Several years ago I was driving through Pennsylvania with some friends and we stopped near the most gorgeous old farmhouse. Inside its large and fabulous yard there were a bunch of hilarious chickens running around. They must have been a variety of heirloom breeds – the colors and hairdos and feather leg warmers were just a little too outrageous for normal chickens if you know what I mean! Anyway, we walked over to see them and they ran to us (presumably thinking we would offer them more than praise). But as soon as they got close, they were no longer the cute stuff. All of them had bald and bleeding spots where they had been picking one another’s feathers out, the nasty little things.
Monthly Archive for October, 2009
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Because Christian families are concerned with maintaining a biblical perspective on femininity, and because we live in a culture that is blurring all the distinctions, this is an important question to ask. Should we assume all Christian girls should head off to college? Is keeping them in the parental home after high school a wise option? Should they grow up with the notion that they should have an engagement ring when they graduate from high school? Good questions.
So I’m giving my motherly, grandmotherly thoughts and suggestions here, and I have to say from the get-go that each and every situation calls for wisdom. So with that qualifier in place, I will proceed.
An education is a wonderful thing. But what is it exactly? Is it just teaching reading and writing and arithmetic? Yes, that is where it begins. But it is more than that. Education is training the mind to think, and a Christian education is the process of teaching the mind to think Christianly about everything. An education is not a piece of paper. So, do daughters need to be trained to think? Of course they do. Why? Because women are called to be Continue reading ‘Is college for girls?’
A dozen or so years ago (none of us can remember how long it has been) my friend Bev Atwood started a prayer meeting for elders’ wives. We have been meeting one morning a week (at the same time the elders meet) pretty much ever since, and our focus has been to pray for the church. Since those first early days, Trinity Reformed Church has been planted, so we pray for both of our congregations.
For some time we had 3×5 cards with all the different prayer needs listed on them, and we would pass the cards around, each of us taking four or five, depending on how many of us were there that morning. Most of these things are listed (quite handily) in our church bulletins now, so we have dispensed with the cards and use our bulletins. We pray for the elders, the pastors, the deacons, the music ministers, and all the different ministries of our churches or associated with them. So that includes New St. Andrews College, Logos School, Credenda Agenda, Canon Press, and Greyfriars Hall, to name a few. And we pray for all the expecting mothers, the upcoming weddings, those who are grieving or sick, and those serving in the military.
One of the obstacles of having a prayer meeting is getting bogged down with prayer requests and all the details. But this meeting stays on track. Bev reads a selection from Continue reading ‘Prayer Meeting’
. . . and that is that you need to buy this book!
I mean, really. How festive is this?! It’s finally out and about and ready to order.
Ben wrote this biography of King Alfred last year (while he was also working on his Oxford dissertation, rowing for Christ Church, being a dad to five kids, and having chronic car trouble.) Impressive, yes? Of course, this also means that the book was written right dead spang in the middle of Alfred’s old stompin’ grounds, and that lends the book an especial aura of authenticity. Oxford is only about 30 minutes from Wantage – the birthplace of King Alfred . . . and the White Horse is right next door. It was definitely one of our favorite Saturday afternoon destination spots while we were there. Since you clearly don’t believe me, I’m going to proceed to post some photos to prove it.
Here are the kids – nestled right into the huge chalk carving and looking out over the Berkshire Downs. However, if you read Ben’s book, you’ll find out that they’re sitting precisely where Alfred fought a bloody battle with the Vikings and won his first victory.
About two miles off into the fields is an old castle mound known as “Alfred’s Castle.” This is most likely where Alfred camped with his men before the battle, while the Vikings had the higher ground at the White Horse (previous picture where the kids are sitting). We tromped out to see Alfred’s Castle one cold, drizzly day . . . and we took a picnic. We had to pick our way through a muddy forest, and climb over an awful tangly heap of branches to Continue reading ‘I have something to say’
A friend sent me this quotation today from C.S. Lewis’s Weight of Glory. I am going to pass the blessing on to you.
“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and Continue reading ‘Our Neighbour’s Glory’
Last year around this time I posted a beautiful picture of our autumn colors on the Palouse. This year we have been zapped with hard-hitting low temps before all the trees have had a chance to hit their zenith of color with all their crazy shades of leafy yellow, orange, and red. And it’s the weirdest thing: the leaves are a frozen eerie green-gray, and they are falling off in mass. We are about to enter winter without autumn. (Sounds like Narnia’s plight of always winter and never Christmas.) Even those things which seem to be fixed for all time (like the seasons) are under God’s sovereign command. He does as He pleases and He rules over all. And if it suits Him to skip autumn or spring, then that is exactly what happens. And when I think of it that way, I can smile at the cold.
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