In short the idea behind the Ministry of Reality “is being able to be REAL about life. Homes are not always (not *usually* even!) spotless, children are not always dressed adorably, children do not always “behave,” marriage is hard, and there aren’t simple answers to hard questions. Being honest about all of this makes it easier (in my opinion) to live life… because we can ASK for help about problems we aren’t covering up. We can be encouraged by others’ stories of surviving similar seasons and trials.”

Being real, being vulnerable. . . in that we can ask for help from others, be approachable when others need our help. In the Ministry of Reality we can acknowledge just how dependent we are on God’s grace daily, and (hopefully, prayerfully, fallenly) show what that dependence looks like.

In the spirit of the Ministry of Reality, several moms have starting blogging about that on Mondays, Ministry of Reality Mondays. As humorously appropriate, it started last week. . . on Tuesday.

So for your reading and reality encouragement:

“Ministry of the Real” OR “Our Kids’ First Fling with Jackson Pollock”

*tap tap tap* Anybody there? Coming next Monday…

“Ministry of Reality” Monday…

Ministry of Reality Mondays

Jo’s Ministry of Reality Mondays

Lisa’s Ministry of Reality Mondays

Kate’s Ministry of Reality Monday

Ministry of Reality Monday, July 5

MOR Monday

Ministry of Reality: Shopping with Toddlers

It’s Monday again. I must be Real.

Parenting by Fear

Martyr for a Mommy? No, Thanks!

Amie’s Ministry of the Real Monday

Simply This: Ministry of Reality Monday

Christi’s Ministry of the Real Monday

Twitter: #ministryofreality

Please post here if you have more to add.

Ministry of Reality Monday will be hosted next Monday, July 12, by SoggyMommy.

• 1 Timothy 6:12-16
• 1 John 1-15
• Luther’s Advent Sermon

God of All Mercies — The Fourth Monday of Advent
We read:

• 2 Corinthians 1:2-5
• Ephesians 3:14-19

We remember:

• Luke 3
• Dove

Jesus’ Forgiveness — The Fourth Tuesday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 7:36-50
• Colossians 3:12-17

We remember:

• Luke 1:26-38
• White Lily

Shepherd of Our Souls — The Fourth Wednesday of Advent
We read:

• John 10:11-18
• 1 Peter 2:25

We remember:

• Matthew 2
• Star

The Baby in Bethlehem — Christmas Eve
We read:

• Luke 2:1-20
• Micah 5:1-5
• Luther’s Christmas Eve Sermon

We remember:

• Luke 2
• Manger

The Lion Who is a Lamb — Christmas Day
We read:

• Revelation 5:1-14
• Matthew 2:1-11
• Luther’s Christmas Day Sermon
• Luther’s Second Christmas Day Sermon

We remember:

• John 1
• Cross

God Incarnate — The Third Sunday of Advent
We read:

• Colossians 1:15-20
• Hebrews 1:1-3
• Luther’s Advent Sermon

We remember:

• 1 Samuel 16-17
• Shepherd’s Crook

Poor for Our Sake — The Third Monday of Advent
We read:

• Philippians 2:3-8
• 2 Corinthians 8:9

We remember:

• 1 Kings 17-18
• Stone Altar

Branch of the Lord — The Third Tuesday of Advent
We read:

• Zechariah 6:12-15
• Ephesians 2:13-17

We remember:

• 2 Kings 18-19
• An Empty Tent

The One we Seek — The Third Wednesday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 7:18-23
• Isaiah 35:1-10

We remember:

• Isaiah 6-9
• Fire Tongs with Hot Coal

Jesus the Living Water — The Third Thursday of Advent
We read:

• John 4:3-14
• Isaiah 55

We remember:

• Jeremiah 7-9
• Tears

Rivers of Living Water — The Third Friday of Advent
We read:

• Revelation 22
• John 7:37-42

We remember:

• Habakkuk 1-3
• Stone Watchtower

Making All Things New — The Third Saturday of Advent
We read:

• Revelation 21:1-7
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We remember:

• Nehemiah 1, 6, 13
• City Wall

A Virgin With Child — Second Sunday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 1:26-28
• Galatians 4:4-7
• Luther’s Second Sermon

We remember:

• Isaiah 9
• Candle

Immanuel, God With Us — Second Monday of Advent
We read:

• Matthew 1:18-25
• Zechariah 2:10-13

We remember:

• Genesis 37
• Coat of Many Colors

Good News! — Second Tuesday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 4:14-21
• Isaiah 52:6-10

We remember:

• Exodus 20
• Tablets

Jesus the Burden-Lifter — Second Wednesday of Advent
We read:

• Matthew 11:25-30
• 1 Peter 5:6-7

We remember:

• Numbers 6:22-27
• Hand

Jesus the Shepherd — The Second Thursday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 15:3-7
• Isaiah 40:9-11

We remember:

• Joshua 1 and Joshua 6
• Trumpet

We sing:

• Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho

Jesus the Healer — The Second Friday of Advent
We read:

• Matthew 9:18-35
• Isaiah 11:1-10

We remember:

• Judges 6-8
• Water Pitcher

A Redeemer for His People — The Second Saturday of Advent
We read:

• Luke 2:25-38
• Psalm 126

We remember:

• 1 Samuel 9-10
• Crown

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.

My students are growing weary with writing, presenting, and test preparation. Yet, I try to remind them (and myself!) of the good privilege they’re receiving in all this education. Their deliverance is coming final exam week.

I haven’t been walking without waddling for some time now. This kid is repeatedly bruising one of my ribs, and sleep is growing elusive. Yet, this is my fourth baby, and I do know that deliverance, in the very specific form of delivery, is coming. So I pray for the grace to treasure up these last few days of kicks and the ability to watch television without being coated with spit up.

Then there’s the liturgical season: my sweet kids have developed a new litany of their own, repeating “I want that,” in the face of television commercials and catalogues that slip through the mail to them before I can stash them in the recycling. My nesting has mostly taken the form of buying and wrapping gifts early, lest my kids be left without Christmas bounty while I’m in the hospital. And yet, the joyous expectation of Advent is still there in the middle of “I want that” and to-do lists. We light our candles in the evening and sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Ransom captive Israel! Though my oldest is only eight, I’m caught by years of memories of her singing the hymn with candlelight reflected in her eyes. And I’m caught by the beauty of the additions of her brother’s and then her sister’s eyes to that candlelit table and by the expectation of another pair of eyes watching the candles next December. Deliverance is coming with the baby in the manger, and it’s ok that said deliverance will include the joy of peeling back gift wrap.

The ransom of captive Israel is, of course, accomplished only because Mary was delivered of the baby Jesus. Joy and release, pain and promise, are knit together. Delivering babies, it turns out, works best when I stop fighting. So, I’m praying in this Advent for the grace to let go of all kinds of things. I know it’s controversial, but I’m ready to let go of what seems to me to be an increasingly false dichotomy between penitence and joy. If we don’t sing only Advent hymns this season, I’ll try to let the Christmas carols prepare me for Christ’s coming as well. If the tree is already up and the lights are already sparkling, I’ll try to view it, not as a violation of the season of penance, but as the unstoppable breaking in of the joy that is coming. Letting go has never been particularly easy for me, but it’s one of the chief spiritual lessons that God has used motherhood to bring into my life. I’m letting go of other things as well. The legal bondage of perfectionism. My stubborn refusal to accept that, for whatever reason, having the coats hung up instead of tossed into the hall is important to my husband. The need to figure out how to perfectly parent those kids of mine or to ban all suspect toys and suspect joy from our household. Penitence and joy, expectation and deliverance are knit together.

As an Advent-Christmas treat, we’re going to a concert of Andrew Peterson’s fabulous advent album, Behold the Lamb. The lyrics march us through the whole story of what God has done for us through the centuries, of joy and deliverance. Peterson connects our need for deliverance, our need for penance, with the joy of Christmas, and his lyrics plead with God to “gather us beneath your wings tonight.”

So, deliver me, Emmanuel.
Of grading.
Of this rib-kicking blessing of a kid.
Of the kind of waiting and expectation that precludes joy.
And, most of all, from the tyranny of sin and the terror of death.
Deliver us.

But when you hear and accept this it is not your power, but God’s grace, that renders the Gospel fruitful in you, so that you believe that you and your works are nothing. For you see how few there are who accept it, so that Christ weeps over Jerusalem and, as now the Papists are doing, not only refuse it, but condemn such doctrine, for they will not have all their works to be sin, they desire to lay the first stone and rage and fume against the Gospel.

Luther’s First Sunday of Advent Sermon

I wish you could see what I see sitting here. In my reading nook. Next to me a sweet schnauzer warms my legs. In the next room, a gentle husband snoozes. Upstairs the sleepy preschooler has conked out for his Sunday afternoon coma, and the silly kindergartner tries his best to keep quiet in his own room. But I hear the leaping off the bed and the happy dancing directly above me.

I see our Christmas tree. Lit. A miracle in itself since just last night the sentimentally appointed pinester was dark due to a malfunction somewhere in its dozen strands of light. From my point of view, the Hubby divined the exact problem (blown light fuse) and fixed it effortlessly. Yesterday’s dead car battery, however, needed Geico’s help. And the vintage Lionel that usually circles the tree couldn’t be fixed without parts, so it waits for us next year. We were electrical Schleprocks yesterday.

But between me and the tree, I see, for the first time in our home, a single advent candle burning brightly. The Candle of Hope. I cobbled together a wreath of velvet leaves I made for Elise’s birth nine years ago and some wool leaves I cut from my old felted sweater. An evergreen of a different sort. All leaves intended for another purpose, resurrected for celebration.

We sang Christmas songs this morning at church. Imagine that — singing Christmas songs during the Christmas season. If you’ve never been a independent, fundamental Baptist, you have no idea what a gift that is. You see, Advent is a big no-no. And you don’t sing Christmas songs until the week of Christmas. Or maybe the two weeks before. And even then, the truly spiritual sing them almost grudgingly. Because Christmas is Catholic (i.e. pagan) and extending the Christmas season is commercial, we really should just ignore it altogether. The pious do!

I can’t even tell you how many Christians I know who refuse to celebrate the holiday at all. I think, in fact, Charles Dickens wrote a novel about just such a person.

But deep down, we want to anticipate and celebrate. We want an old ritual that connects us all to a Story grander than just our own. We want to sing!

Last night, we watched an old Ken Burns special on the Shakers – the mostly 19th-century agrarian sect which took in orphans and made the most simplistically elegant furniture imaginable. Burns’ hagiography brushed past all their ideological problems — that Mother Ann taught that Original Sin was sexual intercourse (and so they were celibate) and that God was both male and female with Jesus being the male manifestation and Mother Ann being the final female manifestation and Christ’s Bride. And, of course, that they must discipline their evil Body in order to let the wholly good Spirit reign.

Instead Burns highlighted their seemingly beautiful straining, struggling, and striving toward perfection. And in 1840 it looked like they had made it. They were booming. They were taking in the poor and homeless. Their industry and craftsmanship was admired and profitable. Their ethic, however, was tailored to a 19th-century agrarianism and could not survive life in the industrialized 20th century. And now in the 21st century, there are only three living Shakers left.

Sound familiar? It’s eerily familiar to me. Scarily familiar. In grad school, I read all about the Shakers and all the utopian sects born out of the Second Great Awakening (most of whom came from the Burned-Over District). And I empathize with all of them. I understand the appeal of perfection — that if I make my work (mothering, knitting, or homemaking) pristine enough and sincere enough, I’ll build an American ziggurat to God. I understand the appeal of the bifurcated thinking — that the industrialized world is evil and that my industrious domesticity is righteous. I understand the appeal of defining sin as out there instead of in here – that my containing evil makes my perfection attainable. I understand the appeal of being peculiar — that doing the hard thing and the unexpected thing will woo people to me/us/God. Whether the hard thing is celibacy or modesty or Scroogery.

What a different Story I heard this morning! That God comes to me and I don’t work my way toward Him. That His love is greater than my sin. That doing good comes because Jesus has made us good. That the first Advent guarantees the second. That Jesus is King. Now!

There’s no room for the curmudgeon in that Story!

The kindergartner has just been freed from his quietness. Daddy bounded down the stairs carrying him piggyback. And the preschooler followed with a big case of bed head. We all have the evening to rest together (and fix the lights on the tree again because another fuse just blew). Three years ago on this day we would have already been headed to a church service or a rehearsal or some such duty. Straining, struggling, and striving toward some illusion of perfection.

I laugh at the irony. Our reactionary anti-Catholic shunning of all things Advent has still duplicated the identical medieval religious feudalism. And our dispensationalist adventism won’t touch an extended celebration of the first Advent.

But I’ll light my Candle of Irony on another day. Today is the Candle of Hope.

This is what is meant by “Thy king cometh.” You do not seek him, but he seeks you. You do not find him, he finds you. For the preachers come from him, not from you; their sermons come from him, not from you; your faith comes from him, not from you; everything that faith works in you comes from him, not from you; and where he does not come, you remain outside; and where there is no Gospel there is no God, but only sin and damnation, free will may do, suffer, work and live as it may and can. Therefore you should not ask, where to begin to be godly; there is no beginning, except where the king enters and is proclaimed.

Reposted from A Time To Laugh.

God’s Love for Us — First Sunday of Advent
We read:

• 1 John 4:7-19
• Zephaniah 3:14-17
• Luther’s Sermon

We remember:

• 1 Samuel 16:1-13
• The Tree itself

We sing:

God’s command to love each other is required of every man.
Showing mercy to a brother mirrors his redemptive plan.
In compassion He has given of His love that is divine;
On the cross sins were forgiven; joy and peace are fully thine.

Come in praise and adoration, all who on Christ’s name believe.
Worship Him with consecration, grace and love will you receive.
For His grace give Him the glory, for the Spririt and the Word,
And repeat the gospel story till all men His name have heard.

The Promise of a Son — First Monday of Advent
We read:

• John 1:1-18
• Isaiah 9:1-7

We remember:

• Genesis 1-2
• A sunshine

The Kindness of God — First Tuesday of Advent
We read:

• Titus 3:4-7
• 1 John 3:1-2

We remember:

• Genesis 3
• Apple

We sing:

• God is so good!

The Hope of All Nations — First Wednesday of Advent
We read:

• Matthew 12:1-21
• John 3:16-17

We remember:

• Genesis 6-8
• Rainbow

We sing:

• Rise and Shine

The Light of the Nations — First Thursday of Advent
We read:

• Ephesians 5:8-14
• Isaiah 49:5-13

We remember:

• Genesis 12:1-7
• Stars

We sing:

• Father Abraham

The Light of the World — First Friday of Advent
We read:

• John 8:12
• Isaiah 60:1-5

We remember:

• Genesis 22
• Ram

The Brightness of His Light: First Saturday of Advent
We read:

• Revelation 21:23-26
• Isaiah 60:11-20

We remember:

• Genesis 27-18
• Ladder

So I’ve been wearing the same green dress for the last five days to participate in The October Dress Project, a project that started from the inspiration from The Little Brown Dress and The Uniform Project. It’s a month of ‘fasting from our clothes’ in efforts to re-prioritize and think creatively with the things (in this case, clothes) we’ve been given.

A few disclaimers: 1) I’m not nearly as fashion-forward as most of the women are who are wearing their dresses for one year and because their dresses and accessories are so versatile, they never look like they’re wearing the same thing day after day, and 2) I’m not one of those super-hip, super eco-friendly, re-purpose everything sort of gals. I’m a mom of 2 and a grad student on the side, but I figured that even though I don’t buy many clothes for myself (still trying to get that pregnancy weight off!), that there’s something to be gained by wearing the same dress every day.

What, you ask, is the point of wearing the same thing every day? For starters, it’s a practice in reorientation. Though given the stage of life I’m in — mother of two little ones — I don’t normally spend much time on my appearance, wearing the same green dress every day enables me still care about my appearance — after all, I try to make the same thing look different each day — and to learn to care about my appearance through the lens of stewardship. I admit “retail therapy” has appeal; even buying small, inexpensive things like red nail polish can instantly make me feel better about myself. Not only am I being prideful that I’m being frugal by only buying nail polish but I’m also finding my satisfaction in things at some level, so you can see, I’m a mess. But, wearing the same dress every day helps reorient that default position of my heart — finding satisfaction by outward things, whether clothes, or nail polish or what other people think of me — and in turn, leaves room for much more. It reminds me that I don’t need much, that I don’t need a closet full of clothes and that a green dress can serve as my ‘daily bread’. It inspires me to be creative with what I have rather than longingly flipping through magazines wishing I had ‘that’ thing.

My green dress isn’t going to change the world, and it probably won’t change my immediate community — after all, most of my friends think it’s pretty cool, if they even notice I’ve worn the same thing the last several days in a row. And it likely isn’t going to change my life that I begin to really enact the art of the commonplace in my daily life — again, my life is besot with little sticky hands and dishes! and laundry! — but I do hope that my practice of wearing this green dress will cause me to pause and consider that when I’m quick to complain to instead think not only of the copiousness of what I’ve been given, but also of what I can offer and with small means and imagination, how something ordinary can become beautiful and new.

Reposted from The Lion Rampant.

Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason… , takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores… ?

What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, O God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labor, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight…

God, with all his angels and creatures is smiling-–not because the father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith.

–-Martin Luther

The above quote was alluded to in Mollie Ziegler Hemingway’s interview on Issues, Etc., about vocation and parenting. It’s worth the time to listen and discuss.

The idea of mothering as vocation is sometimes one we wrestle with. . . individually, together. The inherent struggles related to the concept is probably why we have a whole section of the MbG community set aside to encourage one another in vocation.

So much more could be said (and here’s a start). . . but mostly, just wanted to share the podcast link and discussion link.