Cottage Cheese and the French Revolution

This week we took some cottage cheese out of the refrigerator.   My daughters told me it was not good anymore.  I skimmed off the top and set it back on the table assuring everyone.

"It is fine now.   I took the top off."

To which Ruthiey replied:

"Yeah, that's what they said during the French Revolution too."

To which we howled in laughter.

Steps in Response to Criticism

"Be slow to speak (James 1:19). 

Don’t interrupt or respond too quickly. Let them finish. If you speak too quickly you might speak rashly or in anger."

This is just one of the excellent steps Altrogge gives for responding to criticism.  Read the other 11  here:

http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2012/10/12-things-to-do-when-youre-criticized.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=5575&utm_campaign=0

10 Zingers

Admittedly, I nabbed this off Tim challies' blog (and he nabbed it off The Gospel Coalition blog).   Too good to ignore.  These are questions we can (humbly, calmly, and respectfully) ask prochoice people.  I'm giving you a bite here.   For the whole pie, click here:

8. You describe abortion as a “tragic choice.” If abortion is not morally objectionable, then why is it tragic? Does this mean there is something about abortion that is different than other standard surgical procedures?

Weak and Dark Soul

"Every unmortified [not put to death] sin will certainly do two things: it will weaken the soul and deprive it of its vigor.  It will darken the soul and deprive it of its comfort and peace."
If, by God's grace, this frightens you, you could learn more in John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation.
(Crossway publishers, edited by Kapic and Taylor).

Help! Decisions!

Our 20-year old daughter Ruthiey came home with a big decision to make.  She had asked for time off of work for an extended hike on the North Shore in Minnesota.  But she had already taken a month off, and her managers said that if she took off additional time, she would need to put in her resignation.

She has worked there for a couple of years and feels ready to move on.  But she does not have alternatives in place.  We talked about her need for routine and what other options were available, but I was pleased to hear my husband say, “We are not going to make this decision for you.”

We want our kids to make good decisions, so we’re tempted to make them for them.  But is that helpful in the long run? James Van Fleet, in The 22 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make, says “…you will never be able to develop a complete sense of responsibility in a person until you force him to make his own decisions.” (Of course we are not talking about very young children.  They should learn to obey specific rules.)

Leaders take responsibility.  Leaders must be decisive.  How will we raise children who are decisive?

Some decisions are moral decisions.   For these we must teach our children the Word of God so they can discern between right and wrong.  But that is not the subject of this post.

To give our older children opportunity to make decisions while they are still under our guidance and protection, we can use what Van Fleet calls mission-type orders – where you tell a person what you want done but not how to do it!  By doing this, you

…open the door wide for your …[child] to use his initiative, his imagination, and his ingenuity to solve the problem you’ve given him.

I dislike being micro-managed and enjoy a project much more if I have room to make decisions.  Our children are no different.  Let them decide what size bowl to use for the cookies or how to organize the garage.

And what about those times in life when one feels stuck, and a major life decision needs to be made between a number of legitimate options?  Dr. James Greer gave us some decision-making tools that we are passing on to our children.

1. Definitions: write out your problem concisely — one sentence if you can.
2. Blue sky. List all possible alternatives, even those that initially seem wild. If they are not sinful, they are options.
3. Build alternatives, thinking through all of the implications and consequences. Gather lots of information and seek counsel. Remember that there are always trade-offs with any choice.
4. Through all of this, articulate and write down your values and their order of priority: church, marriage, education of children, financial aspects, stewardship of gifts, extended family, stability, etc.
5. Give all of this process time; allow for a time of incubation. Keep a notebook to record priorities, alternatives and information gathered. Do not let emotions drive you away from good process. Pray through each step.

Ruthiey decided to forego the hike and keep her job.  Now she has time and a place to build alternatives.

 O LORD, bless us to raise decisive children for your glory.

Thanks that is 30 years overdue.

This week I wrote a letter to Reformed Book Services, a book store in Ontario, that had a significant impact on my life some 30 years ago:

 To Whom it may Concern,

I have for some time wanted to thank you for being an instrument in God's hands for my salvation.

Thirty years ago I had graduated from Calvin College and was living in Toronto.  The tidy structure of school was gone, and I was fearful and bewildered.

Some years earlier, a friend had introduced me to a devotional  -- all excerpts from works of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  Delighting in Lloyd-Jones' understanding of depression, I later purchased Spiritual Depression at a used book store, .  A summer free of commitments yawned before me, and when I drove past your store, I decided to stop in.   There I saw volumes of sermons on Ephesians by Lloyd-Jones.   Reading them and taking notes on the sermons seemed a good way to pass some of the summer.

Though I grew up in the Christian Reformed Church, I had a woefully inadequate view of my sin before a holy God.  Sin was robbing banks, stealing someone's spouse,  and stabbing people in back alleys.  Surely it was not a word to describe me through and through.

But God had been gently and surely convicting me of my love for recognition (glory-stealing) and a lack of love for others.  As I read Lloyd-Jones on Ephesians two,  I came to the sentence about not being able to be found unless we are lost.  God showed me his glory and I knew myself to be a sinner before a glorious and mighty GOD.  (I weep as I write).  

I had hoped to be a writer, but then and there I gave my writing and my future to the Lord.  I told him that I wanted to live for his glory. I told him that if my writing was not for his glory, I wanted none of it.

Some years later I married and God gave us eight living children.  God has given me a small place to be faithful in, a perfect place.  I am glad to be his daughter and to have him as my Father.  

And I am grateful for the day he led me to to buy Lloyd-Jones at your store.   May God continue to bless your business for his glory.

For the King,

Jeannette Paulson

Moral Decisions

What if we are not sure of what is right or wrong in a particular situation? Saint John says that sin is lawlessness.  God's law defines sin.  I find the Westminster Larger Catechism  list of what the law commands and forbids very instructive.  It is a careful study of scripture. For example, do you think of  "undue delay of marriage" as a violation of the seventh commandment?  It is. Many of life's decisions would be clearer if we were better students of the word.