Fireproof

Today I begin a new decade. I’m no longer in my forties. Actually turning forty was emotionally more difficult for me. I think 50 will be more difficult for my mom; having to say her daughter is 50.

Someone sent me some info. about the movie Fireproof that comes out on Sept. 26th. Seems like it’s worth the expense. Dr. Ted Baehr. founder of Movieguide, said that we can influence our culture and the media, by how we vote. Every time we go to a movie in the theater we are casting a vote. Being frugal we seldom went to movies, choosing to wait until it came out on video. Now we go occasionally, so we’ll have a vote on things we’d like to see more of, coming out of the studios. I hope you’re able to cast a vote for traditional values by seeing this movie.

School in Full Swing and Perfectionism

Well, school is in full swing, and we had our first teacher's meeting for this school year on Tue. I gave the devotion, on something I’ve been pondering for some time now, perfectionism. Something my oldest said to me that made me think was that she thought I was hard on her and her sister, because I was hard on myself.

In preparing for this devotion/study, I ran across six blog entries by Dr. Del Tackett Dr. Del Tackett the teacher for Focus on the Families truth project. Summarizing them into a short devotion, was quite the challenge, and I probably went over a little. Here is a small portion from the blogs, emphasis added, with the links below to the entire thing. I encourage you to take the time to read them, you will be blessed.

“Often when we read the English word “perfect” or “perfection” we may have in mind something entirely different. We may think that “perfection” means “precisely exact” or “purely pure”, without flaw. If so, then I believe we will misunderstand what God is saying to us in the vast majority of these passages. Look at the Greek word “katartizo” translated “perfection” in 2 Corinthians 13:11 (“Aim for perfection”, NIV). Vine defines that word as “to render fit”. That means to “make functional”.

In the realm of salvation and our relationship with God, the standard is pure holiness. Many of the “perfect” passages deal with this. We can’t achieve that, so God did so and does so for us. That is the glory of the Gospel. In the realm of human actions, we are called to act righteously and not sin. But those righteous actions do not carry a standard of “precise exactness”. If I am supposed to be kind to my neighbor, what “precisely” and “exactly” does that mean? Do I begin my conversation with “Good morning, Miss Quigley”, “Hello, Miss Quigley” or “Hi! What’s up?” Scripture doesn’t burden us with “precise exactness” in these things. So, in the social realm, I have Scriptural guidance to be “perfect” in kindness, gentleness, love, respect, etc., but without slavery to some sense of “this is exactly how you should do this or you will be imperfect”.”

10/24/207 First entry
11/19/207 Second entry
11/20/207 Third entry
11/30/207 Fourth entry
12/3/207 Fifth entry
12/5/207 Sixth entry

I ended the summary with some thoughts of my own;

So my encouragement to us in all our areas of life is to seek the Lord, like Mary, and ask him to show use what Martha burdens or burdens of precise exactness WE have incorporated into our lives and to seek His help to let them go. May we all spend time focusing on our relationships with the Lord and others than the stuff in this world that so easily distracts us.

I want to leave you with one last verse that may also be the cause of some of the burdens we place on ourselves, from Proverbs 39:25 NIV
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

This is where we had the privilege of staying for a week.





Chocolate chip cookies being made while we play games.



Our host's property, and what we took our walks through in the mornings



Photos from Cave of the Winds.





These shots are from the Mining Museum.





The pictures below are from the Molly Kathleen Mine .







The pictures below are from Dragonmans.. If you know David you'll know why he enjoyed this place.







Here are the girls on our friends porch.





This is Glen Eyrie where we had high tea.

Missing Colorado and Starting School

We had a wonderful time in Colorado. The fellowship with and hospitality of our friends was wonderful. Their home and property, where we had the privilege of staying, was beautiful. We watched taekwondo, saw a movie, played in the woods, went to a castle for high tea, shopping, to Cave of the Winds, mining museums and mines, a Military History Museum and out to dinner. We played games, ate choc. chip cookie dough and a few cookies too, stayed up late talking, reconnected and cemented friendships. We had such a good time we still miss it and want to go back. When I can get a hold of some of the pictures, I'll post them.

Even though it's still August, we've start school, by dd's choice. She would rather have a few days as a cushion than start later. Hard to believe it's August already. I've also rented two apartments and will be doing contracts the next two days. I have two more units coming up, I'm hoping after they're rented, I can have 100% occupancy for a while. I'm working on a few homeschooling lenses, check the links in the sidebar.

Colorado Here We Come

Before we talk Colorado, I want to report that DD2 successfully made it to Tennessee and back. She worked in crafts, doing VBS with some inner city kids. She had a good but tiring time, and met lots of new friends from around the US.

It was her first time flying, and this week she'll get to do it again. We're heading to Colorado to stay with some close friends. It will be my second time and DD1's first time. DH flies to often to count. Hopefully when I get back I can post some pictures taken with our new camera. The old one died. Hope you are enjoying your summer, check back next week for an updated post.

Prayer request for the Laurie and Pausch families

In reviewing my previous blogs I noticed my penchant for starting each with “well”. I will have to rectify that for the future. I intended to give you an update of what’s going on here, which includes picking up my youngest from the airport tomorrow as she returns from TN. Instead, I’m going to request prayers for Greg Laurie and his family and Randy Pausch's family as each deals with there great loss.

The links above explain more and her is an article is from the OC Register about Christopher Laurie. Thank you in advance for your ministry of prayer.

Next stop Nashville

Well I survived the CHEA Convention. It was good to hear Gregg Harris and Ken Ham again. As usual I was encouraged, to continue on and while there are areas that need fine tunning, it seems we've done some things right. I also bought three curriculums, and will let you know what I think once we start using them.

Yesterday the girls and I enjoyed the beach with their cousin and sampled Starbucks new mango banana smoothie drink. After that DD1 took her cousin shopping, while DD2 completed her last day of dance camp. Today, DH flew up north for work and I waited in vain for the phone to ring with prospective tenants.

Next stop is Nashville for DD2, she leaves on Sat. to join over 700 others be the hands and feet of Jesus in that city. She will be doing crafts for VBS, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Over 20 years ago I worked at a summer camp in the crafts department.

Well, summer is flying by, hope your enjoying yours. Time to work on some more lenses for Squidoo.