Family news

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It’s been a while since I shared any kind of family news except in passing, so I thought I’d give a little post-relocation update. When I start to write things like this, I sometimes feel this kind of post will be lightly visited or commented on, and I am often surprised and touched by your care and concern and interest.

Well, it has been two months since we moved. That seems unreal! I have all the inside boxes unpacked except for some of decorations, and I hope to dig into those this week. I still don’t know where I am going to place everything, but I’ll start with what I do know. I love how having things on the walls personalizes a home. Then once I get the bulk of that done, I have some boxes in the garage and shed to go through.

Everything is coming along nicely and I don’t have to use the GPS every time I leave the house any more. Aside from all the things I disliked about our old house, its one major advantage was that it was close to most everything.  School and church were five minutes away (three if all the lights were green!) as were grocery stores, W-Mart, the dentist, the mall, Jim’s mom’s place, etc. Here, school is about 8 minutes away (more if a train is going by or traffic is busy), as is W-Mart and Target, Jim’s mom is about 12 minutes away, church is 20, the mall is about 20, maybe a little more. So I am spending more time in the car, which is one of my least favorite things. But I was just thinking yesterday that I could start listening to some sermon and seminar tapes while I drive and at least feel like I am making good use of the time. My car has a cassette tape player rather than a CD player, and I discovered a lot of tapes during the move. So I might try that, on longer drives at least.

It has been nice to have Jim home in the evenings. He does still have to travel some, but not nearly as much. We’ve had a lot to do on weekends, but hopefully soon we’ll settle into a more relaxing routine. He has been the one most pulled in different directions and pressured over the last several weeks between taking care of details with all of our moves, both houses, his mom, work, etc., etc., so I am really hoping things slow down for him soon.

I’m having to adjust my cooking. Even though in SC we often only had three of us at home for dinner, Jim was there on weekends or Jason and Mittu came over for dinner. But I am ending up with a lot of leftovers now even when I’ve tried to pare down. I have some for lunch but can only deal with so much!

Jesse does sorely miss his old friends, and it still gives me a pang to think of his not graduating from the same school his brothers did, the school he had gone to all his life. But he seems to have jumped right into things at his new school and at church. They’ve been very welcoming. Last weekend he was invited to a youth activity at a friend’s church and this next weekend there is an overnight activity with our church youth. He’s been to several school volleyball games and plays basketball once a week after school with several guys hoping to make this year’s team. He took his camera to one of the volleyball games, and showing his principal one of his pictures resulted in his being asked to take photos for the yearbook. So, even though he misses his old friends and his brothers and sister-in-law, he’s adjusting well. His grades were lower than usual the first few weeks, I think just from adjusting to new teachers and how they do things, but they seem to be coming back up now.

Jeremy has been in Rhode Island a little over a month now. He lives in a house that has been divided up into apartments and all his neighbors are polite and fairly quiet. He had enjoyed experimenting with cooking for some time  before, so cooking for himself wasn’t a totally new thing — just having to do it every night for himself was! And shopping for them! He’s having to learn to cut down recipes as well: some of his first dinners lasted three or four days until he was tired of them. He really likes his job and had some friends up there before he moved and another couple who have moved there since then, so he is enjoying get-togethers with them.

Since Jeremy lived at home during college (though on week days we only saw him late at night and early in the morning) and then at home after college, this was our first major separation. He had only been away from home a week at a time before. And this was farther away and longer — this was actual moving out rather than going away for a visit. So this separation was hard on us all in various ways and I’ve had more than one teary session, even reminding myself that this is normal development and we had him at home longer than many parents had their kids there and telling myself I just needed to appreciate that. But, it is still hard when someone who has been a part of your life and home for 26 years isn’t there any more. I am glad we live in this era where we can text, Facebook, or call with ease. When I was first married we were doing well to call home long distance once a month. That would be so hard! But we’re all adjusting, and knowing he enjoys what he does and where he is helps a lot.

Even though Jason flew out of the nest when he got married, since they lived so close by I didn’t really consider him too far out of the nest. I think it was hard for them at first being the only ones left in SC, but they’ve had a lot of visitors with people they know coming through town, so I think that helped a bit. And we’ve been there or they’ve been here about every other week, I think, so we haven’t had a really long separation. I don’t think I have mentioned this here before, but it is public knowledge now, so I don’t think they’d mind my mentioning that they’ve been putting in job applications both here in TN and in OK, where Mittu is from (one reason they’ve been up here often). So we’ll see how the Lord leads. It has been discouraging for them to travel for an interview and have it seem to go very well only to have the job go to someone else, but they’re waiting for the Lord’s timing.

Something else I don’t think I have mentioned here is that Jason has been having trouble with migraines since last winter. I don’t think he ever had them before in his life, but he started getting them, and now they’re almost a daily occurrence. He has been to several doctors and had several tests run, but has had little relief. Thankfully the American Family Medical Leave Act allowed him to keep his insurance and not be penalized for missing work, but of course, he wasn’t making any money when he didn’t work, either, and that ran out several days ago, so they had to let him go. They did so on good terms, though, saying that if he ever was well enough, they’d love to have him back, so that helps. He and Mittu were living in an old house, so we were hoping maybe it was a mildew problem or something, and once they moved out, the headaches would go away. But so far it hasn’t seemed to help. They are living in our old house, painting and doing some minor repairs and keeping the grass cut, etc. so that is a help to them and to us. I’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s healing and guidance in their lives.

Grandma has been adjusting well to her new place. This place has a smaller staff yet they are more attentive — I don’t know how that can be, but it is. She has one main lady who cares for her through the week, whereas in the old place you never know who was going to be there when. She has double windows that look out into a neighbor’s yard, and I think she enjoys seeing some of nature. She always liked to be outdoors as much as possible when she was younger, and even though she likes to keep to her room and read most of the day, I think she enjoys this window to the outside world. She is generally a pretty happy person. I mentioned a scare with her health a couple of weeks ago, but everything has seemed to be on a even keel since then. She does go to Sunday School and church with us and then comes over to out house for Sunday dinner.

We really enjoy our new church. These folks have been the best of any place we have ever attended when it comes to welcoming new people beyond the initial handshake and greeting. Several people speak to us and introduce themselves every time we go and several have gotten pertinent information to us or made sure we knew of upcoming events and personally invited us. Even though it is difficult going to a new church, they’ve made every effort to ease the transition. They just put together a pictorial directory this last summer, which helps immensely! We often flip through it after a service and review who we met in order to try to remember names. We really enjoy the pastors, preaching, and music as well.

I have to admit I don’t really miss the ministries I was involved in at the old church. I think I was feeling more pressured than I realized, as it has been such a relief to get things done at home without feeling the need to stop and get other things done or plan for the next thing coming up. There were a couple of things I had considered laying aside when Jim’s mom first came, because I knew that her coming would have an impact on my time, but they didn’t take a lot of time in themselves, so I kept talking myself out of dropping them. But I think sometimes just having the responsibility is weighty even if the time isn’t a major investment. I do miss the ladies’ booklet and the outlet to minister to other ladies in that way, especially when I come across something I’d love to share there. But the ladies group and the booklet are in wonderful hands.

Sometimes I have wondered if, after I get the house all set up, I am going to ask myself, “Now what?” But I don’t think so. As I’ve mentioned before, I have had some ideas simmering on the back burner for writing and for a possible web site, I have family mementos that I discovered and gathered during the course of moving that I need to figure out what to do with, and I have about ten-twelve years of photos to sort through! Plus I want to make some curtains and assorted other things, so I am sure I will have plenty to keep me busy as the duties of everyday life allow. I am sure opportunities to minister will come up over time, but for now I am more than content to be in a nesting phase. With the older two out of the nest and with the realization that Jesse will probably be in dorms for college rather than living at home, I am more acutely aware of the shortness of the time with him before he tries his own wings, and I want to make the most of the time he is here and be available to him.

So that’s about it. We’re just plugging away at everyday life, getting things done as we’re able, and enjoying our new place and situation. And looking forward to Thanksgiving when we’ll all be together again!

The Gospel and Christian Fiction

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The Gospel and Christian Fiction

I have commented many times in book reviews on authors’ treatment of the gospel. After one author recently took me to task for my comments in several e-mails, I thought perhaps I should explain myself further.

A novel is a work of fiction. It’s primary purpose is to tell a story. The very best witness a Christian fiction author can have is to tell his or her story well, just as a painter’s best witness is to do his absolute best job painting rather than inscribing John 3:16 somewhere in it. A story that is a thinly-veiled sermon, doctrinal treatise, or tract will likely turn away readers, especially lost readers who most need the message. Some stories will hopefully be a springboard to awaken a thirst or a need in the reader which will then lead him or her to seek out someone to talk further, but a full exposition of the gospel is a rarity just because of the nature of story-telling.

In addition, the style of writing most prevalent in this era is the “show, don’t tell” variety. Subtlety, suggestion, nuance, illustrating what is going on in the characters’ hearts through their actions are all considered a better form of story-telling than spelling everything out for the reader. The Bible even does this in some places; for example, the book of Esther does not mention God’s name at all, but He is clearly evident in the events. Thus the gospel might be only suggested or referred to, or the author might show the character’s change of belief in the change in his or her actions rather than sharing the details of that character’s conversion.

I do understand and agree with those points. What I have sometimes criticized in book reviews is not so much the amount the the gospel that is presented in a book, but rather the clarity of the gospel. Whatever there is of the gospel in a work of fiction needs to be accurate and not misleading. For example, in one work of Amish fiction, a girl who had gone to live among the Amish to  find answers for her own heart is told, when she finally opens up to talk to someone about her need, to keep living as they are living and following their rules, and eventually it will come to her. I can understand encouraging someone who does not yet understand to keep coming to church and hearing the gospel in the hopes that it will eventually become clear, but the advice given in this book seemed more like, “Keep living like a Christian and eventually it will become real to you.” That is unbiblical advice and confusing to one who is searching.

In another book I read recently, a seeking soul is told that “Jesus invites you to join him on the journey.” There is a sense in which that might be said, but as a stand-alone sentence, I feel that is confusing and misleading.

In other books, a Christian’s faith is attributed to having been in church “all her life.” If that’s the only evidence of a person’s faith, it can be misleading because a lost person would obviously conclude that church attendance is what makes a person a Christian rather than a relationship with Christ, and an unbeliever who attends church might think they’re all right spiritually.

Christian fiction has been criticized in some instances for being formulaic and predictable in that the main character has some crisis of faith and “sees the light.” I don’t really have a problem with that in one sense, because each genre has a certain amount of predictability: you expect the guy and girl to declare their love for each other in a romance, or the good guys to win in a western, or the detective to solve the mystery and find the criminal he is searching for. It’s how each of those things happens which makes them interesting and keeps us reading even when we have a good idea of what will happen in the end. But I do understand how some readers would be turned off by a blatant formula. However, now it seems some authors have swung the pendulum so far the other way that often the gospel is so buried in subtext that it is almost completely hidden. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” Paul says in II Corinthians 4:3. Even if the context of the story precludes a full explanation of the gospel, what is included needs to be correct, accurate, and clear rather than so shrouded it is unclear at best, or at worst, misleading.

I was accused of being insular by the author I first mentioned, of wanting Christian fiction to be such that it would only appeal to Christians. That is totally untrue. Christians are those who would pick up on the nuances of the gospel even when it is not spelled out. It is the lost who wouldn’t understand.

I was also told that to include a gospel presentation would mean writing on a fifth grade level. Again, I disagree. I have seen some wonderful salvation stories in fiction told in an effective way within the context of the story that was beautiful and fit very well in the flow of the story. Not every piece of Christian fiction will have a salvation story: some will deal with those who are already believers, with their problems and issues and growth. But for those involving a conversion experience, it can be done and done well.

I think perhaps I am sensitive to this issue because for many years I sent my mother copies of Christian fiction books I enjoyed, and she loved them, even though she was not a believer at that point. She did want to learn more, and she did benefit from seeing how Christians interacted in books. I did not send her only “conversion story” books: she probably would have gotten turned off if every book was like that. Yet there are some books that I would not have sent to her, not because it was not a “salvation story,” but because it was misleading, and I felt she would have gotten the wrong idea from it.

Rather than being insular and wanting Christians books written just for those who already believe, on the contrary, it is precisely for those who don’t yet understand or believe that I want the gospel to be clear and accurate, as well as for the glory of the Lord who gave us the gospel. Understanding, conceding, and supporting everything I mentioned in the first paragraphs about the nature of fiction, I still do believe and expect that whatever allusion there is to the gospel should not be misleading. I know it can be done: I have read wonderful examples of it.

St. Francis is supposed to have said “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use words.” I agree that a life should back up and reinforce the words we speak, but someone likened this to saying, “Feed starving children, when necessary use food.” Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). He also said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Paul said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Words do matter; words are necessary to convey the gospel. Within the medium of Christian fiction those words may not take the same form as a tract or a sermon, but they ought to at least not obscure the truth.

The Week In Words

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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.

I only have one today, from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:

If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine! ~ Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

It’s absurd that we do that, isn’t it? We fear the possibility of some major catastrophe, or something serious happens to a loved one, or God allows something we don’t understand, and then we somehow feel we can protect ourselves better than He can. This set my thoughts running back through a previous post about being afraid to surrender all to Him. I hope it doesn’t sound self-indulgent or self-promotional to quote myself, but I tend to have to go back over some of the same lessons learned, and something I said in that post along these same lines was a good reminder to me:

There have been whole books written about reasons for suffering, and we hear testimonies of God’s grace through those times. Yet that lurking fear or reluctance can still snake into our thoughts.

As I was pondering these things this morning, the thought came, “What’s the alternative, really?” Suffering will come to most of us in some form or another. We live in a fallen world and deal with its effects; we’re not in heaven yet, where there are no tears, sorrow, pain. We’re not going to stop these things from coming into our lives if we don’t surrender to God. We can’t somehow insulate ourselves or protect ourselves from any pain or trial.

But if we are the Lord’s, we can trust that He has a purpose in what He has allowed. We can trust Him for His presence, peace, grace, and help. If we’re surrendered to Him, we can face these things in a way that we can’t otherwise.

I’m thankful we can “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

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.

Amazing video

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Some of you may have seen this going around Facebook. I read a book about Gianna Jenssen, a survivor of an abortion, Gianna: Aborted…and Lived To Tell About It, some years ago — amazing story.

Part I:

Part II:

Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share 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.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Locks! We didn’t realize until our first day in our new house that none of the bedroom or bathroom doors had locks on them! We pretty much have always had a policy of respecting the closed door, but we really emphasized it the past few weeks! Last weekend was one of the first we didn’t have something else to take care of (which could be a fave in itself), and Jim was able to change the doorknobs out for ones with locks.

2. Jesse’s visit to his old school. He has been wanting to go and visit his old school during a school day, but of course we wouldn’t let him skip a day here to do that. But his school had no classes last Thursday and Friday due to a teacher’s conference, and Jim had to go to SC for his work on Friday, passing right through our old town, so he took Jesse and dropped him off at Jason and Mittu’s, then they took him up to school for a few hours. Only one or two people knew he was coming, so he enjoyed surprising everyone. Originally Jim was going to pick him back up on his way back through around 3 or 4, but Jason was working and didn’t get off until 5:30 and wanted to visit with Jim, so they ended up staying for the school’s soccer and volleyball games, too. I’m glad he got to do that — he enjoyed it a lot.

3. Visitors to the bird feeder. Jim hung it up outside a while ago, but I just got around to getting feed for it this week. It took a couple of days, but a cardinal came by as well as some small greyish-brown birds. I need to get a basic bird book! But one of my favorite things about the bird feeder is that I can see it from the kitchen, office, and family room. And I haven’t seen any squirrels here yet, so maybe the birds will actually get to use it instead of its being raided by squirrels, which is what happened at our old house.

4. Banana bread. No matter how many bananas I buy, it seems no one eats the last one or two, and then they get too ripe to enjoy. I always say I am going to save them for banana bread, but rarely do. Well, this week I finally did. I had enough for two batches and made six mini loaves instead of two big ones and put the extras in the freezer. In one batch I added mini chocolate chips. It tasted good, but I think I added too many — they mostly sank to the bottom and the loaf was overly moist.

5. Finally getting my boxes of books unpacked. That was the hardest group to unpack as we have fewer bookcases here — two at the old house were built in. I ended up repacking a few boxes to store that I didn’t have room for but wasn’t ready to get rid of yet. But I did get three boxes filled to give away or sell. It’s so nice to get those out of the living room and have that whole area looking neater and more finished. And I am scouting around to see if there is another place we can put another set of book shelves to take the stored ones out. 🙂

Hope you have a great Friday!

Flashback Friday: Toys

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

The question for this week is:

What toys do you remember from your childhood? What did you like to do to entertain yourself? Did you mostly play inside or outside? Did you ride a bike all over the neighborhood? Play baseball in the backyard? Basketball in the driveway? Did you have to “get permission” to play at a friend’s house, or were you and your friends back and forth between houses all the time? If you had siblings, was there a distinction between your toys and theirs? Did you “inherit” any toys from older siblings? What were the “fad” or “must-have” toys of your generation? Did you parents buy them? Was there a toy you always wanted and never got to have?

Just to help you plan, this week is Part 1 – Toys. Next week in Part 2, we’ll look back at Games and Puzzles. Because hopefully, our childhoods involved lots of playtime!

My favorite way to entretain myself was by reading. I preferred to play inside, but my mom sometimes shooed me outside. We did ride bikes around the neighborhood sometimes, but when I visited my cousins in Louisiana, we rode bikes everywhere. I think most of my friends lived too far away for a walk or bike ride, so our moms had to take us back and forth, so that obviously necessitated getting permission. But that was pretty standard in our house, anyway, to get permission to go somewhere. At my cousins’ house, where I spent a good deal of time as a child, most of their friends were within the sound of my aunt’s whistle–that was her signal to come home.

My all-time favorite toys were my Barbie and related dolls and their accessories. My nickname growing up was Barbie. The doll didn’t come out until I was around four, and I don’t know if my nickname came from her or if I was already called that. I did have one carrying case that, when opened, looked like a little closet, and I just loved the little clothes on little hangers and such. I made furniture out of matchboxes. There was a time when they sold kits to “make” Barbie clothes — the seams had some kind of glue stuff on them, so they stuck together rather than being sewed together. I don’t remember really loving those, but that is where I first learned how basic garment construction worked. Friends would bring over their Barbies. We also had Ken dolls and Barbie’s oldest friend, Madge, as well as some of her younger — cousins or something. I can’t remember their names. Francine was one, maybe.

There wasn’t quite all the Barbie paraphernalia there is now, but one toy I always wanted and never got was a Barbie Dream House. And, unrelated to Barbie, I always wanted an Easy Bake Oven and never got one. But one of my cousins got both. Sigh. (Not the cousins in La.)

As an aside, I know some moms don’t like Barbies now because of her…shapeliness and proportions and the supposed self-esteem issues she can cause girls, but, honestly, we never thought or talked about such things. It was just fun to try on the different clothes — and they were much more modest that what’s available these days.

I did have baby dolls before Barbie, but I don’t remember anything about them except that my favorite was named Susie after my cousin, Suzanne.

Another favorite, though not a toy exactly, was a little record player and several children’s records given to me by one aunt. I do remember a plastic tea set that looked like Corningware with the little blue emblem (chosen from the S&H Green Stamp store!), Etch-a-Sketch, Little People, Mr. Potato Head, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs. The last two may have been my brother’s or they may have belonged to all of us, I don’t remember. My brother was four years younger, so with different genders and ages we didn’t really play with the same toys often. He had a lot of plastic green army men and cowboys and Indians, Hot Wheels cars, Tonka trucks. My next sister was an additional four years younger, and then three more sisters followed. I think they probably shared (or fought over) toys, but I didn’t play with the same things then.

When I was a little older, I also loved my Spirograph and spent a lot of time making different designs. My La cousins and I were into paint-by-number kits for a spell.

I tended to be a “saver,” but in my late teens in a fit of cleaning out I gave all the Barbie stuff I had left to my sisters. If any of it survived — which I doubt — it is probably in my mom’s attic, not likely to be found until some day if and when the house is sold. I wish I had kept my first Barbie, because she was one of the first-edition ones in the black and white striped bathing suits.

Though we bought our own children current toys, I also loved to buy some of the classic toys I grew up with, too. They loved Little People, Hot Wheels, Tonka trucks and green army men and played with those for years — most of the others got played with briefly here and there but weren’t favorites. I think their favorites were Legos.

And that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about what I played with. 🙂 But I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. You can join it or see what others played with at Linda‘s.

Book Review: Her Daughter’s Dream

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Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers is the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, which I reviewed earlier here. Though you could say the main subject of both books is mother-daughter conflict, that statement hardly does the books justice.

In the first book, Marta escapes an abusive father to make a life for herself in America with grit and hard work. When her daughter, Hildemara, is born early, sickly, and frail, Marta’s memories of her fragile sister, Elise, and her untimely end make Marta determined that Hildie will grow up strong. Hildie does survive but views her mother’s tough-love as a lack of love, and she leaves home to pursue a dream she loves that her mother initially hates.

At the opening of Her Daughter’s Dream, Hildie is gravely ill and reluctantly allows her husband to call her mother for help. Hildie’s daughter, Carolyn, has experienced trauma unknown to Hildie, but as Oma Marta comes, Carolyn’s nightmares stop and she bonds with Marta during Hildie’s illness, adding to the rift in their relationship. As Carolyn grows up feeling she will never measure up enough to earn her mother’s approval, she drops out of college with free-spirited roommate Chel to protest the war and experience the counter-culture of the 60s. She comes home a few years later lost, broken, and pregnant. As her mother takes care of her daughter, May Flower Dawn, they bond closely, making Carolyn once again feel left out. But as Dawn grows up, she begins to wonder how all these fractured relationships can be healed and prays and works to that end.

As I said with the first book, you just ache with these people for the mistakes that they make and the pain they experience. I envision each woman with her arms wrapped around herself: Marta’s in fear of loss, Hildie’s in bitterness, Carolyn’s in a self-protective cocoon. But when one’s arms are wrapped around oneself, they are not open to other people or to fully receiving all the Lord has in store. Though each woman has faith in God, during major parts of her life she is not actively trusting Him. This really spoke to me about the dangers of grasping self-protection and the need to let go and trust God for the protection that only He can provide.

I enjoyed how Francine Rivers set each generation and its relationship issues in context in its historical setting. This is a wonderfully written epic story.

Exposing kids to evil

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Jesse’s English teacher is requiring his junior students to read six books during the course of the year and write a report on them (and this book-loving mama is cheering!) The genre they needed to choose from this month was a non-fiction book that was not a biography. As we perused our bookshelves and I made recommendations, the book he chose was Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story by Mark Ritchie (my review of the book is here). I forewarned him that the first couple of chapters were very hard to read: the book is written from the shaman’s point of view, and his conferring with his spirits is disconcerting as is the brutal attack of one village on another. But I told him it was recommended by a missionary we knew and trusted and supported and it did get better as you went farther along.

But it had been almost three years since I had read it, and I had forgotten exactly how graphic it was until he shared some parts of the book that disturbed him. As I picked up the book and flipped through it again, I wondered if I had made a mistake letting him read this book and whether he should switch to something else.

I was still pondering that yesterday morning as we drove to school, and I asked him if the book was getting any better. He said yes, and we discussed some of the good aspects, some of the reasons I had recommended the book in the first place — the need the Indians felt within themselves for change, the difference they saw in the lives of others, both white people and other Indians, who believed once the gospel began to be spread. We discussed the presence of evil spirits and how they operate behind the scenes in our culture as well as primitive cultures though they are mostly unrecognized here. We discussed the sickening exploitation of the Indians by others who wanted to prey on them. We even discussed the funny parts, such as how the Indians came up with their names for each other, wondering what names would be attributed to us if we followed their example.

Something we didn’t have time to talk about this morning but I want to bring up soon is what missionaries have to face when they go to such fields — and, really, not just such fields where demonism is open and obvious and rampant, but any area where the gospel is opposed.  The admission that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” in Ephesians 6 is immediately followed by the admonition “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (verses 12-13). I want to discuss how that truth is not just for missionaries; it is for all of us.

I shared with him a familiar verse from A Mighty Fortress Is Our God which stood out in bold relief to me as we sang it in church Sunday:

And though this world with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.

Though, if I had it to do over again I probably would not have recommended this book yet, I am glad that his exposure to some of these things came from a book headed in the right direction such as this one and that we could discuss these issues.

I don’t think we have to wonder how and when to expose our children to the darker side of life. I think somehow it breaks out upon their awareness all too soon — a news report, an awful happening in the community, something that comes up in a TV show that we’re not expecting. I wish we could keep them innocently sheltered in the Hundred Acre Woods much longer, but unfortunately that is not real life.

Sometimes the weight of the evil in the world is so heavy and oppressing. I cannot fathom how Christ bore it all on the cross.

And we have to be careful not to just lament what we think of as excessive evil “out there” while we excuse what we think of as our relatively minor sins. Some of the things the Bible says the Lord hates are pride, lying, wicked imaginations; envy, strife, and divisions are what the Bible calls carnal. Those added to that weight of evil Christ bore as well.

“If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” the Psalmist asks in Psalm 130:3. Thank God he answers, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” And “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4).

What’s On Your Nightstand: September

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What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

Wow, I can’t believe I forgot this again until I saw it at Janet’s!

Here’s what I have finished since last time:

Emma by Jane Austen, reviewed here. A charming, beautiful, rich young woman tries her hand at matchmaking with dismal results — you could say that is the basic plot line, but the book is so much richer than that. Though I have seen it referred to as a comedy, I found much depth in Emma’s maturing. And her dear friend and sharpest critic, Mr. Knightly, lives up to his name as the quintessential English gentleman.

The Unfinished Gift and The Homecoming by Dan Walsh, reviewed here. The first book tells how a death, a war, a grandson, and a box of old letters bring an estranged father and son together; the second continues the story of their family, focusing on the son’s adjusting to life after the death of his wife and the journey of faith of the young woman he hires to be his son’s nanny. Both were great reads.

A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin was reviewed here with the above two as they are all set in the WWII era and I read them one after the other. This was a delightful book of an ordinary, flawed couple who have various relationship problems when they meet (he can’t talk to girls, she is expected to marry a man her parents approve of but whom she does not love). They keep in contact with each other despite a series of misunderstandings and wartime complications.

Hoping for Something Better: Refusing to Settle for Life as Usual, a Bible study through the book of Hebrews by Nancy Guthrie, reviewed here. I cannot recommend this one highly enough. Excellent.

The Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman, a story of “finding treasure in unexpected places,” reviewed here. On the very day a woman packs to leave her philandering husband, he comes home to announce he is dying and wants them to go to their coastal home for treatment, where she finds herself in a series of unexpected and difficult circumstances. I enjoyed her journey and her discoveries.

Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers, reviewed here. A mother’s tough-love attempts to raise her daughter to be strong are understood by the daughter as a lack of love, and their relationship problems affect future generations. Epic story against the backdrop of two world wars. Enjoyed it very much.

The Note by Angela Hunt, reviewed here. A short note of love and forgiveness washes up on the Florida coast after a terrible plane crash, and a newspaper columnist seeks for its intended recipient while being unexpectedly affected by its message herself. Loved it!

I am currently reading and almost finished with Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers, the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, and am still working on Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper. I got bogged down with that one and need to move it to the forefront and finish it.

Next I want to start one of the non-fiction books from my fall reading goals, either Start Somewhere: Losing What’s Weighing You Down from the Inside Out by Calvin Nowell and Gayla Zoz or I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys by Laura Lee Groves. I think next up after one of those will be Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent or The Thorn by Beverly Lewis.

Happy Reading!

The Week In Words

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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.

Here are some that caught my eye this week:

This was from a comment bekah made on Janet‘s Week In Words post from last week:

Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity

I think of this as not just the physical resurrection when our bodies die, but the resurrection power and newness of life that can only come in conjunction with dying to self. We tend to like and want the resurrection part but dread the death that has to precede it, yet there is no resurrection without death.

From Diane:

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

From Quill Cottage:

A stiff apology is a second insult…. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. — G.K. Chesterton

From a friend’s Facebook:

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” – Dorothy Nevill

From another friend’s Facebook:

My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah! –Charles Spurgeon

Hallelujah, indeed, and amen!

And finally, from today’s reading of Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer, this is commenting on John 10:41 and 42, which says, “Many resorted unto Him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things John spake of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there” and the fact that many disparaged John because he did no miracles, yet his witness of Christ was the hallmark of his life and ministry:

Do not try to do a great thing, or you may waste all your life waiting for the opportunity which may never come. But since little things are always claiming your attention, do them as they come from a great motive, for the glory of God and to do good to men. No such action, however trivial, goes without the swift recognition and the ultimate recompense of Christ.

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.