{"id":3918,"date":"2010-07-31T23:59:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=3918"},"modified":"2010-07-31T23:59:02","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T04:59:02","slug":"recap-july-25-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2010\/20100731-3918.htm","title":{"rendered":"Recap (July 25-31)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<!--\nupdatepage();\n\/\/--><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"center\">\n<h3>On bekahcubed<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Book Reviews:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><i>Inside &#8220;The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe&#8221;<\/i> by Bell, Pyykkonen, and Washington<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> ***** <br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Literature Study-Guide\/Read-along<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> An easy-to-understand yet in-depth look at the literary and historical allusions found in C.S. Lewis&#8217;s <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/i><br \/>\n<b>Recommendation:<\/b> This book is a definite keeper.  Find it, buy it, peruse it, lend it to your older children, and find a way to share the information found within with your younger children.  This is a fantastic resource.<br \/>\n<a href=\"books\/bell_j_s-insidelww.htm\">Read the full review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b><i>Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?<\/i> edited by Wayne Grudem<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> ***** <br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Theology<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> Four authors hash out a theology of the miraculous gifts using a written debate-style format. <br \/>\n<b>Recommendation:<\/b> Possibly one of the most useful tools to those who are interested in thinking through a theology of the charismata.<br \/>\n<a href=\"books\/grudem_w-miraculousgifts.htm\">Read the full review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b><i>Letter to a Christian Nation<\/i> by Sam Harris<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> ** <br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Current Affairs (or so the back of the book claims!)<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> An atheist rants against Christianity. <br \/>\n<b>Recommendation:<\/b> Every American evangelical should read this (despite the fact that the quality of the book really is only worth a two star rating.)  It&#8217;s an object lesson in the impact of politicizing faith on the Christian witness.<br \/>\n<a href=\"books\/harris_s-christiannation.htm\">Read the full review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b><i>Pretty Little. Potholders<\/i> (Craft Book)<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> ***** <br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Craft\/Sewing<br \/>\n<b>Synopsis:<\/b> Directions for over two dozen potholder designs <br \/>\n<b>Recommendation:<\/b> Simple instructions, beautiful photos, and low-cost, quick-make, still-cute designs.  This book is a winner.<br \/>\n<a href=\"books\/shrader_v-prettylittlepotholder.htm\">Read the full review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"center\">\n<h3>On the web<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Books for the TBR list:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/girlsinwhitedresses.wordpress.com\/2010\/07\/27\/book-chat-16\/\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Brunelleschi&#8217;s Dome<\/i><\/a> by Ross King<br \/>\nMaybe I&#8217;m a nerd, but this history of the building of Brunelleschi&#8217;s dome in the Middle Ages intrigues me.  I enjoy history and cultural stuff and oddities and Italy&#8211;and Susan says this book, despite its &#8220;boring potential&#8221; is actually quite interesting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Thought-provoking posts:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From Richard Baxter, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.challies.com\/christian-living\/read-better-with-baxter\" target=\"_blank\">advice on evaluating books<\/a>, including four questions to ask yourself about a book:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>1. Could I spend this time no better?<br \/>\n2.  Are there better books that would edify me more?<br \/>\n3.  Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?<br \/>\n4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tony Woodlief writes of <a href=\"http:\/\/online.worldmag.com\/2010\/07\/23\/the-self-forgetting-kind\/\" target=\"_blank\">self forgetting love<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>It strikes me that there\u2019s an important difference between \u201cself-forgetting love\u201d and \u201cdying to self\u201d that may help people who, like me, struggle with the latter. <i>The difference, of course, is the elimination of self from the equation.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>When I\u2014selfish, self-absorbed man that I am\u2014take on the task of \u201cdying to self,\u201d I often do it like a self-celebrating martyr. In other words, I don\u2019t really die to self; instead I walk around with the proud notion that I am being a Saintly Husband (for a few fleeting moments), or the self-pitying sense that I am on the losing side of this transaction (\u201cWhat has she done for me lately, while I\u2019m engaging in all this selflessness???\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>But to be dead to self is to, well, forget oneself. <i>The dead aren\u2019t self-aware, after all.<\/i> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>A great article on  homeschooling, a specifically the idea of <a href=\"http:\/\/online.worldmag.com\/2010\/07\/22\/parents-what-do-you-want\/\" target=\"_blank\">the perfect homeschool program<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Hopefully we don\u2019t have to make those either\/or choices. But given limited time, energy, and financial resources, sometimes we do. We have to choose what to keep, choose what to focus on, choose what to let go. <em>Sometimes that means letting go of the homeschool fairy tale in order to keep hold of the resident homeschoolers\u2019 hearts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think this can be applied to homeschooling in general.  I think its worthwhile, every so often, for every homeschooling parent to evaluate: &#8220;Am I doing this because this is the right choice for our family or am I doing this because I&#8217;m in love with the <i>idea<\/i> of homeschooling?&#8221;  While homeschooling is wonderful (I personally am a fan), it is not an end-all-be-all.  Let&#8217;s keep first things first.  Let&#8217;s try to do what&#8217;s best for our children, rather than merely relying on our pet philosophies or dreams of &#8220;how it should be done.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On bekahcubed Book Reviews: Inside &#8220;The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe&#8221; by Bell, Pyykkonen, and Washington Rating: ***** Category: Literature Study-Guide\/Read-along Synopsis: An easy-to-understand yet in-depth look at the literary and historical allusions found in C.S. Lewis&#8217;s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Recommendation: This book is a definite keeper. Find it, buy &#8230; <a title=\"Recap (July 25-31)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2010\/20100731-3918.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Recap (July 25-31)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3918"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}