Sink or Swim; Outrageous Faith

How often have we read or heard stories of old saints that had a strong unwavering faith – and when they prayed, miraculous things began to happen? Stories like those of George Mueller,  who prayed food and milk in time and time again for the orphans whom God had entrusted to his care – and throughout his life cared for, and made a difference in the lives of over 10,000 children…but only through his great faith and trust in God’s provision; like the great reformer, John Knox, who wept over Scotland, and it is purported that Mary, Queen of Scots, that wicked murderous  queen of Scotland said of him, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than any of the armies of Europe”; or, the prayers of some little grandma or grandpa who became burdened over a some situation, and they prayed until things started to happen.

We look back at these stories, and more often than not, we bemoan the sad lack of faith in today’s generation, we say, oh, we need more people like that; we hear of the dying of some old saint, and our heart are saddened and we think to ourselves, we can’t afford to lose any more of these old saints…or, I wish we could have a few more with faith like she/he had.

Or, we say halfheartedly – or even somewhat sincerely – Oh, if I could only be half the man/woman he/she was!

And we go on our merry way, saddened because there’s a little less faith in the world…that can never be replaced.

Or can it?

What if…

What if WE are supposed to be the ones that have so great faith – what if God is expecting our generation…or maybe…no, surely not... No, God couldn’t be expecting me to be that one – that saint whose prayers make all of Heaven stand up and take notice. Because,  I mean…really. That’s preposterous – what would even make you think such a thing? Me? That’s so silly. I could never have the faith that they had!

Can’t you? Can’t I?

Or is it that we just don’t want to have to put in the work? Or maybe we’re too scared – scared of what people will think, scared that maybe we’ll have the faith and…it won’t happen.

But.

What if…what if He really does expect US to be THOSE people?

What if He expects us to have faith like Peter, when he saw Jesus coming toward the boat through the storm – faith that will say,” Jesus, I can’t swim; the waves could pull me under in a second, but I’m not content being here when you’re over there…I’m tired of sitting here wringing my hands in despair…I’m jumping out of this boat – I don’t know if you’re gonna teach me to swim, or let me walk on the water, but either way, even if I go under, I’m going trusting you.”

 Faith that appears to be outrageous – that can look a medical professional in the eye after he’s just told you, “We’ve done all we can do – your child will be dead within 24 hours”, and say – not out of arrogance or denial, but with complete conviction because you’ve been in touch with the Great Physician, the Creator – “No, he won’t. Go back in the room, and check again – he’s sleeping, and the wound will heal.”

Faith like Job’s  – even if the outcome isn’t what we prayed for, faith that will trust that God knows best, that can look the circumstances in the face and say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”, and, “I know that my Redeemer lives”.

Faith that can say with confidence, “It’s going to happen”.

Perhaps in that hard thing you’re going through right now, God is whispering, “Now is the time. Let go and trust me to take care of it.”

Perhaps, if you’ll just let go and trust God to catch you…maybe, just maybe, He will?

You see, you can’t swim as long as you’re hanging on to the side. You may know all the principles of swimming, but it’s not until you let go and trust that buoyancy will take over that you will begin to glide through the water.

A baby bird can never fly as long as they stay in the safety of the nest. Sometimes it take the mama bird pushing them over the side before they ever get out. Sometimes they fall to the ground…but it’s not until they leave that their God-given instinct takes over and they begin to flap their wings- and eventually to fly.

You’ll never soar until you get out of the nest.

Perhaps this is your time.

My time.

Time to let go, jump out, and let the thing that threatened to kill you be the thing God uses to give you victory.

Time to develop your own faith – instead of leaning on the faith of someone else.

Maybe it’s time to stop being content with being “half the man he was”, and start asking, like Elisha, “Give me a double portion of what he had”.

It’s time.

Outrageous Faith. That’s what we need.

Does It Work? Salt-Painting Edition

It's summer, and the kids are out of school.

Now, I don't know about your kids but mine would just sit around and watch cartoons most of the day if they could get away with it. Alas, they have a mean mommy (so they say), who thinks they should do something with their brains besides stare at a screen. 

Disclaimer here - I'm not one of those oh-so-perfect Moms who always has oh-so-perfect little crafts, and worksheets and this and that for her kids all the time. For the most part, I leave them to their own imaginations (which isn't always a good thing...), but many days there comes a point when they just can't seem to come up with anything to do on their own (except fight - they're really good at that),  and Mommy is left trying to find something for them to do.

We've had quite a few days lately when it's rained all day long, so they don't have a whole lot of time to play outside (I can only take so many clothing changes and muddy feet-tracks through my house before my mommy-brain starts vibrating and steaming, and that's never a good thing), and today was one of those days. We made it most of the day, but after supper they were wired, high voltage, high volume, high speed - just HIGH, mostly, and they NEEDED something to do. Ju decided she wanted to do some kind of an art project, so I randomly decided to try salt-painting.

Now, if you use Pinterest much at all, you've probably seen one of the many salt-painting projects running around. If you haven't, feel free to go search 'salt painting' on Pinterest right now. I'll wait until you get back...
....
....
....
...alrighty, then. Satisfied your curiosity now? No?
Then by all means, keep reading.


The idea of salt painting is basically this:

First, get your supplies -
A bottle of basic white school glue (elmer's, store-brand - we used both),
Paper (we used plain ol' printer paper, but something heavier would be better, if you have it),
Salt (the regular table variety)
Eyedroppers, medicine droppers, paintbrushes - whatever suits your fancy (more on that later)
Water
Food Coloring

I put about 1 tablespoon of water in each of those dandy little containers 

(you can get them for about $2 each at Walmart - just buy a can of Great Value brand cinnamon rolls, open them up, and there's a handy-dandy little white plastic container in there with icing in it. Just dump the icing out, wash the container, and you're ready to go. Of course, if you don't want to be wasteful, you can eat the cinnamon rolls and all that... or you can just use whatever you have.), then I added about 3 drops of food coloring to each one. Swirl it around carefully, or stir it with a toothpick or something.

Ok. Now that you've got all that done, take the glue and draw a picture on the paper with it. (Alternatively, you can draw a picture with a pencil and trace it with the glue - whatever floats your boat. We did both.)

Once you have your picture done to your liking, pour salt all over it.

We found it just as easy to just dump the salt on the paper and then tip the paper every which way, sliding the salt all over. You want the glue to be thoroughly coated in salt. 

It will look kind of like this when it is done:

Now, take some of the colored water in your dropper (or whatever you're using), and drop a bit on the salt/glue. The fun part is that it slowly begins to creep down the line from wherever you drop it.

Add more colors and watch them mix together and make new colors...

And you have a pretty little painting. 

In theory, right?

And it's all very neat, not terribly messy, etc. 

Right?

Well, yeah, if you're a steady-handed, mostly sane Mommy. (Which I'm not, particularly)

Not so much if you're a not-so-steady-handed, somewhat rambunctious, four-year-old.

A little better for a somewhat-of-a-perfectionist, artistically-inclined seven-year-old.

But fun for both.

The seven-year-old was pretty careful with it and enjoyed dropping the colors on just so, and making a pretty pictures; here's some of her work:

She kept hers fairly well to thin lines of glue, and as much salt would stick to it, and it it colored nicely. Watching the dye creep down the salt lines is pretty cool, and for the kids, it's neat for them to see how the colors mix and make new colors.

The four-year-old...well, he though it was awesome to thoroughly saturate everything with glue...and salt...and dye. Here's some of his work:

(We all have talents...drawing dinosaurs isn't one of mine - but hey, they made him happy!! :) Oh, and the top right blue/green/yellow one is hers, not his.)

Yes, He likes green. what was your first clue? He pretty well tried to empty the whole container of green on his own. 

The all-green dinosaur on the left, he spread glue pretty heavily over the whole thing and then dumped large quantities of salt over it. The salt was pretty wet, though, from the glue, and didn't take the dye as dramatically. Which, of course, didn't bother him - he just poured on lots of it...I had to pour some of it off, and the rest soaked through the paper and left a puddle underneath. All of his paintings I set on paper towels, and after ten minutes or so, removed the towels - they were pretty well soaked. It helped to get some of the puddles off the paintings, though.

A note regarding the droppers/paintbrushes/etc. 

I've seen different people recommend different things. We tried them all - paintbrushes, Q-tips, eyedroppers, and a medicine syringe.

We had NO luck with the paintbrushes and Q-tips.

The best seemed to be the glass eyedropper shown here. With it we had the best control over where the dye went and how much.

That being said, the boy preferred the syringe - it was messy and hard to control the amount that came out, but that was right up his alley. He loved squirting it all over the paper.

So, Did it Work? 

Yes. Although our paintings didn't turn out nearly so neat and precise as some of the ones on Pinterest, it worked. It was messy, but the kids really had fun. By the time they quit, they had used up all of the dye in all the containers (I added a container of red later, so they had four altogether), about four of those little cups of salt (probably about 1 cup in all), large quantities of glue, and the table was covered in artwork. Oh, and did I mention it was messy? The floor around the table ended up pretty crunchy from the salt, and we had to sop up puddles from the table several times, but I had a vinyl tablecloth on, and the floor is sweepable, so it cleaned up pretty fast.

Most of, it kept them occupied for a while and they enjoyed it.

It was not, however, an activity I could give them and leave them to it - I had to stay and help the little one the whole time, mostly so he didn't start randomly squirting dye at his sister and everything else in sight, but still...not something you'd want to start if you aren't available to help.

As of a couple hours late, they weren't dry. We'll see what they look like in the morning.

So, it's wet, it's messy, but it really does work!

Go make some salt paintings! You know you want to!!! :-D

What I Need.

It's the beginning of a brand new year.
(ok, it was when I started writing this...then time got away from me. That's what happens when you put things off!)
With each new year that comes, people are fond of making 'resolutions'; vowing to themselves that they are going to change in the year ahead. Whether it be behaviours that need tending, habits that need broken, weight that needs to be lost - the list goes on and on - with the new year, for many, comes the desire for a new start, a new lease on life.

Sadly, most of the changes they make are not lasting ones, and by the time January is gone, most New Year's Resolutions have already been broken - thrown, crumpled and unheeded by the wayside.

I've never been much of a resolution-maker. I tend to be fairly pragmatic about things, and to my way of thinking, if something needs changed it needs done now - if I don't have the will-power to make the change sometime in, say, September, then the likelihood of my doing it just because it is the beginning of a new year is no better. Like many people, I have lots of grand ideas for things that 'need' doing - projects that 'need' done, plans that 'need' to be accomplished, and like most, I have less 'git'er done' than 'dream it up'.

Yes, there are things I'd like to see done this year. There are things that should probably be changed. There are things I want...

But what do I need? What does my family need?


We humans tend to put our 'wants' in the need column:

"Oh, I NEED that dress!"

"I absolutely HAVE to have those shoes."

"We NEED a bigger house."

We NEED this...we NEED that...

But do we really NEED it?

I like pretty clothes as much as the next girl - but do I NEED them? The large quantities of clothing, shoes and accessories in my closet and dressers (and everywhere else) tells me I don't. I need clothes to cover my body and to keep me warm, but I have more than I need.

While I'd like a bigger, nicer house,  do I need one? I have a roof over my head, my family is warm and dry  - what more do I need?

We have food in the refrigerator...and the freezer...and the pantry...we won't go hungry anytime soon - which is more than many people even here in America can say.

So, what do I really need?
What is ONE thing that I can really say, "I NEED that" in 2014?


I NEED Jesus.

Mind if I say it again?

I Need JESUS.

More than anything else in this world, I need Him.

Why do I need Him?

Because in myself I am a sinner and I need a Saviour. I cannot save myself. I cannot make myself 'good enough' to be fit for Heaven - but He can.

Because on my own I am weak and I need His strength. 

Because alone I don't know where to go or what to do - I need someone to guide me. 

Because when I'm sad, or lonely, or just plain tired of living, tired of fighting...I need a Comfort that I can trust to be there for me no matter what.

Because when I'm facing things that I can't explain to anyone, I need someone who will listen to my heart - and knows what I'm facing without me ever speaking a word. I need an Intercessor to pray for me when I can't pray for myself.

Because, as a parent, I alone am incapable of raising my children to be respectable God-fearing adults - 

• I need a Teacher to teach me so that I can teach them. 
• I need an Example to follow so that I can be an example for them.

Because on the days that I wonder, "Why am I here? What is the purpose in my life?", HE is the meaning, and knowing Him gives me a purpose for living.

Why do I need Him?

Because without Him I am nothing; I have no reason to live; I haven't the strength to keep plodding on day after day...

But with Him, I have everything. 

I can wake up each morning with the realization that no matter how awkward and unlovable I feel, there is Someone who loves me beyond measure; that no matter how many times I fail Him, He will always be there for me. 

And believe me, I fail Him often. 
But when I do, I can get back up and reach out to Him, and He will always pick me up, brush me off, and set me on my way again.

When I look at my children, I am reminded time and again how much God cares for us. So often, I explain to them just what I expect of them; I tell them plainly to make sure they understand. And yet, five minutes later, I can turn around and find them doing the very thing they were just told not to do. How many times have I said to one of them, "You shouldn't do that, because this and this will happen if you do", only to watch them do it anyway - and get hurt in the the process, just like I said they would. And once again, I pick them up, brush them off, fuss at them, and send them on their way again. No matter how many times they disobey or forget, I still love them, and when they come running to me, I'll hug them and kiss them and tell them everything's gonna be all right.

But, unlike God, I get impatient with my children. I fuss at them when they don't do things right. Some days I yell at them much more than I should...

That's why I need Jesus.

God has never done that with me, but too often I fail to follow His example.

That's why I have GOT to have Jesus.



So, this year, I have no fancy list of resolutions - no pile of projects to accomplish. In fact, I have only one resolution:

I MUST have more of Jesus.

I have one deep supreme desire, that I may be like Jesus.

To this I fervently aspire, that I may be like Jesus.

I want my heart His throne to be, so that a watching world may see

His likeness shining forth in me; I want to be like Jesus.

Oh, perfect life of Christ my Lord, I want to be like Jesus.

My recompense and my reward, that I may be like Jesus.

His Spirit fill my hung'ring soul, His power all my life control;

My deepest pray'r, my highest goal, that I may be like Jesus.

(from the song, "I Want to Be Like Jesus", by Thomas Chisolm)

Sad...Angry...Confused...Resolved

Today, as I was scrolling through my facebook feed, I saw a link to an article posted, clicked on it, and read it.
It was the story of a five month old baby boy who died after being left by his parents in his car seat for eight days. EIGHT DAYS, with no diaper changes, no one to pick him up and hold him, apparently even no one feeding him, other than the mother saying she stuck a bottle in the carseat beside him, assuming he would feed himself (at five months old).

(You can read the story here, if you really want to torture yourself)

Instantly on reading the article, I was sickened, saddened, and horrified.

I've been seeing articles on things like this happening all together too often lately. Even ONCE is too often, but it seems like in the last several months I've seen several different instances of babies dying due to gross neglect on the part of the parents.
It makes me sick to read about it. It makes me angry to think of those poor innocent babies left to die. It confuses me - how can a woman carry and give birth to a child and then seemingly forget that that child even exists?! In at least two instances, the parents of the child were said to have been 'playing video games with friends' during much of the time that the baby was left alone.
One thought that stands out to me, though, is this -

When did parents stop teaching their children responsibility? Do the majority of American parents no longer teach their children to take responsibility for their actions? Are kids no longer taught to think of someone besides themselves?  

Just the other day I happened upon Yahoo! Answers, and saw a question from a girl wondering if she could be pregnant (there's a lot of those on there, unfortunately); upon closer examination, she told the story that she had been pregnant, had an abortion, had already had unprotected sex with her boyfriend, and then, a WEEK after her abortion, was already afraid she had gotten herself pregnant again. After reading that, my curiosity got the best of me and I looked around a few minutes longer and discovered several others that had the same basic story...some of them having had multiple abortions already.

I came away from there sickened. And I wondered - do young people today not have ANY sense of responsibility? Does it not even cross their minds that just because something feels good, maybe, just maybe, it might not be the smartest thing to do? Do they go into relationships with the thought in mind that, well, if they WERE to happen to make a baby (because, you know, that  IS a well-known side effect of having sex...at least, I THINK it is...), then they'll just abort it and go on their merry way?

I thought I was still a fairly young person, but if that's the way young people think today, I'll gladly be an old lady.

I don't want this to turn into another piece about abortion - I wrote on that a while back. My point was more about kids that bring a child into the world (choosing NOT to abort it) and then kill that same child with neglect only a few short months later. (I just got off on a tangent there...sorry)

Since when are video games more important than the life of another human being - no matter how small? Have we (and I use the tern 'we' loosely, referring to parents today) raised a generation of people that have no moral compass whatsoever? Are they so removed from reality that they can justify leaving their own flesh and blood to rot in their own waste?! Apparently so, at least in this case, as the article stated that the father of the child, a 23-year-old, "showed a complete and total lack of remorse for the death of his son."

God help us.

God help me, as a parent, to bring my children up knowing right from wrong, and to teach them to take responsibility for their actions; to teach them to love others, to think of those less fortunate than they.
God help me to show them how a parent should love their children, and put the needs of those children before their own desires; to teach them not to be selfish, but loving, and giving.

There's a meme that's gone around the inter-webs a few times now, that states:

"We talk so much about leaving a better world for our children...but we forget about leaving better children for our world."

The facts are these: 

We can moan and groan about, "What is this world coming to?",  and bewail the rising crime and the increasing numbers of seemingly totally amoral people in the world today, but until we take ourselves up be the seat of our pants and determine to DO SOMETHING about it, nothing is going to change.  

     

If we continue to promote the ideas that telling our children "no" will somehow scar them, and allowing them to act like small tyrants is acceptable, NOTHING is going to change. We have to teach them while they're teachable, for when they're grown it's too late!  I'm not saying that it's impossible for a person to change when they're grown, but the likelihood is small. If a child is allowed to run the home as a child, and never disciplined for fear of causing 'trauma' to their poor little personalities, they will grown into undisciplined adults; if they aren't taught responsibility when they're young, they will grow into irresponsible adults.

Take note: I am NOT in any way advocating child abuse. There is a world  of difference between lovingly disciplining your children and abusing them. 

Is the madness ever going to end? 

No, probably not. According to the Bible, evil is always present, and always will be, as long as Satan is still alive and well. But it also tells us that we can overcome evil with good.

Where does good come from?

Again, the Bible tells us that all goodness is from God...and that apart from Him there is NO ONE good in and of themselves. It is only through Christ that we can be truly good. 

How do we overcome the evil in this world?

We can begin by teaching our children.

And how do we teach our children to be good?

Introduce them to the only one who can actually help them.
(And in the mean time, a little discipline won't hurt.)

Do I understand why God allows events like this one I mentioned to happen?

No. I doubt I ever will.

I do know that that baby is infinitely better off with Jesus than with the sorry excuse for parents he had.

But that doesn't always ease the pain.

All I can do is leave that in God's hands and resolve, with everything in me, to teach my children better.

And that is what I will do.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas...

I had big plans...this year, I was going to get pictures taken and order Christmas cards  AND get them sent out (that's the big one, there - I usually forget to mail them.)

I should have known it wouldn't work out like that.

First of all, every time we made plans to take pictures, something came up and it didn't work out. So, no family picture.

Finally, last week, since it was clear we weren't going to get a family picture made, I went digging through my files for some recent pics I'd done of the kids and designed a card. Obviously, since it was so close to Christmas, I wasn't going to be able to shop around and find the best prices, since I was going to have to have them printed here in town.   Office Depot was having a sale, so I chose them.

Apparently that was a bad idea, as when I went in the day after ordering, they could even find my order on the computer, and then when they got them printed after I had to email it to them, they were so badly pixelated that the text was nearly unreadable in places.
So, now it's two days before Christmas, I have a stack of unusable cards, AND I'm out the money I paid to get them printed. I'm still waiting to hear back from Customer Service if they'll give me my money back.

In the mean time, I don't have cards to send out, so and e-card is going to have to do! :)

So here you go - if you think you should get a Christmas card from us, this is for you!!

(you can click to view larger)

Merry Christmas!!

Breakfast for Supper - Brupper? Sup-fast? Brinner? Whatever...

Ever go to fix supper and think, "Man, I'm tired of making the same old stuff!"?

Yeah, me too.

Last night I went to fix supper, couldn't think of anything I wanted to make, then remembered that I had a package of all natural sausage in the freezer that I had gotten to try. (No chemicals, just meat and spices - the way food SHOULD be...don't get me started) So, I figured I'd fix breakfast food for supper. A lot of times when I do that, I'll do a breakfast casserole I make with bread, eggs, bacon or sausage and cheese - Kind of like a savory french toast casserole - but I didn't really want to fix that and didn't have enough bread anyway. Last time I did a brupper (yep, pretty much just made that word up on the spot!), I made a biscuits and gravy casserole using canned biscuits - it was good, but I didn't want to do it either...and I didn't have canned biscuits...

So what's a girl to do?

Duh!

Off to Pinterest I went.

I looked at all sorts of breakfast casseroles. French toast casserole - didn't have enough bread. I still wasn't having much luck, so I thought, well, maybe I'll just make pancakes or waffles...but I really didn't feel like standing over a griddle doing pancakes. 

Then it hit me  - why not a pancake CASSEROLE?!

I searched, and, sure enough, there were recipes.  Looked at a bunch, most of which seemed kind of like big pan-sized egg-y popover type things - which is fine, I like egg-y popover type things, but that wasn't what I wanted. 

After some hunting, I settled on this recipe.

Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I altered it a bit. I also made homemade cinnamon/vanilla syrup to go over since that bottled stuff you get from the store is just nasty (and not good for you, either, but how do you make something that is essentially sugar good for you?).

As it turned out, it was pretty good - one child at it happily, the other child ate it somewhat begrudgingly, but he didn't spend half an hour declaring the he was NOT going to put that in his mouth, so I consider it success [ :) ] (plus, this child only likes plain pancakes- he refuses to even taste syrup. Or jelly. Or peanut butter...strange kid, I know), and the father declared that it would be better without the sausage in it, but he ate two pieces, so it must not have been too bad! :D

So, if you want to try the original recipe, go to that link up that. If you want my version, here it is! (click the recipes to view full size - my 3-column layout messes me up in this case)

I served this with scrambled eggs and applesauce this particular time - and of course, coffee for the big people (you can't have breakfast without coffee!!) and the little folks had hot chocolate. If the summer, it would probably be juice of some sort.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be a food photographer.
And yes, I did take this picture outside - it's the only place I can get any decent light!

Hope you enjoy it!!

What about you - Does your family eat Breakfast for supper? 

On Witches and Zombies & Ghosties - Revisited!

Hey, it's me again.

Just wanted to do some clarifying on my Halloween posts - a disclaimer, if you will.

• First of all, if I offended anyone with my posts, I'm sorry. I meant no offense whatsoever. I was merely thinking out loud as I often do, and researching and writing things down. As often happens with me, I sit down to write a little non-dramatic post, and before I know it, all these words are pouring out of my fingers. Seriously, I can go back and read something I've written and wonder if I really wrote it. While I don't claim that all of my posts are inspired, very often I do feel that God is putting something on my heart and mind, and when I begin to actually write it out it becomes something so much more than I ever intended it to be. Whether this is one of those times, or just me waxing wordy, I couldn't tell you! :) (not that I'm admitting to ever being wordy or anything...)
• That being said, I am not now, nor at any time have I had any intention of judging you less of a Christian than I if you do choose to participate in the Halloween festivities. You have to make the decision of what is best for your family, and I will trust that you have done your best to seek the will of God in anything you choose to do or not do.
• Also, I am not 'scared' of Halloween, and I am fully confident that God is quite big enough to handle it (without my help, no less!). I personally don't think that the typical witches-and-zombies-and-dead stuff emphasis that is put on the day is at all glorifying to God for all the reasons I mention in my previous posts,  but I don't think God closes up shop for the day just because there's a lot of devilish stuff going on. 
• And yes, I did turn out all of my outside lights, and huddle up inside. Why? Because it was a stormy, nasty night; I had no candy to give trick-or-treaters; therefore, we closed up. (And, personally, I find it rather horrifying to have people walking up and knocking on my door. Does that mean I can't be a Christian because I don't love my neighbors? Actually, I like the ones I know just fine, and would not hesitate to help them out if needed. I just can't handle large quantities of uninvited guests. I have a hard time with invited guests, actually. Just another quirk of my particular hermit-ish personality type. Judge away!)  Instead, we watched a 'scaring' movie with our kids (Monsters University, if you're wondering), and ate popcorn and ice cream (they did, at least). Guess I should have turned on the lights and handed out gospel tracts. (and cleaned up the resulting TP on the lawn this morning...)
• Yes, the kids did dress up. We took them to Boo at the Zoo last weekend in their costumes and they trick-or-treated with the animals, and we went to church for a fall party tonight and they got to dress up again! Here's the proof: 

Miss Tinkerbell

And her friend Peter Pan.

...and I'm pretty sure Peter Pan is getting some rather mischievous ideas in his head...  


    

Yep, 'fraid so...

So, I hope that helped clarify my intentions on my series of posts about Halloween. Hope you'll come back and visit me sometime!! :)  

 (Not sure why my pictures are going all kooky on me... they don't seem to want to stay how I put them!)

In Honor of Reformation Day

496 years ago, a man walked up the steps of the All Saints Church in Wittenburg, Germany, and nailed a document on the door. This day marks the beginning of a whole new era in church history.

Martin Luther - Augustinian monk, priest, Professor of theology - had devoted years of his life to the study of the Bible. On his life as a monk, he remarked, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would certainly have done so." Yet, he later described this time in his life as one of deep spiritual despair, stating that, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul." It was during this time that a superior advised to cease focusing on his failures and sins and instead reflect on the merits of Christ and this would later bring him the spiritual guidance that he sought.
'In 1513, while preparing lectures, Luther read Psalm 22, which recounts Christ’s cry for mercy on the cross, a cry similar to his own disillusionment with God and religion. Two years later, while preparing a lecture on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, he read, “The just will live by faith.” He dwelt on this statement for some time. Finally, he realized the key to spiritual salvation was not to fear God or be enslaved by religious dogma but to believe that faith alone would bring salvation. This period marked a major change in his life and set in motion the Reformation.'

It is this very fact that gives us much of the religious freedom we enjoy today. 

10-12 years after the day that he nailed his 95 Theses on the door, Luther wrote what is the best known today of all the hymns he wrote - a hymn we know today as A Mighty Fortress is Our God. It has been called one of the best-loved hymns of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions, and was called by some, 'The Battle-Hymn of the Reformation".  Luther wrote the song as somewhat of a paraphrase of Psalm 46, the first seven verses of which read:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

          Selah 

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. 

The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

          Selah 

Though the song was written nearly 500 years ago, its words are still relevant for us today. Much as in Luther's day, sin is rampant. Even the so-called religious leaders are proclaiming that sin today is not what we used to think it. Things that, once, were thought of as abominable by even the non-religious, are now accepted as cultural norms. Governmental leaders are promoting those that would like to see Christianity gone for good, and telling anyone who will listen that that group of people that are categorized as 'Evangelical Christians' are nothing more than terrorists. 

Never more than today does it seem that we need a refuge, a fortress to protect from those that are out to destroy the cause of Christ. And, thankfully, the same Refuge that the Psalmist wrote about, the same 'Mighty Fortress' that Martin Luther leaned upon, is still ours today.

Our foe is great - but our God is greater. 

"We will not fear for God has willed His truth to triumph through us!"

Take courage! We have 'the Right Man' on our side, and 'He must win the battle'!

 A Mighty Fortress is Our God 

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.

(Words and music by Martin Luther, circa 1520-1530 AD)

Witches and Zombies and Ghosties - Oh My! Part IV

Hi again! Today is the last part of my series of posts on Halloween. If you've stuck around this long, you have a formal invitation to be my best friend! :) If you're just joining us, be sure and go back and read parts I, II, and III!

When I started to write this, it was just supposed to be a little post venting about some of the issues I have with Halloween. I never dreamed it would turn into something so long it had to be broken up into 4 parts to make it a little easier to read. But, as often happens, I sat down and started writing, and then I started researching, and one thing led to another - and here we are!!

Just a little story to end this thing:

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the store with my daughter (who is almost 7), and she told me we needed to get some Halloween decorations, because it was almost Halloween and we hadn't decorated anything for it. She had mentioned this in passing a few other times, so I decided it was probably time to discuss it and settle the issue.

I explained to her that I don't decorate for Halloween, and pointed out to her that most of the Halloween decorations we saw were witches, skeletons, ghosts, spiders, and the like, and that those were not nice things, and I didn't want to celebrate them. After we discussed it for a while, she saw what I meant, and agreed with me that those things weren't really things she wanted to celebrate, either, but she was still feeling a little disturbed that we had NO decorations at all. (I rarely decorate for any holiday but Christmas, except for a seasonal tablecloth and (maybe) centerpiece on the dining room table, and some sort of seasonal door decoration) I told her that I would be happy to find her some fall decor - pumpkins, leaves, scarecrows, etc. and that made her happy. (We now have a cheerful scarecrow residing in our front flowerbed, and she has a small one in her room, among other things).

Similar to this little fellow. (Source)

I didn't realize how much she had taken our little talk to heart, though, until yesterday. 

Each day, when she comes home from school, she brings a binder with her completed papers for the day; one of these was a math sheet, on which they were learning about adding doubles. At the bottom of the page, it told them to draw pictures to demonstrate the problem - specifically, witch hats.

I looked it over and didn't see any witch hats.

My child had taken me seriously when I told her that we didn't want to be having witches around. In place of the witch hats, she had drawn cats. (Hopefully she got her teacher's permission before she did this.) 

So, what was the point of all of this?

Mostly just a chance to vent a little, but hopefully, if there were any questions in your mind about Halloween, and if Christians should celebrate it, maybe this has helped you, or at least made you want to find out for yourself what it's all about! Personally, it's always made me somewhat uncomfortable, and in recent years, has almost made me downright upset seeing how far some people seem to take it. Lately, a lot of what I've been seeing is people dressing up as zombies and dead people, axe murderers, etc. and it just seems to me that it's basically turned into the glorification of every thing bad and disgusting - and I want no part of that.

Disagree with me? Feel free to tell me so in the comments.Won't be the first time somebody hasn't agreed with me, and I imagine it won't be the last! :) I'll still love you anyway!

Now for some happy pics so that you can see I DO let me kids have a little fun every once in a while!!  We painted pumpkins last week - we carved pumpkins the week before, but they didn't even last a week and they were leaking all over the place, so we threw them out and started over. 

The Artiste - she likes everything to be perfect, and usually has a meltdown at every drip and streak

The Next Picasso - he's very into abstract art. The design on his pumpkin is, in fact, a cat.

Dad even got in on the pumpkin painting - his canvas was a bit smaller, though.

The finished products. If you look real hard, stick your tongue out just so, and squint a bit, you can almost see the cat face on Jonathan's pumpkin!

And, yes, we do like cats. And we like them to be anatomically correct, so these even have tails.  :)

I hope you've enjoyed my little jaunt into Halloween-land!

(Note 11/1/13: I wrote another post today to better clarify my intentions in writing this series of posts. Go check it out, here!)

Witches and Zombies and Ghosties - Oh My! Part III

Welcome to Part III of my series on Halloween. 
Wow, you must be a loyal reader, if you're back again! :) If you're just joining us, be sure and go back and read Part I and Part II!

Yesterday, we talked about the origins of the holiday we know as Halloween, and how it is linked to pagan rituals, Catholic traditions, witchcraft and ancient superstition. 

Now we want to discuss:

What does the Bible say about it?

Well, obviously, it doesn't address the day directly, but it does have somewhat to say about spirits and witchcraft; any times a witch or wizard is mentioned in Bible, it does not have anything positive to say about it:

(uh-oh, now we're really getting serious - bullet points and everything!)

• Exodus 22:18: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV)
• Deuteronomy 18:10-12: There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (KJV)

In the New Testament, witchcraft is mentioned among a list of things that, it tells us, would prevent the doers thereof from entering the Kingdom of God (i.e. Heaven): 

·  Galatians 5:19-22 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (ESV)

 "The Bible definitely speaks negatively about occultic practices, spirits, and witches and condemns not only the practice but also the people who are involved in it. As Christians, we are to have nothing to do with the occult. Tarot Cards, contacting the dead, séances, lucky charms, etc., are all unbiblical and can harm a Christian's fellowship with God and open the Christian to demonic oppression. " (source)

There are many other scriptures I could use that speak to us about avoiding evil, etc.

So, what's a Christian to do? If we allow our children to participate by dressing up and trick-or-treating, are we casting our implicit approval on the day?

I don't have all the answers to these questions (and others). 
I don't have all the answers for my own questions, to be honest. In some ways, my instinct says avoid it completely; I know that, in part, however, this is due to my personality type, and to my own experiences as a child. My family didn't trick-or-treat. We could dress up any day of the year, but we didn't get special costumes for Halloween. My parents did buy us some candy to help with our feeling left out on that respect, but giving us tons of candy was never priority. On the other hand, my husband's family DID go trick-or-treating. He remembers having fun with it, and wants out kids to be able to have fun as well. 
This is where we are at this time: 

• I do allow my children to dress up, but the costumes cannot be anything scary or related in any way to ghosts, witches, dead people, demons, or the like.
• We have, on some occasions, taken them trick-or-treating, but usually try to find something a little safer for them to do to occupy them on that day. Mostly, we want them to have fun and not be the one child left out when all their friends are crowing about the obscene amounts of candy they scored. (Not that I think it's always terrible to not go with the crowd - I firmly believe there is a time to stand for your convictions and it doesn't matter if LITERALLY every is doing it - if it's wrong it's wrong, but this is not one of those times.)
• I fully support churches holding 'trunk-or-treat' or harvest themed events and promoting Bible and historical character costumes. It seems to me the best way to 'redeem' the day, so to speak, by giving kids something to do that is not involving them in the bad aspects of the holiday.

                                       
This isn't a definitive list, but it should give some idea of what we are allowing at this point in our lives. I can't tell that it won't change in the future, but I can tell you that the type of 'celebration' of this holiday that has become mainstream will NEVER be something I can willingly embrace.

Please understand that I am not presenting this as a one-size-fits-all thing. There are some Christians who would look at this as appalling - why in the world would a person go so far? It's just an amusing holiday is all! On the other hand, there are those who would even doubt my own Christianity for participating as much as we do. I understand that. This is where WE are at this point in our lives - I'm in no way saying you can't possibly be a Christian and 'do' Halloween. What I AM saying is that I can't comfortably do it.

Come back tomorrow for one last installment - an amusing ending to an otherwise dark subject!