Proverbs (1) the getting of wisdom

Do you want more wisdom? In what areas of life would you like to be wiser?

Last Thursday I asked a group of women in which areas they'd like more wisdom, and they answered "Parenting. Money management. Time management." I'm sure you've got your own list. As I get older and life becomes more complicated, my list gets longer and longer.

Who wouldn't want wisdom? For wisdom is incredibly precious:

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom,
the man who gains understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
(Prov 3:13-18)

Power, protection, pleasure, profit, preciousness, peace: all these are the qualities of wisdom. No wonder we're told to "look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure", even if the search for wisdom should "cost all you have" (Prov 2:4, 4:7).

The getting of wisdom is no easy task. It takes passion and commitment. So precious is wisdom, it will cost all we have. (As I write, it occurs to me that these words sound awfully familiar: see Matt 13:44-46 & Prov 4:7).

Where can wisdom be found? That's the question I'll be asking during the next few weeks. I don't know about you, but if wisdom is that amazing, I can't wait to discover how to get it!

This is a quick summary of what we did during our first Bible study on Proverbs last Thursday. Each week, I'd like to share with you what we learn. This first discussion was just an appetite whetter - but what an appetite it gave me for wisdom! I hope you feel the same.

we pray and we grieve

The parents of one of the women in my Bible study barely escaped with their lives and lost their home in Saturday's fires.

For those of you who are overseas and praying for us, this is what their community looks like now. Here's an article which describes what's been happening.

Many hundreds of people have lost their homes, and the death toll is over 100 and climbing. We pray for those who've lost homes and loved ones, and we grieve with those who grieve.

Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.
For my days vanish like smoke;
my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
Because of my loud groaning
I am reduced to skin and bones.
I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake; I have become
like a bird alone on a roof. ...
I eat ashes as my food
and mingle my drink with tears ...
My days are like the evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
(excerpt from Psalm 102)

a terrible day

Yesterday was a terrible day for Victorians, and the fires continue. We know people who have probably lost homes and livelihoods; we also know towns which have been almost completely destroyed. Please pray with us.

Ed Welch on grace

Do you ever think that your sins are too bad, and that forgiveness for those sins requires you to get your act together first? If so, you don’t fear God. You are minimizing his forgiveness. You are acting as though his forgiveness is ordinary, just like that of any person or make-believe god. In contrast, the fear of the Lord leads us to believe that when God makes promises too good to be true, they are indeed true.

Ed Welch, Running Scared (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 195.

HT Of First Importance

book quiz revisited

You've all been very clever and guessed all the children's books in this quiz except number 4 - "He heard Fillyjonk's shrill little voice in the garden; she had found the Hemulen."

Can anyone guess which book the sentence is from? Here's a clue: it's something to do with this picture, the country Finland, and my birth month.

If you still can't get it, I obviously need to introduce you all to a wonderful series of children's books!

a story of school holidays and supermarkets

I was standing in the supermarket aisle, of all places, enjoying the silence.

It was one of those supermarkets with all the shivery refridgerated aisles up one end, the popular grocery aisles in the middle, and the deserted househood goods aisles right down the end. As I wheeled my trolley to and fro through the store, it grew warmer and darker, until I was standing in the unromantic surroundings of the toilet paper aisle, the only sound my 2 year old son Andy chatting away to me. Ah! The silence! No need to filter out all those layers of noise! I stood there and breathed deeply. Not quite a peaceful mountainside with the stillness broken only by the sound of birdsong, but it felt like it to me.

School holidays have just ended, and with them the constant, battering noise and demands of 4 bored children cooped up in a hot house (we've just had the longest, hottest heat wave in Melbourne since 1908).

I usually love school holidays. I love my children gathered around me, like ducklings safely clustered around a mother duck. I love the comfortable chaos and the noisy games and the quiet hours snatched with children who are so often away at school. But I didn't enjoy the 6 week school holidays which just ended.

By the end of the holidays, I had great sympathy for all those mothers who long for their children's return to school. Too many children whining, "I'm bored, Mummy! What can I do? Think of something for me to do!". Too many loud arguments: "He said ... ! She said ... ! She won't let me play! He won't leave me alone!". Too many never-ending needs for discipline and entertainment and food.

The worst moment was when I went supermarket shopping with the 4 children (yes, another supermarket story!) and had to threaten to go home and punish them after 1 minute because they were being so disruptive and disobedient. A new low point in my parenting experience.

Most of this was due to the fact that Steve was sick and I was worn out from looking after 4 kids on my own (I have new admiration for single mums, especially mums with boys!). But I think I could have done some things differently. Here's how I'd like to change things during our next school holidays:

• less screen time. I realised near the end of the holidays that the kids were grumpy partly because they were having too much TV and computer time. During term time, I limit their screen time to 30 minutes a day. But during the school holidays, screen time gradually crept up, leaving grumpy bored children in its wake.
• more planned activities. My children generally get along well, inventing games and playing happily together, so I'm happy to let them fill the hours enjoying each other's company. (Don't misunderstand me, there's plenty of times things don't run so smoothly in our house!) I don't normally need to come up with holiday amusements, so perhaps I've become a little lazy.
• extend the kids' learning. I've bought books like Hands-On Science, full of experiments for my science-loving son, and Teaching Art With Books Kids Love, full of art activities for my craft-loving daughter, but we rarely have time for them. The school holidays would be a wonderful chance to do these together.
• maintain daily routines. During holidays, it's easy to let the usual daily routines slip: Bible reading, piano lessons, breakfast together. It's good to take time away from normal routines to rest and relax, but a bit more structure in the day would help prevent the loose-endish holiday blues.
• keep doing the good stuff. There are lots of things I want to keep doing, like day trips, time with grandparents, and spending individual time with each of my children.

I've just found some excellent suggestions for school holidays on the internet, so it might be time to do some browsing!

Do you have any other suggestions for making school holidays happy, productive and relaxing? I'd love to hear about them!

images are from stock.xchng

children's books quiz: book meme

Here's a quiz for all you fellow book lovers, especially if you love children's books. I thought it was time for Nicole's book meme, given the recent bookish nature of this blog. I've made it easier by taking all the clues from this list of my favourite children's books.

Here's the rules:
- Take 10 books, and transcribe the 5th sentence from page 56.
- Make sure that at least 5 books are fiction, provide 5 hints, and pass the meme on to 6 other bloggers.

Here are the sentences. See if you can guess which books they come from. If you've read the books in question, it should be very easy!

1. From the very beginning Madame took an interest in Posy.

2. The goblins began to sing, or croak, keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the stone, and shaking their prisoners as well.

3. "She catches flies and sucks their blood."

4. He heard Fillyjonk's shrill little voice in the garden; she had found the Hemulen.

5. For days Pa hauled logs.

6. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceoptions.

7. She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her.

8. Peter whistled.

9. The big dyeing job was done twice a year at the hairdresser's, but every month or so in between, Mrs Wormwood used to freshen it up by giving it a rinse in the washbasin with something called PLATINUM BLONDE HAIR-DYE EXTRA STRONG.

10. "That means that we can't possibly tell you because you're a native ... a nice native, of course."

I've already given you the only hint you'll need: all the books are children's books from this list. I've cheated a bit: when the 5th sentence was impossibly difficult or completely obvious, I'll admit to choosing sentence no. 4 or no. 7. If you need help - which I doubt! - I'll give you another clue.

Put your guesses in the comments, and happy guessing!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if any other bloggers want to have a go - Honoria or Sandra, or Belinda, or anyone else I've fogotten - tell me and I'll see if I can solve yours!

pride (1) God gets my attention

When God can't get your attention through quiet whispers, sometimes he takes up a hammer. With precisely placed blows - a Bible passage, a friend's words, a magazine picked up and glanced at - he drives the point home. And when that’s not enough, he wields the sledge hammer of painful experience.

It gradually dawned on me late last year that the same word was popping up everywhere, as unmissable as those huge red-on-yellow billboards shouting “SEX!” beside the freeway. Except all my signposts were reading “pride”.

I read Pilgrim's Progress and watched Christian stumble because of his pride. I flicked through The Briefing and discovered a review of CJ Mahaney's Humility: True Greatness. I clicked on Cathy's blog and read words which laid my heart bare: "My bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are shown when other Christian women get a 'ministry opportunity' that I don't."

As if God knew this relentless repetition wouldn't be enough, a series of painful failures showed me the full ugliness of my pride. Like a surgeon who knows exactly where to cut, God relentlessly plunged his scalpel in just as far as it needed to go.

I’ve struggled with pride before. When I was young and confident of my godliness, I prayed a dangerous prayer: “Lord, teach me humility”. What followed was a drawn-out battle with sin which undermined my self-satisfaction. I vowed never to pray for humility again.

But God still hadn’t dealt with my pride in achievement.

It's not surprising that success matters to me. I lapped up the praise of loving parents, I went to a high-achieving private school, and I chose a prestigious uni course. On the first day, our lecturer called us “the cream of society”. (I transferred to Arts soon afterwards, but that’s another story!) No wonder that I expect to succeed. It's pretty ugly when you write it down, isn't it?

The ugliness wasn't apparent to me. When you’re succeeding you can fool even yourself with your assumed humility. You accept praise with just the right measure of self-deprecating gratitude. You feel oh, so humbly grateful for the gifts God has given you.

It took a series of failures, in a ministry I expected to succeed in, to reveal myself to me. Each one felt like a kick in the stomach. Horrified at the strength of my emotions, I prayed the prayer I vowed never to pray again: “Lord, teach me humility”.

One final painful and petty experience of failure, coming just in time for Christmas, and it was as if God prised opened a manhole into my heart, and I could see the pride within, like a festering black pit seething with worms.

God spares us this view of our sin most of the time. But occasionally he shows us the way he sees our hearts. God has made his views on pride very clear: "The LORD detests all the proud at heart" (Prov 16:5).

Thank God that, although my sin is greater than I will ever know, his grace is greater still.

This is the first in a series on what God has been teaching me about pride. Next time, I'd like to talk about the connection between humility and suffering.

images are from stock.xchng

Thomas' first day at school

It was Thomas' first day at school. After some reluctance during the holidays, the first thing he said today was, "I can't wait to go to school, Mummy!" He had a great day, praise God.

school holidays at our house

It's the last days of school holidays here in Victoria. I haven't enjoyed them as much as usual, because with Steve so sick I've been looking after 4 kids on my own - settling arguments, entertaining kids, and doing all the normal home tasks. But we've still had lots of fun. Here's some pictures.

On day 1 of the holidays Lizzy organised a competition to vote for the top 3 activities, and came up with a play schedule.

There was a little too much screen time, until Mum put her foot down.
The entire living room became a cubby on several occasions (or a real-life computer game, if the boys had any say in it).

The children made slime and a lovely mess!
Lizzy organised a craft program for the boys, making caterpillars out of egg cartons.
The Christmas toys came out of their boxes.
The highlight? A new cousin. So cute!
Back to school tomorrow, and back to the school routine for me. *sigh*