Monday July 5, 2010Outside my window: Rain showers this morning, overcast all day with more rain to come this afternoon and tonight.
I am thinking about: self control. Jim Berg says the following, "Our society is increasingly disorderly because it has rejected God's rule over it and scorns self control. The pipe dream of personal autonomy has replaced personal responsibility. The future of our country as we have known it does not look good. But what is even more grievous is that this cultural disorderliness has infected the church and the Christian family. Permissive parenting on the one hand and mean spirited authoritarianism on the other hand are both evidences of disorderly living. Maxed out credit cards, obesity, laziness, dysfunctional marriages, the prevalence of sensuality in language, dress, and entertainment choices, outright immorality, unfaithful employees, and the disrespect to authority so commonplace today all testify to the disorderliness of God's people.
Parents who tolerate in their children behaviors that indicate and promote self indulgence - hours watching tv, playing video games, or surfing the Internet; purposeless hanging out with friends, whether on line, on the phone or in person; disrespectful body language and words; childhood obesity; and sloppiness in dress or living environment - are part of the problem. Such parental failures often reveal their own disorderliness. they are either too busy with their own activities, too afraid of their child's reactions, or too blind to spiritual things to see the need to actively disciple their children in the first place.
The root problem is obvious. Most who know Christ live for themselves rather than wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ Their failure to pursue the excellence of Christ likeness and the knowledge of Christ is obvious by their failure to exercise self control. They are ruled by their passions. In addition, unbiblical teaching on grace and Christian liberty has authorized the slide into self - indulgence. Temporal matters have been given priority over eternal concerns. "
Titus 2: 11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly (in a self controlled manner) righteously and godly in this present world.
"C0contrary to the libertine teaching of Peter's day and ours, grace does not give a believer free reign to do anything he wishes as long as the Bible does not forbid it. Paul is clear here that grace does not produce license but rather it teaches us to deny ourselves the worldliness that corrupts us and pursue the godliness that changes us for Christ. Self control born of a spirit enabled self denial was a natural byproduct of the gospel. Anyone who had experienced the grace of God and was growing in that grace should have been experiencing greater measures of self denial and should have been living an increasingly well ordered life. "
To quote Voddie Baucham, "If you can't say Amen, at least say ouch!"
From the learning room: DMD and a friend dissected both perch and a frog today. I did not get any pictures as I had my hands full with the babies and visiting:). The perch was much harder to do than the frog as the scales and bone material were difficult to cut through. We had to make an impromtu trip to the book store to pick up the Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. DYS needed it for his english. DMD has it on her reading list for History next year. We were going to grab it from the library but it was closed. Then I tried to down load from Wilbur but there was a waiting list. We still have not made it to the zoo but we will keep trying!
In the kitchen: At the home school conference I went to a workshop about cooking ahead and managing the kitchen. While I am not a 30 day cooker and have no interest in becoming one, I took away several fun things. I cooked bacon in the oven this week. Seriously! Who knew and what a blessing it was! No smoke, splattering grease, and flat bacon. The other thing was that I could precook certain things like taco meat or chicken breasts and that alone would provide a time savings. I plan on having a couple cook ahead days before school starts again. Right now I am trying to keep track and see what and how much of certain things would benefit me over the course of a month.
This weeks menu:
Friday - pizza
Saturday - sloppy joes and home made onion ring.
Sunday - 4th of July dinner with my family. I am taking deviled eggs
Monday - Lemon poppy seed chicken
Tuesday - skillet pasta
Wednesday - paninis
Thursday - Taco bake
I am wearing - a light blue skirt with navy t shirt
I am praying - such a long list these day!
I am reading - For fun I read two Frank Peretti books this week ( Piercing the Darkness and This present Darkness) and am continuing in Essential virtues as well as Love and Respect.
I am hearing - Mr. reading stories to the babies.
One of my favorite things - Oxy clean! I boil water, pour in a liberal amount of it and soak whatever badly stained items I have overnight. It works everytime!
A few plans for the rest of the week - The great trip rotation begins. DMD and Mr. are headed for California. She will be home less than 24 hours before heading to a music festival. DYS is headed for camp. Then Mr. and DYS will head to Georgia. I hope I don't forget someone somewhere!
