tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49768633030750865742024-03-05T08:59:13.851-08:00theologistathe intersection of femininity and biblical theologytheologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.comBlogger442125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-61333116040154921712017-02-12T18:36:00.003-08:002017-02-12T18:36:31.601-08:00Unprotected: Book review<i>[One of the reasons that I haven't kept up regularly with blogging in a while is that I have been using most of my meager free time reading instead of writing, and I have been reading some very interesting books of recent. Over the coming weeks, I hope to write reviews of some of these books.]</i><br />
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<i>Unprotected</i>, by UCLA campus psychiatrist Miriam Grossman is an incredibly sad but also encouraging book. The author lays out how modern psychology has given in to political correctness, and how this influence is causing the field to hurt, rather than help many patients. <br />
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She starts off with the example of how sexual relations are treated among psychologists, especially on campuses. The prevailing ideology is to encourage students to explore their sexuality and even encourage them to try risky sexual behaviors without any warnings as to the risks they may be incurring. While campus health centers are very firm about healthy behaviors like not smoking, exercising, eating a balanced diet, not drinking too much, very little is said about sex other than to use protection, which is widely known to still have many risks, even if used correctly.<br />
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While political correctness says that men and women are the same, she shows that the reality is that no one is hurt more by this ethos than women. She shares fascinating research on bonding, and suggests that one of the reasons women are harmed by "friends with benefits" relationships is that after having intercourse, a woman's brain releases oxytocin, a powerful hormone that plays an important role in a mother bonding with her baby (oxytocin is also released right after child birth and while a mother is nursing her baby). So a woman is not capable of having casual sex with no desire for further commitment in the way that a man can, because her brain is wired differently. Grossman says that she sees scores of women who come in to her office needing prescriptions for antidepressants as a result of confusing "friends with benefits" type relationships. No one has warned them that these relationships may actually be hurting them, so they have no compunction that would lead them to avoid this behavior.<br />
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The chapter on abortion is one of the hardest to read. The prevailing politically correct thought about abortion is that very few women are harmed mentally/emotionally by having an abortion. Grossman sheds light on to how many women are deeply affected by abortion but are afraid to let this hurt come into light. The symptoms observed in many of these women warrant a PTSD diagnosis according to Grossman, though because of the political correctness bias, this diagnosis is rarely given. She shares quotes from women who have had an abortion about their pain and loss, and the deep anguish of these women is heart wrenching. She goes on to cite a study (done by a group of pro-choice men) that suggests that even a number of fathers who choose abortion go on to second guess the decision or think about the baby they may have allowed to be born. <br />
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Another heart-wrenching chapter is about all of the women she sees dealing with depression and anxiety because they want to have children, and have waited until their late 30's and early 40's to do so, in order to focus on their career, only to get to that time in their life and realize it is not as easy to do so as the media would have you believe (side note: I saw an article recently that said "Why women are better than ever at having babies in their 40's." and thinking that the only reason people share things like this is because they want to deceive themselves into thinking it is normal and easy to do so.) Grossman shares the statistics on conception after 35, and chances drop significantly with each passing year, even with medical help. And even if a woman can afford treatments like IVF (which can cost $20,000 or more), the emotional toll is very high. One woman called it "a state of desperation like nothing else", and another said it was "the worst experience of my life". It is not psychologically healthy for a woman to have to go through something like this, but politically correct campus health centers would never warn women about the risks of waiting until later in life to try to conceive.<br />
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Grossman also has chapters on why religion is actually good for you (from a psychological perspective), misinformation that has been spread about HIV/AIDS to make it seem like it is more common than it really is among non-drug using heterosexuals, the impact of STD's on a woman's ability to conceive and why people are required to be tested and treated for tuberculosis but not HIV/AIDS (and it boils down to political correctness).<br />
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After hearing all of this, you may be wondering how I found the book to be encouraging. The encouraging part of the book to me was the fact that there is at least one professional in this field in America saying these things (with a good amount of research to back up her assertions as well, there are 40 pages of just citations at the end). <br />
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This book is an important read for parents, anyone who works with college students, anyone in the field of psychology and anyone who wonders whether political correctness is good for our nation. theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-83856084120035342902017-01-23T07:56:00.001-08:002017-01-23T07:56:14.549-08:00Dear Foster Mama, Jesus will Bind up your Broken Heart<i>[In recent weeks, we have gotten news from three different foster families that we know that young children who have been with them for years will soon be leaving to go to their biological families. This is a letter written to them, stemming from our similar experiences.]</i><br />
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Dear Foster Mama,<br />
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A few weeks ago, Esther came up to me out of the blue and announced."Mommy, did you know that if your heart is broken, God wraps it up in his love?" Her words were precious to me, as they were a great reminder of one of my favorite promises in the Bible.<br />
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<i>"The Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow." Isaiah 30:26</i><br />
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<i>"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me </i><br />
<i>because the Lord has anointed me </i><br />
<i>to bring good news to the poor, </i><br />
<i>he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, </i><br />
<i>to proclaim liberty to the captives, </i><br />
<i>and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Isaiah 61:1 </i><br />
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First, let me say that I am encouraged by your willingness to put yourself out there for your heart to get broken. So many people have said to me things like, "I could never be a foster parent, I would be too sad when the kids leave." As if those of us who are foster parents are some kind of ogres who could care less about saying goodbye. No, mama, I know your heart. What sets you apart is not your hard heart that is incapable of being broken, but willingness to trust God with your grief.<br />
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In the midst of your grief, preach to your heart, as the Psalmist did:<br />
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<i>"Why are you cast down, O my soul. and why are you at turmoil within me? </i><br />
<i>Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 42:11</i><br />
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When you are tempted to despair, preach to your soul to hope in God. Remember Isaiah 30:26 (above) that your wounds are inflicted by God's blow (see also Lamentations 3:38) but that he is also the one who will bind them up. God knew long ago, before you were even born, that he would lead you to be a foster mama and that he would cause the grief of you saying goodbye to your precious little ones. He promises that he will do good things through your grief (Romans 8:28), so preach to your heart to trust him for the good results and pray regularly that he will bind up your broken heart.<br />
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We live in America, where the common belief is that life should be mostly good with short periods of hardship here and there. The Bible paints a much different picture. The Bible says that as believers, if we are living the way that the Bible commands, specifically if we, as sinful people, minister to others, who are also very sinful, that our life will be mostly difficult, but he promises periods of refreshment here and there until we reach our final Rest. You are taking literally the Biblical command to care for orphans, and your heart is being broken. Fight hard to trust God that he will:<br />
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<i>"grant to those who mourn in Zion-</i><br />
<i>to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,</i><br />
<i>the oil of gladness instead of mourning,</i><br />
<i>the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit,</i><br />
<i>that they may be called oaks of righteousness,</i><br />
<i>the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified" Isaiah 61:3</i><br />
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God will give you beauty, gladness, the ability to praise him and a firmer foundation on him as a result of your mourning. And even better, he will be glorified throughout it all.<br />
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And though the grief consumes your life at the moment, one day it will be almost nothing, in light of eternity.<br />
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<i>"Therefore, having this ministry [of foster parenting!] by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart...</i><br />
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<i>For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that far surpasses them all, as we look not to things that are seen but things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporary, and the things that are unseen are eternal." 1 Corinthians 4:1,15-16</i><br />
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Love,<br />
Another foster mama<br />
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<i>[<a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2013/08/dear-esther-your-sister-is-leaving.html" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see a letter I wrote to Esther after one of her foster sisters left]</i><br />
<br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-82947058670970502042016-06-07T05:00:00.000-07:002016-06-08T10:46:22.315-07:00You have wearied the Lord with your words.<div style="color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them." Or by asking "Where is the God of justice?"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Malachai 2:17</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Passages like this remind me that there is no new sin under the sun. This was written about 2500 years ago, but it feels like it could have been written yesterday. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Malachi writes that the Lord is wearied by people saying things like, </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">"Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them." Doesn't this sound familiar? Our society has come to tolerate, even embrace, every form of sin. And many so called pastors have follow society into this sin (and maybe they have even led us into it) by claiming that God delights in so many who live in open rebellion to Him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">The second statement rings true as well. It is not common these days to hear people say "Where was God when ___?" Fill in the blank with "my dad was killed in a car accident", "the 9/11 attacks happened" or some other horrible tragedy. People don't think that God is real (or if he is, that he is not just) because he allows bad things to happen, seemingly unpunished. However, the Bible makes it clear that God is sovereign over all things, good AND bad, and that all evil will judged one day (though not always in our timing).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; color: #1d2129; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Be careful not to follow our society in making these kind of statements about God. Words like these weary the Lord, and "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).</span></div>
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theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-80185471739033820522016-06-05T19:09:00.000-07:002016-06-05T19:15:29.596-07:00Springtime in our HomeSpringtime has seen our home grow more full, in more ways than one.<br />
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Most literally, our home is fuller by the addition of baby <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2016/03/zions-birth-story.html" target="_blank">Zion Ezekiel</a>, born in March. For the first few weeks he started out as a fussy baby, but since then he has decided that the world is not such a bad place after all, and he is generally quite calm. He started smiling a few weeks ago, and since then is a delight to tickle and coo over and play with. He sleeps really well as long as he is in his bed. In fact, he sleeps so well that for almost a week now he has slept solid 11-12 hour nights without waking! I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying this because I am shocked. Hudson didn't start consistently sleeping all night until a few months ago. I have heard other people saying they have two month olds sleep all night but I didn't know that could happen in like, you know, real life. This is probably the most nights I have slept all night without being woken up since Hudson was born. It's very good to sleep.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDt_7y1G5cktPbYmHpXispgU2ttPY5C1XzZLGPM1zU03xxSccZU5Ex0WAsHGOXekNsOv5PcAExVxWEwoCrKeHn2tZli1_KC58-YXFFWoFR5zxmFWcbSOqe-nQOtR50cZr13X4v1aFFdHSu/s1600/SmileyZiony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDt_7y1G5cktPbYmHpXispgU2ttPY5C1XzZLGPM1zU03xxSccZU5Ex0WAsHGOXekNsOv5PcAExVxWEwoCrKeHn2tZli1_KC58-YXFFWoFR5zxmFWcbSOqe-nQOtR50cZr13X4v1aFFdHSu/s320/SmileyZiony.jpg" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alex calls him smiley Ziony. It <br />kinda rhymes. Kinda.</td></tr>
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Our lives have also become more full with the reopening of <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2015/03/we-did-it.html" target="_blank">the community garden</a>. Right now, I am going to the garden several days a week, working mostly on planting and weeding at this point. I am hoping things calm down once summer comes, but of course there is always more to be done! We have already harvested radishes, lettuce and basil (for this year's first batch of pesto- yum! And it's not even summer yet!).<br />
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Our home (or at least our garage!) is more full right now as we got 32 chicks in the mail about a week ago. Half are meat birds, and the other half will be layers. We ordered enough chicks that our hatchery threw in a free rare breed chick. Based on the look of the chick, something like this:<br />
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We are guessing it is a white crested black polish chicken, which as an adult, should look something like this:<br />
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I was pretty much giddy when I saw this pic. I can't wait to have a chicken walking around in our yard that looks like that!theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-87762831183899910642016-05-14T13:16:00.000-07:002016-05-14T13:16:09.270-07:00The Weak MotherIt was another one of those days. Operating on entirely too little sleep, the morning was busy, the toddler was whiny, the baby was fussy and sleeping less than usual. The to-do list was long, and seemingly nothing was getting accomplished.<br />
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When the kids all finally made it to nap time, I got to my baking. As I stirred the cookie dough, my mind turned over with the usual questions. Am I disciplining the kids too much? Or too little? Maybe they aren't sleeping enough. Should I put them to bed sooner? Should I let the baby cry more? Less? Am I spending enough time with the kids? Am I making enough time to do school with our oldest? Are they getting too much free play time or is all the play time a good thing? Am I cooking healthy enough or is it all too healthy? Do they have too many vaccines or too few? Do I spend too much time cleaning the house or too little? Am I reaching out enough to people who don't know Jesus or do I need to focus on our kids more? Am I talking to them about their sin enough? Am I talking to them about <i>my</i> sin enough? Am I sharing the gospel with them enough? Am I showing enough grace? Will they ever become Christians? <br />
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And on and on my thoughts rolled onto a thousand topics, never feeling settled about a single one. My mind searched my knowledge of the Bible, looking for a verse or two to comfort me that I am doing the best I can, and that it is good enough for God.<br />
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But such a verse was not coming.<br />
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But God in his kindness, did point me to something in His word. "My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) <br />
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Maybe sometimes its good to be a <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/real-men-love-strong-women" target="_blank">strong mom</a>. But I find that in my weakness, I depend on God more. I pray for wisdom on naptimes and bedtimes and meal plans and school plans. I pray for help to repent of sin in front of my kids. Most importantly, I pray for God to save them.<br />
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In reality, we are all weak moms, but only some of us realize it. And seeing our weakness opens up room for God to give us His power. And there is no other power on which I would rather depend.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-53721045504502920372016-03-25T10:00:00.000-07:002016-03-25T10:00:19.563-07:00Home birth and hospital birth: my (hopefully non-controversial) experiences with bothBack when I was pregnant with Esther, I did lots of <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-week-two-books-came-in-mail-that-i.html" target="_blank">reading on birth and birth styles</a>. The conclusion I came to was that the best choice for her and for me would be to have an unmedicated home birth. However, our insurance situation at the time was such that only a hospital birth was covered, which for financial reasons was <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-birth-story.html" target="_blank">the route we decided to go</a>. Fortunately we had a good midwife, and <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2011/10/pros-and-cons-of-hospital-birth.html" target="_blank">though our hospital stay wasn't the best</a> (though not terrible) it was short and manageable, and we were able to give birth unmedicated.<br />
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<a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/03/hudsons-birth-story.html" target="_blank">Fast forward to Hudson</a>. Same story with insurance, and a move led us to a new midwife and new hospital. I really liked our new midwife and this new hospital was <a href="https://www.babyfriendlyusa.org/" target="_blank">certified baby friendly</a>, which made for a much better experience. In fact, I would even say <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/04/thoughts-on-hospital-birth-revisited.html" target="_blank">I enjoyed our hospital stay</a>.<br />
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This time when I got pregnant, two things changed: we were now with <a href="http://samaritanministries.org/" target="_blank">Samaritan Ministries</a>, which "shares" home birth at 100% (it's not considered insurance, so you can't say "covers" but pretty much the same idea), and my midwife was in the process of moving to a new city. So this time around the hospital would cost more, and our midwife would not be able to attend. Though I like my OB, I would prefer a midwife and I don't think there are any other hospital based midwives in our town (and the other upside to my previous midwife is that she was in the same office as my OB).<br />
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Long story short, after talking to a lot of people and weighing our options, we settled on a home birth. It wasn't an easy decision like it would have been with a previous birth, this time I felt that there were some legitimate upsides to the hospital, but in the end I wanted to at least try a home birth so that I could know what it is like.<br />
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Right away, I was happy about our decision. The two biggest reasons were that I really liked the midwife we chose and because having prenatal appointments at home made life so much easier. I didn't have to find a sitter or even carve out that much time from my day. The visits lasted about 45 minutes and I didn't have to drive anywhere or wait in a waiting room. My midwife would even include the kids in on the exam as helpers which they enjoyed and provided them with a learning opportunity. Another upside is that the whole appointment was face time with my midwife, which allowed for plenty of time for questions and conversation about life and pregnancy. I would probably say that the prenatal visits were the biggest upside of the home birth experience for me.<br />
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When it came to the birth, the biggest upside was not having to make the transition to the hospital. We now live 15 minutes from our hospital, which isn't the terrible one-hour drive we had with Esther but certainly not the very easy less than 5 minute drive we had with Hudson. Even a five minute drive isn't fun because there is the decision of when exactly to leave, which for me is as close as possible to the birth without being too late. In all honesty, the way things went this time I might have had the baby in the car.<br />
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Since it was a home birth, my midwife came when contractions were still relatively easy (which ended up being about 2 hours before the actual birth), as she knows my history of fast births. This is different than hospital midwives who want to come after you are ready to push. The problem with that for me is that by time I am ready to push, the baby is minutes from being born. I was worried about feeling like a watched pot with her there, but she mostly laid low in a different room while I labored, only coming to check the baby's heart tones every half hour or so, meanwhile getting everything set up for the birth. And in the end, Zion came fast enough that even her assistant didn't make it in time, so we all agreed that it was good that she came early when things were still easy.<br />
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I also really appreciated that right after the birth, I could crawl into bed, <i>my</i> bed. And that first night, I didn't have to sleep across the room from my husband, knowing that he was getting a terrible night's sleep. Instead we were all snuggled up in bed together. I loved it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRprvV78YUQmmcZSJWeHrDed0dxpt323I2vxfv17VEAeQbw5i2vmYn4qxiPlu20-1ayEXGhglTsoka5dBHdITclQEiJQVRY_-AbKMI6E85lmR9hTnfNtceYrAhOQQi1fi24hcuUQRXWxW7/s1600/IMG_3462.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRprvV78YUQmmcZSJWeHrDed0dxpt323I2vxfv17VEAeQbw5i2vmYn4qxiPlu20-1ayEXGhglTsoka5dBHdITclQEiJQVRY_-AbKMI6E85lmR9hTnfNtceYrAhOQQi1fi24hcuUQRXWxW7/s320/IMG_3462.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
There are some things that are more convenient in the hospital: a closer bathroom, a bed that sits up at the push of a button and the nice rolling table that sits your food, book or computer right in front of you while you lay in bed. I also didn't love having to take mine and my baby's vitals by myself (my midwife did a check right after birth, at 24 hours and at 3 days, but in between those checks it was up to us). They weren't necessarily difficult but its just more reassuring when someone else is doing them.<br />
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So what will we do in the future? All things considered, home birth seems like the better option for us. In a number of ways, it is easier, especially as our family grows, and especially given my history of relatively fast deliveries. However, if there is ever a compelling reason to have a hospital birth, that will be a fine option for us as well.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-29291104520644832422016-03-24T17:25:00.000-07:002016-03-24T17:25:22.160-07:00Zion's birth storyI woke up at 6am on Friday March 18 with regular, mild contractions that were maybe 5 or 10 minutes apart. I dozed off in between each but after about an hour I realized I was probably in labor and decided to get up and get my day started. Things continued to progress and I lost my mucus plug, but then the kids woke up. And when they got up my brain was like "Hey, I can't have this baby now, I have a life to live!" We already had plans for free breakfast at Chick-fil-a and a morning full of errands. With my mind on other things, my contractions slowed down significantly. I called my midwife and updated her and she said it should be fine to run a few errands, as along as I didn't get "too far from the nest". I didn't tell her that Chick-fil-a was a good 25 minute drive.<br />
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But we got through our morning without things progressing much. We got home at lunch time, and soon after the kids were down for rest time/nap time. I scurried around the house finishing last minute things to make the house feel in order and ready for the arrival of a baby (and a week with little cleaning). I made an early dinner and by time that was done I was to the point of not being able to do much besides give in to labor. My mom took the kids to a park and I got into the bathtub to relax (I have done this with each labor and it feels great!). Towards the end of my two(!) hours in the tub my midwife arrived. The kids came home and Alex put them in bed, and I felt like I could finally relax and just have the baby. The contractions started getting stronger and I felt like I might be nearing transition, so I decided to get out. <br />
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I went downstairs and laid on the couch with Alex and tried to watch some March Madness with him as a diversion. He texted my friend who was serving as doula to come, as contractions were strong enough that I was wanting some more support to get through them. For the next 45 minutes or so I continued to lay there with the two of them helping me through each one, as they were getting progressively stronger. I could feel that I was getting really close to transition so I decided to get up and go to the bathroom and then we would head up to the bedroom (where my midwife had been setting things up for the birth). Standing up must have caused Zion to move down in a big way because I had a really intense, really long contraction. It must have been audibly intense because Alex came to check on me. After one more powerful contraction while I walked around the living room, they helped me to move upstairs.<br />
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We got up there just in time because I began to feel a really strong urge to push right when we got to the bedroom. Two pushes later my water broke, and then Zion was born one push later.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqf-5MQC8xDemf2ilbNkZXtUnsk3gYcz9oYEtyXlGFiDVeJSjnppuAM8gNXEGSCID2sHKOZYBtSQVJ5tVkJC6eQSgkvuJNwL3KFovDvYrAAtaoZVNnn8EffYrh1N1usjTN8I1mfrLQJiZ/s1600/IMG_3429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKqf-5MQC8xDemf2ilbNkZXtUnsk3gYcz9oYEtyXlGFiDVeJSjnppuAM8gNXEGSCID2sHKOZYBtSQVJ5tVkJC6eQSgkvuJNwL3KFovDvYrAAtaoZVNnn8EffYrh1N1usjTN8I1mfrLQJiZ/s320/IMG_3429.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
I was in a daze after he was born but I remember one of my first reactions was surprise at his light eyes and hair. For some reason I had it in my head that all of our boys would have dark hair like Hudson and Alex, but Zion's appearance was very similar to Esther's at birth. After a couple hours of cuddling and nursing, my midwife did his exam he was 7lb even (a half an ounce more than Esther at birth).<br />
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It has been a pretty laid back week since he was born and we are thankful. We are in love with our new little Zion Ezekiel!<br />
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<br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-45699656896039781262015-07-02T11:48:00.002-07:002015-07-02T11:48:51.831-07:00June in our Home: In PicturesThis month's update will be in pictures. I just got a nice camera before we left for Portugal, and I have been loving it so much!<br />
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Here are some highlights from this month, in pictures.<br />
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Hudson got his first haircut this month. Here is a before picture:<br />
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And here is after...<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfaeZ9M9uAvimqIkoGwzKA9U4alcXRwVVi9nvwgFciZr7sYWZHpJwJhA7APdws_tdsEspOz8LoDl41XFeGLbd9EXnUNSnZZFZDApOa3LvCKV8d1_3NYVt1bmz6fYQUeYes1uLRG6pChSqf/s1600/11027976_10100284230576652_8496272706035536065_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfaeZ9M9uAvimqIkoGwzKA9U4alcXRwVVi9nvwgFciZr7sYWZHpJwJhA7APdws_tdsEspOz8LoDl41XFeGLbd9EXnUNSnZZFZDApOa3LvCKV8d1_3NYVt1bmz6fYQUeYes1uLRG6pChSqf/s320/11027976_10100284230576652_8496272706035536065_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Whoops. Botched that a bit. In my defence, Hudson was squirming too much to do it the "right" way, so he just ended up getting more or less a bowl cut. Alex says he looks like this:</div>
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We also moved into our new house this month.</div>
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And met some of our new neighbors.</div>
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(That's a bison.)</div>
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Settling is taking longer than I would thought, so I haven't taken many pics of the inside yet, but here is one of our entryway. Please come visit if you haven't yet.</div>
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The first week of June we were in the Azores, Portugal visiting family. Here is Esther swinging in the yard of our hotel.</div>
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And here she is exploring flowers at a huge royal garden on the island.</div>
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Too many beautiful flower pics.</div>
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And Hudson being cute.</div>
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I have tons more vacation photos (about 2000 to be exact) so I hope to post more eventually!</div>
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<br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-86353508532847403732015-06-30T04:35:00.002-07:002015-06-30T04:35:43.314-07:00Thought on the coming persecutionFriday's supreme court decision has really thrown me for a loop. Not because it was unexpected (it wasn't) but because it has really gotten me to think about persecution. And for as much good as I logically know persecution does for the individual and the Church, I'll be honest, it scares me.<br />
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In the coming years, we are going to see two things happen: churches who preach against homosexuality will be in danger of losing their 501(c)3 status and speaking against this sin will become a hate crime. The first will cripple many churches financially, and the second will cause many faithful Christians to be sent to jail.<br />
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But the government will be generous. If only a church will refuse to preach the <i>whole</i> counsel of God and bow instead to government regulation, they will be allowed to continue on. <br />
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This reminds me of Christianity in China. Churches can either be government registered, and have to follow government rules about what they can do and teach, or they can be independent (and therefore, illegal) and worship God without government regulation. Pastors of illegal churches are often thrown in jail. Meetings have to be secret and there is always the thread of intrusion by authorities. You see, the Chinese Government wants to be god. And churches that dare bow only to the True God and not to the Chinese god feel the wrath of this human institution.<br />
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Even more, this reminds me of early Christianity. Early Christians were persecuted in large part not because they worshiped a different God (the Romans had a whole pantheon of gods and didn't mind adding one more) but because they refused to worship the god of the Roman government: Caesar, the one god they were required to worship.<br />
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Reading in Daniel this morning, I was struck by two verses. The context is an uprising by a major enemy of God.<br />
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"He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, <i>but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. </i>And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder" (11:32-33)<br />
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And what is the final end of this enemy of God and his people?<br />
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"And he shall come pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. <i>Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.</i>" (11:45)<br />
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So let us stand firm on the Word of God and not fear. Let us not be man-pleasers and conform the Bible to what is currently popular and accepted. In the end, there is only God. The US government, and all governments will have their end in time, but He will not.<br />
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Sorry SCOTUS, nice try thinking that you have the power to define marriage. There is only One Creator of marriage, and He created it to be for one man and one woman.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-21758849445460481182015-06-08T13:11:00.001-07:002015-06-08T13:11:51.854-07:00The End of a SprintThe end is in sight.<br />
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We started on a sprint back in February. That month, we started raising money for <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2015/03/our-community-garden-vision.html" target="_blank">the community garden</a> we hoped to build. Around that time, I took on responisbilities for two big events at church. In March, we started looking for a home to buy, and made the decision to travel to the Azores, Portugal at the of May to see Alex's family (he hasn't been there in 27 years, and I have never been there or met most of his family). In April, we broke ground on the community garden (and once we started, Alex worked 30-50 hours per week on it, and it took the majority of my free time as well). In May, our sprint hit a fever pace as we started packing for our move, finished enough of the community garden to get it open, called our loan company often enough to make sure they got things done in time for our closing, closed on our house, and packed suitcases for our trip to the Azores. All of this was on top of church and home responsibilities that were <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html" target="_blank">already keeping us quite busy</a> <i>before</i> the sprint started.<br />
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But you can't sprint forever. And the end is in sight. Our vacation is almost over, and while it was relaxing in many ways, as is usual at the end of a vaction, you look forward to getting back to normalcy. When we get home, we will have three days to finish packing and move into our new home. So one last push, and we will be finished with the majority of the work we embarked on a few months ago (we still need to finish some things on the garden, and then of course there will be the work of making our new house a home).<br />
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But God has been very good to us in this very full season. All of these potentially stressful things could have caused difficulty in our marriage, but instead, it has strengthened us as we have worked hard side by side. God used this time to strengthen my prayer life (which is still so, so far from where I want it to be) as I have sought to emulate the example of George Mueller who found it necessary to devote <i>more</i> time to prayer in difficult seasons, when our temptation is to pray less. And we have both felt God's sweet blessing in many ways, as he has made our community garden vision come to reality, allowed us to visit family that we have been trying to see since we got married almost 7 years ago, and given us our first home (even though we know its just temporary, for the next 4ish year we are in Bloomington).<br />
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Here are a few pictures from our vacation. I definitely plan to write more about that (it was absolutely wonderful!) so look for more to come on that.<br />
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Alex and Esther walking down a beautiful cobblestone sidewalk.</div>
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Behind Hudson is a picture of a small island created by a volcanic eruption. It is hard to see in this pic, but in the middle is a lagoon, almost perfectly round, the mouth of the volcano.</div>
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Hudson on the beach. The sand is very dark, made from volanic rock.</div>
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Beautiful flowers in front of a beautiful waterfall. I think I have several hundred pictures of flowers from our trip.</div>
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And espresso. Lots of espresso.</div>
<span id="goog_840988579"></span><span id="goog_840988580"></span><br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-70357442263356965832015-04-28T03:30:00.000-07:002015-04-28T03:30:00.885-07:00Materialism and AsceticismI can't stop thinking about <a href="http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2012/09/14/why-i-took-all-my-kids-toys-away-why-they-wont-get-them-back/" target="_blank">this blog post</a> I read today. I recommend reading it, but to sum up the author says that she was concerned about materialism in her two daughters and after getting fed up with their toys, she took them all away. As a result she has seen more contentment in her daughters' lives.<br />
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On one hand I totally get where she is coming from. When we first became parents, we went from 0 to 4 kids in two weeks, all of them under age four (they were a foster sibling set). We were incredibly blessed that many people stepped up to give us hand me down clothes and toys for our kiddos. In fact, within a few weeks we had 4 full bins of toys! I tried my best to rotate these toys but they always managed to take over the house. When the kids were reunited with their mom, we sent the vast majority of the toys with them. Since then I have continually been reducing the number of toys we own, and keeping fewer toys out at a time when we do toy rotations (or at least I try... sometimes the number of toys around the house seem to multiply despite my best efforts). Having fewer toys around helps keep me sane and the kids really don't seem to notice (especially when I do a good job of rotating).<br />
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BUT.<br />
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There is one thing that concerns me about this idea. Taking away your kids toys is not going to stop them from being greedy.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? <i>These have indeed an appearance of wisdom </i>in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, <i>but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh</i>." Colossians 2:20-23 (emph. mine)</blockquote>
So taking away your kids' toys to help them be less materialistic? Maybe if they don't have toys they <i>appear</i> less materialistic and more content. But setting up these regulations in their lives will not stop the indulgence of the flesh. Only the Holy Spirit can change your children from the inside out.<br />
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Pray for His mercy and soul cleansing work in your children.<br />
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And maybe you should take away their toy or at least get rid of a good number of them. But don't expect that to save or sanctify them.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-81676095915187880522015-03-13T06:02:00.000-07:002015-03-13T06:02:01.102-07:00We did it!A big THANK YOU to everyone who was a part of our kickstarter campaign for the <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2015/03/our-community-garden-vision.html" target="_blank">community garden we are building</a>! With just 6 hours to go yesterday, our campaign received full funding.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2SEtFkA3SWucE7dy-J66SHzciMq3pzRaFX8gL5-_4IEkue29k3wqe8KGNctdWk8pJpcWTEZi8gw-JY6B0xWdjP2Aa5T-A88CKUaXf6HfQkwchaLmJ1eYad0r37o20rsCy3WsUj2weZvZ/s1600/community+garden+before.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2SEtFkA3SWucE7dy-J66SHzciMq3pzRaFX8gL5-_4IEkue29k3wqe8KGNctdWk8pJpcWTEZi8gw-JY6B0xWdjP2Aa5T-A88CKUaXf6HfQkwchaLmJ1eYad0r37o20rsCy3WsUj2weZvZ/s1600/community+garden+before.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our future garden site!</td></tr>
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Part of me feels relieved, like we can just kick back and relax now. But actually, the opposite is true. The hard work is over, now the really hard work starts. Now that the funding is in and the weather is warming up, its time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on <i>building</i> this thing. Today a big truck is going to back up to our tiny apartment and deliver enough 8' fence to surround the whole garden, along with two 8'x6' gates. In the next few weeks Lord willing and weather permitting we are going to be building and installing a fence, a shed, water pipes and a new spigot, compost bins and raised bed gardens, among other things.</div>
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Did I mention that at the moment Alex and I own a hammer and power drill and that's about it for tools?</div>
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But we are not alone in this effort. Some forty people have already offered help (and I hope they were all serious because we need it!!). And God raised the money, God can raise the fence.</div>
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Will you please pray for us? This is possibly the biggest project we have ever embarked on. Pray for patience, wisdom, enough help, good weather and fun. Lots of fun :)</div>
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Soli Deo Gloria!</div>
theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-16889569371851964552015-03-06T05:00:00.000-08:002015-03-06T12:41:40.304-08:00My Late Winter/Early Spring Meal PlanThis past winter I decided to <a href="http://most%20weeks%20i%20have%20one%20dish%20with%20each%20beef%2C%20chicken%2C%20fish%2C%20sausage%20and%20one%20meatless./" target="_blank">simplify life by making a 3 month meal plan</a>, a 4 week plan that I would repeat 3 times. It went very well over all (I didn't follow the plan 100% but it worked for us) so I decided to make a new plan for the next few months.<br />
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My main goal with this meal plan was to try some new things, and <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-simplified-winter-meal-plan.html" target="_blank">like last time</a>, include at least one crock pot meal per week and meals that I can double and freeze. <br />
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I have included links to recipes where applicable. Some of these are things I make often enough that I don't use a recipe.<br />
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<b>Week 1</b><br />
1 Hamburgers with sweet potato fries and carrot sticks<br />
2 <a href="http://bakerbynature.com/healthy-30-minute-sriracha-teriyaki-meatball-bowls/" target="_blank">Sri Racha Meatballs</a> (made with beef, not turkey like the recipe says) with <a href="http://detoxinista.com/2013/05/sweet-sesame-lime-cabbage-salad/" target="_blank">Asian sesame-lime cabbage salad</a><br />
3 <a href="http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2014/02/crock-pot-chicken-enchilada-soup.html" target="_blank">Crockpot Chicken Enchillada Soup</a> with warm buttered sourdough <a href="http://gnowfglins.com/2009/10/22/whole-wheat-sourdough-tortillas/" target="_blank">tortillas</a> (I make half of this recipe)<br />
4 <a href="http://veegmama.com/2014/10/vegan-casseroles-giveaway/" target="_blank">Mujadara</a> (I recommend doubling the onions. Also, the site says it serves 4-6 but I would say it serves 2 adults and 1 child if it is your main dish).<br />
5 Pizza with sausage, olives, mushrooms and bell peppers<br />
6 <a href="http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moqueca___brazilian_fish_stew/" target="_blank">Brazillian Fish Stew</a><br />
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<b>Week 2</b><br />
1 <a href="http://www.fivehearthome.com/2014/01/25/slow-cooker-beef-stroganoff-no-cream-of-x-soup/" target="_blank">Crockpot Beef Stroganoff</a><br />
2 Tuna Melt Sandwiches<br />
3 Meatloaf with French Fries and Steamed Broccoli<br />
4 Fried Rice<br />
5 Chicken Pesto Pizza with carrot sticks<br />
6 <a href="http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/06/easy-summer-meals-fish-tacos.html" target="_blank">Fish Tacos</a> (all you midwesterners probably think this sounds weird. I did too until I lived in Cali and now I know fish tacos are the best!)<br />
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<b>Week 3</b><br />
1 Chicken Gyros with Hummus and Veggies<br />
2 Spaghetti and meatballs<br />
3 <a href="http://dinnersdishesanddesserts.com/slow-cooker-tikka-masala/#_a5y_p=2655512" target="_blank">Crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala</a><br />
4 Thai Peanut Stir-fry<br />
5 Pizza with Sausage, olives, red onions and mushrooms<br />
6 <a href="http://theseasidebaker.com/2013/01/10/chipotle-salmon-burgers-with-lemon-chive-mayo/" target="_blank">Chipotle Salmon Burgers</a> with Sweet Potato Fries<br />
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<b>Week 4</b><br />
1 Burritos<br />
2 Quiche<br />
3 Crockpot Sloppy Joes<br />
4 <a href="http://www.alaskaseafood.org/canned/recipes/Curried.html" target="_blank">Curried Alaskan Salmon</a><br />
5 Pizza with Pepperoni and Bell Peppers<br />
6 Pesto Pasta with Salmon Fillets and Steamed Broccoli<br />
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<b>Bonus: desserts</b><br />
I don't really plan ahead for desserts very often, but here are a few I plan to make in the near future<br />
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<a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/flourless-peanut-butter-cookies-recipe.html" target="_blank">Five ingredient peanut butter cookies</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/09/back-to-school-treat-homemade-healthier-reeses-peanut-butter-cups.html" target="_blank">Peanut butter cups</a>theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-82873255778033192152015-03-04T05:00:00.000-08:002015-03-04T05:00:00.266-08:00Our Community Garden Vision<span style="font-family: inherit;">Six months ago, Alex and I had a crazy idea. What if we started a community garden? We already knew the location: our church has over 200 acres of land and we were hopeful they would let us use some to start the garden. And we felt like this would be the right place to serve our community, as it is right down the street from a very large low-income apartment complex (with lots of international students and young families). It would be a great way to build inroads into our community and be of practical service to our neighbors. Around this time we also found out about a new bike path that the city was building right through this same area! This would be another draw for people to garden on this land.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But there were some major hurdles to be cleared: coming up with a proposal and blueprint for the garden, getting it approved by our elders, raising the money for materials and gathering people to volunteer to help build the garden. Did I mention that we know almost nothing about community gardens? I visited a community garden that my friend had a plot in while we lived in California, and last summer I had a plot in a garden on the other side of town. But... that's pretty much it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We worked hard coming up with a proposal (and by "we" I mean Alex as he's done most of the work on this whole thing). And finally it came time to propose it to the elders. We really didn't know if it would be approved or not (among other barriers to it being passed, our church gets much needed money from renting out our currently unused acreage to a farmer). And to be honest, I almost didn't want it to pass... I knew it would be a lot of work on our shoulders if we had to turn this dream into a reality.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It passed. And I prayed for strength from God to carry this increased load. But though I knew it would be hard work, I was also excited to have something so big to trust God for, to depend on him completely for. It has been a while since I have had to do something where I thought "If God doesn't move in this, then this is going to completely fail." While that is a scary place to be, it is also a place where you get to see God move the most. As George Mueller once wrote <span style="background-color: rgba(239, 238, 235, 0.498039); color: #2a2822; line-height: 21px; text-align: center;">"<b>Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.</b>"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[Side note: I highly recommend reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0883681595/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0883681595&linkCode=as2&tag=theologista-20&linkId=B7X2H4CMWROCHLYZ" target="_blank">The Autobiography of George Mueller</a>. This is one of my favorite books as it is very faith building and </span>challenging<span style="font-family: inherit;">]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the proposal passed (and that was just two months ago), we have been working on various aspect of this project almost daily. We read a book on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160469484X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=160469484X&linkCode=as2&tag=theologista-20&linkId=WTYZWG2IZ3AANVCS" target="_blank">how to start a community garden</a> and started <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/149361547/endwright-road-community-garden/" target="_blank">a kickstarter campaign</a>. We started to spread the word about the garden and have about 10 plots filled and 40 people willing to help build! </span><br />
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I find that I am being amazed daily with how God is working. Raising up 40 volunteers? This is at least double what I could have hoped for. Just this past weekend he put us in touch with an organization that is probably going to <i>donate</i> the fruit trees we need for the mini-orchard we are hoping to have in the garden. And just today we passed 50% of the funds we need through our kickstarter campaign.<br />
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Will you join us in this work? Would you consider:<br />
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1. Praying for us.<br />
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2. Sharing our kickstarter campaign on your social media of choice.<br />
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3. Giving to our <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/149361547/endwright-road-community-garden/" target="_blank">fundraising campaign</a>. We have just one week left to raise up the last of what we need.<br />
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<b>Thank you!</b>theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-34923545402126318342015-02-28T05:30:00.000-08:002015-02-28T05:30:00.565-08:00February in our HomeWhere to start when you have stepped away from blogging for so long? And it hasn't been intentional... many (most?) days I think to myself "I need to blog about ___". I have the notes scribbled on scraps of paper, in my journal and in various binders to prove it. I've had glorious plans to write down some deeply moving thoughts (they're always deep and moving in my head) I've had on race and racism, the Bible's portrayal of motherhood, on marriage, school choice, sin, loving people who are far from Jesus, and (of course) adoption. I always have a blog entry on adoption somewhere in my back pocket...<br />
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And I don't really know where to start up again. So I'll just talk about life... where we have been the last few months and where we are going. And- as usual- life is quite dynamic right now. It seems that life really is never the same for too many months on end for us, as is often the case when you have little ones, but especially for us as we continue to follow Jesus and take uncomfortable steps of faith on a regular basis.<br />
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Sometimes its enough to make me want to take a nap just thinking about it. But what would life be if not for following Jesus? And why keep life comfortable here when you can store up treasure that will last for eternity?<br />
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<b>Where have we been?</b><br />
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The past few months have been full of much toil. Not anything crazy, just the day to day demands of two young children (who are currently sharing a bedroom... with sleep schedules that aren't quite compatible...), and serving at church.<br />
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We were supposed to move to a three bedroom apartment in our complex last month but things fell through with that. It was a disappointment, as we were really looking forward to a bigger space, but the main reason we wanted to move was for fostering, which is on hold at the moment.<br />
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But not on hold by our choice. Our county child services office is really busy and understaffed at the moment (really, though, what is new?) so we've pretty much been told that we are a low priority to certify since we are limited to a narrow age range (by our choice- we are sensitive to the needs of our biological kiddos in this area). In California, this was never an issue. But here in a small county, I guess they can be pickier. And at the moment, we aren't making the cut.<br />
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Plenty of other ministries are keeping my schedule full for the moment, though. I am doing greeting and data entry for <a href="http://bloomingmoms.org/" target="_blank">BloomingMoms</a> (our church's moms group), childcare scheduling for Sundays, coordinating Wednesday evening childcare, social media marketing for <a href="http://encoreskids.com/" target="_blank">Encores</a>, a consignment sale that raises funds for BloomingMoms, childcare coordinating for our <a href="http://clearnotefellowship.org/conferences" target="_blank">summer conference</a> and working to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/149361547/endwright-road-community-garden" target="_blank">start a community garden</a>, in addition to things I just attend, like Bible study. While being a part of a church plant was a lot of work, being a part of an established church is even more work, we're coming to find, though we have a lot more administrative tasks and less shepherding than we did before.<br />
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<b>Where are we going?</b><br />
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There are so many plans on the horizon that it is actually quite exciting. We are looking into buying a house for the first time ever. We've been married 6.5 years (<i>exactly</i>, tomorrow! :) ) and have always rented. And I've been fine with that... its cheaper, gives us more flexibility,etc. But for the first time we both really <i>want</i> to "settle down" for a bit. Even if just for the next four or so years while we are here. We are hoping for a bigger place suitable for more hosting and where my mom can live with us again. And even though I am terrible at decorating, something besides white walls would be gladly welcomed at this point. And a piece of land that is ours to do with as we please (chickens? a garden? play area?).<br />
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Another area we are dreaming in is the area of adoption. With our county not caring to certify us, we are thinking about looking into other avenues of orphan care. Specifically we are considering pursuing an international adoption. No details on that yet, but we're going to continue to look in to it and see where God leads.<br />
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The biggest thing on the horizon is the community garden. At the moment, we are working on a kickstarter campaign to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/149361547/endwright-road-community-garden" target="_blank">raise the funds that we need</a>. Weather permitting, we can break ground some time in mid-March to start building. And also weather-permitting, we hope to open the garden for the season sometime in the spring. More details on this to come! But please be in prayer for us in this. Its a step of faith and we look eagerly to see our Father to provide for it to happen.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-7449099152406106942015-01-07T06:30:00.000-08:002015-01-07T06:30:00.628-08:002014 in review, Part ThreeIn this final part of my reflection of our past year, I will focus on our ministry. The year started with little to no defined ministry roles: not only were we were new at our church, but we also needed some time to just catch our breath, and said no to a few things we were asked to do early on. But once we felt like we had our footing established, we started to take on a few roles. Here is a sampling of some of the ministry we took on in the second half of 2014.<br />
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<b>*Teaching four-year-old Sunday school.</b> Together, we teach the four-year-olds during the Sunday school hour, which we both love. The kiddos are a lot of fun. Alex enjoys being "on" for the kids and easily gets their attention with his energy and humor. <a href="http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/curriculum/" target="_blank">The curriculum we are using</a> is wonderful, very God-centered. Alex usually does the teaching while I lead singing and scripture memory, and occasionally put together a craft. Not only is four a fun age, but an added benefit is that we are learning how to teach and interact with the age that Esther will be soon.<br />
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<b>*Community Garden. </b>Through a number of different factors, God gave us the desire to propose a community garden to our church. This will be on our church's property, and will serve not only as a benefit to members of the church, but it will also be open to members of our community. Our projection is that we will have more non-church members than members, which we are hoping will lead to stronger ties into our community. Alex has been putting together plans for a while, and formally proposed the plans in December. The elder board approved the plans, and we are hoping to have it up and running by April 15th of this year! A lot has to happen between now and then, so please be in prayer for us. This is the biggest step of faith we have taken in a while, and I am excited to see God answer our prayers and glorify His name through this ministry.<br />
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<b>*BloomingMoms greeter. </b>At the start of this school year, I began help with our church's moms group. I like being a greeter because it helps me get to know the moms who come that aren't a part of our church. It has helped me to stay outward focused when our group meets, rather than talking to people I already know and to remember who to pray for. This has also been a great way to meet all of the new women who come.<br />
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In addition to what I mentioned above, Alex was in charge of the men's retreat at our church a couple months ago and I have been helping with nursery scheduling (a BIG undertaking at a church with over 100 kiddos under the age of 5). theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-74412261764133948152015-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:002015-01-05T05:00:07.714-08:00Raising the Bar for Your ChildrenRecently we have started teaching Esther <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0934688680/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0934688680&linkCode=as2&tag=theologista-20&linkId=GA7A7YHIMMYPAT7Q" target="_blank">catechism questions and answers</a>. I figured it was better to start sooner than later but I have been amazed at how quickly she has picked up on them. It has made me think that we really should have started sooner, but glad that we have at least started now (she is three).<br />
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There are two things that have really been impressed on me in the past few years regarding teaching young children. First of all, that they are really sponges for facts. Since young kids can't think abstractly yet, their brain is like a huge filing cabinet where all day long they are filing away facts. The more facts that you can help them to file away now, the better their abstract thinking will become in the future.<br />
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The second thing I have been learning is that most parents have way too low of expectations for their children in many areas (including especially behavior) but in this case academically/intellectually. Esther may not understand all of these questions and answers, but she has the capability of memorizing them, which will help her in the future when she can think more deeply of questions about God and life.<br />
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I was looking on YouTube for recordings of these question and answers for us to listen to as another way of helping her to learn it. This video of a two year old answering the first 12 catechism questions is a good reminder that even little children can be expected to learn much more than we usually expect of them.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVdFM37W-N0" target="_blank">This video</a> of another two year old is even more impressive, as she does the first 20 questions with great clarity and annunciation. I can't get the video to come up for some reason so I can only link to it.</div>
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Now, if it sounds like you would need to be some kind of drill sergeant to have your 2 or 3 year old memorize all of these questions, let me assure you that its not at all like that. All it takes is lots of repetition. We work on these questions for about 5 minutes per day, usually at lunch time. I read the questions over and over, and then start leaving words blank for Esther to fill in. After just over a week of this, Esther has about ten answers memorized. Not only does she find it fun, but she often asks to practice at other times. "Let's do questions, Mom!" I hear several times each day, and I'll ask her a few of the ones she knows. Not only does she enjoy it but I can tell she feels a sense of accomplishment for what she has learned. This is a satisfying feeling that I hope will spur her on to continue to challenge herself in many areas throughout her life.<br />
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Relatedly, small <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbswHr57fj4" target="_blank">children are also sponges for scripture memory</a>. Just as with catechism questions, repetition is key. I try to recite verses while doing menial tasks with the kiddos, like changing diapers and brushing teeth. Esther can recite most of Psalm 1 because of this method. <br />
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Making scripture and spiritual teachings the topic of convesation throughout the day like this is one of the ways to be obedient to this command:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul... </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied..." Deuteronomy 11:18-21</span></span></blockquote>
I love the promise at the end... that "the days of your children may be multiplied". What good parent doesn't want that for their children?<br />
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So, where is the bar set for your children? Maybe your New Year's resolution for this year should be to set higher goals for them and take the initiative as a parent to make it happen.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-85350862759525316812015-01-02T12:00:00.000-08:002015-01-06T13:04:34.956-08:002014 in review, Part Three<div style="background-color: white;">
<a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2015/01/2014-in-review-part-one.html" target="_blank">Yesterday</a> I mentioned how our lives have been developing spiritually this past year. This has also been a great year for our family. Here are some of the things God has been doing in our family in 2014.</div>
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<b>*Moving</b>. We're gearing up to move in 2 weeks. This will be our third move in the past 13 months (and if we buy a house this year that will be yet another move!). It was so nice living in the same house in California for over 3 years... it was the first time since the beginning of college that I hadn't moved on a yearly basis. Well, this year has made up for that! All I can say is that moving a lot is helpful to continually get rid of unwanted/unused items and to stay flexible. That being said, I hope God settles us down for at least a few years (until we move again after Alex is done with classes!). For the first time since we've been married I've had a desire to settle, decorate the house, cultivate a garden on our own soil and establish ourselves somewhere. Also, moving a lot is entirely unhelpful for having a ministry among your neighbors.</div>
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<b>*Hudson's birth</b>. He came 3 weeks early, at the end of March and has been a blessing and a joy ever since. Esther took a few weeks to warm up to him but now she absolutely adores him and always asks to play with him as soon as he wakes from naps. I'm glad for her sake she has a "permanent" sibling- she's had two foster siblings come and go since she was born (both of whom she also adored). He's by far our worst sleeper so far, but I know its just a season of life and we need to be patient. He's a very eager and active baby, not waiting any time at all to crawl (started at 5 months 5 days old!) and will very likely be walking before he turns one. Everywhere we go he gets tons of compliments on his eyes, which are so dark brown that you can't even see his pupil. He is also frequently called "pretty", which is Alex's least favorite "compliment" for him.</div>
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<b>*Fostering</b>. 2014 was the first year since 2010 that we haven't had any foster placements, but not entirely by our choice. We started the re-certification process a few months ago but have been more or less ignored by overburdened social workers. So it may take a few more months until it happens (moving is also one of the steps in the process that has to happen). We are looking forward to getting placements again, but selfishly I am hoping for Hudson to start sleeping through the night (like solid 12 hours of sleep) before that happens... so please pray that his sleep improves. There are two other families at church who are certified or in the process, and its nice to again have local friends who we can relate to in this area (a strong support system is crucial in fostering).</div>
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<b>*Alex's work.</b> Our move, combined with a few other factors, has allowed Alex to start a business based off of his computer. He runs <a href="http://www.mapachili.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">this website</a> with a friend and sells stuff on ebay, among other things. This work is something he's wanted to pursue for a while and is a blessing as it allows a lot of flexibility to pursue ministry and take classes. It will also provide income for us to go overseas in the future (Lord willing). Its also the most enjoyable job he's had in years, which is a blessing to our whole family to see him doing something he enjoys.</div>
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<b>*Parenting</b>. One of the strengths of our church, and one reason we wanted to move here is godly parenting. Over our first full year here we have certainly grown in that area. Two big ways I have grown in being better about disciplining our children (its always easy to make lots of excuses as to why you don't need to discipline, all at the expense of the child) and to show more affection. Though these things may seem opposite, they are actually hand in hand, as they reflect the severity and kindness of the Lord. I am also learning about training children in godliness and teaching them about God and the Bible. Seeing how much progress we've made this year, I am excited to learn more in the coming years.</div>
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theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-85375439553043696572015-01-01T17:32:00.001-08:002015-01-01T17:32:45.001-08:002014 in Review, Part One 2014 has been a breath of fresh air for us. Its the first year since the beginning of our marriage that has not been trial after trial after trail. Which is not to say that its been all easy, but compared to years past, <i>much</i> more so than we are used to. So here is a peak at certain areas of our lives this past year and how God has been working in us, specifically in the area of our faith.<br />
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*<b>Repenting of sin</b>. As Martin Luther said, "The whole of a Christian's life is one of repentance". So its not that repentance is new or different this year but that by God's grace, he's still convicting me of sin and I'm still repenting of sin. Among other things, I have been convicted of a lot of fears this year, fears that keep me from taking steps of faith, especially in ministry. I have been convicted of a lot of pride, especially since we are at a new church and in a new town and making new friends... I have spent way too much energy thinking about how I want people to think of me and how I want to be respected by others. There are many more, but these are two that come to mind that God has been working on in me.<br />
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<b>*Boldness</b>. God has been using some people in my life who are very bold about sharing the gospel to encourage me to be bolder in speaking up on spiritual matters (<a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/10/my-first-time-protesting-at-planned.html" target="_blank">here is one example</a>, and<a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/12/would-you-have-spoken-up.html" target="_blank"> here is another</a>). The main thing that keeps me from being bold is fearing what people will think of me. But God continues to press on me that life is short and eternity is long, and if I keep quiet I'm not changing anyone's eternity, just making my short life here on earth a bit easier. And even if at times I err on the side of being too bold, I would rather fail in the right direction than fail in the wrong direction of constantly fearing people and never speaking up about what I believe. <br />
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<b>*Humility.</b> Along with repentance, shouldn't this be a constant theme in every Christian's life? By God's grace it is in mine, but especially this year. I have been learning so much being surrounded by so many older, more mature Christians at our church, which has really been humbling, especially coming from different churches and groups in the past where I was usually more mature than the average person. But its nice to just sit back and learn from others and not have to have all the answers to questions all of the time. I think this is part of the reason I haven't been blogging as much of late... I feel like I'm just soaking a lot in and don't have so much to pour out at the moment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rykneethling/4543063042/in/photolist-eym6U-631bwR-3A1PnV-5Rmzy7-7VsnHd-5vccBa-55QKqb-7Vson9-6fcs7t-6mSTmf-7Vp9S4-91gLe7-6gTqZG-8UeNys-7bd3g8-91gVRQ-8We1DD-8Tpo1f-agVLp-6UdhQr-7baHmM-6qS6yB-aspmxW-numGLy-8Y9qFN-7be69Q-8WSWR7-8Z5Y4U-8LwCCz-6qqgMr-axLoLY-6bz3yX-91b9iH-8LJqaQ-8UP1dE-8ZBoK6-8TDYe8-7Q5R2G-bSVp5X-8RqkfM-4FZGHv-9dpHgJ-arywL8-96bXDA-bunYfj-mkLUc-aXXk3-oNgjBV-9Rvu3z-afxoMB" target="_blank">Ryk Neethling on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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<b>*Bible reading</b>. Sigh. I hate setting goals that I don't accomplish. Its really humbling (see above). This is the fourth year I have attempted the M'Cheyene bible in a year plan and the fourth time I have failed. (Although in my defense for good reasons... each time I have failed its always been because of a new birth or foster placement gets me off track until I'm so far behind that I eventually give up). This time I have decided to finish no matter how long it takes (I have about 1/3 of the OT left, so not really that much to go. I decided to only read the NT once, though the M'Cheyene plan has two full readings of the NT) and I don't think I'm going to attempt the Bible in a year again, at least not for a long time. Reading that much every day feels like a burden and doesn't play on my strengths: I much more prefer to read shorter passages and study them in depth. I read the bible most days of the week (I love being up before the kids and getting to read and pray for a bit!) but 4 chapters per day is unrealistic, especially for how slow of a reader I am. So I'm going to finish up the OT so that I can say I have read the whole Bible, but I plan to do a different kind of study after that this year.<br />
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<br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-11583757992669018392014-12-20T18:15:00.001-08:002014-12-20T18:18:03.820-08:00Would you have spoken up?It was such a typical conversation. I wasn't surprised to hear it. But my reaction did surprise me.<br />
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I was at the farmer's market today with Esther to buy some bulk honey for some Christmas presents I plan to make. Now, the critical information that you need to know here is that Bloomington is a very liberal, crunchy, atheistic town. And in our much beloved liberal, crunchy, atheistic town (and we really do love it here) the farmer's market is like the Sunday worship where all the like minded people meet on a weekly basis. So being as such, it was no surprise that there was a table there to protest some deer killing going on at a local park that is apparently over-ridden with deer.<br />
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I happened to be by the table for a minute and overheard a very passionate conversation going on. Two women and a man were going on about how pro-life people only care about babies inside the womb, but after they are born, they couldn't care less. Their words oozed with pride at how much <i>they</i> clearly cared for children and how right their stereotype was.<br />
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Now, I have heard statements like this before, and I usually don't speak up, because I doubt that my opinion can change anything. But as they went on and on, my blood began to boil as I though of the <i>years</i> of my life that I have spent in full time service to kids (out of the womb!!) in need through foster parenting. In fact, I have met many foster parents over the years and know for a fact that there are many<i> </i>more pro-life foster parents than pro-choice.<br />
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I decided that living in the town that we do, their stereotype had probably never been challenged, so without much forethought of what I was going to say, I spoke up. "Excuse me, I don't think that you can say that <i>all </i>pro-life people don't care about babies after they are born. My husband and I are foster parents and have sacrificed a lot to serve children in need. We care about children both in and outside of the womb."<br />
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Their response was to play this off, that I was the exception to the rule. But I stood fast. I wanted to ask them how many of their liberal friends had sacrificed years of their lives to serve foster children, but instead, I just said, "No. Its not even <i>most</i> pro-life people who don't care about babies outside of the womb." To which they finally backed down to saying that <i>some</i> pro-life people don't care about babies outside of the womb, since "they wont vote to give more money to schools".<br />
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We ended the conversation cordially, they asked about Esther, she gave them her favorite line ("I'm <i>free</i>") and after a minute she and I walked away.<br />
<br />
Some thoughts from this interaction:<br />
<br />
1. <b>Money is different than your time and your life.</b> It is one thing to vote to give a little more of your paycheck to kids in need (especially when the brunt of the money is going to come from someone else's paycheck and not your own.) It is a vastly different thing to sacrifice your time and your life to serve kids in need. <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 23.9999980926514px;">Children in need usually come from broken homes. They don't need money so much as positive relationships, true mother and father figures in their lives. But most people would rather throw a little money at them and feel like they did a good thing to prevent these children from starving, when in reality the real starvation is for love, not food.</span><br />
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2. <b>Evangelism</b> - As I walked away from the conversation, the man followed me. He stopped me and asked how many kids we have. I told him that we have two biological children and have been able to serve six foster children. He told me (this is pretty much an exact quote) "I am ok if you have two biological children as long as you don't have any more."<br />
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Um, excuse me, when did it become polite conversation to tell someone else how to run their family? But I wasn't surprised to hear his opinion on this. You see, in our culture, anyone but Christians are allowed to share (even push) the tenants of their religion. For the man I talked to today, the gospel of his self-made religion is all about abortion, politics and family size. But if I had turned around and tried to share the Biblical gospel with him? I would have been seen as pushy and intolerant. This is a double standard and Americans needs to wake up and see it as such.<br />
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3.<b> Deer vs. Babies</b> - The irony didn't phase me, but people, can we please all notice that they are giving their time to protest a few deer being killed, but celebrate babies being killed?<br />
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4. <b>Did my speaking up make a difference? Should I have even said anything? </b> This is a question I discussed with Alex after we got home.<br />
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In the end we came to the conclusion: yes, it was a good thing. Honestly, I do think my words affected the two women. They even thanked me for sharing my thoughts before I walked away and seemed to truly take in the things I said. I probably didn't change their mind, but they might think twice before loudly sharing their opinion on this topic again. <br />
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But more than changing people's opinion about politics or even abortion, I want people to hear the true gospel, that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, including prideful baby-haters like them, and prideful rule-lovers like me. And I didn't get to share that with them today, but we prayed for them that this conversation will prepare them to hear gospel and accept it in the future. Who knows, maybe God will even allow me to be the person to share it with them.<br />
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<br />theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-81590819201858252812014-12-18T11:49:00.001-08:002014-12-18T11:49:28.051-08:00A Year Ago Today<span style="font-family: inherit;">A year ago today we arrived in Bloomington, having moved here from California. We were a bit beat up and battered: our incredibly difficult 4.5 years was topped off by an even more stressful moving process. The week of our move was one of the hardest weeks of my life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But after that week we finally got here. We didn't have a home yet, but God graciously provided one within a few days. We were fortunate to already have a good, welcoming church, but didn't yet have any good friends. We had hopes for our new town, new church and new life, but didn't exactly know what to expect. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I look back on this year, there is a verse that very clearly describes what God has done in our lives:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. </span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 5:10-11</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our "little while" was our time in California. Though painful for 4.5 years, it is but a blink in the light of eternity. And God is gracious, because after our time of suffering, he has used this year to "restore, confirm, strengthen and establish" us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A lot has happened in this past year. We <a href="http://theologista.blogspot.com/2014/03/hudsons-birth-story.html" target="_blank">added another member to our family</a>. We moved twice (with a third move planned for next month). We made friends, and will say a sad goodbye tomorrow to one of the families we have become closest to, who are making their own big cross country move. We have grown in our love for God and holiness. We have grown in our abilities as parents.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But most of all, I thank God for rest. Not every moment has been easy, but much easier than it has been for a while. I am thankful for a time of spiritual recovery, as we get ready to jump back into the battle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Because, as John Piper says, <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/conference-messages/prayer-the-work-of-missions" target="_blank">"Life is war"</a>. And times of rest are just preparation to get back into the fight.</span>theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-48365595110627551662014-12-07T18:49:00.000-08:002014-12-07T18:59:19.496-08:00My Simplified Winter Meal PlanI have been feeling a need of recent to simplify my meal planning and prep, and in effort to do so I decided to make a 4 week meal rotation that I am going to use for the next few months. Having my meals for the week already selected makes life much easier.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElOeJKntuzG8NG1cIOxbfypqvROWSxDxdnQVYNOZ15C_tEipqiVDV4heDfPLoyfaK3GQwoA0MIT1i10oeaeT4g1FyQ-2luHBeq8yyKbW1m8ke4wvSAAsVRA0ptGlalvA_2HlZLcXEiHVF/s1600/crockpot2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElOeJKntuzG8NG1cIOxbfypqvROWSxDxdnQVYNOZ15C_tEipqiVDV4heDfPLoyfaK3GQwoA0MIT1i10oeaeT4g1FyQ-2luHBeq8yyKbW1m8ke4wvSAAsVRA0ptGlalvA_2HlZLcXEiHVF/s1600/crockpot2.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/geishabot/4312748848/in/photolist-7z6XYL-BrpMu-8yesKs-7MqHoX-95cU7U-cpTQQW-98kD8e-dTn4bS-bHeJwD-95cVrf-6S59j-jvrC2-cpdvTE-aDaNHL-e71QAe-4ToJw3-4TjvLK-4ToJxW-bjXLes-626ft1-jwq2Bt-5FgkBU-bDt6d1-bpQeoB-7hmTWR-8NEwC5-8NBpHa-8NBqy4-8NEwdC-8NEvmN-8NBq9g-8NBqYi-8NBqkn-fMJr8Y-dNx7Np-jwM9Zz-7Z5uaF-bSnNt6-bSnMMr-dsMHH4-fMJr5u-6Qecbb-626ftL-22RGQM-6S7cGT-deTefa-mtk3Bi-Lc7xX-22RGPM-giLKMc" target="_blank">Janine</a> on Flickr</td></tr>
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I had a few main goals when making this rotation. First (as usual), I wanted to pick meals that are healthy and loved by my family. All of these are "made from scratch" as this is healthier and cheaper than boxed foods. Esther is picky, so mostly I try to pick meals that Alex likes (it would be impossible to please her!). Alex, like many men, isn't a big fan of soup, but I have soup every week in this rotation because these are all meaty, hearty, yummy hubby-approved soups (I asked!). We like a lot of ethnic foods (Indian, Thai, Mexican, etc) and this meal plan reflects that.<br />
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Secondly, I wanted meals with easy prep, with a focus on crock pot meals. The hours between nap time and dinner tend to be hard so I wanted to make this easier by picking meals I could at least start earlier in the day. I find that soup can be made mid afternoon, and left on the stove to be heated up right at dinner time. Some of these meals I will make 2 pans of and freeze one, or at least double the sauce, crust, etc and freeze it to make life easier next time I made it. Along the same lines, most of these meals only require one or two pans/pots to be used, which also makes things simpler. I just can't do a main dish with 3 side dishes... too much clean up, especially right now while we don't have a dish washer! Lastly, I picked meals that are good winter meals: lots of soups/stews, casseroles, and other hot, hearty meals.<br />
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You might notice that I tend to rotate through meats: most weeks I have one dish with each beef, chicken, fish, sausage and one meatless. I know I'm probably weird, but I just like including each of these in our various meals each week for variety.<br />
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A few notes. First, we have dinner with our small group on Sundays, so I only planned 6 days worth of dinners each week. At the bottom I did list some ideas for small group meals for when its my turn to make the main; meals that are easy to make in large batches, generally liked by most adults and kids and able to be transported. Secondly, I linked recipes where I use them on line, but many of these are meals that I make often enough that I don't really use a recipe, I just know how to make it. But you can always try google or pintrest for some recipe suggestions! Third, whenever it says rolls, I use an <a href="http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2009/11/30/sourdough-starter-in-our-recipes" target="_blank">ABi5 sourdough recipe</a> which makes life so easy and seriously fresh baked bread is sooooooo yummy. Once you go ABi5 you never go back.<br />
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So, here it is. I hope it helps you to simplify your life or at least inspires you to try something new!<br />
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<b>Week 1</b><br />
1 Beef Enchilladas with guacamole (<a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ten-minute-enchilada-sauce/" target="_blank">this recipe</a> for the sauce)<br />
2 <a href="http://thehumbledhomemaker.com/2011/10/crockpot-seafood-paella-and-plan-it.html" target="_blank">Crockpot seafood paella</a><br />
3 Pesto chicken pasta (frozen pesto from last summer's bounty- yum!)<br />
4 <a href="http://www.food.com/recipe/low-carb-pumpkin-sausage-soup-106467" target="_blank">Pumpkin Sausage soup</a> with rolls<br />
5 Greek Chicken Pizza (w/ <a href="http://gnowfglins.com/2010/06/10/sourdough-pizza-crust/" target="_blank">sourdough pizza crust</a>)<br />
6 Spinach and Swiss quiche<br />
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<b>Week 2</b><br />
1 Beef Lasagna<br />
2 Fettucine Alfredo with baked salmon (<a href="http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/sample-download-pasta.pdf" target="_blank">This recipe</a> for the sauce. Shh... don't tell bean haters it contains beans. They will never know.)<br />
3 <a href="http://barefootandbaking.blogspot.com/2011/09/crockpot-coconut-chicken-curry.html" target="_blank">Crockpot Coconut Indian Chicken</a> (This recipe is so easy I wish I could do it weekly, but I am afraid we'd get burnt out)<br />
4 Beef Chili with rolls or biscuits<br />
5 Sausage, onion, mushroom and olive pizza (w/ <a href="http://gnowfglins.com/2010/06/10/sourdough-pizza-crust/" target="_blank">sourdough pizza crust</a>)<br />
6 Black Bean Tostadas<br />
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<b>Week 3</b><br />
1 <a href="http://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/slow-cooker-tex-mex-qunioa-casserole/#_a5y_p=1753511" target="_blank">Crockpot Tex Mex Quinoa</a> (with ground beef)<br />
2 <a href="http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moqueca___brazilian_fish_stew/" target="_blank">Brazillian Fish Stew</a> over rice<br />
3 <a href="http://dinnersdishesanddesserts.com/slow-cooker-tikka-masala/#_a5y_p=2655512" target="_blank">Crockpot Tiki Masala Chicken</a><br />
4 Sausage and Gnocchi soup with rolls<br />
5 Pizza with Beef sausage (w/ <a href="http://gnowfglins.com/2010/06/10/sourdough-pizza-crust/" target="_blank">sourdough pizza crust</a>)<br />
6 Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche<br />
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<b>Week 4</b><br />
1 Beef Burritos<br />
2 Salmon Casserole (like tuna casserole but made with salmon instead)<br />
3 Thai Green Chicken Curry<br />
4 Hungarian Goulash with rolls<br />
5 Sausage, onion, mushroom and olive pizza (w/ <a href="http://gnowfglins.com/2010/06/10/sourdough-pizza-crust/" target="_blank">sourdough pizza crust</a>)<br />
6 Spaghetti Squash casserole (basically <a href="http://www.madefrompinterest.net/2013/05/million-dollar-spaghetti/" target="_blank">this recipe</a> but with spaghetti squash instead of pasta)<br />
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Small group meals: Chicken Enchiladas (<a href="http://joyfulmommaskitchen.com/white-chicken-enchiladas/" target="_blank">this recipe for the sauce</a> but I made the enchiladas themselves differently), sausage breakfast casserole, lasagna or stuffed shells, chicken and dumplings.<br />
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<b>What are some ways that you have found help to simplify your meal planning?</b>theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-57073360656243122412014-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:002014-12-20T18:18:14.580-08:00My first time protesting at Planned ParenthoodA few years ago, there is no way I would have done this.<br />
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Protest at Planned Parenthood, that is.<br />
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You see, while I was against abortion in theory, I gave into the typical American thought that abortion clinic protesters are mean, angry and graceless. I felt that protesting at a clinic wouldn't change people's minds and would just harden people against Christianity.<br />
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What changed? <br />
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A number of things have changed in the past few years that would bring me to the point of wanting to protest at an abortuary, but probably the biggest motivating factor is how God has increased my compassion for the weak and helpless, and shown me through His word how big of a priority it is to him. One example (of many) is Deuteronomy 27:18-20. If you look at the larger context of these verses, God lays out curses for disobedience and blessings for obedience. Of the 12 specific curses listed, three of them have to do with preying on the weak and innocent. The number of curses in this category is only surpassed by curses for sexual perversion.<br />
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When it comes to defending the helpless and the weak in our day and age, few others in the world are more helpless and weak than an unborn baby. <br />
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It helps me to think of it this way. If there were concentration camps in our country, and it was legal to protest outside of them, would you do it? There are places as bad as concentration camps in our country. I stood outside of one today, and at least 10 lives were taken in there this morning. I cannot keep silent.<br />
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But even though I knew it was right to go, I was still a little nervous going for the first time. What would I do? What should I say to the people? Would they get angry or violent?<br />
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My heart raced as the first car pulled into the parking lot. It was a college-aged white girl and her mother. Before I could say anything one of the other women said "You are a mother to this baby already! Please, don't do this! Don't kill your baby!". And I lost it. That college girl is a <i>mother</i>. Its easy to just think of her as a young girl with an inconvenient pregnancy. But no, she is a <i>mother</i>, like I am a mother, and at that moment she is going to end her baby's life. I was crying and praying for her, praying that God would change her heart, and help her to repent of this sin, and turn to Him and raise her baby to know Him.<br />
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After the first car it was a lot easier. Or did my heart just get a little more hard about the reality of what was happening? I didn't cry any more, but I did do a lot of praying. I prayed for the clinic, and for each woman who went inside and each man who sometimes accompanied her. I prayed for them to repent of their sin and turn to God. I thought about how each of them will have to stand before God one day and answer to him for this sin. And I hope that Jesus' blood will cover each and every one of them for what they have done to their children. I hope that they will all see their children in heaven one day.<br />
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One thing that really saddened me this morning was the racial make-up of the women going for abortions. Alex and I have remarked a number of times since we moved here on the severe lack of black people we have seen around town. But today, about half of the women were black.<br />
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But why should I be surprised? The founder of Planned Parenthood was a supporter of eugenics. She once said, "Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated". And she would be happy to hear that her vision is still being carried out today: <a href="http://www.blackgenocide.org/planned.html" target="_blank">blacks make up 12% of the US population, but account for 35% of all abortions</a>. At this rate, the black vote in America will be insignificant by 2038. <a href="http://www.blackgenocide.org/home.html" target="_blank">Some people call it black genocide</a>.<br />
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At one point a delivery truck pulled into the parking lot and the driver went in to drop something off. As she got into her truck to leave, I wondered, "What does she think of us? Is she cheering us on or mad that we are trying to restrict 'women's rights'"? As she pulled by me, I was surprised to see her smile and wave. She called out the window to me (as I was the only person there with a baby in arms) "That's better than any sign you can carry!" It was a refreshing encouragement. Maybe I didn't have all of the right words to convince people to turn around, but even just standing there, loving on a baby was an active protest. <br />
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No, don't listen to the Planned Parenthood workers. Its not just tissue. Its a baby.<br />
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Last week I made the phone call to DCS to get us started with getting re-certified for foster parenting. And there is always a little trepidation in my heart with this step. Will I have the time/energy/ability to love on another little life? Don't we already have enough on our plate as it is? But today was a helpful reminder of what is most important in the world. Defending the weak and needy is important. We want to actively participate in loving and defending those children, whether they are in or out of the womb. theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-54709377393945253162014-08-12T04:00:00.000-07:002014-08-12T04:00:05.699-07:006 Reasons Why Revelation is My Favorite Book of The BibleMany people find the book of Revelation confusing, scary and hard to read. Not me. Ever since I read it deeply for the first time it has been my favorite book of the Bible.<br />
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This is not to say that I understand 100% of the content. Indeed, I still haven't chosen a position on my view of the time frame of Revelation or of the Millenium (mentioned in Revelation 20) even after a great deal of thought and research over the past 6 years. But you don't need to know exactly what each detail means to get an incredible amount of insight and encouragement from this book. Here are six reasons why Revelation is my favorite book of the Bible.<br />
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<b>The Descriptions of Jesus</b><br />
<b> </b>"The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze" Revelation 2:18<br />
"The First and the Last, who died and came to life" Revelation 2:8<br />
"The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation" Revelation 3:14<br />
"A lamb standing, as though it had been slain" Revelation 5:6 (Jesus WAS slain but IS standing!)<br />
"He is clothed in a robe dipped in Blood... From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords." 19:13, 15-16<br />
"[He] is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war" 19:11<br />
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Does this sound like a long haired, skirt wearing, hippie Jesus? No, Jesus' character is so much deeper and wider than he is commonly portrayed these days. That's why I love the mind-blowing descriptions of him in Revelation.<br />
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<b>The Descriptions of God</b><br />
"And he who sat there [on the throne] had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald... from the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder..." 4:3, 5<br />
"And one of the four living creatures gave to the seen angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary of God until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished" 15:7-8<br />
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And these don't even do the real thing justice... they are just the closest John could come using human language.<br />
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<b>God's Victory Over Evil</b><br />
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,<br />
who is and who was,<br />
for you have taken your great power<br />
and begun to reign.<br />
The nations raged,<br />
but your wrath came,<br />
and the time for the dead to be judged,<br />
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,<br />
and those who fear your name,<br />
both small and great,<br />
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth." 11:17-18<br />
"Hallelujah!<br />
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,<br />
for his judgements are true and just;<br />
for he has judged the great prostitute<br />
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,<br />
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 19:1-2<br />
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When I see all the evil in the world and am tempted to be discouraged, I always go back to Revelation, and remember that on the day he has appointed, God will destroy all the destroyers of the earth. Praise Him!<br />
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<b>The Descriptions of Believers </b><br />
"And they have conquered him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives, even unto death" 12:11<br />
"Here is the call for the endurance of the Saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus" 14:12<br />
"They loved not their lives even unto death." 12:11<br />
"The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess him name before my Father and before his angels." 3:5<br />
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This isn't somebody who "prayed a prayer". These are people who take the commands of God seriously, whose lives have been changed permanently, to a course where they don't even love their lives, they have been given up to following Jesus even if it means to death. And the reward is eternal.<br />
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<b>The Prayers Directed Towards God</b><br />
"Great and amazing are your deeds,<br />
O Lord God the Almighty!<br />
Just and true are your ways,<br />
O King of the nations!<br />
Who will not fear, O Lord,<br />
and glorify your name?<br />
For you alone are holy.<br />
All nations will come<br />
and worship you<br />
for your righteous acts have been revealed." 15:3-4<br />
"Worthy are you, our Lord and God,<br />
to receive glory and honor and power,<br />
for you created all things,<br />
and by your will they existed and were created." 4:11<br />
"Worthy are you to take the scroll<br />
and to open its seals,<br />
for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed a people for God<br />
from every tribe and language and people and nation,<br />
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,<br />
and they shall reign on the earth." 5:9-10<br />
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How many churches sing praise and worship songs that sound like this? This is powerful stuff.<br />
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<b>Descriptions of Non-Believers </b><br />
[after seeing incredible plagues of God being poured out upon the earth] "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hand nor give up worshipping demons and and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts" 9:20-21<br />
"And all who dwell on the earth worship will worship it [the Beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." 13:8<br />
"They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent or give him glory." 16:9<br />
"People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds." 16:10-11<br />
"And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the hail was so severe" 16:21<br />
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These verses make it clear that there is a kind of belief in God, belief without repentance, that does not save. It also shows that God can make himself very obvious and people still choose not to trust in Him.theologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4976863303075086574.post-29028507769348639042014-08-10T12:22:00.000-07:002014-08-10T12:22:05.964-07:00July in our HomeFirst, something (big) that actually happened last month, but I forgot to mention: we got a van! We've shared one car for most of our marriage (and all of the last 3 years) so this is big news. Its a 1997 Honda Odyssey, so it'll probably last until we outgrow it (it only seats 6, not 7 like most vans) and the nice part is that its old and rusty so I don't have to worry about dents and scratches and the kids getting the seats dirty, etc. Its also nice to have plenty of room to haul things around, like our huge double stroller, random items that I garbage pick, freecycle acquisitions, etc...<br />
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Now on to July. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtpGSK0w7_wnTJwx-kvMy08fYfVWbBEqxFcUysc-wizi9jX8585mvaWpa6HkTu0OGFl0LqQ1AdWAH5wFZ-cDLRMlYqDVa-um3E5fvv7XelFx4BEUTUyeheAqgQHBKfomGEkLy01eZx4-p/s1600/alexnhudsonjuly14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtpGSK0w7_wnTJwx-kvMy08fYfVWbBEqxFcUysc-wizi9jX8585mvaWpa6HkTu0OGFl0LqQ1AdWAH5wFZ-cDLRMlYqDVa-um3E5fvv7XelFx4BEUTUyeheAqgQHBKfomGEkLy01eZx4-p/s1600/alexnhudsonjuly14.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love these dudes.</td></tr>
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The second weekend of July was our church's annual conference (and it was actually our second time going, as we had flown in from California last year to attend.) The topic was "Salt and Light: Confessing Christ in the Public Square" and Doug Wilson flew in to speak, and several of our pastors spoke as well. You can <a href="http://clearnotefellowship.org/conference/2014-salt-light/salt-light-confessing-christ-public-square#ConfAudio" target="_blank">listen to the talks here</a>. I especially recommend the breakout sessions "Who is my Neighbor? Confessing Christ on our Block" and "Sharp Arrows: Training our Children to Confess Christ". The conference was especially fun as my cousin came in from Cincinnati to attend. We're counting down our visits with her as she is planning to go to Bulgaria for 2 years at the end of this month. We're really going to miss her!<br />
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The last week of July saw our first trip back to California since our big move. It was a great time. We went for a wedding that Alex was in, but stayed for a full week, hanging out with friends the whole time. We also got to see a sweet little girl who lived with us the first year of her life (I have really missed seeing her!). It was really nice to be in California and actually get to enjoy it. Our time living there was filled with so many different stress factors that when we left it was easy to forget the parts we loved. Catching up with friends we care about was refreshing and encouraging.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEJvdqMZkAD2BHAZAO0bNoOjbJTKBEWRg0QOcLZOUtssV-7xw8twzLW8nPnQIStmrhS0GT-4TGzX4E2Ava0Ov5pRIFXjJDLWBYH9vYwBHTCswMpvOMlZRmSElAVlFjPJ8ZgZm5UbsDF1i/s1600/esthernjadejuly14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEJvdqMZkAD2BHAZAO0bNoOjbJTKBEWRg0QOcLZOUtssV-7xw8twzLW8nPnQIStmrhS0GT-4TGzX4E2Ava0Ov5pRIFXjJDLWBYH9vYwBHTCswMpvOMlZRmSElAVlFjPJ8ZgZm5UbsDF1i/s1600/esthernjadejuly14.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esther and "Lala". A year younger than<br />Esther with 3x as much hair!</td></tr>
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Did I mention that I now have a sewing table? Since we moved to our new apartment last month, I now have a table in our bedroom devoted to my sewing machine and other craftiness. This has made sewing so much easier and quicker, and I have been taking advantage! In July I made a couple sets of bean bags, fabric blocks and a little girl's purse - all gifts for different friends. I've been so grateful to be able to have the time and space to do these projects! I'm not artsy, but I do need some sort of sewing/crafty outlet in my life.<br />
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Books I read this month:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802139256/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0802139256&linkCode=as2&tag=theologista-20" target="_blank">Peace Like a River</a> by Leif Enger<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517591820/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0517591820&linkCode=as2&tag=theologista-20" target="_blank">Montessouri Play and Learn: a Parent's Guide to Purposeful Play from Two to Six</a> by Lesley Brittontheologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17132608804237107075noreply@blogger.com0