the Educational Establishment Strikes again

...and a child will suffer.

Local TV news website has the following headline: "Kindergarten Age Requirement Frustrates Some Parents--One local family has to wait until next year to enroll their son in Kindergarten because he is too young"

Now, because this is a local TV news site, the link takes you to a blank page, so I can't tell you any details beyond that. But my wife and I have talked about this recently. If we surrendered our kids to the Brain Washing Centers Fine Elementary Schools here, Samwise would be starting Kindergarten this year. He wouldn't be laying around reading chapter books when he's bored. He wouldn't be adding two digit numbers, etc. No, because the Gurus have decided that we are to place kids in a grade by age, for socialization purposes, not readiness; to progress them because of age, not ability; and so on, Sam would be behind where he is. Poor kid.

...on second thought the kid is staying out of the hands of the Public School system for another year. He should be breathing a sigh of relief.

On a related note, a friend linked me to this commentary yesterday, "Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs: Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds". Now, as he told me, don't skip ahead--read the whole thing right through...right down to the description of the author. Then chuckle.

Happy Birthday, Das!

On July 28, 1881, John Gresham Machen was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

J. Gresham Machen was a brilliant Christian Scholar, Apologist, Political Figure and Writer from the early twentieth century. In 1923, he wrote his most popular and important book Christianity and Liberalism—Machen argued that there were two rival religions warring for control in the Protestant churches: Christianity and Liberalism were rival religions, not two sides of the same religion (you can read it online here). Sadly, the Church as a whole has yet to learn his lesson. His struggles in the Presbyterian Church to preserve orthodoxy and to battle the growing Liberalism eventually led to his expulsion. Machen and several other ministers formed what would become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Henry Coray, one of Machen's students, and a minister in the OPC wrote:

"What is it in Dr. Machen that stands out above everything else? . . . To me the answer does not lie in his scholarship, or in his teaching ability, or in his literary skill, great as these are. In my opinion the one feature about him that overshadows everything else is this: his burning passion to see the Lordship of Christ exercised in His church."

I'd really recommend the following books about Machen:

• J. Gresham Machen: A Guided Tour of His Life and Work by Stephen J. Nichols
• J. Gresham Machen: A Silhouette by Henry Coray
• Defending The Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America by D. G. Hart

But better than that is reading the man himself:

• J. Gresham Machen's The Gospel and the Modern World
• The Christian View Of Man
• Christianity and Liberalism (if you want something to hold in your hands)
• God Transcendent
• New Testament: An Introduction To Its Literature And History
• Select Shorter Writings
• What Is Faith?--a personal fave

Socio-Political Notes

• And the Number Three reason that Digital Cameras are the way to go....
• Ann Coulter opines that we shouldn't trust Bush on Roberts
• Bret posts the text from an advertisement in the Idaho Statesman--and frankly, I'm shocked they ran it
• Huckleberries Online proposes this Idaho State Quarter design (may only get a chuckle from Idahoans)
• Huckleberries also pointed to this chuckle-worthy post about a Satanist blog

Update: Links fixed, thanks to the perpetually unsatisfied one.

Applying a 2" x 4" to my noggin

'course a 2" x 4" is actually a 1.5" x 3.5" or so, but when you're getting whapped upside the head, who cares about a half-inch here or there?

For awhile now I've had a really nasty attitude towards my job. I frankly hate it. Part of that is due to the last item on the entry directly below this. When everything below your knees is searing with pain, you have a hard time enjoying what you're doing. If eating a Chicago Connection pizza while drinking a Guinness hurt like this, I'd stop immediately. (sooooo glad there's no pain in that!)

Another part is that the quality of our management has taken a horrible nose dive. Personnel (both crew and management) being stretched too thin contributes to this, new managers who shouldn't be at that level--there's one manager who I really like, but too often feel like I and one or two other crew members are really running the place when he's on shift.

Anyway that hatred towards toiling under the Golden Arches has led to a souring of my attitude in general, 'tho I'm usually able to keep it focused on the job, I'm not entirely successful. And honestly, didn't really bother me too much to hate the job.

So last night, I'm leaving for work and sign out of the chatroom. Dr. White stops me, "Hey...just remember....It is the Lord Christ you serve. :-)"

And that kind of takes all the fun out of bitter resentment...with friends like that...But I take the admonition to heart, or try to anyway.

Then this morning doing my blogrun, I hit this post on Reformation21's blog, "The Doctrine of Vocation" (you'll have to scroll to it, the 21 guys have yet to discover the magic of permalinks). Which serves as a nice little reminder of Veith's book God at Work, a nice life-changing read on the doctrine of vocation--most of which I'd been repressing lately. It's almost like someone's trying to tell me something...or pound it through my head, something like that.

So I'm refocusing myself today (and hopefully for many to come) on the Protestant Doctrine of Vocation, so nicely summed up by Veith:

When we pray the Lord's Prayer, observed Luther, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. We might today add the truck drivers who hauled the produce, the factory workers in the food processing plant, the warehouse men, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the nation's economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning bread.

Before you ate, you probably gave thanks to God for your food, as is fitting. He is caring for your physical needs, as with every other kind of need you have, preserving your life through His gifts. "He provides food for those who fear him" (Psalm 111:5); also to those who do not fear Him, "to all flesh" (136:25). And He does so by using other human beings. It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when He fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation.

New Words I've Learned This Summer

Well, many of these I knew vaguely, but when they're applied to you--whether in theory or in fact--you tend to learn them a bit better.

Roughly in order:

• Diverticulitis
• Smoldering Appendicitis--the Smoldering part is where it takes days upon days to get to the critical stage
  
• Fatty Liver
  
• Pericarditis
• Transient Ischemic Attacks--a.k.a. TIA, mini-stroke
• Atypical Migrane
• Plantar Fasciitis

and that's just so far--still have August to fill up!

We're still looking into the last three--deciding what I have, how to treat, etc. That's kinda preoccupied me for the last week. Having a hard time thinking or writing about anything else honestly. Trying to get better about it, and getting back to dealing with life outside of my corpus, but it ain't easy.

New Group Blogs

• Founders Ministries Blog from Tom Aschol, the Executive Director of the SBC group.
• Reformation 21 Blog the new blog from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals--to go along with the new online magazine from ACE, Reformation 21 (which, seems to me, is basically a blog with really long posts and infrequent updates). Both well worth the read.

From Time Magazine

Good, short, piece:
When Denial Can Kill: We Muslims must admit that our religion might be motivating the bombers
By Irshad Manji

(hattip to Bloggeronicus Rex--not that he blogged it, just showed it to me)

yeah, I know it ain't much, but needed to say something...been a week w/o a real post

Great read. Better pacing than Rowling's done in awhile. That's all I can say for now.

Thanks for the idea Ransom, hope this isn't too much of a rip off....

Potter-time (You can't touch this)

at least 'til 12:01 am tomorrow.

In honor of the Potter-mania, I'd like to post a few links:

• Doug Jones' "Most Real Fantasy", best line:"Harry Potter can't be a threat. Wizardry doesn't really work. And if your kids are really tempted to join a coven then it's not a giant leap to say that you've failed miserably as a parent. Where is the ballast in your childrearing?"


• Go watch "Welcome Back Potter" from last night's The Daily Show (you have to sit through a little bit of other hilarious stuff first). Stewart brings up the oft-quoted Cardinal Ratzinger interview where he talked about the books containing, "“subtle seductions that work imperceptibly, and because of that deeply, and erode Christianity in the soul before it can even grow properly." Stewart replies "yes, and really who knows better how children can be subtely seduced..."


• While you're there, see "Harry Potter Terror" also from the Daily Show


• I think this photo shows the greatest threat posed by Rowling's books: those hats catching on.


• Meghan Cox' A Classic for the Ages?is worth a read


• Lastly, sure the themes get a little old, but most of the 11 pages here are worth a read.

Comments

Have been having a lot of trouble with Haloscan recently--mostly it showing 0 comments where there were some, etc. Anyway, I've enabled blogger's comments now to avoid that...sadly, the blogger hack which was supposed to enable me to see my old Haloscan comments on old posts and the new blogger comments on the new posts didn't work. So for a little while, I'm keeping both up. But if you want to say something, please use the your Noise link, as I'll be getting rid of the other pretty soon.

btw, many apologies to those RSS folks I've bugged today with all my tweaks.

oh yeah, and thanks to all my #pros buddies for their support on the post below.

Yessir, that's my baby...

Shortly after we were married my wife and I went to Borders Books where a prof of mine was doing a signing—he was then Idaho’s “Writer in Residence” and had to go to all over doing that sort of thing (or maybe he was promoting one of his mind-bending novels…the details on that are kind of fuzzy). I introduce them and Lance asks a few “get to know you” kind of questions… “are you into Sci-Fi?” “no” “Not even Star Trek?” “Uh, no.” “Ohh, fantasy?” “No.” “You read a lot?” “not really” etc. I remember her just looking uncomfortable, and Lance running out of things to try to ask her, they were worlds apart—and she was convinced that Lance was going to conclude we weren’t a good match, etc.

There was probably even a little, “Man, this guy I married is such a geek!” After all, for every one of Lance’s questions we’d have been able to talk for a few hours. And in the years since, she’s had that “this guy is such a geek” reaction a lot—and a little bit of pride in her lack of geekiness.

And then…a co-worker insists I borrow his Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone DVD—he’s convinced I’d love the F/X. Which I do. We love the story even more. So we decide to try the first novel…and within a couple of weeks, she’s read the entire series (up through Goblet at the time)—and I was close behind. And the wall between her and fandom starts to crumble.

Cut to today, on her way to work I get this picture:

Resplendent in her Geekiness—Gryffindor scarf (you can almost see the insignia), costume glasses (wouldn’t surprise me if she came back from the optometrist with those frames one day), lightning bolt scar (temporary…not a tattoo, I trust), genuine Olivander’s Wand replica, and bag of Bertie Bott’s Beans…oh yeah, and can’t forget: “No Compromise” bracelet.

What a difference a few years make...

Update: She just called...for some reason, the her new staff don't quite know what to make of her...pretty much just staying away. The veterans on her staff just laughed, but the newbies...go figure

Update 2: Allright, had to replace the picture with something more acceptable to her. For close friends and family who missed it, the original picutre is available via email. Oh and here's her initial reaction to my first picture

Mutual Edification

One of the elders at my church and I were talking about the benefits of family worship in our kids lives--the little roots that my kids are putting down and some hopeful signs of buds, and the fruit that his kids are showing, and the like. We talked about desires, hopes, and plans for us to be able to do what the Directory of Family Worship had in mind. That it should "be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced." Some of the ends of that desire are well put (again) by the Directory "for cherishing piety, for maintaining unity, and avoiding schism and division." My guess is that schism is both intra-family as well as intra-church.

What a plague we've brought on our homes, our marriages and our churches because we don't give a rip about family worship! I know it can't be proved, but I'd be willing to wager some serious money that the degrading and ignoring of family worship is directly tied to the pathetic state of the Church and Christian family today.

Anyhow, last night we were doing our bit to advance the national reformation, and as we were wrapping up, I asked, "What great miracle does the Holy Spirit perform in the hearts of God's people?" Frodo jumps up with, "Turning Stone into Flesh?"

"And what do we call that?"

"Regeneration." And we people think we have spent too much time in the OT with him. Ha. Gimme that over a vanilla "being born again" any day. (not that the incredible doctrine of the spirit bringing new life is anything to sneeze at, just the phrase is pretty much emptied of meaning nowadays).

As I thought about that later (and I spent a lot of time coming back to it), I thought of one more reason for Dads to make family worship a priority. Stuff like that is a great encouragement for Dads! 8-D Not sure it's precisely the "Mutual Edification" the Directory had in mind...but it's close, and good enough for me.

Breeding a Snob

Frodo's having quite the quotable week...

Mrs. WhiteNoise is getting annoyed with our Science curriculm lately, the Science tests that our curriculum provider (name withheld to protect the guilty) gave us are filled with typos. For exacple, the other day Samwise took a test that asked what teeth he'd use to chew a "cooky." So she's grumbling about all the typos she's finding and Frodo pipes up in their defense:

"Maybe they went to Public School."

(groan)

at this rate I'm going to have to change his blog nickname from Frodo to Malfoy.

Goblet of Fire

Down to hours before Half-Blood Prince and we're starting to get noise about The Goblet of Fire movie. A handful of early reviews at aintitcool already, and now one from a regular.

Can't wait for this one!

Gratitude

Gratitude is one of those things that I'm really good at expereiencing/feeling, but am really lousy at expressing--which is actually the most important part, the rest is pretty useless without that.

When someone performs an act of kindness--being given a gift; being brought a glass of water by a waitress on a long day (better: being brought a few refills on that and a coffee cup that never gets empty); being paid a compliment--far too often the words "thank you" or "thanks" just don't seem to get the job done. There's a sense of obligation, or debt, that comes along with it--but it's a welcome debt; unlike, say, medical bills or student loans. Somehow that debt has to be repaid.

Seems to me that if charity and generosity are attributes that the Christian is to display, half of that needs to be the ability to respond correctly to charity and generosity. Exacty how you get better at that is the question I'm dealing with.

This meandering was inspired by an act of charity and kindness. I'm sure the man that inspired it knows who he is (he is pretty clever). And he knows what a woeful job I did of expressing it. Sorry. I'm working on it.

Quick Shot: When Grace Comes Home

No energy to do a bigger review. But this is a book to get. Basically, it's purpose is to answer the big "So What?" question regarding the Doctrines of Grace. What difference does Calvinism make to the way you live? How does it effect your prayer, your assurance, your sanctification, the way you look at evangelism or adversity? The chapter on "Law & Liberty" is better than many books written on either subject. Good read. Easy read. Powerful read. Haven't seen my wife this into a book not written by J. K. Rowling in years.

My pal, Mark Gibson (or whoever writes the "Book of the Month" blurb for his church says:

If anyone is foolish enough to think that theology, particularly Calvinistic theology, is impractical, he needs to read this book. And even if you don’t, read it anyway. Terry Johnson has provided a splendid work on how right theology bears upon our worship, character, suffering, witness and growth in the Christian life. This is exactly what the evangelical church needs because, whether evangelicals know it or not, their future as a viable movement depends upon the rediscovery of such God-honoring theology.

Basically, get it and read it.

2nd-Grade Exegesis

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

Shockingly, tonight was the first time I remember talking about this verse with my kids. We were in John 3, and Frodo and Sam were able to get the whole talk about being "born again"--they had an easier time when I showed them it was the same thing as the "regeneration" talked about in their catechism.

But we go over the ever-so famous verse 16. Simple little questions, "why did God give his Son?" "What will happen to those who believe?" "What does perish mean?" Frodo even gets a couple of points for bringing in the Bronze Serpent. Then I ask something like "who can have eternal life?" Frodo blinks, and then realizes it's self-evident: "Those who believe."

note to Dave Hunt: my 6 year old can get it. Come on man...

Happy Birthday, Jean!

Jean Cauvin was born on July 10th, 1509 in Noyon, France. And the world has never been the same.

It's quite the understatement to say that this man has been used by God to radically alter my life. More and more it's not his doctrine--well, at least not the stuff he's famous for--that impacts me. It's his piety, it's his love for God, his heart aflame (think there's a book called that by somebody) because of his fame-making doctrine--that's what draws me. I've been telling people in my church (not sure they believe me yet) if you want answers to your theological questions, read Turretin, or Hodge, or Reymond--Berkhoff, too. But if you want your heart moved, then you read Calvin.

You can see a hint of that in these quotations (I could've killed blogger's disk space by posting everything I wanted to):

"For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him - they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him."

"Doctrine has no power, unless efficacy is imparted to it from above. Christ holds out an example to teachers, not to employ themselves only in sowing the Word, but by mingling prayers with it, to implore the assistance of God, that His blessing may render their labor fruitful."

"If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is 'of him' [1 Corinthians 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Hebrews 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [cf. Hebrews 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Galatians 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other."


Lord, thank you for your gift of this man, and the work you gave him to do. Soli Deo Gloria.

Optimism

Calvinism is a religion of fundamental optimism. The contentedness of the previous point [from 2 Cor. 12:10 and Phil. 4:11-12] is not a fatalism. It doesn't breed passivity in the face of adversity. Ours has been an active, resolute, even defiant, tradition. Ours is not like the world's optimism, however. The world urges a positive outlook for the future on the baseless assumption of human goodness and human potential. Auschwitz forever reminds us of the groundlessness and futility of that hope. Our hope rests in a sovereign God. Nothing is impossible for Him. 'With God, all things are possible,' Jesus said (Mark 9:23). This gives me confidence and hope in the midst of shadows and darkness. I am resolute in the face of defeat knowing that God is able even to raise the dead.

--Terry L. Johnson

The Emergent Church

Have been meaning to get around to tackling some of this new "Emergent Church" stuff that's all the rage, but haven't had time (imagine that!).

But just sampling a little here and there...pretty sure I've got better things to do with my life. So does The Church, tho', and these folks are gonna be around for awhile...anyhow, a few quick links (all critical, mind you):

• "C" is for Clueless--a review of A is for Abductive. Also the funniest book review I've read in a while. Hat Tip:Real Clear Theology
• Penguin sex, flaming liberalism, living with the hippies ... ahhh, Donald Millermy pal Rusty, rants a bit about a couple of lousy books
• Tim Challies stuff on EC
• and Emergent No, by a pal, an acquaintance, and someone I've never met, looks to be pretty exhaustive.
  

Quote of the Day

from the presbyterians-opc email list:

Christian Fundamentalists pass out tracks and annoy people at streetcorners by using a bullhorn to proclaim the Gospel. Islamic Fundamentalists blow people up.

When the worst your extremists do is talk to people about religion in socially unacceptable ways, you've got a pretty good thing going.

--N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Overcoming the World: A Review

Joel Beeke is fast becoming one of my "go-to" guys when it comes to contemporary theology, and this book is a stellar example why I'm turning to him faster than "bigger named" Reformed writers. I'll start with my complaints and then move into the reasons I think any Christian who is not yet completely sanctified should read this book.

There are two drawbacks to this book. The first is that Part Four is addressed to Ministers. And that's fine, don't get me wrong. But it's not marketed that way, it's marketed for the general audience, not as an expansion on talks he did at a ministerial conference (so it makes sense that one talk would be focused particularly on ministers). It's not too difficult for a non-minister to find application for their own life in those chapters, but, there's some real gold that many probably won't bother to look for since it's in a chapter about pastors.

Second problem is bigger. Beeke's attitude toward entertainment: movies, TV, novels, magazines. Now in the aforementioned Part Four, he talks about being careful with worldly entertainment--I have no problem with that and would echo it. But in Part One, he gets overly-specific, IMO, and ends up wandering into "the doctrines and commandments of men" area, neglecting that "God alone is Lord of the conscience" (WCF XX:2). On the whole, I was able to do a little mental edit around those issues and keep his point intact. I may return to this issue in a later blog.

I guess I should mention that the only problems I had with Parts Two and Three were that they were just too convicting.

So on to the good stuff:
The first paragraph of the Preface gives a better summary of the purpose of the book than I could hope to:

Worldliness is destroying the church of Jesus Christ. Christians and churches that fall prey to it lose their saltiness. The time is thus right for us to biblically expose and condemn worldliness, and to promote the alternatives of genuine piety and holiness.

What follows is practical guidance for living that life--what Beeke elsewhere describes as "Experimental Calvinism."

In Part One: Overcoming the World by Faith, Beeke lays the groundwork: what is worldliness, why we should overcome it, some basic steps in that direction, and encouragement to the task. My complaints about liberty/entertainment come in here, but on the whole it's well worth it.

Beeke then moves on to a case study in Part Two: Overcoming the World through Piety: Calvin's Answer to Worldliness. Here we are treated (and I do mean treated) to a survey of the teaching of, and life of, piety in John Calvin, the great Reformer. What does Experimental Calvinism look like? It looks like Calvin. It's wrapped up in the Church, it's found in communion with the Lord, it's found being lived by the believer. This part of the book will encourage you to greater faithfulness, while showing you just what you're missing.

Part Three: Overcoming the World through Holiness is the heart of the book. He echoes the Biblical stress on "vital, progressive sanctification."

concretely, then, what must you cultivate? (1) Imitation of the character of Jehovah; (2) conformity to the image of Christ; and (3) submission to the Holy Spirit.

While this section does mention particular sins the believer needs to beware of, the weight of the material is oriented to the heights we are to scale. It's here, where we see how far short of the mark we are, that our sins are exposed to a greater degree than they are when he says "watch out for X." There are many, many wonderful concrete portions counsel here that I want to quote, but I can't seem to find a decent place to start and stop. Pure gold.

As I said earlier, the weakness of Part Four: Overcoming the World in the Ministry is it's (stated) focus on Ministers. But the practical advice in private holiness, prayer, communing with God, properly prioritizing your family, dealing with pride and criticism, and motivations to overcome worldliness are worth reading for everyone.

I am in awe of (but not letting myself covet) Beeke's ability to effortlessly and seamlessly mix quotes/illustrations from Scripture; Puritan/Reformer quotes; contemporary authors; and his own insight and experience into such clean and effective prose. I know it wasn't effortless gaining that ability, but to see it in action is a pleasure.

Well-written, accessible to a wide range of reader, and addressing a vitally important issue. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Ugh...it took a lot longer to read this thing, and to write the review, than I figured. How does Challies do it? hmmmm, lot less TV posts on his blog. Could that be it?

nahhhhhh

This is why they shouldn't have friends

So I'm heading out the door last night, on my way to the dreaded Golden Arches, and Samwise stops me to tell me something vitally important. I do appreciate the fact that the kids feel the need to tell me every little tidbit of information they gather during the day, but sometimes the timing could be better. But I soon stopped caring about that.

SAM: Daddy! I forgot to tell you Caleb told me today that I shouldn't point with this finger! [he illustrates his point by flipping me off] He says it's bad!
ME/MRS: WHAT?!?
FRODO: Yeah, he says it means the "F-word"
SAM: (at the same time as above) He says it means something bad
ME: He's right, it is bad.
MRS: (at the same time as above, to Frodo) What did he tell you it means?
FRODO: He didn't say, just the "F-word." And it's bad.
ME: Good. That's good enough for now. Yeah, it's bad. Sam--stop doing that with your finger! Stop it, Caleb was right.

Life was so much simpler when we didn't have a yard, or other kids in the neighborhood.

"I want to learn the ways of the Force"

I recently discovered I was failing in essential duties as a father. Frodo, at 6 years of age, didn't know what a Jawa was. He'd gotten one in a kid's meal from Burger King (mmmmmm....Whopper), and was clueless. And then a couple weeks later he got another one of those toys--think it was an Episode IV-era Luke--and if you looked up through his feet you could see pictures from the movies. One of the pictures was of an AT-AT during the Hoth invasion and he asked several questions about it, during one of my answers I used the word Stormtrooper. "What's a Stormtrooper?"

That sent me reeling. When I was his age, I had multiple Stormtrooper figures, I knew that the white armor was something the bad guys wore, they were all about helping Vader and the rest to hunt down Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie. It was one of the things I knew best in the world (not saying that's necessarily good, but it's the truth). And now my son...my eldest son...the smartest and wisest of the lot...he was completely and utterly untaught in the ways of Star Wars. Everything he knew about Star Wars was learned from seeing Revenge of the Sith commercials on TV. What kind of father am I?

So this weekend, we corrected that. Or at least started the correction. I made the kids watch Episode IV (and, yes there was a bit of coercion there). Frodo was into it, spent a lot of time discussing various things with me during the movie, but afterwards was non-committal about liking it. Samwise was leaning forward during the final battle sequence, eyes wide; he practically cheered during the medal ceremony; and had to sit on my lap during the Vader/Kenobi duel--but that was cool with me, I knew he was getting it. The Princess was lost during most of it, but cheered when the boys did.

Now I've just got to figure out when I can fit in Empire. But until then, I've got this unusually strong desire to listen to my Twin Sister CD.

Holiness

Holiness . . . extends to every part of our persons, fills up our being, spreads over our life, influences everything we are, or do, or think, or speak, or plan, small or great, outward or inward, negative or positive, our loving, our hating, our sorrowing, our rejoicing, our recreations, our business, our friendships, our relationships,our silence, our speech, our reading, our writing, our going out and our coming in--our whole man in every movement of spirit, soul, and body.

--Horatius Bonar

New Template

Okay, after receiving many, many complaints about the old template (mainly having to do with light gray text on black). I decided to lighten things up a bit. What do you think?

(and yes, I have the old one ready to return at a moment's notice)