Category: Life

(Moving from spring images to summer ones… I don’t know about where you are, but it was 97 degrees here last week!)

Speaking of, John Piper reminds us to think rightly about summer.

“You are immortal until your work is done” has always been one of my favorite maxims on the sovereignty of God. Fabs writes about famous Christian last words.

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about Ann Voskamp’s bestseller One Thousand Gifts (and some of the controversy that surrounds it). This review about its romantic panentheism is the best and most comprehensive I’ve read. (Found through Everyday Mommy’s blog, where she’s also conducted some great biblical discussion of the book.)

Tim Challies is resurrecting Reading Classics Together, and in June we’ll begin Christianity and Liberalism {Amazon Affiliate link}. Looking forward to it!

It was with sadness last week that I read Presbyterians (PCUSA) have removed celibacy as a requirement for single pastors. I wonder how they think “submitting joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life” allows for this. More here, like “Those attempts to invent new morality look for me like attempts to invent a new religion — a sort of modern paganism.”

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Seth Godin talks about the future of libraries. I agree–mostly– and think the Orange County Library System is doing a great job moving forward. I sure hope they keep all those “dead books”, though!

Continuing a thread of recent posts, over on Front Porch Republic Mark Mitchell writes about the attributes of a gentleman. I hadn’t thought about it before, but among several interesting points he notes that the concept of a gentleman only appears in Christian societies. (That makes sense.)

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I’m looking forward to a week where I can reset my clock a little bit and gather my scattered thoughts. The weekend, Lord willing, brings in sweet time with friends and a beautiful violin recital at Saint Andrew’s.

 

Today is the National Day of Prayer, with the theme A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

The new classic A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller {Amazon Affiliate link} is available on Kindle for a limited time for free!

Tim Challies is restarting his Reading Classics Together book club on his blog. If you’d like to be involved and have a Christian classic you’ve always meant to read (or one worth reading again), make sure to suggest it in the comments on his post.

It’s recently been announced that the C. S. Lewis classic The Great Divorce will be made into a film.

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My mom is featured as a homeschooling success story on the FPEA website! 🙂

Did you see friends posting the quote “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy” attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. after the death of Bin Laden? Dr. King never said that, as explained in this article on the anatomy of a fake quotation.

My friend Kate and I went to see Atlas Shrugged on Friday, and were amazed we’d seen the same movie as the critics lambasting it. Really. Go see it.

If you weren’t at the George McPhee organ concert on Sunday you missed something really special. All the concerts in the Fine Arts at Saint Andrew’s series have been spectacular. You won’t want to miss any more, so mark these dates on your calendar for the rest of 2011 (and Like us on Facebook while you’re at it)!

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Finally, Mother’s Day is this Sunday. If that takes you by surprise, why not give Mom an Amazon gift card? {Amazon Affiliate link} Let’s face it: you’re running out of time!

 

You can hardly escape coupon-mania due to all the buzz around the TLC show Extreme Couponing. Those stockpiles are a little nuts, but if you’re like me you’re also a little jealous (guilty?) they’re getting household necessities for next to nothing (or in fact nothing)! I don’t know about you, but I don’t have 60 hours  a week to devote to couponing or a spare room to serve as storage facility. Still, it seemed like there were some sound principles at the core of the extremity. I don’t need 250 deoderants just because they’re $.10, but can I get five or six?
A friend pointed me to the awesome site SouthernSavers.com, where someone does the legwork for you! There are lists of deals by store or product type; by under-$1 items and good-stock-up-price lists. You can make printable shopping lists by store right from the lists she gives. All for free!

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Chris Brogan wrote about storefronts, where he discusses how digital marketing coincides with traditional retail sales tactics. A great post to share with those who still don’t understand why they should market online. He also wrote a very practical list of tips for flying. He sounds like me at the airport, which makes me feel good! I can’t think of a tip to add, except to suggest that you buy a Kindle {Amazon Affiliate link}. 🙂

Seth Godin makes a poignant point on the way our economy is changing as a whole:

It takes a long time for a generation to come around to significant revolutionary change. The newspaper business, the steel business, law firms, the car business, the record business, even computers… one by one, our industries are being turned upside down, and so quickly that it requires us to change faster than we’d like.

It’s unpleasant, it’s not fair, but it’s all we’ve got. The sooner we realize that the world has changed, the sooner we can accept it and make something of what we’ve got. Whining isn’t a scalable solution.

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“If you really believe that those who don’t have faith in God will burn in hell for eternity, how much do you have to hate someone not to share the gospel with them?” An atheist (Penn Gillette) tells the story of a man who gave him a Bible.

Gene Veith discusses how a group of atheists is trying to get a chaplain approved for the military. I’m all for it. We already have Buddhist, Muslim, and other types of chaplains. Of course atheism is a religion. Faith in “chance” (the Big Bang, etc.) is definitely a religion. I’d much rather them be recognized this way than always trying to pretend (like in the school system) atheism is the lack of a religion when in fact it probably requires more faith than the rest of them put together.

Jennette Fulda wrote a great review of Wendy McClure’s new book The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie {Amazon Affiliate link}:

Know that those places you visit might seem smaller because you’ve become bigger. Sometimes you have to go there, though. Sometimes you need to know where you came from so you can better see where you are and who you love.

The CHOW blog did a great post on the recipes found in a handwritten cookbook from 1889.

Gene Veith posted some of a piece Sally Kohn wrote in the Washington Post. He sums it up:

She concludes that the problem is that liberals are just basically good tolerant people, while conservatives are mean.  Liberals, she argues, need to stop being tolerant of conservatives.

The rest of this week will be posts related to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. The Resurgence blog tells some of the history behind our traditions– Since When Did Bunnies Have Eggs?

 

“If I was really exploiting my singleness for the glory of God…  I think every minute of my day would be utilized and spent so that there is literally no time in my schedule for a family.  I think that’s biblical. I  don’t think there should be room in my schedule for a family until I have a family.  God doesn’t need me to hold open ‘time slots’ for things that aren’t mine.  He calls me to spend myself for His kingdom.” Fabs writes about 2 things she learned from scheduling her life.

Ever wonder how “word of mouth” works exactly or why opportunities don’t seem to pan out for you? FB writes about her sister’s paint job and how you might be letting money slip through your fingers.

Seth Godin makes the point that “There are some significant misunderstandings about failure. A common one, similar to one we seem to have about death, is that if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen,” in his post on how to fail.

On Front Porch Republic, James Matthew Wilson discusses one of my favorites, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, in History’s Long Road to Tyranny: Tocqueville and the End of Equality.

The NPR Books blog had an absolutely atrocious post this week, dripping with contempt, on Ayn Rand (inspired by the movie coming out this weekend). I’m not going to link to it as it was rather sickening but if you’d like to read it, I’m sure you can find it!
They did have a few good things this week, though – a post on My Antonia reminiscent of  my ‘forgotten books’ concept (incidentally, I re-read My Antonia last year after not having read it since 6th grade and had many of the same impressions), and a funny but true endorsement of libraries. I mean, do you know how awesome libraries are? 🙂

Edit: Thanks to Italian Food Forever I just won a bottle of 15-year aged ($60) Lodovico Campari Balsamic Vinegar!

This week Tim Challies’ new book on Christians and technology came out. I’m more than halfway through already (on my Kindle!) and highly recommend it, especially to those who are either overly suspicious or overly trusting of new methods and gadgets.
He also wrote a great post reminding us why Christians should read in the mainstream.

Wendy Alsup writes a very encouraging post on the Desiring God blog for when the Proverbs 31 woman seems hopelessly out of reach.

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Very much in the line of a link I posted a while back, Gene Veith shared this post on why we need Jane Austen.

I feel like everyone should know how to pack a suitcase, but I get “How do you DO that?!” often enough that it’s worth linking up: How to pack your suitcase as efficiently as a flight attendant. There is no reason you can’t pack 7-10 days’ worth of clothes in a carry-on bag.

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Don’t forget: this weekend is Spring Fever in the Garden in downtown Winter Garden, FL. These pictures should encourage you to go! (Plus, 4 Rivers just opened a second–larger– location in Winter Garden.)