A Thought for Today

"Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone!"

C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Morning, 31 August

Last post from summer camp... summer is over :(

Random kid: "Where do frogs sit? on toadstools."
Gabriel: "That takes my breath away!"

Gabriel: "My cracker has a crack in it. is that why they are called crackers?"

Fun from the summer! Kids just take everything so seriously... I think they are confused when we laugh at them

Gabriel: "My grandmother guards the house against ants, but they still get in and she kills them with a bug spray."

Gabriel: "Thanks Mrs. Dude!" Generally he just calls me Miss Laura.

Teddy is carrying a basketball over his head and drops it on himself. Teachers ask him if he is okay, he says he is fine then he says, "It gived me a shower."

I brought the kids outside to color with chalk and a couple of the boys were no longer interested in the chalk and found a window where they could watch the 6-7 year old kids play a sport. They started commentating. "Red team has it again." "Wow Number 4 has the ball!"

Me: "It is getting too loud in here. Hummingbirds, please use your inside voices."
They quiet down, then blocks fall on the floor.
Gabriel: "The blocks don't know they are supposed to use their inside voices."

I put sparkly star stickers by my eyes after a craft."
Max: "I like the treasures on your face!"

There was a kid wearing green face paint from another class.
Reuben: "Well, he looks like a wicked witch."
Gabriel: "Wicked witches don't exist..." With a question in his voice.

Teacher: "Theodore."
Me: "Theodore doesn't exist." Because he moved to a different class.
Gabriel: "Did THeodore die?"
Me: "No."
Gabriel: "But if he doesn't exist that means he dies."
Unfortunately, we don't cover meaning, existence, life and death in summer camp.

Me: "Once I was sledding and I went under a fence and into the middle of a street by accident."
Gabriel: "Did you die?"

Kids are still funny

Nelson: "Miss Laura, today is my last day of camp."
Nelson, an hour later: "Miss Laura, today is my last day of camp."
Nelson, two hours after that: "Miss Laura, today is my last day of camp."
The next day
Me: "Oh, Nelson won't be here today because yesterday was his last day. Wouldn't it be funny if he showed up anyway today because he was confused about when he was leaving for vacation?"
Mr. Tom: "Haha."
Two minutes later...
Nelson walks in.
Nelson: "Good morning Miss Laura."
Tom and I start laughing.
Me: "What are you doing here Nelson?"
Nelson: "I forgot that today was my last day."
Nelson preceded to tell me several times that today was really his last day of camp for the summer throughout the day.

I work at a day camp... and kids are too funny

I will call my group the Hummingbirds for the purpose of this. They are all 4 or 5 years old.

Me: Hummingbirds, time to line up!
Teddy: I'm not a hummingbird, I'm a person.
Me: But you are in the hummingbird group.
Teddy: Why?
Another time he told another teacher that he is a teddy, not a hummingbird.

The teacher taking attendance: Is Christian here?
He points to a student named Reuben.
Teacher: Are you Christian?
Reuben: No, I'm Jewish.
All the teacher start laughing.

Me: Do your mother's take you swimming in the pools or the ocean sometimes?
Gabriel: Well...Well.... I think the ocean is too dangerous for children.

Priceless.

To remember about battling sin... It is not within your own power

Only the motive of grace--trust in the undeserved favor of God--can inspire us to pursue holiness free from fear and shame.
-- Joshua Harris, Sex is Not the Problem (Lust Is)

My book order came in!

I actually have already read both of the books I ordered before. Several times. I figured it was about time I owned them.

Today was payday, so I may order more books.

My favorite songs in general and how they affect me today

My favorite hymns:

God Moves in a Mysterious Way--always super amused by the humerous ringtone like song on the last site, but the lyrics are just so rich. This is what I need to remember as the weather changes my plans.

Lessons from the song that I need to remember right now:

• He plants His footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm
• The clouds will break with blessings on your head
• Though the bud is bitter, the flower is sweet
• God will make His word plain as we search it with faith
• Frowning providence=smiling face

This song I just really like and cannot think about too much.

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal (third link has lyrics)

• Need to say Hallelujah
• What is coming: Land of perfect rest, mansions of the blessed
• Glory to the great I AM
• Soul fades, our inheritance though Christ does not
• We go there to worship God, not for hedonistic reasons
• This is important now, and worth meditating on, now and forever
• This song always makes me thing of the Grey Havens at the end of Lord of the Rings, which is partly why I like it so much. The image of crossing over the water... love it.
  

The changes in my plans fit into God's plans, and God's way has an incomparable result.

A right view of salvation

Instead of starting with a quote that will not encapsulate the fullness of the devotion for 21 November, I will link to it.

There is just so much truth in this passage.

Does God love His children? Yes. However, our forgiveness did not come about because we are loved. There is nothing great about us that earns merit with God. God is holy and cannot stand sin. Christ had to become our sin for us and die for us to be forgiven because the result of sin is death.

Jesus did not come to die a martyr for a cause or to be a good example or to spread love and then death sort of surprised Him. He came to die. He came to glorify the Father by showing God's mercy.

It is also not mean Old Testament God vs. Christ who came to save us. They were not fighting over how to save the humans. God had this plan from before the beginning and Christ submitted to the Father in perfect love. Our entire purpose is to glorify God.

Basically, I think all Christians should read this day of Chamber's devotional to be reminded of what salvation really is.

peace from obedience

As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God...Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or findout the reason why it does not.

- 14 December, My Utmost for His Highest


I had trouble picking a quote from this day, because it really progresses through the whole passage.

If you disobey God to serve yourself, this causes you to lose sight of God and His peace that passes all understanding but when we obey God, regardless of what problems face us, we shall not worry.

Worth, poverty, Kingdom of Heaven

At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty.

--August 21st, My Utmost for His Highest

We do not enter the kingdom of heaven on our own merit, but on the fact that we have nothing to offer so Christ makes the way for us.

Once we are part of the kingdom, we are to praise God in everything we do . I think that is why I like this quote. I love the phrase "loveliness of the commonplace." It makes me think of Curdie in The Princess and the Curdie by George MacDonald who was scolded for taking what is common for granted. He needed to learn to love what was common around him andto take pleasure in the love of his parents, the breakfast he ate, and the ability to work.

It is good to take pleasure in God's good gifts to us, but first we need the realize the poverty in our spiritual lives to know that we need Christ.

In the still quiet place I have yet to find...

Jesus did not say--Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to your Father in secret... The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental woolgathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful prayer.

-- August 23, My Utmost for His Highest


Prayer has often been a struggle for me. I started reading the Bible when I was ten, I enjoyed singing praise and worship songs, loved church and learning about God, but prayer was always hard. When I did try to pray, I would either give God a wish list or I would distract myself. Disciplining myself to pray is hard, and a good reminder that I am not able to reach God without His grace.

Having a secret place, not just a closet or the front seat of my car (though both of those are very useful for praying), what I need is a secret place inside myself--A part of my soul, dedicated to communing with God from when I awake till I sleep. Sometimes more of my soul can focus on prayer, but that is something I need to cultivate.

Last night, I got to a Christmas party about ten minutes early, so instead of going inside, I prayed for about 15 minutes, out loud in my car. It was a sweet time, lifting up prayer requests, praising God for His forethought and His mercy and His creation.

Goal: To learn to better cultivate prayer.

What I have going for me: Church directory to pray through (tangibility), the Bible and other books full of encouragement, examples, and descriptions of what I need to praise God for. And the Holy Spirit can guide my prayers, and can give me the focus to remember to pray.

That Little Judgmental Voice inside...

If I see a mote in your eye. it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself.

-June 17th, My Utmost for His Highest

There are times where I find it easy to judge other people. The awful thing is, I judge the people who are most like me. As a Christian, I do not find it hard, generally, to respect the people I disagree with.

People I have met at university who have differing views on morality, religion, or politics who are not Christians, or who come from a very different background than me, I find easy to respect and love as part of the human race. I have had very fruitful conversations with people that support sex before marriage, abortion, or the idea that religious plurality will get you to heaven. I disagree with all these positions, but I can respect the people that hold them. I do not expect people without Christ to agree with me on issues like these.

The people I have trouble loving are the people almost like me. Sometimes I will meet someone who was sheltered homeschooler (like me), and I have this desire to open their minds, and I quickly judge them as ignorant for believing what I would have believed.

For example, I am not a Marxist. I have read Marx a couple times for class, and I see the value in some of his ideas and I see how some of his assessments of capitalism have merit, but I don't think his ideas will work. I have had conversations with non-christian friends about why I am not a Marxist. But if someone from my high school said that they hated Marxism or that socialism was stupid or something, I would start defending these ideas. I would not say that they were correct, but I would say how Marx did point out problems in capitalism and how his ideas are enlightening to understand a very influential worldview.

I have the same reaction when Christians try to say that some discovery disproved evolution or people try to define how Christian must view homosexuality. Now, I may actually agree with them on some of their points, but I almost don't want to agree with them. Part of me wants to be liberal, because it seems more open-minded, to separate myself from the person I would be if I never went to public school or a liberal university.

I am quick to judge fellow followers of Christ for their often correct beliefs, when I need to love them. I judge them for holding to seven day creation and the young earth theory (which I believe are possible) or other issues that are just not as important.

We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and conservative Christians are also our neighbors.

I judge them for their beliefs, when they may actually judge people who disagree with them less than I judge them. So that is a plank in my eye...

Goal: Love as God loves me, especially those who are what I would be.


Follow-up from Saturday, 19 Dec.: Last night at the Christmas party, there was a guy who epitomizes the Christian conservative beliefs that I struggle to love. He spoke like evolution was obviously dumb, Congress would be perfected if we only elected believers and could reprove Senate with Bible verses, and all my professors must obviously be trying to convert me to liberalism anti-Christian viewpoints at school.

It was good to remember that he loves the Lord. I may have shown off opinions and knowledge developed in classes and from living in DC, but it was kind of the Lord to remind me that I need to love, even those who make me want to be a liberal.

A plan to actually blog

This past year, I have been reading Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. The days that I found most encouraging or powerful, I marked, and now that school is out, I intend to spend sometime over the next couple weeks looking at the days that moved me. This is also a test to see if I really can blog consistently for a while.

Oh how I love Victorian era British children stories...

"Don't you think it's rather nice to think that we're in a book that God's writing? If I were writing a book, I might make mistakes. But God knows how to make the story end just right--in the way that's best for us."

--Edith Nesbit The Railway Children page 224

I love Victorian children stories because they often speak truth even when the author's life was filled with situations not for children stories. Also, unlike stories of today, the parents are usually good, wise people who care for their children and are smarter than parents in modern books.


My other favorite quote is from the first page:

Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favorites, but if their Mother had had a favorite, it might have been Roberta.

Haha!!! I am the eldest in my family, and this is totally true. I am not my mom's favorite, but my siblings think I am just because I have a lot more freedom and get the benefits that come with the responsibility that I receive. I can understand my mom better than they can and I get along with her better. We don't fight because any rules she would put I me I would already put on myself. I am not her favorite, but if she had a favorite, I might have been.

How to deal with bad moods...

"We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not."

May 20th, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Another quote from Boxen

As I mentioned before, Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.S. Lewis contains a collection of short stories Lewis wrote when he was young about talking animals.

In this scene, Puddiphat is asking two sailor characters to go out for the evening, one is trying to reform the military and the other is in the process of being reformed(see my other blog post on this book). Bar used to be all about having a good time, so for him to decline Puddiphat's invitation is surprising.

Boxen pg 183 In The Sailor: Volume II

'My dear Viscount,' protested Bar, ' we must decline your hospitality if it entails mixing with these low actresses, whose presence recalls a chapter in our life, which we would fain forget.'

'This is Saul among the prophets,' laughed Puddiphat. 'But come along, the girls can dine at the inn."

The book of 1 Samuel in the Bible describes when King Saul winds up prophesying even though God was no longer supporting him. "So it became a saying: 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'" which I always assumed meant that someone did something out of character for them.

The quote in Boxen excited me because I have always wanted to be able to use this saying, but had never actually seen or heard it used. Now to have confirmation that I can mention Saul being among the prophets and know that I am not the only person in the past century to use the phrase.

I always wondered why people at churches don't use this saying. I resolve to use this saying sometime soon.

Faith saves, not works, but works follow faith

"You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in."

--May 15, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

So true! Works do not save you, but works do stem from your salvation.

Boxen

Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.S. Lewis contains a collection of short stories Lewis wrote when he was young about talking animals. One of my goals in life is to read everything by Lewis, and so it was fun to read this book. This quote is from the last story in the book, about a military officer in Boxen.

Boxen pg 164 In The Sailor A Study Volume I

'I know, My Lord,' replied Cottle, 'that his Lordship intends to reform the navy: but I have not yet been informned what part I may endeavour to play in such a work.'

'Well,' said Oliver, 'you entered to day on your first ship, and you as yet know little of your fellow-officers. You are young, and, I trust, vigorous, and I am entrusting you with a task which may alter the world.'

Cottle glanced at his muscular shoulders, as if expecting to see them crushed by such a imposition.

I find the image of a the shoulders crushed by the weight of the task assigned humorous. While very different from the Narnia chronicles, there were instances where I think I could see that he was indeed the same author.