He Shows Up!
Advent, of course, means coming. It is good and right that we have a time to remember the longing for Christ’s incarnation, remember that we are longing for his second coming when he will put the world to rights. One thing that struck me this week in a new way is how much Christ’s coming is not just a past and future event, but something that is happening continually.
When a friend drops everything to be with me when I need a friend, Christ is near. When our hearts break with those in sorrow, when we fight for the oppressed, Christ shows up. When we gather at his table, Jesus comes and meets us there. He has come and is coming again, but He IS risen. And that has present implications.
I am still longing for the new heavens and the new earth, for all things to be made new. But I am comforted as I see the ways that he is near, even now.
Reposted from This Classical Life.
Seeds Family Worship Winner!
August 7, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Grace for Life, Loving, Teaching, Worship
RANDOM.ORG spoke, and the winner is comment #41, Megan. She wins a full set of CDs from Seeds Family Worship.
If you didn’t win, and you want some Seeds CDs of your own, use the coupon code KSTEWART09 – that will take 20% off your order until January 10th, 2010. Each CD comes with two copies, one to keep and one to share. You can also access the songs online through their website and start using them right away with your children.
Thank you, Seeds, for sponsoring this giveaway and for sharing great scripture songs with us!
MbG Giveaway! Seeds Family Worship
August 2, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Grace for Life, Loving, Teaching, Worship
Have you heard about Seeds Family Worship? It’s a ministry that provides God’s word set to music that is catchy and fun. You can listen online to see for yourself. When we received a set in the mail, I chose a verse that addressed an issue one of my children was struggling with: anxiety. She loved the song and has been singing it with frequency, and I know she has even mentioned it when she was worried about something. For that alone, I’m thankful to Seeds.
We have a full set of CDs to giveaway to one lucky mom. Enter by leaving a comment on this post with your email address in the appropriate field (it won’t show) by Friday at 3 p.m. EST. If you’d like to share the contest via twitter, facebook, your blog, etc. you can earn one extra entry, just leave a second comment telling where you spread the word.
When I announce the winner, I’ll also have a coupon code for everyone else to use to order their own copies, too. Seeds wants their music to spread and ingeniously package each CD with a second copy to give to a friend, which I think is an awesome idea.
Best of luck to you!
Choosing a School or Why Cornerstone?
July 22, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Grace for Life, Learning
A year ago, we were in the midst of trying to start a small grammar campus in the city – starting with just one class – of the local classical school that is sponsored by a large suburban PCA church. In a lot of ways, this was our ideal. School in the city, with an urban culture, but under the oversight of an established school and its board, with most of the factors such as curricula already decided for us. Michael taught at the upper school before law school, and we saw firsthand its many benefits and excellent results. However, the idea of sending our children 15 miles into the depths of the suburbs for 13 years of education (and driving our fair share of carpools there and back) was not that attractive. So the idea of a grammar school in the city (and then maybe a bus!) sat well with us, and we were very hopeful that we had a good chance of pulling it off. Both of us have taught in private schools, and tutored homeschoolers in both class and one-on-one settings, and feel led to have our children in school if possible, some we were not considering homeschooling very seriously.
Due to a number of different disappointing factors, things never coalesced, and we never reached the momentum we’d need to open with even ONE class. In mourning the loss of a great idea unrealized, I had a really hard time getting excited about the good and fine grammar school in the suburbs. Trying to think about how I would make it work even with carpooling gave me a headache, since the preschool we love that our second daughter attends is 5 miles in the other direction (and it takes 40+ minutes to drive between the two.) And I feared the headache would continue every school day for the next two years as I drove non-stop, tiring myself out.
And then, another option came out of nowhere. An established Christian school in the city, almost 20 years old, SACS accredited and doing neat things academically, located just a mile or so from Lexi’s preschool. There’s a simple reason this option never occurred to us before: this school has traditionally had a uniformly black student body. The board, faculty and staff are diverse, and the school was founded by the white father of a fellow church member (we actually know a good number of people who have been involved there.) As an excellent school, it has long attracted a socially and economically diverse student body, but as they went through accreditation and looked forward to the future (including starting an International Baccalaureate primary program this fall and a very exciting move downtown the following fall) the leadership felt that the school needed more racial diversity to best educate students.
Another family at church is jumping into this endeavor with us, so between the two of us, we have K4, K5 and 1st grade students (with Lexi on deck for next year’s K4.) I’ve appreciated the welcome I’ve felt from parents I have met at kindergarten testing and around the school. It’s not a huge shift in demographics, but it may be the start of something big. Even if it isn’t, we can think of many advantages in giving this a good college try. Relatively few middle class white kids experience being a minority, and our children get to do that in a loving, Christian environment where they will share a great deal of common values with their fellow pupils. They will see the church more broadly than the our denomination and circles, and I hope that it will shape them to be gracious and welcoming to other believers. We avoid sending our children to spend most of their waking moments outside the city, and get to connect with others in the city we never would have met.
This isn’t a contract in blood, and even if the school adds a high school (it has always been K4-8th grade) I am not sure that we will stay forever. Our desires for our children at different points may be better fulfilled other places, even if it means a drive. But right now (and for the foreseeable future if things go well) I wholeheartedly believe that this is the place that best fits the values we want to instill in our kids: solid basic academics, Christian nurture and loving our city as neighbors. It also complements the culture of our home and church by filling in some of our gaps.
If this is the sort of thing that makes you excited, pray with us, for Kate, Brady and Riley, and for their parents, as we learn to navigate the inevitable cultural differences and find grace along the way. Five weeks until the first day of school.
Cross-posted at This Classical Life
Real Love for Real Life
July 7, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Reading Circle
Andi Ashworth’s Real Love for Real Life is an excellent treatment of the Christian call to hospitality. Subtitled “the Art and Work of Caring,” the book is of particular encouragement to those who are serving as caregivers on a full-time basis. In a world that pushes efficiency, speed and uniformity, Ashworth fights for the personal touch, for giving others our time and energy. Through her wonderful anecdotes, she helps readers to understand the importance giving of ourselves to create beauty and to make others welcome.
Ashworth helps readers to navigate the path of hospitality not entertainment and of true caring and not martyrdom. She doesn’t sugar coat caring or pretend that each day will be wonderful and feel fulfilling. She is also careful not to overwhelm readers and spends time explaining that giving care does not mean always saying yes or seeing yourself as the only one capable of caring. She emphasizes the importance of making room in our busy lives to care for others well.
Real Love for Real Life was a call for me to glorify God in the details, not to impress people but to show them that I love them. It was a reminder that even if I don’t always feel validated or encouraged for what I do as a full-time caregiver, I’m valuable and my work is of tremendous importance. I’d recommend this to any Christian woman, single or married, stay at home or working. It will be a tremendous encouragement to you.
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly
June 27, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Grace for Life, Loving, Reading Circle
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Before I was married and a mother, keeping the sabbath was easy. I read Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn to remind myself why I need to press on towards making my Sundays the way they ought to be, even in the midst of all of my busyness.
I really appreciated Keeping the Sabbath Wholly. Dawn works her way through four elements of sabbath keeping: ceasing, resting, embracing and feasting. As Christians, when we cease, we don’t just run away from everyday life, we assert that the things that drive our everyday lives don’t have ultimate authority over us. We mustn’t just take a nap or avoid exerting ourselves, we have to let our rest extend from the physical to the emotional and the intellectual so that it can renew our whole beings. By our ceasing and resting, we have room to embrace the values that we ought: intentionality, the Christian community, our callings, time instead of space, people instead of things and giving instead of requiring. And then, after the ceasing, resting and embracing, our feasting is that much sweeter.
Dawn makes sabbath keeping to her readers more than just a sound theological practice, but something that is inherently necessary for them to be all that God made them to be, and remarkably, does all of that without making the book one big guilt trip. “Sabbath keeping is not a dry duty or an oppressive obligation. It is a delight, a feasting on that which is eternal rather than a scrambling after the ephemeral success, the amassed wealth, the ceaseless activities, the elegant refinement that Americans think will grant them permanent happiness. Instead of trying to create our own security, we worship the one who is our security.”
I enjoyed Keeping the Sabbath Wholly a great deal and it was a wonderful reminder of truths that I used to know for myself but have lost along the way. My only major objections to it lie in Dawn’s practical application. She puts far too much emphasis on Jewish traditions of Sabbath keeping, which are extra-biblical. I do not think that lighting candles or saying the Kiddush and Havdalah are wrong. But her emphasis on them in her own practice might make readers feel that is the right way to keep the sabbath and there is certainly freedom to take or leave those practices. Personally, we are adapting prayers from the Christian tradition that fulfill the same purposes for our family. Overall, it’s an excellent book that I have and would recommend highly.
Cross-posted at This Classical Life
Summertime and Isaac Watts
June 27, 2009 by kristen
Filed under Grace for Life, Theology for Moms
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Every year I see more and more my need for community, probably because we’ve never lived in the same city as our families or lots of people we’ve known forever. And little by little, community grows, even when I feel like I have so little to offer my family let alone those beyond it. It’s a beautiful thing. We sang this hymn on Sunday, that talks about the windows of God’s grace where we see the Lord, and to me, that’s often through kindness, empathy and encouragement. The manifestations of community are the goodness of God to me in a very real way. Anyhow, every time I hear this hymn, it sticks with me, so I’ll share it with you, kind reader, until I post again (sooner or later.)
Windows of Thy Grace
by Isaac Watts
I love the windows of thy grace,
Through which my Lord is seen,
And long to meet my Savior’s face
Without a glass between.Oh that the happy hour come
To change my faith to sight!
I shall behold my Lord at home
In a diviner light.Haste, my Beloved, and remove
These interposing days;
Then shall my passions all be love,
And all my powers be praise.
Cross-posted at This Classical Life