Archives: Christianity

Sometimes I miss the beauty, familiarity, and...

Sometimes I miss the beauty, familiarity, and participatory nature of Mass. When I don't know the reponses, I feel like I've lost a little of my...

Just left Mass for great-aunt's funeral. Mass...

Just left Mass for great-aunt's funeral. Mass was beautiful. Christ the Redeemer is a gorgeous church...

So blessed at C3: a church we miss when we...

So blessed at C3: a church we miss when we aren't there, people who care if we show up (enough to pick up 6 of us 2 mos. straight!) & close to...

Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. But...

Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. But do we go too far if we love others MORE THAN ourselves, without concern for our own needs? Jesus also said to love one another as He has loved us -- said this right after He lowered Himself to wash His disciples' feet and right before He gave His life on the cross. Is it even possible to love more than He...

Poor Aisling. She got up this morning, put on a...

Poor Aisling. She got up this morning, put on a pretty dress and church shoes, and thought that meant we'd go to church. She was so disappointed to learn today is...

Sermon this morning was Psa 88. I can so...

Sermon this morning was Psa 88. I can so empathize. Started crying in church, but in a good...

feels very grateful for friends, especially those...

feels very grateful for friends, especially those who allow God to work through them. Mark S. Queen, I started to mention this but got interrupted, but on the way to church the kids and I were praying we'd have enough gas to get there and back. You answered that...

I am happy I got up in time for church. I love C3...

I am happy I got up in time for church. I love C3 -- the people feel familiar and Jeff reminds me of Jeffrey. I want to warn everyone right now, though, I am bound and determined to come to church every week, rain or shine. So if my kids show up in torn jeans, realize that it's not that we don't own any good clothes, it's just me refusing to let Satan keep us stuck at home again. Hey, they are CLEAN torn...

I was lazy, not selfless

I have a bit of a theological problem with the modern insistence on "me time / mommy time," that you have to spend time taking care of yourself in order to be able to take care of others. The Bible says that we should put God first (Matthew 6:33 and 22:37), then others (Philippians 2:3), and self last (Luke 9:23 and 14:26). If you put Matthew 6:33 in context, reading all the way from Matthew 6:30-6:34, you see God's assurance that if we follow His order and don't worry about ourselves, He...

Automatic Preview of Bible References

This morning during breakfast Bible time the subject of the twelve tribes of Israel came up. Since I knew there was more to the subject than I could explain off the top of my head, I went to look it up online. I found my answers, and something even more interesting: a nifty blog tool called RefTagger. I've mentioned before how I wrote myself a little tag to automatically link Bible references to Bible Gateway. All I have to do is wrap any reference with [bible] and [/bible], and my blog...

Breakfast

The title has a double meaning: on the one hand I am breaking my two month long fast from this blog, and on the other hand I plan to actually talk about the morning meal. Sorry about that, BTW. I don't even remember the last time I wrote here, so let me start from the beginning. On January 27th, Mark was laid off from his job. Not only was it a blow financially (hard to raise seven kids on zero income), but Mark loved his job and his co-workers. And, because I am the loving, supportive...

Show A Random Bible Verse On Your Website

var stylenum='1';var versionid1='5';var bstyle1='none';var bwidth1='4px';var bcolor1='000000';var bpadding1='0px';var bgcolor1='transparent';Powered By The Christian Gift Ok, the developer for this script, Jason Del Giudice, emailed me a very long time ago (in October!! eek!) and I promised to give it a shot, but like a jerk I let it languish at the bottom of my email box for months. When I finally clicked over to the website I was very impressed. Look at how pretty it is! Jason says he...

Abstinence Isn't the Answer...

To continue the discussion on teen pregnancy... Here's an article by Karen of Be Still My Soul called Abstinence isn't the answer - and neither is birth control. I read this a few days ago, and while it isn't the first article I've read along the theme, I did have it in mind when I wrote my post. In the comments y'all brought up very good points. If our grandmothers and great-grandmothers married at 14, why are we still "children" at 24? That's ridiculous! We say that there's so much...

As Christians, how we view pregnancy matters

This is in response to lainad's BlogHer post entitled Bristol Palin: The Hypocrisy Over Teenage Pregnancy. In it she expresses her dismay over learning that her niece -- a 22 year old whom she refers to as a "child" -- is pregnant, and her displeasure with the supposed hypocrisy in the right-wing's acceptance of Bristol Palin's pregnancy as opposed to the pregnancies of "young Latina and black women." First off, let me say that no one is jumping for joy over unmarried 17-year-old Bristol...

Sarah Palin for President... uh, I mean VP

In case you were wondering how I feel about the issue: And for my friends who have kids with special needs: I think Sarah Palin is awesome: a mom of 5 who has shown time and again that she values life and truly believes all children are blessed gifts from God. She's also a principled reformer who isn't afraid to take on even her own party to fight corruption and waste. In short, she is everything they say McCain is that I don't quite believe. See for yourself: I...

My life right now

Well, I haven't been taking many pictures lately, sorry for that. As much as I love my new 50mm lens, I've been having trouble settling into the things I usually enjoy. I haven't taken photos; I haven't uploaded the new born photos from the DVD that Loana sent me. I've been getting bored after only a few minutes reading blogs, and I haven't even felt like Twittering. I have been reading, though. I finally read Barbara's Lord, Please Meet Me in the Laundry Room, which she sent me as a...

Thoughts on the modern Christian church service

A little over a week ago I was watching Mass on TV, and I started thinking about some of the things that happened during Mass that I think are missing from the church services we usually attend. (Understand, I am not trying to make this a Catholic vs. Protestant thing, or saying that all churches are like this. Just some things I would like to change in the church I attend.) Mainly I feel like the church service has moved away too much from being a corporate worship experience, and become...

Divorce in America

My friend Lee over at Marriage Saver has created this neat little ticker to bring awareness to the unfortunately high divorce rate here in America. What's especially sad is knowing that the rate is just as high among Christians as the rest of the country. If you're concerned about divorce, you might want to add this ticker to your site: There have been 0 0 0 0 0 0...

An interesting puzzle

See if you can find 30 books of the Bible in the following paragraph: There are thirty books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You probably won't be surprised to know that St. Patrick is my favorite saint. I supposed I identify with him as someone who grew up not knowing God, when all the while God was looking after him. Can you believe that we don't actually have any plans for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow? I may try to get all the kids dressed in green and go to the park, but I have a lot of work to catch up on since I went on a major laundry spree and then did not put any of it away, so we'll see. P.S. I...