Promises of the Covenant

It has been a hard parenting week. I'm sure my kids would tell you that it has also been a hard week to be a child. This post from Carolyn Mahaney at Girl Talk is balm to my soul today.

Be encouraged!

When they are too old to spank...

Sin reared its very ugly head in my kitchen this morning and two children, that shall remain unnamed, were THIS close to a fist fight.

Like a school playground monitor, I separated them and sent each to his or her respective room to calm down. Perhaps that was also to give time for ME to calm down...

I was thankful that each returned, repentent and seeking forgiveness from the other. The punitive effects?
Each had to search Proverbs and write 20 verses on the fool or the hot-tempered man.

Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them, and with their sons forever!
Deuteronomy 5:29

(photo credit to circlesandsquares at etsy.com, though I don't really recommend it as a t-shirt message...)

An Account of What is Past

In the March 28th issue of World magazine, Janie B. Cheaney has a great piece entitled Boastful Dunces: Post-literate college students reveal a 'resentful incapacity'. She brings attention to the challenge of Thomas Bertonneau, literature professor at SUNY-Oswego, to education modern college students through his Western Heritage course. His goal is to introduce the students to the importance of knowing the "foundations of their civilization."

"In spite of his repeated lecture points and cheat sheets, they confuse historical events...Their test-taking training in high school taught them to take note of dates but not to make sense of how they use them. Though saturated with movies and TV, they lack a basic notion of cause-and-effect and logical consequence basic to stories."

This is taken from the introduction in Streams of Civilizations by Mary Stanton and Albert Hyman, a history textbook published by Christian Liberty Press...

"Every student at some time has asked the question: 'Why is it important to study history? What difference can it make to me what a lot of people did thousands of years ago?'

History is important because it is the story of people, how they came into existence and what they did. People have always faced the same problems of food, shelter, social organization, political structure, and religious expression. By exploring the streams of civilization throughout time, we will have a better understanding of how the world came to be the way it is today. It will also help us to understand better the events that are happening today and the decisions being made that will change the future."

Through reading these great works in literature like Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, it is as though we are given windows framing respective chapters in history. Through these windows we can get a clearer picture of what we are looking at and of what we are ultimately a part of even today--HIS Story.

"To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose

under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace...

What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that evey man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is a gift of God.

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been; and God requires an account of what is past." Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Like a Flint

God's Help for God's Assignment

a devotion by Elisabeth Elliot

Sometimes a task we have begun takes on seemingly crushing size, and we wonder what ever gave us the notion that we could accomplish it. There is no way out, no way around it, and yet we cannot contemplate actually carrying it through. The rearing of children or the writing of a book are illustrations that come to mind. Let us recall that the task is a divinely appointed one, and divine aid is therefore to be expected. Expect it! Ask for it, wait for it, believe that God gives it. Offer to Him the job itself, along with your fears and misgivings about it. He will not fail or be discouraged. Let his courage encourage you. The day will come when the task will be finished. Trust Him for it.

"For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (Is 50:7 AV).

Q & A

Friends!

I listened to this while folding a mountain of laundry this morning!

Good, practical and Godly advice from Doug and Nancy Wilson and Tim Bayly.

Advice that, encouragingly, was familiar to me. Advice that parents need to hear, and be reminded of.

So go find a pile of clean clothes that need folding and take a listen. It takes about an hour.

(art credit: The Way Home, a print of an original painting found at Tummy Mountain)