Truth, Love And Books

Oxy morons make me laugh. You know: jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly, seriously goofy...all those statements are somewhat funny and ironic, right?  But now, there's this increasingly popular, mainstream church movement labeled P rogressive Christianity.  And while Progressive Christianity is indeed an oxymoron, it surely is no laughing matter .  Rather, Progressive Christianity calls for some  serious examining.  The word progressive simply means to change or make better. That therein lies the concern. It is worth considering: How are mere mortals making what Jesus Christ (God incarnate) has said and done better ? Because while humans have created low carb pizza, rocket-ships, self-driving Teslas and many other amazing inventions, let us not forget:  perfection and immortality has eluded our human abilities. But Jesus? The Historical Jesus of Nazareth. He is the only one whom has come back to life.  He claimed to be God, and while He walked the earth eye...

I often like to tease my four younger siblings that they exist because of what a wonderful first child I was. In reality, I'm learning, my parents are fairly hearty people. Turns out, their first baby (me) was extremely fussy and pretty prideful and rebellious. Apparently, once as a 9 year old I ran through the neighborhood yellin g: "Call children services, my parents are abusing me!"  (ha not true at all) Now that I'm a mom and some stories of my childhood have been dug up, I'm somewhat mortified over what I put them through. Several times when I would mess up as a kid, I would read the Bible. It made me feel better and if mom would see me she would express pride over my right response to failure. Growing up, I had every reason to believe that the Bible corresponded with reality. My parents lived out their faith, I witnessed God provide for our family financially and answer really detailed prayer requests.  Overall the good book made sense,  and told a story of ...

Recently I have been doing some research for a project. Basically, I have been reading about the benefits of well, reading. I've been particularly interested in my children's generation (dubbed Gen Z) and their inclination to read. And because I'm a Millennial mama, wouldn't you know it, I did a quick google search. The stats are pretty telling. Overall the youngsters are largely tech-savvy, smart phone wizzes but rather book daft.* GenZ kids certainly know how to read but it's the desire to read that is acutely way down. This really should not be too surprising. It's the human default to do what is easy. The modern culture is so filled with quick, painless entertainment that it's no question reading and reading-aloud as a family are increasingly becoming legitimate past times. Reading is hard work. Especially if you've never done it to the point where it becomes enjoyable. But let us not conflate hard and bad. I've found that regularly reading alou...

My children are not amazed by Amazon Prime. Like at all. They know that when we order, we can expect a package to arrive on the porch in about 48 hours. Nearly every time I purchase, I’m incredulous. Is this real life? How do they have that many color options? How many warehouses do they even have? It consistently astounds me and I’ve never even utilized the drones. The majority of American kids are growing up in a world where if they want something, they can get it. Virtually anything at any time. Somehow, sadly, this idea seemingly has translated to truth. What’s true is like a custom Starbucks latte, what’s good coffee for me, may not be good coffee for you. Relative truth is the name for this mainstream ideology, and when we are talking about lattes, I’m whole-heartedly on board. But often, in parenting (and all that is significant in life) in order to be loving you need the truth. Objective truth. (Objective just means it supersedes opinion. ) Today’s youth has collectively adopte...