I am going to link to yet another Femina post. What can I say there are lots of great things there! But, I want to post a little note first. I originally started this blog because I wanted an easy way to keep track of any great articles I come across. It is handy because when I want to find one I can just search for a keyword or two and viola...there it is! But, since I have told people about this blog I sometimes feel like I should be a bit more selective. However, I am going to stick with my oringinal intent and hope that you get a blessing from it!
Here is the link. This article really means a lot to me. I have always thought of myself as a mom of little kids. So, when I think of them getting older and leaving it ends up being a bit of an identity crisis. What will I be when I am not a full time mom anymore? I know it seems a bit early for me to be thinking about this...I still have about 18 years of parenting to tackle. But, I think it needs to be thought about and dealt with now so that I can be headed where I want to be when that time arrives. This article has some really great wisdom and practical tips.
Friday, March 28, 2008
I needed that!
Here is a link to a really great post; I will summarize the part I liked.
She said that her husband wrote her a note on Easter morning when their daughter was only two weeks old. He knew that she wanted to look nice on Easter, but still felt self-concious about her post-partum body. He said "there is no more appropriate way to celebrate Easter than to be in a body that has been taken all apart on behalf of another." How true and what a beautiful picture! I needed that.
She said that her husband wrote her a note on Easter morning when their daughter was only two weeks old. He knew that she wanted to look nice on Easter, but still felt self-concious about her post-partum body. He said "there is no more appropriate way to celebrate Easter than to be in a body that has been taken all apart on behalf of another." How true and what a beautiful picture! I needed that.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Interesting site...
www.familywatchdog.us is site that lists criminals (specifically sex related crimes) living or working in your area. It also has a picture of the offender and tells what they were convicted of. When I typed in our address I found a man that lives less than a half mile from us. I am glad that I have the info.
A compliment...
I heard someone make a comment about a pastor this week. I do not know the man that they were talking about, but I hope that what they said about him can be said about me for the rest of my life. It went something like this...
When explaining his theology he says everything the Bible says and nothing that it doesn't. It may make it hard to wrap your mind around some doctrines and nail them down, but you hear God clearly.
When explaining his theology he says everything the Bible says and nothing that it doesn't. It may make it hard to wrap your mind around some doctrines and nail them down, but you hear God clearly.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
"Successful" Kids
My friend Cindy forwarded me this. The original post can be found at Peter Leithart's blog.
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Brink Lindsey of the CATO Institute writes in the March 12 TNR that the key to success is, surprise, hard work and parental involvement. A couple of quotations:
A study led by Florida State psychologist Anders Ericsson found that a “common denominator” in their study of top performers in various fields: “practice. Chess grandmasters, concert pianists, and other superstars are distinguished from less-accomplished performers by two main things: starting their chosen fields earlier in life, and logging more hours per day of training over the course of many years.”
Parental interaction with young children is also a significant predictor of academic success. Psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that there are “dramatic differences in the intensity and nature of the verbal stimulation the kids were getting: Professional parents directed an average of 487 ‘utterances’ per hour toward their children, as compared to 301 for working-class parents and only 176 for welfare parents. The quality of those utterances was also very different: Among professional parents, the ratio of encouraging to discouraging utterances was six to one; for working-class parents, the ratio slipped to two-to-one; and welfare parents made two discouraging utterances for every encouraging one.”
~~~~~~~~~
Brink Lindsey of the CATO Institute writes in the March 12 TNR that the key to success is, surprise, hard work and parental involvement. A couple of quotations:
A study led by Florida State psychologist Anders Ericsson found that a “common denominator” in their study of top performers in various fields: “practice. Chess grandmasters, concert pianists, and other superstars are distinguished from less-accomplished performers by two main things: starting their chosen fields earlier in life, and logging more hours per day of training over the course of many years.”
Parental interaction with young children is also a significant predictor of academic success. Psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that there are “dramatic differences in the intensity and nature of the verbal stimulation the kids were getting: Professional parents directed an average of 487 ‘utterances’ per hour toward their children, as compared to 301 for working-class parents and only 176 for welfare parents. The quality of those utterances was also very different: Among professional parents, the ratio of encouraging to discouraging utterances was six to one; for working-class parents, the ratio slipped to two-to-one; and welfare parents made two discouraging utterances for every encouraging one.”
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Kids in worship
Here is the link to the post I have copied below.
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My wife and I have striven to keep our kids in worship for many reasons, but the biggest reason for me is... "grilled cheese."
We could talk about covenant theology, infant baptism, paedofaith, children addressed in Scripture, etc. Those things are all important to me. However, if we were really trying to drill down on my motivation it would be to give my kids a steady diet of home.
Gina and I grew up in liturgical churches. The word was not preached with particular clarity in those contexts, but by the time we were in grade school we knew the Apostles Creed, the Gloria Patri, various forms of confession / absolution, hymns, and benedictions. Despite walking away from these forms in search of better preaching during different phases of life, we could never shake the feeling of being "home" in a more liturgical service (albeit combined with good preaching as well!).
Kids may or may not "get" what an adult "gets" from being in worship. It depends on so much that it escapes generalization. But look at what they do get in addition to exposure to content-filled worship forms - they see their mother, father, friends, and family singing hymns of faith, closing their eyes in confession, offering prayers of intercession, communing at the Lord's Table, opening their Bibles, giving tithes, and joyfully receiving benedictions. Talk about priceless.
My conviction and hope is that my children not only profit from worship now, but perhaps even more in years to come. If the day comes when they are tempted to stray or have strayed - my hope is that the smell of grilled cheese will bring them back home. And if they never leave home they can continue to enjoy a good home-cooked meal.
Should you keep your kids in worship? You betcha.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older he shall not depart from it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My wife and I have striven to keep our kids in worship for many reasons, but the biggest reason for me is... "grilled cheese."
We could talk about covenant theology, infant baptism, paedofaith, children addressed in Scripture, etc. Those things are all important to me. However, if we were really trying to drill down on my motivation it would be to give my kids a steady diet of home.
Gina and I grew up in liturgical churches. The word was not preached with particular clarity in those contexts, but by the time we were in grade school we knew the Apostles Creed, the Gloria Patri, various forms of confession / absolution, hymns, and benedictions. Despite walking away from these forms in search of better preaching during different phases of life, we could never shake the feeling of being "home" in a more liturgical service (albeit combined with good preaching as well!).
Kids may or may not "get" what an adult "gets" from being in worship. It depends on so much that it escapes generalization. But look at what they do get in addition to exposure to content-filled worship forms - they see their mother, father, friends, and family singing hymns of faith, closing their eyes in confession, offering prayers of intercession, communing at the Lord's Table, opening their Bibles, giving tithes, and joyfully receiving benedictions. Talk about priceless.
My conviction and hope is that my children not only profit from worship now, but perhaps even more in years to come. If the day comes when they are tempted to stray or have strayed - my hope is that the smell of grilled cheese will bring them back home. And if they never leave home they can continue to enjoy a good home-cooked meal.
Should you keep your kids in worship? You betcha.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older he shall not depart from it.
On Lent
During the season of Lent some people "fast" from something good for a time. Some Christians abstain from certain things all the time as a matter of principle. C.S. Lewis has some wise words on this topic:
One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons - marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.
One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons - marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.
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