Unwobbly Table

Nanna and Gramp had a table that was passed on to Aunt Mary's family, and then on to my parents, and then on to me and Gary. I remember as a kid being told not to bump the table: don't want to spill the milk, or jolt the table while Mom was writing checks to pay bills. Mom said she got crabbed at for the same thing when she was young too.

We're not using that table any more for eating; when our chairs died, the style of the new chairs wouldn't fit under the old table. But we do have the table that was the coffee table in Nanna & Gramp's family room. We kids would sit on the floor and play at the table while the adults talked. There were magazines on the table. The ashtray for Gramp's cigars was there. I remember gathering around that table while Gramp read the Bible to us. So the table has some good memories. We put longer legs on it when we moved, and we've been using that table in our kitchen for most of our meals and much of our schoolwork. But boy, oh boy, it is WAY wobblier than the rectangular table we used for so many years.

Today Gary took some of the scrap wood left over from deck-spiffing last summer and made a sturdier stand for the table. We put a full glass of milk on the table and purposely bumped the table ... and the milk stayed in the glass! This is awesome!

Good Radio

Andrew introduced something to me today. Pandora Radio is an online set of music. You put in the genre you want, and it makes a "radio station" of that type of music as well as other songs that would be a similar style. We've been listening to the Frank Sinatra station today, and it has been great. I might have to learn how to work this myself!

Welcome Teaching

I have noticed in the past how often my pastor says "yes" when he's teaching. When he asks a question and hears a wrong answer, he will almost always find a way to "go with it." He will accept the answer and ask for more answers, or he will build on the answer offered up and go further with it. It is rare to hear him give an emphatic "no." You really know something was wrong if Pastor says NO. No matter what answer is given, he can usually use that answer as a stepping stone to bring about understanding in the hearers, or to temporarily go on a tangent that was brought up by the person's answer.

That kind of attitude in a pastor results in safety for the catechumens. Same for teachers and students. Is is safe for me to answer? What if I'm wrong? Will he make me feel stupid? Will he ridicule? Will other people think less of me? If we don't know where we're going on a topic, are we free to try to blunder our way through, with a loving shepherd/teacher guiding us to where we need to go? Or will we discover that pat answers are more important than the discussion & grappling & learning?

"No" is such a little thing. It shouldn't be a big deal. Sometimes, students' answers are right, but might garner a "no" if it's not the particular answer the teacher was looking for as she desires to take the class in a certain direction at the moment. And besides that, some answers are wrong, and we don't want to fall into the trap of protecting delicate little self-esteems while we make all answers (even wrong ones) okay.

And yet, if the atmosphere of "yes" (on the teacher's part) makes it possible for us who are learning to converse freely, to ask questions without fear, to tread out there into matters where we might make fools of ourselves, then it is a good good thing for a teacher to major in "yes" while still guiding his or her charges to what is true.

Three Times

Three times Peter denied Jesus (John 18). A couple of weeks after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" (John 21). Peter responded three times, aware of his own weaknesses. Three times Jesus, forgiving him, restored Peter to the work of being an apostle to which He had called him.

Interestingly, Paul, struggling with his own weaknesses, pleaded with the Lord three times to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12). I had wondered before: "Three times? Paul only begged about this THREE times? What's up with that?" But today I'm seeing how similar are Paul's and Peter's cases. Christ's grace made them sufficient; nothing in themselves could.

The Bridesmaid

For those who asked to see how the dress turned out --

Guess who caught the bride's bouquet?


Some of the official photographer's pictures can be seen here. (At least, I think they can be seen by people who aren't Facebook-friends with my sister.)

High School

The kids who are Maggie's age are finishing up 8th grade this spring. That means she would be the age for high school next year.

At workshops for parents of VCFS kids we have been advised to keep the kids in school until age 21. The advice to parents of LD kids is, "Do not allow the school to graduate them after four years of attendance. Make the school do their duty according to state law, and keep providing training and assistance until age 21."

I don't know where that leaves us. For reasons of staying on Daddy's health insurance, the longer Maggie is a full-time student, the better. (She certainly won't be insurable apart from govt programs.) But do we want to enroll her in school when she turns 18? Can we homeschool her past the normal four years of high school and still have The Big World acknowledge that she's still in high school? It's a lot easier for The Big World to accept the fact that a 20-yr-old is still in high school if that kid is getting on the bus every day, going to the building that looks like a prison, receiving a quarterly report card, etc.

The reason I'm wondering all this now is because I'm not sure whether to bump her up from grade school to high school this summer. Whichever way I decide could have long-term ramifications for good or for ill. And how will we know which option would be best for her?

Breakfast at the Hotel

Rehearsal & Dinner

(Sorry, folks, these aren't the best. But if I were Karen, I'd wanna see 'em anyway!)


Bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner at the Ribeye.

Pictures taken at church during rehearsal.



Matt and Joshua:

Bride's nieces and nephews:

That child really wants the straw!
Eric with the kids,
and Nathan & Alia:

Wrights, Milases, and groomsmen:
Brunners and Langhoffs:
Jacob, David, Mom, Dad, Karen, Robert:

Scot, Dan, Robert, Pastor, David:
Maggie, Karen, Jenna, Eric:



And now, off to make some bread and hang some towels on the line before I try to find some time to post pictures of the party that Karen and Robert missed (breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning).

Happiness

Pastor has been talking recently about how we find no true joy and peace and happiness when we're looking for it, but only when we sacrifice of ourselves for others. He says this is because we are made in God's image, and what God does is love. He gives. He loves. He sacrifices. He puts our good ahead of His own comfort, as seen most clearly in the cross. This is what humanity was meant to be.

Having spent the weekend with people that I dearly love, and feeling a little sad about the weekend coming to an end, and wondering how Dad's medical tests are going to turn out this week, and wishing I could be there to help with the lawn and the house and stuff like that, ...

it crosses my mind that depression and other mental illnesses have increased in this country as we have become more mobile and people have moved away from home, away from the family ties that most people have known through most of history, away from the people to whom we should be joined and for whom we might be "doing" and giving.

Great-Grandparents

Great-grandma watches Alia being enchanted by her necklace --


Gilly with his first great-grandchild --


Gary's mom smilin' big (and having it captured in a photo!) --


Now, the question is whether I'm going to do laundry and kids' schoolwork today, or spend a fun fun time getting wedding pictures uploaded onto the computer.

Infant Faith

In the notes on the baptismal rite, our hymnal tells us that
When the candidate is unable to speak,
sponsors may be appointed
to speak in his or her stead.

The pastor addresses the questions ("Do you renounce the devil?" ... "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" ...) to the baptismal candidate. Not to the sponsors. The sponsors are not answering the questions, although they are voicing the answers. It is the child who is answering the questions, through the voice of the sponsors.

This is not something new. This is the catholic position. This is what I've been taught all my life as a Lutheran. When I was taught in Sunday School about my baptism, the teachers told me that what happened in baptism was mine. It wasn't something done in view of a faith I would have someday. It wasn't something that belonged to my parents and thus would be my heritage too. It was my own.

Because of this, I am always astounded when I hear pastors say of children they themselves have baptized in recent months, "We don't know what this baby believes. He hasn't told us; he can't tell us."

This came up again last week in a conversation on a friend's blog. On the one hand, we say that of course infants can have faith. We say that God brings babies to faith, makes them alive in Him, and joins them to Himself, all through His grace and not through any merit of their own. Just as He does for me and for you. But the same pastors will turn around and say that we don't know what the child believes.

We say that the confession of sin and the confession of faith made in Baptism is the child's very own confession. And then we say two or three months later that we haven't heard this child's confession to be able to ascertain what he believes. Well? Which is it? It is the child's confession or is it not?

I think we don't take seriously what's going on in Baptism.

Today's Laugh

What's the recipe for a "Honeymoon Salad"?

Lettuce alone.
No dressing.

Observations

There must be something on the Y-chromosone that drives a person to vacuum the vehicle before taking it on a trip. Those without Y-chromosones tend to think that the 1-hour trip to the friend's house isn't much different than a 15-minute trip to the grocery store. And a 5-hour trip to Grandma's isn't much different from a 1-hour trip to the friend's house. At least, not when it comes to vacuuming a van. (But, hey, if he wants to vacuum periodically, I'm thrilled! That's one less thing that I've left undone for far too long!)

The President wants to require the small-print on our credit-card bills to be in larger print. If he does, if he does require this, won't the companies need more paper for the larger print? Doesn't the use of more paper mean that more trees will suffer a needless death? Isn't it ungreen to require more paper being sent to us in our monthly bills?

When we checked into the hotel last night, I noticed a line on the charge-slip that said a complimentary copy of "USA Today" would be delivered to our room each morning. If we chose to refuse this service, our bill would be credited by 75 cents per day. I asked the clerk to clarify. "So we'll save 75 cents a day if we don't get charged for the paper that I wouldn't read anyway?" He assured me, "No, ma'am. The paper is free. You don't get charged anything for the paper." I pointed out that he would charge me 75 cents less per day for the room if I chose not to get the paper. "That's right, ma'am." I decided it wasn't worth figuring out. Just knock off the 75 cents per day and keep the paper you weren't charging me for.

Guess what? A paper showed up outside our door this morning anyway. I'm not eeeeven going to try to figure this out!

Today's Laugh

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.


Sorry, Karin!
:-)

Different Approaches to Parenting: How Do the Kids Turn Out in the End

Three babies have died in the last six weeks in Milwaukee. They were sleeping with someone instead of sleeping in a crib. The city is now trying to convince families that it's unloving to let a baby sleep in bed with its mother. (If I've got the different stories straight, one died sleeping with a grandmother, and one died sleeping with a drunk mother. I haven't heard details about this week's death.) Although there are loads of people who know co-sleeping is usually a safe and healthy practice, our society has lost so much common sense that we now have people saying that it's child neglect/abuse.

And then today we hear the story of a mother who was arrested because she stopped the car, told her bickering daughters to get out, and made them walk home. Some people are aghast that a mother could put her children in such "danger" as to make them walk home. They say it's child neglect. There are other parents who think that it's child neglect to allow the kids to squabble and sass and be unrestrained in their selfishness.

Luke 24:25

Jesus said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!" And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

The Emmaus disciples had just told Jesus this fellow the events of the weekend, how the women couldn't find His body, how the women said they saw angels who'd said He was alive, how Peter and John went to the tomb and found exactly what the women had said.

And then Jesus says they are slow to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. I'd always thought He was saying, "Why didn't you believe the women? Why didn't you believe the angels? Why didn't you believe the evidence?" But that wasn't what He said. It was "Why didn't you believe the Old Testament?"

Here we've got an empty tomb. And angels passing along messages. And an ecstatic Mary who got to hug Jesus that morning, and then have the men think she was nutso. And Jesus doesn't say, "Why didn't you believe them?" No. It was "Why didn't you believe what Moses said? what David said? what Isaiah said?"

Apologetics

For the Life of the World arrived in today's mail. Most of it was, in one sense or another, connected to apologetics. One of the authors, writing on whether we can trust the gospels as historical accounts, says that Christians are not required "to presuppose the inerrancy and divine origin of the Gospels" but are invited to "examine their veracity simply as records of ancient history."

I like what the article said about how the Scriptures stand up as verifiable historical documents. But what bothers me is statements such as, "Christians who ignore such challenges [to the reliability of the Gospels] typically turn inward, relying on an existential experience with their own personal Jesus."

"Their own personal Jesus" could be a reference to some mushy, ethereal concept of some God-like essence thing. And such "turning inward" can be no comfort, no certainty, no surety at all. But often I hear similar statements which say derogatorily that Christians shouldn't have to rely on faith to "prove" the truth of the Gospels, but that we know the Gospels to be reliable because of historical cross-references and an objective view of the historical documents.

I think Christians know the Gospels are true because "sheep know the voice of their Shepherd." Yes, it's circular reasoning. But this isn't about reasoning. This is about blindness and light. This is about the deaf being cured to hear the voice of the Savior.

It is the Gospel which creates faith. Those who have been drawn to Jesus, the blind who now see, the deaf who now hear -- they trust in the Son of God, they recognize His voice, and they know the Scriptures to be true.

One summer, we saw both Othello and Cymbeline at APT. Although one is a comedy and one a tragedy, what struck me is that both stories were heavily predicated upon how easy it is for trust to be broken and how hard it is to restore trust ... and how "proofs" of trustworthiness do not ever convince the one who is doubting. Okay, now, these stories were about relationships between husbands and wives, and not about religious faith. But the premise holds true in both places.

What history tells us about the gospels will never convince someone to be a Christian. Christians already know the Scriptures to be true, simply because they know Jesus, and the Gospels are His words and His acts. So what is achieved by "proving" the historical veracity of the documents? Well, other than Christians being able to say, "Ooooooh! Way cool! This is so neat! Well, of course, it had to be..."?

Snow

Yesterday's forecast told us that we were supposed to get snow all day today. IT IS APRIL 21st! Surely it would just be snow in the air. Right? We wake up this morning to find the ground covered in white. The car windows had to be scraped. Let me repeat: it is April 21. At least the driveway was clean; the black asphalt retained enough heat to melt the snow. Can I please get some of that global warming that everybody's talking about. Please?

More Grammar, Please

Finished a page of grammar. "Shall we put that away now?"

Kid says no.

NO? Really?

"Can we do another page, Mom?"

"You want to do another page of grammar? Well, sure, it's okay with me, I guess...."

"Well, yeah, it feels really good when you're scratching my back while we do this." Ah, I see. He had an algebra assignment to do on his own without me. No wonder he wanted to keep the grammar lesson going!

Garden

We were reading John 20 for morning prayers today. It's really caught Pastor's interest this year that Magdalena mistook Jesus for the gardener. John starts his gospel with "In the beginning" and throughout the passion account we hear about the Garden of Gethsemane and the garden where Jesus was laid in the tomb and where He appeared to Mary. Adam's job was to be a gardener; Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener (the new Adam). In the Garden of Eden, the woman was the one talking to the serpent; in the garden by Golgotha, it was the woman who met Jesus. Womanhood is redeemed here.

Pastor also pointed out this morning that John saw the linen cloths in the tomb. If the body of Jesus had been stolen, the thieves would not have unwrapped the body and left the linen. It was a bloody, messy body. The fact that the burial cloths were left there corroborates the resurrection story and not the Pharisees' spin on the missing body.