I was on a Christian moms message board recently and to make a long thread of conversation short they were talking about sin and Christians and how we deal with it. the thread lead up to this comment...

"Some christians have just lost their ability to be able to speak in ways that people would be interested in or even understand . These Bible thumpers may even know a lot of scriptures, but don't seem to understand the purpose or love behind any of them . People sometimes forget that the Bible is here to serve us and NOT the reverse . The Bible is not a club it's the good news that sets us free. God is not freaked out about "sin". Everyone falls short of their potential . He is interested in us being truly happy and he knows" sin" distracts us . GET YOUR HOPE UP because I see all around a new breed of grace filled people who know the TRUE character of God and know how to communicate the ways of wisdom to others in their actions and words."


Soooooo, I'm going to try to respond to this the way I wish I could respond on the message board. I wouldn't though because I HATE stirring stuff up on a message board. It usually gets me mad in the long run and that isn't constructive!

First of all, she makes it sound like most Christians are out of touch with reality. "Some christians have just lost their ability to be able to speak in ways that people would be interested in or even understand ." Really??? I mean I know a lot of Christians and I don't think that they're uninteresting. I have a lot of non Christian friends and they don't find it hard to understand me... I just don't find this to be a true statement. There are certainly elements of the Christian faith that are hard to understand even for mature believers, but that doesn't make those concepts any less true. Just because something is hard to understand doesn't mean we should water it down or avoid it. It means that we need to step up our efforts to understand!!! Like in school. You don't drop out because the concepts are hard, nor do the teachers water things down. Rather, we step it up and LEARN!!! Let's move on.

"These Bible thumpers may even know a lot of scriptures, but don't seem to understand the purpose or love behind any of them . " Here is an element of truth. There are plenty of people out there who love to throw Bible verses at others without the Holy Spirit behind it. We call them Pharisees. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. However, there is a prevelant thought in modern evangelical Christianity that we can't use Scripture AT ALL. Using Scripture to correct another brother or sister (or encourage them, or teach them) makes the user automically "holier than thou", pious, arrogant, and a "Bible Thumper." That's why I am so cautious of the writer's statement. If she is truly referring to those people that quote Scripture to bring on guilt,and condemnation, then sure, I agree with this statement. But... part of me wonders if she is of the pursuation that using Scripture for a purpose other than to encourage is wrong. Okay, next!

"People sometimes forget that the Bible is here to serve us and NOT the reverse ." I really want to like this statement because I think I see what she is trying to say. The Bible is God's Word for us. He gave it to us to use as a tool for our Christian walk. And, we serve God, not the Bible directly. But, the reason I can't completely love this statement is because the Bible is GOD'S WORD!! So no, we don't worship the Bible, but the Bible tells us how to worship God!!! I don't know. This is a tricky statement, I'm not sure how to react to it. I agree with it in theory, but in the context of the rest of her post I feel like I wouldn't agree with her in practice...

"The Bible is not a club it's the good news that sets us free." TRUE TRUE TRUE!!!!!!

"God is not freaked out about 'sin'." Hmmmmm, I don't like that the word "sin" is in quotation marks. What is that supposed to mean?? Is she saying sin some made up human thing that God doesn't care about? And what does it mean that "God is not freaked out" by it? He certainly hates sin. he cannot tolerate it. He can't have it in His presence. He is so "freaked out" by sin that He had to send His Son to die so that His blood could cover our sin!! I mean, if she means that God's plan is not thwarted by sin then sure, she is right, but that's not what I think she means. I tend to think that she is downplaying the severity of sin, as evidenced by her next statement.

"Everyone falls short of their potential ." Mmmmm, yes... but sin is soooooooo much more than that! Our very nature is utterly and totally depraved. DEPRAVED!!! That is so much worse than just falling short of our potential. If it was just a matter of falling short of our potential would Jesus have had to die for that??? Seriously. Sin is a serious enough matter to warrant the death of God's only Son!!!

"He is interested in us being truly happy and he knows" sin" distracts us ." Oh no, don't even get me started on all the things wrong with this statement. God is interested in us being truly happy????? No, God is interested in us worshipping Him. Only when we are doing that are we truly happy. My pastor is fond of saying "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." See, the cheif end of man is not to be happy but to glorify God! So no, God is not interested in us being truly happy unless we are truly happy in glorifying Him!! :)

"GET YOUR HOPE UP because I see all around a new breed of grace filled people who know the TRUE character of God and know how to communicate the ways of wisdom to others in their actions and words." I see a new breed of Christians as well. I just don't think we are seeing the same ones. I hope she is referring to Christians who speak the truth in love, the key here being speaking the truth!! Unfortuantely too many Christians speak love and eliminate truth. Speaking the truth in love is hard to do, but is so much better than eliminating the truth in favor of speaking only love. People need the truth whether they are believers or not. The Bible truly is the Good News that sets us free from sin and death! The truth of God is beautiful! Why wouldn't we want to speak it!? Don't be a Christian who discards the beautiful truth of God for a cheap immitation of happiness in this life!!

So anyway, I guess that's how I would respond to her if I could. I'm curious of course what you all think so feel free to post comments!

Beginning of Summer

Today it's hot outside. I'm talking 93 degrees hot!!! The lawn mowers are running in the neighborhood, and you can hear people outside. You can smell the grills, and the fresh cut grass and the breeze is just perfect! It's summer outside today! Now this is Minnesota, so by the end of this week it could be cool again, but today, it's summer!

Hitting Home

The apartment complex dropped off our lease renewal form yesterday. We have until May 31st to either renew our lease or turn in our written notice of intent to vacate. We have to be out by July 31st. We simply cannot afford to stay here. I wanted to be candid about the emotions I have concerning this move. I hope I don't come off wrong. But, here goes nothing...

I'm sad. I LOVE our apartment. It has become home to me over the past two years. It is the first place Nathan and I have lived that didn't have an end date on it. We brought our child home to this apartment. I love the location, and the neighborhood. I love the suburb we live in, it is clean and safe and you never here of people getting murdered here even though we live in a very diverse area. It's great! We live across the street from the mall, within walking distance of a beautiful park with an awesome walking path, and within minutes of anything you could ask for! So I am incredibly sad to leave all this behind.

I am angry. Sort of. Moving was not on my agenda this year. I feel like I've just gotten the hang of this balance of being a mother and taking care of the house, and now I'm being uprooted. I knew we would not be staying in this apartment forever, but I always envisioned our next move being to a house where we would be for the next good long chunk of time. Now we are going to be moving to another apartment, and it will not be half as nice as the one we live in now. We have to cut the rent cost by several hundred dollars, and the way to do that is to get a smaller, not as nice apartment somewhere else. We are looking at another suburb. This one is okay, but not really as nice as the one we live in now. The apartment complex we are looking at is not within walking distance of anything. The ones that are, are too expensive. It is next door practically to the transit station... gotta love the smell and sound of buses in the morning. This is a suburb where people have recently been murdered... not too far from where we would be living. (Don't get me wrong it's not a totally dangerous area, it's just not as nice as where we live now. You would be hard pressed to find a suburb where there hasn't been violence! :)) Basically we are looking at a step backwards and I don't like that.

I am worried. I don't want to keep moving from temporary housing to temporary housing. It starts to get pointless after a while, and at some point you have to stop uprooting your family, especially your older children. I don't want to always think of where we are living as a temporary deal, but I don't want to be in this apartment for very long. I want to buy a house as soon as possible, so it's hard not to think that way. I am worried that we might never settle down somewhere. I am worried about Derek's schooling (even though I know it's way early. I never said these worries were rational!) The schools in the area we are moving to are not the greatest. We would be left with the option of private school or homeschool, and since I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to afford tuition at a private school, I would be forced to homeschool, which to be honest, I'm not sure I want to do. There's a lot of pressure in Christian circles to homeschool, and I'm not sure I would be good at it. (That's another blog post entirely! Haha!) Again, not that these worries are all rational at this point in time, I'm just being candid about how I'm feeling. I'm worried about going back to work. I'm going to have to go back to work part time at some point, and I don't want to. There aren't very many part time jobs out there that aren't retail and I do not want to go back to retail. I may not have a choice but I can't think of anything worse than going back into retail to be a sales associate at some store after being a manager for so long. I don't know, then there's the issue of childcare. What do I do with Derek while I'm working? My mom works part time, and it's pointless to pay for childcare when I'm only going to be making enough to cover that cost anyway. Then all I'm doing is throwing my paycheck at childcare. Right now my only option is to try to work my schedule around my mother's and hope that at some point I will be able to see my husband.

So anyway, that's where I'm at. I feel so bad because this is not where I want to be. I want to be thankful that we have the means to afford any roof over our heads! I want to be thankful that we don't have to move in with my parents. I want to be thankful that Nathan has a stable job even if it doesn't pay alot. I want to be thankful that my mom is willing to watch Derek for free. But I'm not any of those things right now. I guess I'm just not there yet. Maybe you all could pray for me that God will change my heart to have the right attitude about this. :)

Please continue to Pray for this family

I posted about a week ago a link to Kayleigh's Story and asked for prayer for that family as they battled for their baby girl's life. She went to be with Jesus on May 11th. Please keep this family in prayer. My life would be shattered if I ever lost Derek, and my heart is going out to them. Please continue to remember them in prayer.

http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com

Welcome Isaiah!!

Congratulations to Eric and Jessi on the birth of their son Isaiah Levi on May 1st at 9am!!! He is totally precious!!

Curiosity

I am wondering, to all that read this, what do you think of those backpack leash/harnesses for young kids? My younger sister was horrified when I registered for one, and I have read a lot of negative feedback on mom message boards about them, but in my opinion a toddler who is ready to explore will not be happy sitting restrained in a stroller. Nor do I think they should be restrained in a stroller all the time. I have a good friend whose 2 year old refuses to hold her hand in public places. She screams, pulls, twists, and sometimes even bites to get away. Now I acknowlege (as does my friend) that this is a behavioral issue, but this little girl is completely well behaved if she's allowed to walk on her own and be free. Toddlers are learning that there is a big wide world out there, and they want to see it, and they are not able to comprehend the idea that there are people out there who might take them or hurt them so they should stick close to mom or dad. Toddlers live in the moment without thinking of the future or the past. If you have a toddler you understand this in that you have to constantly repeat every instruction. Even if it's something they do everyday. While sitting at a restaurant with my husband's family, my sister in law had to remind my 2 1/2 year old nephew several times that if he needed help, rather than screaming, he needed to use his words and ask for help. They had the same conversation 20 times!! She would say "Caleb do you need help?" He would answer, "yeah." She would reply, "Then you need to say 'help me Mommy'." He would say "help me Mommy." Then she would help him with what he needed. Because of their short attention spans and instant gratification way of thinking, it can be a difficult process to train a toddler to stay close enough to you in a public place to let them walk by themselves. It would seem to me that a harness/leash would be a good alternative. It would give them a certain measure of freedom without jeapordizing their safety. That's just how it seems to me. People use the argument "they're kids, not dogs!" but I don't think you use a leash because you have the intent of treating your kid like a dog. If you think about it, why do you put a leash on your dog? You put a leash on a dog you do it to keep your dog close to you, and to keep the dog safe (preventing him/her from chasing cars, running away etc.) and to keep those around you safe (preventing the dog from jumping, biting etc.). The same goes for your child. You might use a leash to keep your child close to you, and to keep him/her safe. I don't know, it just seems like a pretty controversial thing, and people really look down on those who choose to use them. So, I am asking for feedback from people who read this blog. To leash or not to leash??? :)

Please Pray!!!

Please pray for this family and their precious little baby girl!!!

http://www.kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com

Welcome Baby Yosef!

A good friend of mine posts shout outs to her friends babies on her blog, and I really like that, so I'm going to start doing it here!!

Yosef Micaiah was born on April 25th weighing 7lbs. 2 oz. His happy parents are Andy and Sarah!! Congratulations you guys!!!!