Someone recently asked me something like, how do I turn a bad day around? An excellent question, I said. But I didn't have an answer, I think I rambled on for pages about how every day is a bad day and I try to get out of the house occasionally. I don't remember. My head has a train moving back and forth through it. Anyway, yesterday I learned the definitive and comprehensive truth that some days really are bad, terrible... Read more
Are there no memes for a Tuesday? Everyone is sick, including me. In an effort to cope, here are ten things for which I am thankful. 1. None of my children have died, had surgery, or are chronically sick. I am really pathetically grateful for this and will spend ten minutes today praying for the children of the world and their parents. 2. My husband, likewise, is alive and has not left me for a younger floozier model. Instead of... Read more
I've had this on the wall of my school room for a bunch of years. It is from John Wesley's sermon on the General Deliverance in which he makes a sensible exegetical case for the redemption and restoration of all of creation, including all those pets we love. It's been a long time since I've read the sermon so don't sue me if it turns out he doesn't actually use the word 'pets'. I've always loved this line, even stripped... Read more
I woke up during the night to the sound of rain and a child crying with a headache. The count this morning of children sick and crying is…let me see…one, two, three, four, five…is it possible that the baby has so far escaped? She is driving everyone crazy with her cheerful good health and condescension, “Say please Marigold, and I will give you the book.” Gak. Yesterday, not knowing that disease and death were almost certainly upon us, I blithely... Read more
Having made it out of the weeds of the Pentateuch, through the shock and horror of Joshua and Judges, I am now wading around in the mire of First Samuel, spliced with psalms as David writes them. I never get through to the middle of First Samuel without being troubled again and again and again about the difference between David and Saul. Saul just doesn't get the point of God. It's like he's at a football game, or something, smiling... Read more
I wiled away my youth avoiding physical activity of all sorts and types, as far as it was up to me. As a little kid I'm sure I ran around and stuff, but once I was smacked with all the horrendous hormones of early adulthood, I, whenever possible, never moved from my chair and my book, except to do the dishes which seemed a great imposition from my unreasonable parents, and to feed all my pets, which was a gentle... Read more
Monday is our dentist day. I'm slowly trying to get us reorganized into groups so we're not just always going to the dentist. I managed to get three kids in yesterday, but I think it really needs to be two two and two. And Matt needs to stop wildly making appointments without calling me. And I need to stop chipping my teeth and getting holes in them and stuff (that's all technical language). If you had told me twenty years... Read more
We pushed through on Saturday and moved ourselves back upstairs so that I am now lying here, no longer looking at the brick walk of the church, but at a small corner of the wall, some strange pipe sticking it of it, and the sun lightening the hillside with a pale thought of pink and buds, perhaps. Though perhaps not. Maybe it is a trick of the light. Matt is reading proverbs and saying the ones out loud that he... Read more
One Took the week off from school to spring clean and completely rearrange the house. Swapped the girls and boys rooms and moved out of the office and back into our own bedroom. Somehow, as it does almost every year, it became clear that we have to clean and reorganize and we have to do it before Holy Week or we will perish. Felt like I was on the edge of eradicating yeast from the house but restrained myself to... Read more
A number of critics attack the character of God’s love for all humanity by comparing Hell to Auschwitz. Would a loving God send his creatures there? There are several differences between hell and Auschwitz, but two are dramatic and must be emphasized: 1. No one would choose to be in Auschwitz and 2. no one would choose to remain there if given the option to leave. Whereas scripture teaches us that the character of the human heart is such that unless... Read more
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