How All This Began

Grammy and Grandad starting their lives together in central Washington

Mommy and Uncle Paul at the Columbia River on the Washington Oregon border

Historical Perspective

“In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.” ― Paul Harvey

More Webster Wisdom

Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God.  If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted.  If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. --Noah Webster

Oops!

“Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

―Thomas Sowell

HT: Feast of Booths

Past, Present, and Future

“Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.” ―Augustine of Hippo

HT: Feast of Booths

Miscellaneous Wisdom from American Presidents

Just in time for the 2012 presidential election, we recently finished a simple study of the American presidents.  Here are a few tidbits of wisdom some of these men have shared with us all:

"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is."--Thomas Jefferson

"The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests."--Andrew Jackson

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."--James Madison

Adams Family Style Patriotism

A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God.  Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind can have any real Good Will toward Men?  Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society?  The Scriptures tell us righteousness exalteth a Nation.
--Abigail Adams

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this, that it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
--John Quincy Adams

Hope in History

The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.--Robert E. Lee
(American Vision website)

A Free House and Perseverance for the Long Haul

Dwayne at Visual Latin has a nice selection of quotes.  Here are a couple gems I pilfered:

A house of freedom is a house of rules that protects from the most selfish member. - CS Lewis

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston Churchill

Eternal and Immutable Principles

The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.  I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

~John Adams

Teddy's Take on Patriotism

Patriotism means to stand by the country.  It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. . . It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.
~Theodore Roosevelt

God Bless America in Spite of Ourselves

While I may not agree with Lincoln's understanding of the Constitution, he definitely knew how to diagnose our national problems, then and now:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.  And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!  It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." 
~Abraham Lincoln

Ian's History Report for the Kernodle Co-op dinner on Elijah and the Chariot of Fire

Israel split. Reheboam caused it by giving them heavier work so God sent a bunch of prophets and Elijah known as the fiery Prophet. Elijah did a lot of amazing things. One of them is the story of the chariot of fire. One time God told Elijah that it was time to go to heaven, so God told Elijah to get Elisha they passed through three cities each time, Elijah said, ‘’Stay,’’ and each time Elisha said, “No!” Finally they crossed the Jordan River. Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted before he left, and Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. Elijah told him that if he saw him leave, There was a big whirlwind and a chariot of fire that took Elijah to heaven.

Ian, age 11 

There is a lovely abstract art rendition of the scene that Ian created with Mrs. Kernodle's guidance.  I hope to get a pic of the art and the artist soon!  Anna and Lewis did reports and artwork, too.  I'll have to work on tracking those down.

Historic Fun

Ian, Anna, and Lewis have thoroughly enjoyed their monthly history class with Ms. Sara this semester.  After emptying boxes from a recent Azure delivery, Anna looked at the pile of cardboard and saw an artifact instead of trash.  After many happy minutes spent with scissors and scotch tape, she ended up with this original rendition of a menorah.

Both our families enjoyed a review presentation dinner
where the students each talked about a different Old Testament character from their studies.
(Snow White was a bonus not in the original curriculum.)

 Emily and Mary Kate did a cute theatrical production depicting the rivalry between Hannah and Peninah.

Toward the end of our evening together, 

Lewis covered the history of Saint Nicholas with some bright young students.

A Fun Friday

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of spending time in Little Rock with the four wonderful people shown above.  Dawson, Elisha, and I attended a piano workshop with Eastman's Tony Caramia in the morning.  Then after an excellent lunch at Root Cafe and a brief perusal of the library book sale, we met Ian and Anna for a tour of Columbus's two surviving ships.  

Okay, they were Nina and Pinta replicas, but they were handmade using techniques form the fifteenth century and they were fully operational.  It was more fun (and cheaper!) to take the tour with several other friends.  

Thirty years after Columbus did his thing across the Atlantic, Magellan was using this same type of dinky ship to sail around the world! 

'Tis the Season . . .

. . . to enjoy a bit of history.  Since I probably fall into the categories of both amateur foodie and amateur history buff, I liked this overview of the background of the gravy packet (and other mixes, too):

It's All Gravy: The Industrial History of a Thanksgiving Favorite

HT: Rick at Dry Creek Chronicles

Economic Wisdom in from a Government Leader of a Different Era

"Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to his daughter Martha (14 June 1787)

HT: Life in a Shoe blog

Katie Luther, Proverbs 31 Woman

Katie Luther's strong personality has already been alluded to, but I thought I would develop that a bit more. Rebecca Johnson (Leben 4:1) describes Katie as brewing beer, driving a wagon, buying cattle, loving her husband, and raising her six children with kindness. She had a quick wit, and Katie and Martin were known for their sarcastic exchanges.

Martin would often tease his wife by calling her names such as:"my lord Katy" (spellings of her name are abundantly various), "my empress Katy," "my lord and Moses Katy." And on at least one most flowery and regal occasion she was dubbed by her husband "My kind and dear lord and master Katy, Lutheress, doctress, and priestess at Wittenberg."

It's funny to note Luther's candidness in the progress of their relationship: "Had I desired to marry fourteen years ago, I would have chosen Eva von Schoenfeld, now Basilius' wife. At that time I did not love my Catherine at all." Yet he did choose to love her and found her to be a loving companion in return and a very capable manager of his household.

She was probably a much stronger personality than would be considered acceptable in most circles today that seek to teach and obey God's design for loving leadership on the part of the husband and respectful submission on the part of the wife. Yet, I think that Luther was a strong enough leader to fulfill his role in the family without forcing his wife to fit some caricature of submission. Some of us ladies might do well to tone down our Katie-ish tendencies in order to leave room for our husbands to grow strong in their leadership, but the key is being responsive to our own husband, wherever he is at--not matching ourselves to another lady (real or fictitious) who seems to fit some preconceived notion of what submission should look like.

Martin, for one, seemed quite satisfied with their relationship: "I would not want to exchange my Katie for France nor for Venice to boot; to begin with (1) because God has given her to me and me to her; (2) because I often find that there are more shortcomings in other women than in my Katie; and although she, of course, has some too, these are nonetheless offset by far greater virtues; (3) because she keeps faith and honor in our marriage relation."

"The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands." Proverbs 14:1

Martin and Katie

I love Martin and Katie Luther's story. I'll summarize it here with help from Rebecca Johnson's article in Leben, Volume 4 Issue 1:

Katherina von Bora and her sister nuns, after becoming familiar with Martin Luther's teaching and work, contacted the great Reformer requesting assistance in escaping their convent (a capital offense). Luther responded helpfully, and the story goes that the adventurous nuns were each placed in a herring barrell and carted off to freedom by Luther's associates.

Luther then played matchmaker, helping lonely ex-monks and former nuns find spouses. He was not interested in Katie initially, considering her somewhat arrogant. She developed a promising relationship with someone else, but alas, things did not work out.

Somewhere in the aftermath of that failed relationship, Katie decided Luther was the man for her. Luther began to feel hypocritical for exhorting men to embrace married life with its blessings, cares, and responsibilities while he remained single. So he promptly proposed to Katie--who thought it was a joke. After he was able to convince her of his sincerity, they were married the same day and went on to build one of the great godly households in church history with six children from their loving union, a busy farm, and legendary hospitality.

Leben

City Seminary of Sacramento publishes a quarterly biographical journal called Leben: a journal of Reformation life ( http://www.leben.us/ ). Though probably not everyone's cup of tea, this history major finds it quite interesting, and I think even those who are not history buffs would enjoy going through and looking at the historical art and photographs. I am currently taking advantage of their free introductory offer.

Don't know much about the seminary itself (except that it is small and committed to its students going through without debt), but if the publication reflects the institution, it would seem to be of respectable quality. The most recent issue contained the first half of an engaging article on Katie Luther. I intend to share bits and pieces of that article, perhaps along with a few of my responsive ruminations, in future posts.