Christian-Flavoured Resolutions

First off...Happy (Belated) New Year! 

I've decided NOT to do any "Christian-Flavoured Resolutions" as such this year but I have been contemplating my lack of Bible Reading Plan. I want to have something that I'm working on because as I've found in the past few years if you aim at nothing you always hit nothing. So, I looked over the Bible Reading in One Year plans and even printed one out and started it but considering that I didn't do this until Jan 2 I was already a day behind and just knew that it was inevitably not going to happen anyway. To be brutally honest One Year Bible Reading Plans and I don't really mix. My experience is more like this woman.

March 3rd. I look at my checkered plan sheet with smudges and erasures. It isn’t working. I am doomed. A failing immature rat of a Christian. Barely two months and I am ruined. I quit. 

And besides I have a newborn on the way which is going to throw all sense of order out the window for at least a few weeks...if not months. So, I'd like a NON-dated Bible Reading Plan but honestly they're few and far between. But as the woman previously linked to described her "Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers & Slackers" I felt like I'd found the plan for me. And so, without so much as a blink I hit the Print button and I've got my "plan" and I won't feel that sinking feeling of being 6 days behind on the dated plan because I can pick up any day of the week and read from where I last was without so much as a twinge of guilt!! YAY! So, if anyone is looking for a Through the Bible Reading plan but doesn't think they can keep up with the dated plan then this is it. You'll find the plan on pages 5 & 6 of this pdf document. 

P.S. If you stumble upon this blog-post in 6 months time you can even start it then...it's NOT reliant on you starting it on the 1st of January because it follows the Days of the Week and they roll around every 7 days! :)

So Long As It's Healthy...

Has anyone else ever thought about what an ODD statement that is? 

As a pregnant woman you are often asked, "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" And quite frequently the pregnant woman replies with "We don't mind so long as it's healthy." 

What is with that? Do they mean that if the baby is born prematurely and spends a month or two or more in NICU that they won't love the baby? Or if the baby is born with a severe disability that they weren't prepared for they'll not care for it? Or if it's diagnosed with something like Down Syndrome and they continue the pregnancy they'll abandon it? Very strange. 

In many ways we're just copying the world and the medical profession's push for only allowing perfect babies to be born. We've been coerced, talked into and told how great it is that ultrasounds can give us a window into the womb but they're used to screen for abnormalities and problems...and THEN....when something shows up on the screen the pressure a mother is put through to abort that baby is astronomical. I read a book several months ago called Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics that explored through a series of medical journal/reports on this thinking and also quite a few personal stories and accounts of women who have kept their babies in spite of the intense medical pressure to terminate. 

As a Christian and someone who is pro-life I find this kind of thinking horrible. I would like to be able to prepare myself mentally if my child had a severe disability or even a milder one like Down Syndrome. However, to blindly allow myself to go off to say an 11 week ultrasound or even the big 20 week ultrasound and say that the ultrasound is just to reassure myself of the babies existance and to find out if it's a boy or girl is naive and misses the point that the whole reason for this ultrasound being introduced to the care of pregnant women is to screen for Down Syndrome and other disabilities incase she wishes to terminate...which 3 in 4 women do--is that because of social pressure, medical pressure or fear of the unknown of what caring for a child like that would be like?  

I admit that if something out of the ordinary were to occur and my child was stillborn, born sick or with a disability I would grieve. I would grieve for the child I didn't get but then I hope that with God's grace I would learn to love that little child I was given and learn to care for them in the way that they needed and would learn to rely on God for the strength, courage and patience to face the days, months and years to come. 

For what it's worth: I'm 11 weeks pregnant and NOT having the 11 week ultrasound. It's not common practice for women under 30 anyway but I did have the choice. I hold nothing against those who have chosen to get the ultrasound (it is after all reassuring to see that little person growing inside and watch that tiny heart beat with such regular rhythm!) 

Mark Driscoll in Sydney!

Here's a video link of Mark Driscoll discussing Sydney, faith and culture. Worth a look.

Wise Words on Training Children

Sally Clarkson has just published a blog-post on her blog that I think I'm going to have to print out, mull over and internalise as it contains so much wisdom and encouragement to keep training and not to grow weary in this Mum job. I think everyone should read it (Dad's included!) so follow the link at the bottom of this post after the short excerpt and read the whole lot. Great thoughts!

No matter what philosophy we as parents have for disciplining children, we need to remember that our goal isn’t primarily to make them obey, but to motivate them to obedience from a sincere and loving heart. I did always feel that if I expected them to learn self-control and the ability to work harder, I also had to be sure I was meeting their essential needs in order to expect them to perform well. I needed to give them a routine life–plenty of sleep, naps when tired, not too much over-stimulation, nutritional food, life-giving, soul-filling words–so that their bodies could support my ideals and expectations for them as a mom. If they were exhausted because of being out too late, then if they cried, I would put them to bed–they didn’t need discipline, they needed to go to sleep.

Bottom line, discipline is more about relational righteousness training and taking time to instruct, train, praise and correct and strengthening a child’s moral character and will through the variety of all the moments of life, than a list of rules about and mandates about when and how long to spank or punish. The Holy Spirit grants each parent wisdom how to apply Biblical principles of training to each parent according to their own puzzle and their unique children–it can look different for each family and each child, but all philosophies that focus on reaching and training the heart, have a deeper influence on the outcome of the child’s soul. I have learned so much from reading scripture and pondering God’s parenting of me. May He give all of us grace and skill and patience!

For the rest of the article click on over to I Take Joy.

Good Reminder

"Do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own."

1 Samuel 12:20-22

When does education start?

I am currently re-reading For the Children's Sake: Foundations of education for home and school by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (daughter of Francis Schaeffer) and this quote jumped out at me:

Christians can't develop a Christian view of education by accepting the usual aims and views of our society and then adding a "Christian message" or interpretation.

No, we start from a different basis. We have another world view--another people view!

When a baby is picked up, spoken to, and loved, he is starting his education as God planned it. For all our lives we are human beings, in an active state of learning, responding, understanding. Education extends to all of life. In fact, an educational system that says, one bright summer's day in the dawn of my youth, "There. Now you are educated. This piece of paper says so," is doing me a gross disfavor. The truly educated person has only had many doors of interest opened. He knows that life will not be long enough to follow everything through fully.

Am I Mutiness at Heart??

I was convicted when I read this quote on someone's blog. It's an excerpt from an article at Youth Specialties:

The materialism of American Christianity rests entirely in the fact that we’ve turned one single verse on its head. Paul surrenders himself with the words, “To the Jews I become like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those not having the law” (1 Cor. 9:20 NIV). When in Rome, we might say.

But American Christians are largely doing this in reverse order. Paul chose to be like the Gentiles to minister to the Gentiles. We choose to minister to the suburban middle class, because we have chosen to be like them. The average American Christian seeks to go to college, secure a career, move to the suburbs, have 2.5 kids, and then declare, “Here I am, Lord! Send me!” We, the crew, have cast out the anchor and settled down before asking the captain, “To where are we sailing?” And I imagine that Jesus feels like his call to us is like a captain trying to steer an anchored ship. In the Navy, this is called mutiny.

Hat-tip to Sara for pointing me to this quote in her awesome blog post pondering living a life of excess.

Merry Christmas!!

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

John 1:29

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

John 3:1-8

The Candle of Love!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

John 3:16-17

The Candle of Joy!

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood brfore them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!" So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

Luke 2:7-15

The Candle of Preparation!

...as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; and the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"


LUKE: 3:4-6

The Candle of Hope!

And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope." Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believeing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:12-13

Simplifying

The call of the new. A desire to make ourselves feel good. The learned idea that we reward ourselves with something new/tangible. All of these are reasons for consuming more and storing up for oursevles material things.

Matt & I have been and are still on a journey of learning to live more with less, to be content with the state of our things as they are and learning to let go of things that are no longer loved, used and appreciated.

To list all of the things we have let go of in the past few months would take too long but let's just say that our 2 bedroom unit is feeling more spacious than it ever has in all of the 4 years we've lived here....and that's with a 1 year old toddler added to the mix! We love it!

Our bedroom is just that...a restful haven for sleep. Our office/spare room has one wall lined with all our bookcases and it feels so friendly! The loungeroom is still a work in progress. Whilst the kitchen is slowly becoming a place where meals and snacks can be whipped up quickly and easily because there are less things and appliances to push through to get to the useful things! YAY!

Our inspiration? Paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:8 challenging us to be content with food and clothing. Don Aslett's book "Clutter's Last Stand" and Sara's blog simply titled Walk Slowly, Live Wildly--her family is currently living in an RV on tour around America and they have only stored a few plastic boxes of things behind with her family!

How I long to be able to let go of the excess in my life and say with Paul:

“I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

Philippians 4:12 (The Message)