I hope you’ve realized that in 2008 we all get one extra day and that day is tomorrow, February 29. It’s still a couple hours away here in Idaho. I hope you plan to spend it well. I’m going to rummage around getting tax stuff together, and then I’m going to go to lunch with some old friends and do a little catching up. It’s a leap-year luncheon.
Leap year reflects the character of our good and gracious God: He messes with us.
Some months have thirty days, some have thirty-one, and February only has 28, except once every four years when He throws in an extra day to make up for the yearly time lost when the 365 1/4Â days are reckoned as only 365 days. (And, in case you are interested, leap year is always a year that is exactly divisible by four or four hundred.)
So enjoy your extra day. Spring is coming to our house. The snow has melted (mostly) and the gravel is being swept from the roads. It’s looking clean and organized outside and making me want to get my own house in order. We had a real winter, and now my hopes are up that we will have a real spring, complete with sunshine and warm breezes. Continue reading ‘An Extra Day’
I mentioned some time ago that we need to have a theology of affliction. By that I mean that the Bible has a lot to say about how we are to handle affliction, troubles, and trials. So the Christian woman ought to turn first to the Scriptures to see what her duties are in any difficult situation she finds herself in. Let’s consider a handful.
Have you been wronged? Then we are told to return good for evil.
Are you persecuted? We are to bless those who bring us the trouble and pray for them.
Have you been slandered? Lied about? Jesus is still being slandered today. How does He handle it? He could strike His slanderers down at any given moment, couldn’t He? But He bears with them, fulfilling all His purposes. So when people say all kinds of false things about us, we are to rejoice.
Huh? How do we do that? We are to do these things by faith, by grace. Our flesh certainly is not inclined to do these things, but resurrecting grace enables us to pray for our Continue reading ‘When Things Go Wrong’
When my daughters were growing up, my husband and I made a deliberate child-rearing decision about the kinds of dolls we wanted in our home. Now you may think this is a pretty funny thing to write a post about. But I actually think it is very important.
As far as I can tell, there are three genres of dolls (not including the kind you collect to just sit on the shelf): the baby doll, the little girl doll, and the grown-up doll, which unfortunately is usually the hoochy-mama doll.
Now there is something very important we need to realize about how children play. A little girl playing with a baby doll is pretending to be the doll’s mother. She will change the baby, rock the baby, etc. She is imitating her own mother and learning the art of mothering without really knowing it.
A little-girl doll (something like the American Girl dolls) is a playmate, and the play can go in many directions: dressing her up, setting up and playing house, having tea parties, etc. Continue reading ‘Let’s Play Dolls’
Certainly feminism illustrates for us the complaint cycle, but women of all persuasions do the same thing in a myriad of ways. It all begins with discontent. I think it is safe to assume that Eve had been content in the garden until the serpent made his evil suggestion. “Why don’t you get to eat from this tree?” Apparently, Eve had not felt deprived until that moment. The discontent is what set her up for the deception (aka, lie) that immediately followed. And she bit.
Women are far less vulnerable to deception when they are content. How many contented Christian women are apt to marry an unbeliever? No chance. But a discontented woman is more prone to rationalize and swallow the deceit. “Well, he went to church as a kid. And he’s not an atheist. And I prayed that if God didn’t want me to marry him, that He would take away my love for him, and He didn’t take it away, so I think that is a sign.” A Continue reading ‘The Complaint Cycle’
This past Lord’s Day we sang Psalm 100 as part of the worship service, and it hit me afresh what a wonderful psalm this is. It reveals so much of the character of our good God.
All people that on earth do dwell. That means everyone. No exceptions. He wants us all.
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. No mumbling. We are singing to the Lord!
Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell. Let’s hear some laughter, let’s serve the Lord with merriment. Let’s toast His attributes and clink our glasses in His name!
Come ye before Him and rejoice. Here’s a little repetition, and we need it. No kidding: God wants merry worshipers, happy singing, glad hearts, and jolly rejoicing in His presence by every last person on the planet. Continue reading ‘Old Hundredth’
It’s pretty clear by the truckloads of articles and books that keep showing up that more and more women who bought into the feminist “dream” are now taking it all back, acknowledging that it was a big flop. And, of course, they are complaining now that they are either approaching or are in their forties, that their big careers are not fulfilling, that all they really want is a husband and children, that time is running out, and that all the attractive men are going for the younger women.
The women’s movement has always been a complaining movement. Back in the heyday, they were complaining about having to stay home with the kids while the men got all the Continue reading ‘Feminist Folly’
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