Another HT to Challies, Dear Photograph is a really cool site, where participants “take a picture of a picture from the past in the present” and integrate it into the present. You’ll have to look at it to see what I mean.
Too funny:
Kids, don’t try this at home. Though I wish I could parallel park this way sometimes!
Here are a few posts that especially caught my attention this week:
A new normal. How does one ever get back to “normal” after something horrible has happened? “God shook the snow globe of my life, and some truths that were obscured by complacency have now taken a more prominent place in my thinking.”
The Great Awakening of the 21st Century, a renewed focus on grace. “I knew I was saved by grace, ‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.’ Eph 1:6 …but was I to be accepted in the body of Christ only when I did the right things? Were the only people approved by God the ones who kept The List too? And I noticed other people had different lists.”
Motherhood as a Mission Field. ” It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.”
A Faithful Man…Proverbs 20:6. This is a note on Facebook, but I think it is public so all can read. It’s a tribute to Justin Ridley, whom some of you knew or knew of, who died in an accident at a Christan camp a few years ago. My middle son happened to be at the camp that week, and many people were profoundly influenced by Justin’s life and death. Justin’s mom was the first person to reach out to us in our new church.
Ten Suggestions for Missionary Presentations. Unfortunately, the drive to compact speech into sound bytes affects even missionary presentations, but these are good tips to make them more concise and effective. On a side note, I’m so glad the churches I have been in have generally given a whole service to visiting missionaries rather than asking them to squeeze their life’s work into x number of minutes.
He would be what he wanted to be. Interesting that boys don’t generally dream of being daddies like girls dream of being mommies, but here is one sweet book about that dream.
When being silent can cost you in relation to blogging, HT to Laura Lee Groves. Balance is something most bloggers struggle with almost constantly, but it is true that the more time you invest in other people’s blogs, the more visitors and commenters you’ll have in return. Setting up a blog is not like moving into a new house where people know someone is there by the moving van in front of the house and the increased activity, lights on at night, etc. When you move into the blogosphere, no one knows you’re there unless you tell them or visit them first (or unless you write something unique that shows up on search engines). But of course we should visit and comment sincerely and not just to get return visitors.
Time In. I haven’t liked the idea of “time out” for a number of reasons, and this presents a good alternative.
Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA. HT to Challies. This is kind of funny: actor Richard Dreyfuss reads some of the technical “end user license agreement” and such like. It does make it easier to understand hearing it that way!
I’d be afraid of bits of balloon going down the dog’s throat (that was always among the dire warnings I heard with babies, not to let them mouth or chew on a balloon lest it pop and part of the balloon choke them.) But love his enthusiasm and joy.
Good morning! I don’t know how many people are here on Saturdays — the blogosphere seems pretty quiet on weekends, at least what I read of it. But that’s okay — I don’t always have as much time on the computer on weekends, which is probably true of most of us. And I don’t know how many people like to look through these links (that’s why I put them here on Saturday!) But I enjoy scanning through posts like this on other blogs, so, I share these in case anyone else might find them of interest as well.
By Grace Through Faith. Important truths to remember when sharing the gospel (geared towards sharing with children, but true for anyone).
Having An Open Door. This really convicted me, as I probably would have had a very similar reaction to unexpected dinner guests.
Letting Herself Go. Perhaps a bit of a controversial post from Challies, but he makes some good points.
Stickers From a Bunk Bed — the inability of the law to make our kids good (yet I think it does show them their need that they can’t be good in themselves.)
A Craft Suitcase — a neat idea for storing or transporting certain craft stuff.
Thought this was really cute even though it’s past Mother’s Day. I don’t think I’m this bad! But I do still need help on many things and am thankful for my techno-competent sons being willing to.
Kids, DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! Seriously! (Or adults either, for that matter!)
With Sunday being Mother’s Day, there has been a lot of good Mother’s Day reading this week:
For Moms, Former Moms, and Wannabe Moms. “Motherhood is not the greatest good for the Christian woman. Whether you are a mom or not, don’t get caught up in sentimentalism that sets it up as some saintly role. The greatest good is being conformed to the image of Christ.”
For the Mother who fears failure. “Relationships cost. It’s not that you aren’t going to blow it. It is what you do with it, when you do…Perhaps there was something more powerful to experience than a perfect Mother: the wonder of a committed Mother who simply humbles herself.”
Tutorial for Making Silhouettes. There is a very sweet example in the above link, and this shows the how-to. Neat gift idea!
Genesis 1:1-2:3 is not poetry and it is historical. HT to Challies. “When it comes to standard Hebrew poetic forms—especially parallelism, ‘non-standard’ vocabulary and ‘unusual’ verb patterning—these are also absent from the text (with the exception of 1:27). As my old Ancient Near East history lecturer once put it, anyone reading the text would fail a first-year Hebrew exam if they called Genesis 1 a type of Hebrew poetry.”
Beginning Free Motion Quilting. I’ve been intrigued by this since discovering blog friend Wendy, who is a master at it — such beautiful stuff! But this post by Vanilla Joy is her first attempt and it gave the courage to think about trying it some day….when I have some other projects finished!
San Fransisco Treat: “Artist Scott Weaver has constructed a new interactive tour of San Francisco hotspots — using 100,000 toothpicks collected over the past 35 years.”
It’s been a while since I posted a round-up of interesting reads on the web. Hope you find some of these useful.
Marriage:
Whose Wife Are You? Tim Challies discusses two different blog posts on what it means to be submissive to one’s own husband. Both original posts are linked there, but Tim does a nice job in pulling out the main elements and pointing out that there is much in marriage and home life which is not delineated in Scripture, so each may not follow exactly a particular book’s view of what the marriage relationship “should” look like.
What’s Wrong With Seniors Clinging to Their Memories? I’ve wrestled with how much to try to bring seniors focus back to the present, and this has some good thoughts. Of course, those who are saved have a glorious future to look forward to, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with walking down memory lane with someone who has more past than future on this earth. Might learn some things!
We have had none of the predicted snow yet at our house as of 11 p.m. Friday night, though some friends have reported some via Facebook. We’re supposed to get together with some of our oldest and dearest friends Saturday night — we’ll have to see what happens with the weather. But otherwise we’re all set for bad weather for a couple of days.
