Monthly Archives: December 2021

Laudable Linkage

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I’m behind in my blog reading this busy week, but here are some noteworthy reads I found:

No, We’re Not All God’s Children, HT to Knowable Word. “We ARE all God’s children in the obvious sense that God created every single one of us. We all exist because God made us. So in that sense, sure, everyone is a child of God. But Scripture also uses this notion of being a child of God in a different sense – a different spiritual and theological sense. That is, only those who are in a right relationship with God are seen to be children of God.” Bill Muehlenberg discusses the context of the main passage that is misunderstood.

Focusing on the Heart of the Matter. “Those who believe the Bible should not be surprised that our problems are primarily an inside job because Scripture says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23).  Jesus said, ‘Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them’ (Mark 7:15).  And yet all too often our focus is on circumstances or people.”

Spiritual Swashbuckling: Dealing with Demons, HT to Challies. “C. S. Lewis warned in his Screwtape Letters, ‘“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils: one is to disbelieve in there existence. The other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.’ The face of evil may look less like a tormented cat than you think; it may be the clean-cut cult leader or the esteemed seminary professor who is propagating godless arguments that fortify the strongholds of demonic influence in society and the church. This threat should not be ignored. It is as devastating to impressionable minds as demon possession is to a body.”

The Monday After, HT to Challies. “The Bible describes praise as a sacrifice, in a culture where sacrifice meant the slaughter of an animal. Sometimes giving our praise requires a death as well – a death to self-will, wrenched out of our very soul in surrender to the power of a love that gave itself to rescue us from hurtling headlong into the prideful abyss.”

7 Tips for Celebrating Christmas as a Family. “I’d like you to consider approaching this Christmas a little more like your family is going to see everything for the first time. They are probably familiar with it, and your neighbors probably are too, but I want you to consider that most of us, like it or not, are so used to the consumerist Santa-centric celebrations that a distinctly Christian celebration—a truly Christ-centered holiday season—could be a real shift from what they expect. And it would be greater in all the best ways!”

Project Gutenberg. On the 50th anniversary of the project, Dan Barlow tells how it came to be and muses: “I find it interesting e-books are characterized by many literature and publishing purists as something less than a real book when the format was founded by literature-loving people with no financial interest, rather a driving passion to make classic works available to all, no matter where they live and regardless of their ability to pay.”

And though I like to say “no” kindly, sometimes you need to insist:

Happy Saturday!

Literary Christmas 2021

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I enjoy reading Christmas books after Thanksgiving through the end of the year. Tarissa at In the Bookcase hosts a Literary Christmas challenge for that purpose. You can find the details here, but the basic idea is to read Christmas books and write posts about them.

I have several unread Christmas books in my Kindle app. Here are a few I’d like to get to:

A Quilt for Christmas by Sandra Dallas, set during the Civil War. I am listening to it currently.

A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson. This appealed to me because I grew up on the Texas coastline, so my early Christmases were more seaside than wintery. I had this on last year’s list and regretted not getting to it.

Expecting Christmas by multiple authors, a daily devotional. Free for the Kindle as of this writing.

The Ornament Keeper by Eva Marie Everson, contemporary fiction about a couple separated after 20 years of marriage (99 cents as of this writing).

The Yuletide Angel by Sandra Ardoin, an author new to me. A woman in the 1890s who helps people behind the scenes may be in need if help herself.

I have eight more, but we’ll see how I do with these first.

Do you like to read Christmas books in December? What’s in your stack?

Friday’s Fave Five

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It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

Here we are in the first week of December with Christmas preparations in full swing. We’ve made a significant dent in the Christmas shopping and wrapping, have the first draft of our Christmas letter waiting for revision, purchased Christmas cards and stamps. Yay! I’m enjoying Christmas music both on my phone plus on BBN Radio.

This week I have ample candidates for a favorites list. I’ll try to narrow it down to five.

1. Post-Thanksgiving blessings. I forgot to mention last time being thankful for my husband and daughter-in-law’s help Thanksgiving Day. My husband tidied up the bathroom while I cooked. My daughter-in-law made several dishes. It helps so much to “divide and conquer” on a busy day. My husband traditionally picks as much meat off the turkey carcass as he can and then cleans the roasting pan for me. This year, he did that and went ahead and loaded the dishwasher. We had used paper plates and plastic utensils, do the main dishes were serving bowls and platters. And he made his traditional turkey salad that we spread on rolls or crackers. Then, the day after Thanksgiving I found an unexpected note from my husband thanking me for all my hard work and “homey touches” for the day.

2. Christmas decorating. This year we chose our tree alone, because of either sickness or scheduling among the kids. But the family came over to decorate. I’ve always been thankful that we do this together as a family and it’s not just my “job.” It helps to “divide and conquer” again—we get it all done in a few hours. But it’s fun to do together, to comment on the ornaments or decorations, bring up memories, etc. Mittu made chili and cornbread for dinner, and we ended the evening with a few games.

3. A new figurine. I saw someone mention receiving a gift of a miniature typewriter with the words, “Have courage and be kind” on the “paper” in the typewriter. I thought that was so neat, I googled to see if I could find a similar inexpensive one—and I did. I have it sitting just under my computer screen as a reminder.

4. Hanging up wall decorations in the guest room. They had been sitting around for weeks due to our sickness or busyness. But Saturday Jim hung up several items for me. Th

5. Power restored. I mentioned a few weeks ago that the power company was replacing some lines in our neighborhood. We had gotten a notice that the power would be off for several hours on a certain day while they finished up. Somehow, we noticed the alternate date and planned for that.

So we were surprised when someone knocked on our door yesterday to say the power would be off from 9 to 3. And that was a day I happened to go back to sleep for a bit instead of getting my shower. So I made a quick breakfast before they turned the power off and and jumped in the shower just after. I did have enough hot water to finish. Then my husband started up the generator in the RV so I could blow dry and fix my hair, and we used the microwave there to make lunch. We spent the rest of the day in the house. He was able to make a hotspot with his phone for internet access, so he was able to continue working. My laptop was fully charged, so I started on our Christmas letter. The weather was comfortable, so it wasn’t a problem that the heat was off. We could have spent the day in the RV if needed, but I am glad we didn’t have to. I’m sure we also could have gone to our son and daughter-in-law’s house, but we didn’t want to disrupt their routine or ours if we could help it. Despite the surprise and lack of preparedness, it was actually better day for the power to be out than the one we had originally thought. And there’s nothing like the power being off for a while to appreciate it even more.

I hope you’ve had a good week as well.

Book Review: The Nature of a Lady

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In The Nature of a Lady by Roseanna M. White, Lady Elizabeth Sinclair prefers microscopes to ballrooms. She never feels she fits in with her peers. Her best friend is her maid, Mabena. Libby’s brother wants to marry her off to Lord Sheridan so she’s “taken care of.” Sheridan would at least tolerate her eccentricities. But is that she can expect out of life—toleration?

Libby decides to take Mabena on a summer holiday to the Isles of Scilly, where Mabena is from. While she’s away, Libby hopes Sheridan will see that they can’t possibly get married. She rents a cottage and discovers the previous occupant had also been named Elisabeth and had left suddenly with no explanation.

Then Libby begins receiving packages and notes that must be for the other Elizabeth. But one contains a cannonball, of all things.

Then a young man shows up at her doorstep demanding to know where his sister is. And this young man somehow knows Mabena.

Oliver Tremayne is a vicar and a gentleman, but most of the family’s wealth was spent on his brother’s illness. He’s exasperated with his sister, Beth. She was supposed to write him twice a week, but he hasn’t heard from her in two weeks. He’s afraid Beth’s absence is aggravating his grandmother’s dementia. He’d told Beth he’d stay away and giver her her freedom while on Holiday, but he has to make sure she is all right. Imagination his surprise, then, when someone other than his sister opens her door at his knock—someone he has met before, someone with Mabena.

Besides the mysteries of what happened to Beth and how everyone knows Mabena, other unexplained happenings include strange noises on one of the islands, a white figure, odd notations in an old book, pirate treasure, and past princes.

Meanwhile, Libby feels more at home in the isles than she has ever felt in her life. But can she ever convince her brother to let her stay?

One mystery to me: why the cover portrays Libby as dark-haired, when she’s repeatedly described as blonde and fair in the book.

I had never heard of the Isles of Scilly before listening to this book, and I enjoyed learning about them. The puzzles and mysteries in the book were intriguing, though I think I lost a couple of the threads before it was all over–probably a result of listening to the audiobook rather than reading the book, which made it harder to go back and trace some things. I liked the threads about being who God created you to be and the fact that science and faith aren’t enemies (though Libby seemed to accept evolution as fact, which I would disagree with).

I can’t say I enjoyed this story quite as much as Roseanna’s other books I’ve read, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. And I am looking forward to the next book in the series.