I always knew this would happen; I just didn’t think it’d happen so soon. I figured that I had a couple more years until my kids began to surpass me in the knowledge venue. I mean, my firstborn is only finishing first grade. I’ve got some time, right?

Whatever. Teach ‘em to read, and it’s all over.

Ever since my husband promised our son a Slurpee for every book in the Chronicles of Narnia series that he finished, my Braveheart-in-training has turned into an Einstein-wanna-be. I’m sure it’s just a phase. So, while it came as a shock to me, it really should have been no surprise at all: my son knows stuff that I don’t know. I overheard him tell his sister that Jupiter has 16 moons and is 11 times bigger than Earth. That was after some jazz about Uranus’ rings. (Uranus has rings?)

Yes, I checked. Yes, he was right. Yes, I’m reading up on it.

He has no clue that I’m shaking in my boots sandals. The truth is, I feel inadequate and overwhelmed sometimes at the task before me: to raise them to be faithful (not necessarily knowledgable).Yet, God chose me to be the mother of children. Not just any children, but these children. He handpicked these precious ones before the foundations of the earth to be here– right here– with me, under my care at this moment in time, so that I could lead them to Jesus.

And for now, that’s all I need to know.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28), so too, we must learn to serve others. Sir Alexander Patterson prays, “Make us masters of ourselves that we may be the servants of others.” Oftentimes, we do not offer our service joyfully because we’re too busy longing for another way, a greener pasture. We long for fleeting pleasures—those things which satisfy our cravings until the next symptomatic lust comes along. I know this, because I do it everyday.

I want a housekeeper. I like my house to be spic and span, and it puts me in a mood to have it messy. I think that life would be better if only I had a maid to help me alphabetize my spices and scrub the shower. I hate scrubbing the shower. And my spices are not in order.

But it is time to take stock when my mood is determined by serving my lusts instead of finding satisfaction in Christ. What makes my heart happy? Instead of singing with the Psalmist, “Oh, how I love Thy law,” I am lamenting, “Oh, how I wish I had Merry Maids. That will make me happy.”

There are bigger things to lament, but there is no greater thing to love.

My husband frequently travels to California on business, and he’ll be home late tonight. Yea! I have no point in saying this except that this is a blog, and some real life people might care about this tidbit. Also, I wanted occasion to use this: (Thanks, Valerie, for the smileys.) Hurray for Fridays!

Total books owned, ever:

I have no idea, but I’m guessing that we probably own about 5,000 books right now. Give or take a couple thousand.

Last book(s) I bought:

This week, I started my five-year-old on the piano. The local bookstore was out of the Bastien series, so I bought three books from the Alfred’s Basic Piano Library sequence: Lesson Book, Level 1A; Theory Book, Level 1A; and Technic Book, Level 1A. I haven’t taught my seven-year-old to play yet, because he still isn’t interested.

Last book I read:

This is what I read yesterday:

–Work Excellence: A Biblical Perspective of Work, by Charles M. Garriott. I’ll post a review of this on Monday, Lord willing.
–Sheet music for a piano piece I’m working on. (This counts, right?)
–A Home Depot catalog. We’re always working on our house.
–My blog list. No comment.
–A chapter and Biblical text from Leviticus, by Nancy Ganz. This is the book series that we use for family devotions. I highly recommend it, as my kids weep and wail if we happen to miss devotions. And we’re in Leviticus!
–A chapter from The Mommy Manual and Lord, Please Meet Me in the Laundry Room, by Barbara Curtis. Now, Barbara is the one who tagged me for this post. I guess she was just checking up on me. I’m reading! I’m reading!

Five books that mean a lot to me:

–The Bible – As Barbara mentioned, I know it’s a cliche, but still the truth - the grandest story of redemption ever.
–Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss – My favorite fiction book.
–Desiring God, by John Piper
–The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyczyn – Every new bride should have a copy of this book.
–The Way Home, by Mary Pride – Though not a definitive work in itself, this book had profound implications on how I viewed my calling as a wife and mother early on in our marriage.

I found it amusing that a book about work was not very much work to read. Perhaps it is because the author’s purpose is just to get you thinking rightly about the subject, so that you can, well… just get back to work.

Work Excellence by Charles M. Garriott sets out to answer what it means to have a biblical perspective of work. Do you understand what it means to glorify God in your work? What is the standard for the Christian in work? What does excellence look like in the life of a Christian? Garriott’s goal is to answer these questions and he does a fine job of that. It was a quick read, as well as a good read. Which is excellent, because I’ve a house to run. (Have I ever mentioned that?)

There are two of me. The Rare Me toils the day away and slides into bed late in the evening (not letting the lamp go out, of course) with a prayer of worship. My joints ache, but my heart is filled with gratitude, satisfaction, and thanksgiving for a day of hard labor. This actually happens every time we shovel mulch. Then, there is the other me—The Typical Me—that climbs the stairs, picking up miscellaneous, forgotten Legos on my way, collapsing into bed, cursing the late hour, vowing to get to bed earlier the next night, and asking my husband, “You mean I have to do this again tomorrow?”

So, when Garriott points out early in the book on page 13 that the “only thing secular about work is the way we view and treat it,” I knew I’d be in for a worthwhile read. After exegeting the biblical passage of Cain and Abel, Garriott concludes that “there is no excellence in work if it does not lead to worship.” All of life is worship, whether we are doing it with our work on six days or with our worship and rest on the seventh day. Our lives are an offering (Romans 12:1), so it necessarily follows that our work is for God’s glory, as well.

So, what then, are we do with the conflict and drudge that often accompanies a lot of our work? When God cursed the ground in Genesis, causing mankind’s labor and pain to increase significantly, He not only showed us His wrath against sin, He reminded us of His mercy. In this world, we will labor, and the weeds will compete against our efforts. This is because of sin. The weeds are a reminder of His judgment and wrath. Yet, in the same passage, God promises a Deliverer who will “crush the head” of the serpent. This promise gives all of us who toil a reason to work with excellence for God’s glory.

God’s blessing is necessary for my work to be done well and to His glory. (Chapter 10) Even God’s common grace—the way He blesses the work of those who don’t acknowledge Him—is an opportunity to worship Him for His graciousness. We create idols when we allow our work to give us meaning, happiness, and fulfillment. (Satisfaction is found in Christ—as John Piper often says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.) As a mother—who happens to be in a somewhat monotonous stage of motherhood—this is a truth worth remembering and living.

From the title, I surmised that the author might set out to solve the world’s problems of work (famine, welfare, laziness, and maybe a little chapter on outsourcing), but instead he stuck pretty close to home. That is to say, Work Excellence looks at what the Bible has to tell us on the subject of work. “The Christian standard of excellence calls us to holiness and gives God alone all the glory for every good thing He enables us to do in each and every area of our lives.” (page xiv) May it be for me and you, as well!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, The Rare Me needs to get to bed this evening.

This book was reviewed as part of a program coordinated by Diet of Bookworms. More reviews of this book should be up at Diet of Bookworms later today.

There are a few benefits of writing. One of which is that after writing, I sort out exactly where I am on a subject. It causes me to cultivate deliberateness. This is good, because it makes evident the weaknesses of my argument and challenges me to look at the thing objectively. Another side benefit is that if I am unable to maintain objectivity and find myself not being completely biblical, it is usual that someone will point this out to me. And for this, I’m grateful. Whatever the case, thinking over the reasons behind our actions is often a good exercise.

When my husband and I married eight years ago, we began the process of developing a family culture with its own identity. We looked at what the Bible had to say about living, and from that, developed a family mission statement that hangs over the fireplace in our family room. This is not to say that we were rejecting tradition outright, because traditions that stand the test of time usually have valuable merit. However, there are many discrepancies, traditions, or habits, if you will, that exist in every family that are —deliberately or non-deliberately– accepted and adopted.

What we set out to do was analyze our lifestyle and make adjustments based on whether that fit into the family culture we were trying to create. For example, in many families across America, it is a habit to eat dinner while watching TV. Now that we had our own family of two, what kind of habits did we want to create? Were we even going to have a TV? What kind of lifestyle and traditions were we going to begin that would help us best fulfill what we believe God called our family to do (which is, to bring Him glory)?

I submit that it’s possible to glorify God while eating dinner and watching TV (so long as the programming is wholesome and edifying). Some may argue for or against this, but the point is that for our family, we felt that eating together at the table and making sure that our TV was a rare guest at other times was the best way to develop the family culture that we were trying to create. This is just a miscellaneous example, as the reason for my saying this is not to tell anyone how to eat their dinner. Moreover, these are not hard rules in our family, but rather, a general idea of how the day usually goes. Since every family is unique, glorifying God in our habits and traditions will look differently among Christian families.

What should remain consistent, however, is that we all think deliberately about the habits we create and press toward the end of God’s glory in them.

Being a passionate sort of person, there are more than just a few times in my life that I’ve longed to have a “delete” key for some one-liners I’ve uttered. Furthermore, since I am not only passionate but somewhat reckless as well, there are times that I’ve longed for an entire box of old-fashioned chalkboard erasers for lengthy paragraphs that were better left unsaid. This used to be my lot in life, but thanks be to God, with age I am learning to temper myself.

This is not to say that I’m always successful. My husband can attest to this fact as far back reaching as…today.

The problem with my character (which overflows out of my mouth) is not that what I speak isn’t the truth, but that my heart is evil. And so, the message is skewed by the messenger. That is, there is a way to say it, and there is a way not to say it. I usually choose the latter.

This week I was sitting at the piano practicing a rather difficult piece. In fact, I will probably never play the piece competently. So, after months of enduring the painful noise coming from the keys, my preschooler turns to me and says, “Mommy, that’s not good.” She was accurate, and being the type of person I am, I enjoyed the assessment. I happen to prefer straight-shooters.

However, since I’ve moved beyond preschool age, speaking the obvious isn’t so cute anymore. I want people to “give it to me like it is”, and in turn, I assume that others might enjoy this approach as well. However, it is not enough that the message be true if it is not tempered with love. Even with the best of intentions, one must always take extraordinary care that the desire to encourage others to think biblically is not motivated selfishly. Anything whose means is not charity and end is not God’s glory is sounding brass and clanging cymbal.

It is a delicate balance, one requiring God-given wisdom, to make sure that it is the preaching of the cross that offends and not the preacher. The way of the cross is hard, narrow, and the Bible says that few find it. Not many choose to put off the old self and exchange fleeting pleasures for holiness. Let us always be careful that if we find others straying from the narrow way, that it is because they are rejecting the path, and not because they don’t want to walk next to us.

I attended a funeral this morning for an older woman in our church. Upon my return, I couldn’t help but think that it is a good thing that we ponder our mortality on regular occasion. I have no guarantee that it will not be me sitting in the family’s front row next weekend, donning all black apparel instead of the navy suit I wore this time. And furthermore, it could be my grave for which all the flowers are bought.

Since our lives our fleeting vapors, it is good that we spread God’s glory enthusiastically and love one another wholeheartedly…while we can. In other words, work while it is still light.

Note: She was crying because she didn’t like her party hat, not because she touched the candle!

With contributions by: John Piper, Ben Patterson, David Powlison, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Mark Dever, Michael Lawrence, Matt Schmucker, Scott Croft, C. J. Mahaney, Carolyn McCulley, and Carolyn Mahaney.

Background
The title of this book does a very good job of communicating the theme that you will find everywhere throughout the book’s pages. Sex and the Supremacy of Christ is edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor and is an outworking of a conference that John Piper’s church, Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, sponsored in 2004. That the title tends to strike the ear as unusual at best and shocking at worst is perhaps the biggest reason a book like this needs to be written.

The purpose statement for Desiring God ministries, a ministry of Bethlehem Baptist, is to “spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.” At the core of this purpose is the belief that, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” These core beliefs are the driving force behind this work, which is a compilation of contributions from a number of writers.

Layout
The fundamental questions which the book seeks to answer is, “What do sex and the supremacy of Christ have to do with each other, and what implications should this have for our everyday lives?” The short answer, given in the introduction, is that sex cannot be rightly understood or practiced without seeing how sex relates to God and that our entire life and worldview – including our sex life and views on sexuality – are to be oriented around the glory of God.

To answer those questions, the book is divided into five parts: Part 1 – God and Sex, Part 2 – Sin and Sex, Part 3 – Men and Sex, Part 4 – Women and Sex, Part 5 – History and Sex. I will return to Part 1 momentarily, but first let me provide a review of the latter four parts.

Highlights
In part two, David Powlison opens with the challenge for Christians to recognize that sexual sin is only one manifestation of a deeper war for our heart’s primary love. “The goal of the battle is not ‘just say no’ and not just the ‘means of grace,’ but rather the goal is to see Jesus Christ himself. Al Mohler’s presents a powerful argument for why homosexual marriage is such a challenge for the church. The power of his argument comes from his recognition that there are larger issues at stake than homosexual unions. Mohler points out that the church’s opposition to homosexual marriage is not about the “yuck factor” or the usual concerns about the moral decay of society. Rather, his appeal is to the glory of God. “The normalizing of homosexual behavior will take the sinfulness of homosexuality to a new level of moral rebellion. God’s glory demonstrated through marriage and the covenant that he created will be corrupted so utterly that idolatry will be institutionalized and the truth will be suppressed in radical unrighteousness.”

Parts three and four of the book focus on men and women, respectively. Sex and its relation to the single man and single woman are thoughtfully and helpfully addressed in their individual sections. The Mahaneys offer some practical counsel to men and women regarding their calling as husbands and wives in their chapters titled, “Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband/Wife Needs to Know.”

The final section of the book presents two very interesting and different historical and cultural perspectives on sexuality and the glory of God, one from Martin Luther and one from the writings of the (much maligned) Puritans. Both Luther and the Puritans bring important contributions with Luther’s exaltation of marriage in a time when many viewed it as a necessary evil, and the Puritan call to “Turn all your passions into the right channel, and make them all holy, using them for God upon the greatest things.”

The Best Part
I saved the best for last, because the first two chapters of this book are worth the entire price of admission. In these chapters, Piper makes just two points, but in classic John Piper style, he makes his points very well (read: saturated with scripture) and in a way that focuses entirely on Christ. First, he says that “Sexuality is designed by God as a way to know God in Christ more fully.” That is to say, the ultimate reason that God made us sexual is so that God might be more deeply knowable.

Piper’s second point is that “Knowing God in Christ more fully is designed as a way of guarding and guiding our sexuality.” This is where Piper is far beyond any other book that I have read on the subject of sexuality. His treatment is not superficial as so many of those “moral strategy” type books tend to be. As he says, “There are many practical strategies for being sexually pure in mind and body. I don’t demean them. I use them! But with all my heart I know, and with the authority of Scripture I know, that the tiny spaceships of our moral strategies will be useless in nudging the planet of sexuality into orbit, unless the sun of our solar system is the supremacy of Christ.”

OK, the Challies giveaway is open now for this month. Click on the link above. Some of you might remember that I won last month, but don’t be bitter! Try again. Here’s the scoop on this month’s giveaways:

Pilgrim Days: Indelible Grace II - This CD is the sequel to the popular Indelible Grace. It features traditional hymns but marries the time honored truths and senti­ments of the past to the fresh, acoustic music that flows from this generation, and the effect is wonderful.

For All The Saints: Indelible Grace III - This new CD carries on the tradition. It includes songs performed by Sandra McCracken, Derek Webb, Dan Haseltine (of Jars of Clay), Andrew Osenga and many others. It includes songs such as Jesus I Come (Out Of My Bondage); Jesus Everlasting King; O Come And Mourn; Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven; She Must And Shall Go Free; Jesus With Thy Church Abide; O Word Of God Incarnate; For All The Saints.

TwentySomeone - In TwentySomeone, Craig Dunham and Doug Serven generously share their journeys through their own twenties decade in a fresh, thoughtful, and practical style that builds a bridge between key questions in the young adult years and the experience of Christian faith.

So, I’m doing the laundry yesterday, and guess what I pull out of the dryer? A spaghetti-free folded cloth napkin. I’m not sure if that says something bad about my front loaders, or if it says something really good. Nevertheless, I’ll take any help I can get along the way.

If you’re looking for the post wherein I praised Dr. Mohler for his view on children that was here an hour ago, it’s gone. Allow me the chance to repost another time wherein I make a complete case on the subject.

I just read your post on the Nancy Ganz books and was wondering how exactly your family uses the books. My two and six year old would be overwhelmed to sit and listen to all the passages listed and the whole chapter but breaking it up seems like it would destroy the flow. I love the ideas presented and the language used and want to make it work now–not in three years when they are “older”…

Thank you,
Karen

Karen is referring to a commentary series for children written by Nancy Ganz that I mentioned in passing on an earlier post. So far, commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus are in print, and more books in sequence are due in the fall I hear.

Now, by answering her question online here, I don’t want to give the impression that the way we “do” family devotions is the only way or even the “right” way. It’s just our way. Each family is unique and each father’s gifting in how he teaches his children is different. To women, I say, do what you can to make him succeed.

To say why we choose to use the Ganz books, I have to back up and mention our earlier beginnings. When we married, Greg decided that family worship would be one of the rituals that we developed into our family culture. As a married couple, this was pretty easy as there were only two people to coordinate, and for the most part, we were able to sit still through the ordeal.

We had some fits and starts. I remember sitting at the table in our rental house on the lake and wanting to love what we were doing but being totally bored out of my mind with a very old and dry commentary on Revelation. I hope that the first time he knows of my boredom is when he reads this post later today. I’ve always tried to encourage and appreciate any effort –whether it succeeds or not—that my husband extends in moving our family toward godliness.

Later on, we got into a good routine of reading John Piper’s series titled, A Godward Life. They are short Scripture-saturated essays that stimulated much discussion (and prayer) late into the night.

When the children began arriving, we used a children’s bible, prayer, and singing as our nightly routine. Over time, however, we began questioning the use of a children’s Bible storybook as the best use of time. Since faith comes by hearing the Word, using a children’s book can not be a substitute for the Bible. Yes, our children liked the pictures and (very) loose paraphrase, but our goals for that time at night could only be met by reading real Scripture.

This is where Karen’s question comes in. How do you get them to listen?

I remember a dilemma I encountered teaching first grade in the public school system before I had my first son. After lunch and playground time when all the kindergarteners usually took their naps, I had the kids find a quiet spot on the floor while I read for fifteen minutes from a chapter book. I chose The Boxcar Children for its ease of reading, simple vocabulary, and interesting story line. As many techniques as I employed, the children just wouldn’t listen. I’d tried everything. The bottom line was that they were simply bored and uninterested in such a thing.

As parents, however, I’m convinced that a child’s interest in reading is in direct proportion to how much they read themselves and/or are read to. This is especially true in the young years, as you are establishing habits (or a culture, if you will). Sesame Street will not establish a love of reading in children.

Now, I remember a few years back that my husband would read aloud a chapter book that was above their ability. This was after devotions but before bedtime. The “rule” was: if you could listen quietly –hanging off the side of the couch or playing Legos on the floor—then you could stay up late instead of going to bed. Everyone always chose to stay up. I think this was a key part in creating an atmosphere of listening to read alouds, while expanding their vocabulary and propensity for such things.

To be more specific, we break up some of the chapters in the Ganz books, as they are too much for all of us to digest. Some of them would take an hour just to read the text, leaving no time for Scripture and prayer. Over time, we’ve learned to ad lib, adjust, and use the book as a tool instead of a program.

Now, our preschooler has never experienced the kiddie bible storybooks; she has just grown up with our present routine. Additionally, Baby Energizer will never know any different, and she does well too. I want to say here that nobody sits in hardback chairs with their hands folded and a stern look on their face. It’s just a natural part of family life that our kids protest if we happen to miss.

Sick babies + Rocking chairs = No blog time. But I’m not complaining; I’m capitalizing on the snuggle time…

Mothering. What a great gift!