WORTH CONTEMPLATING

Thanks to Amy from Humble Musings for this link. Josh Harris is the senior pastor here and the author of these popular books on courtship and purity. Josh takes Romans 13:14 and explains what the flesh means and how to make no provision for it. He includes some interesting cartoons he drew that actually help his explanation a lot. His main concern in the post is what kind of media Christians expose themselves to. He contends that the main area where Christians "feed their flesh" is in media, especially TV. His argument has encapsulated exactly how I feel about certain programs like American Idol. I've tried to think through my reasons why I should avoid that and other shows. Without giving away the whole argument I'll just quote his last sentence which stopped me in my tracks. I'll be asking myself this question next time I'm tempted to switch the channel ~

"Friends, what we view in media becomes our meditation. It either feeds our desire for godliness or it feeds our flesh. Which one are you feeding?"

BEING WINSOME

I've been reading Tim Challies' excellent blog recently and he's had some interesting debates raging about some hot topics, particularly birth control and homeschooling. His conclusions on these subjects were a little surprising to me (I expected he would agree with me), but it got me thinking about my own positions and how I speak about them with others. My husband is well aware of my tendency to hold tenaciously to a new conviction. Every once in a while I learn about something new or study a certain topic or hear someone speak on something and (more often than not) if I agree with it I immediately become a champion of that someone or something. It's all or nothing with me at first. That's what happened with homeschooling and birth control. I became convinced of my positions and whenever I encountered someone who had a different view I had this underlying, almost always, prideful feeling that I was right and they were wrong. Why couldn't they see it the way I did?

Pretty bad, huh? The enemy definitely knows where to tempt me, but I'm glad that He who is in me is greater than He who is in the world. The Lord continues to tenderly open my eyes to my own sin so I can be free of it. Praise Him! Loving my fellow believers in Christ should be more important than convincing them that I'm right on these issues. When I speak I should edify not divide. Everything I say and do should adorn the gospel. Being winsome means to be agreeable and pleasant. Having convictions is not bad, but wisdom requires that I hold them and speak of them in a way that brings honor to Christ and edifies His body, not my ego.

1 DOWN...A LOT TO GO

My goal for January was to finish 1776 by David McCullough. Well, it's one day late but I did it. I wasn't sure I'd make it but then I realized there were about 75 pages of references at the end of the book.

Most of us don't explore a lot of topics in depth like Mr. McCullough has done. And because of time constraints we're not able to study subjects in school this in depth either. I was surprised by a lot of the details in this book. I think I had a very idealistic vision of Washington and the events that surrounded that fateful year. I didn't realize just how grueling that year was and how much perseverance and courage it took for our founding fathers to stand up and fight for their independence. I most definitely have new appreciation and pride for my country and those who fought to make it free.

So yeah!! for me. On to the next book. I'll tell you what it is when I finish it.

(By the way, my son wanted me to write about this cool science experiment we did today - we made oobleck. He's having fun with it right now.)