considerable grace

Incredibly sad. Sobering. A call to prayer and action!

Teens and P*rn: Ten Stats You Need to Know

Sophia and Fred had to leave very early this morning for Sophie’s service opportunity. She had to wear all black for the occasion. Don’t you think she looks like a little beatnik?



And isn’t it hard to believe that only one week ago, I could never have taken that photo because, unlike our 50 degree weather this morning, last week we had a minus 35 degree windchill during a big snowstorm? (Oh. And so I allowed Sophia to go outside at 9PM to make slushies and enjoy the quietness of nighttime snow.)



Fred the snow sculptor had fun with the girls the next day ...



And Fred the fort-builder continued the fun over the weekend ...



Hope your week has been going well too!

Blessings,
Tara B.

We are all enjoying Fred’s reading for us each evening:

John Stott’s “Through the Bible, Through the Year: Daily Reflections from Genesis to Revelation”

Tonight, we go to bed with these verses in our hearts:

"Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:30-31

Is anyone else having a hard time jumping into big tasks on this Monday morning? Sophie and I have the strongest urge to climb back into bed and pull the covers over our heads. Alas, life calls.

But not before I started my day laughing over a very funny one minute video from when Sophia was just a tiny squirt:



Is this really the same child who is going to serve through music by going around to the public schools Wednesday and Thursday playing the Vivaldi Violin Concerto in A minor to help a small group of musicians advertise the Billings Symphony Orchestra’s Free Family Concert this weekend? Time. Just. Flies.

Have you ever looked around your life and seen so many people "truly" suffering that you are tempted to minimize your own? Doesn’t it sometimes feel selfish and self-indulgent to weep over your (small amount of) pain when there are people “out there” who are REALLY experiencing TRUE pain?

I struggle with this propensity myself and I hear it in the voices of women at events coast-to-coast too. One of the truths I try to remember to believe myself—and I remind women of over and over again is that pain is pain, suffering is real. To restate an old poem:

Yes. We can cry over the man who has no feet, but it is also hard to walk over pointy rocks and broken glass when you have no shoes.

Of course, we want to keep all suffering in eternal perspective. This life is our one opportunity to suffer with our Elder Brother, and so we fight for the faith to be content, even in the valleys of darkness and weeping. But that doesn’t mean we don’t weep.

Ed Welch says all of this much better than me:

No More Minimizing Pain

Throughout this last week, I’ve had a number of really awful things I’ve done in the past just JUMP on me. I’ve physically cringed (and sometimes cried out a silent, “I can’t believe I did that!”) when I’ve thought of what I’ve done.

So I thought it was a good time to review Ed Welch’s article and try to lay hold of these truths that I really do claim to believe:

Feeling Guilty? Who Doesn’t?

Another big thank you to random.org—Ann won the Nancy Leigh DeMoss book. Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun. I really enjoyed hearing from you!

Sophia and I are just back from Latin / Grammar / Literature and now I’m going to put some laundry away while enjoying the nummy smells from the kitchen. Fred is making Rachael Ray’s chicken cacciatore. It’s totally making me think of Enzos.

Hope your Friday was a blessed one!

Your friend,
Tara B.

Today is the last day to enter our family’s drawing for the (great!) Nancy Leigh DeMoss book, “Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness.” Just go to this post and leave your name to enter:

Enter Here to Win the Nancy Leigh DeMoss Book

If I weren’t so tired, I would’ve found it a little funny that my really bad night of insomnia apparently was punctuated by some brief times of REM sleep, because then I had nightmares about being awake with insomnia. Pathetic!

But such is life. I keep thinking of the end of the last session of my Fear Not! retreat:

Sleep in Peace—God is Awake!
“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.” Psalm 16:8-9

If only my subconscious mind would get the message ...

Well ... time to kick it into gear on the ol' 2011 family photo album! Picaboo is having their annual buy-one-get-one-free sale and that’s when I like to crank out our album and then print two copies for the girls to have when they grow up and leave home.

I have the entire year organized and ready to go. It’s just a matter of plopping it all together and adding in the backgrounds, captions, etc. A yearly scrapbook in a weekend (while hanging with the family)—that’s my yearly goal. I hope I can get 'er done.

(BTW—the sale code is WINTERBG.)

I thought it was particularly well-timed that we would be studying the Salem witch trials in history on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It gave us yet another great time to discuss some of the parts of our (wonderful!) country’s history that are dark and difficult to recognize.

How grateful I am for the courage and sacrifice of the men and women of the civil rights movement.

One of the many things I am grateful for re: my childhood is that my parents taught me to stand when introduced to someone; to look them in the eye and repeat their name back. ("It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jones.")

They also taught me that adults should be referred to by title, unless they invited me to use their first names (my godmother was “Anne”—one of the very first adults I ever called by their first name) or by a nickname ("Auntie Dianne").

I try to continue this teaching with my girls, especially as regards adults with titles: Dr., Professor, Pastor, Congressman. Yes. That’s actually the reason for this post. I noticed that our congressman, Denny Rehberg, was inches away from me Saturday night at the performance of “The Little Mermaid” and I wondered if I would have a chance to say hello. (He is very friendly and we often bump into each other on Delta flights.) I would never chit-chat with him (poor man), but I would give him a friendly hello and I would address him as Congressman Rehberg. I emphasize this because I was amazed at how many people just casually referred to him as “Denny.” In a way, that’s great. Folksy. Small town. Very Montana. But in another way, I think that there is something very good about acknowledging the office that governmental officials hold. Madam Justice. Mr. Mayor. The Honorable ...

Do I always agree with the positions these people hold? Of course not. Do I pray, give, discuss, and vote? You bet. But I also try to honor the office.

We teach our children about God’s authority, and the family, and the church, and the state. We would address formal letters in the appropriate way if we were writing them. I hope we demonstrate respect for all of these authority structures in our conversations and in our personal introductions too.

Sophia asked me to go to all of her performances of “The Little Mermaid” and since she just turned eight, I said, “No problem.” It sure seemed like a reasonable request, especially given all of the newness of performing a live show seven times in a row for hundreds of people each day. So there I sat, very happily, grinning, crying, loving it all. (Well, except for the CRYING BABY who ruined over half of the show Saturday night. It took everything in me to not micromanage the situation and ask that person to leave.)

Musicals are so fun and these kids left it all out on the stage. I was so proud of them and so grateful for the Billings Studio Theater and especially the director, Miss Wendy. I was also extremely grateful for our “adopted” (spiritual) grandparents and aunties who came to support Sophie in her (tiny little) chorus role.

Here’s a peek into what’s taken a lot of my time over the last few days ...



(Sophie’s in the back row in this very brief video ...)

I’ve had a fun morning of “purchasing” (for $0) and downloading many of my free resources for being a "friend of the blog" for Challies.com. We’re not sure if I can continue my members this year (financial reasons), but I truly encourage you all to join. It’s a great deal! Not just for the free resources, but also to support a blogger that is a true blessing to so many.

Time to update my LibraryThing with:

- Heidi

- Tim Keller’s Ministries of Mercy

- Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft

Plus music too!

(I receive no financial benefit from recommending this to you. I just hope it’s a) a blessing to Mr. Challies and b) a blessing to you.)

Hope your Saturday is a great one! Sophia has four shows of “The Little Mermaid” in two days, so I know she is going to be SO tired. But the shows are wonderful... I laughed. I cried. It was better than Cats. OK, maybe not really. But maybe so! There’s something about seeing friends from church and your own (not so little anymore) daughter on stage, giving it there all, that I think is just wonderful. I love musicals! And I love these children.

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.