Prayers appreciated....

I love you guys, really I do. :-) You see, I'm still chewing through this book. Not that it's that hard to chew, I just have to re-read every page about 3 times because I've gotten so lazy about reading anything requiring thought that things just don't stick...or maybe the Teflon-brain's just because of the constant one-eye-on-the-book one-eye-on-the-kids thing! ;-) Either way, we're still reading it (me and the mouse in my pocket). I'm using a piece of junk mail for a bookmark so I can rip out pieces to make pages that have particularly salient thoughts on them (that I want to discuss with hubby)... besides being a practical way to mark pages without dog-earing LJ's book, I get some visceral satisfaction from shredding junk mail a piece at a time, :-D but anyway.....

If you think of it, I'd appreciate your prayers as we [continue] chewing through this book... We had a special speaker at church last week & wouldn't you know, the opening night's message had a few comments thrown in that directly contradicted the main point of the chapter I'd been working on all week. :-P Then in yesterday's second service, about half of Pastor's off-the-cuff statements (IOW what he really thinks) were directly in conflict with rather clearly presented Scripture from this weeks chapter!! So I'm having fun!!! I feel like Sam--I have a bunch of questions I want to throw out there but I don't know entirely who to ask b/c anyone within my "camp" is going to take them as an attack, an insult, or just argumentativeness for the sake of orneriness (and y'all know I can do that pretty well some days). So for now, I'm just keeping my mouth shut. *waiting for laughter to die down* Hubby is planning to read this after I finish & then we'll sit down and discuss it, and us, and where we are. So y'all be praying.

Oh, and thanks to LJ again for hooking me up with the text of one of my all-time favorite songs.... good thoughts to meditate on......



Before the Throne

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold Him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of Glory and of Grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God


“Before the Throne”, lyrics by Charitie Less Bancroft, alt. lyrics and music by Vikki Cook.

© 1997 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

You speck!!

"If you say there is no God, I can only ask how you --a speck of mortal living for a moment of time on an atom of an earth in plain sight of an infinite universe full of incredible beauty, wonder and design-- can so confidently hold so improbable a view."

---attributed to former President of Harvard University, Dr. Charles Eliot

Ernest Goes to Camp... and learns about Grace?!

At church Sunday one of the kids was talking about the "Ernest" movies (goes to Camp, goes to Jail, saves the Day, etc.). Monday I was thinking back through that conversation & wondered what his parents would have thought if I had asked him about M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village." Somehow I doubt they'd have been pleased.:-D Anyway, that got me thinking. (Smell smoke?!) I've got a bunch of things rattling through my head about the Village again in relation to Fundamentalism, standards, expectations, etc.; but mostly was just reminded that I still haven't finished LJ's Putting Amazing Back into Grace, so off the shelf it came again. :-) I was pleasantly surprised to find myself beginning chapter 7, "Mission Accomplished." This line got me...

The fact that God would choose, redeem, call, and keep a great number known only to Him is amazing grace indeed and of infinitely more comfort than the idea that Christ's death actually secured the salvation of none, merely making salvation possible, depending on the ability of those who are 'dead in trespasses and sins' to make the right moves to God.

Imagine, "the work of Christ on the cross was effective in and of itself." Imagine, indeed!!

Speaking of Featured Content...

This post caught my eye because I saw one of the TLC shows on the Duggars while we were at my in-laws last spring. Think of them what you will, 17 is a lot of kids from one Momma. Anyway, in case it's not still on FC, here's the Xanga site: cindyjg. Obviously she doesn't agree with them, but at least her arguments are polite and articulate (unlike some of the Duggar supporters who are leaving her comments). :-|

Oh, and related tangentially, I read recently that if we were to give one whole acre of land to every man, woman, and child alive on the earth today, we'd still all fit inside the land mass of the good 'ole U.S. of A.... so I kinda think the natural resources argument is specious one, but that's just me.



(update)

Now this guy.... I'll let his words speak for themselves... Back to the fall-out over the Duggar post from a few days ago (see above), one of the nut-jobs that commented on her post said: To have so many children [is]almost the same as abortion because in both cases life or death of the future child [is] in the mind of mother. THAT idea, my dears, takes a special kind of stupid to believe, but hey.... it takes all kinds, right? *shakes head*



(update #2)

Now this is a quote worth reading (because it agrees with me, of course! ;-))

G.K. Chesterton compared a mother's duties to those of a monarch, a merchant, and a theology teacher. He said, "I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about (arithmetic), and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

What think ye??

This is from "10 ways to build your child's self-esteem"

There's a difference between praise and encouragement.

One rewards the task while the other rewards the person ("You did it!" rather than "I'm proud of you!").

Praise can make a child feel that he's only "good" if he does something perfectly.
Encouragement, on the other hand, acknowledges the effort.

"Tell me about your drawing. I see that you like purple" is more helpful than saying, "That's the most beautiful picture I've ever seen."

Too much praise can sap self-esteem because it can create pressure to perform and set up a continual need for approval from others.

So dole out the praise judiciously and offer encouragement liberally; it will [help] your child grow up to feel good about himself.


I don't know what I think about this nifty little article. I want to roll my eyes at the "self-esteem building" ideas everyone loves, yet I know drowning a child in superlatives is hardly beneficial either. I guess I've not had to give it much thought yet.... I remember hearing a young dad praising his son for every bite the youngster ate (he was just learning to self feed). It seemed like excessive praise at the time, but with the retrospection of having my own two year old, maybe it was just much needed positive reinforcement! :-D

Proof...

They say the proof is in the pudding... well, no pudding in NY (though we did consume several flats of yogurt).... never mind.. it was going to be a really lame joke...

ANYWAY, as proof of our insanity & that I wasn't kidding about all those kids & their ages; here's a pic of all 12 kiddoes.



Sorry they're not all looking at the camera... we had about 4 cameras going at once & counted ourselves lucky that all the kids stayed inside those 6 sq. ft. for long enough to get the pictures taken!! :-D

Notice that there's no mud, blood, or guts. Of course, that culd be because we took the pic right after lunch on Sunday (they hadn't been allowed out in the mud yet). Almost unbelievable, but the only blood the entire Thursday -> Sunday when everybody was there was a little rugburn on BD#1's nose. That's it.