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Most everyone is probably aware of the controversy surrounding the Tim Tebow ad set to air during the Super Bowl.  Though no one has seen it, it appears to be a 30-second clip that gives the simple, honest testimony of a mother who rejected doctors’ advice for an abortion, and the son who lived to thank her for it.

And I am literally in shock over the mass opposition.  Feminist organizations like NOW have spear-headed the protests.  It is a telling sign of our culture’s hatred of life.  When a people hates–to the point of censorship–the celebration of life, we have digressed into putrid moral distress.  We are gangrene.

An article from the Chicago Sun Times, attempting to be neutral, makes the obvious point regarding the “controversial clause” that advertisers are supposed to consider:

“If other ads can glorify promiscuity and drunkenness, why can’t the puritans have their chance to rebut? Isn’t that part of what makes our First Amendment so great?”

(Note here:  only “puritans” appreciate the celebration of life?  As I said, it was an “attempt” to be neutral.)

The rest of the ad reveals the sickening, blase attitude toward life that seems to encapsulate American thought, AT BEST:

“The first question is how much of a nuisance will this be to those who don’t want to see it…..Without the preceding histrionics surrounding it, how many people would have just seen it air live and shrug it off as weird?  At the end of the day, it’s thirty seconds of life. Thirty seconds for some people to enjoy and thirty seconds for others to turn their nose up at.”

“…shrugged it off as weird?”  “30 seconds of life… For others to turn their nose up at”.

God have mercy.

Addendum:

I’ve heard many argue that being “pro-choice” doesn’t make one “against life”;  the evidence begs to differ.

Anytime I can get my hands on a cheap, easy dish that’s easy to stretch I latch on. Here’s a tip from my kitchen to yours…

Once upon a time some ham, a potato, a half of bell pepper, and a sad little bowl of corn found themselves together in a dish.  And the rest is history.  The end.  (I still can’t figure out my bad luck at publishing children’s stories????)

I’m pretty adamant about finding good uses for our leftovers, whether it’s leftover food or leftover hair (that I one time sprinkled around our garden to keep the wildlife out).

But last night’s dish takes first prize for a while for yummy, transformed leftovers.  It should also be noted that the less attention I have to give to recipes and measurements, the better.  It fits my rather flighty, sporadic personality.  I love to randomly throw things in a pan and have them actually turn out to be good.  Here’s what I had–here’s what I did:

A few thick pieces of ham

Half of bell pepper

Small bowl of leftover whole-kernel corn

One potato

1 block cream cheese

1 stick butter

Milk

Garlic salt, seasoning, salt, pepper

Cracker crumbs, drizzled with melted butter

I chopped the ham, pepper and potato and threw it in a 13 x 9 casserole dish, mixed with the corn.

Then I melted the butter and cream cheese together (using a whisk) and added milk until it was quite smooth and liquidy.  I added all-seasoning and garlic salt to that and poured it over the chopped ham, pepper and potato.  Baked until potatoes were tender, then topped it with cracker crumbs and baked a few more minutes until they were crisp.

The only thing that would have improved it would have been onions.  You should try it!  There could be all sorts of variations.

What kind of home do I really want?

A clean one?

A quiet one?

A beautiful one?

First I must define clean and quiet and beautiful.

Clean?

Well, we try.  But at the moment, the windows are quite smeared.  The floor needs mopped and dust abounds from the wood stove. But there are hearts that need attention as well…”cobwebs”, if you will, that need removed.  A clean house may look different for a while…“…where no oxen are, the crib is clean; but much increase is by the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:4

Quiet?

We’re working on “inside voices” and are striving to learn self-control.  But when 8 children laugh?  Well, it’s loud.  And frankly, it’s a loud I’m learning to cherish more and more.  The voices, the questions, the noise–it can become annoying if I let it, or can be a tremendous source of joy if I stop long enough to drink it in, remembering how quickly the lisps will be gone, and the voices deepened. “Oh heart of mine, learn to love this noise!”

Beautiful?

My son accidentally dropped hot coals on our “newish” red shag rug while he was adding wood to the stove.  It’s not beautiful anymore, though it was placed carefully in the living room with that intent.  Things break, get stained, lose their luster.  And we’re all better for the wear.  Because many a museum is beautiful in the aesthetic sense; but there’s a different kind of beauty that boasts of a house fully lived in.  That’s my house right now, and I’m learning to love it more.

Garden of Praise

Incredible educational resource full of games, art work, biographies, photos, stories, puzzles, coloring pages, and so much more.

“It’s the cycle of life, the inherent urge to grow, found among every living thing.”

Photograph by my daughter Bria. I chose it specifically to represent this post because it portrays renewal–the cycle of life inherent to every creation.

So do you have trouble keeping new schedules? This quote well-summarizes my gut feelings and ritualistic practices every new year:

“Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.” –Eric Zorn

It happens every year, starting the day after Christmas. I don’t have to think about it or plan for it; it is as involuntary as sneezing–the urge to start fresh, start new habits, clean the house, reorganize the closets, yadda, yadda.

I love it. But I can sense these sweet people who have to live with me thinking, “Why are we making another schedule?” So I cut their questions off at the pass and offer the answer before they even ask…”I know our last schedule fizzled out, but perhaps schedules and routines are living like that.” (There are great advantages to being an optimist ;-)) “Maybe we haven’t found the right one; or maybe life is just about the ebb and flow of reassessing, redoing and recommitting to improvement…in every area, on a regular basis.”

They aren’t totally convinced, but they humor me, and so begins our new year purging and implementing our “getting back into shape” routine. This time used to make me feel like a failure.  Until it dawned on me how natural this process is. It’s how we were created–forgetful creatures, prone to gravitate toward laziness or procrastination unless we cultivate the stamina to revisit goals and recommit to achievement. It’s the cycle of life, the inherent urge to grow, found among every living thing.

Seasons, change, growth.

Isn’t our spiritual life the same way? Is it any wonder why God had His people celebrate rituals and days of remembrance? Isn’t is why we are commanded to observe the Sabbath?  To “do this in remembrance of Me“?  To continually refresh our hearts and repent, and renew our minds?

That’s it–RENEW. We are creatures with the need to continually renew. Otherwise, we become stagnant.

So, this year, it’s not revisiting an area of failure. It’s renewing with vigor!

You all have been such a blessing to me this past year.  And some of you have been friends since the blog began, almost 3 years ago.  I feel here the warmth of friendship and the bond of love that holds believers together, regardless of denomination or practices, and I am so grateful to share this small corner with you.

May you truly know the gift that is ours in Christ Jesus this Christmas and every day of the year.  I pray for each of you, your families, your children and your marriages that God would strengthen and uphold you to continue to press on toward the mark of the high calling.  May we all be faithful to walk in love, humility and wisdom, remembering each day, in the little things, that we are shaping the next generation.

I look forward to the new year, to see what God is doing among His people…those whose hearts are turned toward Him.  I appreciate each one of you and wish you a very blessed Christmas and New Year!

Just a few, random pictures we’ve taken recently…until next year!

My right hand lady….

Robin, Kathy and Me

The man of my dreams….

One of the many gifts our Lord gave this year…

“Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well.  Women rarely had to open doors and little old ladies never crossed the street alone.  Men took charge because that’s what they did.  But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men.  Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their khaki’s and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny.  But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for.  The world sits idly by and cities crumble, children misbehave and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street.  For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes.  We need grown-ups.  We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar and untie the world from the tracks of complacency.  It’s time to get your hands dirty.  It’s time to answer the call of manhood.  It’s time to wear the pants.”

Foolishness and wisdom seem to be a recurring theme in our family right now. Partly due to circumstances around us, and partly due to, what I think, is just the way God loves to shout messages at us to get through to our hard-headedness.

“He who walks with the wise will become wise; but a companion of fools suffers harm.“

So simple, isn’t it? But we DON’T GET IT! Even aside from the issue of children spending the majority of time with peers in school (another topic altogether), we have the church which holds the Bible as its authority, and then sets up a paradigm that competes with the very instructions therein.

And though I’m certainly not saying that all peer-segregated activities are negative, we’ve made it the standard for virtually all interaction. From babies to the elderly, most churches separate its members upon entrance in the door and we miss the precious “walking with wisdom” opportunities meant to grow believers. Why do we disregard the wisdom of the very Word?

I think of how the constant segregation has robbed us from the wisdom of the elderly, and robbed them of their perceived value and worth.

But I think “walk with the wise” has deeper implications than even the people with whom we spend the most time…what about the people I read? Listen to via sermons, etc.? Magazines, books, music–am I being saturated–am I “walking with” wisdom? Are my children?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen foolishness so rampant as now. Sometimes I’m listening to the news or the latest political rhetoric or, unfortunately, sometimes another believer, and I’m speechless for the foolishness that abounds, masked behind intelligent-looking and sounding adults! Do you know what I mean by the apparent “check your brains at the door” trend?

(So I had to ask my husband, “Why are fools running the country?”  And he said, “Easy.  Fools voted.”)

This lack of wisdom has massive implications for the quality of our lives. It affects our relationships, our finances, our values, our time–everything. And as we suffer for lack of wisdom, we become a people less and less able to discern truth or divide the Word. And that has resulted in a church full of brokenness, much of which, frankly, could be avoided.

The more I live, the more I see the need to pursue wisdom and teach my children to do the same. It’s easier to be “simple”. But it’s deadly.

“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares…”

Will we listen?

As much as I enjoy thinking out loud on this blog, often I long simply for the thoughts and opinions of others on a certain topic as I think through it myself, having not necessarily come to a solid conclusion on a matter.

And why must I “come to a solid conclusion” on a matter?  I don’t know.  (Does not everyone feel this need?)  I wrestle with thoughts and ideas almost consistently (day and night) until I feel like I’ve wrestled it to the ground and have come to some declarative decision.  (I can’t even enjoy a good shower!  My children knock on the door….“Mom, who are you talking to?” *blush*)

I’ve thought a lot lately about truth and the Bible.  I’ve wondered if we take it far too lightly, not brave enough to want to know what’s really written there.  It seems that more and more, as it grates against our natural desires, we find convenient ways of dismissing the instructions, or dismissing its authority all together.  Do you sense that?  And yet, all our faculties–if we’ll be honest–will attest to its timeless, infallible truth, playing out in the world around us.

The following verses jumped out at me today.  What do they mean for us now, in this century, in this day?  I wanted to offer the comment section for your thoughts.

What does it mean in our modern times to be “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” and how do we really “come out from among them and be separate” and still display love and compassion for the lost?  How practically-speaking are these verses?  What do they look like fleshed out?

“14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”