More Monday Madness: Communication Cues

In a world where businesses and friends often depend upon e-mail and even blogging to communicate, I want to know if we can really convey our ideas clearly enough.

I think the answer is more often "no" than we fully realize. These ways of communicating are both powerful and convenient, but are they effective? They lack vital aspects of communication such as tone of voice and facial expression which make it difficult for readers to fully comprehend motives, meaning and intent.

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Monday Madness: Thoughts about Thoughts

"...There are not so many hours in a year as there may be thoughts in an hour. Thoughts fly in flocks, like starlings, and swarm like bees. Like the withered leaves in autumn, there is no counting them; and like links in a chain, one draws on another. What a restless being man is! His thoughts dance up and down like midges in a summer's evening. Like a clock full of wheels with the pendulum in full swing, his mind moves as fast as time flies. This makes thinking such an important business. Many littles make much; and so many light thoughts make a great weight of sin. A grain of sand is light enough, but Solomon tells us that a heap of sand is heavy. When there are so many children the mother better look well after them. We ought to mind our thoughts, for if they turn to be our enemies, they will be too many for us and will drag us down to ruin. Thoughts from heaven, like birds in spring, will fill our souls with music; but thoughts of evil will sting us like vipers.

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More Weekend Whatever: Am I paranoid?

The other evening there was a miscommunication between a friend of mine and I. She was hurt by something I said and I could see it in her eyes and her response. I have been wrong about this before, but I would rather err on the side of caution and nip any potential strife in the bud than let it grow into something unintended. In this case, I was correct in that there was a miscommunication and she was hurt. Thankfully it was nipped in the bud, which will allow for our friendship, that runs deeper than the surface, to flourish.
But what about the times I have been told I was wrong in thinking there was something amiss?

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I'm not going to be popular in Oklahoma...

We lived in Oklahoma before we came to Arkansas. The homeschool laws are... well, there aren't any. This is not even good for those who actually do an excellent job of homeschooling their children. Why? Well, because I was talking to a young lady that is close to our family that has been homeschooled all her life. She said she wished that she would have done more testing because of her experience with the ACT. Since she was not exposed to alot of state testing, she was overwhelmed by the ACT. Now this is a smart young lady. So is her friend that made straight A's throughout homeschooling... but could barely, after many attempts, make a 20 on the ACT. The college she was trying to get into thought that her parents must have falsified her grades because of her ACT scores...

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Weekend Whatever: Family Unity Night

My pastor has posted pics of the Hawaiian-style Family Unity Night at our home this past Thursday night. We typically have our church family over every Thursday night for a Home Bible Fellowship. But the last Thursday of the month is reserved for Unity night which occurs at various locations. This time we invited several neighbors and it was a joy to see our church family embrace and share and welcome our neighbors. One family from our neighborhood attends on Thursday nights. Very sweet Christian family.
My boys and I spent several hours cutting up meat and veggies to marinate and then stick on skewers the next morning. We also had a contest for the "tackiest tourist." It was a fun night of fellowship in which, before our pastor prayed for the meal, he encouraged us to have conversations centered around the Lord and to encourage one another in the Lord. It is always an honor to have people in our home and we are thankful for these opportunities. I was a bit exhausted and perhaps delirious at the close of the evening, but I was far more so blessed... even by the bit of rain that made it not so steaming hot outside.

Phriday Philippians: Grace to You...

In verse 2 of Chapter one Paul greets the Philippians with the blessing of grace and peace. I'm going to focus on grace this time. Actually, I need to focus on grace everyday, all day, but you know what I mean.

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Thursday Theology: I must have been blind

God has to open a persons's spiritual eyes to understand the scripture... we can read and re-read a Scriptural text many times, but until God the Holy Spirit illumines our mind to the text, until it is the fullness of time for someone to understand, we can be looking right at the plain text and yet fail to see or hear it.

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Wednesday Womanhood-- X. A Biblical Vision of Manhood and Womanhood: Young and Uneducated

This is my 10th of a series of postings from Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth by Wayne Grudem.

This post will be covering Egalitarian Claim 6.10 on Young and Uneducated Wives: The egalitarian positions claims that wives were to be subject to their husbands at the time of the New Testament because they were younger and less educated than their husbands, but this is not true today, so the command no longer applies.

I thought this would be one of the topics in this book I would skip because I thought it to be such a weak argument in light of Scripture... until a friend brought this issue up via e-mail conversation.

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Because you asked...

It looks as though I have gone into remission with the multiple sclerosis.

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Tuesday Tips: Vivid Details

A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then she asked the class, "If you saw a person lying on the roadside all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?" A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence with......"I think I'd throw up!"

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