The Problem of 'Tolerance'.

Our culture has taught us that to be a good member of our society we must be tolerant and if everyone would be tolerant of everyone else than we can all live together in peace and harmony - utopia. But what is this really saying?

Tolerance implies dislike and disagreement. I don't like you but I tolerate you. I don't agree with you but I tolerate you. (Sounds like bad medicine - tastes bad but for the greater good, I tolerate it). Tolerance requires effort. It is like saying, "Hey, I don't approve of you and maybe I don't even like you but I'll put up with you because I believe that's what I ought to do. Isn't that good of me for being so gracious? And isn't that terrible if everyone doesn't treat you with the same 'dignity' as I do?"

Those who live by the 'religion' of tolerance really believe that those who seem to be intolerant are enemies to our society and our hopes for peace. And here is where Christians are so often misunderstood. If Christians truly live according to the Bible, we are intolerant of what God is intolerant of. Is God intolerant? He is intolerant of evil. He is holy and cannot tolerate unholiness. God does not tolerate irreverance and disobedience. He does not make an effort to 'tolerate' me, putting up with my sinfulness.

INSTEAD, He provides a way of salvation because He doesn't choose to just 'tolerate' me. He loves me. Unbelievable. He loves me. He loves me as His own child and is constantly working in me to become more like Him.

So am I to be tolerant of those around me; especially those with whom I disagree and naturally dislike? NO!! I am to love you; to embrace you with an open and warm heart. But I cannot embrace what is evil; what is unjust and what is unholy. Please don't ask me to.

Last night we started our Jesse tree. It's an advent series of devotionals for the family that includes a significant ornament each day until Christmas. This morning I want to find a playdough that I can bake so I can make a miniature world for tonight's ornament. We're putting the ornaments on Ladger's old Christmas tree - his pre-marriage days. I couldn't believe he didn't have a bigger tree than that - what a bachelor. He just took this one out of the box and put it on its stand and the lights and decorations were already on it so voila! - No work at all! I took off all the ornaments and restrung the lights and am now finding a good use for it :-)

Yesterday, an elder and his family from our church board came to our place for an 'interview' for church membership. Ladger and I finally finished with our 'homework' last weekend and were able to hand it in on Sunday. Here's some things I learned about the Alliance Christian & Missionary Association. It's founder was A.B. Simpson who was born in P.E.I. and who became a Presbyterian minister in Ontario. I was surprised because this denomination is much stronger out west than in the Maritimes! Really interesting to this Maritimer.

While Simpson was pastoring a church in the US, he started seeing that Missions was absolutely crucial and started this association as a mission - not a church. Churches started as a secondary mandate. It is important that our churches make missions a priority and not become too focused on our own backyard, so to speak. It is considered an alliance of many evangelicals from many different denominations and so the doctrinal statement leaves room for disagreement on non-essential issues such as Post versus Pre - Tribulation.

Simpson eventually had to leave the Presbyterian church because he became convinced that adult baptism was the correct scriptural interpretation. Covenant theology teaches that infant baptism is the sign of the New Covenant just as circumcision is the sign of the Old Covenant. We tend to see a model in the New Testament that clearly indicates baptism after conversion and tend to have our babies dedicated - although this is not considered a sacrament like marriage, communion, etc. It is more just a public statement by the parents that they will raise their child in a godly family with the support and prayers of the congregation. I think the idea was started as a way to 'present our children at the temple' just as Jesus was.

So this Sunday, Ladger and I will be received into membership.

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Tonight is 'splurge' club. I'm looking forward to it as I've missed it for the past couple of months and I've worked hard at getting some of the house cleaned up today (namely our room which has been sadly neglected for too long) so I will really enjoy the opportunity to sit back, relax and visit with some great gals in our area!

Here's wishing all my American friends

a terrific Thanksgiving weekend!

Well I've not been doing too well keeping up with this blog lately - I'm spending most of my online time at Expedia.ca planning our trip in February. We've got some hotel rooms booked, a rental car and our flight so those were the major items that needed to get looked after. We have lots of time now to plan the days in between our arrival and departure. It seems unbelievable but we're able to fly to Boston stay at a hotel two nights and rent a car for our trip and still be paying less than if we'd flown directly to New Brunswick! Our hotel will pick us up from the airport with a free shuttle service. The rental car company will bring our car to the hotel the next day. And it's so neat to see all those kinds of details fall into place. We've also arranged to stay with our friends in Calgary the night before we leave and the night on the day we get back to Calgary as well as leave our vehicle there.

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The boys are both napping right now and I'd better finish typing as I have some cleaning up and photocopying to do before my piano/voice student arrives at 4:30 pm.

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I've started reading one of my old philosophy texts by A J Ayer. It was an assignment actually - I had to refute the arguments in that book. He makes an effort to eliminate metaphysics as having any relevance to truth therefore God and anything else metaphysical is nonsensical. It's a little tougher to make sense of than most things I read these days so bear with me
as I get my brain back into gear

Rory was trying to convince us that he needed some candy before supper tonight: "There's no steam yet!" If it were Ladger, he'd say, " There's no smoke yet".

This week has been busier than usual with two birthday parties for Rory to attend. The first one was Monday morning and I took the opportunity to get my hair cut - Yay! Then Tuesday was MOPS with our crazy hat day. And then Wednesday was a 'tea party'. The other little guy left a little earlier than the rest of the kids and then it was Rory and the girls; which was just fine until as I was sitting with the other Moms and visiting, I heard a collective GASP and looked up to see my Rory in his birthday suit on top of the picnic table. What's up with with him these days? Needless to say I'm sure this will be a repeat performance as he managed to shock then amuse a whole group of ladies. Any comedian would love such an audience!!

Rory (4) still insists on taking off all his clothing when he goes to the potty. And then it's a chore to get them back on him again so yesterday I insisted that he would not get to eat supper unless he got himself dressed. He wandered around the house looking for his clothes but couldn't seem to remember where he left them but I was determined he was going to do this on his own. Finally he showed up at the table dressed very oddly. He had a t-shirt on with pajama bottoms with underwear hanging out - MY underwear!!! He was proud of himself and I'm thinking if I make no big deal of it maybe he won't bother doing it again

Colored Glasses: What do you see?


Why is philosophy important? I have come across a phrase several times lately: liberal media bias. Surely the media dislikes this description as their goal is to be objective when reporting world events. But words are powerful and give impressions (whether intended or not) that reflect....

To continue reading...

By the way I mentioned my interest in philosophy - what brought that on? I literally tripped over it. That is to say, I tripped over "Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God" which is a series of essays edited by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Yes, I tripped over it because my boys hauled out a lot of books in my bookshelf from my college days and I realized that I'd actually like to get back 'into' it!

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On a different note, the other day Rory was walking all bent over and funny and said,"God made me crooked".

We booked our ticket! I mentioned briefly to Ladger that maybe we should consider heading to the East Coast this winter as Paxton is still under two and doesn't require an air ticket. A few days ago, he says to me "Go ahead and look into it." I love the internet for this kind of thing! I tried all kinds of options and dates and found what I believe is the best option for us.

Ladger, the boys and I will be flying to Boston in early February. We will stay overnight at a hotel and then over the next week and a half we'll be driving up to Saint John and the Miramichi and visiting family and friends. It is so much less expensive to fly across the US than Canada - especially now with our dollar being stronger. So now we have a few months to make some arrangements and then it's off we go!

Today we remember........

The irony and the journey....

I've been surfing around on a few different blogs via Blog Explosion and I have to laugh at the irony of those who complain about housewives writing about their 'trivial' lives and being inappropriate enough to clog up the blogosphere when there are so many more valuable blogs (like their own presumably) that merit being read. I do not apologize for my part in this just as I do not apologize for my existence on the earth. I really do not expect anyone to be vitally interested in all the details of my day but it is invaluable to me to record it because it is personally important and it is a vehicle for sharing my personal life with friends and relatives who do not live close by. And the bonus is that I've met some really great people, some of whom are becoming friends as we share experiences; laugh, cry and even pray together.

However I have been thinking that I really want to expand my writing to include more philosophy. That sounds heady but how we think determines our values and our belief system influences everything about our lives. That's why getting into big debates on my blog does not interest me too much - not because I don't like debating but because most of the time it never develops into anything more than surface back-and-forth bickering that never examines the real issues. When I read most debates on the blog it is evident that neither party is going to give an inch and the best that can result is to 'agree to disagree'. I've also read many bloggers describe their blogs as being philosophical but I've yet to run into any philosophical terms like existentialism or pluralism, etc. Most of it is really just sharing opinions. So I want to use my blogspace as a chance to examine the philosophy that colors my world. Are you up for the journey with me?

• I found my Bible!! I went through every corner of my house several times looking for it. I went to two different churches hunting for it. I went through both vehicles. I even prayed about finding it! Why was I so desperate - don't I have another Bible or two? Yes, I have a number of Bibles but this was my favorite and anyone who has a favorite Bible can relate to how lost one can feel without it. I found it at my church but just sitting on a pew and wouldn't have noticed it on any given Sunday except I was there on Saturday for a worship practice.
• We went to town this morning and so it's so peaceful now that the boys (and Ladger) are sleeping. I worked on putting a worship music package together for this Sunday and called around to pull a team together. And now I still have some time to sit down and chat with y'all.
• This past Sunday was very interesting. We started off our music package with a couple of good strong songs: Great in Power and then a neat version of Nothing But the Blood of Jesus and then a reprise of the chorus of Great in Power again. And it felt dead. Sometimes I wish we could just pray that God would empower us and voila, instant sense of the presence of God. But I know that puts God in a box and it's not the way He works. But by the end of the service something happened because I started off the final song and couldn't sing. The song was "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus". It's a good thing everyone knows it because they really didn't need me leading it as I was singing around a big lump and didn't manage to join in until the third verse. It ended up being a really moving service and it was awesome being a part of it.
• The message was taken from Matthew 15. The main emphasis I got from the message was how arrogant we can be in our thinking. If we think we have something of value to offer to God we don't realize how seriously offensive that is to God. We often say that we love God with all our heart as if that were some great gift to God - our heart. But Jeremiah says our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is not in us to seek God; any seeking we do is actually initiated by God himself because He loves us so much. And any value in our hearts is only when His heart eclipses our heart. God is drawn to our need and it is when we are broken that He draws us to Himself and fills us up. Dare I pray to be broken? How can I not?

Last evening we watched "Spiderman" and quite enjoyed it. This morning Rory was Spiderman, I was the Green Monster and Paxton was the girl - lol. Rory carting Paxton around and trying to keep him from me was quite funny.

Ladger went combining and if all goes well, TODAY will be our LAST DAY!!! I went a little nuts Saturday because I was involved in a MOPS fundraising supper and I was supposed to be helping from 3:30 - 5:00 without kids and then Ladger was going to bring the boys for supper and then I was going to be off to a worship team practice starting at 6:30 pm (half an hour drive) while Ladger watched the boys. But on Friday I realized this wasn't going to happen because all of a sudden Ladger's been able to put in longer days (for awhile he was lucky to get in 2 hours before it got too tough) and he wouldn't be around all day. So I went to the supper with the boys and it went better than expected but I had to rush away to drive Rory out to the field so he could stay with Ladger while I took Paxton to practice. Of course Ladger was in the farthest corner of the field and I had to drive a mile on the field to get to him. It took me half an hour out of my way and then Ladger tells me he's on his way home in a little bit because it was getting too tough and I had to change plans again. There was no sense in taking Paxton to town with me if Ladger was coming home soon so I hoped Ladger's mom could watch Paxton until Ladger came home and so that's what we did. However, by then, I was running late and really had to hurry to make it to town in time for practice. And there was no one there (which was a bit of a relief and concern at the same time). I quickly started to setup and it wasn't long before the rest of the team showed up except the drummer who had forgotten. After all that - the practice went great! But I CAN'T WAIT for Harvest to be DONE and I can get back to some consistency in my life! I happened to be sitting next to another MOPS farmer widow at supper and she and I could relate perfectly at how stressful it can be at times being married to a farmer just because of the constant uncertainty in scheduling. Who would have thought that making commitments in November would be made difficult because we'd still be combining?

I had a good day at the school yesterday. (teaching guitar, voice and piano lessons) It's so much more than a job to me - I value being involved in the lives of these young people, even if it's in a small way. And truly these are a wonderful group of kids - I enjoy each one of them.

Today is a busy day but a subdued one as I'm a little tired. I had a friend over for coffee so at least the house got straightened up before she came and it's looking pretty good. Now it's time to tackle some bathrooms and laundry.

Kids are hilarious when company comes over. Rory found a hammer and was smashing coke cans... then throwing the cans at the wall....then climbing onto the counter....and just acting very strange; obviously jealous for my attention. Paxton squirted milk from his bottle into a juice container and then was trying to drink the milk from that container but was otherwise a little more 'normal' (whatever normal is at my house)!

This is taken when I was 8. Mom sent me pictures of my childhood (Thanks Mom!) and it has been special to go through them.

The day after the election! I'm so thankful to see Bush back in the saddle.

Yesterday was MOPS and we had a very good video and then got to soak our feet for a nice little pedicure! Nothing better than a group of ladies sitting in a circle, soaking their feet and visiting together.

I have lost my Bible - my nice new one that I was enjoying so much - New Living Translation. I have been going around the house like a madman trying to locate it without success. Good news is that lots of little corners got cleaned up. Bad news is that I can't find it anywhere after all that and so today I bought a new one. Luckily it was on sale and although the print isn't as big and the cover not so nice, I can't wait to get back on track with my Bible reading. Exodus, here I come!

Here are some highlights that I've been thinking about since hearing the message on Sunday: Jesus positions us to feel our need. It is so easy to become self-sufficient and independent as we trust in our own selves. But we need to come face to face with our need because in reality self-sufficiency is a lie. And once we recognize our need, Jesus allows us to own that reality and come to terms with how little we have to offer. Then He accepts the little that we do have and works through us to do His work. We can see that pattern in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21). The disciples wanted to let the people go home as it was dark and there was nothing to eat; just as we wish circumstances would go away in our lives.

But Jesus says, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."

Did Jesus know the disciples had nothing to feed the people with? Of course He did but He put them in the position of seeing that they could not meet the need. The disciples said they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes.

And Jesus says, "Bring them here to me".

And he takes the little that the disciples have and starts to divide the food and asks the disciples to hand it out and as we know, that little bit became enough food for 5000 men plus women and children with twelve baskets of food left over.

This Sunday I will be working with a team to lead worship. I have worked hard to put a package of music together but I know my need. I can play some music on Sunday and it won't be any more meaningful than just a bit of 'performance' unless God empowers our team and works through us to do His work. So I am giving my little to Him with every hope and prayer that He will accomplish His purposes with it.

So pray for me, if you will, that God would bring me to a point of total awareness of my need and destroy any confidence I might have in my own ability. And may He be glorified and His Spirit move freely as we proclaim our love and our worship to our Most Loving Father.

Last evening was Halloween so I dressed up the boys and off we went to pester the neighbors. We have a neighbor in each direction about a 1/2 mile away. None of us get any kids for Halloween except for my boys. So they get treated very well! It took us about an hour to get around to all four places and back home again. Ladger and I watched "Shallow Hal" after the boys went to bed and didn't settle down 'til close to midnight which was late for me considering I haven't had a full nights sleep for over a week with the boys not feeling well. It was worth it (not that the movie was hugely fantastic - a little corny ) because the time without the kids was relaxing!