A few weeks ago I finished John Piper's newest book, Spectacular Sins. When I first saw the title on his blog I was taken aback. Spectacular sins? I had never quite heard of sin being referred to as spectacular. But - it was a spectacular book on how God is glorified and his will is accomplished through the BIG SINS of biblical characters like Judas, Saul (Old Testament), and Joseph's brothers. It resonated with me because on a smaller scale I believe God accomplishes his purposes in my life and the lives of those associated with me through my failings, mistakes, and sins.I had come to this understanding awhile back and was oddly comforted by it. This book brought home that point even more. There's a lot more I could say about it, but I recommend you just read it. Awesome and inspiring! Currently I'm reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because I'm leading Elena's book group for her history and literature curriculum ( Starting Poin...
Commencement exercises for Elena's high school graduation were rapidly approaching. She was studying for her final exams as talk about graduation ceremonies was making its way to my awareness: location, tickets, letters and official calls from school about the details regarding time, clothing requirements, seating specifics, etc. And this announcement from Elena: "So, I was chosen to wear a white robe because I'm in the top 10 of my class, but I'm not going to." Then she elaborated about how she didn't feel she deserved that special designation because in her words she "hadn't earned it." My reaction: !!!....HUH??!!??!! Tim and I so proud of our graduate "Mom, they don't weight the grades." (That is, a student earning a "B" in an Advanced Placement college level English class would have the same GPA as a student earning a "B" in a regular English class. No acknowledgement would be g...
"We're going to follow the policies from the Church manual with this situation." Those were the words I had been waiting to hear for almost 8 months now. In fact, when I spoke with my pastor at the church I was attending, that was my question to him: how does the church handle these kinds of things? He didn't have an answer for me - but he should have. It's written in the policy manual for the church. Those policies are detailed and specific. They are quite stringent and they are fair . That is, they are based on biblical guidelines which are the wisdom and provision of God for grace and protection in ALL matters. She herself was rather cold and matter-of-fact, which is perfect for how she needs to be to approach this issue. She asked about the long time which had passed - more than two years - and I felt ashamed and discouraged at what felt like a criticism and an unspoken question: "Why did you wait so long to report it?" She didn't say...
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