Mom’s Musings

A HAPPY FAMILY by Giovanni Battista Torriglia

As I was looking at other blogs this morning, I came across this lovely image posted on someone else’s blog. I found it again at Painting Place, where one may purchase artwork.

Some things in the picture that speak forth happiness, I think, are:

1. The mother is smiling at the children, and the children are smiling at one another.
2. The mother is enjoying her children even while she is busy.
3. The mother is busy for the benefit of her family vs. self-centered or self-indulgent. Those varients see children as interruptions and burdens, an attitude not conducive to family happiness.
4. The house looks clean (See the shining floor?) but not insanely neat (which drives one insane to maintain). As the saying goes, it’s clean enough to be healthy, and messy enough to be comfortable.
5. The children are cheerfully helping Mommy by watching and entertaining the baby.
6. The son has just arrived home from school (See his school bag on the floor by his chair?). His first focus is not on himself, but on greeting and enjoying his family. Wow!
7. Subconsciously, the late afternoon lighting contributes to the feeling of coziness.
8. I always wanted the cottage look, with those deep-set windows in the thick walls. Is that a hidden desire of lots of folks, which is nurtured by this homey scene?

For Ten on Tuesday
this week, the prompt is Ten Favorite Movie Comedies. I am modifying that just a bit to include comic strips, TV shows, books, and blogs. So, in the order in which they came to mind, please give a nice round of applause to . . . TEN FAVORITE COMEDIES! (clapping and canned laughter):

• What About Bob?, the 1991 movie starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.
  
• The Man Who Knew Too Little, the 1997 movie also starring Bill Murray.
  
• Miss Congeniality. Sandra Bullock starred in this movie released in 2000.
  
• Bill Cosby’s early comedy records which he made in the 1960s, mainly based on quirky and funny childhood memories.
  
• The comic strip Mutts by Patrick McDonnell. Can you say, “Yesh!!!”?
  
• Danny Kaye’s “Pellet With the Poison” routine in the 1956 movie The Court Jester.
  
• The 1960s television show, Smile, You’re On Candid Camera! Narrated by Allen Funt.
  
• Kids Say the Darndest Things by Art Linkletter.
  
• A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick F. McManus (We enjoy ALL of Patrick McManus’ books!)
  
• SusieJ’s blog. I first realized how hilarious she is after reading her post on “Funny Google Searches.”
  

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

I was catching up on some blog reading this morning and came across a fascinating post at Radical Womanhood. The author, Carolyn McCulley, gives a brief synopsis of the devastation to families caused by the philosophy of Social Darwinism. If your curiosity is piqued, you can read her post, The Economic Base of the Family, here.

I very much enjoy reading ALL of your blogs, my dear readers. But maybe you don’t know about ALL of the blogs that I enjoy reading?

Today I read a post by Randy Alcorn on his Eternal Perspectives blog that really spoke to me.

At our church our pastor and elders have been emphasizing how important it is that we care truly care for one another. Randy Alcorn speaks of caring for those who cannot defend themselves: unwanted unborn babies:

Unborn children in America are our equivalent of Jews in Germany sixty-five years ago. The church’s indifference to them, and failure to stand up in their defense, is a shame of huge proportions. Self-righteously we decry the German church’s failure to stand up for the Jews. Meanwhile we fail to stand up for the unborn. We shake our heads in disgust at the German church’s tolerance of one holocaust while ignoring our own tolerance of another.

(This quote is from a post about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.)

Here is one more portion of the post that is SO QUOTABLE. Online “indignation” at the opinions of others abounds, so this rebuke is SO apropros:

I receive a fair number of emails from disgruntled people who descend from Mount Olympus just long enough to fire off their thunderbolts here in the land of lowly mortals, at those of us who just don’t get it. For what it’s worth, I rarely find outrage, name-calling and sanctimonious rudeness (whether it’s from conservatives or liberals makes no difference) to be persuasive. Not in political or theological discussions, or any other kind. It’s also interesting when these attitudes come from people who pride themselves on their tolerance and constantly condemn others for being judgmental. Calling people hypocrites when you don’t know them, and don’t have a clue what they may be doing for the poor and needy, is somewhat judgmental, don’t you think?

This post covers lots of interesting ground, such as:

• When does patriotism become idolatry?
• What is a Christian’s duty when the powers that be are destroying the innocent?
• How may we properly disagree with others?
• Who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and what role did he play in Nazi Germany?

I hope that you will take the time to read Randy Alcorn’s edifying post.

Our pastor has done a funny post on his blog about Thanksgiving foods and traditions which he finds to be either UNDERRATED or OVERRATED.

Here I am, linking to someone’s post (who is linking to someone’s post), but this is a real find! I have been cogitating on what my relationship as a Christian is to be with the culture(s) around me. I do at least realize that this is a complicated subject, and that it is essential to have a Biblical understanding of the matter. After all, it is only the truth that is liberating (”Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” - John 8:32). So, now I have something constructive to do: START READING. Hmm . . . Which book shall I begin with?

1. No Place for Truth by David Wells
2. God in the Wasteland by David Wells
3. Losing our Virtue by David Wells
4. Above all Earthly Powers by David Wells
5. Engaging God’s World by Cornelius Plantinga
6. Not the Way it’s Supposed to be by Cornelius Plantinga
7. Heaven is a Place on Earth by Michael Wittmer
8. Lectures on Calvinism by Abraham Kuyper
9. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin
10. Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon
11. Where Resident Aliens Live by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon
12. American Evangelicalism by James Davison Hunter
13. The Transforming Vision by Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton
14. He Shines in all That’s Fair by Richard Mouw
15. The Gravedigger File by Os Guinness
16. Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey
17. Rumor of Angels by Peter Berger
18. A Peculiar People by Rodney Clapp
19. Being the Body by Charles Colson
20. Chameleon Christianity by Dick Keyes

If you go to the site, On Earth as it is in Heaven, you will find that the blog author, Tullian Tchividjian, has provided a link for each book, taking you to the site where it may be ordered. I have just ordered Not the Way it’s Supposed to be by Cornelius Plantinga and A Peculiar People by Rodney Clapp. This should be interesting!

The following quote is posted on Justin’s site, Wine Cheese and Theology:

“For his neighbours’ sake if for no other reason, the Christian should beware of becoming a person of so few earthly interests that he cannot sustain a conversation, let alone a friendship with anybody outside his religious circle. To have a genuine and discriminating pleasure in some human pursuit is to be halfway toward deserving human confidence and without confidence people cannot be led towards the knowledge of Christ, they can only be prodded.” - Derek Kidner

There’s something a bit off in this sentiment, I think. Isn’t this a voicing of the “seeker friendly” approach, which is popular in so many churches today, as opposed to the God-centered presentation to needy humanity of God’s Word?

Nevertheless, I find this quote to be quite thought provoking, so don’t want to immediately dismiss it. There is a tension between being in the world, and yet not being worldly. This is one example of an issue that requires Christian discernment and maturity, and a skillful use of the Word of righteousness (Hebrews 5:13), the wisdom that God gives us in His Word.

My thoughts are drawn to Christ’s words in John 17:15-18:

15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

I looked these verses up on my favorite Bible site, Blue Letter Bible, and chose to read Matthew Henry’s commentary on this portion of Scripture. Here are some of his “quotable” statements:

“Though Christ loves his disciples, he does not presently send for them to heaven, as soon as they are effectually called, but leaves them for some time in this world, that they may do good and glorify God upon earth, and be ripened for heaven. Many good people are spared to live, because they can ill be spared to die.” - Matthew Henry (emphasis added)

“It is more the honour of a Christian soldier by faith to overcome the world than by a monastical vow to retreat from it; and more for the honour of Christ to serve him in a city than to serve him in a cell [a monk’s lonely dwelling - my definition].” - Matthew Henry

“When Christ would express the utmost need his disciples had of divine preservation, he only says, They are in the world; this bespeaks danger enough to those who are bound for heaven, whom a flattering world would divert and seduce, and a malignant world would hate and persecute.” - Matthew Henry

As I continue thinking about this concept of being in the world but not of the world, I realize that it is far too large a subject for me to address on my little blog.

1. I know that it’s wrong to withdraw into a Christian commune, because this is an attempt to remove oneself from this present world.
2. I also disagree with the thought that Christians must wear clothing totally different from what is currently popular. I think the Lord requires only that the clothing be modest and appropriate to one’s place in life and the occasion (1 Timothy 2:9).
3. I also know that it’s wrong to be absorbed in the pleasures and duties of this life. Though we do have many earthly duties and interests, the truth remains that we are not to have an inordinate love for this present life.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - Matthew 6:33 (emphasis added)

For myself, at this point in time, I draw the line with these questions, “What do I LOVE? What do I truly SEEK FIRST?”

I think I need further teaching on the following verses from 1 John 2:15 - 17:

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The manner of speaking when regular, declarative sentences are spoken as if they are questions REALLY bugs my husband. One of our children acquired this pattern of speech, but with his father’s reminders, is trying to break the habit.

Here is a really funny You Tube video on up-talking. This was brought to my attention by a posting by R. Scott Clark of Heidelblog fame, which he found on the site Addenda and Errata.

I heartily agree with the answer Phil Ryken (of Reformation 21 fame) gave to this question:

Does Scripture call the local church (by which we mean the local church as the local church, not as individual Christians) to the work of cultural transformation?

He begins by stating:

There is a sense in which the answer to this question must be “no.” The church’s primary calling is to preach the gospel and to worship God in the ministry of the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. While the worship of God and the proclamation of the gospel have a transforming influence on the surrounding culture, this does not happen directly, but indirectly, as the people of God live out the implications of their faith in every aspect of life.

Yet there are also ways in which the answer to this question must be “yes.”

His answer is short, but thought-provoking.