Category Archives: Christianity

Wounded by God’s People

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Have you ever been mistreated or had your feelings hurt by someone at church or in a Christian homeschool group, or a dear friend or relative? How do you deal with that pain? To be more accurate, how can God help you deal with it?

Writer Anne Graham Lotz has some suggestions. I’ve read several of her books and they’ve all been good, but I especially liked Wounded by God’s People. In it, she uses the Biblical story of Hagar, the slave who Sarah urged her husband Abraham to impregnate in order to hasten God’s promise of nation-building.

Mrs. Lotz is a gifted writer, and is also very empathetic when it comes to her subjects. I learned a lot from this book, and I think others will, too. Definitely worth your time!

 

Monasteries of the Mind

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“Monasteries of the mind are an effort to reconnect with the past and disengage psychologically from the present. For millions of Americans, their music, their movies, their sports, and their media are not current fare. Instead, they have mentally moved to mountaintops or inaccessible valleys, where they can live in the past or dream of the future, but certainly not dwell in the here and now.”

Wow, Victor Davis Hanson is talking about me! I haven’t watched network television in at least ten years. I’ve been to the movies once in almost as many years. My current musical favorite is Count Basie, but on the weekends my husband and I enjoy reruns of Casey Kasem on the radio.

When I was still homeschooling, I hung out with others who also rejected much of popular culture in favor of old books, old movies and old, well, pretty much everything. But I retired from homeschooling several years ago, and left many friends behind when we moved away from the place where we raised our family. So it’s nice to be reminded that I’m not alone.

For many Christians, I think the state of the culture is a real concern. The Bible recommends that we focus on specific things:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8 KJV)

Such things are increasingly unavailable in our modern culture. That’s why we’re forced to retreat to monasteries of the mind.

One More Reason to Avoid F-Book

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I don’t like Facebook, or F-Book, as I call it. Aside from the many negatives that out-of-control social media use encourages, F-Book in particular is very biased. Case in point: this Christian homeschooling mom posted some Bible verses on her Facebook and found her account suspended.

I realize that F-Book allows you to reach more people than you could otherwise, but I just can’t abide anti-Christian or anti-conservative censorship. In fact, that’s why I left Twitter despite having over 3000 followers.

A Comforting Thought

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From the February 1 entry in Corrie ten Boom’s devotional Each New Day.

When Jesus comes back to make a new earth, the material will be ready. The first world was also made from chaos.

That’s a thought I need to keep in mind, particularly at times when the world seems really crazy, like last week when all those women marched on Washington in their pink “pussy” hats, or worse, dressed like female genitalia 🙁

(Each New Day is a great devotional, by the way, perfect if you’re pressed for time since the devotions are brief and to-the-point. I wish I’d known about it back when I was homeschooling my four kids.)