield overshadow me.
Christ under me.
Christ over me.
Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me.
Lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak,
In the mouth of each who speak unto me.

Home-Making ~ by J.R. Miller

I wrote this review for my church newsletter which I hope explains its brevity and broadness. I wish I had time to do this blessed book more justice, but for now, I simply do not. I will add two things:

1. I am not exaggerating when I say this is the best book I have ever read.

2. It makes an excellent wedding present. I doubt I will ever give anything else.

I heartily recommend Home-Making by J.R. Miller to anyone who is a part of a family! Yes, that is everybody! Do not be misled by the title or the cover. This is not a book written only for wives and mothers. All members of a Christian home – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives will be blessed, encouraged, sharpened, and challenged by a reading of this book.

Miller begins his book with a chapter on what the calls "The Wedded Life" which is the very bedrock of the family. He then devotes a chapter to each role in every family. There is a chapter directed to the husband, the wife, the parents, the children, and a chapter on the special relationship between brothers and sisters.

In each of these chapters Miller describes with beauty and eloquence what it looks like when Christians live out the sweet sacrifice of Christ daily in the most important place on earth – the home. The final chapters of the book are spent on more comprehensive topics such as the home life and religion in the home.

I hope you will be as inspired by this lovely book as I have been.

"You know what a true home ought to be. It ought to be a place where love rules. It ought to be beautiful, bright, joyous, full of tenderness and affection; a place in which all are growing happier and better each day."

To Remember When Overwhelmed, Interrupted, and Delayed

"It is something that my husband has been satisfied with his wife and his home today; that does me good."

~Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward

Love For Example...

I love finding things that have been lost. Today I had just such a joy. I found a little packet I made filled with all the letters, trinkets, and mementos from my courtship with Ron. I haven't seen it or had any clue where it could have gone in almost three years. My mind believed it to be gone forever. My heart held out hope, as hearts are known to do, that somehow someday it would resurface. Much to the delight of my inner dreamy, mushy girl, my heart was right! I have spent Afton's nap reading all those sweet, sweet words and remembering those sweet, sweet times. I would never cheapen a love note by sharing it publicly, but there was something in my little packet that I do want to share with others. It is a quote on love that I found in a most unlikely place - a book on religion in ancient Mesopotamia. Strange yes, but there it was in the middle of one of most boring books I have ever read part of, the best description of the emotion of love that I have ever heard. I read it just before Ron and I fell in love. I wrote it on a napkin and tacked it to a cork board in my room. When I moved out to get married I tucked it away with all my love letters, forgotten until today. It describes my feelings for Ron now as accurately as it did back then:

"Love for example, innate and irrational, it irresistibly pushes each one of us toward "another", someone in whom we obscurely sense a sort of enrichment indispensable to our lives, a necessary complement to ourselves, whom we must seek out and obtain regardless of all opposition."
~ Jean Bottero, Religion In Ancient Mesopotamia