Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
“Fear of trials sometimes depletes more energy than facing trials!” Beth Moore
Isn’t that the truth?! I can waste so much time and energy on something that turns out not to be a problem after all.
And from John Piper’s Twitter feed:
After calming the sea [Jesus] said, “Why are you afraid?” Not because Christians never drown. But they are safe in drowning.
I’ve often thought that if ever there were a legitimate fear, being at sea in a storm was one, and yet Jesus questioned the disciples’ fear there. This gives insight as to why. Even if “the worst” happens — they would still be safe, as will we if we’re trusting in Jesus as Savior.
I shared this among my links on Saturday, but it was so good I wanted to mention it again in case anyone missed it. From the article We Need Boring Christians:
Many of us want to do something awesome, something epic. We tend to think that the more normal, the less ‘spiritual.’ So it is quite possible that our aspirations to be radical stem from dangerous ambitions to perform biography-worthy feats of global glory.
God does call some people some times to do something radical, something “epic,” but He also calls each of us to be faithful in everyday, “ordinary” life.
If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included.
I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And don’t forget to leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share!
A small but excellent list today of interesting reads ’round the Web this week:
Figuring out how to forgive {your parents}. The principles are good for anyone, though, not just parents. This brought tears to my eyes. It’s odd that I have had more trouble with my feelings for my dad since his death — you’d think that would be all over now. But this post is very helpful.
We Need Boring Christians. Excellent article. Quote: “Many of us want to do something awesome, something epic. We tend to think that the more normal, the less ‘spiritual.’ So it is quite possible that our aspirations to be radical stem from dangerous ambitions to perform biography-worthy feats of global glory.”
Getting Good Info. My son, Jason, started this blog to share what he’s learned about best ways to research online.
And a special thanks to Cheryl at The Bz House That Love Built for listing my Week In Words meme among her massive list of regular memes, blog parties, carnivals, etc., here. I met some of my best blogging buddies through memes, so if you’re feeling all alone in the blogosphere and want to make new friends online, participating in a meme is a great help. Cheryl lists tons of them, so you’re sure to find one that interests you!
This is pretty cool: an eagle owl (I didn’t know there was such a creature) landing in slow motion:
Hope you have a great weekend. We’ve got some fun stuff planned — celebrating Jeremy’s birthday over the whole weekend.
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
Last week I had to search a little for five faves — not this week!
1. Jeremy (my oldest son) is home! His flight was delayed and didn’t get in til 1:30 this morning, so we’re all a little bleary-eyed, but happy.
2. Surprising friends at a wedding. The daughter of some of our oldest and dearest friends was getting married, not in her home town about three hours from us, but way up in northern Ohio. We were so sad that we couldn’t go…but then the week before my husband looked on the map, saw it was only eight hours away, and as we didn’t have anything else planned for the weekend — we decided to go and surprise them. We left early Saturday morning, got to the hotel with a little time to rest and eat, went to the wedding, slept, and then zipped (ha!) back here Sunday. You have to understand, I am not very spontaneous and I don’t usually travel well, but I thoroughly enjoyed this trip! My “travel issues” were at a minimum, and it was such a joy to see our friends and celebrate this special time of the first wedding among their children. The change in routine was very refreshing instead of stressful (for me — my poor dear hubby had to drive another six hours the next day). And I got two books read during the drive! (I could just about have made a whole FFF just from this trip!)
3. Seeing old friends. Besides the friends I mentioned, about seven other friends from early married days in SC were there whom we hadn’t known were coming, and it was fun to catch up with them.
4. French Silk Pie at Perkins, not a place we go often, but I love that place! We stopped there for lunch on our way home as a break from fast food. I couldn’t eat it at lunch time, but we had a cooler to keep on the way home. Not so good for the diet, but a wonderful occasional splurge.
5. A master packing list. I created one on the computer some time ago, and that helps so much!
We’re looking forward to a weekend with the whole family together and celebrating Jeremy’s birthday on Monday. Hope you have a great weekend, too!
Last weekend marked our first year in Tennessee, so I thought I’d jot a few observations.
I love the hills that can be seen from almost any vantage point and the mountains seen in some places. I don’t think I have ever lived in a completely flat area, but this is the hilliest. That means, though, that very few pieces of property are completely flat, at least from what I have seen, and it’s interesting to watch people try to cut their grass at an angle. 🙂
After we had been here a while I was jolted to realize this is the first time I have lived in a state without a coastline. Even though we didn’t get to the coast often in other states where we lived, I still missed having one. But for a landlocked state, TN has a lot of rivers, lakes, and creeks.
I thought it would be cooler and less humid here than in SC since we’re further north, but there doesn’t seem to be much difference.
I’m not a football fan and orange is my least favorite color, and here I am right in the middle of University of TN fandom. 🙂 So I don’t voice my lack of love for football or orange, not because people would assault me, but just out of respect. I do think it is neat how the whole area rallies around its team.
Our small town does much the same with the high school team. Where we lived previously, the powers that be closed down the small community high school and built a mega-school away from the main part of town, but here the high school is on the main street of town, and if you try to drive down that way on a game night, you have to watch out for people streaming over to the stadium. I like that even though I don’t go to the games.
We live outside of Knoxville proper, and I don’t think this happens there so much, but in our area I’ve been astounded at the number of men who do all manner of errands all over town without shirts on.
I love my house. I like its compactness and the way it is arranged. I’m still working on getting a few things up on walls and getting the sewing/craft room arranged.
I’m still getting used to driving longer distances to most everything except Jesse’s school.
Knoxville does seem more manageable, though, than some cities. When we lived outside of Atlanta, I was a nervous wreck if I had to drive into the city at all. It may just be the GPS that makes me feel more secure, but I don’t think getting lost in Knoxville would be quite the nightmare it would in some cities.
We enjoy our church a lot, but I still feel like I am getting to know people and I maybe don’t feel quite as settled and thoroughly at home, but that takes time — we were in our previous church twelve years, so I am not going to have that degree of settledness after just one year here. But it’s coming along.
The changes within our own family have been the hardest things to deal with, going from everyone being at home or close by to being scattered, but Skype and iPod Face Time help take the sting out of separation. The one thing that gives me the most pangs is Jesse’s transitions to a new school and the fact that he won’t graduate with the class he grew up with in SC. But he has adjusted well and made friends in his school and youth group, and there are great people at both.
Though transitions and change are hard, overall it has been a good year, and we like where we are.
I saw glowing reviews and recommendations of A Heart Most Worthy by Siri Mitchell on several blogs a few months ago. I picked up the book a couple of times, and the back cover said in part, “In 1918 Boston, three seamstresses dare to dream of a better life.” That didn’t really grab me. But, so many people whose tastes are similar to my own liked it, and…that gorgeous dress on the cover would tempt me to serious coveting if I lived in those times. So I finally decided to give the book a try.
Siri has crafted quite an intriguing historical novel set in the Italian section of Boston during a time of heavy migration of Italians from their country to America (which Siri says rightly in an end note has largely been forgotten — I had never heard of the Great Italian Emigration). WWI and later the Spanish Influenza epidemic figure heavily into the plot, as do Italian family life, prejudice, poverty, and political unrest. And of course love.
Three very different girls poor Italian girls, Julietta, Annamaria, and Luciana, work in Madame Fortier’s dress shop. Julietta wants to meld into American life, move up in the world, and have fun. Annamaria as the oldest daughter is destined by custom to care for her family, postponing or perhaps never having her own chance at love. Luciana just wants to survive, to provide for and protect herself and her grandmother and not attract too much attention so that the man who killed her father does not find them.
There were teary moments as well as at least one time when I almost gasped out loud (at realizing who someone was), times of feeling sad for, frustrated with, and happy for each of the characters.
Since the Italian population was primarily Catholic, naturally the church and spiritual influences in the book come from that vantage point. Since I am not Catholic myself, I would quibble with just a couple of things that were said in that vein, but the book did convey that forgiveness, grace, and help are available from God to those who turn to Him.
One feature that threw me a bit sometimes is that though most of the book is written from an omniscient or third-person point of view, every now and then the narrator breaks through and speaks to the reader directly. It jarred a bit because it was almost like someone speaking to you whom you’d forgotten was there. But the comments themselves were fun and a bit conspiratorial.
Overall I greatly enjoyed the book, and I just bought another Siri Mitchell book to try.
(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Recently we watched “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” The major issue in the film is interracial marriage, but that’s not what I want to discuss today (Roger Ebert has a great review of the film here.
Something that stood out to me was the speech Sidney Poitier’s character made to his father. His father is opposed to his son’s marrying a white woman, and when Poitier’s character tells his father to “shut up and let me think,” his father indignantly begins to list what he and his wife sacrificed for their son and what he owes them.
If I transcribed it correctly, the part that especially caught my ear and provided food for thought for several days was this:
I owe you nothing…You did what you were supposed to do because you brought me into this world, and from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me, just like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don’t own me. You can’t tell me when or where I am out of line or try to get me to live my life according to your rules….Not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs…You’ve got to get off my back.
Admittedly, both characters were having pressured-filled days, and the son later softened his tone and professed his love for his father.
I don’t want to critique this from a Christian viewpoint because I know it wasn’t written that way, and there was fault of both sides in that scene, but for now I want to take this concept of what adult children “owe” their parents out of the context of the film and just ponder it.
Truly parents shouldn’t do what they do for children for “payback,” and neither should they hold it over their offsprings’ heads as a manipulation to do things their way out of guilt, though there may be times a little adjustment in the kids’ perspective is in order. There comes a time a man has to “leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife” (Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:7; Ephesians 5:31), to step out on his own as an adult, and come to his own convictions and rules.
But there are things we do owe parents even after we’re out of the home and out from under their direct authority.
Honor
The fifth of the ten commandments was not given only to children: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” We usually apply it to children, but children aren’t specified in that passage. Even when we’re out from under a parent’s direct authority, we’re still to honor them. Even if they’re not everything they ought to be (who among us is?), we’re still to honor them.
Respect
This is perhaps a part of honor. Leviticus 19:32 says, “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD,” and Proverbs 16:31 says, “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Proverbs 23:22 says, “Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” I wrote some thoughts about this a while back here. Society today does not value the elderly much, but in God’s economy we’re to greatly respect them. But the tenor of Scripture indicates respect of parents even before they get to be “elderly” — you can’t read far through Proverbs especially without picking up on that attitude.
A Hearing
The book of Proverbs is a father’s instruction to his son, except for the last chapter which is a mother’s instruction. I don’t know that all of that instruction is aimed at a minor child. Other places in the Bible, as well, urge us to listen to advice, instruction, and even rebuke from those who are wiser and more mature than we are, and parents should surely be among the first we’d listen to, because they know us best and are the most interested, usually, in our well-being and outcome. Again, not every parent’s every piece of advice is going to be on target, but it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand: it should at least be given a fair hearing and then evaluated in light of God’s Word and prayer.
Appreciation
Honestly, I can’t think of a Bible verse for this one, but if gratitude and appreciation for what others have done are good character traits, they should certainly be applied to parents. I’ve written before about how children don’t fully understand what’s been done for them until they’re older, usually when they have children of their own. Even now that I am in my 50s and my mother has passed away, there are new realizations sometimes of things she went through, and I can’t tell her now that I understand and appreciate it, but I hope she knows.
Care
In I Timothy 5:1-15, Paul instructs the younger pastor Timothy in how the church should care for the widows in its number, and he says in verse 4, “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.” Jesus called out the Pharisees and scribes for allowing people to give to them what should have gone to care of parents.
Then of course, there are the Biblical “one anothers” that should govern Christians’ interaction with each other. Sometimes, sadly, we neglect those most with those closest to us.
Parents are fallible people. They’re not always on target; sometimes they might be a little out of touch. Sometimes they’re out and out wrong — I came from a non-Christian home and have written before about having to learn to respect my parents out of obedience to God even when they were doing things I couldn’t respect. On the other hand, sometimes teen or adult kids think a parent is a little too free with unsolicited advice when that advice is something they really need to hear. Parents shouldn’t nag and manipulate; kids shouldn’t ignore and disrespect. Sometimes parents do have to pull back and let their children make and learn from their own mistakes, but sometimes a parent’s advice will save a son or daughter from a serious problems and heartache. It’s a delicate balance. But if those involved are seeking the Lord’s best, He will help them find that balance and best way of interacting, and even if only one side is actively seeking to honor Him in their dealings, He will aid them.
Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. (Thomas Jefferson)
See that your relish for the Bible be above every other enjoyment, and the moment you begin to feel greater relish for any other book, lay it down till you have sought deliverance from such a snare, and obtained from the Holy Spirit an intenser relish, a keener appetite for the Word of God (Jer 15:16). ~ Horatius Bonar
Forgot to note where I saw this — I think on a friend’s Facebook page:
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” ~ C. S. Lewis
I think if we truly had hold of this truth, that any sin of anyone else’s against us pales next to ours against God, we wouldn’t have any trouble with forgiveness.
If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included.
I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And don’t forget to leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share!
So How’s Your Day Going? If you feel you’re having a bad day — it might not seem so bad after seeing this!
Just a short list this week! We’re doing something special and fun today — but it is a surprise so I can’t talk about it yet. 😀 Hope you have a good weekend!
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
This week it’s been a little difficult to come up with five favorite things. It hasn’t been a bad week, per se, but there have not been any standout moments that I could easily list. I try not to repeat things on FFF, but then, I know it’s perfectly fine to be repeatedly thankful for regular occurrences. 🙂 So you might have seen a few of these before, but they’re still favorites.
1. Air conditioning.
2. The end of July. I’m not ready for the summer schedule to end but I am definitely glad this hot month is over and we’re one month closer to cooler weather in the fall. It’ll still be hot here for many weeks to come, though.
3. Pizza and movie nights with the family. Streaming Netflix has been great!
4. Encouraging comments from readers.
5. Not needing many school supplies and finding good deals on them. One really nice thing as kids get older is that they can reuse many school supplies from the previous year. I had a minimal amount to buy and was pleased to find some great deals. Even last year’s school uniforms fit!
I’m looking forward to the coming week mainly because my oldest son, Jeremy, is coming home for his birthday! We haven’t seen him since Christmas (except for Skype and Face Time), the longest stretch that we’ve been apart from any of our kids.
I have a couple of topics in mind to blog about, but this morning after I spent time responding to comments and e-mails, there wasn’t much time left, so please forgive this random listing. 🙂
I’m trying to be better about responding to people. With most of you with whom I visit back and forth regularly, I don’t necessarily respond to every comment unless there is something specific that needs a response because we do touch base often. But with someone new I do like to visit their blog or send them an e-mail and thank them for stopping by.
Last night I was preparing a stir-fry with chicken, shrimp, and fried rice (and a few stray vegetables). Suddenly I realized that what I had just liberally doused dinner with was Worcestershire sauce rather than soy sauce. The only thing I knew to do was get the soy sauce and douse it even more liberally, hoping it would cover up the Worcestershire sauce taste. I decided not to tell my family and just see if they noticed anything: I figured if I told them the mistake ahead of time, they’d approach it with an “Ewww!” attitude. It must not have been too bad because almost everyone had seconds. Jim did ask me if it was from a mix. 🙂 After they were pretty much done, I told them about it. It did have more of a tang than stir-fry usually does, but it wasn’t horrible. I’m just glad it wasn’t completely ruined.
I wonder if Curtis Stone ever has moments like that. Somehow I doubt it.
In other news….Jesse got a car. A truck, actually. My oldest son says we’ve “gone native” Tennessean. But we’re ok as long as he doesn’t drive it without a shirt — I don’t know how many men I have seen driving trucks without shirts on without their shirts on driving a truck. Weird.
Jeremy is coming to visit next month! 😀
School starts in a couple of weeks. This will be the last year of high school for my last child. Sniff, sniff. 😦
I am definitely ready for cooler weather.
I am not sure how I am going to get exercise in, though. I like to do it before my shower, because, of course, I get sweaty. But with the usual routine I get up at 5 to have devotions, shower, dress, get ready for the day, etc., before school starts. I definitely don’t want to get up any earlier. I suppose I could do the exercise before the shower and have devotions later in the morning. But I do like to have them first before my mind starts going multiple directions. Of course, once Jesse starts driving himself (still working ion getting his full license) I won’t necessarily have to be ready for the day when he leaves school, though I’d like to be in case something’s wrong with a car and I need to run him to school. I’ll figure it out eventually.
Speaking of exercise, I’ve tweaked my routine in a way that is working out better. I had been doing 40 minutes, but on the Biggest Loser Kinect game, sometimes a 40 minute routine ended up being two 20-minute routines repeated. I didn’t like that, particularly if a given routine had a lot of unfavorite exercises anyway. So I cut it back to 30 minutes, and most days I do an additional 10-20 minutes with one of the other videos or games I mentioned or on this game’s “Freeplay” section. That’s working out pretty well. I’m just about to raise the intensity from “Light” to “Moderate.” I’ve been choosing “Moderate” for the Freeplay exercises, and that’s been going ok.
I’ve been disappointed that the weight loss has not been greater. I’ve only lost 8 1/2 lbs. in 7 weeks. But I am getting stronger and increasing stamina. I’m able to do exercises that I couldn’t or could only barely do in the beginning. One day I did the Wimp Aerobics video: a couple of years ago when I was trying to use it, with its segments A-H, I never got past E. This time I did the whole video easily without feeling tired or winded at all. So all this exercise is accomplishing something. Just not the main thing I want it to yet! I have been cutting down in a couple of areas, but I probably need to start keeping track of calories. I just hate to do that because it is so tedious, but it does help.
Well, time to stop rambling and get to the list of things to do. Thanks for stopping by to visit!
Stray Thoughts 