Lincoln (my hometown) is a small city or a big town, depending on whether you’re calculating by US standards or by whole world standards. In Nebraska, it’s the big city.
Columbus (my current lodging place) is a small town, no doubt. A small city by Nebraska standards.
Nevertheless, one Sunday afternoon a group of us younger women who somehow found ourselves working and residing in and around Columbus made our way to the smaller town of Schuyler, Nebraska to enjoy a movie.
For five dollars collected by Boy Scout volunteers, we saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (without 3D, thank goodness!) in a tiny community theatre.
We sat about in the middle of the theatre.
Five people sat in front of us.
Maybe twelve sat behind us.
The theatre shows one movie a weekend–7 pm on Friday and Saturday, 2 pm on Sunday.
The movies are generally family-friendly, PG-13 at worst.
On this day in history 38 years ago, a court decision legalized the genocide which has since killed over 40 million unborn babies.
In 1973, my cousin Danny was a baby. 615,831 of his peers were murdered.
In 1974, my cousin Donna was born (I estimate). 763,476 of her peers were murdered.
In 1975, my cousin Shiloh was born. 854,853 of his peers were murdered.
In 1977, my cousin Judah was born. 1,079,430 of his peers were murdered.
In 1979, my cousins Sarah and Janalynn were born. 1,251,921 of their peers were murdered.
In 1980, my cousin Jamin was born. 1,297,606 of his peers were murdered.
In 1981, my cousin Adam was born. 1,300,760 of his peers were murdered.
In 1983, my sister Anna was protected in our mother’s womb. 1,268,987 of her peers were murdered.
In 1984, my sister Anna and cousin Ariann were born. 1,333,521 of their peers were murdered.
In 1985, I was born. 1,328,570 of my peers were murdered.
In 1986, my brother Joshua was born. 1,328,112 of his peers were murdered.
In 1987, my cousins Joseph, Vicki, and Luke were born. 1,353,671 of their peers were murdered.
In 1988, my cousin Joseph and sister-in-law Debbie were born. 1,371,285 of their peers were murdered.
In 1989, my brother Daniel and cousins Elizabeth, Becca and Christine were born. 1,396,658 of their peers were murdered.
In 1990, my brother John and cousins Matthew and Paul were born. 1,429,577 of their peers were murdered.
In 1991, my cousins Patrick, Joanna, and Jennifer, and sister-out-law Joanna were born. 1,388,937 of their peers were murdered.
In 1992, my brother Tim and cousins Joel, Jesse, Jeremy, and Caroline were born. 1,359,145 of their peers were murdered.
In 1993, my cousin Eric was born. Another cousin, Melinda, was born stillborn and grieved for by a loving family. 1,330,414 of their peers were murdered.
In 1994, my sister Grace, cousins Michael, Aaron, and Naomi, and brother-out-law John were born. 1,267,415 of their peers were murdered.
In 1995, my cousins Dominique and Kyle were born. 1,210,883 of their peers were murdered.
In 1996, my cousins Ben, Joel, Clayton, and Hannah were born. 1,225,937 of their peers were murdered.
In 1997, my cousins Caleb, Bethany, and Susannah were/was born. 1,186,039 of their peers were murdered.
In 1998, my cousin Lauren was born. Over 884,273* of her peers were murdered.
In 1999, my cousins Isaac and Tabitha were born. Over 861,789* of their peers were murdered.
In 2000, my cousins Megan and Brett were born. Over 857,475* of their peers were murdered.
In 2002, my cousin Anthony was born. Over 854,122* of his peers were murdered.
In 2004, my cousin Brooke was born. Over 839,226* of her peers were murdered.
In 2006, Ezekiel was born to my cousins Shiloh and Janalynn. Over 846,181* of his peers were murdered.
In 2008, Lexie was born to my cousins Sarah and Byron. 1,212,350 of her peers were murdered.
In 2010, Mackenna was born to my cousins Ariann and Mike, and Carter was born to my cousins Adam and Theresa. A thus far unnumbered multitude of their peers were murdered.
In 2011, my nephew or niece will be born. How many of his peers will be murdered this year?
Please pray…
and take action
to end abortion
Are you or your children survivors of this genocide? Would you like your name to be listed within these rolls? Please leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I’ll add you/them to the list. And please, please pray for the end of this genocide.
*Statistics were not reported by the states of California or New Hampshire from 1998 to the present. Alaska did not report from 1998-2002. Oklahoma did not report from 1998-1999. West Virginia did not report from 2003-2004. Louisiana has not reported from 2005 to the present. The children in these states murdered through abortion remain unnumbered, but not forgotten.
I’ve written before about how our family didn’t really watch television when I was growing up–and only sporadically owned a TV, which was kept in a closet. We didn’t have TV, didn’t watch movies, didn’t play video games.
But we were by no means Luddites. In fact, my family was an early adopter of a few of the (now) most ubiquitous technologies.
Today Linda asks…What new inventions or technology came out when you were growing up that you remember being amazed at? Were your parents “early adopters”–did they get the “latest and greatest” pretty quickly or did they stick with the “tried and true”? What are some things that you remember being a big deal when your family got them?
My dad is a “techno-nerd”, has always been. His degrees are in physics math (my brother corrects my faulty memory) and computer science, and he’s worked in computers since graduating from college.
We had a computer, probably one of dad’s work computers, sitting at a desk in our basement, and I remember one time, when I was five or six (1990 or so), having Dad show us this neat little thing he was doing on his computer.
All I saw was bright green text scrolling across the screen–but Dad explained to me that this was the INTERNET. He was connecting to other computers, far away, sharing information with them and receiving information from them.
I didn’t know the significance of the internet at that time, could not have comprehended how much the internet would shape my life.
At that point, the World Wide Web, the application that would make the internet mainstream, was in beta stage.
The internet would not enter the vernacular until five years later, when free America Online CD-Roms started showing up in supermarket checkouts and elementary schools were routinely teaching “computer skills” rather than just typing.
We led the pack.
Another bit of technology we had before all the rest was Compact Discs. I’ve also written about this before.
Compact Discs were, from their inception, shortened down to “CDs”–but when we first started using “CDs”, the term more commonly referred to Certificates of Deposit.
I remember being quite young and asking a babysitter from down the street if we could listen to a CD.
She was rather confused.
“Don’t you know what a CD is? Don’t you have CDs?” I asked her.
“Yes, I have CDs at the bank, but…” (She was a smart teenager who invested wisely–I wish I’d have followed her example!)
Yep, that’s right. Compact Discs were as normal as breathing to me, but the rest of the world hadn’t a clue.
“Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” Job 2:10
The words trickled into my mind as I told my sister of my thankfulness that I had not yet experienced a bilious emesis (vomiting small intestine contents.)
I was forced to accept the truth of these words and follow up: “But if God should grant me a bilious emesis, I shall thank Him for it.”
This week, I am thankful…
…that God is sovereign over both health and sickness–and that He will conform me to His image with whatever means He pleases
…that God is a gracious designer who has formed my immune system to work exactly as it is
…that God is merciful and never gives me more than I can handle (even when my whole GI tract is cramping and I can barely force myself to take in fluids)
…that God grants reprieve through a few moments of sleep here and there and a book that occasionally takes my mind off the pain my body is feeling
…that, as of yet, I have not experienced a bilious emesis. Stomach contents have come up, small intestine contents have gone down–and God is sovereignly wise and unfailing gracious, even should that circumstance change.
Does your pair of fabulous knee-high boots have creases along the ankles from standing (drooping) forlorn in your closet?
You can solve that problem by following the shoe guru’s advice of packing your boots with tissue paper and then returning them to the box you bought them in for storage.
As if any of us have that kind of time (or space).
I choose an easier route, a simple three step route:
Purchase 2 bottles of wine
My vineyard of choice is James Arthur Vineyards. And while White St. Croix is shown here, my favorite (and recommended option) is the fruity red “San Realto”. Mmm-mmm!
Drink bottles of wine
If you’re a bit eager to get those boots held up, I recommend throwing a dinner party to make the wine go faster. Don’t forget that the healthiest alcohol consumption is MODERATE alcohol consumption–that means 1 drink per day (or less) for women and 2 drinks per day (or less) for men.
Use empty bottles to hold up boots
Just slide ’em (the bottles) in, zip ’em (the boots) up, and set ’em (the boots and bottles together) in your closet. No more nasty crease lines–and your boots take no more space on your closet floor than the rest of your shoes do.
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging either underage drinking or drunkenness. If you are less than twenty-one (in the United States) or are an alcoholic or at-risk-for-alcoholism (or just prefer not to drink alcohol), you can use bottles of sparkling grape or apple juice to fulfill the same function. Furthermore, even if you ARE over 21 (in the US) and don’t think you could ever become an alcoholic, I reiterate: the healthiest drinking is moderate drinking. You’re only jeopardizing your health (and possibly that of others, as well as your Christian witness) by practicing drunkenness. Just choose NOT to drink to the point of drunkenness.
In my experience, lit about lit or books based on books tend to follow a fairly typical pattern.
You know, high school students perform “Romeo and Juliet” only to find that their own lives parallel the play in ways they never imagined (and generally don’t get until the end of the story.)
So I was expecting some orphans or a precocious redhead or at very least someone in need of a bosom friend when I picked up Much Ado About Anne.
When I got a couple chapters into the book and still hadn’t started to see parallels, I got a bit nervous.
It wasn’t what I expected at all.
And that’s a good thing.
Heather Vogel Frederick’s Much Ado About Anne doesn’t try to recreate Anne of Green Gables (as though another author could do it better than L.M. Montgomery!) Instead, Much Ado About Anne finds the mother-daughter book club experiencing their own story while reading through Anne’s story in book club.
Two great conflicts rise in the lives of the book club girls: first, their mothers invite the oh-so-stuck-up Becca Chadwick to join their club–and then Jess discovers that her family may be forced off their ancestral farm.
The girls (and therefore their readers) learn interesting factoids about L.M. Montgomery thanks to one girl’s librarian mother. And, just like good bibliophiles, they find ways of relating what they’re reading to their own lives.
And so, they realize that Becca is a Pye, and must be tolerated as a Pye. They relate to the utter mortification Anne felt when she dyed her hair green–although, of course, their mortification is over something entirely different. And they emulate their new heroine by naming the lands around them with fanciful names.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It has just enough Anne to make it worth its title–but not so much Anne that it’s lacking any substance of its own.
I’m glad I took the opportunity to take a glimpse at Anne through the eyes of four fictional middle-school girls. As a long-standing Anne-fan, I found myself thrilled with these girls’ glimpses of Anne–and I’m willing to bet that this book would be a great way to introduce a young reader who’s reluctant to read “old” books into the great story that is Anne. Once she’s read this, I can almost guarantee she’ll want to read the “back-story”–the novels the mother-daughter book club read and discussed and applied to their own lives.
Rating: 4 stars Category:Middle grade fiction (female) Synopsis:The mother-daughter book club gets busy reading Anne of Green Gables, dealing with their very own Josie Pye, and racking their brains to save Half Moon Farm. Recommendation: Great for lovers of Anne, or lovers of YA fiction/young chick lit, or anyone who wants to introduce a younger girl to the joys of Green Gables.
I read this as a part of Carrie’s L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge. Check out the link for more people’s comments on L.M. Montgomery. Visit my books page for more book reviews and notes by me.
It hit me between the eyes as I drove down Highway 30 on my way home from Grand Island.
I was listening to ChristianAudio’s recording of Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness (Available for free this month!).
“Our first problem [with walking in holiness] is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own ‘victory’ over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.”
~Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness
Ouch!
The moment I heard it, I knew its truth.
Up until that moment, I had been fighting a self-centered battle with sin and hadn’t even realized it!
My fight for holiness wasn’t about glorifying God or abhorring the things that break His heart. It was about making myself look good, proving that I could do it, gaining victory over sin.
But Bridges’ reminds us:
“God wants us to walk in obedience — not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God, victory is oriented toward self. This may seem to be merely splitting hairs over semantics, but there is a subtle, self-centered attitude at the root of many of our difficulties with sin. Until we face this attitude and deal with it we will not consistently walk in holiness.”
Say I had managed to gain victory over all those external sins I so want to conquer.
What then?
I could boast in my flesh–like the rich young ruler who tells Jesus that he has kept the commandments from his youth–but my boasting would quickly be brought to naught as Jesus reveals my secret idol.
Not possessions.
Me.
I am my own greatest idol.
Every morning I wake up and bow at the altar of self. Every evening I return to offer self homage.
I offer a sacrifice on the altar. I bring the grain offerings. I keep the feasts.
My ablutions are not effective, my oblations not accepted.
I have offered my sacrifice to the wrong god.
Self instead of Christ.
Lord, have mercy upon my idolatrous soul–and teach me to treasure You above me.
Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words” is where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week. Crying foul over my audiobook quoting? After a couple days of contemplating what I’d heard, I remembered that I’d picked up The Pursuit of Holiness at a used store a couple of months back. I started reading at the beginning–and was hit anew with the realization of my idolatrous fight with sin.
Completing the meme in a rather different fashion.
YES…
…there is someone (many ones) who mean(s) a lot to me.
…I have laughed so hard I cried
…I remember who I liked in 7th grade (and I’ll bet a lot of other people do too)
…I am looking forward to the next couple months
…I have scars
…Someone (some folk) call me “Babe” sometimes
…I have liked someone older than me
…I can make change for a dollar just now
…People often think I’m younger (or older) than I actually am
…I can braid hair
NO…
…I have never stayed up all night on the phone
…I would not move somewhere else (just now) if given the opportunity
…I do not like the Jonas Brothers (but I don’t particularly dislike them either
…There are not boys I can tell anything to
…I am not afraid to grow up
…I would never get a tattoo (prolly)
…I do not dye my hair (although I have once)
…I have never played Spin The Bottle
…I do not like voicemails
…I am not good at hiding my feelings
…I have never gotten alcohol poisoning
…I have never been suspended
With ten “yes”es and twelve “no”s, I am official tipping the scale toward negativity. Sorry to be a downer, folks. :-)
Home and School Discipline were pretty much one and the same for the Menter kids.
We were, after all, homeschooled.
But there were a few items distinctive to the school environment.
Items like Red Beans and Rice.
Today Linda asks…How strict were teachers when you were in school? What were common methods of discipline? No recess? Writing sentences? Being sent to the principal’s office? Were “pops” or “swats” allowed? …
We were mostly self-directed students after the first or second grade. We had the assignment sheets Mom gave us at the beginning of the school year and we were responsible for working our way through them day by day and asking questions if we needed help.
We generally started the year with great intentions of “getting ahead”, but we generally spent most of our time “getting ahead” in certain subjects that we preferred. Meanwhile, we “got behind” in all the rest.
And eventually, the novelty of “getting ahead” wore off and we’d “get behind” in everything.
Riding our bicycles or reading a book or playing with legos was immensely more fun than doing math problems or “reading” (the subject). And so we just ignored our work altogether.
Dad would end up coming home from work only to have to sit on us to do our work in the evening.
I’m sure Mom and Dad tried all sorts of things to get us to stay on schedule–but I only remember the one.
Red Beans and Rice.
My dad finally figured out a way to get us to do our schoolwork before supper. He issued an ultimatum. If our work wasn’t done by suppertime, no matter what the rest of the family was eating, we were having red beans and rice.
And I’m not talking the spicy Southern dish.
I’m talking kidney beans from a can or cooked on the stove. White rice. A bit of salt.
Dad made up big batches and froze it in individual freezer bags.
If we kids weren’t done with school when he got home from work, he’d pull out the appropriate number of servings and reheat them for the errant children.
We’d sit in stony silence, pushing red beans and rice around our plates while the rest of the family ate Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes…or lasagna and breadsticks…or meatloaf and baked potatoes.
The next day? We’d get our school work done before Dad got home.
For the record, allow me to remind you that my parents were NOT (and are not) abusive. We still got plenty of food–both through our other meals and from the red beans and rice themselves. Furthermore, no one chose to repeat the experience for too many days in a row. I doubt any of us had more than two or three meals of red beans and rice during even our most “behind” weeks.
Red beans and rice were a powerful disciplinary tool, let me tell you!
When I first started traveling to Columbus, I was pleased that I would find myself in Columbus over Wednesday nights–the night the C/Kathy’s hosted their young professional’s Bible study. I eagerly rushed from work to Kathy’s, where the whole set of us transplants fellowshipped and were challenged and grew.
After a long Christmas break from Bible study, I was glad to get back into the swing of things last night…and it turned out, Bible study was even better than I’d hoped for.
Today I’m thankful…
…for Cathy’s rave reviews of The Pioneer Woman’s blackberry cobbler (which I’d prepared for the Bible study crowd)
…for Kathy’s thoughtfulness in having a selection of teas available for us to enjoy (including several herbal varieties)
…for both K(C)athy’s encouragement that I share my shocking secrets with the newest member of our crew
…for Kathy’s reminder that “You will get done exactly what God wills you to get done.”
…for Cathy’s exhortation: “Have you considered taking a technology break?” And her follow up: “Don’t do it because I suggested it. Ask God what He would have you do.”
…for how God has used both of these women to bless me, to challenge me, and to conform me into the image of His Son.
Do you own a pair of fabulous knee-high boots?
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging either underage drinking or drunkenness. If you are less than twenty-one (in the United States) or are an alcoholic or at-risk-for-alcoholism (or just prefer not to drink alcohol), you can use bottles of sparkling grape or apple juice to fulfill the same function. Furthermore, even if you ARE over 21 (in the US) and don’t think you could ever become an alcoholic, I reiterate: the healthiest drinking is moderate drinking. You’re only jeopardizing your health (and possibly that of others, as well as your Christian witness) by practicing drunkenness. Just choose NOT to drink to the point of drunkenness.
