As I struggled through introspection all week, I realized at the end that I had not done or planned anything sacred for this week. So, I began praying and the sunrise soon came to mind. I asked Mike what place nearby we might see it from best. His mind went straight to the Parkway so this morning we woke up long before the alarms and began our ride to the mountains.
We drove past the house we rented when we moved to North Carolina in dire circumstances, unknowing that it was the beginning of being set apart from the world's systems and traditions. Then, we passed near the camp where the kids summer after summer learned so much of God's Word and how to test their limits of work. We rolled up the Blue Ridge Parkway, the road I used to be so scared of, Mike had "Dead Man Walking" playing, something very different than what he would have then. As we approached the hill called "The Lump" that I used to put McKala in a backpack and hike and that Mike used to take our Jeep Wagoneer to in the snow to escort the kids back up after they slid all the way down, I saw that Megan and Jeremiah were already there along with 4 or 5 other people scattered around. We began the ascent, and I thought of how easy my walk is compared to what Jesus' was.
We went to sit with them right there in the grass. Although the sun was shielded by cloud cover, the rising was a brilliant color, Dawn, my middle name and something I never saw much of until I determined to read God's Word through and through.
It was so quiet, just the wind blowing gently. I thought of how quiet the world was and how we're sent home from our many ways, including pagan traditions, something the Lord warned me of back then in those mountains. There would be no real Easter egg hunts today, no mixing of holy with the unholy, worshipping the created with the Creator, "; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them" (2 Kings 17:25).
I thought of the women approaching the tomb in a similar setting. I didn't know that Mike would ask me to read, but I did have a Bible in my coat pocket. But when I began to read Luke 24, "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, …" I couldn't even make it through that. I regained my composure and started over. Again, I couldn't. And that's when Megan asked me to hand it to her. That allowed me to video the scene and our firstborn's reading of God's Word.
When we left, we drove by the little Blue Ridge Baptist Church (whose pastor baptized both Megan and me in the river) which is right down the road from where we lived, but not before we stopped at a pasture that decades ago was Mike's great grandfather's. There was a fresh calf, no more than a day or two old, so happy to be alive, clumsily running around, face white as snow. We stopped later at a couple of other overlooks and stayed at one for a good while, leaving the radio up and worshipping, Mike more than any of us.
We came down the mountain by the church we called home for five years where four of the children were graciously baptized all in the same baptismal at the same time. Macklynn then Madalynn were baptized there, too. We came home to eat a little something and watch Franklin Graham preach from Central Park. Now that Melody has been given the green light to GO as a medical technician, it's of particular interest! She was afraid none of us would want her to GO. Turns out everyone did! How can I ask her not to GO, when I've told her the words of Jesus to GO her whole life? As much as I love home, a willingness to GO is what defines who we really are and not going where it's easy but going where it's scary and with a skill the sick, poor, and oppressed need.
She's out of work right now and out of school. What better time? Meanwhile, everyone else is working having virtually no debt, with some money stored up. They all love the outdoors and know how to utilize it, know how to cook and to cut hair, at the very least trim. They all can change their own oil and rotate their tires and are basically self sufficient. This is all well and good but nothing without the Lord. To see that they are observing Him today and trusting in His teaching is what this mother longs for and blesses her most.
A new day is dawning for our family. The thing about the low, dark places is that they make the high places seem all the higher. And I have to write about them! I have literally nothing from my ancestors other than some light-hearted correspondences. Well, I do have The Ideal Life that was Mike's great-grandmother's, but it's such a large, imposing book that it's been left mostly unread in my pursuit of studying the Bible.
This journey, this moving around from place to place, church to church; I think people might feel sorry for me, especially people who know the details. What they may or may not know though is that Jesus has been working on me, making me like Him, working things out of me, working in the whole family's favor including Mike's ...so, these things were necessary.
I don't know why I just NOW realized that we have as many as 5 weddings left to have, 7 high school and college graduations, and 6 more families with babies. This really is just the beginning! I feel like I'm coming out of a tunnel and everything looks big and new and good and bright. I'm truly happy, rather than just putting one foot in front of the other, for the first time in a good, long while.
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Tell Somebody
People ask what's my favorite color, place to eat - where I want to travel, what I want to do. I usually don't have a straight answer. I like to look at blue, but I like to wear pink. I like good food; I mostly like my own. I don't care where I travel; I'll spend eternity with Jesus on a new earth; I don't know what I want to "do." I know what I don't want to do and that's spend the rest of life cooped up in the house ever learning. School is so belabored that the very life of a person is sucked out, creating a sedentary existence because ": of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh" (Ecc. 12:12).
In my life I've tried so many things: food and drink, beauty and men, and intellect and talent. Like Solomon though, I've found this only, "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13) with the one thing that's missing from this mandatory staying at home: telling somebody. Yes, I could write, and I thought that was what I wanted to "do," but the sadder I've gotten and the harder I've searched, I finally realized what I'm actually missing is telling people about Jesus everywhere I go. I don't even mean to. It just gushes out. And I don't mean to the church people; that's good, like when I run into Eva all around town or when I have deep talks with Andrea at art class, but I mean to anyone who'll listen: the young pregnant mother buying the same scrub brush as I at Dollar General, the teenager selling me shoes, the single mom at the football game, the girl at the pool, and the lady on vacation.
I don't leave the house with some prepared message or agenda, so I'm always surprised when God gives me an opening! THAT is what's missing, and I didn't even know it until today. It is why though I'm careful to leave a "margin," extra time for encounters, ever since I heard a sermon about it. What I'm bad to do though is not leave a margin for home. When the grown kids call, they ask what I'm doing, and I'll answer them then often say, "Talk fast." And to the ones who live here, I'm liable to say, "Spit it out," when I'm interrupted from a task.
See, I actually love being at home and totally agree that it's a good place for everyone to be right now not only to protect each other but to appreciate our own families' company. I'm good with, okay with, not always great at: cleaning, teaching, and cooking. But I didn't know that I'm not good with having no one new to tell the Good News to face to face, the way Paul longed to do in his letters.
From these experiences, I don't even need the relationship or necessary follow up or encouragement of my own. It encourages me when I am able tell somebody that God is relevant to their lives and what He's done in mine. To know that it pleases Him is my joy and breaks any monotony or sense of duty I feel with the other components of my life. It's a pressure valve that I didn't even know I required. Even my children, I love them and they love me, but they can only take so much of my teaching and talking. All I really want them to learn though is that every conversation they have everywhere they go counts, that God get the glory somehow some way.
People have different expressions of their love for God whether through music or art or any number of things. Not everybody writes like I do. Not everybody talks as readily as I do. But EVERY Christian should be about the business of talking readily, introvert or no. He is worthy of praise to every ear that will listen in every place that we stand. We can smile and help people all day long but without the utterance of the Gospel, it is in the end for our own glory.
I think everybody knows by now how I feel about a woman taking care of her own. But that's just a baseline, like tithing is to giving. To do it well is so much more than developing gifts, skills, and intelligence in our children but is teaching and exemplifying the sharing of God's goodness always with all people, not solely as part of some ministry but as part of the Kingdom of God. Everything else is vanity. I have to be reminded though when I become works based and even create a self imposed prison, indoors trying to get the lesson done, the room cleaned, or the call made.
Having this slow down has revealed to me that I'm not living the life I love. I love the outdoors. I love communication. The latter has been temporarily taken to a degree, from me and from everyone. But the former is something I've done to myself, only seeing the pretty days through a window because I gotta get that A. It's made me hate school, which oughta be matter-of-fact, let's-get-this-over-with simple.
You know, I said I was going to keep dancing after Megan's wedding, but instead I went to the gym and then not even that. I said I'd start singing again, but I'm forever reading. I said I'd start drawing again, but even that became work stuck in between the assignments I have due and the responsibilities of home. Some days eating has seemed like my only pleasure, something I thought I had kicked but the stressful, sedentary life reintroduces. And it's not just mom doing college. So many home school moms think we have to recreate a school environment at home - again, sucking the very life out of everything. And, of course, there's the other extreme, not requiring much at all, myself guilty of just throwing up my hands. And sometimes something even worse happens; we get proud and our children get proud, set apart not out of humility and preparedness to affect the world but just plain snubbing our noses at the world and missing the very essence of homeschooling: to be light in the present darkness, not only to people we like but also to people we don't.
Here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna go on walks with no particular outcome in mind; I'm gonna turn the radio back on; I'm gonna sit in the sun; I'm gonna teach Madalynn more about cooking rather than keeping that time for myself; I'm gonna make food my friend again; I'm not gonna be so serious; and I'm not going to get all As (computer class has already taken care of that). I'm gonna laugh more and enjoy my family because time with them is impossibly fleeting but so is time to tell the world.
You, when everything opens back up, be ready. Tell somebody while there is time and opportunity. I believe there will come a day when Christian speech will be considered hate speech. So, don't be that somebody who won't tell anybody until there's nobody and no time left to tell without persecution. What will we say before the Lord when we have brought no one with us to His feet? Is that even possible for someone who has learned the grace of God not to have convinced somebody somewhere to follow also? At the very least, we can be planting seeds for those who harvest. Ask yourself during this time what your walk ought to look like when you're unleashed on society once more. It ought to be characterized as a burning flame. Study up and pray up and be and stay available not just to your family but with your family to the lost and perishing world.
In my life I've tried so many things: food and drink, beauty and men, and intellect and talent. Like Solomon though, I've found this only, "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13) with the one thing that's missing from this mandatory staying at home: telling somebody. Yes, I could write, and I thought that was what I wanted to "do," but the sadder I've gotten and the harder I've searched, I finally realized what I'm actually missing is telling people about Jesus everywhere I go. I don't even mean to. It just gushes out. And I don't mean to the church people; that's good, like when I run into Eva all around town or when I have deep talks with Andrea at art class, but I mean to anyone who'll listen: the young pregnant mother buying the same scrub brush as I at Dollar General, the teenager selling me shoes, the single mom at the football game, the girl at the pool, and the lady on vacation.
I don't leave the house with some prepared message or agenda, so I'm always surprised when God gives me an opening! THAT is what's missing, and I didn't even know it until today. It is why though I'm careful to leave a "margin," extra time for encounters, ever since I heard a sermon about it. What I'm bad to do though is not leave a margin for home. When the grown kids call, they ask what I'm doing, and I'll answer them then often say, "Talk fast." And to the ones who live here, I'm liable to say, "Spit it out," when I'm interrupted from a task.
See, I actually love being at home and totally agree that it's a good place for everyone to be right now not only to protect each other but to appreciate our own families' company. I'm good with, okay with, not always great at: cleaning, teaching, and cooking. But I didn't know that I'm not good with having no one new to tell the Good News to face to face, the way Paul longed to do in his letters.
From these experiences, I don't even need the relationship or necessary follow up or encouragement of my own. It encourages me when I am able tell somebody that God is relevant to their lives and what He's done in mine. To know that it pleases Him is my joy and breaks any monotony or sense of duty I feel with the other components of my life. It's a pressure valve that I didn't even know I required. Even my children, I love them and they love me, but they can only take so much of my teaching and talking. All I really want them to learn though is that every conversation they have everywhere they go counts, that God get the glory somehow some way.
People have different expressions of their love for God whether through music or art or any number of things. Not everybody writes like I do. Not everybody talks as readily as I do. But EVERY Christian should be about the business of talking readily, introvert or no. He is worthy of praise to every ear that will listen in every place that we stand. We can smile and help people all day long but without the utterance of the Gospel, it is in the end for our own glory.
I think everybody knows by now how I feel about a woman taking care of her own. But that's just a baseline, like tithing is to giving. To do it well is so much more than developing gifts, skills, and intelligence in our children but is teaching and exemplifying the sharing of God's goodness always with all people, not solely as part of some ministry but as part of the Kingdom of God. Everything else is vanity. I have to be reminded though when I become works based and even create a self imposed prison, indoors trying to get the lesson done, the room cleaned, or the call made.
Having this slow down has revealed to me that I'm not living the life I love. I love the outdoors. I love communication. The latter has been temporarily taken to a degree, from me and from everyone. But the former is something I've done to myself, only seeing the pretty days through a window because I gotta get that A. It's made me hate school, which oughta be matter-of-fact, let's-get-this-over-with simple.
You know, I said I was going to keep dancing after Megan's wedding, but instead I went to the gym and then not even that. I said I'd start singing again, but I'm forever reading. I said I'd start drawing again, but even that became work stuck in between the assignments I have due and the responsibilities of home. Some days eating has seemed like my only pleasure, something I thought I had kicked but the stressful, sedentary life reintroduces. And it's not just mom doing college. So many home school moms think we have to recreate a school environment at home - again, sucking the very life out of everything. And, of course, there's the other extreme, not requiring much at all, myself guilty of just throwing up my hands. And sometimes something even worse happens; we get proud and our children get proud, set apart not out of humility and preparedness to affect the world but just plain snubbing our noses at the world and missing the very essence of homeschooling: to be light in the present darkness, not only to people we like but also to people we don't.
Here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna go on walks with no particular outcome in mind; I'm gonna turn the radio back on; I'm gonna sit in the sun; I'm gonna teach Madalynn more about cooking rather than keeping that time for myself; I'm gonna make food my friend again; I'm not gonna be so serious; and I'm not going to get all As (computer class has already taken care of that). I'm gonna laugh more and enjoy my family because time with them is impossibly fleeting but so is time to tell the world.
You, when everything opens back up, be ready. Tell somebody while there is time and opportunity. I believe there will come a day when Christian speech will be considered hate speech. So, don't be that somebody who won't tell anybody until there's nobody and no time left to tell without persecution. What will we say before the Lord when we have brought no one with us to His feet? Is that even possible for someone who has learned the grace of God not to have convinced somebody somewhere to follow also? At the very least, we can be planting seeds for those who harvest. Ask yourself during this time what your walk ought to look like when you're unleashed on society once more. It ought to be characterized as a burning flame. Study up and pray up and be and stay available not just to your family but with your family to the lost and perishing world.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Isolation
I got sick just as the Corona isolation safeguards began and stayed sick for a full 13 days. I didn't get tested; I just stayed at home - what I have heard called a "luxury" but is most definitely a sacrificial choice, a lifetime one.
I sneezed and hacked all day and coughed myself to sleep most nights, and since it was productive, I didn't medicate. I warded all the older kids off, each having reasons to come by for one thing or the other. I wouldn't let Michael whose university, with all NC ones, has gone online come home either. So, he's stayed there working and cooking and studying. The other day Macklynn and Madalynn Facetimed the whole family. Michael had a paint roller in his hand; Miranda was on the tread mill at the fire department; Megan was delivering freight with her husband, Jeremiah; McKala was potty training the twins; and Melody, well I'm not sure. Poor girl nearly got taken out by a semi truck earlier this month and has appointments with her neurologist, an orthopedist, and, of all things, a cardiologist. She appears to have early stages of heart trouble, the electrical kind passed down from Mike's father's family.
Mike, he's making the best of his bad situation. For several months with the church van, he and the kids pick up grocery store donations for the Food Pantry at church. They/we do the heavy lifting since he can't. He does a lot of tinkering and is planning our summer garden but is not in the same condition he was for last summer's. Funny that I wrote a couple of years ago of all the things I thought we'd do together in our new circumstances. But he's still a man, and I'm still a woman; I'm still the cook, and he's still Mr. Fixit; and that's ok. Egalitarianism is not as cut and dry as the sociologists would like it to be. I don't believe it ever will be. Men and women are born with, not trained into, certain dispositions.
There's a frustration: once Mike qualified for Social Security Disability, he was disqualified from Medicaid. What kind of politics is that? He doesn't get Medicare for 24 months. It sounds like a way for people to die without healthcare before they can live on Medicare. I'm not talking about universal healthcare; I'm talking about a man who worked from the time he was 15 years old and put into the system. So, this leads to politics and where I might need to get involved. And sometimes I think this is part of where things are headed for me even though I will never believe that politics fixes things rather than God. Speaking of, we've come to a point of choosing sides in politics. It's no longer about a policy here and a policy there. With the exception of a couple of Democrats, the party at large has given its stamp of approval on the slaughter of children. There is no way past that for a true Christian. Period. Our nation is in danger of judgment.
"They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: but they were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance and he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were bought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:" (Psalm 106: 34-44). Our cry is not only to pray and to obey but to vote because we no longer "destroy the nations." And we make disciples of all people, our neighbors, our children.
Are we making disciples of our children? Daily devotions and weekly church attendance won't get it in today's environment; it never did anyway or we wouldn't be in the fix we're in. It's a lifestyle; it's accountability; it's counsel; it's training; it's discipline; it's Christian education; it's treating family better than friends; it's having friends that are going the same direction.
So, everybody's home now. What are we doing with that time? Now's the time for you to inspect what your children are being taught in the secular system. I already know; we did k12 online for 2 years. I'm fulltime at Wilkes Community College also. Michael warned me I'd hate 95% of it. Perfect prediction. If you want to be "re-educated," go to college. If you must go or send your child, there'd better be a willingness and readiness to fight the good fight because that's exactly what it's going to be, an all-out assault on the existence of the One True God and His Word. I have examples hand over fist.
It's not only the education; it's the culture, wearing away at the sturdiest of characters. The only thing I have gained from public college is becoming a better apologist. Go to a Christian college. Yes, if you have the money and if they're teaching the truth (a lot of them don't), but don't expect to go out and lead a group of people when you have no experience. That's what putting in your time is about. "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity" (2 Peter 1:5-7). These things do not happen during the course of a few years of college; these things happen over the course of decades working and dealing with family, coworkers, and neighbors.
If institutional education were a matter of a few hours before lunch with great reverence toward God, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:" (Proverbs 1:7), then I might be on board, but because it is designed literally to keep children while parents work (say history and sociology books), it inherently prevents them from living the lives they were meant to. Are there greater behavior issues for your household than those of transition to home right now? The children are not trained to live together and obey. Are there issues with boredom? The children don't know what do with their time without being told.
Wait a minute, homeschool mom. We can be guilty of very similar things. Do we train our children or let them do what they want to? Do we give our children spare time, or do we fill it up with the things the world makes us believe we have to accomplish? Our own family has been in danger of these things lately. We no longer have little kids nor farm animals, which automatically lend themselves to work and play. What has happened in this slow down of running Madalynn to lessons and Macklynn to the high school at lunch and back after practice is a slower pace at our own home: time to fish and target practice and till and watch CSPAN. People can argue all day about what news to watch (and we do have a preference), but have your kids heard the politicians? Do they know why socialism won't work? Because school is teaching them straight up one side and down the other that it does! Do they understand what's going on? Why not?
Are you reading the Bible and with your children? Little kids can pick up on a lot. They are not dumb and do not need to be dismissed from the room when hard things are read or talked about. Just start somewhere and read the Bible. Old books advised all these things I'm saying. But so many of us read what's on the New York Times Best Seller List. Is it fixing our tiredness, our depression, our disillusionment that these lives we chose are not what we thought they'd be, so we'll just keep powering up with coffee and antidepressants and wait for retirement?
There's a better way, a way that was hidden from us, a way that no one told me about and maybe no one told you about. Why go and work for someone else when you can be quite frankly the queen of your own castle? That is the gift that God gave you. The curse was for men to work by the sweat of their brow and for women to suffer pain in childbirth, but we add to it. Yes, we've proven that we can do what men do, but should we? In seasons of our lives, we might; but in the season of our childbearing, let's enjoy the ride.
Money? Don't pull that one on me. All money is God's, and he can and will provide through your husband. Try Him. He says to. Question to you: do you help your husband make money or spend money? By that I mean, do you work together for a bigger house and nicer cars and vacations and clothes and gas and all manner of things? How can you help your husband save money? Are you willing to have a lesser house, a lesser car, fewer clothes, and local vacations. And by the way, substitutes like these would make a huge impact on the environmental "footprint" everyone's so up in arms about.
Your husband won't let you stay home? Now, that is a snag. His parents never taught or showed him the importance of it, or he has strayed from the truth. Are you willing to pray for him as your own heart is changed by the Lord? Whatever you do, do not nag to or complain about him. And whatever else you do, do not make him your excuse, when you have no intention whatsoever of giving up your "rights," "status," "freedom," and "security," all the while claiming it's for the kids and their futures.
Right now, Macklynn is running up and down the yard with Michael's puppy and has a makeshift gym in the basement to accomplish his Weight Lifting class requirements. His Foods teacher has sent a packet of assignments home. He made pancakes yesterday and apple dumplings today. He's becoming a good cook just like his brother. And he's taking training for football seriously, just like his brother. I have plenty of textbooks of my own to fill up his days, but I'm not going to. I am going through them and making my own outlines for study and memorization, to make the process more efficient, something I wish I had done with our older children instead of procrastinating out of frustration. It just requires a little preparation, like a popular homeschool speaker says, "All you have to do is stay a week ahead of the kids."
We're in 1 Kings. Over the last many months, I have read with Macklynn and Madalynn from Genesis to 1 Kings, stopping to discuss and interject current events and issues. I like for them to read to me out of the New Testament. This is doable. Don't let Satan steal this time from you. You are adequate. When your children were born, God made you a teacher and he knew the patience and wisdom you would need. You just have to stick around long enough to develop it. It's not easy. And it's not just a natural thing or luxury thing for the ones of us who do. It's a daily dying to self and seeking of the Lord.
It's interesting that I set up Skype lessons for Madalynn and her cello before this whole pandemic thing got serious. All these online sessions do not take the place of personal relationships, but they make this isolation much more bearable.
Mike is taking it easy, but his mind never stops, especially listening to all the political jargon. His defibrillator went off for the first time not once but twice this week. The changing of medicines and the ups and downs of health play on a person's attitude, even when they wish they didn't, and it seems like especially when they've been making progress.
Megan and Jeremiah are on the road delivering those essential products and had a family give them lunch in a truck stop yesterday. Miranda works for both the fire department and EMS, so she's on call for her community. McKala's husband, Timothy, is a lineman for Duke and is doing essential work also, while she does her essential work of raising, teaching, and training up their children and has a warm supper and clean house ready for him at the end of the day. As I said, Michael is still in his apartment at school working, studying, and cooking. Melody is a little distraught about not getting to work. Thankfully, her EMT classes were already going to be online (and so are Miranda's). Where her life seems to have taken another nosedive, a young man has found her and made a commitment to her. He might just be what I've been praying for her.
If you noticed a trend in the kinds of jobs our children have, it is not a coincidence, especially with our daughters. Before you lose your minds, keep in mind that our daughters do the jobs that men do, but they never set out to have the careers men OR women have, not only to stay out of school debt but to be available for their would-be families, and to do jobs in the meantime that God has gifted them at, all the better if they be ministry related as when Megan worked for SP and when Miranda worked for the Crisis Pregnancy Center which put in her heart to become an ultrasound technician for pregnancy ministry purposes wherever that might lead.
Isolation: maybe it's because we had several small children and lived in the mountains during Y2K, no, definitely because of, but we have always had a stock of certain things. At all times, I have at least three gallons of bleach. I keep particular medicines. I have potato flakes, pasta, dry beans, rice, dry milk, sugar, flour, and things to make these things appetizing.
Let this be a wake-up call; get out of debt. Put up some things for these rainy days. Put on the whole armor of God, and make sure your children have it on voluntarily and are solid in their own faith before you send them out into a world they are not, as children, called to save.
And remember this and warn others, "When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they disposed all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" (Proverbs 1:27-33).
I sneezed and hacked all day and coughed myself to sleep most nights, and since it was productive, I didn't medicate. I warded all the older kids off, each having reasons to come by for one thing or the other. I wouldn't let Michael whose university, with all NC ones, has gone online come home either. So, he's stayed there working and cooking and studying. The other day Macklynn and Madalynn Facetimed the whole family. Michael had a paint roller in his hand; Miranda was on the tread mill at the fire department; Megan was delivering freight with her husband, Jeremiah; McKala was potty training the twins; and Melody, well I'm not sure. Poor girl nearly got taken out by a semi truck earlier this month and has appointments with her neurologist, an orthopedist, and, of all things, a cardiologist. She appears to have early stages of heart trouble, the electrical kind passed down from Mike's father's family.
Mike, he's making the best of his bad situation. For several months with the church van, he and the kids pick up grocery store donations for the Food Pantry at church. They/we do the heavy lifting since he can't. He does a lot of tinkering and is planning our summer garden but is not in the same condition he was for last summer's. Funny that I wrote a couple of years ago of all the things I thought we'd do together in our new circumstances. But he's still a man, and I'm still a woman; I'm still the cook, and he's still Mr. Fixit; and that's ok. Egalitarianism is not as cut and dry as the sociologists would like it to be. I don't believe it ever will be. Men and women are born with, not trained into, certain dispositions.
There's a frustration: once Mike qualified for Social Security Disability, he was disqualified from Medicaid. What kind of politics is that? He doesn't get Medicare for 24 months. It sounds like a way for people to die without healthcare before they can live on Medicare. I'm not talking about universal healthcare; I'm talking about a man who worked from the time he was 15 years old and put into the system. So, this leads to politics and where I might need to get involved. And sometimes I think this is part of where things are headed for me even though I will never believe that politics fixes things rather than God. Speaking of, we've come to a point of choosing sides in politics. It's no longer about a policy here and a policy there. With the exception of a couple of Democrats, the party at large has given its stamp of approval on the slaughter of children. There is no way past that for a true Christian. Period. Our nation is in danger of judgment.
"They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: but they were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance and he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were bought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:" (Psalm 106: 34-44). Our cry is not only to pray and to obey but to vote because we no longer "destroy the nations." And we make disciples of all people, our neighbors, our children.
Are we making disciples of our children? Daily devotions and weekly church attendance won't get it in today's environment; it never did anyway or we wouldn't be in the fix we're in. It's a lifestyle; it's accountability; it's counsel; it's training; it's discipline; it's Christian education; it's treating family better than friends; it's having friends that are going the same direction.
So, everybody's home now. What are we doing with that time? Now's the time for you to inspect what your children are being taught in the secular system. I already know; we did k12 online for 2 years. I'm fulltime at Wilkes Community College also. Michael warned me I'd hate 95% of it. Perfect prediction. If you want to be "re-educated," go to college. If you must go or send your child, there'd better be a willingness and readiness to fight the good fight because that's exactly what it's going to be, an all-out assault on the existence of the One True God and His Word. I have examples hand over fist.
It's not only the education; it's the culture, wearing away at the sturdiest of characters. The only thing I have gained from public college is becoming a better apologist. Go to a Christian college. Yes, if you have the money and if they're teaching the truth (a lot of them don't), but don't expect to go out and lead a group of people when you have no experience. That's what putting in your time is about. "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity" (2 Peter 1:5-7). These things do not happen during the course of a few years of college; these things happen over the course of decades working and dealing with family, coworkers, and neighbors.
If institutional education were a matter of a few hours before lunch with great reverence toward God, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:" (Proverbs 1:7), then I might be on board, but because it is designed literally to keep children while parents work (say history and sociology books), it inherently prevents them from living the lives they were meant to. Are there greater behavior issues for your household than those of transition to home right now? The children are not trained to live together and obey. Are there issues with boredom? The children don't know what do with their time without being told.
Wait a minute, homeschool mom. We can be guilty of very similar things. Do we train our children or let them do what they want to? Do we give our children spare time, or do we fill it up with the things the world makes us believe we have to accomplish? Our own family has been in danger of these things lately. We no longer have little kids nor farm animals, which automatically lend themselves to work and play. What has happened in this slow down of running Madalynn to lessons and Macklynn to the high school at lunch and back after practice is a slower pace at our own home: time to fish and target practice and till and watch CSPAN. People can argue all day about what news to watch (and we do have a preference), but have your kids heard the politicians? Do they know why socialism won't work? Because school is teaching them straight up one side and down the other that it does! Do they understand what's going on? Why not?
Are you reading the Bible and with your children? Little kids can pick up on a lot. They are not dumb and do not need to be dismissed from the room when hard things are read or talked about. Just start somewhere and read the Bible. Old books advised all these things I'm saying. But so many of us read what's on the New York Times Best Seller List. Is it fixing our tiredness, our depression, our disillusionment that these lives we chose are not what we thought they'd be, so we'll just keep powering up with coffee and antidepressants and wait for retirement?
There's a better way, a way that was hidden from us, a way that no one told me about and maybe no one told you about. Why go and work for someone else when you can be quite frankly the queen of your own castle? That is the gift that God gave you. The curse was for men to work by the sweat of their brow and for women to suffer pain in childbirth, but we add to it. Yes, we've proven that we can do what men do, but should we? In seasons of our lives, we might; but in the season of our childbearing, let's enjoy the ride.
Money? Don't pull that one on me. All money is God's, and he can and will provide through your husband. Try Him. He says to. Question to you: do you help your husband make money or spend money? By that I mean, do you work together for a bigger house and nicer cars and vacations and clothes and gas and all manner of things? How can you help your husband save money? Are you willing to have a lesser house, a lesser car, fewer clothes, and local vacations. And by the way, substitutes like these would make a huge impact on the environmental "footprint" everyone's so up in arms about.
Your husband won't let you stay home? Now, that is a snag. His parents never taught or showed him the importance of it, or he has strayed from the truth. Are you willing to pray for him as your own heart is changed by the Lord? Whatever you do, do not nag to or complain about him. And whatever else you do, do not make him your excuse, when you have no intention whatsoever of giving up your "rights," "status," "freedom," and "security," all the while claiming it's for the kids and their futures.
Right now, Macklynn is running up and down the yard with Michael's puppy and has a makeshift gym in the basement to accomplish his Weight Lifting class requirements. His Foods teacher has sent a packet of assignments home. He made pancakes yesterday and apple dumplings today. He's becoming a good cook just like his brother. And he's taking training for football seriously, just like his brother. I have plenty of textbooks of my own to fill up his days, but I'm not going to. I am going through them and making my own outlines for study and memorization, to make the process more efficient, something I wish I had done with our older children instead of procrastinating out of frustration. It just requires a little preparation, like a popular homeschool speaker says, "All you have to do is stay a week ahead of the kids."
We're in 1 Kings. Over the last many months, I have read with Macklynn and Madalynn from Genesis to 1 Kings, stopping to discuss and interject current events and issues. I like for them to read to me out of the New Testament. This is doable. Don't let Satan steal this time from you. You are adequate. When your children were born, God made you a teacher and he knew the patience and wisdom you would need. You just have to stick around long enough to develop it. It's not easy. And it's not just a natural thing or luxury thing for the ones of us who do. It's a daily dying to self and seeking of the Lord.
It's interesting that I set up Skype lessons for Madalynn and her cello before this whole pandemic thing got serious. All these online sessions do not take the place of personal relationships, but they make this isolation much more bearable.
Mike is taking it easy, but his mind never stops, especially listening to all the political jargon. His defibrillator went off for the first time not once but twice this week. The changing of medicines and the ups and downs of health play on a person's attitude, even when they wish they didn't, and it seems like especially when they've been making progress.
Megan and Jeremiah are on the road delivering those essential products and had a family give them lunch in a truck stop yesterday. Miranda works for both the fire department and EMS, so she's on call for her community. McKala's husband, Timothy, is a lineman for Duke and is doing essential work also, while she does her essential work of raising, teaching, and training up their children and has a warm supper and clean house ready for him at the end of the day. As I said, Michael is still in his apartment at school working, studying, and cooking. Melody is a little distraught about not getting to work. Thankfully, her EMT classes were already going to be online (and so are Miranda's). Where her life seems to have taken another nosedive, a young man has found her and made a commitment to her. He might just be what I've been praying for her.
If you noticed a trend in the kinds of jobs our children have, it is not a coincidence, especially with our daughters. Before you lose your minds, keep in mind that our daughters do the jobs that men do, but they never set out to have the careers men OR women have, not only to stay out of school debt but to be available for their would-be families, and to do jobs in the meantime that God has gifted them at, all the better if they be ministry related as when Megan worked for SP and when Miranda worked for the Crisis Pregnancy Center which put in her heart to become an ultrasound technician for pregnancy ministry purposes wherever that might lead.
Isolation: maybe it's because we had several small children and lived in the mountains during Y2K, no, definitely because of, but we have always had a stock of certain things. At all times, I have at least three gallons of bleach. I keep particular medicines. I have potato flakes, pasta, dry beans, rice, dry milk, sugar, flour, and things to make these things appetizing.
Let this be a wake-up call; get out of debt. Put up some things for these rainy days. Put on the whole armor of God, and make sure your children have it on voluntarily and are solid in their own faith before you send them out into a world they are not, as children, called to save.
And remember this and warn others, "When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they disposed all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" (Proverbs 1:27-33).
Saturday, October 19, 2019
The Problem with Procrastination
Within minutes of waking, I got a message to find out what Madalynn and I are doing today. I hated to respond with the list I have, because today would've been a great day to go spend time with McKala and the twins. Not long after that, I returned Megan's call and found out she's traveling through and stopping in for the night and day tomorrow and wanted to know what we're doing. Once again, I hated to tell her that Mike and I left some assignments to finish today, never mind that our shower needs to be cleaned and yardwork needs to be finished.
I know for some people that's what Saturdays are for. And sometimes they are, but I'm not a fan of reserving them for that. Many times, we would be traveling to WCU to watch Michael play, but I consider that family time, so that's all good.
All this leads me to how my weekdays are going. I just can't seem to get things done, which is an indicator that I need to become more efficient or to rid even more things from my life. I've even been having dreams/nightmares about cleaning and organizing! I need things to be so minimal that I have margin in my life. I don't need every moment planned out or everything thing done perfectly, but I do need to have some things under control, so that I might take advantage of life when it calls.
Sunday is not an option. I still do all I can to receive the gift of rest God has given mankind. My rest might look different that yours. Often my rest looks like doing something that I would ordinarily set down to help someone else. It often is something creative, maybe unnecessary to some.
Today for Macklynn was supposed to be a day of purging his room, and it's also his turn to clean their bathroom. However, yesterday he got an invitation to go bear hunting. How could I not let him go? I won't clean the bathroom for him, and I surely won't clean his room for him. But he'll get to it soon enough. Because like the quote McKala posted about our kayaking trip last Sunday, "Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show," sometimes you gotta just drop everything.
You can't plan the things you're inspired to do either, like Madalynn who is learning the cello. It's a fine line between the disciplines of practice and the times when passion flows out of you. So, as much as I would like for her to have a set time, she really comes alive at night and loves to play while we're all sleeping. That's how my writing goes. I could reserve a time for it like I did Tuesday to document the weekend, but that's exactly what it sounded like, documentation - dry, void of life. So, if I'm going to do this writing and have anything become of it, then sometimes I'm going to have to drop everything and ask myself like Joshua asked the children of Joseph, "How long are you slack to go and possess the land?" (Joshua 18:3).
You gotta get the daily stuff under control so that you might "possess" all that you are indwelled to become.
I know for some people that's what Saturdays are for. And sometimes they are, but I'm not a fan of reserving them for that. Many times, we would be traveling to WCU to watch Michael play, but I consider that family time, so that's all good.
All this leads me to how my weekdays are going. I just can't seem to get things done, which is an indicator that I need to become more efficient or to rid even more things from my life. I've even been having dreams/nightmares about cleaning and organizing! I need things to be so minimal that I have margin in my life. I don't need every moment planned out or everything thing done perfectly, but I do need to have some things under control, so that I might take advantage of life when it calls.
Sunday is not an option. I still do all I can to receive the gift of rest God has given mankind. My rest might look different that yours. Often my rest looks like doing something that I would ordinarily set down to help someone else. It often is something creative, maybe unnecessary to some.
Today for Macklynn was supposed to be a day of purging his room, and it's also his turn to clean their bathroom. However, yesterday he got an invitation to go bear hunting. How could I not let him go? I won't clean the bathroom for him, and I surely won't clean his room for him. But he'll get to it soon enough. Because like the quote McKala posted about our kayaking trip last Sunday, "Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show," sometimes you gotta just drop everything.
You can't plan the things you're inspired to do either, like Madalynn who is learning the cello. It's a fine line between the disciplines of practice and the times when passion flows out of you. So, as much as I would like for her to have a set time, she really comes alive at night and loves to play while we're all sleeping. That's how my writing goes. I could reserve a time for it like I did Tuesday to document the weekend, but that's exactly what it sounded like, documentation - dry, void of life. So, if I'm going to do this writing and have anything become of it, then sometimes I'm going to have to drop everything and ask myself like Joshua asked the children of Joseph, "How long are you slack to go and possess the land?" (Joshua 18:3).
You gotta get the daily stuff under control so that you might "possess" all that you are indwelled to become.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
her.
A farmer's daughter and an orphan, of sorts, in smalltown, Alabama, bore her.
A pony and peaceful enough life, of what can be remembered, were given her.
Daddy's new job changed farm life to suburb life for her.
"You are smart and pretty," over and over was told her.
Before anyone knew it, every contest was won her.
And soon, every eye was toward her.
Everyone wanted a piece of her,
especially men.
So, at the early age of 12, sneaking out became a game to her.
But at 13, again the new girl, everything got serious when friends convinced her
that an older guy would be a good first "experience" for her.
Instead, pregnancy was the experience found her.
Taken to an abortion clinic was the solution given her.
All she can remember is the lie that was sold to her
to convince her there was never a child inside of her.
And the shame, the shame that someone, maybe the teacher,
might figure out what weeks out of PE meant for that 8th grader.
Somehow, down it never slowed her.
The life of the party, the weekend drinker became her.
Not many boys for her, mostly men, and they liked her.
Before she knew it, she had been with as many men as the years before her.
Confession to someone was all she could think of to help her,
but all she remembers is the door closing, no Bible opened, no prayer for her,
at least not with her.
A blur are so many things to her.
But one day, that day her dad finally went away, was the day for her
she went and stayed with a man who was of no desire to her,
just a body, just a comfort, when everything seemed lost to her.
Achievements were earned by her.
Good grades were easy for her.
But none of it was relevant to her.
Broken and beyond all the norms, nothing spoke to her,
until
A man told her that he loved her.
He was exciting, completely different from what was known to her.
Chances are that she was more into him and he into her
than either of them was actually in love with the other.
But he married her
a month after her high school graduated her.
College in the big city was awaiting her.
So, she went, and within six months felt certain another baby was within her.
A classmate informed her they'd test her
at a clinic down the street, where they told her
a baby was bad for her.
And even her mother wasn't sure for her.
But that baby was hers.
No doubt she was having her.
School and work and marriage all continued with her
till that day she couldn't keep leaving her
with anyone else but her.
Being home wasn't easy for her.
She really didn't know what to do but to love her.
Working on the weekends seemed good for her,
until she met with a temptation she thought was gone from her.
The unthinkable happened while she was home with her,
a stranger where he had no business with her.
Regret bombarded her.
What had become of her?
Counseling seemed the only hope for her.
And that's where the Light came on for her.
Repentance and acceptance became real to her.
Jesus was alive in her!
Had he been there all along since he moved her
at VBS when she was 8, maybe saving her
all the while? No one had discipled her.
It didn't matter to her.
Now, her "her" was a "she."
Things didn't have to keep happening to her
as if no one could hear her.
She could make things happen through her belief in prayer.
She had four more babies and was pregnant with another before the tempter came again.
She had to see him every day, while the kids would play.
She had a way out when the summer was over, but
she revisited what had overcome her, because there was still part of her
she had not dealt with.
She still had imaginations no one knew of.
She had first seen porn in her childhood home and again in her own.
She wasn't wanting to be with another woman but to be that woman.
She would never have admitted it, but what she wanted was to be something of a goddess,
a deceptive perception of what she could nor should ever be.
She escaped the dilemma, not unscathed, but by fear of what damage she might have made.
She had that and one more baby, totaling 8 with the one gone above.
She thought is was over, the old her behind her, when men from school "found" her and asked if they could "friend" her.
She thought she had it under control, but
she had no experience with this way of communicating, and
she found that ears are far too willing to hear what woes are written between the lines.
She learned the hard way the trap that was set. Now,
she has boundaries in place to prevent such events.
She was to be tested one more time, during a lesson given twice a week. For months,
she knew all too well from the look in his eye, what way this was going.
She avoided. She sat in the car. But finally she knew there was only one way to stop it.
She had to leave. And she did. And for the first time, she had true victory.
She's learning that there's more to her than meets the eye.
She's learning that she can take God at his Word, because she reads it every day.
She's learning that God is her Father and her Husband and that purity is what pleases him.
She's learning that taking care of herself doesn't have to get any attention from anyone.
She's learning that, in fact, the better she looks the more she ought to hide it away as a gift.
She's learning that she too can be holy and is commanded to be so, just like the Savior
of the her
she used to be.
A pony and peaceful enough life, of what can be remembered, were given her.
Daddy's new job changed farm life to suburb life for her.
"You are smart and pretty," over and over was told her.
Before anyone knew it, every contest was won her.
And soon, every eye was toward her.
Everyone wanted a piece of her,
especially men.
So, at the early age of 12, sneaking out became a game to her.
But at 13, again the new girl, everything got serious when friends convinced her
that an older guy would be a good first "experience" for her.
Instead, pregnancy was the experience found her.
Taken to an abortion clinic was the solution given her.
All she can remember is the lie that was sold to her
to convince her there was never a child inside of her.
And the shame, the shame that someone, maybe the teacher,
might figure out what weeks out of PE meant for that 8th grader.
Somehow, down it never slowed her.
The life of the party, the weekend drinker became her.
Not many boys for her, mostly men, and they liked her.
Before she knew it, she had been with as many men as the years before her.
Confession to someone was all she could think of to help her,
but all she remembers is the door closing, no Bible opened, no prayer for her,
at least not with her.
A blur are so many things to her.
But one day, that day her dad finally went away, was the day for her
she went and stayed with a man who was of no desire to her,
just a body, just a comfort, when everything seemed lost to her.
Achievements were earned by her.
Good grades were easy for her.
But none of it was relevant to her.
Broken and beyond all the norms, nothing spoke to her,
until
A man told her that he loved her.
He was exciting, completely different from what was known to her.
Chances are that she was more into him and he into her
than either of them was actually in love with the other.
But he married her
a month after her high school graduated her.
College in the big city was awaiting her.
So, she went, and within six months felt certain another baby was within her.
A classmate informed her they'd test her
at a clinic down the street, where they told her
a baby was bad for her.
And even her mother wasn't sure for her.
But that baby was hers.
No doubt she was having her.
School and work and marriage all continued with her
till that day she couldn't keep leaving her
with anyone else but her.
Being home wasn't easy for her.
She really didn't know what to do but to love her.
Working on the weekends seemed good for her,
until she met with a temptation she thought was gone from her.
The unthinkable happened while she was home with her,
a stranger where he had no business with her.
Regret bombarded her.
What had become of her?
Counseling seemed the only hope for her.
And that's where the Light came on for her.
Repentance and acceptance became real to her.
Jesus was alive in her!
Had he been there all along since he moved her
at VBS when she was 8, maybe saving her
all the while? No one had discipled her.
It didn't matter to her.
Now, her "her" was a "she."
Things didn't have to keep happening to her
as if no one could hear her.
She could make things happen through her belief in prayer.
She had four more babies and was pregnant with another before the tempter came again.
She had to see him every day, while the kids would play.
She had a way out when the summer was over, but
she revisited what had overcome her, because there was still part of her
she had not dealt with.
She still had imaginations no one knew of.
She had first seen porn in her childhood home and again in her own.
She wasn't wanting to be with another woman but to be that woman.
She would never have admitted it, but what she wanted was to be something of a goddess,
a deceptive perception of what she could nor should ever be.
She escaped the dilemma, not unscathed, but by fear of what damage she might have made.
She had that and one more baby, totaling 8 with the one gone above.
She thought is was over, the old her behind her, when men from school "found" her and asked if they could "friend" her.
She thought she had it under control, but
she had no experience with this way of communicating, and
she found that ears are far too willing to hear what woes are written between the lines.
She learned the hard way the trap that was set. Now,
she has boundaries in place to prevent such events.
She was to be tested one more time, during a lesson given twice a week. For months,
she knew all too well from the look in his eye, what way this was going.
She avoided. She sat in the car. But finally she knew there was only one way to stop it.
She had to leave. And she did. And for the first time, she had true victory.
She's learning that there's more to her than meets the eye.
She's learning that she can take God at his Word, because she reads it every day.
She's learning that God is her Father and her Husband and that purity is what pleases him.
She's learning that taking care of herself doesn't have to get any attention from anyone.
She's learning that, in fact, the better she looks the more she ought to hide it away as a gift.
She's learning that she too can be holy and is commanded to be so, just like the Savior
of the her
she used to be.
Dissenters, the Division
My husband had told me he saw the Blue Angels fly over while he was mowing last week. He loves them, especially since he spent several weeks of disaster relief in Pensacola, FL, where they are stationed and do regular maneuvers along the coastline. I didn't think anything else of it until we watched Washington, DC's Fourth of July Celebration. After a detailed history and due credit for each branch of our Service were given, flyovers were performed, including the Blue Angels!
I'm not moved by many things. Pride is certainly not one of them. But unity is. I couldn't help but well up with the passion of our President and of the people.
Immediately, there were dissenters, pundits expounding that it was a political play and that there has been no true unity or righteousness in America's past.
Our family's observations have been that the disunity is almost always irrefutably what used to be from the fringe element, but, thanks to public education and social degradation, we are afraid is now the norm and here to stay.
This week, a city council took a private vote to discontinue the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of meetings. As I was watching the fallout and the smug response of the leading member, I wondered to myself, "Do we need a war?!" Seriously, do we need a war to remind us that life is not always this easy?
For the Israelites, that was the obvious case. Every couple of generations, they had to be reminded of everything they took for granted. God made it so very clear what He wants, after a long list of sexual things he considers vile, "(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you." (Lev. 18:27-28). This after having said, "And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: ...."
And of the custom of Molech, whose sacrifice demanded children, the LORD said, "And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people." (Lev. 20: 3-5).
First of all, thank Jesus that death is not the sentence anymore. It's interesting though how we dismiss Old Testament standards as archaic and, in our simplicity, don't understand that at the rate we're going, none of us would be alive to talk about it if not for the longsuffering of God, having sent his Son that generations might continue.
At large, we are consumed with lusts of every kind, so much so that when we receive the fruitfulness of them, we sacrifice it to the god of convenience to keep doing that thing which produces the gift that we don't want in the first place. And in the extreme of performing sexual intercourse that cannot even produce fruit, we prove exactly how disinterested we are in children at all.
So here we are, but Dust. We forget so quickly the lessons of the Bible and the sacrifices of our veterans, to provide us a lawful land of unity and peace, which is never possible without protection. Idealists don't believe it's necessary. Realists know that it is. So, thank God, our Defense is present and active and celebrated as it was this Fourth of July.
I'm not moved by many things. Pride is certainly not one of them. But unity is. I couldn't help but well up with the passion of our President and of the people.
Immediately, there were dissenters, pundits expounding that it was a political play and that there has been no true unity or righteousness in America's past.
Our family's observations have been that the disunity is almost always irrefutably what used to be from the fringe element, but, thanks to public education and social degradation, we are afraid is now the norm and here to stay.
This week, a city council took a private vote to discontinue the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of meetings. As I was watching the fallout and the smug response of the leading member, I wondered to myself, "Do we need a war?!" Seriously, do we need a war to remind us that life is not always this easy?
For the Israelites, that was the obvious case. Every couple of generations, they had to be reminded of everything they took for granted. God made it so very clear what He wants, after a long list of sexual things he considers vile, "(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you." (Lev. 18:27-28). This after having said, "And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: ...."
And of the custom of Molech, whose sacrifice demanded children, the LORD said, "And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people." (Lev. 20: 3-5).
First of all, thank Jesus that death is not the sentence anymore. It's interesting though how we dismiss Old Testament standards as archaic and, in our simplicity, don't understand that at the rate we're going, none of us would be alive to talk about it if not for the longsuffering of God, having sent his Son that generations might continue.
At large, we are consumed with lusts of every kind, so much so that when we receive the fruitfulness of them, we sacrifice it to the god of convenience to keep doing that thing which produces the gift that we don't want in the first place. And in the extreme of performing sexual intercourse that cannot even produce fruit, we prove exactly how disinterested we are in children at all.
So here we are, but Dust. We forget so quickly the lessons of the Bible and the sacrifices of our veterans, to provide us a lawful land of unity and peace, which is never possible without protection. Idealists don't believe it's necessary. Realists know that it is. So, thank God, our Defense is present and active and celebrated as it was this Fourth of July.
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Lora
30 years married is a long time, especially for my husband and me. But as of July 1st, that's how far we've come.
He had an out of town doctor's appointment for his first annual check of his pacemaker. So, we were on a "doctor date," I call it. I think that's pretty common for anyone who has a chronically ill family member.
Since we were nearby, he took me to my favorite restaurant. And as we were leaving, I asked him if it would be bad of me to run by my favorite shoe store, the buy one, get one half off kind, to finish getting geared up for my return to the gym. Actually, I haven't done anything significant in the gym other than work there and tell other people what to do, since I was a member of the Racquetball Club in high school.
He patiently sat in the car while I went straight to the men's athletic isle. My feet are so wide, I don't even look at the women's anymore. I settled on a pair of throwback Reeboks and asked the girl packing boxes on the next isle if I'd be the only person in America sporting those at the gym. She liked 'em just fine. I told her our kids would probably make fun of me but that they like the 32 year old L. L. Bean bag I still have from high school and think I should tote it around at App State, where I probably wouldn't be on campus much, but have recently applied to finish college.
She said, "I know a lot of middle aged people going back to school." I grinned then told her it would be to write. She said, "I write too." Surprised, I said, "It'll probably be toward ministry." She said, "Women ought to talk more to women about those things."
I was still astonished at someone of her generation, when I had asked if she has a belief and if it is in God, then if it is in Jesus, she had a resounding, "Yes," for them all. They weren't cutesy, right answer "yeses," but serious, matter-of-fact ones. She looked all of 15, but she was 19, with a very thin and unassuming appearance, with glasses and lots of dark hair.
I told her what day it was and that I should be getting out to the car but first mentioned a few facts about the miracle of making it this far. I said that a lot of people make excuses, but God. She lit up and said, "'But God', that was the subject of my favorite sermon from my church in Ohio!" I could almost see her recounting it. Then, her face began to flush, as she encouraged me to do the writing. She said, "I'm the only Christian in my family. I just moved out on my own. And it's hard; I haven't had anybody to show me how to be a Christian."
I immediately identified with her and asked her if I could hug her neck. Her face was splotched with red. I didn't even know her name but I had to find out so that I could pray for her. And I told her that I would. And I will. Because it matters. All these encounters, they matter. As a matter of fact, they're all that matter, conversations that bear witness that our LORD is on His throne, as are thirty years of marriage between two fleshly, immature, passionate people evidences that God is real and that His Word still stands.
He had an out of town doctor's appointment for his first annual check of his pacemaker. So, we were on a "doctor date," I call it. I think that's pretty common for anyone who has a chronically ill family member.
Since we were nearby, he took me to my favorite restaurant. And as we were leaving, I asked him if it would be bad of me to run by my favorite shoe store, the buy one, get one half off kind, to finish getting geared up for my return to the gym. Actually, I haven't done anything significant in the gym other than work there and tell other people what to do, since I was a member of the Racquetball Club in high school.
He patiently sat in the car while I went straight to the men's athletic isle. My feet are so wide, I don't even look at the women's anymore. I settled on a pair of throwback Reeboks and asked the girl packing boxes on the next isle if I'd be the only person in America sporting those at the gym. She liked 'em just fine. I told her our kids would probably make fun of me but that they like the 32 year old L. L. Bean bag I still have from high school and think I should tote it around at App State, where I probably wouldn't be on campus much, but have recently applied to finish college.
She said, "I know a lot of middle aged people going back to school." I grinned then told her it would be to write. She said, "I write too." Surprised, I said, "It'll probably be toward ministry." She said, "Women ought to talk more to women about those things."
I was still astonished at someone of her generation, when I had asked if she has a belief and if it is in God, then if it is in Jesus, she had a resounding, "Yes," for them all. They weren't cutesy, right answer "yeses," but serious, matter-of-fact ones. She looked all of 15, but she was 19, with a very thin and unassuming appearance, with glasses and lots of dark hair.
I told her what day it was and that I should be getting out to the car but first mentioned a few facts about the miracle of making it this far. I said that a lot of people make excuses, but God. She lit up and said, "'But God', that was the subject of my favorite sermon from my church in Ohio!" I could almost see her recounting it. Then, her face began to flush, as she encouraged me to do the writing. She said, "I'm the only Christian in my family. I just moved out on my own. And it's hard; I haven't had anybody to show me how to be a Christian."
I immediately identified with her and asked her if I could hug her neck. Her face was splotched with red. I didn't even know her name but I had to find out so that I could pray for her. And I told her that I would. And I will. Because it matters. All these encounters, they matter. As a matter of fact, they're all that matter, conversations that bear witness that our LORD is on His throne, as are thirty years of marriage between two fleshly, immature, passionate people evidences that God is real and that His Word still stands.
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