Laudable Linkage

I wasn’t sure whether to post my usual collection of interesting links while the 31 Days of Inspirational Biography was going on: in my experience, the more posts I publish in a week, the less they are read, especially if I post more than one a day. But if I save these all up until after October is over, I’ll have a massive list. 🙂 So I’ll go ahead and post them and hope that you’ll find something useful in them.

The Book of Books Is a Knowable Word.

Encouragement in the Word: Truth.

Bible Verses For When You Need Hope. I particularly liked the distinction “between hoping for something and hoping in Someone.”

Five Questions With a Former Muslim Who Converted to Christianity, an interview with Nabeel Qureshi, whose book I reviewed recently.

Lay Aside the Weight of Self-indulgence. Quote: “At the moment of indulging, it doesn’t feel like an enemy. It feels like a reward that makes us happy.” “…their beliefs finally changed. They went from believing one promise of happiness to believing another. That belief fueled their behavioral change and they went from self-indulgence to self-denial — but a denial for the sake of a better happiness.”

Lay Aside the Weight of Irritability. I forgot I had this in my files when I wrote about being easily irrtate-able – if I had remembered it, I probably would have just referred you to this. I need to refer to it often.

7 Conditions for Confrontation. I tend to avoid confrontation like the plague, but there is a time and place and even a Scriptural demand for it, and these are some principles to remember.

On Piles of Sand and Eating Babies on differences in cultures and judgmentalism, HT to Challies.

It’s Still a Bad Idea to Vent.

When Someone Reaches Out, Reach Back. Written particularly for those new to a church.

When Your Child’s Personality Annoys You. Quote: “Before you work to uproot them, consider whether behind that annoying trait is a strength waiting to be trained up. So often, the quality that manifests as a child’s greatest weakness holds the potential to be his greatest strength. ” Excellent post.

Boyhood, the Masculine Spirit, and the Formative Power of Work, HT to The Story Warren. Quote: We should be connecting the dots for young men between their lofty views of manhood and the small things they encounter everyday.”

Blogs Gone Cold and 7 Real-Life Reasons Why Women’s Blogs Go Cold. Some good and thoughtful reasons why women’s blogs seem less active.

Help for Aging Parents and Their Caregivers. I know these folks personally.

How to Make Driving Time Productive. Love this. Being in a car is one of my least favorite ways to pass time.

Save My Bleeding Quilt! How to Properly remove excess dye and a quilt and how to prewash fabrics to prevent the problem. Though I don’t quilt, I thought this would be useful for bleeding fabrics generally.

Happy Saturday!

Laudable Linkage

Here are some reads that piqued my interest this week: you might find some of them beneficial as well.

We Must Believe. A good explanation of what exactly it means to believe on Christ for salvation.

6 Reasons Women Should Study Theology.

Mentoring 101, HT to Challies.

Emotional Control.

What a Pastor Wants From the Music Ministry.

The Books Boomers Will Never Read.

Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress.

And this from a Facebook friend brought a smile:

The E

Hope you have a great day!

Laudable Linkage

It’s been a couple of weeks since I have been able to share some interesting reads with you. Here are some standouts from my recent web reading:

The Memorial Service of Tom Craig, Our Pastor. Brad is a member of our church who has been chronicling the journey of our pastor and church every week since our pastor’s cancer diagnosis, and here he describes the events on the day of his memorial service as well as the service itself. Our church originally had a fundraiser that had been scheduled that morning weeks before, and there was much discussion about whether to postpone it since the funeral was scheduled for the same day. Thankfully they decided to go ahead with it, but that’s what the description of the run and bike rides are about. A recording of the memorial service is here.

Losing the Language. Apt analogy about getting away from church and the things of the Lord.

10 Ways to Exercise Christlike Headship, HT to Challies.

What People Who Are New to Your Church Want to Know.

To the Girls in the Pew Ahead of Me.

That Day I Wore Yoga Pants: 5 Myths About Modesty. Most posts/articles/books about modesty tend to lean either toward the woman’s responsibility to watch how she dresses so as not to cause others to stumble or the man’s responsibility to guard his eyes and heart. I thought this one was nicely balanced.

A list of things you may not have known about paralysis from a fellow TMer.

5 Things You Must Do To Protect Yourself Online.

10 Things I’ve Learned After 30+ Years and 70+ Books.

Dear Pinterest, We Need to Have a Talk About Bookshelves. Loved this fun, incredulous look at how people decorate their bookshelves with something other than the best thing: books.

I Quit Liking Things on Facebook For Two Weeks, HT to Kim, shows how what we click that we “like” affects what we see there. I’m not going to quit using the like button, but I am conscious that whatever I “like” feeds into algorithms to give me more of the same.

My friend Lou Ann sent out a survey to readers about decluttering and has posted a series about the results. My favorites are Finding Balance in Decluttering (it’s so easy to get off-balance even in good things) and Disadvantages of Decluttering (did you know there were some? There are! Or at least can be), probably because I rarely see anyone discussing those aspects. Other posts in the series are Advantages of Decluttering and Systems for Decluttering.

I think I have shared this before, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of the pilot who was originally scheduled to fly one of the planes that was highjacked on 9/11:

Laudable Linkage

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to share links to posts I found interesting, so this will be a bit longer than usual, but I hope you find something here of interest:

Wonderful Hope by Bobbi’s dad, who is facing a terminal diagnosis at the same time his wife is undergoing cancer treatments.

Advice On Seeking Answers to Spiritual Issues.

Becoming Christ-Like: The Goal of the Christian’s Life? There is a subtle but important point here that resonated with me.

God Does Not View Your Labors as Filthy Rags. We have this tendency to take one verse and run away with it.

Are Christian Missionaries Narcissistic Idiots? No. Here’s why.

The Risk of Practical Love.

The girltalk blog has had a series on training your children in dealing with their emotions. 7 Reminders When Talking to Your Teen About Emotions and Helping Children Handle Their Emotions were two that stood out to me.

Give Me Gratitude or Give Me Debt.

12 Strategies for Singles and Hospitality. The tips are good whether you’re single or married.

Why Courtship Is Fundamentally Flawed. Courtship vs. dating is a hot button debate and I am a bit hesitant to just post the link without discussing it further. I may come back and do so at some point. I may not agree with every little thing but overall he made some excellent points. I did read the book in question before my kids got to that age and pulled some principles from it but did not follow it exactly. We did feel dating – at a certain age and under certain guidelines – was a good way to get to know someone before taking the relationship further but we did want to avoid continued serious relationships and breakups one after another: we didn’t feel the latter was good emotionally nor good training for marriage.

Why Prison Isn’t Restful. We need to be careful about throwaway quips on topics we really know nothing about.

For the Quiet Child (And For Their Parents)…You Can Stop Apologizing For Who You Are.

Ten Things Your Husband Hates.

5 Myths You Might Still Believe About the Puritans.

On Writing Negative Reviews. Good reasons to do so when necessary.

Have a good weekend!

 

Laudable Linkage

Here are some noteworthy reads discovered this week:

Testing Your Faith in Divine Intervention. On blaming God instead of people when tragedies happen and on why God does not always intervene, among other things.

The Kind of Complaint That’s Pleasing to God. HT to Challies. “If the Father appeared and spoke with us face to face, his words would have no more weight in our hearts than the ones he has already spoken. If we find his words in Scripture to fall short, we would also find his personal visitation unsatisfactory.”

The Myth of God’s Silence.

How to (and How Not to) Minister to Families Battling Cancer.

22 Facts About Sleeping That Will Surprise You.

This had me smiling:

Happy Saturday!

Laudable Linkage

Here are some links I found interesting in the last couple of weeks:

This quote is resonating with me from an article about preaching, though I am not a preacher: “That little voice inside your head saying ‘That’s just not who I am’ is not your friend. Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit overcomes ‘who I am’ and shapes me into who He wants me to be.” The article is 5 Reasons Why Some Preachers Get Better and Others Don’t, HT to Challies.

15 Beautiful Benefits of the Word of God.

Five Specific Prayers for the Unsaved People in Your Life.

3 reasons you should not try to bind Satan.

Letting Parenting Struggles Make You Strong.

Ten Things My Parents Did Right.

Home Decor and Trendiness: Who Makes the Rules You Live By? Yes! I kept thinking that all through this post.

I am Ryland – The Story of a Male-Identifying Little Girl Who Didn’t Transition. In light of a recent case where parents started treating their daughter like a boy when she liked boy things, this blogger tells of growing up as what we used to call a tomboy or “late bloomer” who nevertheless did not identify herself as transgender. With the current climate, we’re going to run into these kinds of situations, and she makes some good points.

I’m not linking to 6 Reflections on Sleepovers so much for anything to do with sleepovers: it’s a response to a post on why this family doesn’t allow sleepovers, but I’m linking to it because the principles he discusses when Christians have different views cover many things. It is good to keep these things in mind when disagreeing on secondary issues.

Paralyzed? Or Medically Fragile?

Facts about the Hobby Lobby ruling that even some Christian seem to be missing.

Skip to the Loo, My Darling, HT to Lou Ann. An interesting look at bathroom facilities in other countries by missionary women. This reinforces the thought I’ve had that this aspect would be one of the things I’d have a hard time with if I ever traveled out of the country!

And lastly, I forget where I saw this, but it had me chuckling out loud. As my sister-in-law said when she saw it, “Baby: 1; Dad: 0.” (As an aside, for safety concerns it is probably not wise for an adult to climb into a baby’s crib.)

Happy Saturday!

 

Laudable Linkage

Here is my semi-weekly round-up of interesting reads – I hope you’ll find one or two of interest:

A Return to the Book. “The further I move from the written Word of God, the less confidence I can have that I’ve heard a word from God. ”

The Danger of Coasting. When we’re not living intentionally, we usually end up somewhere we didn’t mean to go.

Flip or Flop. People can say and do horrible things – like in an earlier post by this author where people commented, “Your poor husband – 6 kids and wife in a wheelchair” or tell her that her children will grow up to resent her disability. But in this post she discusses the good things people have said and done and the choice we can make in which to focus on.

5 Ways Moms Create Cranky Toddlers. Written by a mom and shared by a young mom friend.

Seven Ways to Love Your Pastor.

Why I Read Heartwrenching Stories. I haven’t read the book discussed here but I like what she said about why she reads books that deal with topics that are hard to read about.

Louis Zamperini, the subject of the book Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand (one of the best I’ve ever read) passed away this week at the age of 97. An Olympic athlete, WWII soldier, and POW, his greatest victory came through faith in Christ. Here are a couple of short news videos about his life and death, neither of which mentions his faith: let’s hope the upcoming film based on the book does:

Laudable Linkage

Here are some noteworthy reads recently discovered:

Nobody Understands What I’m Going Through.

How to Truly Encourage the Spiritual Life of Your Husband.

Slow-to-Anger Parenting, HT to Challies.

Thunder and Bugs: Helping Children Deal With Fear.

What To Do When Compliments Scare You.

I’ve seen this video in a couple of places this morning. We think of erosion as a destructive force, and it can be: we have to take measures against its damaging foundations and crops, etc. But God can also use it to create beauty.

Have a great weekend!

Laudable Linkage

Here is a collection of some thought-provoking posts discovered in the last couple of weeks:

You Are What – And How – You Read from Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. About more than reading.

When Sin Looks Delicious.

The Inner Life — Four Reasons to Have a Quiet Time.

The ladies of Out of the Ordinary have been blogging about middle age this month, a topic you don’t often see on blogs. My two favorite posts so far have been Things to Guard Against in the Middle Years and The Middle Years: There’s Good News, Too!

On Daughters and Dating: How to Intimidate Suitors. Loved this: “Instead of intimidating all your daughter’s potential suitors, raise a daughter who intimidates them just fine on her own. Because, you know what’s intimidating? Strength and dignity. Deep faith. Self-assuredness. Wisdom. Kindness. Humility. Industriousness.”

What do those with disabilities owe those without?

An Outburst Is An Opportunity.

When It’s Time to Leave a Church.

Five Helps for Memorizing Bible Verses.

Three Reasons to Diversify Your Reading. Why Christians should read non-Christian books.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Laudable Linkage

Wow, I can’t believe it has been about a month since I’ve shared interesting links with you! Here’s some thought-provoking reading:

From my son’s blog: 4 things that have kept me sane in the NICU and Dealing with Disappointment in the NICU.

The Story. The importance of reading the Scriptures as a whole rather than isolated parts.

The Church Is a Body, Not a Body Part.

On parenting:

I’m Not Enough For My Kids.

Godly Feelings Flourish Behind Walls of Self-Control. The girltalk blog has been discussing teaching children self-control, and I especially appreciated this post about teaching a very emotional toddler to rein herself in.

Teaching Toddlers Emotional Self Control: A Few Practical Thoughts, another in the above series.

The Morning When My Mother Got Up Anyway.

I Want My Kids to Serve.

My Child….My Friend?

His Time, His Plan, His Way, a story of a premature birth.

Hospitality For Introverts.

What a child with food allergies would want you to know.

Why I Am Sick of Women’s Conferences. Though the title is maybe a little harsh, this is a good post about the wrong message being emphasized at some conferences.

Dear Inaccessible Church.

Do You Know Your Missionaries? Eight Ideas to get to know them better.

Could Quitting Facebook Be A Mistake? HT to Bobbi.

Web Sites For Writers.

This just made me smile – a friend saw at a shop in Williamsburg Jane Austen Action Figures.

jane-austen-action-figure

Happy Saturday!