Thursday, March 25, 2010

Here Burns My Candle

Liz Curtis Higgs has done it again! In the stirring, Lowlands saga, Here Burns My Candle, Liz masterfully retells the classic story of Naomi and Ruth set in the Scottish era of Bonnie Prince Charlie. If you were a fan of her Whence Came a Prince novels,Here Burns My Candle is sure to satisfy your craving for more wonderful, Scottish stories.

Here Burns My Candle tells the story of Lady Elizabeth Kerr, born a simple Highlander, but married into an aristocratic Lowland family living in Edinburgh.  Lady Elizabeth holds secretly to her Jacobite loyalties and her pagan upbringing, but feels the stirrings of Another calling to her and wooing her.  As her beloved husband, who is not as faithful as he first seemed to be, marches off with Bonnie Prince Charlie, Elizabeth and her mother-in-law, Lady Marjory must learn to appreciate each other.  But, Marjory is dealing with her own past and her own secrets.  Together these two women pull together as their family is torn apart.

Here Burns My Candle tells the beginning of the story of Ruth in a rich and imaginative way. I couldn’t help but be swept up in the story and intrigues of the Jacobite rebellion.  Liz does a fantastic job of researching 18th Century Scotland and painting an accurate picture for the reader.  This is one book I can recommend for all kinds of readers!

There is a link for the book’s trailer below that should whet your appetite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nPMBA_rgM

This book was provided for review by WaterbrookMultnomah

For more information on this book visit www.waterbrookmultnomah.com

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What’s Your Perspective?

Tonight we went with Nate’s Sunday School class and a few other women from church downtown to the Gospel Union Mission to serve dinner to the homeless from Duluth.  It was a good experience for all of us and for the kids especially.  Most of the people there were very friendly and thankful.

There were two women, though who really stood out to me this evening. One sat down with her tray full of taco casserole, dug around through it with a fork and with disgust said to her friend, “This is s***.” Then she proceeded to pour four packets of salt on top while she grumbled the whole time.

As we were leaving another woman was bringing her cleaned tray to the counter and stopped us to say, “Ya’ll were just such a blessing to me tonight. This meal was a blessing from God. Thank you all so much!”

Her friendly smile, kind words and sparkling brown eyes just made my night. I wanted to give her a big hug.

These two women got me to thinking. They both had the same meal, sat in the same room, and face pretty much the same circumstances in life; they’re homeless. Yet one chose to grumble and complain and the other chose to accept life as a gift and offer blessings.  I commented on the way home that it truly doesn’t matter whether you are homeless or a millionaire.  Circumstances do not make the person.  Your attitude is something you choose!

How often do we say things like, “Well, if I just had a better car, or a job, or more money? Of if my kids were older or younger, or my husband was gone or if I had a husband, I wouldn’t be this way?”  The grass is always greener isn’t it? But, all of our circumstances, no matter how dire, are just excuses.  We have a choice, a choice to live life with thankful hearts raised to God, or with our eyes focused inward on ourselves, selfishly grumbling and complaining and making our lives and the lives of everyone around us miserable.

The Apostle Paul said in the book of Philippians, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Phil. 4:11-13

In other words, if we try to live this life in our own strength, with our eyes focused on ourselves, we will be overcome by our circumstances.  But, when we focus on Christ and live life in HIS strength, every circumstance, whether joyful or difficult, becomes an opportunity to live for His glory and give Him praise.  We can then live our lives thanking Him for life and the good things in it, and in turn be a blessing to others.

“Bloom where you’re planted,” as the old saying goes. Shift your perspective from yourself to Christ and see how abundant and free a life lived for His glory is, in spite of circumstances.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Start Here

Are you a rebelutionary? Do you know any rebelutionaries? You might even be asking, “What in the world IS a rebelutionary!?”  Start Here by Alex and Brett Harris picks up where there first book, Do Hard Things left off, by challenging teens to rise above the low standards set by their generation and become a rebelutionary; someone who is willing to do hard things.

Start Here offers practical advice to these teens who are ready to take the challenge, but need some advice and encouragement.  Alex and Brett answer questions such as how do I get started, how do I know this is what God is calling me to do, what if my parents don’t agree with me and how do I handle pride?

I was most impressed by the humility the Harris twins show in their book.  Over and over they remind the reader that the motivation for doing hard things is to give glory to God, not to exalt ourselves.  And as a parent reading this book, I was especially grateful they pointed out several times to their young and impressionable audience that their first responsibility in glorifying God is to obey and honor their parents.

Start Here is a wonderfully, well-written book by two young men who are shining lights in their dark generation.  It is filled with practical advice and wise counsel.  For any teens, parents or youth workers wanting to encourage their young people to step out in faith, Start Here is a fantastic resource.

I find it ironic that I was asked to write the review for Start Here this particular week.  This week I, 7 other adults and 8 amazing rebelutionary teens were supposed to be on a missions trip in Torreon, Mexico.  All of the members of this team had counted the cost and stood up under fire against others who told us it was too dangerous to go down there.  In the end, God had other plans.  The drug cartels began car jackings and kidnappings along our route to Torreon and we were forced to cancel our trip 2 days before we had to leave.  Sometimes the hardest things to do are the things we don’t understand.  And Alex and Brett point this out in their book.  These 8 teens that were members of our missions team are learning to trust God even when His ways and His timing doesn’t make sense.

There were also other teens who wanted to go on this trip whose parents said no.  These teens are also rebelutionaries.  They chose to do the hard thing of honoring and obeying their parents.  I witnessed their faithfulness even in the face of scorn from their friends.  God is honored by their decision to glorify Him.

These teens are not going to be recognized by the world for their willingness to do hard things this year, but God sees. As Alex and Brett say in Start Here, “ Faithfulness in small hard things is always the fuel for bigger hard things.”

I’m proud to know these teens. And I’m glad there are teens like Alex and Brett Harris in this world to encourage others to do hard things and to start where they are to live life for the glory of God.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

It’s amazing what can be accomplished when one doesn’t have a headache! I was so glad today that my migraine went away, because I had big plans for St. Patrick’s Day. I usually don’t celebrate big, but I had some fun ideas thanks to the always creative folks at Family Fun magazine. But, my first fun idea came courtesy of my mom, who did this every year.  My kids were greeted first thing in the morning with green milk on their cereal. They all thought that was hilarious.

Later on in the morning Daniel and I decided to tackle rainbow cupcakes.

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This involved carefully dyeing six bowls of white cake batter all the colors of the rainbow.

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Then we carefully layered them in muffin cups and baked them.  I was somewhat anxious as to how they would turn out, but voila!

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We added our own decorations with vanilla frosting and green sprinkles.

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We had to sample one to make sure they tasted ok and to see how cool they looked on the inside.

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This afternoon we took advantage of the delightful spring weather and went for an hour long hike up in the woods. Admittedly the clothes were a bit strange. Shorts and rain boots for the boys. But, it was still pretty mucky.

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Our final project of the day was a fruit rainbow and pot of gold to go with our pizza. Looks yummy. Time to go eat all our hard work!

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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Bump, Bang, Thump! Giggle, giggle, giggle. Whack, Boom! Giggle, giggle, giggle.  I sighed, burrowed deeper into my covers and pulled the pillow over my head trying get to sleep. What in heaven’s name were those girls doing? And how in the world could three girls ages 18, 17 and 14 sound like my two boys wrestling out in the living room?

Ever since I had kids, especially Laura, my only girl, I can’t tell you the number of people that have shook their heads at me and said, “She’s sweet now, but just wait. . .”  Truly, what a horrible thing to say to a young mother with a sweet, little baby!  How often have we mothers heard and bought into the lie that of the “Just Waits?”  “Those teenage years”, they tell us, “Just wait.” I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be waiting for, but I’m a firm believer that you get what you expect.  I expect a delightful daughter and so far, that’s what I’ve gotten.  She’s 14 and so I’m still waiting, for what?  Last night there were four other young ladies around my dining room table, three in their late teens and one in her early 20’s.  All of them further proof against those dire “just wait” warnings.  In fact, right before dinner, as I was making pizza Nathan asked me, “Should the boys and I go somewhere?” Laura immediately exclaimed, “NO! I would be so sad if my family wasn’t here at my party with me.”  And all of her friends were just as delighted to share pizza and birthday cake, and I might add, plenty of giggles around the dinner table with our family too.

I did find out what was going on.  The three were playing with Laura’s new digital camera.  Considering what teenage girls could be doing on a Friday night. . . And they weren’t holed up in Laura’s room trying to get away from “the parents.” No, they were sprawled around our living room where Nathan was working on taxes.  Silly girls, having fun, delightful girls, innocent girls, the way girlhood should be.

The girls around my table get a little bigger every year.  The naysayers don’t quit. But I say bring it on you pessimists!  The girls I know just wanna have fun.  You just wait. . . someday, they’re going to change the world!

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Sibling Revelry

 

It’s a given that all siblings do their share of bickering. But, that doesn’t have to be the norm, at least not in our house.  While I do listen to my kids argue and sometimes be downright rude to each other, for the most part peace and love reigns.  This is not an accident.  This is something Nathan and I have intentionally taught our children from day one.  Some of the principles we raise our kids by are these:

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Phil. 2:3,4

“And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” I Peter 1:22

A word heard often in our house is “honor.” Honor one another, show preference for each other.  We don’t believe that brothers and sisters need to grow up fighting and being angry with each other all the time, but that they can grow up being friends with each other, loving each other and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. We often tell the two older ones to watch what they do because the younger ones are watching.

This was evidenced this morning.  Laura, as the oldest, will often serve her brothers tirelessly.  And, quite frankly, they often take it for granted.  But, today I saw something that makes me think all this talk of honor and love just may be getting through. 

Today is Laura’s birthday, and although Nate, who is 10, went to bed late last night, he got up early and made Laura a birthday poster for outside her bedroom:

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And he brought her breakfast in bed! Oatmeal, peanut butter toast and tea. He made it all himself and carried it up to her with no help or intervention from Mom; it was all his own initiative.

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Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” I John 3:18

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mexico-Laura

Every year when I go to Mexico I am the youngest in the group. Not always the best thing in the world! You’d think I would get pampered but, no of course not I just get the worst jobs ever!

Well that is what I thought! I thought that I had all the “after thought” jobs. The first year I went I was twelve and not old enough or strong enough to do the work that everyone else could do so I was the water girl. Which was a very good job because I was making sure that everyone was hydrated! Everyone everyone except one person. Myself!! So well everyone else was hydrated and fine I was stuck in bed vomiting for 2 days. Well I learned my lesson all right but I felt very unusful! Everybody else did amazing things well I laid in bed sick!IMG_0584 IMG_0604

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Well the very next year I went to LaLoma. Which is the other little town we go to. Everybody had a job there. Except me! I would help haul prickly branches for awhile and then they would not need me anymore. Or I would hand the guys tools since they were doing electrical work. But that was not enough work for a whole day. So I would go ask our youth pastor what job he wanted me to do and he would say go clean up garbage in the yard. And let me tell you there is so much garbage in that yard it was nuts! So I would do that for awhile till somebody needed something done real quick and then i would go ask for another job and guess what I had to do! Pick up garbage! I think I picked up an huge black yard sack full! 

Well this year I am going to be 14 when I go. And I am ready for some hard work. But I am still the youngest and I was feeling pretty unexcited for some pansy job I was going to do. I was thinking about how unuseful I thought I was being. Until my grandma sent me this verse and it boosted my spirits!

Hebrews 6:10                                                                                

“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and still ministering to the saints.”