Ladies' Weekend 2013

 

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have relating to this year's ladies weekend!  We had a lovely time in a rented cottage in Little Rock.  About fifteen Christ Church ladies (counting Audrey) enjoyed a couple days of relaxation, good food, and wonderful fellowship along with choir practice and a little marriage exhortation from Andy Stanley--not to mention a noble attempt at the puzzle pictured above.  Good thing Anna is always willing to pick up anyone's puzzle slack.  We MUST remember to take pictures next year!

Evil Thoughts and Triangulation

Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be verbalized. It is certain that the spirit of self-justification can only be overcome by the spirit of grace; and it is just as certain that the individual judgmental thought can be limited and suppressed by never allowing it to be spoken except as a confession of sin…. Thus it must be a decisive rule of all Christian community life that each individual is prohibited from talking about another Christian in secret. It is clear and will be shown in what follows that this prohibition does not include the word of admonition that is spoken personally to one another. However, talking about others in secret is not allowed even under the pretense of help and goodwill. For it is precisely in this guise that the spirit of hatred between believers always creeps in, seeking to cause trouble.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 

Ephesians 4:29

Questions to Ponder
•    Talking with people about someone else you are having trouble with when they are not there is called “triangulation.” In what ways does triangulation harm a community of faith?
•    How can a community of faith enforce the rule “that each individual is prohibited from talking about another Christian in secret”?
•    Would this be a good rule to generalize and apply to the workplace, school, families, among friends? Why, or why not?

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
   keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not turn my heart to any evil,
   to busy myself with wicked deeds
   in company with those who work iniquity…. 

Psalm 141:3-4

--taken from 40 Day Journey with  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Celebrating Another Princess

Mary Kate is only three days younger than Jocelyn.

They started with a Little House on the Prairie theme but quickly morphed into Wedding Princesses.

The Many Faces of a Sweet Pea

Community of Servants

The other service one should perform for another person in a Christian community is active helpfulness. To begin with, we have in mind simple assistance in minor, external matters. There are many such things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the lowest service. Those who worry about the loss of time entailed by such small, external acts of helpfulness are usually taking their own work too seriously. We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God, who will thwart our plans and frustrate our ways time and again, even daily, by sending people across our path with their demands and requests.
Biblical Wisdom

 “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Matt. 23:11

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Power and Submission

"We have to keep reminding ourselves lest we slip back into understanding submission as an attempt to cope with raw power. That is not it at all. Authority and submission together are a dance, not a fistfight. Moreover, it is a dance grounded in the way things ultimately are, because this is the way our triune God ultimately is."

(For a Glory and a Covering, p. 66).
--Doug Wilson, Blog and Mablog

A Birthday Fit for a 7yo Princess

Love those Target cards!

Cold hard cash is nice, too!

Birthday Party Server #1

Party Server #2

The Birthday Princess complete with forehead flower tattoo and ladies in waiting.