Dear God, please help mommy not be grumpy. Amen.
My danger time is the hour preceding lunch. Inevitably, my tone sharpens and my fuse ignites. When I get hungry, I get angry. Its that simple. My husband has chided me many a time to control my irritability regardless of the low blood sugar enrage attack. But, that’s better nagged than done. So I started stocking my purse with small snacks to ward off the rage rumbling in my empty stomach. But now that we have small children in the mix, I’ve begun to overlook the discipline of eating.
A discipline is something we consistently and persistently practice to make it easier for us to behave right. We each have sinful, sore spots. Areas we are weak in. Mine is a cranky, grumpy attitude. I can filter this sour outlook with self-control up until I go too long without eating. So, I must discipline snacks to keep the grumpy momma away.
Prayer helps too. I’ve started asking my four-year-old to pray that mommy will not act grumpy, but kind. She does, and with little encouragement. Even at unexpected times. We were playing a card game one evening and she was complaining her stomach hurt.
I said, “Why don’t we pray it will feel better?”
She bowed and prayed, “Dear God, please help my tummy not be grumpy and mommy too. Amen.”
My husband, who was sitting on the couch began to giggle. “She prays that prayer often, does she?”
I am ashamed to admit, she does. Now, off to eat a granola bar!
Just wanted you to know…
How often do you use these five little words? I’ve begun to hate them. Rarely do they signal incoming encouragement or a kind intent. Think about it. If someone wants you to know something for no better reason than that they WANT you to know, do you think it something that you should actually know? Chances are a bit of gossip or meddling is soon to follow. Please stop and think, do I really NEED to know? If not, please keep it to yourself or take it to the person who should know instead of me. Its amazing how little information we actually need to live a quiet, godly life.
Now if you just wanted me to know that you think I am doing a great job at being Awana commander or a Bible teacher or a counselor or even as a mom, then speak away!
Ranting accomplished. God bless.
The Dysfuntional Family of David (Part 1)
I smirk every time I hear an older person bemoan, “What is this world coming to?” Common opinion is that the world is getting worse. As a history dabbler, I disagree. People are people, and their sins are no more harmful to those around them than they ever have been. There are more of us now, so I guess you could argue the amount of sins has increased, but the individual is no more, no less warped or wicked than 100 or even 10,000 years ago.
Dysfunction has a history
Take the dysfunctional family. Pop culture has made a joke out of this abusive and painful lifestyle through shows such as Malcom in the Middle and the Simpsons. We are hooked on soaps dramatizing the lust and power struggles in families. Some believe our entertainment reflects the disintegration of the nuclear family; from the Cleavers to the Osbournes. Whether this is the case or not, this idealism that families are moving from good to bad, warps the reality that families have always been screwed up, and turns us into little critics instead of little Christs. It also blinds us to the numerous Biblical examples of dysfunctional families and the insight we can gain to help others (or ourselves) in similar circumstances.
One such case is the family of David.
Honestly, any man married to more than one woman is bound to have troubles. Take a look at David’s brides.
- Michal, the second daughter of King Saul
- Ahinoam of Jezreel
- Abigail, previously wife of the evil Nabal
- Maachah
- Haggith
- Abital
- Eglah
- Bathsheba, previously the wife of Uriah the Hittite
Royal wives in ancient times were like modern day lobbyists. Women were traded for political gain. When a king took a new wife, it was usually to seal the deal on a new policy or foreign agreement. She was given as guarantee that the king continued his interests with her family and collateral against her family betraying the king.
God did not forbid polygamy in the Old Testament. But, when it came to the king, God did say he was to not have many wives so that his heart would not be turned from God’s law. Israel’s kings were to be different than other kings in their era. God wanted a complete loyalty from the king that multiple wives and the policies behind them would challenge.
David disobeyed God by conforming to the cultural norm of taking numerous wives. This is the first factor contributing to his family woes.
What cultural norms surrounding marriage do we follow in disregard to God’s well-intented commands?
Comment away!
Bob Jones University, No apology necessary?
I signed a petition.
That is rare for me. Hopefully, it proves how deeply I believe Bob Jones University needs to make a very public, very humble apology for its “die hard, squirrely” racial purity beliefs and practices. Many black and Asian students have been hurt, embarrassed and shunned because of the school’s firmly-held, wrongly-held, unapologetic “principle” of racial separation.
Why this issue?
There are many areas I do not agree with the University on, but this issue is so well-known, I am loathe to claim Bob Jones as alma mater.
“Where did you go to college?” I am asked.
I smile faintly and try not to make eye contact as I answer, “A Christian college in South Carolina.”
“Oh yeah? Which one?”
Another grimace. “Bob Jones.” I brace myself for the inevitable…even here on the West Coast.
“Aren’t they the ones that were sued because they wouldn’t let black students attend?”
I mumble in affirmative and say blacks can now attend and the ban on interracial dating was lifted in 2000 in a public interview with Larry King. This should not be what a Christian institution is known for in the unbelieving world, as Dr. Bob 3 concurred with in his interview the day he lifted the rule.
JONES: I don’t think it’s taking it too far, but I can tell you this, we don’t have to have that rule. In fact, as of today, we have dropped the rule. We have dropped the rule for this reason.
KING: Today?
JONES: Today. I met with the administrators this afternoon before coming here. But let me tell you why we dropped it. We don’t want this to be a — here is a great institution, one of the premier academic institutions in America, one of the premier Christian colleges of America. We have a broader testimony. And if all anybody can see is this rule, which we never talk about or preach, which most of our students couldn’t even tell you what it is. It is that unimportant to us.
I said to our administration, you know, guys, this thing is of such insignificance to us, it is so significant to the world at large, the media particularly, why should we have this here as an obstacle? It hurts our graduates, we love our graduates greatly, it hurts maybe the church, as well. I don’t want to hurt the church of Jesus Christ.
KING: It’s ended?
JONES: It is ended, and I want it to be very clear why it has ended. Our concern for the cause of Christ, our concern for our graduates, our concern for our testimony, our concern for the school’s broader usefulness is greater to us than a rule that we never talk about and that is meaningless to us. The principle upon which it’s based is very, very important.
JONES: The only gain I want is for everybody to understand that the liberals were all wrong when they said we were racist. They wall [are] wrong when they looked at our rule and drew a conclusion about us that was so unflattering and so untrue. I just want to, you know, take this club out of their hand. That’s the only thing I want to do.
My fellow grads at PleaseReconcile.org have done a super job and detailing the controversy. They plan to send the letter and signatures on November 19, 2008 asking Stephen Jones, on behalf of the University, to formally and publicly apologize for its wrong position and past policies concerning racial separation. I hope that it may increase the reputation the University has suffered from for the last 35 years, and if Dr. Jones is concerned about the graduates, their testimony and their broader usefulness to the cause of Christ, how could a public apology hurt?
Have you attended Bob Jones University? Would you consider visiting the site and adding your name with my own?
Stumble It!
