Wisdom and Innocence by Joseph Pearce

Happy Birthday, to Mr. Gilbert Keith Chesterton!

Thanks to the lovely Carol B. of A Living Pencil, who loaned me her personal copy of the book, I have been reading Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton by Joseph Pearce over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been reading about Mr. Chesterton, mostly at bedtime and in small doses, and I haven’t finished the book yet. However, I have collected enough sticky note markers to post something about what caught my eye as I read, and today seems as if it would the appropriate day since Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born on this date, May 29th, in 1876, a hundred and thirty-seven years ago.

(p.79) Chesterton wrote in an article in the Daily News, December, 1903:

“You cannot evade the issue of God: whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him . . . If Christianity should happen to be true–that is to say, if its God is the real God of the universe–then defending it may mean talking about anything and everything. . . . Zulus, gardening, butchers’ shops, lunatic asylums, housemaids, and the French Revolution–all these things not only may have something to do with the Christian God, but must have something to do with Him if He lives and reigns.”

So true. I try to avoid religious jargon and buzzwords, but I find it difficult to discuss anything without the topic eventually leading back to God and His works in some form or another. As Paul wrote, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.” So, how (or why) would one discuss or think about anything without reference to the One who made and sustains all things?

(p. 213) “One of his secretaries was amazed, when she first started working for him (Chesterton), by his ability to write two articles at once on totally different subjects by dictating one to her while he scribbled away at another himself.”

President James Garfield taught himself to write with both hands. He also knew Latin and Greek. He sometimes would show off and write with both hands at the same time, each in a different language. However, to write on two separate subjects, formulate coherent thoughts and dictate or write them at the same time, seems almost impossible. I wonder if the ever-playful Chesterton was deceiving his secretary into thinking that he was “writing” two articles at once. Maybe he even was deceiving himself. I tell my children all the time that it is impossible to truly “multi-task.” It would be interesting to hear what Chesterton would have to say about the subject.

(p.252) Chesterton on the “underlying pessimism of much modern poetry”: “I will not write any more about these poets, because I do not pretend to be impartial, or even to be good-tempered on the subject. To my thinking, the oppression of the people is a terrible sin; but the depression of the people is a far worse one.”

I agree with Chesterton about modern poetry, indeed most modern (twentieth century and beyond) literature. It’s a question of which came first, depression and degeneration in Western culture which is reflected in the literature, or depression and degeneration in literature which in turn produced at least two, maybe three, generations of depressed, decadent, and sometimes illiterate people. After all, who wants to read about how miserable and corrupt we all are when there is no hope or faith that anything or anyone can fix the mess? (And now I started out discussing modern literature with GKC, and we’re back to God again.)

(p.256) “Through it all he remained totally unaffected by events and as self-effacing as ever. For example, when an enthusiastic reporter asked him which of his works he considered the greatest, he replied instantly, ‘I don’t consider any of my works in the least great.'”

To be able to come up with such an answer”instantly” requires either great humility or great preparation.

(p.295) “Neither was Chesterton embarrassed to be seen laughing at his own jokes. ‘If a man may not laugh at his own jokes,’ he once asked, ‘at whose jokes may he laugh? May not an architect pray in his own cathedral?'”

Again, either humility or a quip waiting to happen.

(p.299) “The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.”

One could say “joy” (C.S. Lewis) or “enjoying God” (John Piper) instead of appreciation, and mean essentially the same thing. Chesterton seemed to have a gift for gratitude and enjoyment of God’s good gifts.

(p.302) The ignorant pronounce it Frood
To cavil or applaud.
The well-informed pronounce it Froyd,
But I pronounce it Fraud.

No comment necessary.

(p.306) “Most modern histories of mankind begin with the word evolution, and with a rather wordy exposition of evolution . . . There is something slow and soothing and gradual about the word and even about the idea. As a matter of fact, it is not, touching these primary things, a very practical word or a very profitable idea. Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. . . It is really far more logical to start by saying ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ even if you only mean ‘In the beginning some unthinkable power began some unthinkable process.'”

As soon as you admit there is something or someone who is eternal, a Grand Cause or at least Power for the Universe and everything in it, the argument moves to the nature of this Cause or this God. Carl Sagan famously said, “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” What is this “Cosmos” of Mr. Sagan’s but an impersonal Force that initiates and sustains the universe? We can now discuss whether this impersonal Force or Cosmos makes sense as creator and sustainer and order-er of all that we experience and know to be true and real.

“Nothing comes from nothing–nothing ever could.” ~The Sound Of Music.

And again the God of the Bible makes His appearance, whether we’re discussing evolution or mousetraps or movie musicals. At least, in my thought world, He seems to intrude quite frequently and persistently.

Thank you, GKC, for enriching my thought life today. Thank you, God, for Mr. Chesterton.

55 Summer Memories

Miz Booshay, she of the Quiet Life, inspired this post.

When I think back on the summers of my childhood and youth, I remember:

kool-aid and push pops.

swimming (or at least playing in the water) at the Municipal Pool.

not swimming because I wasn’t allowed until the scab from my smallpox vaccination fell off.

sucking the juice from the honeysuckle blossoms.

flies and mosquitos.

going to GA camp at Heart of Texas Baptist Encampment.

climbing on the rocks at Paisano Baptist Encampment.

a pallet on the floor of the car at the drive-in movie theater.

the swamp cooler that had to be kept moist in order to cool the living room.

'The Mod Squad 1968' photo (c) 2009, Mike - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/green St. Augustine grass.

playing barefoot.

playing Barbies on the front porch.

watching re-runs on TV, Hawaii Five-O and The Mod Squad.

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Mark Spitz winning seven gold medals in swimming at the 1972 summer Olympics.

Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tenielle.

Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper (I hated that song all summer long in 1975).

fresh apricots from the trees in our backyard.

wasps, yellow-jackets that stung me on the bottom of a bare foot.

going to Astroworld on our Houston vacation.

100 degrees on top of Pike’s Peak (a very hot summer on our second ever family vacation in Colorado).

purple hot pants and granny dresses.

Star Wars and Grease and American Grafitti.

'Chinaberries?' photo (c) 2005, Luca Masters - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/back-to-school shopping.

going to the library twice a week to get my limit, ten books at a time.

reading my books in the chinaberry tree next to our house.

chasing the ice-cream truck.

Vacation Bible School.

iced tea and lemonade. Actually, we drank sweet iced tea year round. Still do.

sweating profusely and then immersing myself in a cold pool or creek or even a bathtub. Cool, clear water.

playing with the water hose or in the sprinkler.

my lovely pink parasol.

calling for “doodle bugs.” “Doodle bug, doodle bug, fly away home. You house is on fire, and your children will burn.” Rather violent-sounding, now that I think about it.

catching horny toads.

sparklers on the Fourth of July.

playing house in the shade of our pecan trees.

instead of mud pies, making “salads” out of grass and leaves and berries and feeding those salads to my dolls.

riding with the car windows rolled down, before air conditioning in cars.

'DSC_0644_cruiser_complete' photo (c) 2010, Ryon Edwards - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/dusty, caliche roads that hadn’t been paved.

spending the night with my grandmother on Friday night and walking to the store all by myself.

walking barefoot on HOT pavement because I forgot to wear my shoes and jumping from shadow to shadow to keep my soles from burning.

teaching myself to ride my blue bicycle.

drinking Coke from a wet, frosty bottle that I could hold to my face to cool me off.

pouring water over my head to cool off.

learning to float on my stomach, on my back, but never really learning to swim, in spite of lessons and practice.

going to the air-conditioned movie theater to cool off and watch a movie.

sunburn, and peeling the skin from my sunburn.

my dad wearing a hat to keep his bald head from getting sunburned.

going fishing with my Aunt Audrey and Uncle Fred.

summer thunderstorms.

flip-flops.

'Watermelon' photo (c) 2007, lisaclarke - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/getting up early or sleeping in late, both ways to enjoy those long, long days.

summer picnics.

trespassing to play down by the creek that ran near our house.

walking on the railroad tracks, looking for loose change that someone might have dropped.

watermelon and hand-cranked ice cream.

Enjoy your summer. Make some memories.

Saturday Review of Books: May 25, 2013

“When the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerers and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards–their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon
imperishable marble–the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.'” ~Virginia Woolf

Maybe Ms. Woolf was being somewhat hyperbolic, but the best reading is at least a taste of heaven.

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Links and Thinks: Thursday, May 23, 2013

'Turtle' photo (c) 2009, rayand - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/It’s World Turtle Day.

There’s a Big Sale going on at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I looked over some of her unit studies, and they look as if they would be perfect for individual use or for our homeschool co-op.

Around the World in 60 Days: Summer Reading Challenge for Kids.

Tomorrow’s Poetry Friday round-up will be held at Jama’s Alphabet Soup, a lovely and visually delightful children’s literature blog that you really should check out while you’re there to get the poetry links. Ms. Jama even has a recipe for Mango Bread that looks delicious, along with a poem that invites us to muse on whether there will be mangoes in heaven.

Today is the first International Day to End Obstetric Fistula.

Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labour without prompt medical intervention, usually a Caesarean section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and in most cases a stillborn baby. Like maternal mortality, fistula is almost entirely preventable. But at least 2 million women in Africa, Asia and the Arab region are living with the condition, with about 50,000 to 100,000 new cases each year.

End Obstetric Fistula.

The Last Plea Bargain by Randy Singer

This legal thriller may have begun with the question: “What if all of the prisoners in a jurisdiction got together and went on strike? Specifically, what if all the criminals who were arrested in Harris County today made an agreement NOT to accept a plea bargain of any kind? What if all of the cases in the Harris County DA’s office had to go to trial?

No deals. The wheels of the justice system would come to a halt. In The Last Plea Bargain, assistant DA Jamie Brock and her office must deal with just such a scenario. And it’s all designed to thwart the prosecution of one particular case, a murder prosecution that has become very personal for MS. Brock. Jamie believes in her heart that defense lawyer Caleb Tate murdered his wife, Rikki—just like death row inmate Antoine Marshall murdered Jamie’s parents years ago. And both men deserve the death sentence.

The Last Plea Bargain is a novel that provides food for thought in the areas of justice, revenge, repentance, forgiveness, memory, and psychological manipulation. I found the novel eerily believable and sort of scary. The publisher is Tyndale House, a Christian publishing house, but the themes and issues in the book are universal. Can we discern truth from lies, even in our own memories of events? What is justice? What about forgiveness?

I see that Mr. SInger has a long list of published novels. Although I don’t think this book quite comes up to the level of the John Grisham comparison on the cover, I’d be willing to try another of Mr. Singer’s books. Has anybody read and recommended any of the following?

False Witness (2011)
Fatal Convictions (2010)
The Justice Game (2009)
By Reason of Insanity (2008)
The Judge (Original in 2006)
The Cross Examination of Jesus Christ (2006)
The Judge Who Stole Christmas (Original in 2005)
Self Incrimination (Original in 2005)
Irreparable Harm (Original in 2003)
Directed Verdict (Original in 2002)
Made to Count (2005)
Live Your Passion (2005)

Saturday Review of Books: May 18, 2013:

“You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable–nay, letter by letter… you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain an utterly illiterate, uneducated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, — that is to say, with real accuracy– you are forevermore in some measure an educated person.” ~John Ruskin

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase)
2. the Ink Slinger (Lonesome Animals)
3. Marijo @ thegigglinggull (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)
4. Seth@Collateral Bloggage (The Trouble With Physics)
5. Helene@MaidservantsOfChrist (The Curse of Chalion)
6. Beth@Weavings (Rose in Bloom)
7. Joseph R. @ Zombie Parents Guide (Adventures of Huck Finn and Zombie Jim)
8. jama (Hawai’i’s Food Trucks on the Go!)
9. Faith @ StudentSpyglass (Enamored by Shoshanna Evers)
10. Charlotte (The Path of Names, by Ari Goelman)
11. Beckie @ ByTheBook (2 by Jim Kraus — The Cat That . . . and The Dog That . . .)
12. Beckie @ ByTheBook (NIV Real Life Devo Bible for Women)
13. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Once Upon A Prince)
14. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Two Testaments)
15. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Monday Morning Faith)
16. Harvee@BookDilettante
17. Harvee@BookDilettante
18. Mental multivitamin (Six books)
19. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Hidden Art of a Homemaking ch. 4)
20. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Who Said Women Can’t Be Doctors?)
21. Heather @ Lines from the Page (Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books)
22. Heather @ Lines from the Page (No Name)
23. Melinda @ Wholesome Womanhood (Influential Books)
24. Susanne~LivingToTell
25. Susanne ~ Jesus: The Greatest Life of All
26. Reading World (The Light Between Oceans)
27. Thoughts of Joy (The Hidden Man)
28. Thoughts of Joy (Please Ignore Vera Dietz)
29. Thoughts of Joy (The Weight of a Human Heart)
30. Colleen @Books in the City (The Love Wars)
31. Colleen @Books in the City (What My Mother Gave Me)
32. Colleen @Books in the City (The Girl Who Married An Eagle)
33. Harvee@BookDilettante (Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans)
34. Harvee@ Book Dilettante (Cozy Mystery Cats and Dogs)
35. dawn (The Little Way of Ruthie Leming)
36. Becky (books reviewed this week)
37. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Publicist)
38. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Gods of Heavenly Punishment)
39. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Gods of Heavenly Punishment)

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Beholding Bee by Kimberley Newton Fusco

I reviewed Ms. Fusco’s book, The Wonder of Charlie Anne, a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed reading it. This novel, Beholding Bee, set during World War II in the northeastern U.S.(Ohio, Illinois), tells a good story, too. Bee is a feisty girl who learns over the course of the novel to stand up for herself and persevere—lessons we could all afford to learn and re-learn.

“When you have a diamond shining on your face, you have rules about things.

First you keep it hidden. There is a hose outside every place where we hook up because we need water to run our traveling show. Pauline and I keep a bucket and a sponge in the back of our hauling truck. Water from a hose is cold as cherry Popsicles, but if you let the bucket sit in the sun all day it heats up, and at night Pauline pours out her apple shampoo and we take turns washing our hair.

Pauline has a big towel and she wraps my hair and then combs it out and I don’t yell out much because she is mostly gentle. Then she braids my hair, and when it dries she lets it loose and it falls all soft in twists and curls and hides the diamond on my cheek. Because when you have a jewel on your face, some days you might not want to show everyone who feels like looking.”

Bee, an orphan, is forced to learn to depend on her own strength and imagination when the adults in her life, Pauline and Bobby, desert her. She has “two aunts”, Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Potter, wwho take her into their house and take care of her, but they’re very old. And no one else other than Bee can see them.

The idea of the two old ladies from the past that no one else can see is a little odd and even disconcerting. But it made the story more interesting and in a way more believable than it would have been if Bee was living just alone in an abandoned house.

I liked the lesson Bee learns about how unsatisfying revenge can be, and I liked the fact that Bee and her friends pray together for a friend’s father who is away in the war. None of the story is preachy or overtly Christian, but it felt good and grounded in Biblical principles. Bee learns the things she needs to learn from each of the adults in her life. From Pauline, she learns to read and do math, and about the stars and nature and all sorts of practical life lessons. Bobby teaches her to run and to spit. Her friend Ruth Ellen teaches her empathy, and Ruth Ellen’s mother serves as a surrogate mother and counselor to Bee. Her teacher, Miss Healy, teaches her that school can be a good, safe place, and other students teach Bee to recognize her won strengths and draw on her own inner resources.

Beholding Bee is just a good solid story, mostly realistic with a bit of fantasy thrown in for spice.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking, ch. 4, Painting, Sketching, Sculpturing

I have zero, zip, nada, no talent or ability in the areas of painting, sketching, sculpturing or creating visual artwork in any form. Nevertheless, I love this chapter of Hidden Art.

“Ideas carried out stimulate more ideas.” So true. My most recent obsession, other than watching K-dramas, is opening a small library for homeschoolers in my area who could use the books and curricula that I have collected over the years, much of which my own children have outgrown. I have a LOT of books and curriculum materials. I would like to gather these resources into one room in my house, and allow homeschool families to pay a small yearly fee to become “members” of my library. (This idea has almost nothing to do with the chapter we’re reading, but everything to do with where God is leading me in the area of hidden art. My giftedness, such as it is, has to do with reading and recommending “living books” and other educational resources.) Anyway, my idea of opening a full-fledged library is thwarted right now by the season my family is in and by the logistics of devoting an entire room to the purpose of a library. Still, I need to figure out a way to start small, and to carry out my idea in some limited way until I can get to the complete vision of a private homeschoolers’ library.

“A sermon can be ‘illustrated’ and thereby ‘translated’ at the same time, to a child sitting beside you, provided the child has any interest at all in understanding.” I used to do this , despite my lack of artistic ability, with my older children when they were preschoolers. I also sometimes had them draw a picture of what the pastor was talking about in his sermon. In fact, as they got older I had a page long form for their “sermon notes” that had a space for the date, the pastor’s name, the Biblical text, a sentence or two about the sermon, and a picture illustrating the sermon. Sometimes on the back of the sheet I drew stick figures, or Engineer Husband drew more detailed illustrations, helping the children to understand the sermon.

How the Semicolon family is expressing “hidden art” this week:
Engineer Husband is designing the program for the upcoming production of Singin’ in the Rain that two of the urchins are starring in. One of my adult children, Dancer Daughter (23) has done much of the choreography for the production.

Karate Kid (16) is in the living room playing the guitar for his sisters to sing along, as they record a a birthday gift song for a friend whose birthday is tomorrow. They’re singing this song by the group He Is We.

Betsy Bee (14) has been decorating and straightening up her bedroom, ironing the pillow cases (?!) and generally making her space beautiful.

My 80 year old mom, who lives in an apartment behind our house, makes beautifully designed cards for birthdays and anniversaries, using her computer and the artwork that she finds or purchases on the internet.

I continue to write my little blog and to try to figure out how to start a library without a designated space.

I’m looking forward to reading the posts that others write about how they incorporate the visual arts into their lives and homes.

Saturday Review of Books: May 11, 2013

“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.” ~Samuel Johnson
“Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ~Stephen King

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. Thoughts of Joy (Trust Your Eyes)
2. Becky (Bookends of the Christian Life)
3. Becky (Christ the Eternal Son)
4. Becky (Words to Winners of Souls)
5. Becky (According to the Pattern)
6. Becky (Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
7. Becky (Cross My Heart)
8. Hope (The Claverings by Trollope)
9. Becky (Can You Forgive Her)
10. Becky (Dangerous Inheritance)
11. Becky (Nicholas Nickleby)
12. Becky (Fallen Leaves)
13. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout)
14. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (This Girl by Colleen Hoover)
15. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (If You Stay by Courtney Cole)
16. Janet (Son)
17. Cozy in Texas (Need You Now)
18. Barbara H. (Betrayal)
19. Cari (A Game of Thrones)
20. Glynn (Winner Lose All)
21. Reading World (Out of the Easy)
22. Reading World (The Professor and the Madman)
23. Alice (Guitar Zero)
24. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Odette’s Secrets)
25. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Y: The Last Man Vol 3: One Small Step)
26. Wholesome Womanhood (Cottage Mama’s DIY Guide)
27. Wholesome Womanhood (Organizing Life as Mom)
28. Devourer of Books (Reconstructing Amelia)
29. Seth@Collateral Bloggage (The Vegetarian Myth)
30. Helene (The LIfe You’ve Always Wanted)
31. Annie Kate (Decisive)
32. jama (Lollipop Caper giveaway)
33. Lazygal (The Suburban Strange)
34. Lazygal (Love and other perishable items)
35. Lazygal (The Doll)
36. Lazygal (The City’s Son)
37. Lazygal (In the Body of the World)
38. Lazygal (The Dog Stars)
39. Lazygal (Montmorency on the Rocks)
40. Lazygal (A Half-Forgotten Song)
41. Lazygal (Middle Ground)
42. Lazygal (The Skull and the Nightingale)
43. Lazygal (Montmorency)
44. Lazygal (Close My Eyes)
45. Lazygal (What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World)
46. Lazygal (Love in the Time of Global Warming)
47. Lazygal (Ink)
48. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Face of The Earth)
49. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Sweet Mercy)
50. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Truth Stained Lies)
51. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Iscariot)
52. Brenda (Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault)
53. the Ink Slinger (Atlas Shrugged)
54. Becky (Gospel: Rediscovering the Power That Made Christianity Revolutionary)
55. Linda @ Soli Deo Gloria (Hidden Art of Homemaking, chapter 3)
56. Susanne (False Pretenses)
57. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Seduction)
58. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Legacy of Rescue)

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Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.

“In the pages that follow, I share what happened in my private world through what Christians politely call conversion. This word–conversion–is simply too tame and too refined to capture the train wreck that I experienced incoming face-to-face with the living God.”

This conversion story, written by former lesbian professor Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, contains wisdom on a lot of different subjects. Here are a few quotes that illuminate some things that God taught Mrs. Butterfield.

Fear-based parenting:
“I believe that there is no greater enemy to vital life-breathing faith than insisting on cultural sameness. When fear rules your theology, God is nowhere to be found in your paradigm, no matter how many Bible verses you tack on to it. . . . We in the church tend to be more fearful of the (perceived) sin in the world than of the sin in our own heart. Why is that?”

Sermons:
“I came to believe that my job was not to critique and ‘receive’ a sermon, but to dig into it, to seize its power, to participate with its message, and to steal its fruit.”

Conversion:
“I didn’t choose Christ. Nobody chooses Christ. Christ chooses you or you’re dead. After Christ chooses you, you respond because you must. Period. It’s not a pretty story.”

Betrayal:
“Betrayal deepens our love for Jesus (who will never betray us). Betrayal deepens our knowledge of Jesus and his sacrifice, obedience, and love.(Jesus was betrayed by his chosen disciples and by all who call upon him asSavior and Lord by our sin). Finally, betrayal deepens our Christian vision: The Cross is a rugged place, not a place for the squeamish or self-righteous.”

Church community:
“I think that churches would be places of greater intimacy and growth in Christ if people stopped lying about what we need, what we fear, where we fail, and how we sin. I think that many of us have a hard time believing the God we believe in, when the going gets tough. And I suspect that instead of seeking counsel and direction from those stronger in the Lord, we retreat into our isolation and shame and let the sin wash over us, defeating us again. Or maybe we muscle through on our pride.”

Sexual sin:
“Sexual sin is not recreational sex gone overboard. Sexual sin is predatory. It won’t be ‘healed’ by redeeming the context or the genders. Sexual sin must simply be killed. What is left of your sexuality after this annihilation is up to God. . . . Christians act as though marriage redeems sin. Marriage does not redeem sin. Only Jesus himself can do that.”

Adoption:
“Because we are Christ’s, we know that children are not grafted into a family to resolve our fertility problems or to boost our egos or to complete our family pictures or because we match color or race or nation-status. We know, because we are Christ’s, that adoption is a miracle. In a spiritual sense, it is the miracle at the center of the Christian life. We who are adopted by God are those given a new heart, a ‘rebirth.'”

I have been thinking a lot lately about the recent controversy over “missionary adoption” and the idea that adoptive parents must have the “right motives” before they adopt. While I understand the cautions and caveats that Ms. Headmistress of the Common Room and Ms. Butterfield both repeat and the issues involved with foreign adoptions in particular, I hate to see us as a culture discouraging adoption and the ministry of orphan care.

I believe Ms. Butterfield and the Headmistress when they say that adults who adopt out of selfishness tend to reap trouble and disappointment, just as those who have selfish motives when they give birth to children tend to have parenting and family issues. However, our motives in anything we do are difficult to discern and usually mixed at best. Why did I give birth to eight children? Because I enjoy having children and parenting them and homeschooling them (most of the time). Because I believe children are a gift from the Lord. Because it makes me happy to see my children serving the Lord and glorifying Him. Are these selfish motives or unselfish? Am I less likely to deal well with the disappointments of having some children who are not serving the Lord right now because I expected them to all follow Him? Do I love them less (or should I not have had them in the first place, God forbid) when they are not making me happy? These are all good questions to ask yourself in regard to your children, whether they’re adopted or not. The answers can give Christian parents insight into the growth that the Holy Spirit wants to bring about in their lives so that they can better serve Him as parents.

Being a parent is complicated, whether you birth the children or adopt them. Adoption has its own joys and pitfalls. Yes, I am going off on a tangent here. Rosaria Butterfield has written a great story with insight about homosexuality, Christian conversion, the gospel, and adoption. I recommend the book—and I recommend having children, too, however you go about it.