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And the angels sing with me

December 17, 2008 3 Comments

Its been an amazing week around here.

My mom came to town last week so that she could help with the kids while I had my impacted wisdom teeth removed.  It wasn’t a fun experience (duh), but I think I managed it pretty well.  Tomorrow will be a week since the surgery.  My cheek is still bruised… My jaw is a little creaky… I keep getting food stuck back there… but its doing well overall.

So, how funny is it that during this time when I’m talking like I have golf balls in my mouth, one of the most important events of my life (that requires talking!) would take place!

My son has these little worksheets that he gets each week from church.  He loves doing them each week.  They usually include reading the story for the week from the Bible, a few little word games, and then some application questions.  I’ve been helping to teach in his class, and he and I have been talking a lot about salvation, sins, heaven, souls, you name it.  

This weeks lesson was all about restoring our friendships with God.  My two oldest and I were having a great conversation about all sorts of theological issues.  We’ve been discussing it for weeks, and I’ve been trying to let them lead, ask questions, and really sort through their thoughts.  When we got to the end of the little worksheet for the week, it had a place to pray.  Without going into too much detail, they both had prayers that they wanted to pray to Jesus, asking Him into their heart to forgive them of their sins and be their Savior.  It was so humbling to be there for such an important spiritual marker for each of them.  It was not exactly how I would’ve pictured it (with me bruised and hardly able to open my jaw, LOL), but it was absolutely perfect.

So I think we’re going to get them each their own Bible for Christmas.  Joe and I had a huge talk last night about the good and the trials that come from being saved early in life.  We were each saved at around the same ages as our children, and we can guess some of what the road ahead may look like.  We want it to be alive and real in their heart – not just their heads.  We feel like there are so many ways where we are still just starting to -get it-, and we don’t want them to miss out on those living, breathing areas of relationship with God.  

We know that being Christians from an early age really helped us through our tough times in life, and was a vital foundation.  We talked once again about how we want our children to be comfortable discussing doubts, other beliefs, and anything else that comes to their mind.  We try to be the kind of family that is super open about that kind of stuff.  We have a lot of conversations around here about everything from Gandhi’s wisdom to evolution, so I hope that we are able to keep an open dialogue with our children for their whole lives.  We also talked about how the best way to teach them is for us to live it passionately and wildly, lol.  So, hopefully we’ll at least have that part covered!

Anyways, thanks for reading if you made it this far.  It was a special day in our house, and I feel so humbled.

Filed Under: Thoughts

A disappointing ending

December 3, 2008 3 Comments

I finished The Powers That Be. Overall, I’d still recommend the book. I really am not a fan of the last chapter, though. I already returned it to the library. That means I don’t have any cool quotes to share, so we’ll both have to rely on my mommy brain to describe what I read.

Basically, he paints a picture of a weak God, IMO. He said that God would like to answer our prayers, but his hands are pretty much tied because the principalities and powers of nations/organizations/etc. are fighting it out in the heavenlies, and there’s not much God can do while they’re in the midst of it.

His theory is based on Daniel 10

12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

He says that the word used for princes is really talking about angels/principalities/powers, and that when we pray, they are battling it out. He says that God wants to answer our prayers, but has to wait for them to finish wrestling. If you google “Walter Wink Daniel 10″, you should get plenty of results (including the google books result) that will sum up his position quite nicely.

I guess my biggest issue is that it is a really big piece of theology to hang on one chapter from Apocalyptic literature. He might be absolutely right, although I am just not sold on the idea.

I think that ending the book with that particular argument could turn off a lot of people who would’ve been a lot more impressed in his work before that point. I don’t know. Its still a good book, but I didn’t love that chapter.

Filed Under: The Powers That Be - Walter Wink

Recently finished books

December 2, 2008 Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading so much, but I haven’t had a chance to talk about all of them. Here’s a quick recap though of what I covered in the past month or so…

This is such a nice little book. Joe and I each read it in a matter of hours. It covers some really interesting historical facts about Christmas, and then focuses on ways to bring joy to the holiday without making it all commercial. He explains that “hundred dollar” part of the title was really just because it sounded good with the word “holiday”, and you can use any amount that you pick. I really enjoyed his suggestions and ideas for different ways to celebrate Christmas.

This was another fast read. I really enjoyed it, though. Peggy Vincent and I clearly have a few philosophical differences when it comes to midwifery, but I found her story to be very relatable and encouraging. As I continue to consider a path to midwifery, this book gave me pause and helped me to really contemplate what kind of midwife I’d like to be. Good stuff.

I was really enthralled by Heart & Hands. I couldn’t put it down. The funniest part was that I was taking it EVERYWHERE with me, and I was getting the strangest glances, LOL. I was at a birthday party with my daughter and reading about suturing techniques if a woman tears during childbirth. The other moms around me kept scooting in closer and closer to read over my shoulder. They couldn’t figure out what it was. Finally, one of them asked, so I explained what kind of book I was reading, and then I got a good hour of hearing about other women’s birth stories. It made me laugh, because I remember a quote in _Pushed_ that talked about how a midwife’s life is pretty much the same whether they are in or out of jail: they just hear other women’s birth stories. I have found it so intriguing that everyone wants to share their birth story as soon as I mention anything about birth work. Funny.

I’m not quite done with this book yet, but I’m really enjoying reading about all of the different philosophies and paths that bring women to midwifery. It is really helping me to figure out where my passion lies.

OK, I’m going to have to do a few entries on The Ministry of Motherhood, because it really made me think. I love Sally Clarkson’s writings, and I could read her books all day. Joe and I were talking over the weekend about how there are times when you feel convicted to do something, but then your resolve starts to waiver… until you pick up a book that gives you a swift kick in the butt and reminds you of why you wanted to change in the first place. That’s exactly what her books do for me. I start to slack, and then she reminds me to keep running the race!

I just finished my first, official, group Beth Moore study. I bought Breaking Free years ago, and really liked it, but I had never done a group study with the videos and all that jazz. It was a great experience. I loved the daily workbook stuff, and her teachings really coincided with stuff that God has been teaching me elsewhere.

Sadly, this isn’t even all of the books that I’ve read, but lunch is ready, so I have to run! If you’ve been reading anything interesting recently, please comment and let me know! I’m always on the hunt for good books!

Filed Under: Book Talk

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