An Austen-esque Sunday Lunch {and potato spoon race!}

We postponed our Spanish class today due to a tea party.  Not a tough choice.  We’ll be back on track next week, though, so be sure to check back!

Stepping Back Into Austen Country

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of being asked over to Sunday lunch at a family’s house from church.  They are a lovely family with 2 college-aged daughters.  Josh told me they had a nice house, but I was not at all prepared for their estate.  Once again, I felt like I had stepped into a Jane Austen novel, and like Mrs. Bennet felt that I kept putting my foot in my mouth {“I’ll have you know we dine with 4 and 20 families…”}  Anyway, I simply loved their home and back “garden,” and so did the kids!!  This is typical “Old Aberdeen”- just on the other side of campus from us, set back by Seaton Park and St. Machar’s Cathedral.  It’s my favorite part of Aberdeen  by the way, and we love living so close {about a 10 minute walk through campus}.  :)

Rebekah had a ball because they pulled down their girls’ old toys and dolls and they were so sweet to play with her, too.  While we ate, we put Luke down for a nap with his trusty sound machine, and he crashed for 2 hours (which was a nice surprise since I had to wake him at 9 that morning!), then joined us for more play.  The Cordiners brought out chairs to their back garden and even facilitated a spoon race for the kids!  The cool part was that we were invited back {I really questioned it after all my blethering} for a young adult’s bbq a week later, so we got to enjoy it all again!

{I wish I could have photographed the entire house, but I felt silly as it was.}

The front- um, yea. Uh-mazing.

Dining room

alternate view of dining room

Loved the wall paper in the front hall

A view of the back garden and sun room

Part of the back garden

Standing at the pond and looking out to the rest of the back garden

Pond

I kept thinking how much my dad would have loved to be the man in this picture, showing Luke the fish

Sweet Luke checking on the pond

Enjoying a big boy chair

Bekah preparing for the spoon race

Luke racing!

Bekah and me

Making Lions

Church Play Group

One of my favorite things about our church’s play group is the inclusion of a Bible story and corresponding craft…this was a happy development indeed!  Both kids and the Ellis children got in on making lions last week.

Excited about making lions

Lily was really excited!

Yep...still excited!

Hard at work

Look! Lions!

Oh, you wanted to see our cute faces, too?

Luke and Callum kind of made lions, too…then they were off and onto better things.  So, to make up for Luke’s absence, here are 2 killer pics of him.

My honey

All of a sudden bashful...

Dealing with Disappointment in the Church

Dealing with my Own Disappointment by griping less and getting more involved

Kate sent me this article after we had had a good talk about how often we (people in general) gripe about churches, specifically here in the UK.  It’s easy to get lost in a crowd and feel unwelcomed or not a part of the group.  Josh and I talked last year about me feeling not at home at our church.  I was quick to add that I blamed myself.  I knew that most of the problem was me not being able to be around for church functions or even just after-service fellowship.  This was a result of the kids needing their naps- and quick.  Luke would be red in the face and about to burst by the time the service was over, and we rushed home to feed them and get them down.  So, I told Josh, once Luke is a little older and we can get more involved, I’ll let you know if I feel the same way.  Even then, I started volunteering for creche once a month, and Josh helped start a young adults group, which we attended as a family.  I also started attending the church’s play group on a Friday morning, which put me in contact with a variety of the women from church, as well as some unchurched moms.  We also just went on the young adults retreat a few months ago.  The result is what I imagined- we feel much more a part of the family, and Josh is even going to start working for the church in the autumn.

So, I don’t mean to be too bold, but if you find yourself unhappy with your church (here or otherwise), ask yourself what YOU have done to remedy the situation.  I’m not trying to brag, but it made a huge difference when the parishioners saw that we were interested in getting to know them, too, and not just doing the standard “putting in our time while he gets a PhD.”  I also know that your schedule can make it tough to get involved- whether it’s work or the kids’ needs.  So, you may have to punt on intense church involvement for now.  I will be so bold as to say that it’s not really fair to blame the church or its staff for your own scheduling conflicts.

This is the article Kate sent me.  I pasted it below:

1. Did I ever ask for help? Pastors and elders are not omniscient. Even with the best shepherding strategies people will fall through the cracks. So if you really need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. I know everyone wants to be noticed. But it’s hard for a dozen guys to notice five hundred or two dozen to notice two thousand. Help your leaders help you.

2. Have I overlooked opportunities to fit in and get to know people? Before you complain that you’ve been at the church six months and still don’t know anyone, think about ways you could get known in the next six months. Is there a small group you could join? Could you attend the smaller, more informal evening service? What about volunteering for the nursery next time the sign up sheet goes around? Have you tried the potlucks and picnics and prayer meetings? Giving love and being loved is 90% just showing up.

3. Is it realistic for the leaders to give to every person in this church the kind of care I expect? It’s easy to think “All I wanted was one visit. You can’t tell me they were too busy to set aside one night for my family.” But remember you aren’t the only person at the church. If the general level of care you expect from your leaders cannot be multiplied by the number of people in the church, then you may be hoping for too much. If you expect everything, you’ll always be disappointed.

4. If I really wanted to be loved and noticed why did I stop showing up? On the one hand, church leaders should know when their members have drifted away. Good shepherds keep an eye on their sheep. But on the other hand, if sheep want to be cared for by the flock, they shouldn’t stay from it. People get hurt when their church absence isn’t noticed. But I have a hard time feeling too much sympathy, unless you’re dealing with a shut-in or someone whose absence is not voluntary. Don’t run away if you want to be found.

5. Am I willing to consider that I may be at fault more than I realize? If it feels like your leaders can never do anything right, maybe you’re the one making life miserable–for them and for you.

6. Is it possible I’ve overlooked ways the body has cared for me because I was hoping a different part of the body would care for me? Sometimes church members will say, “Sure, my small group sent me cards but the pastor never called.”  Or, “Yes the pastors were very friendly to greet me after church, but no one my age ever said hello.” Or, “I know the elders care for me, but that’s their job.” Or conversely, “True, my friends prayed for me, but I never heard from my elder.” Before you get angry, remember the goal is for the body to care for the body, not for the shoulder to always get a special backrub from its favorite hand.

7. In general have I found this church and these leaders to be unloving and unsupportive? If the answer is yes, and Question 5 is dealt with too, then you may need a different church. But if the answer is no, consider giving your church and your leaders the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they just botched this one. We all get it wrong sometimes. I know I have. Maybe they were too busy and dropped the ball. Or maybe you don’t know the whole story. In any event, don’t let one misstep color your whole impression of their ministry.

For both sheep and shepherds the indispensable requirements for living together are love and humility. Love to treat others as we want to be treated. Humility to consider how we may be at fault. Disappointment in the church is bound to happen. But it doesn’t have to destroy the unity of the body. The Lord can use our hurts to make all of us slower to speak and quicker to listen.

Scandalous

I got you with the title, didn’t I?

Well, we’re even because this book did the same thing to me.  With a title like Scandalous, it’s hard to resist.  Actually, I was asked second after Kate declined to do a book review for our church last Sunday, which involved reading the book, writing a short review, and presenting it on Easter Sunday.  I don’t normally get nervous for things like this, but I guess it being Easter and me not having the right accent made my heart pound kind of hard and my voice wobble a bit.  Oh well.  At least I was wearing my favorite dress, right? Anyway, I thought I’d share my thoughts with you, my faithful readers.  ;)

The book review

I recently read Scandalous by D.A. Carson.  Being the wife of a Systematic Theologian, I usually leave theological books to my husband.  However, intrigued by the tempting title and the subtitle, “the cross and resurrection of Jesus,” I felt maybe this book would be relevant to my faith in Jesus Christ and possibly even manageable without a theological dictionary.  Scandalous did not disappoint.

In fact, the premise of the book is the cross and the surprising (i.e. scandalous) events surrounding it.   Carson spends 5 chapters interacting with the first accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He walks through 5 different texts and 3 authors, 2 of whom were firsthand witnesses, to cover the events surrounding the cross.

While I enjoyed each section of the book, I appreciated certain parts more.  Maybe it’s the English degree in me, but I was fascinated by Matthew’s  use of irony (and Carson’s description of it) in describing Christ’s crucifixion.  The 4 ironies from the cross are:

  1. The man who is mocked as King is King
  2. The man who is utterly powerless is powerful
  3. The man who can’t save himself can save others
  4. The man who cries out in despair trusts God

The irony is that what they misunderstood about Him and thought untrue was really true of Him.  Bystanders mocked Jesus as “King of the Jews” but in unseen reality, He was King.  They saw Him as powerless and unable to save even Himself, yet He was and is ultimately powerful and able to save not only Himself, but also anyone who believes in Him.  They heard Him cry out in despair, yet, in reality, Jesus entrusted Himself to God, His Father, even in a tortuous death.   The world missed the very essence of who Jesus was, yet Carson points out in each irony, “but Matthew knows, and the apostles know, and the readers know, and God knows” who Jesus is.   In this way, Carson continually pulls you out of 2010 and the benefit of 2000 years of reflection  and back into the days directly succeeding the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As it is Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate our risen Lord, I will leave you with Carson’s own ironic words from his first chapter:  “Although our own death to self-interest never functions with the same atoning significance as the death of Jesus, the same principle applies to us: in dying we live, in denying ourselves we find ourselves, as we take up our cross and follow Jesus.”

On a totally unrelated note, don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the give-away!

Things I Love Thursday: My Husband

Maybe I’ve mentioned before that I love my husband to the moon and back- I did move to Iowa and then Scotland with him.  ;)   Besides his boyish good looks and sense of humor, one of my favorite things about Josh is his commitment to serving the church.  Whether he was a college student, an electrical engineer, a seminary student, a pastor, or now a PhD student, he has been committed to teaching the Gospel in the church.  Josh truly believes in equipping lay people to “do theology” (although he probably wouldn’t phrase it that way) so that their commitment to Christ is founded in truth and therefore sustains them til the end.

Suited up for preaching.

The Gentle King

As a PhD student, it is easy to become so engrossed with reading and writing that you overlook serving the local church, which is a shame.  So, I have been humbled to see Josh step up even as a busy student and help out with young adults and even at the pulpit.  This past Sunday, he preached on the Gentle King, and it was awesome.  I feel like the Lord really used him to show the Gospel as presented by a gentle king.  I hope you’ll get a chance to listen. He is preaching again in a week, and I’ll be sure to link up.

PhD

If you’re interested, Josh’s doctoral thesis (they call it a thesis here, and not a dissertation) is on the eternal generation of the Son.  Essentially, it deals with the relationship of the Father and the Son within the Trinity.  Mormons and JW’s, beware.  He will defend the deity of Christ and the Trinity in a way you wouldn’t believe.  :)

Be sure to check out more TILT at Diaper Diaries.