Keeping the Main Thing . . .

On the heels of reading Queen Bee’s guest post over at Rock’s in My Dryer on being the parent of an only child, I am faced with this article out of the United Kingdom. Here’s the tagline:

After four years of research, the TV news presenter has proved what he instinctively thought was right: larger families are happier, healthier, better adjusted – and deeply discriminated against…

When it comes to families of any size facing discrimination, I am doubtful.  I have heard my entire life that the family is under attack, but from whom?  No where in North America is there a one child policy.  No women are forced to work against their will by government regulation.  It is still legal for a man and woman to marry, have as many children as they want and even beneficial in most cases to do so.  No companies are refusing to hire married people and parents.  Parents with children are not barred from any public buildings, or forced to enter through a separate entrance.  Married couples aren’t protested against.  In North America, no one has woken up to a brick through their window because they are married and have children.

The author of the article cites examples, including theme park family passes admitting 2 parents and 2 children, and an author complaining that because of her large family she was made to feel freakish.  While unfortunate, it’s certainly not discrimination.

This author is not a believer, so my thoughts, while sparked by his article, are certainly not applicable to it.  Within the church, however, the same attitude pervades.  Christians are called to fight for the family, march for the family, vote for the family.  So why hasn’t anything changed in 20 years?  Because the family isn’t the point.

I just lost a bunch of people with that.  Please come back and read the rest.

The family isn’t the point, the gospel is.

The gospel can make men want to lead, and women want to submit; it can make men want to commit, and women want to remain pure.  Only the gospel can change culture, only the gospel can convict of sin, only the gospel can make a family more than a group of sinful individuals.  God works through Godly families that are centered not around themselves, or their size, but around the gospel of Christ.

We’re fighting the wrong battle, folks.  We need to be preaching the gospel that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.  That’s the main thing.  That’s the correct perspective.  That’s the only thing that will save our families, our churches and our culture.

I Think I Have A Problem

Want to win a free book? Follow this link to my review and leave a comment.

I’m exhausted, because last night I stayed up to watch Hillary Clinton address the DNC in Denver. I listened to the entire speech and now I’m tired. So what am I doing? I should be going to bed, but instead, I am listening to Bill Clinton’s speech and making my own campaign poster.

That can’t be normal, can it?

Anyway, if you want to see my campaign poster, (Melissa, I think you and Brian might like this one) and/or find out my impressions on the conference so far, you can find that by clicking here, where I now blog about politics.  I may even bring back Freedom Fridays over there where most of you don’t have to be bothered by my less than mainstream ideas, and the Badger’s comments on them.

*******We now return you to regularly scheduled mama blogs********

Can I Just Say?

I am a very political person. I love politics and current events and international diplomacy and all of that stuff. I enjoy hypothesizing about the different political strategies and “arm chair quarterbacking” the campaigns. Politics is my spectator sport, and I’m a super fan.

But if I hear the phrase “VEEPstakes” one more time I’m going to scream. I just want the election to be finished already. And when a candidate says that he’s going to announce his V. P. pick by text message (seriously? isn’t that a little middle school girl? Anyway.) before a rally on Saturday, I assume he means minutes before, not days, or even weeks.

So if you’re waiting for that text message, just put down your phone and go out and live your life, because whenever you’ll get back, there will be hours and hours of election coverage on every cable channel until November. That will include AT LEAST 72 hours of re-runs of the “VEEP” announcement. So you really won’t miss anything.

The Love of a Mother

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it, but I have nose issues.  I can handle blood, puke, urine, feces, mucus, but have anything come out of a nose and I gag, or vomit.

I only mention it because a lot of people told me it would be different with my own daughter.

Mackerdoodle has developed her first runny nose.

It isn’t different with my own daughter.  I’ve just learned how to wipe and gag at the same time.

Portable Tranquility

Today I had to visit the local Verizon headquarters. It’s a long story - okay it’s not. I washed Jonathan’s phone but a friend had just upgraded, so they gave us their old one and I was having it activated. It’s not a long story, it’s an embarrassing one.

I entered the store, signed in at the little touch screen, and sat down to wait. But I didn’t wait alone. I took the opportunity to open Sarah, Plain and Tall, a book I had been meaning to read for years, and read it completely through. It’s not a big book, but during my wait, I was no longer caught up in the inefficiency of a Customer no service zone. Instead, I was transported into a different time and place where I made new friends and saw new sights. I lived a month with a family and got to know them, as they got to know each other.

The book ended before the wait did, and the little bubble of peace ended with the closing of the back cover. I sat there, wishing I had brought another book to make the wait palatable.

Back in the Classroom Again

Well, today was the first day of our new school year and with new additions over the weekend, our student body has grown by 58%.  When you have a small student body it doesn’t take much to make those percentages look impressive; nevertheless, I think we may be on the up swing and for that we praise the Lord.

I know this may be a controversial thing to say, but I am proud to be a Christian school teacher and I want to mark today by including a few sentences about why.

Just before the people of Israel took possession of the promised land, they gathered, as a nation, to hear the Lord’s commands to them.

4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”       Deuteronomy 6:4-9

These commands, given to the nation of Israel corporately, continues today for the Church corporately, which is spiritual Israel.  Christian education is one expression of corporate obedience to this command and that’s why I am proud to be a Christian school teacher.

Perspective

One of my first sales as a Realtor was a land sale to a hunter.  I represented the buyer, and the seller was also a licensed agent.  Because I was a rookie, when I brought him the contract I asked the seller if the tract of land was still for sale.  He responded with “Honey, everything of mine but my wife and kids is for sale.”

At the time I thought that was one of the most greedy, grasping things I had ever heard.  I was completely appalled, but recently I’ve been re-thinking that attitude.  I suppose it could reflect a heart that treasures money more than anything else, but it could also reflect a realization that everything in this life is expendable except for our relationships.

I love my house and my car and my job, but they are all replaceable.  I LOVE my laptop, but not as much as I love my daughter, or my husband.  Everything in my life, from my brand new kitchen, to my hand me down furniture is temporary.  It will all pass away.  So why should I let them be more important to me than that?  Why shouldn’t everything I own be for sale.  If I ever own something I’m unwilling to part with at any price, then that thing really owns me, right?

So, in that sense, I guess, everything in my life, except my husband and my daughter, is for sale.

Looking Ahead

One Month Old

One Month Old

Six Months Old

Six Months Old

One Year Old

One Year Old

Can you believe how she’s grown?

A year ago I held her in my arms and was just in awe at her presence.  She lay there, looking at me with her big eyes and poked her tongue in and out.  This evening as I was reading her bedtime story, she would lean forward, turn the page, then sit back, folding her little hands and looking intently at the next picture.  I watch her, still in awe that the Lord has given her to us.

It makes me wonder what the next years of birthdays will bring, and the 364 days in between.  It makes me wonder what her voice will sound like with real words.  What will her favorite meal be in a year . . . three years . . . ten years?  When will she first say “I wuv you mama?”

I can’t help but look ahead in eager anticipation of the laughs, smiles, games and delights.  Only a year and so many more to come.   Happy Birthday my Mackerdoodle!

Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake

A Year Ago

One year ago Jonathan and I went to see the Bourne Supremacy, spent almost an hour looking at cribs, then had ribs at Smokey Bones before heading home to our new house which was filled with boxes.

I remember so many silly little details about that day.  I remember sitting down in the movie theater, and contractions starting just as the opening credits started.  I thought “Oh man, we’ve paid for a movie we won’t get to see!”  We got to see it all.

I remember walking back to the car from Smokey Bones, and Jonathan asking me what was wrong because I was holding by tummy.  In fact, I was hiding the fact that my shirt didn’t meet the waist band of my pants.

I remember Jonathan making plans to finish the floors the next day “before the baby comes.”

I remember it all, because 5 hours after we went to sleep, I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed sharp pains that came at regular intervals.

I remember that day a year ago, because it was the last day in our twelve year pursuit of parenthood.  The next day, August 7, 2007, our life changed when we welcomed our mackerdoodle.

Today we celebrated her birthday - a day early - by swimming in a friend’s pool and then having strawberries and what survived after the angel food cake disaster.  It had the same comfortable feeling that the day a year ago did, but today we celebrated one year in what will, Lord willing, be a lifetime of many.  Today we marked a single milestone on our new journey.

But I think that every year at this time I will remember that last day in our “pre-mackerdoodle” life as the ending that started this blessed new beginning.

A Good Reminder

While I’ve been caught up this summer with de-dairying, and night weaning and sleep training, I find that periodically I lose my original goal of doing my best to enjoy every minute of being Mackerdoodle’s mama.  Even after waiting so long, it’s easy to just get caught up in the things I’ve got to do - or I think I’ve got to do.

So this blog by Tim Challies (who is reformed AND Canadian) came as a great reminder of how to adjust my attitude.  Go ahead and read it, because I can’t do it justice, but in essence he says that as a father he has to remind himself that time with his kids isn’t something he’s got to do, it’s something he GETS to do.  He ties it in to corporate worship, and all in all it was like an attitudinal re-alignment for me.

Well for most of my attitudes.  “I get to do laundry” is still not flying from my tongue.

(Hat tip to Jawan for the link. )

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