Girls, Don't Check Your Brain at the Door

Since this blog is a family scrapbook, I don't (and probably won't) normally post such things. It just so happens that I love women being and feeling empowered in Christ and this topic gets me fired up. I thought this was a great commentary on Oprah's "new" religion. If you are a devoted Christ follower and love her new classes/shows on "A New Earth", challenge yourself with this reading, written by Charles Colsen...

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Same Old Earth, New Disguise

Oprah and A New Earth
April 28, 2008

You have probably heard of author Eckhart Tolle and his connection with Oprah Winfrey. What with Tolle's bestselling book A New Earth, its repeated promotion on Oprah's talk show, and the online course they are running together, they have become pretty difficult to miss.
Unfortunately, for many people, it seems that the true message of A New Earth has proved all too easy to miss.

Let me cut right to the chase: Tolle's supposedly groundbreaking message is simply the same old New Age thinking in pretty packaging. While Tolle acknowledges something wrong with the human condition (what Christians call "sin"), he preaches the need not for repentance and salvation, but for a new "awakening."

This involves looking deep within the self for peace and harmony, not looking to Christ. There is nothing new or revolutionary—and definitely nothing Christian—about it. It is paganism. It even seems some who claim Christ are getting caught up in the Tolle phenomenon.

Of course, it is easy to see the attraction. I can contribute to global peace by making life all about me? Who would not want that? It is the oldest temptation there is: letting ourselves be convinced that we "shall be like God." But as Tolle and his followers do not seem to grasp, that is precisely what is wrong with the human condition in the first place: setting oneself up as God with all the resulting egoism, selfishness, and misery that entails.

At our own blog, The Point, there have been some fairly heated conversations about this phenomenon. There are those who claim that, simply because Tolle talks about God, that should make his teachings acceptable to all who believe in God. (These people, presumably, are unfamiliar with the reminder in James chapter 2 that "even the demons" believe in God).
The real evil, in these people's eyes, is for members of any one particular faith to claim that it points the way to truth. And that, of course, undercuts Christianity. Even as Oprah Winfrey—Tolle's patron—claims to still be a believer in Christ, she calls this the most exciting project in her life.

In a popular video on YouTube, when asked a direct question about how she can reconcile belief in Christianity with belief in Tolle's message, Oprah states: "I reconciled it because I was able to open my mind about the absolute indescribable hugeness of that which we call God. I took God out of the box."

She says she got tired of "rules" and "doctrines," and particularly of the Scriptural idea that God is a "jealous God." "Something about that didn't feel right in my spirit," she said, "because I believe that God is love."

What Oprah did not understand, or would not understand, is that a loving God must be a jealous God—jealous of any lie that would steal His children away from Him and send them after false gods. As I explain in my new book The Faith, we need those doctrines to guard us against just the kind of untruths that Oprah, one of the most influential people in America, is now peddling.

Sadly, millions fall for this, especially when it becomes Oprah's religion. There has never been a more urgent time or need, as I write in my new book The Faith, "for us to know and defend the truth before millions more are sucked in to the old claims of the New Age."

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If you're interested in getting a Christian perspective on today's news, entertainment, and culture, I recommend Colson's daily commentaries at http://www.breakpoint.org/. My dad got me hooked at an early age! (I know, NERD!)

***can I just say how frustrating my spacing is on this blog! It won't let me space it RIGHT, UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!***

Are You Smarter Than A Preschooler?

I have a great cd in my car for kids, Natalie's favorite right now.

It's a Veggie Tales Praise cd, a gift to Natalie from the Pitts and Smiths.

It has so many songs that we sing at church and even some oldies from

Evie (you were into Christian music before it was popular if you remember her!), Amy Grant, and the late worship legend, Keith Green.

As soon as we walk out to the car, Natalie is yelling, "I wanna listen to worship Bob!"

I happen to love it too and we all sing along together.

Even Lainey chimes in at times..."ho-weeee" (holy).

The only problem is, as Natalie really learns these songs, her little brain gets going with so many questions. So of course, she turns to her all-knowing mommy. Ugh.

Today's question was "Mommy, what does 'holy' mean?"

My first reaction was, "awwww!!"

...then that quickly turned to "uh, uh, uh, well...AHHHHH!!!!"

How the heck do you answer that for a 3 year old???? I might could define it for an adult but no way to a preschooler.

I'm pretty sure my attempt at a definition just stupidly described it as....you know, holy...then I conceded that I just didn't know how to explain it. Der.

Yep, Kev and I sat at lunch looking up synonyms for 'holy' on his Blackberry.

On the way home from lunch as we listened to the cd, I tried to prepare for the next question.

I can sense the word 'glory' coming my way.

Things you never think about until you have a hungry little mind staring you down...

A cool self-portrait taken last summer

Can't you just SEE the wheels turning in this kid's head?? Grant's questions for me often fall under the 'science/prehistoric animals' category. "I'm sorry Grant, no hablo ingles."

Can You See Him?

He's a smiley one, already!

It was really too early, according to the doctor, to get a good 4-D picture, but I thought it was one of the best ones we've had of any of our kids.

It usually takes me a minute to figure out what we're looking at, but not with this one...although Kev and I did have a Rachel/Ross moment that lasted a while. It made me laugh. Kev was turning his head all directions, so sure he'd finally gotten it several different times, then OH! It went away..."now WHAT part is that again??"

So, I'll explain the best I can without having a pointer...

It's a side view of his right cheek, eye, etc. His chin and part of the cheek is resting on his little right hand, his eyes are closed, he has a little button nose that looks like Lainey's and his mouth is closed but grinning. The shot right before this, he looked like a circus clown with a HUGE smile, open mouth and everything. It made us laugh. I think so far, he's looking like his daddy:)

Natalie was with me having this sono done. She loved seeing her brother on "t.v." and thought he looked "like a silly little guy." She also kept checking on me, "Mama, are you fine? Don't be scared, ok? Jesus is here with you so you don't have to be afraid," all the while rubbing my arm. It was the sweetest. I love her sensitivity and compassion, things that can't be taught.

Little Dude, enjoy your time in there. In no time at all, you will be bombarded with sloppy kisses, make-up, and feather boas. My guess is you'll be dragged around a bit too, but it will make you tough, right? The dragging, not the make-up...

See you soon! XOXOXOXOXOXO

Stranger Than Fiction

One truth Christians must not deny (and why would you want to??) is the hope we have in Christ. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope and faith that, indeed, what He has told us in our life manual (scripture) is truth.

Two truths that come to mind right now are that 1) all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), right? And 2) there is GREAT PURPOSE in our suffering (James 1:2). ALL things work for our good...you know, it takes a lot of faith in the love of a God we can not see to really believe that, especially while in the midst of suffering...or crappy times, as I affectionately refer to them. It's all head knowledge until you have to live it. Then and only then can it become heart knowledge. Heart knowledge changes your life forever, I'm discovering more and more.


I'm also understanding that life-changing heart knowledge doesn't automatically come. I have to first make the choice to believe and accept these truths as just that...TRUTH, and truth is not up for debate. It doesn't depend on emotion or a temporal outcome. If the Christian doesn't accept these truths, get ready for bitterness to set in, and that makes for a miserable, unfulfilled life on earth. I mean, that makes sense...you have hard times, you accept and believe He loves you and He is working out something great through it, BAM! Purpose. Joy. Peace. If you don't choose to trust His love and these truths in their entirety, then there's no point at all in pain in this life...no purpose...and frankly, that would just piss me off to go through this all for nothing. The poison called bitterness sets in. Then there can be no real lasting peace or joy. Not the kind that changes and enriches your life.


I haven't been documenting the hell we've been walking through since Christmas, mainly because I haven't had time (although I have referenced some incidents on this blog). But also, because I don't want to spend the time it would take to talk about it. I've just looked forward to the next day, and the next. I want to leave the weight we've been carrying behind and not carry it from day to day.


This past week I will mention only because I have high hopes that this is the last chapter in what would be a very bad book. I would have put this dramatic, ridiculous, drawn-out, over-blown piece of fiction down a long time ago...I say fiction because I would never believe it to be true, ever. And since I haven't been documenting all of the ridiculous events that have taken place, you girls (and coming son) might not can appreciate this past week as you read about it one day. (Hopefully, I'll be able to remember all of the drama later so I can tell you about it...but don't count on it since I can't remember what happened last week!)


Since this is already a long post, I'll make it as short as possible. Lainey, once again, became very ill, this time a random stomach bug, no respiratory issues thankfully. High fever that wouldn't respond to medicine at all, vomiting and non-stop diarrhea going on for (as of now) 5 days landed us in the hospital for one long day and night. She became a bag of bones with cracked, bleeding lips and a bleeding, raw bottom within a matter of two days. Within those two days, this past Thursday morning at 4 a.m., our house was hit by a tornado...as in a real tornado, clocked at the speed of 90-95 mph as it slammed our whole neighborhood. It was sheer terror for us all. Well, all of us except Lainey who was so weak and battling the high fever she slept right through it. It's strange to me now when I think about being woken up by what sounded like a freight train barreling through our house. I don't know that I would ever describe weather as "evil", but that's what I felt in our room as soon as we were startled awake. We had no idea what was happening since we hadn't been connected to the outside world because of the care Lainey required. It was just ominous though, we knew there was danger before we even were fully awake.


Natalie, who normally sleeps right through storms, began yelling for us, the power went off and we started praying...loudly. (On a very personal note, I'm proud to say my first words after "Kevin, what's happening?!?" were, "JESUS, JESUS HELP US!" Sadly, sometimes when under stress it's not quite cries to the Lord that are coming from my mouth.) Natalie was crying and saying that she was scared and that our trees were about to break. This was my biggest fear at that moment too, that we would be hurt by flying/falling trees. I told her to pray with me and believe that Jesus would send angels to hold our trees up and protect our house. And we began crying out to God, out loud, just in case He couldn't hear us over the freight train.


The storm eventually passed and within 30 minutes, the rest of the night was filled with sirens and helicopters flying overhead. We waited for daybreak so we could see what had happened out there (although we didn't get power back until the next evening so we still didn't know for sure what had hit us.) When morning came, I walked out the front door and was overwhelmed with what God had done for us. We were surrounded by broken trees, debris, etc, but wouldn't you know our two big trees were standing strong. I didn't know Natalie had walked out behind me until I heard her gasp and say "Mama!" I asked her what she needed. I'll never forget her precious little face, eyes so big and mouth hung wide-open. She was staring at our trees. She was in total amazement. She said, "Jesus DID hold up our trees!" The fact that she put that altogether at that moment was so special and powerful, I thank God for showing her (and us) He hears us and is involved with every detail of our lives.


Of course, right after that tender moment, she looks at all of our neighbors' trees and concludes that "God didn't go to their houses and hold their trees up". Ugh, theological discussions I'm not ready for. So I just told her that's what happens to people that don't go to church...oh my gosh, totally kidding. I shouldn't even kid like that since some actually believe crap like that. Anyway...God did protect us and our house. We get a new roof and fence and some repairs done to my Tahoe, which caught some flying furniture. I say we come out pretty good at the end of this deal.


Again, another post that's way too long with not enough pictures but I will end by saying I really hope we are walking through this time in a way that's pleasing to Him and that we have strong spiritual muscles after this season of strength training. I have hope and faith in the truth of God's word to us...that there is great purpose in this season of suffering, it does end well for us because He said so. There's purpose, great eternal purpose in these very trying and tiring days. There's no "let's hope so" about it. It's called truth. And that's a great ending to this stranger than fiction life we've been living in lately.

Lainey starting to feel better.

Sharing pasta with Dad, Lady & The Tramp style

Big Sis so happy to have Lainey home again

A mangled trampoline from down the block that lassoed a tall lightpost

An answered prayer...
our trees still standing.