Overdue Post Against Barbarism
So there's been another horrible instance of a child being killed by her parents in the name of "Christian" discipline. To me, this is a clear instance of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. TulipGirl has been linking to insightful, painfully fair, painfully honest examinations of the subject, which are helpful in understanding how these things can happen. I don't hear any of my friends singing the praises of the Pearls or Gary Ezzo, which is why I wasn't especially inclined to comment. It should be obvious what we think of "teachers" whose "methods" lead to such results. Nonetheless, in case there is someone reading this blog (ha!) who disagrees:

THERE IS NO ONE-FITS-ALL PERFECT WAY TO RAISE PERFECT CHILDREN. It's a process, highly dependent on the child and on the parents. Biblical principles are important, wonderful guides, but there is no single Biblical way to parent. We should be in prayer daily [physician, heal thyself] to seek wisdom for the task of parenting and grace for our failings and those of our children. It's not a formula, it's a conversation.

For the record, we do spank in our household. It's not a daily occurrence, but it happens often enough that the boys know it's a possibility. We do not use a tool other than our hands. Corporal punishment works better for some of our children than others- creativity is required. I obviously would love for my children to obey out of love, but they also need to know that there are unpleasant consequences for rebelling against benevolent guidance. Obviously, God's guidance is more trustworthy than mine, and just as obviously, I have rebellion issues myself, but I believe my upbringing served me remarkably well, and I only hope to do as well by my own children as Mom and Dad did by me. At the end, my children will still be, lo and behold, corrupt, fallible humans, flawed; but deeply, sacrificially loved not merely by their family but by their Father in heaven, as are we all (yep, you too!).

Labels: life, parenting

- posted by Lenise @ 10:19 PM |

 
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
I actually cooked something from scratch yesterday. It was a casserole, no big deal, but still kind of hard when you are under time pressure and have to keep chasing the boys away from the stove every 5 minutes. In Isaac's case, this involves bodily removal from the room. Anyway, the whole reason I cracked a cookbook was that I had volunteered to bring some church acquaintances dinner, as they have a handsome new baby boy. I've really been feeling like I should do this sort of thing more often, because it was a huge blessing to us when Isaac was born. We got lots and lots of food!!

Anyway, I was running later than I had intended, but I finally got the food packed up when the Dad called, wanting an idea of when to expect me. I probably should have called them myself, but I didn't (it's a learning curve thing). Anyway, I was able to tell him I was on my way out the door and would be there within 40 minutes. I had already studied the map, but as I was heading down the highway, decided to go on 85 instead of 40 and avoid a bunch of traffic lights. So here I am in the far left lane, preparing to take the 85 split, when I noticed a SHP car coming up behind me, really fast. I moved into the third leftmost of the four lanes, but the car followed and turned on its lights. *Sigh* Doesn't this figure? So I crossed the remaining 2 lanes and pulled off onto the shoulder. I was going faster than most of the cars out there at the time, but not fast for that stretch of highway when I normally travel it. In any case, my speedometer (I've been told) reads high, so I thought I was going about 70, thought that's not what the speedometer said.

Utterly unaware of what to expect, I turned off the engine, rolled down my window, and waited for the patrolman to approach. He came to the passenger side, so I had to turn the accessories back on in order to roll the passenger side window down. "I stopped you because you have an expired registration," he said, after we exchanged brief greetings. I was relieved, because I am really proud of my clean driving record (which probably should have been blemished in my college years, but escaped nonetheless). Then he ran my license through the system, which took quite a while and had me wondering whether it, too, had expired. I knew there couldn't be anything else to learn from it (see above reference to clean driving record).

Eventually, my license was returned along with a citation for the out-of-date registration, and I now have to go to court in September to avoid paying a heap of money for it. Paul found the renewal notice and renewed the registration online last night, so we should get the new sticker on the plate before the week is up. Hopefully no one will stop us in the meantime!!

Thankfully, three of the four lanes go to 85, so I only had to cross one lane of traffic (I only had about a quarter of a mile to accomplish this feat, but thankfully traffic was light), and I had no trouble whatsoever finding our friends' house, getting out of the car just as the Dad rolled in on his bike with baby's angelic big sister. I really like maps!

I saved half the casserole for us, which made for a tasty dinner, and I got each of us a small pan of brownies. I also demonstrated to myself that I can cook a meal and deliver it with minimal aid from others (I didn't have to bring the kids to the store or to our friends' house). Now if I can just keep my registration updated, maybe I will make more of a habit of this!

Labels: law enforcement, life

- posted by Gary @ 8:24 PM |

 
And Now, Back to Our Story
Well, a quick update anyway. I've got an interview tomorrow with a non-profit in downtown Durham. I had a phone interview with them last week, and that went well enough that they invited me to come in. It sounds like part-time is a possibility, so although this job doesn't sound like it will stretch my technical skills, it's looking like a very good opportunity.

In the meantime, I was contacted by a recruiter who saw my resume posted on a data jobs website. I don't want to get into too much detail, so I'll just say this job sounds like a better "career" move and more of a challenge, but I know very little about it, so if they don't get in touch with me this week, and I get offered the other job, I may just let it pass by.

Paul's got a part-time job lined up (related to his ESL teaching certificate), but we're not sure how many hours it will involve. That will start in a couple of weeks.

All in all, things are happening, I guess. As always, we welcome your prayers!!

Labels: life, work

- posted by Lenise @ 10:04 PM |