I really want to write a book for my daughter! In this book I would include all the lessons I’ve learned through my childhood, adolescence and early adult life.I would probably include advice on being a student, friend, wife and a mother. I’m giving myself a strict deadline…she needs to have it in her hands for her thirteenth birthday.

She’s six months old, so I’m not feeling incredibly pressed for time.

I want to share so many stories with her, in the hopes that she will get to know me, her father, and her family  members better. I’ll start with my favorite childhood memory… the time that I was five and my favorite teddy bear accidentally got thrown down the garbage chute of our apartment building. Knowing how much my teddy meant to me my father brought me down to the superintendent’s apartment and asked to be let into the garbage room so that he could sort through the garbage that had fallen from the chute. There he stood inside the dump, searching for my long lost best friend. She should definitely know this story about her grandfather.

I want to tell her about the dog walking business I ran when I was in elementary school. My mother warned me not to walk the St. Bernard across the street – she knew that dog was trouble just by looking at him. Of course I insisted she didn’t know what she was talking about and that I knew way better. When the dog bit me in the leg and I had to be taken to the hospital, my  mother hugged me tight and affirmed that no, the dog bite did not mean that I was going to die. I think there’s a lot for Amanda to learn from that story.

I’ll also tell her about the five dollar diets that my sister and I would go on regularly (that should be a good indication of how successful they were). Whoever ate junk food owed the other person five dollars for each and every offense. Hopefully this story will be a good segue on the wise use of her money.

And her father. Ohhhh her father. I pray that through my shared stories she will love and respect him as much as I do!

But even more than sharing these stories, I really want to share my heart with her. I need to articulate the Gospel to her in writing, so she can go back to it time and time again and hear my voice pleading with her to give her life to the Lord. I want this book to answer her questions. Questions like: How should I choose my friends? What do I do when I’m disliked? What does it mean to be pure? How do I pursue wisdom? What should I look for in a husband? What is expected of me as a wife? How can I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, strength and mind?

I don’t want this to be her favorite book. I want His Word to be her favorite book. But I hope to capture how her mother sought to apply the words of God to her own life, and in some way, encourage her to know how to do the same.

I also don’t want this book to be mere opinions. She’ll get enough of people’s opinions on a daily basis. No, this book needs to be different. It must be grounded in Biblical truth – every word of advice, every piece of wise counsel,  must spring from the all sufficient word of God. That’s ultimately the purpose of this book – to help her to know the All Sufficient God, through His All Sufficient Word.

Maybe she will read it when we she is too embarrassed to ask me the direct questions herself (though I hope that never happens). Maybe she’ll read it when she is far away in another country and cannot hear my voice directly. Maybe she will read it when she is angry at me, and will remember my heart towards her…perhaps it will explain why I am being so hard with her when all of her friend’s mothers let them do whatever they want.

Can I share something else with you? I hope she will read it long after I am gone…I hope it will remind her of the words I lived to engrain in her mind. I hope it will consistently draw her back to the ultimate Book, written by the ultimate Author and Perfector of our faith.

I’d love your contributions….any ideas for a title? Any suggestions on what else our daughters need to hear from their mothers? We have thirteen years…but I’d really like to get started!

I learned in the forward of this book, that Dr. Roseveare was asked to write this book for students. Her comments in this section also capture the spirit of the book when she says,

...the word sacrifice could only truly be employed in direct reference to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered “death upon the cross for our redemption….” We, God’s children by adoption, have the privilege to respond, in overwhelming gratitude and love, by rendering to Him “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Pet. 2:5). (Pg 6)

Did you notice that word  privilege show up again. It is everywhere in her writing. As you read through the book you will notice how willing she is to give of her entire self to serve the one who died in her place. Talk about applying the gospel to all of you life! It is such a simple and life altering truth – give all of yourself to the one who gave himself for you. Simple, but not easy. At times, as we see in the life of Dr. Roseveare, giving of yourself comes at a great cost. And God has the right to demand those great costs from us, right? I won’t answer that question for you, but I would encourage you to read the prologue to this book entitled ‘His Right to Demand’ (I guess we know what her answer would be!).

There are several stories in the prologue that will capture your attention. One in particular, which I won’t share much of, is about a little boy name Paul who was willing to endure beatings from rebel solider in light of what Christ did for him. What I will share as I close this post is the analogy Dr. Roseveare uses to drive home her point that we are to be willing sacrifices in the hands of God, or as she puts it in her subtitle, that we should be willing to be whittled as an arrow. The story basically goes that there were these birds in the village they lived in that were causing major issues, so they paid the kids in the village to shot them down! They used arrows to shoot them, and to make the arrows they needed to pull the branches off of some of the most beautiful trees in the village (the trees did not serve any other purpose, other than being beautiful and attracting tourists). “This wanton act of destruction might seem a senseless waste of God-givien beauty” says Dr. Roseveare, but listen to the way she applies to God’s work in her life in the midst of some very difficult circumstances,

Could I see that God wanted to transform my life from a somewhat ugly, useless branch (once all the flowers and leaves were ripped off!) to an arrow, a tool usable in His hands, for the furtherance of His purposes?…To be thus transformed, was I willing – am I still willing – for the whittling, sandpapering, stripping process necessary in my Christian life? The ruthless pulling off of leaves and flowers mights include doing without a television set or washing machine, remaining single in order to see a job done, re-evaluating the worthiness of the ambition to be a “good” doctor….The snapping off of thorns might include drastic dealing with hidden jealousies and unknown pride, giving up prized rights in leadership and administration. The final stripping of the bark might include lessons to be learned regarding death to self – self-defence, self-pity, self-justification, self-vindication, self-sufficiency, all the mechanisms of preventing the hurt of too-deep involvement. Am I prepared for the pain, which at times may seem like sacrifice, in order to be made a tool in His service? My willingness will be a measure of the sincerity of my desire to express my heartfelt gratitude to Him for His so-great salvation. (Pg 26-27)

An arrow in the hand of an Almighty God. It is a glorious thought, but as we shall continue to see in the life of Dr. Roseveare (and in our own lives), it comes at a cost. Are we willing?

Lately I’m finding that I’m a little more forgetful than I should be. I think we all suffer from a little memory loss every now and then. No matter how old we are or what type Omega 3 fatty acids (what is a “fatty acid” anyway?) we take, it still happens.

I’m reading through Exodus right now, and as I read I wonder how the Israelites could so quickly forget all the miraculous events that surrounded their escape from Egypt. I find myself thinking, “How could they watch the Red Sea split open as they walked through it, and then shortly after be grumbling about food? Seriously?” They were no longer oppressed slaves, and yet still felt the need to question God, the One who saved them. I have all these thoughts about the Israelites as I read, and then realize that lately I’ve been doing the exact same thing. Just because I don’t directly question God when things don’t go as planned, doesn’t mean I’m innocent when I grumble about my circumstances.

Being frustrated and complaining about circumstances shows a lack of understanding who God is as the Creator and Master of the Universe. Either that or I’ve forgotten the millions of things that God has done in my life, in the lives of those around me, and throughout history. So, this is just a quick reminder to remember.

“Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Deuteronomy 8:17-18

“Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgements he uttered.” 1 Chronicles 16:12

“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:12-13

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” 2 Timothy 2:8-9

Back to the Leafs

While we’re on the topic of remembering, let’s take a look back and remember what our team is really capable of doing, because we haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of that lately. Enjoy the video; I know I sure did!

I just stumbled upon an interview with some health food guru yesterday.  I have no idea who she was, but she was discussing a new method to “healthify” your life!  I think it was some crazy vegan diet, but regardless, I found myself intrigued by what she said.  This probably isn’t revolutionary, but for the purpose of my post let’s just roll with it.

The challenge/diet or whatever you want to call it, basically requires you to introduce some new things into your lifestyle, before you are required to take anything away. So for example, on day one, you would just add drinking water to your diet, a lot of it. On day two, you would then need to eat an apple and also drink your water.  On day three, you would add two tablespoons of flax seed to who knows what, and eat your apple and drink your water.

That’s as far as I listened.  I can only take so much health food talk.  From what I gathered, the point of this was that you are starting to fill your stomach on those things that take up a lot of room and that will keep you feeling full.  So by the end of this challenge you’ve added so many new things into your diet that you just don’t have room for a lot of the old ‘junk’.  You won’t feel like eating other things because your belly is satisfied. And apparently apples and flax seed and water do some special magic in that belly and make you feel full longer. Blah blah blah. Enough about healthy eating.   But to be fair, in theory, this makes a lot of sense.

Now hold that thought.

I’ve been feeling very spiritually dry lately.  Sin has been gripping me more…fear, worry, discontentment, covetousness and I’ve found myself seeking joy and peace in things that I find fun or that I like or want. Like Pinterest or cooking, or having a cleaner house or decorating my home or getting thinner.  Depends on the day.

With all of the social media that surrounds us, it’s extremely difficult not to get consumed with the myriad of ‘hobbies’ or ‘causes’ that are presented to us on a daily basis..  I see people running crafty businesses or making amazing food or fixing up their homes and I want to do all of that. I think I should, or I need to. That would serve my family wouldn’t it?  And I would enjoy it.  I’ve been hungering for these things and seeking to fill myself with them and I haven’t been satisfied.

Different things might tempt each of us, and I was reminded by John Piper in his book, A Hunger For God that “the weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we keep ourselves stuffed with ‘other things’”.  A lot of times, these are not even bad things, but because we are stuffing ourselves on them, we have no room for that which is best for us, yet we are left still wanting more.

And just like that diet above, we need to start by adding those things that will awaken our appetite and hunger for God.  We need to make sure we’re doing those things that are best for our souls.   If we’re filling up on those things, we’ll stop seeking our joy in counterfeits but we will find it, in the only true joy, Jesus Christ.

The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable…… These are gifts of God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God. (John Piper, A Hunger For God, 14-15)

So what are you filling up on?   I pray that God would give us an appetite for Him.  I want us to find our rest, our hope, our joy and our peace in Him alone, for our good and His glory.

Here’s a song that I love from the latest Sovereign Grace Music worship album that is on the same theme and hopefully will help you yearn for more of Jesus.

We Hunger and Thirst – Sovereign Grace Music from Sovereign Grace Music on Vimeo.

Hello! I’m kind of cheating because I’m not supposed to post today, but it wasn’t fair that all the other ladies got intros and not our next guest who will be joining us to make the team a group of five!

I’ll let her do her thing but I just wanted to say that my good friend Dina is someone who I love and respect and have been so blessed to get to know over the past few years. We have had the pleasure of serving alongside one another at Grace Chapel, seeing to it that wedding decor gets set up and taken down (thanks D!) at ungodly hours of the night, sharing lots of laughs, and just doing all sorts of fun things. But Dina is not just fun- she’s deep. Hence “Digging Deep with Dina”, which I hope she’ll explain at a later time 😉 Seriously though, she’s got a lot of wise advice to share, lots of funny stories, and is just a great friend who loves the Lord, and loves the people He’s placed in her life. I hope you come to love her just as much as I do!

Welcome to the team-blogging world my friend!

I was attempting a play on words with my title (post-poned…get it?). Whatever the case, my post will have to wait until next week due to a sick child (throwing up all night) and no sleep.

Until then, here is a link to an interview with Noel Piper who gives us a very brief sketch of her life (I think Noel Piper is alluding to the same quote I gave you last week!)

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZ28MYS5OE

Entitlement – even though we all struggle with it at times, we all generally know it’s not the right attitude to have. The idea that as citizens we are entitled to any number of things from external government services, takes the focus away from our responsibility as Christians to serve our communities and those around us that are in need. I recently read a great post on Tim Challies’ blog on entitlement, which touched on the same idea. More and more these days society expects that teachers and other community professionals take on responsibilities that were never meant to be theirs to begin with. Where is this coming from? We can all probably list a million reasons why we struggle with this attitude at times, but I want to focus to two things. First, we are all prone to think we’re better than we really are, and this is the very thought that leads to feeling entitled to something more than what we deserve. I have families come into the office and the children often sit in front of their parents and make huge demands that they genuinely feel their parents owe them (cars, electronics, trips etc.). Many times they are there because the children have made some pretty big mistakes, and you would think that they would be hanging their heads in shame, but it’s quite the opposite. We all behave that way sometimes; sinners deserving nothing, yet expecting everything. Second, we live in a selfish society, and it’s hard to escape this mentality when we are surrounded by it. Unless we are constantly doing some Jonathan Edwards’ style self-examination, we can easily be sucked into this same entitled pattern of living, and not even realize it. Sure, children need to be taught more than the core subjects, people struggling financially need support, and people seeking help need to be helped. Whose responsibility is it to meet these needs? Let’s look to Christ as the ultimate example. We all know that Jesus spent so much of his time with the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable, ministering to them and meeting their spiritual, physical, and practical needs. So, this is a challenge to myself and anyone who would like to join me: I will make a conscious effort to step outside of myself, outside of my own needs, and work at getting to know people around me a little more in order to understand how I can better serve them. The struggle is that we live in a self-motivated and self-centred society, so how can I keep from getting trapped. Unless there is a conscious choice to die to myself and serve others daily, then I can easily begin to justify putting my own needs first and expecting that external resources help “the others” and me because after all, we deserve it – faulty thinking is easily perpetuated if not extinguished by a reality check. We all know very well what we truly deserve, and if it weren’t for Grace we would all be heading down that path. So with that in mind daily, I will try to not behave like a spoiled brat when things do not go my way, and instead support others in my church and in my community by giving my time and resources which God has blessed me with. We begin a destructive cycle when we don’t step up and take responsibility for that which is ours, and instead expect that government services take on the role that was originally meant to be ours.

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever Amen.” 1 Peter 4: 10-11

Lessons from the Leafs

We can all stand to learn a few things from the Leafs, and as promised before, I won’t do this every time, but it seems fitting today. In my opinion, each team in the NHL has its own personality and plays with a certain style. Since today’s post is on entitlement, I’d like us to turn our thoughts to the Leafs and consider their hard work and motivation. At times, things go really well for them, and like any team they’ve had their rough patches as well. Despite being attacked by Gionta’s cheap shot to their star goalie who was then injured, and seems to have not been able to fully recover since the hit, they continue to press on with good attitudes and minds fixed on their main goal. With every difficult patch they’ve hit whether tough losing streaks, injuries, Burke failing to do everything in his power to get Nash, coaching changes, they do not stop working hard and fighting to move up the standings. This can’t be said for all teams (*cough Canucks cough*); some teams play with a sense of entitlement. They let the puck in the net once, and sticks start flying on the ice. A linesman or ref makes one bad call, and curse words start shooting out of their mouths (grow up Luongo, Bieksa, and Kesler and quit throwing temper tantrums during games cough*). Some teams play as though they deserve more, regardless of what they are willing to put forth. I’m thankful that we back a team that plays with integrity and is motivated to put in the hard work in order to achieve what they are looking for. In my heart, I still believe this might be the year, but whether it’s this year or next, it will come, and it will have been well worth the wait.

I got a DSLR camera for my birthday in December.  I love it. I don’t know how to use it, but I love it.  I want to take amazing pictures of my kids, but they move around a lot, so I’m practicing on food.

That’s not the whole truth.  I’ve had this lifelong dream of being a food blogger….well, not that long, since food blogging is a recent phenomenon, but I really think it would be cool to be a food blogger.  Like Mel, or Joy.

Not gonna happen anytime soon for me though, if ever. I can barely get dinner on the table, let alone snap fancy pictures of what we’re going to eat.  I did it tonight though!  Just for you.  I had to banish my kids to the basement, but I took some pictures of my most favourite tea biscuits.  I love these things.  They’re super easy, incredibly versatile and they don’t take long at all.  I even use these as the base for cinnamon buns.

I found the recipe in an old Robin Hood cookbook.  I’m pretty sure it was this one. Here she is!  Enjoy.

Don’t be too critical of my pictures.  They’re some of my firsts!

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ cup shortening or butter (I use butter)
• 1 cup buttermilk

Preparation:

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl.  Using two knives, a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add buttermilk all at once to dry ingredients and stir with a fork until a soft dough forms.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently eight to 10 times.  Roll or pat to ¾ – inch thickness.  Cut with a round cutter.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake in a 425 degrees F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden.  Serve warm.

Variations:

• Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar for a finishing touch.
• Stir in about 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese for a savory biscuit.
• Add 2 tbsp sugar to the dough for a sweet biscuit that you can use a base for shortcake.