Growing and learning

Anna (Daughter #1) sent some more photos with the following comment: "Daddy and Mommy have slightly different ideas regarding what things to teach Erin about first... "

Hmmm...

Is Erin going to be a police woman when she grows up?

Go, Erin, Go!

My husband and I had different ideas, too. I always bought books and my husband favored Lego (although he was a bit more creative with the girls... )

Carnal Desire

"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires... " Maybe this isn't just about sinning. Maybe its about living with a world view formed by popular music, uncensored cinema, literature, games, and conversation with friends who have a carnal world view ... anything that feeds our carnal desires.

Carnal desires? Carnal desire isn't just about sex, but about any desire that doesn't serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Uncensored... What an unpopular word! But I don't mean censored in the usual sense of the word - I mean an internal sort of censorship, a personal habit of screening the incoming data and thinking backwards to the philosophical sources, then forwards to their logical conclusions - and asking myself not only "Is it true?" but "Is it right?"

Without Excuse

No excuse...

"...what may be known about God is plain to them
(whether they think so or not)
because God made it plain to them.
For since the beginning of the world
GOD'S INVISIBLE QUALITIES
-- his eternal power
and divine nature --
HAVE BEEN CLEARLY SEEN
being understood from what has been made
SO THAT MEN ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE. Romans 1:19, 20

Obviously God thinks things are plain that men think are obscure. And He says we are without excuse, so perhaps we need to clear our minds AND REALLY LOOK - look from His point of view, not ours!

Maybe we need to get quiet... really quiet - still our hearts, still our minds - and ask the Holy Spirit to open our minds in the stillness.

Too Busy With Our Own Thoughts

I misplaced the Os Guinness book I'm reading so I've been reviewing my Quiet Time Journal the last couple of evenings and I keep coming back to this entry...

godless men ... KNEW God
but neither glorified him as God
nor gave thanks to him
their thinking became futile
their foolish hearts were darkened.

In other words they saw but did not recognize; they preferred their own thoughts.

Why don't we recognize his will? Maybe for the same reason these godless men don't recognize him though they may clearly see him - because we're too busy with our own thoughts and don't see what is right in front of us... don't see what we're looking at even though we are looking for it.

I love my work, but sometimes its hard to see people flailing about and wonder why they can't see what's right in front of them. I have a feeling that I wrote that entry after a long talk in which I wanted to say "You know if I made a checklist of what you want, I think I could check off nearly every point - its all there!" ... but like I wrote " we're too busy with our own thoughts" of loneliness, frustration, anger and despair. And in the case of many of my younger friends, a mistaken idea of love... for people who think about it all the time, they don't seem to see what they really want very clearly!

Taking Time to Think

Sarah (Daughter # 4) wrote to ask how the Schaeffer series was in retrospect ... which I think means that she hasn't watched it in awhile. (I saw it again last year.)

It was GOOD! How can I talk all my student friends into watching it?!

I also skimmed through "Mere Christianity" by C.S.Lewis yesterday. I was looking for that quotation and apparently it wasn't Lewis either... but Lewis also bears repeating. I want a couple of hours (and maye a big lazy boy chair like my father-in-law has!) to lounge by the fire and read.

Our Cats Know How to Lounge!

A Civil Public Square

Today I watched 4 episodes of Schaeffer's "How Shall We Then Live" in search of an elusive quotation, which I, unfortunately, didn't find! However, it was a good exercise in review and re-evaluation. And it dove-tailed in with the new Os Guinness book I started yesterday, "The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends On It."

Guinness is so right when he says:

It is time for Americans to reforge a civil public square... and then to debate such important issues as the uniqueness of humanity, the character of life and death, the importance of truth, the relationship between virtue and freedom, and what Gertrude Himmelfarb described as "the collapse of ethical principles and habits, the loss of respect for authorities and institutions, the breakdown of the family, the decline of civility, the vulgarization of high culture and the degradation of popular culture."

And my curiosity is piqued - I'm looking forward to exploring the difference between the dialogue approach and the covenant approach:

Crucially, we will see the difference between the common dialogue approach to civility, which I shall argue is attractive in the short run but finally ineffective, and the covenant approach, which alone holds the key to a worthwhile truce and a tough-minded civility.

Does anyone do prayer meeting any more?

Tonight was Aji Church Prayer Meeting...

Just now I mentioned it to a friend and then thought to myself "I wonder if they'll understand me?"

When I was a little girl my father's rule of thumb for determining a good church was Sunday School - even in the summer, Sunday Morning Worship service (of course!), Sunday Evening Service and Mid-week Prayer Meeting. Any church without one of these 4 meetings didn't pass muster. But it seems like so many N. American churches don't have Prayer Meeting any more...

In Aji we still have Prayer Meeting. We could call it "Small Group" I suppose... afterall, it is a small group and it even meets in a home. Of course, there's only one small group and most of the congregation comes! There's just one family that doesn't.

However, we like the old-fashioned phrase "prayer meeting" because it reminds us that our primary purpose on Wednesday evenings is to pray. We sing three hymns (favorites) and we read a chapter of the Bible together... but mostly we pray for each other.

When I think of all the trouble we've seen - and prayed for - over the years , I think that's why we're still going strong.

The Blessings That Really Matter

I forgot to mention that my cell phone - the one that was so miraculously found and returned a couple of weeks ago - gave up the ghost last Thursday. During the Valentine Party I noticed it was behaving a bit strangely and while I was texting later that night it suddenly turned into a data volcano, then rolled over blank with a few dying ... gasps ...　起動中...起動中...　起動中...

The next day I wrote on Facebook - using my husband's b-less dinosaur because the week before my computer had gone to sleep ...permanently it seems... : Laurie wonders how many things can go wrong this winter... First our van, then my PC (if you want me don't email) and now my cell phone has rolled over blank.

The answer: a lot more!

But while its true that our mechanical "blessings" seem to be succombing to old-age and overuse at a great rate, I am still really very, very blessed with the blessings that really matter.

After all,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or
hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And we are doing alright... there's still Mary's car and the truck (and the dead van is almost paid for), my husband's b-less dinosaur is still going strong AND Leta (Daughter #2) was able to help me order a new computer because last year my husband thought I needed a bigger hard drive and put it in the budget for this year.

John says we can call it "Pink Panther"

Now if we can only figure out how to put car costs into the budget next year! :-)

Here I am alone with Thee

Written in the Bible I used in college is this inscription:

"O my Lord, the stars are shining and the eyes of men are closed, and kings have shut their doors, and every lover is alone with his beloved, and here I am alone with Thee... O my Lord, if I worship Thee from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me thence, but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not from me Thine Eternal Beauty."

It was written by Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya (c.717-801), a Muslim mystic.... If only all my young Christian friends had such passion!

Like the Apostle Paul who wrote, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price. ...he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

In a selfish, selfish world we no longer live for ourselves. And why?

For Christ's love compels us.

Inching forward!

Daughter # 1 sent me more photos today. I like this one!

Erin Watanabe

The comment on this one read: "She can move forward now, but prefers rolling, as it's faster."

Today I feel like the progress we adults make is sometimes just inching along, too. (Maybe we should try rolling?!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Sunday School in Aji is pretty laid back... and so was our party last night. The guests we planned it around never showed up. But we had fun anyway. Lots of candles, a good casserole and chocolate cake.

And then we sang, of course! Most of our Aji outings end that way. And Mary and Melanie were still singing long after the guests were gone.

Snow Festival

Snow Festival in Hirosaki Park

I love parks. I love people. However, too many people make me awfully tired. I could sympathize with Mary on Monday afternoon after a day at the 雪祭り in Hirosaki Park.

Mary Played Out!

I wasn't sorry I went though... It was good to be with friends.

一人で座れるじゃん！

Way to go Erin!

この直後に、ゴロン ・ ゴチン ・ ウァーン となりましたが(^^;)

The Man I Admire

I started a new book tonight... "In the Shadow of the Moon." It started with a joke. A friend thinks its odd that I always notice the full moon - but I like walking under a full moon! - so he gave us "From the Earth to the Moon" (DVD set) for Christmas. Quite frankly, I've been impressed with the character of many of the men in the space program. Like this description of John Young in the book I'm reading tonight:

"Young would sit in silence, absorbing the opinions being offered, and the others attending the meeting would assume he had nothing of importance to add. Then, toward the end of the meeting, Young would gently make a point so devastatingly precise that they would realize he was ahead of them all."

Why can't I be like this?!

More pics

Daughter #1 (Anna) sent more photos of her little charmer last night.

"Ball" was among Erin's uncle's first words, right up there with "outs" - meaning "I want to go outside!" Erin's grandfather must have figured "Like Father, like Daughter" and bought Luke's daughter Grace a ball before she could walk! (By the time Grace started toddling her father was already teaching her to play soccer.) So I guess its not surprising that Erin is playing ball already, too.

Of course, climbing all over their Daddy is almost everybody's favorite game. (I think that eventually this game turns into some version of "Horsie".)

But I guess at this stage of Erin's life playing is still a tiring business.

Conked!

It seems that quite a few things must be a tiring business!

But maybe not eating!

Show this one to Dad!

Anna sent me this photo last night - just before I lost my phone. Its of Erin in the rocking chair that my husband made for her. This rocking chair matches the one he made for Erin's cousin, Grace and they're both modeled on the one that belongs to Great-Grandma Elliot back in Ontario, Canada.

Erin enjoying her rocking chair!

I can't believe Erin's big enough to sit in a rocking chair! But I guess she is nearly 7 months old...

(For rocking chair - or Elliot Grandchildren - enthusiasts there is a nice slide set of Grace and her Rocking Chair HERE.)