Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Barbara Harper

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

Are you making good progress on your Christmas plans? God hs given me some productive days this week: I knocked a few things off the list, and the schedule’s looking pretty good, but I’ll relax more when everything’s done. Here are some highlights from the last week:

1. Flowers. I don’t often buy flowers for myself, but I spotted these in a nearby bin while I was bagging my broccoli in the produce section of the store, and when I saw they were only $5, I succumbed. I love how the sparkly babies’ breath makes them festive. Roses may be my favorite, but I have a soft spot for carnations, and they are one flower whose scent I love (and doesn’t make me sneezy!)

2. Coffee, even though I don’t like flavored coffee, have been drinking it without sweetener since I had to learn to when I had gestational diabetes with one pregnancy nearly 30 years ago (once I learned to like it that way, I figured I may as well keep with it since I get plenty of sugar other places), and have to have decaf due to heart rhythm problems. It still hits the spot, and now that the weather is colder, I drink more to keep warm.

3. A nice meal prepared by my daughter-in-law, including cookies!

4. Rain and sunshine. As many of you know, we have been under drought conditions for months here in Eastern TN, so I didn’t begrudge the rain at all. In fact, I welcomed it. But after about three days of cloudy skies, I did rejoice to see bright sunshine again. I’m not sure if we are back up to normal conditions or not, but it looks like we’re predicted to have a couple of days of rain in each of the next couple of weeks, so that should certainly help.

5. Church Ladies’ Christmas Party. This is the first time since I’ve been here that this annual event hasn’t been in a home or at the church. We had it in a historic inn that was lovely, if a little cramped (“open concept” was not known in the old days!) Had a very good time, enjoyed the testimony given, and the night out did me a lot of good.

Happy Friday!

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Book Review: The Messenger

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Barbara Harper

The Messenger by Siri Mitchell is set in Philadelphia in the late 1770s. The British occupied the area and made themselves at home, taking over citizens’ houses or pulling down their fences or shutters for fire wood. Some welcomed them, some hated them, some just tried to deal with the situation until it was over.

Hannah Sunderland’s Quaker family steadfastly refused to take sides, but that didn’t protect them when an officer wanted their home as well. While not welcoming British rule, they felt it was wrong to fight against it, and when rebels were captured and put in prison, they felt that helping them would interfere with God’s discipline of their rebellion.

Hannah was fine with that – until her own twin brother joined the rebels due to injustices he saw the British commit. When he landed in prison, she tried to find a way to visit him and bring him food secretly.

Jeremiah Jones, a tavern keeper, lost his arm when fighting for the British in the French and Indian war due to the surgeon’s taking a British officer before him, resulting in his injured arm becoming beyond repair and having to be amputated. Embittered, he turned against the British and that officer in particular, but secretly. British soldiers frequented his establishment, allowing him to hear bits of information he could pass on the the rebels. But when one of his spies bowed out, he had to find someone to take his place. As he noticed Hannah walking by the jail, he decided to offer to help her get a pass inside through his contacts if she would take a message for him to a colonial officer there.

Thus began an uneasy liaison. Jeremiah had little respect for Quakers and what he felt was their self-righteousness. Hannah exasperated him with her refusal to lie or be deceptive. She, in turn, did not think much of him or his profession. But they needed each other.

This novel seemed to me a little slow to get going, with Hannah and Jeremiah constantly bickering over every little thing. But the farther along it went, the more interesting and engaging it became. I enjoyed the author’s notes at the end detailing what was real and what was fictional in the novel and marveling at how she wove them together.

I had not know much about Quakers before this except that they were pacifists, said “thee” and “thou,” and dressed simply (and made good oatmeal. 🙂 )

I enjoyed learning more about them but was surprised by what I learned, especially that in their weekly meetings, they waited silently for God to speak to and through individuals rather than studying what He already said to them through His Word. (The author notes at the end that though originally they expected their “inner light” not to contradict Scripture, over years they they gave more weight and credence to it than the Bible, leading some of them astray). They also believe that “there is that of God in everyone,” a phrase often repeated throughout the book. It seems to go beyond the concept of being made in God’s image: Hannah muses at one point, “The Creator of our souls had left a part of Him inside us, and the more we responded to and came to resemble Him, the more our inner lights increased.” Though we are all made in God’s image, He does not reside in each of us (1 John 5:12). So they’re farther from Biblical Christianity than I thought, but it was interesting to learn their customs.

I especially empathized with Hannah and her struggles between the desire to help others and right wrongs vs. what she had always been taught:

Everywhere I looked, everything I learned only added to the sense that there were grave injustices being heaped upon our land. And that Friends, too easily persuaded to silence, allowed them to continue. What if we were not only called to maintain peace but also to defend it? What if we’d all been wrong? What if men were called to fight for what they believed in?

The chapters alternate between Hannah’s and Jeremiah’s points of view. I listened to the audiobook version but also reread parts in the Kindle version (the latter includes the author’s notes and discussion questions.) The male narrator performing Jeremiah’s part did a superb job with both inflection and mood. It took me a long while to warm up to Hannah, as she came across as stuffy and self-righteous at first, and I am not sure how much of that was the writing and how much the narrator, or both. Probably she was meant to come across that way. But I did eventually.

In the last third of the book when the situation they’re passing messages about comes to a head, it was hard to put the book down. I thought it ended a little abruptly. I don’t necessarily have to have everything tied up in a neat bow at the end, but I would have liked to have seen a little more about how things worked out for everyone.

Overall it was a good, informative, and later on a very exciting book.

Genre: Historical fiction
Potential objectionable elements: Nothing explicit, but a scene with the officer who took over the Sunderland’s house “entertaining” a woman in his room went on much longer than necessary. I think the idea was to show he was a scoundrel, but I got that quite early on.
My rating: 8 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books, Carol‘s Books You Loved, and Literary Musing Monday)

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Book Review: The Voice of Experience

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Samuel and Jane K. Brody are a husband and wife medical team: he is a doctor and she is a psychiatric nurse. In The Voice of Experience: Stories About Health Care and the Elderly they bring their medical experience as well as their personal experience with aging parents to bear in discussing various issues related to health care of the elderly.

The book is divided into five sections, beginning with “Assessing the Situation” when an elderly person first starts manifesting that they might need additional care, through safety issues, quality of life concerns, aspects of decision making, and end of life issues.

There is not a clear cut way to handle many of the issues discussed: so much depends on the general state of health of the person, personal preferences, family dynamics, etc. But these chapters do give examples, good and bad, and a doctor’s advice and wisdom.

For my own purposes, with my mother-in-law’s decline over the last dozen or so years, much of this was not new to me, but I did benefit from it, and some of the end of life discussions clarified some things for me. I think this book would be helpful to anyone at any stage in the process.

It appears to be self-published and would have benefited from an editor to catch a few grammatical errors and awkward phrases, but they are very few.

Genre: Non-fiction
Potential objectionable elements: None
My rating: 8 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and Literary Musing Monday,)

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When God wants me to do something I don’t want to do

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Barbara Harper

I had another interesting intersection between my devotions, messages at church, and my other reading last week.

I’m in Exodus in my Bible reading just now, and I can always empathize with Moses’s reaction when God calls him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Overwhelmed, he he responds with all the reasons he couldn’t possibly do such a thing, and God graciously promises His provision in every facet.

Who am I? Why would they listen to me? I will be with thee.

What if they ask me what God sent me to them? I AM THAT I AM…Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you…

They will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. God provided three signs to demonstrate before Israel.

O my Lord, I am not eloquent…I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

God was very patient with Moses until, at this point, Moses says, “O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.” I’m not sure exactly what all that means, but it seems to indicate he’d really rather God sent someone else. God tells him his brother Aaron will be his spokesperson, and sends him on his way.

I would probably have had all the same objections Moses did, and more. They make sense and seem quite valid, except that God promises to overcome each one, no matter how the situation seems to appear at this vantage point.

Some of our Sunday evening services have dealt with Jonah, who, as you know, disobeys God’s command to preach to the Ninevites and goes in the opposite direction. His reasons are less sympathetic; in fact, they are wholly unnoble. The Bible doesn’t say he was afraid of them or afraid to speak to them. He was afraid they would actually respond to his message, and he was so prejudiced against them that he did not want that result. His chastening was pretty severe, and he repented in the belly of a fish. But his heart still wasn’t entirely right. “It displeased Jonah” when the people of Nineveh repented. In fact, he tells God that was why he didn’t want to come to them in the first place, because “Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil” (Jonah 4:2).

Then, when I’ve had time after my devotions, I’ve been reading in The Women of Christmas: Experience the Season Afresh with Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna by Liz Curtis Higgs. Around the time I was reading about Moses in my Bible and hearing about Jonah in church, I came to the section about Mary in this book. What a contrast. She may have had concerns and fears, but didn’t voice them. Or she may have just believed that God was sufficient to take care of whatever the repercussions would be. No objections. No “what ifs.” No apparent anxieties or apprehensions. Just, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

I found in my quote file this from Elisabeth Elliot, though I failed to note which book or newsletter it came from:

The story of the glory of heaven brought into a common, little house in Nazareth to a simple peasant girl, who must have been amazed and baffled, but she was instantly obedient. How often you and I insist on explanations and understanding before we’re willing to be obedient. There are many things in God’s world that will never be understood until we obey. Her response, Mary’s response—”Let it be to me according to your word. I am the handmaid of the Lord” — should be our response, too, shouldn’t it? Whatever He asks us to do.

I haven’t been called to anything of the magnitude of these three, but sometimes my response is more like Moses’s to what God has called me to do. First, “Who, me?!” Then, “I can’t, for all these very good reasons.” Sometimes, “That’s not my spiritual gift.” And sometimes, sad to say, “I know You will be with me; I know You will enable and provide. But I’d really rather not.” I’d like my nice, quiet, even life with very few and very minor bumps in the road, if that’s ok.

But that’s not ok. My life is not about my ease and comfort, or at least it’s not supposed to be. It’s about glorifying God and allowing Him to work through me in whatever way He wants to. I may not feel equal to the task, but that’s ok. That reminds me the strength to do it is not my own, but His. His provision and enabling usually comes at the time of obedience, not before. And what times I have cooperated with Him in this way, it has been wonderful to see how He has worked and to experience His presence through those things. When we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, we know God is with us by faith even if we don’t always feel it. But somehow when we trust Him through difficult things, we experience His presence and help and grace in ways not known before.

Sometimes I get to the, “Yes, Lord, I am Yours: Your will be done” after reluctance, objections, repentance, and reassurance. I hope, like Mary, to get to the place where I can go there directly.

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Literary Musing Monday, Testimony Tuesday, Woman to Woman Word-Filled Wednesday, Thought-provoking Thursday)

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When Love Came Down to Earth

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Barbara Harper

As I was getting ready for church this morning and had some music shuffling on my phone, this song came up. It’s not a Christmas song, but it could be, especially the first stanza. I posted it once before a few years ago, but it is one that never fails to speak to my heart when I hear it.

When love came down to earth
And made His home with men,
The hopeless found a hope,
The sinner found a friend.
Not to the powerful
But to the poor He came,
And humble, hungry hearts
Were satisfied again.

What joy, what peace has come to us!
What hope, what help, what love!

When every unclean thought,
And every sinful deed
Was scourged upon His back
And hammered through His feet.
The Innocent is cursed,
The guilty are released;
The punishment of God
On God has brought me peace.

Come lay your heavy load
Down at the Master’s feet;
Your shame will be removed,
Your joy will be complete.
Come crucify your pride,
And enter as a child;
For those who bow down low
He’ll lift up to His side.

What joy, what peace has come to us!
What hope, what help, what love!

~ Stuart Townend

Laudable Linkage

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Barbara Harper

This is my first chance in a couple of weeks to share noteworthy reads discovered around the web in that time. Enjoy!

A Case For Christian Magnanimity.

The Hero of the Story Is Always God.

Why Doesn’t Our Faith Move Mountains?

The Providence of God in History.

5 Christian Cliches That Need to Die.

When Does Old Age Arrive? I’m facing a milestone birthday next year, and I found this very encouraging.

Mothers in the Church.

Learning to Let Go. “Even though a parent’s spiritual influence is so important, I was never meant to fill the place that only God can in my daughter’s life. He is a better teacher, protector, and guide than I can ever be.”

Which Expired Foods Are Okay to Eat.

And a few concerning the holiday season:

Evangelism, the Holidays, and My Atheist Grandpa.

5 Ways to Make the Holidays More Peaceful.

Navigating Family Tensions at the Holidays.

The Problem With Our Holly Jolly Christmas Songs.

No wonder our pets get confused sometimes. 🙂

dog-under-tree

And finally, this brought a smile that I am sure my fellow Southerners will understand:

honey

Happy Saturday!

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Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Barbara Harper

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

It’s been a super-busy week here, and I think it must be nearly everywhere. Most of the blogs I read have been fairy quiet since Thanksgiving. December ushers in some extra tasks, but they’re fun ones for the most part. Here are the favorite parts of the last week:

1. Decorating for Christmas. My little grandson’s family has an artificial tree, so they came along with us so he could have the experience of shopping for a live one. Then they brought over apple cider and donuts and made lunch while we decorated. Timothy had a lot of fun opening boxes of ornaments and decorations and helping set them out.

“This looks like a good one!”

Tall uncles help us reach the high places. 🙂

2. Cyber shopping. We got the great bulk of the the Christmas shopping done between Black Friday and Cyber Monday online, and I think I got most of the rest of it done in town today. I think it is fun to get out in stores a little bit, but I really love shopping online. Came across some good deals, too!

3. Another eBay auction win. While looking at the linens I mentioned last week that go along with my Pfaltzgraf Tea Rose dishes, I saw a couple of casserole dishes listed as well. I kept an eye on them til the auction was due to close this week and got them for about $8 each! And now I am staying away from eBay for a while….

4. Rain. This area has been so abnormally dry for months now, and we got a little rain last week, but one day this week we got 6″ in one day. There have been so many fires in the area, the most recent being in the Gatlinburg area, as I am sure many of you have heard. We need more good, soaking rains.

5. A printer at church that folds and staples. I compile a ladies’ booklet once a month for church, and I used to have to go in after it was printed to staple and fold them. We don’t live close to our church, and sometimes it was a nice excursion out alone, but sometimes when life was busy it put a crunch in the schedule. A few months ago the church got a new printer that assembles and staples them all, and I haven’t thought to mention it til now. At first I still felt like I should go over and make sure they all came out all right, but I resisted. With a busy week like this one, it was really nice not to have to.

I hope your first few days of December and your Christmas preparations are going well!

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What’s On Your Nightstand: November 2016

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Barbara Harper

What's On Your Nightstand The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the last Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

For WOYN purposes, I always like when the last Tuesday of the month ends up actually near the end of it. November has been an extremely fast-moving month, but I got to dip into some reading here and there.

Since last time I have completed:

I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care by John Zeisel, reviewed here. I especially liked the tone in this book.

Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World by Carolyn McCulley, reviewed here. Excellent and eye-opening.

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner, reviewed here. Two timelines intersect: A modern reporter interviews a reclusive artist and hears a story about two girls making their way into London on the day the Blitz began. A real page-turner!

Long Way Gone by Charles Martin, reviewed here. Excellent modern-day prodigal son story.

The Silver Suitcase by Terrie Todd, reviewed here. A woman in the midst of myriad problems is given her grandmother’s silver suitcase, containing her diaries. She finds her sweet, faith-filled grandmother had actually hated God at one point, and discovers what changed her. A bit of wonky angelology, but the story was good.

The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson, reviewed here. A 15th century Germany retelling of the Frog Prince.

I’m currently reading:

The Messenger by Siri Mitchell

The Voice of Experience: Stories About Health Care and the Elderly by Samuel and Jane K. Brody

From Heaven: A 28-Day Advent Devotional by A. W. Tozer

A Sandy’s Seashell Shop Christmas by Lisa Wingate

And a reread, The Women of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs

Up Next:

Finding Father Christmas/Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn

A Patchwork Christmas Collection by Judith Miller, Nancy Moser, and Stephanie Grace Whitson

The Christmas Violin by Buffy Andrews

If I get done with those, I still have plenty of books stacked up on my shelves ans well as in my Kindle app. Happy reading!

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Book Review: The Princess Spy

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Barbara Harper

In most versions of The Frog Prince, the princess is proud, spoiled, and condescending. The frog recovers a lost ball for her, and in return asks to be taken to her house, eat from her plate, and sleep on her bed. In the version I listened to last year, she got disgusted and threw him against a wall, after which he transformed into a prince. In other versions she tolerates him until he transforms, and then, of course, they fall in love and live happily ever after.

In this retelling, The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson, set in 15th century Germany, 18-year-old Margaretha is the oldest daughter of a duke. She isn’t spoiled, but she tends to talk a lot, especially when she’s nervous. A number of suitors have come and left her home, but none seemed right to her. Currently Lord Claybrook has been visiting, and she thinks he wears weird hats and talks about things she’s not interested in, but she’s trying to get to know him better and give him the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile a severely injured young man has been found and taken to the healer. He only speaks English, and Margaret can understand and converse in it well enough, so she serves as translator for him. When he carries on about needing to speak to the duke, but can’t say why or reveal who he is, she thinks his ravings are coming from his injury. When he finally convinces her to do a bit of eavesdropping for him, she finds that he’s right about the danger her family and town are in. But her father and brother are away, and together she and the stranger escape to find and warn them.

Since these are realistic stories, I wondered how the author was going to portray the frog prince himself without any magic changing of form. That ended up being humorous, but I won’t spill the secret here.

In many ways, this is a fairly typical fairly tale romance, except that Margaretha is pluckier than many heroines in this genre, even to the point of bashing guards in the head with a candlestick in her escape, and the addition of an orphan boy rescued along the way. I’ve enjoyed many of Melanie’s books in the past, and this was a nice, clean read, but it just seemed – almost a little cliche for me. I saw on Amazon that it was listed as a teen/young adult novel, which I hadn’t realized before, and that may be one reason the writing just seemed a little “younger” to me than usual. I didn’t get that vibe from the others, though.

I hadn’t realized at first that some of the characters had appeared in previous stories. It had been a while since I had read them, but as I looked at descriptions of them at the end of the book, they came back to me.

One aspect I especially liked was Margaretha’s learning the difference between panic praying and actively trusting while praying.

All in all, not an unpleasant read, but not one that blew me away, either.

Genre: Christian fiction
Potential objectionable elements: None
My rating: 7 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and Carol‘s Books You Loved )

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Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Barbara Harper

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

It’s officially the Christmas season! At least, I count the day after Thanksgiving as the beginning, though I’ve cheated a little bit by listening to some Christmas music already. And though winter isn’t officially proclaimed for a few weeks yet, winter weather has arrived here with several nights down in the 20s. But as I write this, it’s warm and cozy inside and I’m ready to think over highlights of the past week.

1. Making and giving ornaments to Timothy, discussed with more pictures here. His parents put his own little Christmas tree up and asked me to make some ornaments for it. I think he likes them. 🙂

2. Rain. We’re still way behind the amount of rain we need, but we did get some this week with more forecast for next week.

3. Winning eBay auctions. I don’t do a whole lot with eBay, but somehow I came across a sale of some hand towels and hot pads that match my Pfaltzgraf Tea Rose pattern dishes. Some of the dishes and accessories can be found thee pretty easily, but linens are rare. I was watching the countdown of each bid and even got into a bidding war on one item – but I won them all. It was rather exciting! Thankfully they were all from one seller, so she combined them with a lower shipping price than stated.

4. Shelves. My husband put up shelves in Jason and Mittu’s garage and had a couple left. He asked me if I wanted them in the laundry room. At first I didn’t think so, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded. I was so pleased with them! All that stuff was either on top of the dryer or on a counter. Much neater now!

5. Thanksgiving. I so enjoyed the emphasis on remembering our blessings and thanking God for them, the time with family, and the delicious food we had been looking forward to for weeks!

Last week I mentioned being thankful that the big tree our neighbors were having cut down didn’t fall on the fence, or, worse yet, the house. I didn’t have a picture then, but here it is now. As you can tell, it came awfully close!