End-of-June Reflections

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End of June ReflectionsJune has been another challenging month for our country. I continue to pray that God will use all that’s happening to draw people to Himself.

Personally, we’re doing much the same as we have been the last couple of months. COVID-19 cases in our area have been rising steadily, so we’re still sheltering in place. We did have one excursion to a state park. Not many people were there, and they stayed pretty much with their own groups.

My husband has been doing the grocery shopping since all this with the virus started, but I took a couple of turns doing it this month for various reasons. I had my first experience wearing a mask, and found it hot and stuffy. I was self-conscious about trying to speak with it on, but overall people seemed to understand each other. I kept forgetting about the 6-foot distancing—odd, because I’ve been extremely conscious of it elsewhere. I got too close to a guy and his mom a couple of times, and he was really jumpy. But he didn’t have a mask on.

We’re still finding what we need, if not the brands or sizes we want.

I also had a doctor’s appointment. I appreciated the doctor’s office taking extra precautions to try to keep anyone with anything that might be contagious separate.

Creating

I made three cards for Father’s Day. The first was for my step-father, who is a fan of a certain sci-fi show’s original series. 🙂

I adapted the idea from something I saw at Pinterest.

This one was done on the Cricut for my husband, Jim.

The challenge with this kind of design is gluing all the little pieces down without glue showing somewhere.

This was for my son, Jason, also done on the Cricut:

I loved this design because Timothy loves to explore. This looks just like him saying, “Look at that!” or “Let’s go over there!”

I also learned a new skill with Jason’s card. The figure and the words were from two different designs. I wanted to cut them out of the lighter shade and then lay that over the darker shade. But the Cricut automatically defaults to cutting a design out of the far left corner in order to save paper. After searching around, I discovered how to do what it calls attaching, so it would cut out the designs right where I placed them.

Watching

Summer TV is kind of a wasteland, with nothing much on besides a lot of celebrity game shows. I don’t even know who many of the celebrities are any more. We watch America’s Funniest Home Videos every week—even if they are reruns, we’ve forgotten enough of them that they are still funny to us. We also enjoy for the most part America’s Got Talent, though occasionally they’ll have an act we have to mute or fast forward through.

While riding my exercise bike, I watched a movie called Wish You Well via Amazon Prime about a family who goes to live with a great-grandmother the children never knew in the 1940s. The father just died in an accident and the mother is in a catatonic state. The daughter is navigating getting used to a new situation, grieving her father, blaming her mother, and getting to know a great-grandmother. The daughter’s father was a writer, and she likes to write as well. I think it had a “damn” or two in it, but otherwise it was a sweet, clean story.

Another I watched while stationary bike-riding was Under the Greenwood Tree. It’s based on a book by Thomas Hardy. I’ve never read Hardy, but evidently this is one of his few novels that isn’t tragic. A new schoolteacher comes to a village and is wooed by the the richest farmer in the area, a serious-minded vicar, and a poor but handsome young man. There are class and education differences, so the teacher has to decide whether to make “a good match” or follow her heart. There’s a subplot with what’s called a choir (but different from what we think of as a choir today) which the vicar wants to replace with a harmonium. According to Wikipedia, Hardy originally wanted to focus on the motley choir (or quire), but then decided to play up the romance instead. This was enjoyable and clean as well. It was also on Amazon prime.

My husband and I watched The Aeronauts on Amazon Prime. I had thought it was about the first people in a gas balloon, but it wasn’t: it was about the first people to break the height record for such a balloon and the man who thought they could be used for weather prediction. It’s based on true events, but some parts were too fantastical to be real. But it was an enjoyable, clean film.

We also finally watched last year’s movie version of Little Women., rented from iTunes. They changed a few things up from the book, but overall it was well-done. The cinematography was gorgeous. They went back and forth in the timeline instead of following a linear pattern like the books does. If I hadn’t been so familiar with the story, I would have found that confusing. But overall I enjoyed it very much.

Reading

Since last time, I finished (titles link back to my reviews):

I’m currently reading:

Blogging

Some of my posts this month, besides the weekly Friday’s Fave Fives and occasional Laudable Linkages:

Writing

I had a guest post accepted this month for Almost an Author titled Publishing Dreams Can Come True. I share a bit about the immense obstacles one author overcame to write what’s now considered a beloved classic. I want to encourage authors (and others!) to pursue their dreams and overcome their own obstacles with God’s help.

I also had a devotion accepted for Christian Devotions, but that won’t be published until September. I’d like to write for them more, because they allow for a smaller word count and require that you use just one verse. When I write on a topic, I tend to feel I need to study all the verses to make sure I’m balanced and accurate, and then I feel I need to somehow include all of that study into one blog post. That can make for a lengthy and maybe overly full post. The requirements of this site will help me simplify, hone in on one main thought, and cut out wordiness.

I was grateful and encouraged that these two sites accepted my submissions. I also did get some editing and revising done on my book. Yay!

I just realized I didn’t have any Timothyisms this month! I’ll have to do better at writing them down for next time.

The Bible says we never know what a day may bring forth, but that seems to be even more the case this year. Whatever is ahead, God knows and will give us grace to deal with it. We can go forth in confident expectation.

(Sharing with InstaEncouragement, Worth Beyond Rubies, Grace and Truth,
Faith on Fire, Global Blogging, Hearth and Soul, Senior Salon)

Psalm 91 and COVID-19

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Does Psalm 91 protect from COVID-19?When COVID-19 first broke out, a lot of Christians posted verses from Psalm 91 on their social media accounts. Several verses sound like God will protect people who believe in Him from pestilence:

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you (Psalm 91:3-7).

A friend said in an email recently that some psalms seemed to provide blanket protection, yet she didn’t think that’s what was meant. Therefore, she was having trouble knowing quite how to apply them.

Psalm 91 is one of those passages for me, so as I responded to my friend, I looked up commentary on it. One interpretation said we may have to face these trials, but we don’t have to fear them. That conclusion was based on verse 5: “You will not fear the terror of the night, . . . ” the arrow, the pestilence, etc. Another spiritualized it: we may have to face physical trials but we’re safe spiritually. The ESV Study Bible notes said on these verses:

Pestilence (Psalm 91:3, 6) and destruction are diseases that God sends on his enemies or his unfaithful people (cf. Ex. 5:3; 9:15; Lev. 26:25; Deut. 32:42, “plagues”). The terror and arrow, together with a thousand may fall, envision God’s people under attack. If the psalm were describing every situation of danger, it would clearly be untrue: faithful people have fallen prey to these and other perils. It is better to allow Psalm 91:8 to guide the interpretation [“You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.“], pointing to cases in which these events (plague, battle) are sent as God’s recompense on the wicked (whether Gentile or Israelite); in such cases, the faithful can be sure of God’s protection (ESV Study Bible, p. 1054).

As much of a stickler as I am for context, somehow I had missed the importance of verse 8. And though I’ve read these comments before, I didn’t remember them.

So this psalm isn’t blanket protection: it’s not saying that God’s people will never suffer from disease or attack. But if God is sending disease or an invading army as a punishment or judgment, those who “dwell in the shelter of the Most High,” who “abide in the shadow of the Almighty,” and who trust in the Lord as their “refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:1-2) will be safe.

However, not all plagues and diseases are sent as judgment on God’s enemies. Sometimes He allows His own to get deadly viruses, to suffer attacks. Hebrews 1 speaks of some who “were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:35-38). They were commended for their faith (verse 39) just as much as those who “conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (33-34).

A missionary in Colombia takes issue with the phrase, “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.” He has amended that statement to say, “The most fulfilling, joyful, and peaceful place to be is in the center of God’s will. But it is not necessarily the safest.” After citing Scriptural examples, he says, “Most prayers in Scripture focus not on the personal safety and benefit of believers but on the power, majesty, testimony, and victory of God over his-and, of course, our-enemies.” He asks supporters to pray for their faithfulness.

If you’re like me, it’s unsettling to know that anything could happen to us. Does that mean we can’t trust in God’s protection?

We can. We can pray for it. We know that nothing that happens to us comes as a surprise to Him. We know He loves us and He is good: in Him is “no darkness at all.”

In Daniel 3, everyone was called to bow down to the king’s idol. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused, even in the face of the fiery furnace and the king’s threats. They stood firm, saying, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). They were thrown into the furnace, and God manifested His presence to them, and to the king, in a marvelous way.

As Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

If God allows disease or trauma to come into our lives, He promises His presence:

I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him (Psalm 91:15).

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20b).

He promises His strength and help:

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. . .For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you. (Isaiah 41:10, 13).

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

He promises His love:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:35, 37).

He promises His peace:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27).

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

He promises His purpose:

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-4).

 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).

We can rest in the hollow of His hand, knowing that nothing reaches us there but what He allows. He provides His grace to deal with anything that comes our way.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him (Nahum 1:7).

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:8).

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Global Blogging, Hearth and Soul,
Senior Salon, Purposeful Faith, InstaEncouragement,
Recharge Wednesday, Worth Beyond Rubies,
Share a Link Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee,
Grace and Truth, Faith on Fire, Blogger Voices Network)

 

Friday’s Fave Five

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Here we are at the last Friday of June. I enjoy this pause on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to recount some of the blessings of the week.

I’m running a little late today due to an appointment this morning.

1. Father’s Day. We had a nice time with the family, eating ribs and cheesy potatoes and apple pie.

2. Father’s Day breakfast. Jason and Mittu brought over quiche, hash browns, and sausage for Father’s Day breakfast, and then stayed for our church via Zoom and dinner and presents afterward.

3.Sewing buttons on is not a favorite activity, which is probably why I had a stack of items needing that attention. I determined I was going to take care of them this week. Once I got set up, it didn’t take very long.

4. Lactose-free ice cream. I don’t have ice cream much through the year, but it often hits the spot in the summer. Once I became lactose intolerant, I didn’t have ice cream for a number of years. I’m thankful there are lactose-free versions now.

5. Naps. I think I’ve had one every day this week.

How has your week been?

Book Review: Eight Cousins

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Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott was published in 1875.

Rose Campbell is 13 and newly-orphaned. Her mother had died when Rose was young, but her father just recently passed. She’s sent to live with several aunts (their house is known as the “Aunt Hill”) until her appointed guardian, her father’s single brother, comes home from sea.

Rose had never met her father’s family. The aunts embody the truism of too many cooks spoiling the stew, with their different and sometimes opposite views on how she should be raised. One, something of a hypochondriac herself, has Rose almost convinced she has “no constitution.”

When Dr. Alec finally arrives, he puts his foot down with the aunts that Rose is to be raised his way for a year without their interference. Then they can evaluate how she’s doing and whether they need to make a change. The aunts can’t help but share their opinions occasionally, but they abide by Alec’s wish.

Alec starts slow with Rose, changing her diet and activities to healthier ones, not by decree but by persuasion. Rose regards her newfound uncle kindly because he is so like her father and seems to care greatly for her, so she acquiesces for the most part. She struggles to give up her little vanities, like wearing her belt so tight she can’t take a full breath so her waist looks smaller.

Much of the book involves Rose’s interactions with her seven boy cousins. She didn’t think she would like boys: she had never been around any. But she soon grows to love them. They all inadvertently teach each other lessons.

Alcott gets in a lot of opinions about what’s good and bad for young people. Some of the fashion sense Alec prescribes, we would consider common sense today (like doing away with corsets and having clothes loose enough to move comfortably in). Some of the vices her characters try to steer each other away from might sound funny to modern ears (like slang. Or maybe it’s that slang in that day is acceptable now.)

Wikipedia says Rose’s instruction and training for the wealth she will one day come into was “revolutionary” for the times, because women didn’t have much control over their own “money, property, or destinies” then.

Alcott uses the adjectives “good, old-fashioned” often, and this is a good, old-fashioned tale. Through “frolics” and “scrapes,” gentle admonition and learning by experience, the young people grow and develop good character.

A  couple of quotes I especially liked:

When Uncle Alec tells Rose he wants her to take up something special, housekeeping, she says, “Is that an accomplishment?” He replies: “Yes; it is one of the most beautiful as well as useful of all the arts a woman can learn. Not so romantic, perhaps, as singing, painting, writing, or teaching, even; but one that makes many happy and comfortable, and home the sweetest place in the world. Yes, you may open your big eyes; but it is a fact that I had rather see you a good housekeeper than the greatest belle in the city. It need not interfere with any talent you may possess, but it is a necessary part of your training, and I hope that you will set about it at once, now that you are well and strong.”

When one of the cousins takes Rose on her first pony ride, he chooses a gentle one named Barkis. Then the book says Barkis was “willin’,” an allusion to David Copperfield in which a man named Barkis lets Peggotty, David’s nurse,  know that he’s interested in marrying her by sending the message, “Barkis is willin.'” Hearing that phrase made me smile.

I listened to the audiobook at Libravox, a site for free audiobooks. The last time I used them, there was some disruption in the loading of individual chapters. That process went smoothly this time, but they’ve added some annoying ads every few chapters. The narrators at Libravox just read the books: they don’t put inflection in them like those at Audible. But sometimes a book is short enough that I don’t want to use a full Audible credit on it, and I am thankful for the option of Libravox. They also have some books that Audible doesn’t have.

Rose in Bloom is the sequel to this book, and that’s next on my reading list for Tarissa’s Louisa May Alcott Reading Challenge this month. I had read both books years ago and enjoyed revisiting them.

(Sharing with Carole’s Books You Loved, Booknificent Thursday)

Philippians 4:13 is for losers, too

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Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens meTwo rival Christian school basketball teams get revved up for their annual match.

All day long they hear Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (KJV).

Someone quotes it at the pep rally. Both coaches share it in the locker room. Some players repeat it to themselves. Some write the reference on their person.

Both teams hit the court trusting God to help them win the game.

But one will have to lose.

Did Philippians 4:13 fail the losers somehow? Did they not have enough faith? Did God not hear their prayers?

Have you ever read Philippians 4:13 in context? Switching to the ESV now, here’s the rest of what Paul said:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Notice, Paul wasn’t just trusting God for grace in abundance and plenty. He also relied on God’s strength when brought low, in need, in hunger.

Hunger? Wait—doesn’t God know we need to eat? He made us to need food. Why would He let people hunger for a time?

Well, in one case He said:

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3).

So He might let us suffer need or fail in an endeavor to humble us. Sometimes not getting what we want or need causes us to do some soul-searching. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Perhaps a victory would have done us more harm than good.

He might be bringing sin to our attention. Israel faced a stunning defeat at Ai, which they should have won easily, because there was “sin in the camp.”

He might be working to make us more dependent on Himself. Sadly, when things are going well, we tend to forget we need him. We lean on our own strength instead of His.

He might be trying to help us remember that everything we have comes from Him. In order to strengthen our faith, sometimes God has to put us in situations requiring faith.

He might be teaching us to lose graciously. To honor others. Not to envy someone else’s success—especially when we think we deserved that success.

He might be spurring us to work harder or better. Our salvation depends on God’s work in us and not our own efforts. And He miraculously delivers us out of some situations. But in others, He wants us to trust Him and put forth effort. Someone said, “God feeds the birds, but He doesn’t throw food in their nests.” We can’t ace the test without studying. We can’t lose weight without exercising and making wise food choices. We can’t grow in grace without spending time in God’s Word and obeying what it says. Paul said, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29).

He might be drawing us closer in our personal relationship with Himself, reminding us that that’s more important than whatever it is we’re hoping for.

He might be reminding us that His Word is not a talisman or good luck charm.

There are a number of reasons why God might say no to our prayer or expectation.

I’m thankful Paul that he learned contentment in any situation. That tells me that contentment doesn’t come naturally, that it can be learned, and that it is a process.

Yes, it’s good to rely on God for strength, to remember that without Him we can do nothing. When a situation doesn’t come out like we hoped, when we have legitimate unmet needs, we can go to our good Father in faith, ask Him what He wants to teach us through the situation, and rest in Him to provide in His good time.

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Global Blogging, Senior Salon, Hearth and Home,
Purposeful Faith, Tell His Story, InstaEncouragement,
Recharge Wednesday, Worth Beyond Rubies,
Share a Link Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee, Legacy Link-Up,
Grace and Truth, Faith on Fire, Blogger Voices Network)

Laudable Linkage

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A collection of good reading onlineHere are some of the great reads I discovered this week:

How to Disagree Better about COVID-19, Conspiracy Theories, and Pretty Much Everything Else in Life.

The Cure for a Lack of Fruit in Our Christian Lives, HT to Challies.

5 Ways Christians are Getting Swept into a Secular Worldview in This Cultural Moment. HT to Proclaim and Defend.

The American Soviet Mentality, HT to Challies. I hadn’t made the connection between today’s cancel culture and what they used to do in the Soviet Union, but now that I’ve read this, the similarities are striking and scary.

How to Bear Up Under Your Burdens.

Getting Practical: How to Host a Middle Eastern Friend, HT to Challies. These are useful tips if you have the opportunity to host someone from the Middle East.

11 Transcendent Moments of Movie Music. “Wordless music in a film often speaks more to us than all the words of the script. Why? I think it’s because music in general is a language with mysterious communicative potential.” I enjoyed this a lot. I haven’t seen all the movies listed here, but would like to check out some of them now. And with that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite pieces:

Friday’s Fave Five

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It’s so hard to believe we’re almost 2/3 of the way through June already. Whether the days contain good or bad, they fly by. I enjoy this pause on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to recount some of the blessings of the week.

1. A haircut. My daughter-in-law graciously agreed to cut my hair for me last weekend at her house. I know it was nerve-wracking for her, and I appreciate that she did it anyway. 🙂 She did a good job. My hair just does not cooperate when it gets a certain length, so it’s nice to get it to a place where it responds better.

2. Lunch with Mittu and Timothy. While Mittu cut my hair, my husband was outside with Timothy doing a bit of yard work. Then Mittu made us a lunch of egg salad sandwiches and chips. Jason, unfortunately, had to work, and Jesse had stayed home. While Granddad worked outside some more, bleaching the mildew off the sidewalk and patio, Timothy and Mittu showed me some funny You Tube videos they had enjoyed.

3. A belated Mother’s Day gift. My son and daughter-in-law pre-ordered Nathan W. Pyle‘s Stranger Planet for me for Mother’s Day, but it was just released a few days ago. They brought it over as soon as they received it. You can see some of his work here. The book was so good! I love his beings’ observations about life. The only downside: I finished it in one evening.

4. Old pictures. Our church is putting together a Father’s Day collage slide show for this Sunday, and anyone who wanted to participate could send in photos of themselves with their dads. I had a couple I could use, but started looking through old photos to see if I could find any better ones. It’s always fun to look through them. I’m ashamed to say I have at least three shoe boxes of photos from before the digital age that have never been put into albums yet. I was able to organize them a bit, which will help whenever I finally do get to them. I need to redo all my photos that have been in the sticky photo albums (which they say is not good for them, and some of the pages have browned and lost their stickiness). So that’s going to be a big job someday, but one I look forward to.

5. A special moment. Last Saturday morning, I started reading Jen Wikin’s None Like Him on the attributes of God. Wow. So good. All morning afterward, the song “None Like You” came to mind. When I got into the car to go for my haircut, I plugged my phone in and set my playlist to shuffle. The first song that came up was “None Like You.” That just made me feel so seen and loved and cared for. It reminded me of this meme:

I discovered a couple of songs with similar names concerning there being none like God. This is the one I am familiar with:

Book Review: The Mother-Daughter Book Club

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In The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick, sixth-graders Emma and Jess are best friends in Concord Massachusetts.

Emma loves reading and writing. Her parents are big Jane Austen fans who named their kids after her characters. Her father is a writer, her mother, a librarian.

Jess lives on a farm with her father and brothers. Jess’s mom is an actress currently working in NYC.

Emma and Jess are definitely not among the popular girls, who tease Emma about wearing hand-me-downs and call Jess “Goat Girl.”

One of the “mean girls,” Megan, was Emma’s friend years ago. But now their paths have diverged. Megan loves style and design, but her mother has dreams of math and science camp and MIT and Harvard for her.

Cassidy is a new student who loves sports, especially hockey. She’s tomboyish and doesn’t care at all about her appearance. Her mother was a super–model.

The moms cook up an idea that they’ll form a mother-daughter book club, and their first book will be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

None of the daughters wants to participate. Some of them clash with each other, some clash with their moms. But perhaps they can learn a thing or two from Louisa.

I don’t read many books for this age range, but a friend recommended this to me. I loved the tie-in with Louisa and Litttle Women. The girls even visit Orchard House in Concord, where Louisa lived and wrote Little Women. I also enjoyed how the girls learned and grew over the course of the book. Even the moms learned that they can’t make their daughters fit into their own “castles in the air” dreams.

The chapters all begin with a quote from Little Women and vary between the different girls’ points of view. At the end is a discussion guide, recipes, charts for planning goals, and information about starting a book club.

The only thing I didn’t like was the treatment of Mrs. Chadwick, the head “mean girl’s” mom and villain of the piece. Mrs. Chadwick seems fair game for names and derogatory comments about her anatomy from the parents as well as the girls. In one scene near the end, the girls and their moms turn the tables on Mrs. Chadwick and her daughter with some mean girls’ (and women’s) tricks of their own. I suppose, in a literary sense, this was their comeuppance. But I wish the moms had been better examples in this.

But other than that, this was an enjoyable book in many ways. It’s the first in a series of seven, each one built around a classic book. I like the idea and the characters, so I may try some of the other stories.

(Sharing with Carole’s Books You Loved, Booknificent Thursday)

Book Review: Wynema: A Child of the Forest

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S. Alice Callahan is regarded as the first novelist of American Indian descent with her book, Wynema: A Child of the Forest. The book was published in 1891 when Callahan was 23; sadly, she died just three years later.

Her only foreword reads as follows:

TO THE INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA

Who have felt the wrongs and oppression of their pale-faced brothers, I lovingly dedicate this work, praying that it may serve to open the eyes and heart of the world to our afflictions, and thus speedily issue into existence an era of good feeling and just dealing toward us and our more oppressed brothers.

THE AUTHOR.

 The story begins with Wynema as a child amidst the peaceful habitations of her tribe. A Methodist missionary opened a school, but most of the Indians did not see the point of it. Wynema, however, was enraptured by the idea of learning. “His was the touch that brought into life the slumbering ambition for knowledge and for a higher life, in the breast of the little Indian girl.” She begged her father for a school in their own village, and he agreed. So the missionary, Gerald Keithly, sent for a woman to come and teach. The call was answered by Genevieve Weir, who believed, “God made the Indians as he made the Caucasian—from the same mold. He loves the work of His hands.”

As Genevieve tries to teach the Native children reading, English, and Christianity, she also learns their ways. When she laments some of the “barbaric” customs, Gerald wisely counsels her that white customs would seem just as barbaric to the Indians if they observed a white doctor or ballroom dance, etc., and that in many ways, they were more civilized than their white compatriots. Wynema and Genevieve become close friends.

But behind these peaceful and informative interactions, the Indians were being cheated out of money and land by the white government. Callahan shares the escalation of events leading up to the battle of Wounded Knee as well as the aftermath.

She has her main characters recognize the distinction between the kind white people who wanted to help and the others who wanted to oppress rather than lumping them all into on category.

I perused a few articles on Callahan and this book. Responses are mixed. Some felt that making Genevieve the main character, or at least equal in importance to Wynema, diminished the Native American influence. But since it was written partly to white people to show that the Native Americans weren’t “savages” and to chronicle the wrongs done to them, it seems natural to show this through a white woman’s eyes being opened as she comes to know and love them.

Another article (which I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find again and have not been able to [Update: it was not an article but the introduction to the book in the Amazon edition]) said that the book rejects the Christianization of the Native American as well as the colonization. But it seemed to me that Callahan presented both. Callahan includes a letter by Hadjo saying that “The Indians have never taken kindly to the Christian religion as preached and practiced by the whites. Do you know why this is the case? Because the Good Father of all has given us a better religion—a religion that is all good and no bad—a religion that is adapted to our wants” and that they have their own Messiah. But Wynema and others accepted the Christian message, and the general tone of the work is Christian.

Perhaps because Callahan had a Native American father and a white mother, her desire seemed to be to bring about reconciliation and understanding rather than further animosity. Part of reconciliation is acknowledging the wrongs done to another.

I’m glad that I discovered this book this year. I am counting it for the Classic by a Person of Color Category of the Back to the Classics challenge.

(Sharing with Carole’s Books You Loved)

Flawed people in a cancel culture

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flawed people in a cancel culture

I have not seen the musical Hamilton. But I watched a special on TV called Hamilton’s America, which interlaced how Lin Manuel Miranda became interested in Hamilton’s story, early American history, the road to writing and production, clips from the musical, and commentary from several actors and observers. It was a fascinating special, and I learned much that I hadn’t known about our history.

The musical is famous for is using an ethnically diverse cast. As Miranda said in one interview, he wanted to represent what America looks like today.

In one of the most moving parts of the documentary to me, Christopher Jackson, a black actor who portrayed George Washington, visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home. He sat in Mount Vernon’s slave quarters, pondering the disparity of such a great man owning people.

Several of the actors portraying founding fathers wrestled with the fact that these men did both great and terrible things The only conclusion they could come to was that people are are flawed. Appreciating their contributions didn’t mean endorsing everything they said or did.

It doesn’t take much searching to find that most historical figures were flawed. Even most Bible people were flawed. My favorite Bible character, David, was guilty of some of the most heinous sins.

In our fiction, we don’t like a hero or heroine who isn’t flawed because they aren’t realistic.

But somehow, in our modern day, we can’t seem to allow for the fact that people can have sides of themselves that we don’t like or agree with. In today’s “cancel culture,” if you make a single mistake in the public eye, you’re out. People have lost jobs and even been personally threatened when a simple reprimand or correction would have been effective.

Last week when I opened Twitter, I noticed a particular celebrity’s name trending. I don’t follow many celebrities, and am not even all that interested in this man. But I was curious, so I clicked on the hashtag of his name. A backlash had erupted over one of his tweets, which probably could have been worded better. One of those enraged by his comment wrote of “taking great delight in destroying his career.”

It’s horrifying that anyone would enjoy destroying someone’s career in the first place. But it’s even worse to do so while swept along by the mob without taking the time to clarify what was meant or give the benefit of the doubt.

The cancel culture offers no understanding, empathy, forgiveness, or redemption. Just instant judgment, mob rule, and destruction.

We need to hear first.

It’s true, sometimes we need to take a stand or call people. But “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13).

By contrast, James 1:19 says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

People post links and commentaries fast and furiously online. We should give the benefit of the doubt and not assume. It’s always a good idea to fact-check, to wait to hear the whole story, before forming an opinion.

We need to be careful in judgment

Jesus said, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). He went on to talk about the ridiculousness of trying to get a speck out of someone else’s eye when we have a log in ours. He also said that if we don’t forgive others, we won’t be forgiven.

Some things are obviously wrong. But if someone is on the opposite side of the political fence than we are, or has a different opinion on a major societal issue, the tendency these days is to write that person off completely. It’s all or nothing.

We need to react redemptively.

Maybe someone made an insensitive remark. Instead of trying to ruin their career or lives, wouldn’t it be better to tell them what was wrong with what they said and give them a chance to see the light?

In the passage mentioned above, Jesus did not say that everyone should just live with logs and specks in their eyes. “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). We’re supposed to help each other see clearly, after we see clearly ourselves. 

Our church has been reading through the major prophets in the Old Testament, and now we’re working our way through the minor prophets. Though God threatened judgment on His sinning people, His preference was that they repent and change their hearts and ways. Repentance would avert the judgment, as was the case with Nineveh in the book of Jonah. In the New Testament, chastening and discipline was not destructive but refining. If God gives undeserving people grace, shouldn’t we?

We need to accept each other as flawed.

We know that we are not perfect. We know that no one is perfect. So why do we have trouble accepting people who are not perfect? As the actors of Hamilton came to grips with, good people can do bad things. We all have our blind spots. That doesn’t make wrongdoing okay. But we have to recognize that most people aren’t all or nothing, politically or any other category.

Granted, there are some people with whom it’s impossible to live peaceably. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). I have unfriended or hidden toxic people on social media because there is just no peace with them. But that was not after the first disagreement; it was after long years of interaction.

There are even times the Bible tells us to separate from someone else. Again, that’s not for every difference or infraction, and it’s with the ultimate hope for the person’s salvation. But most situations don’t need to go that far.

And we need to remember, if we cancel each other out because of our sins, flaws, and mistakes, there will be no one left.

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Global Blogging, Senior Salon, Hearth and Soul,
Literary Musing Monday, Purposeful Faith, Tell His Story, InstaEncouragement,
Recharge Wednesday, Worth Beyond Rubies, Share a Link Wednesday,
Let’s Have Coffee, Grace and Truth, Faith on Fire, Blogger Voices Network)