Submission Begins Where Agreement Ends

How's that for a thought of the day?  We heard Bro. John Wright preach on this topic last February, and that one point from his message has stuck with me ever since.  It applies to authority on every level.  Submission begins where agreement ends.  Of course, it's easy to submit when we are in agreement, but as Bro. Wright pointed out, that is not really submission.  Doing what you are asked to do when you want to do it is called cooperation.

At the time I heard this message, it really spoke to me regarding my own submission as a wife to my husband and as a child of God to my heavenly Father.  But lately it has also come in handy in my parenting!  I'm sure my kids are glad I heard that one.

Go here for some great parenting sermons (and lots more).

Do You Have an Imitation Bible?

Funny this verse should be Today's Scripture on my sidebar.  I was just thinking about this verse!

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Ephesians 5:1,2

Check your Bible.  Does it say, "Be ye therefore followers of God," or does it use the word "imitators" in place of "followers"?  There is a big difference between an imitator and a follower.  Who is the biggest imitator of God? Satan, of course.  He will never be a follower of God.  "Imitator" and "follower" are not the same word.  What's going on here?

Is your Bible  translated from the right Greek text?  95% of all the Greek texts agree with each other, and 5% of them don't.  Guess which ones the modern translators have used to translate the scriptures ever since the King James Bible was published?  Yep, the 5% of texts that don't agree. 

We are to be followers of God.  But in order to follow Christ we must have his instructions!  Don't settle for imitation instructions.

The New Me

Alison and I were talking late into the night a bit ago, one of the topics being how much nicer it is when the house is clean and tidy.  Which isn't often around here.  We do the vacuuming and stuff, but the eternal Lego projects, dollhouse adventures, crafting explorations and the like take over the family room floor.  Then they multiply and consume other parts of the house.  As goes the house, so do our meek and quiet spirits.  So Alie and I were discussing how much nicer we all are to each other when our surroundings are orderly, and how school goes so much better, and, well, what are we waiting for to change things??

I showed you my organizational goal for this month, but here it is again.  I have to post the "before" shot again so that we can all see what a Big Improvement the "after" shot is.  Okay, here it is.

Scary, isn't it?  No wonder we couldn't find the wire cutters. Or the tape measure or the missing piece for the train set, or Emily, OR the surface of my sewing table.  (Just kidding about Emily.) This is just one corner of the room, mind you.  Trust me, the rest of the room looks just like this.  Now here is the after shot:

Doesn't that just make you feel a lot less agitated?  It even looks like the sun is shining a bit brighter there.   There's still way too much stuff, but at least now it all has a home.  We also tackled the rest of the entropy-challenged house and made good progress.

Today, inspired by a new house, the girls got their jobs done before school started, we did devotions and enjoyed the time spent together, and in our nice clean family room, school was a joy.  All of this order also inspired me to complete some oven-door kitchen towels for a friend (tutorial here -- I must update that one of these days) and a quilt top that has been about three years (four years?? ) in the making:

Sorry about the blurry photo there.  So just think.  If I kept a clean house all the time, I would be a completely different person!  That might be kind of fun. Look how much I got done!  What shall I do tomorrow?  Think I'll find some button "eyes" for the fish on the quilt, clean a closet, wash the blinds, dust the fan blades, make cactus jelly, go through the girls' closets for outgrown stuff, bake bread, write a song, and refinish the dining room table.  I kind of feel like Superwoman!

Let all things be done decently and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:40

(Now I know why...)

Khan Academy

Do your high school kids need help with math or science?  (Or maybe you need help teaching?)  If you have college-bound students, or if your kids are taking upper level math, science, or economics, you just have to visit this great site.  Salman Khan has posted over 800 videos on YouTube, in which he teaches, for free, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trig, calculus, statistics, probability, chemistry, physics, *takes a deep breath*, finance, banking, investing, and more, PLUS SAT prep and GMAT prep. You just have to see this.  He also has his own website, but it looks like the YouTube playlist is updated more often. Check it out!  Where was this guy when I had calculus and chemistry?