Finished: The Possessed

What a terribly depressing book! I loved it! However, because pretty much everyone dies in the end, I've decided to not rename my children things like "Kirilov" and "Stepan Verkhovensky". The back cover sums up the book quite well: "...the young men...combine fanaticism, treachery and self-contradiction to incite an entire town to pillage, arson and slaughter." Premise: man creates chaos to match his tortured soul.

Thank God (literally) for Christ.

The Possessed, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

So Cavalier About Sin?

There are two bakeries that I pass relatively frequently: Sinfully Delicious and Sinful Delights. I find the names distracting. They do not entice me to purchase their goods at all.

The names' purposes are to allure and entice...to get you into the shop and purchase supposedly delicious baked goods. It is ok to name the stores this because it's a lie? It isn't really a sin to eat them, therefore, you can call it sinful? But then, isn't the lie a sin?

Why aren't casinos named things like "Spending in Sin" and whorehouses named "Sin and Stuff"? Why do baked goods qualify to have sin in their titles, and it's ok?

This is more a random thought...perhaps I'm overreacting a bit. But there should be great caution in how we utilize the English language. How many times (and I hear it over and over again) have you heard the phrase, "That's such a sin", but it's not referring to sin at all?

Our world does not recoginize the evil and destructive nature of the sin that dwells in us.

The Tongue

I was encouraged, edified and admonished (sorry, couldn't come up with another "e" word) by this post this morning.

A Beating Heart

As I draw closer to my midwife appointment, more and more anxiety sets in. I say to myself, "If only I could just hear the heart beat again. Then my fears will be stilled."

It occurs to me that the same thing occurs when feelings of doubt and questioning rise up within me about my spiritual life. If only I could sense that my heart was right...if only I could hear my heart beat.

Doubt and anxiety are rebellious irrational things. They rise up out of our hearts when logic defies them.

So this is why I can sing:

I lay my wants on Jesus; all fulness dwells in him;
he heals all my diseases, he doth my soul redeem:
I lay my griefs on Jesus, my burdens and my cares;
he from them all releases, he all my sorrows shares.

I rest my soul on Jesus, this weary soul of mine;
his right hand me embraces, I on his breast recline.
I love the name of Jesus, Immanuel, Christ the Lord;
like fragrance on the breezes his name abroad is poured.

stanzas 2 and 3, I Lay My Sins On Jesus, Horatius Bonar

Cultivating Thankfulness

As we teach our children to pray, we begin with simple thoughts of thanks. "Thank you for food. Thank you for dad. Thank you for peanut butter sandwiches."

I've noticed a habit in both of my older children that they continue to pray in thanks for requests. "We thank you that you would get Aunt Kristen home safely." "We thank you that you would help me sleep without a bad dream."

Perhaps it isn't quite intentional on their part, but I've learned a bit of anticipating the goodness of God in requests when they pray like that.