Archive for October, 2011

Reformation/Halloween

First, a beautiful Reformation video my mom made:

Followed by my beautiful kids in their Halloween costumes. The girls were Cinderella and a Cowgirl. Here they are with their pumpkins.

Jonathan wanted nothing to do with his dragon costume. The second I put it on, he focused on getting it off…pronto.

Get…this…thing…OFF!!

I couldn’t even get a picture. He loved trick-or-treating (sans his costume) and chowed down an entire Tootsie Roll Pop while the girls collected candy.

When we were growing up, my mom always gave us doughnuts and apple cider on Reformation Day/Halloween. I still crave them, but none for us this year. We were too busy stuffing our faces with Snickers bars and Laffy Taffy.

Author name:
Publish date:
October 31st, 2011
Discussion:
No Comments
Tags:



Celebrating the Reformation

Reformation Day is sort of the July 4th of Lutheranism. Our own little Independence Day, if you will.

We wear red, sing “A Mighty Fortress” with more gusto than usual, and throw a potluck dinner in the church basement.

Me and derek at our church's Reformation celebration last year, dressed as Katie and Martin Luther.

The day is happy, celebratory, full of good old Lutheran pride (but not too proud).

Yet listening to the brilliant Pastor Will Weedon on Issues, Etc.’s Reformation Week kickoff talk about just how Lutheranism was borne from stemmed out of pushed out of kicked out of Catholicism, I was struck by a sense of deep sadness on behalf of the Catholic church. (Catholics themselves would repudiate this sadness, it being the classic case of one feeling sorry for another who does not want, and probably distains, your pity.)

In the segment, Pastor Weedon talks about the Reformers’ presentation of The Augsburg Confession. He says the first 21 of 28 articles conformed to a large body of Catholic teaching by numerous scholars, from St. Augustine to the Council of Orange. The Reformers thought everybody could agree on those points, and then they could move to the last several points and discuss the meat of the problems in the church.

But sin and the stubbornness of man intervened. The Catholics, unbelievably, rejected those first 21 points, too. A writer for First Things noted that when the Lutherans left the Roman Catholic church, they carried a part of the Catholic patrimony with them.

Of course, Lutherans and Catholics have more doctrine and practice in common than Lutherans and many other Protestants. But it’s sad to wonder, David Swan-like, what might have been had the Catholics only said, yes, we can agree on this. Or even, let’s discuss. We’re willing to humbly consider that we may be in error, that we may have put man’s law above God’s law. Since you’re bringing it up and all.

Had that happened, we might not wear red on October 31 and eat brats at the potluck, but our church–the Catholic/catholic church–would be richer for it. Luther never intended to start his own denomination. The Reformers did the right thing; they have preserved the pure doctrine of the Scriptures, handed down to us today. But the thought that it didn’t have to end this way lends a certain poignancy to the celebration. And so, we raise our Reformation beer steins to Luther for being strong enough to stand up for the truth at all costs:

Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason, and not by Popes and Councils who have so often contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot, and will not, recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.

…even as we wish he hadn’t had to.

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Author name:
Publish date:
October 30th, 2011
Discussion:
1 Comment
Tags:

John Deere green

Hit PLAY.

You’re welcome. (Depending on who you are, you’ll be happy or supremely annoyed.) Now that it’s in your head, check out this cuteness:

I never knew it could be so much fun to dress boys.

 

Author name:
Publish date:
October 26th, 2011
Discussion:
2 Comments
Tags:

The tapestry of our lives

I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of the tapestry of our lives, how everything–actions, decisions we made or did not make, things that happen to us–are threads that weave the complex and ultimately beautiful fabric of God’s plans for this world. C.S. Lewis talks about how all of us, good and bad, serve to carry out God’s ultimate purpose in The Problem of Pain:

A merciful man aims at his neighbor’s good and so does ‘God’s will,’ consciously co-operating with ‘the simple good.’ A cruel man oppresses his neighbor, and so does simple evil. But in doing such evil, he is used by God, without his own knowledge or consent, to produce the complex good–so that the first man serves God as a son, and the second as a tool. For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or John. The whole system is, so to speak, calculated for the clash between good men and bad men.

In a letter to the family last month, my dad mentioned the tapestry in the most beautiful way.

Lives can indeed be damaged by sin, but the longer I live the more I know to the core of my being that ‘ALL things work together for good to those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose’ (Romans 8:28). As the apostle Paul goes on to say, he has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son. God takes all the garbage that the world throws our way and uses it to kill our old Adam, so that a new man may daily come forth and arise. He takes our tragedy and weaves it into this beautiful tapestry with the face of Christ in it. We cannot see this image from our vantage point, or how our trials fit into the pattern, but make no mistake: they do.

The Small Catechism doesn’t call this life a ‘vale of tears’ for nothing. There is a lot of beauty, a lot of good, a lot of satisfaction during our lives, but also a lot of pain and suffering, a lot of futility, to which the whole creation is subject because of sin. But as Paul says in the same Romans 8, ‘I reckon that the sufferings of this age are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us.’

"Christ the King" tapestry by Graham Sutherland, Coventry Cathedral, Coventry, England

I think one of the biggest reasons we struggle with pain and suffering and evil is that we don’t understand why. The idea that even our suffering serves the pattern in the tapestry of life is intriguing and comforting, and it helps make some sense of the perennial question, why do bad things happen to good people?

We don’t have to have all the answers. But having a glimpse of how the threads of our lives fit into the weave is illuminating.

 

Author name:
Publish date:
October 25th, 2011
Discussion:
1 Comment
Tags:





Process vs. Principles

I love this excerpt from Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership:

Be careful not to confuse processes with principles. Process is simply a method or way of doing things. Sometimes as organizations grow they get confused and stick by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. People who never change the process, who worship process, are called bureaucrats. If your team can’t explain why you do something, you are filling your building full of bureaucrats and you have sown the beginning seeds of your destruction.

 

Author name:
Publish date:
October 24th, 2011
Discussion:
1 Comment
Tags:

Church at Cove Lake

Every year our mission congregation hosts a potluck dinner and outdoor service at Cove Lake State Park. We are constantly astounded by the natural beauty just outside our kitchen window, let alone half an hour’s drive south toward the Smokies or north toward the Cumberlands.

The lake itself is beautiful, especially as the trees are turning color (though this year, due to an extremely hot and dry June and July, the color doesn’t pop quite as much as usual).

The kids and I took a little walk down the path.

The ducks came along. UPDATE 10/23: My mother (kindly) informs me I stink at identifying animals. Apparently, these are Canadian Geese, not ducks.

Jonathan got his nametag and showed off his new haircut (and his shirt from Grandma R!).

Then he and Kate shared a moment.

We had some nice live music.

And good fellowship with a bunch of great Lutherans. Does it get any better than this? (Answer: That was rhetorical. Of course it doesn’t!)

Author name:
Publish date:
October 22nd, 2011
Discussion:
2 Comments
Tags:

Family devotions

Most certainly father and mother are apostles, bishops, and priests to their children, for it is they who make them acquainted with the gospel. In short, there is no greater or nobler authority on earth than that of parents over their children, for this authority is both spiritual and temporal.

–Martin Luther

We started officially doing Family Devotions, as the girls call it, this year. Previously we’d haphazardly read Bible stories before bed (sometimes; other times it was Little House and Pinkalicious), but this year, when CPH’s fabulous new Children’s Story Bible came out, we decided to incorporate it into our dinnertime routine.

When I was in third grade, my family memorized Luther’s Small Catechism around the dinner table. That was my dad’s first year of seminary. When I asked him just a few weeks ago why he’d chosen that year, he said it was because he had to memorize it anyway, so he and my mom figured they’d bring us in on it.

Turns out, it was a good thing. I still remember every single word of the Catechism and its meanings. In third grade I didn’t necessarily understand it…that came later…but the words were there for me to recall when I needed them.

We usually start by reading a story from the Story Bible.

Notice how alert the girls are. But watch Sophia in the next series of pictures. Pretty hilarious.

Somehow she manages to answer the questions, though. Sometimes we do “M&M Trivia” and they get M&Ms for answering the questions. Happily, they’re still good at answering sans the treats.

I’m also amazed at how quickly they’re learning the Catechism. I figured, when we started, that Kate could do the six chief parts and the meanings, and Sophia could just do the six chief parts. Any meanings would be bonus. Any educator reading this won’t be surprised by the following, but I was. It turns out Sophia, at age 4, is a sponge. She’s picked up the meanings as quickly as Kate, and sometimes even “helps” her big sister when she stumbles (to Kate’s annoyance and our amusement).

Here is Sophia helping Kate and reciting the Ten Commandments:

And one more. Around 1:30 she helps her again.

Jonathan is just in it for the M&Ms.

Derek brings Sophia to his Thursday morning confirmation class while I work and Jonathan naps, and the seventh-graders were amazed as she rattled off a bunch of commandments and meanings. “See?” Derek said to them. “If she can do it, so can you.”

I think they became less impressed then.

As for us, I’m so glad we began this. It’s one thing to take your kids to church and passively require their attendance, and another to actively teach them the faith. There are no guarantees, but basically, I’m hoping Proverbs 22:6 kicks in.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

 

Author name:
Publish date:
October 21st, 2011
Discussion:
5 Comments
Tags:



Wine tasting

Every year, Derek and I donate a wine tasting to the school auction.

The first year I was totally nervous about how it would go off. A wine tasting? Half our students are Baptist. Luckily, the Lutherans stepped up and started a bidding war, and it’s been a popular item ever since.

We like doing it because I get a lot of free wine, and it’s a fun way to use it up. Our school gets money, and we get to have a party. It’s a win-win.

We arrived early and began to set up.

I’m actually much better at cooking than making things pretty. That’s why I made all the food, and Derek laid everything out.

I did come up with one cute idea: olives in martini glasses.

The guests started arriving. It was a home football game. We have some serious UT fans around here.

We tasted 14 wines, including a blind tasting game where I poured two $115 wines and asked people to guess how much they were worth. Then I poured a bottle of Boone’s Farm Sangria, a (gag) gift from our congregational president.

There was lots of swishing, sniffing, and pouring.

I handed out cards for note-taking. Some people took serious notes.

After all that wine, everyone was hungry. We had hummus and pita chips, cashews and almonds, three kinds of olives, apple sausage, pear, and gouda skewers with honey mustard, cranberry chutney on cream cheese, a cheese plate with blue, honey goat, and manchego, pumpkin bread, and chocolate porter cake with chocolate ganache.

And steak. Lots of steak. The steak was a huge hit.

It was a fun night with great wine, food, and fabulous people. Our PTL isn’t doing an auction this year, so this might be our last wine tasting for awhile. If I go to law school and stop writing about wine, the free wine will stop.

Hmm. Maybe we’d better start hoarding.

Author name:
Publish date:
October 20th, 2011
Discussion:
4 Comments
Tags:


It’s not easy.

Ever since my ebook came out, people keep emailing me to ask how I do it all. I’m not gonna lie: it’s not easy. I get stressed out, overwhelmed, and frazzled sometimes. (Now. Now is one of those times.) I work my butt off from the moment Jonathan calls out from his crib at 6:30 a.m. all the way till 10:30 p.m. when I finally wrap up whatever work I had to abandon because the kids’ schedules took precedence.

Most of the time, I think I have the best of all worlds. I’m almost a stay-at-home mom, home with Jonathan four days a week (his dad is there the fifth day while I work), and half days on two of the days I work. I’m up with the girls before school, fixing their hair, packing lunches, collecting homework, scooting them out the door, and again at pickup time and before dinner when we work on homework, piano, and playing. I make dinner and we do family devotions. I get to put them to bed every night. I do lots of volunteer work for our church and school.

And yet, I have an intellectually-stimulating, rewarding, well-paying part-time job. Because of my job, we are able to put money in our retirement account, save for the kids’ college tuition, give to our church and other charities we love and support, and, quite simply, not wonder how we’ll afford groceries and diapers and the next mortgage payment. There’s a lot of peace and happiness in our house because I work. (Financial stress, not adultery, is the number one cause of divorce.) God has richly blessed our family through my business, and we are profoundly grateful and amazed.

But, as a writer-friend of mine once said, I sometimes feel caught between two “tribes”–the stay-at-home moms and working moms. As both, and neither, I don’t always fit in.

My natural tendency, a gift from my grandmother, is to work too much. I tame that tendency because raising my kids is so much more important than one more job, or a quick hundred bucks. But the tension between them, the question of whether I’m rightly dividing my time, is always there.

I don’t think there’s an easy way of talking about this subject. Anyone writing about staying at home versus working often comes off as bitter, self-righteous, defensive, or judgmental. Anyone reading about it will either nod in satisfaction because the writer ‘gets it’ or will judge the writer because she doesn’t. It’s a tricky subject, one that, for me, is occasionally filled with angst.

But then, after I pour out all the angst, hit “Publish,” and am immediately struck with a case of blogger’s remorse for putting it all out there in the first place, I think, it’s all going to be okay.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Even when things are at their nuttiest, when I look forward to the day all the kids are in school and I have breathing space, or I wish I didn’t have to work because I need some breathing space (are you sensing a theme here?), I still look at our life objectively and realize that we do have it all. And now, I need to get back to work.

Author name:
Publish date:
October 19th, 2011
Discussion:
1 Comment
Tags:



It was (past) time

Jonathan’s hair was getting long.

I couldn’t bear to do anything about it for the longest time.

The curls hid how long it really was, but the back was ratty with baby split ends, and the old ladies at church were beginning to part his hair 50s-style.

It reminded me of my dad’s hair when he was little. (No offense, dad. And isn’t this the cutest plaid family picture you’ve ever seen?)

So we took him in for a haircut yesterday.

Our whole family goes to Jennifer, the best hairstylist in the city, who also happens to belong to our church. She’s the one who bought me the Redneck Wineglass.

Look at how long this hair is. Yep. It was time for a cut.

Jonathan was pretty good about sitting still…for awhile.

Jennifer even managed to trim the back. Then…

Wahh! He was over it.

We got his certificate, collected some hair, and got outta there.

This morning, he looks older.

But he’s still my baby.

 

Author name:
Publish date:
October 16th, 2011
Discussion:
8 Comments
Tags:

Older entries