Weekly Links!

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR Monday Morning--and usually I set these in the categories of faith, family, and fiction, but this week it's just faith (because that's what I found this week!)

First off, I have to link to Anne Kennedy's book "Nailed It: 365 Sarcastic Devotions for Angry or Worn-Out People." It released about a week ago, and has already been showing up places like Christianity Today.

It's so good. If you're looking for a book that will lead you through the Bible with wit, wisdom, and a wry sense of humor, this is the book you want.

(It's also a book I've been involved with for just over two years now, as an editor--and actually getting to finally hold it in my hands is so delightful!)

Okay, on to the articles!

-"Why I Don't Flow with Richard Rohr": I don't think I've ever read a book review quite like this. It's bitingly funny, but I'm pretty sure the bite is there because the reviewer really, really cares about the subject at hand. And he's right in that. Which means you can enjoy the cleverness without any guilt at all.

-"The Axe of Advent":

Advent isn’t supposed to soothe us.

-"'I'm Actually a Better Follower of Jesus Than Most Christians...'": Oh, it's so nice to hear someone take this one on.

-"Children, Safety, and the Sixth Commandment": I don't agree with everything here, but the author's thought process is insightful and worth following.

-"In Which I Rejoice Over That Ohio Law": Yes, this:

...laws against theft don’t stop all theft, and laws against drunk driving don’t stop all drunk driving, and laws against murder don’t stop all murder. But because those things are wrong, and the state has a vested interest in some level of moral standards for the peace and comfort of its citizenry, it goes ahead and doesn’t allow those ways of life even though people do them. 

-"It's Time to Take Your Medicine": An account of an enlightening little exercise.

-"Is Faith Without Works Dead, or Just Sleepy?": One part of a larger conversation on the relationship of sexual ethics to salvation. It's worth following up on the whole thing, if you're interested, and besides being worthy in and of itself, this article contains the links that will let you follow up on the whole conversation.

I hope you have a great week!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links! Welcome-to-Advent Edition

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION.

Faith 

-"The Advent Project": Biola is hosting The Advent Project again. Every day during Advent (and also, I think, every day of Christmas), they'll be posting a seasonal devotion with scripture, written meditation, art, and music. Recommended!

-My Advent Pinterest page: As I said on Twitter, this is really a "baby" Pinterest board, in that I have fewer than twenty pins so far. But it's growing, and the stuff that's already there is pretty good! Take a look, and let me know if you know of any pins I should add.


-"How to Deal with Erratic Corpulent Ginger Authoritarian Much-Married Rulers: Options for Christians in Public Life": This is very clever.


-"The Virtue of Tolerance"


-"The Bravery of Glennon Doyle Melton"-a snippet:

No amount of embracing the self will cure the ills of the soul. No Amount. There is nothing you can do to love yourself enough to rescue your soul from death. You can’t. 

-"The Church's Outsourcing of Women's Discipleship"


-"The Great War's damage to the English soul and the church": I've never read this perspective before. It was interesting.

Family 

-"Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It."


-"Advent Reading": a fantastic list of books to read to children this Advent.

Fiction 

-"How Realistic is the Way Amy Adams' Character Hacks the Alien Language in Arrival? We Asked a Linguist."

-"Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, with Horrifying Book Curses": Relevant to the interests of all devoted readers.


Have a lovely Sunday evening!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

How We Have Devotions with our Children

The original model.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a lengthy post about how I have my daily devotions and, at the end of it, I promised to write a follow-up about how Adam and I lead devotions with our children. This is that follow-up--and forgive me for posting it later than I'd hoped.


And, fair warning: most of what I'm going to say here is a natural outgrowth of the content of that first post. I.e., our devotions with our children are really a continuation of our own devotional lives, and that's really what I hope you come away from this post remembering.


There are three main ways we lead our kids in learning about, praying to, worshiping, and serving the Lord, and the first two are stupidly obvious (but worth noting)--and the last one might be, too.

1. Go to church (live like Christians)

If your lives aren't centered around the Lord, your children will know it, regardless of whether or not you read them a Bible verse now and again. One primary way your children will know the reality of your devotion is by seeing how you spend your time. Do you make time in your days, in your weeks, for serving the Lord? Live like a Christian (because you are one). Be a part of your local church. Worship in community regularly. Let God's love permeate your life. When you sin against your kids or your spouse, repent and ask forgiveness. Love your neighbors. Work on all those good and terrifying lists of virtues Paul was always sticking in his epistles.

Be real. And by "real," I don't mean, "let all your vices hang out."  I mean, "really follow Jesus, and yes, that includes doing the real work, and letting your kids see that you don't always get it right, but that you always let Jesus pick you up and help you keep following Him."

(Note: I know church attendance is hard. And I know church people can be hard to get along with. And I know churches can get it wrong, and can hurt you, and... and all of that. Anyone who's been in church any length of time has stories about it. Keep trying. God loves these folks. Hang in there. We really are supposed to do it, and God gives grace for the struggle. You might be walking through a desert right now when it comes to church; keep walking. Keep your heart set on the pilgrim way, for God can make the desert a place of springs.)

2. Pray together regularly

This can be really simple: pray together before meals and at bedtimes. Thank God for your food and ask Him for good sleep. If you have trouble with extemporaneous prayers, use a formal prayer (at various times we've used the Lord's Prayer or the simple "Guide us waking, oh Lord, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace"--the Book of Common Prayer has LOTS of other good ones, too, if you're looking for help).

This is an area, frankly, where I'm hoping to grow our family's own practice. We're very regular at praying, but not very... varying. I want to help the kids learn how to pray more for themselves, for others, how to use prayer to worship and to confess, to petition... but the good thing is, we do have a habit of prayer. And I think once you have a habit, you can build on it and refine it.

So start the habit, and feel free to start simply. Just start.

3. Teach them the Bible (out of your own devotions)

So, while this is probably as stupidly obvious as my first two points, it's the insight that's been absolutely revolutionary for me this year.

I've used, and still love and appreciate, devotional books like The Jesus Storybook Bible, or The Biggest Story, and I'm sure I'll keep using them.

BUT.

But the very best teaching times we've had with our kids are when we teach them out of the passages we ourselves are studying. So, when I'm reading Luke in my personal devotions, at bedtime I'll read to the kids out of Luke, and I'll explain it to them. Or Adam will read to them some of what he's been pondering in the Bible recently, and he'll explain it to them. (Or we'll read whatever's in the lectionary that week.)

Recently, I was reading through Nehemiah, and so I read big chunks of that to the kids for a week or so, and explained to them what it meant. And it was wonderful, because right there in Nehemiah was an explanation of exactly what we were doing! In Nehemiah 8, the scribe Ezra reads the law to the people, and as he reads, a crowd of Levites stands ready to assist him. And how exactly do the Levites assist him?

"[They] helped the people to understand... they read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading (emphasis mine)".

That is what you can do for your kids: read to them from the Bible, and then help them to understand it.

And how do you do that? By making sure you understand it yourself. And for that, you have to be spending time reading it, meditating on it, studying it, and even listening to and reading good theology from people more learned than you are.

This is what I mean when I say that your children's devotions should grow out of your own devotions. Because you know that they're going to have questions. You know they're going to ask what it means, and what about this, and, Mom, does that mean that I should ...????

And that's the really good stuff. That's the stuff that sticks. And you're only going to be up to the task if you're regularly seeking the Lord's face yourself, regularly turning your own heart towards Him, regularly feeding yourself on His word.


Which brings us to ... food!  Food. Here is an analogy for you: think of how you feed older babies--babies that aren't really toddlers yet, but they're not just toothless breastfed babes anymore either. Yes, you may have a few foods for them that are really just prepared for babies (jarred baby food, etc.), but the older they get, the more you can just modify your own supper. You cut up the grapes, you mash up the main dish, you spoonfeed them a properly prepared version of what the rest of the family is eating.

It’s easier that way, AND it’s healthy. (Assuming your normal diet is healthy…and it should be.)

This is what it's like to modify your own devotions for your children's needs. Feed them what the rest of the family (the church) is eating. Just break it down enough that they can easily take it in.

Yes, there's still room for prepared devotional materials. They're so helpful--much like jarred baby food. I would not want to be without the excellent resources careful Christian authors have prepared to help children learn about God. BUT…you don't feed your baby just jarred baby foods. You help your baby eat what the rest of the family is eating. THAT is what your children's devotional life should be like.

(Also, I'm pretty convinced that Scripture memorization fits in here somewhere, too. But, to be honest, that's something I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate regularly into our lives. I'll update as we keep working on it!)

One Last Note

I was talking to my own mother about composing this post, and I asked her if she thought I'd missed anything important. Her response was a thoughtful, "Sometimes each child is going to need individual discipleship."

It was such a good reminder that I couldn't close this post without sharing it. Yes, each child is an individual, and there are times when each of them will need attention, help, resources, prayer, time, thought, guidance, study... all of these good things, and that child will need them from YOU, the parent. So please, don't take this post as an end-all or be-all. I've only been a parent for about 12 years now, and if I have as much to learn in the next 12 years as I have in the last 12... well, I have a really, really long way to go.

So please take this post in the spirit it's offered: as a reflection from someone who's a ways down the road, but not that far down, and who wants to offer what she knows so far, just in case it might help someone else on the path. I know I'm missing things, and I'm sure somewhere in here I've said something wrong.

But we're meant to help each other on this journey. I pray the Lord lets whatever is good here stick in your heart and your mind, and that He graciously lets you forget and discard anything harmful. May you enjoy many, many rich times of prayer and study and discussion with your kids, as you lead them to follow you, as you follow Christ.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell




This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

how to help your kids engage with the Bible

The Law is a Light. (photo credit: Betsy Barber)

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. -Ps. 119:54

An author friend asked on Facebook:  What are some different ways you have helped your kids engage with the Bible? Go.  

It's such a great question, and I enjoyed thinking through it. Here's how I answered: 

 We read many, many Bible stories to them. 

We've read various Bible story books to the kids over the years, and we've also read the text itself to them. I think both are good. These words should be the backbone of their thoughts, the beat of their hearts.

We've taken them to churches where the Bible is read aloud and preached and taught.  

One of the things I love about the Anglican church is that the Bible is read aloud - and then preached on - at every service. When our kids are in the service, they hear it. When they're in Sunday school, they hear lessons on the same Scriptures. (And, seriously, our dear priest's wife, who leads the children's chapel at our church, should be a candidate for sainthood. I've lost count of how many times one of my kids has excitedly told me about what she or he learned from "Miss Christina"!) 

Also, our liturgy in itself is suffused with Scripture. Every time our church celebrates the Eucharist, we hear Jesus' words about communion repeated and shared.

We bring the Bible and what it says into our conversations around the dinner table. 

And elsewhere of course. But talking to our kids, listening to them, answering their questions... this is more and more of the parenting task as the kids grow and begin to think about themselves and their world and their God. Being willing to be a part of these conversations - not to run away, but to engage - is a really important important part of parenting.

I let their grandma pay them to memorize Bible verses. 

Admittedly, this was a really, really easy call on my part. :)  (Thanks, Mom!)  But in all seriousness, this is how my eldest daughter discovered her love of the Psalms, and that's a love I pray will hold her in good stead her entire life long.

We read and listen to and meditate on the Bible ourselves. 

This is probably the most important point. How could we have those dinnertime conversations about life, the universe, and everything unless we had allowed God's word to sink into our own hearts? The law of the Lord is life. Let His words ring in your ears every day, day after day.

What about you? I'd love to hear how you help your kids engage with the Bible!

Peace of Christ,
Jessica Snell

Where do you find good kids' books?

As I said yesterday, I'm blessed enough to live in a place with a great library system. Almost every week, we visit our library and there are books waiting for us.

And most of the time, the books waiting for me aren't just for me, they are also for our kids.

So where do I find them? Where do I find the books I request for my kids?

Mostly the answer is: from book blogs. I read about kids' books on my favorite blogs, and then I request them from my library system.

And if we fall in love with them, I buy them.

Here are my favorite blogs for kids' book finds:
-Redeemed Reader: Christian Children's Book Reviews
-Melissa Wiley
-Semicolon
-Supratentorial
-Elizabeth Foss

I'd love to add to my list. Are there any sites that you find reliable for good kids' books suggestions?


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: Jaywalkers and "The Penderwicks"

I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading?"

The knitting:
I'm knitting another pair of Jaywalkers, this time for my mother.  (I wrote about my first pair of Jaywalkers here and here.)  

This pair is a belated birthday present - I only finished the first of the socks yesterday. Don't worry, my mom knows they're coming! And given our present heatwave, she's happy to wait for them. :)  (No one's wearing socks here right now for the fun of it. Blah. 90 degree heat is a sure sign of fall, right?)


The reading:
I've started reading "The Penderwicks" to my kids as our evening reading. My mom started reading this to the kids during one of our camping trips this summer. Now that I've finished our last family read-aloud (John White's "Gaal the Conquerer"), I've taking up "The Penderwicks" where Mom left off.

It's so good. It reminds me of my own childhood reads - particularly of Elizabeth Enright's books, like "The Four Story Mistake". It's a summer book, full of sibling love and country life and the world of the imagination.

One of the reasons I love this book is that my children beg for it. They want to listen to these books more than they want another episode of TV.

That's brilliant. 

I love books that teach my children to love books. And they love it because there's something there to love: there's family and joy and adventures.

Great book. Loving it.

So, what are you knitting or reading?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links: Rejection, Pluto, Achilles, and more!

My weekly round-up of interesting links from around the Web!


"Ranks of the Rejected: Josh Vogt": I've been enjoying the Rejectomancy blog for awhile now, but I particularly liked this quotation from his interview with Josh Vogt:

[My first rejection letter] didn’t surprise me at all. It acted like a milestone in my fledgling writing career because it meant I was actually doing what I needed to do: write stories and submit them to publications.

"The Full Armor of Achilles to Withstand Odysseus (Eph. 6)":

Because as Paul wrote these ideas down in Greek, it’s very likely that the Greek classics were part of his specifically literary equipment. Lines of Homer were so pervasive in elementary education in the Greco-Roman world that children would practice their letters by writing Homeric sentences. And once you pick up on the way Homer describes warfare, you notice some particular expressions and conventions that help explain some of Ephesians 6’s peculiar phrasing.

"A Philosophy of Internet Safety":

The main line of defense against cyber bullying is not to avoid the internet, but to be in control of your identity on it.

"New, Gorgeous, Pictures of Pluto":  The title pretty much says it all!


And, finally, some exciting news from Ranee, a longtime friend of this blog: her knitting pattern "Saint Catherine of Alexandria" has just been released in "One-Skein Wonders for Babies: 101 Knitting Projects for Infants and Toddlers."

Congratulations, Ranee!  The pattern is so cute!  (You can see several pictures of it if you head over to Ranee's blog.)


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Book Notes: The Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook

"The Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook" (phew! what a title!) is the book we've been using for evening devotions with our kids for the past several months.

And I can't comment on the "interactive" part of the title, because we haven't used it. (Apparently you can blink at it with your smartphone and see moving versions of the illustrations? I don't know, I don't have a smartphone.)

But the content - the content is so, so good. Why? Because it very much echoes the Biblical text. If you're someone who's familiar with the text of the Bible itself, you'll hear the real words echoed here in this storybook. They seem to keep the original phrasing as often as possible - it's just edited a bit for length and clarity.

I really like that.

The other thing I really like is that at the end of each story, they take a paragraph or two to explain what each story teaches us about Christ. Really, it's just basic theology - Christ-centered theology. It's great stuff. Much like my experience in reading the "Jesus Storybook Bible", I think I ended up receiving as many insights from the clear retelling of these stories of our faith as my children did.


One caveat: I am reviewing this before I've finished the whole thing. But the reason I'm reviewing now is that we just finished reading through the whole New Testament section, one story a night, so we have completed a good chunk of it. I trust the Old Testament section (which we're going back to now) will be just as good. I wish I could remember who recommended it to me. But here I am, all the same, recommending it to you.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Public School, Sex, the Fantastic Four, and more!

My weekly round-up of good reading from around the Web:


"The Public School Parent's Guide to Learning at Home":

Many families do all that we can to foster and nurture learning in the earliest years of a child’s life, as well we should. But when our children begin spending their days in the classroom, we aren’t off the hook! Continuing to build a home where learning is nurtured and valued is one of the best ways we can equip our children for life after graduation.

"We're All Sadists Now": Such an important point:

Yet there is another force at play today ... The belief that our sexual desires determine who we are at the deepest level.  This is somewhat ironic: The age which denies any real significance to sex also wants to argue that sexual desires are of paramount importance to personal identity and fulfillment.  

"The Most Important Scenes from Fantastic Four (As I Remember Them)".  Snort.  A sample from this hilarity:

Ben Grimm: Hey. Anyone else think it’s weird that a high school is doing a science fair, but every single exhibit looks like an elementary school science fair project?
Reed Richards: So basically, science science science. Here, let me steal a toy plane from a kid so I can teleport it for you.
Ben Grimm: Wait a second. Why is there an elementary school kid with an exhibit next to Reed? Is this an all-ages science fair?
Reed Richards: (presses button, plane is teleported). See? Science!
Teacher: Even though I am apparently judging this science fair, I know nothing about science and thus have to assume you used magic to make that kid’s toy disappear. I have to disqualify you, because you are obviously a witch.

Finally, I really, really, really liked Family Life Today's interview series with Rosaria Butterfield. You can listen to the whole thing free. Here are the links:
1) A Train Wreck Conversion
2) What Is Hospitality?
3) What Is Truth?
I've rarely heard anyone so thoughtful, so open and considerate, and yet so thoroughly Christian. Really worth the listen.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

cooking dinner with the kids (well, actually, with one kid at a time)

I always have trouble getting into a summer routine, but this year it was easier, because there were a few things I knew I wanted to do.

And one of them was to cook dinner with my kids.

Bess is almost 11. Gamgee is 9.  And Lucy and Anna are both 7.

Great ages, marvelous ages, capable ages.  (Seriously, dear moms of young ones, it gets better and better. Harder in some ways, easier in others, but . . . better. Because they become people, more and more. And that is lovely.)


But anyway, Adam and I have four children. And that is not so much as some, but it is a fair amount of children as these things go, and while I love them when they're acting like a litter of puppies - all tumbling over each other and shouting and playing and shouting (So. Much. Shouting.) - I also really love spending time with them one-on-one, when I can pay real, focused attention to each individual child.

And it struck me that since dinner has to be made every night, and since each of them enjoys spending time in the kitchen (none so much as Bess, who is the sort of child who makes banana cream pies from scratch - pie crust and meringue and pudding and all), that taking one of them every weeknight as my Dinner Buddy - i.e., co-chef - would be a great way to get some one-on-one time in.

And it has been.

Now, to be honest, making dinner with a seven-year-old (or nine-year-old, or almost-eleven-year-old) makes dinner prep. take twice as long*, but that's an okay price to pay for some quality time with each of these small people I love who are swiftly ceasing to be small and so quickly becoming big people with personalities and loves and annoyances and hang-ups and joys and everything that makes up a person in this world.

I want to be there with each of them as they grow through these important years.

Making dinner is just one small way.

But it's a good way. And I love this time, and I am grateful for it.

Thanks be to God.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



*I lie. It's at least three-times-as-long.

Weekly Links: Planned Parenthood, Obergefell, earthquakes, and more!

So very, very many links for you this week. (Possibly because I took a week or two off!)

Enjoy the good words of people so much smarter than me.



"After Obergefell": I always find it heartening when smart, godly people give good counsel on what to do (as opposed to the disheartening feeling I get after reading an article that's a mere wringing of the hands):

Churches must take responsibility for marriages and families. The argument that we need to protect marriage for children is true in principle, laughable in practice. In sections of America, marriages aren’t steady enough to protect anyone. The best argument for traditional marriage is a thriving traditional marriage.

"The Really Big One" - Terrifying. (And makes me happy to be a bit east and a bit south of the region they're talking about. But still, as some one close to the Pacific and very sincerely in earthquake country? Terrifying.)

"10 Foods that Regrow in Water Alone" - Here's a break from the doom-and-gloom: things still grow! And better and more easily than you might have guessed!

"The End of Sexual Ethics: Love and the Limits of Reason": charity and logic applied to sexual ethics and identity.  God bless you, Matt Anderson.


"Arms Wide Open":

I am the type who rehearses life. I plan. I practice. I think of every possible thing that could go wrong, and I set aside provisions for them. I am careful and fearful and shy. But my daughter? She is brave.

"Planned Parenthood and the Atrocity of Corpse Selling": This is really horrific.

"I, Racist":

You are “you,” I am “one of them.” 

"How We Do Family Devotions":

I read slowly and expressively with just enough drama to cut through their early-morning fog. I pause to tell my daughter to remove her hands from around her sister’s neck, and keep reading. When I have come to the end of our passage I briefly explain something from the passage (and by “briefly” I mean a minute or less). Sometimes I have to cheat by quickly consulting the study Bible notes so I’ll have something worth saying. Then I try to come up with a question or two I can ask the kids—a question of comprehension or of application. And I explain why calling your brother “a stupid idiot” is inappropriate during a reading of 1 Corinthians 13. And that’s our Bible reading.

"Non-Competing Theories of the Atonement":

As I told my veteran pastor of my plans to do graduate studies in the doctrine of the atonement, a wry smile creased his face as he asked: "So...which theory of the atonement do you believe in?" I responded, "All of them!"

Weekly Links

My weekly round-up of good reading around the web.


"Grace Lee: She Taught Me to See":

Mom taught me, at least a little bit, to begin to look at characters, all characters, on television as people. They did not exist for me, but for themselves . . . even in the story. 

"Passive Aggressive Dissent: It's a Trap":

Seven, tell your story often.  If it is not allowed to trump exegesis, church history, or reason, look sad. Ask why the Evangelical church always shoots her wounded. Don’t consider whether your story might not be enough for millions of people to change their mind.

"How Christianity Invented Children":

Today, it is simply taken for granted that the innocence and vulnerability of children makes them beings of particular value, and entitled to particular care. We also romanticize children — their beauty, their joy, their liveliness. Our culture encourages us to let ourselves fall prey to our gooey feelings whenever we look at baby pictures. What could be more natural? 

In fact, this view of children is a historical oddity. If you disagree, just go back to the view of children that prevailed in Europe's ancient pagan world.

"Kindness and Reasonableness: spread it, because it matters":

I am not anxious today because there is something deeply and particularly wrong with me. I am anxious today because like everyone in the world, life in it sucks my spirit dry now and again. I need to hear the truth over and over, as a corrective to the false promises and threats that are taken in in the air we breathe.

"The Psalms, A Holy WTF?! and Other Thoughts on the Cloister Walk":

The psalms do for us what we often can't do for each other, they let us be honest, and they let us just be. They do not insist that we pull ourselves together, get over it or move on. Their writers aren't uncomfortable or unacquainted with misery. They don't try to minimize it or explain it or tell you it is all for the best.

"Wired Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"

Thinking of it as the “dark side” of Star Trek is too reductive—not least because it’s a show that flirts with darkness but purposefully doesn’t embrace it—but maybe “the Star Trek that’s not uncomfortable feeling weird” would fit, instead. It’s the Star Trek for people who don’t think they like Star Trek, and the Star Trek for people who do, as well.

"3 Takeaways From My Recent Trip to Biola": Loved reading this positive take about my alma mater.

"First Things Essay Contest": I know there are some students and moms of students that read here, and I encourage you to take a look at this link - it's a great chance for a Christian student writer to get some experience and exposure!

Weekend Links: a day late!

"Fermentation":

Some of the stories need working on before I can see whether they’re interesting enough to finish; some of them stall when they need some heavy-duty research that I don’t have time to do; and there are a few that I started and then realized I didn’t have the chops to do justice to. So those are all partials sitting on my hard drive, and I revisit them occasionally between books to see if any of them are ready to get written the rest of the way yet. If one of them is, I have a big jump on getting the next thing started.

"Annunciation Gap":

One thing almost all the painters agree about: in this scene, the annunciation, they put Mary on one side of the painting and Gabriel on the other, with a gap between them. Sometimes it’s a large gap, as if Gabriel is shouting from across the room. Sometimes there is architecture between them, like posts or columns or half-walls. And sometimes, if it’s installed in a church, the scene will be depicted on two separate paintings, with the angel on one wall and Mary on another, and actual empty space between the two. The angel’s message has to jump from one two-dimensional plane to another, through a gulf of three-dimensional space.

"Let the Children Come":

All this being so, the thing about church is to just go and be there. Not to have any kind of agenda about it. Leave aside the hymn learning. Leave aside the needing to sit still. Leave aside the getting to know of your church family. You want to just be there, yourself, and for your children to be there, even though it is a wretched and horrific hassle. As you're dancing in the back with your baby, or hauling out your toddler for banging on the pew, missing the singing, missing the sermon, missing the announcements, missing everything, and you're bone tired, you back aches, and you're just angry, you just want to go hide in a hole, you stand there, and that's where Jesus is. That is where he is. That's where he was on the cross.

Weekend Links: A Real Advent, Jesse Trees, Free Coloring Sheet, and more!

Some good reading (and listening!) for your weekend:

"A Real Advent":

According to St. Benedict of Nursia the Christian life should be a continuous Lent. And according to Sts. Wal-Mart, Target, and Starbucks the fall should be a continuous Christmas . . .

"The Ultimate Guide to Making a Jesse Tree": This site really does have a bunch of great ideas for making Jesse Trees - hat tip to Lent & Beyond for the link!

"Come and See" - this is a lovely free printable coloring sheet of a Nativity scene for kids.

"Mere Fidelity: Teens and Sexting": I listened to this podcast the other night and it was brilliant.  Sobering and heartening at the same time. I think I want to listen to it again, because I so appreciated the podcasters very Christian approach to our present culture.

"In Which I Wonder as I Wander":

 I've lately been discouraged by how slowly God works out his will. The evil, the rebellion is so huge. The slaughter of people right and left, the corruption, the illnesses that seem to suddenly carry people away. I wander around the church kitchen and beg God to just do something, anything. But especially for him to do something visible, something that rights all the wrongs in a grand and obvious solution. And then I stand and wait because I don't know what else to do. And then, in the waiting, it becomes clear that God is doing something, has done something, but not the thing I wanted him to do. The seismic movements and changes he is effecting are in the hearts of individual people, me included, and they can't be seen. In the swirling smoke and violence of the world, he buds and produces fruit, in secret, hidden before the tabernacle of the Lord . . .

7 Quick Takes: Children's Books for All Saints Day

Joining in with Jen, over at Conversion Diary!

Tomorrow is All Saints Day!  I love sharing stories of the faithful Christians of the past with my kids. Here are some good books we've enjoyed over the years:

1) Caedmon's Song, by Ruth Ashby: a lovely picture book rendition of one of the earliest poems written in English.

2) Women of the Bible, by Margaret McAllister: This lovely book was a present from my mom, and my girls love it!

3) A Song for Joseph, by Mervin A. Marquardt: I grew up on this lovely, sing-song story of the foster-father of our Lord. I still love it.  It's only available used, but it's worth seeking out.

4) John the Baptist, by Ronald Klug: the wonderful thing about this book is it doesn't end right at John's death, but the final page shows his followers going to Jesus. Which is what all the saints do: point us towards the Lord.

5) Hero Tales, by Dave & Neta Jackson: This book is for older children, and introduces them to some more modern Christian heroes, like William Tyndale and Dwight L. Moody.

6) I Sing a Song of the Saints of God, by Lesbia Scott, illustrated by Judith Gwyn Brown: the text of the perfect children's hymn for All Saints Day is beautifully illustrated. Don't just read this one to your kids; sing it.

7) Saint George and the Dragon, by Margaret Hodges: yes, this is a legend. And yes, it's important that your children understand the difference between legends and history. But it's a beautiful, Christian legend, and the illustrations in this book are just gorgeous!


Which books are your favorites? I always love adding to our home library. :)


And while you're here, be sure to enter the giveaway for "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home"! This book will help you bring the rhythms of the liturgical season into your every day life.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Book Notes: "The Sword Bearer" by John White

I've written about the other Anthropos books by John White here and here.

This one is a little different. The Anthropos books are Christian children's fantasy. And if the first few are a sort of allegories of the New Testament, this one is definitely an allegory of the old.

And as such, it's darker. Darker, and harder to read.

Nonetheless, despite the darkness, and despite the frustrating obtuseness of John, our protagonist, who is constantly choosing to be stubborn and wrong and stupid in the face of choices for goodness and mercy and right, this is a good book. (In fact, the truth is that John's stupid stubborness is all-too-recognizable-and-familiar, at least to this reader.)

I've been reading this book to my children in the evening, before our prayer and Bible reading. They draw or play with magnet sets while they listen to the story. And this book has inspired a lot of drawings. It's that kind of very visual fantasy world - easy to picture and to sink into.

And I guess I have to go back on what I said a bit: it's not all Old Testament allegory. A big part of the plot, especially in the beginning of the book, revolves around "the wine of free pardon".   I loved the inclusion of this simple analogy to the Eucharist. It means even more to me now than it did as a kid.

I guess the highest praise I can offer to this book is this: my son, Gamgee, swears that he dislikes this book when we're not in the middle of reading it, yet every time I picked it up and read another chapter, he was open-mouthed, caught up in the suspense of what's-going-to-happen-next, and eager as any of his sisters to hear how things would go for Jon, and Mab, and everyone else on the island.

This is a great read-aloud. I loved it when I was young, and I'm happy to say that now, as an adult, my kids love it too.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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Book Notes: "Cleaning House", by Kay Wills Wyma

I had to get this book. Of course I did. The premise was to good not to.

Teaching your kids to clean the house, in 12 easy months?  (And when, pray, did the idea of "12 months" become a manageable stretch of time in my eyes? Must have been sometime after I turned thirty . . .)


But, yes: I do want my kids to become capable adults. That's the whole point.

(Well, no. The whole point is to raise them up in the love and admonition of the Lord.

But after that? I would like them to be capable adults.)

This book did not leave me thinking that I wanted to follow the exact same schedule that the author did, but I was encouraged to give my children more responsibilities as they grow, and to remember that they can do a lot more than I assume they can.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Knitted Finished Objects: Kids' Hats

This summer, a few weeks before we went camping up in the Sierra Nevada, I decided I really, really needed to knit each of my children a warm cap. Just because, well, because I needed to, that's why.

Yeah . . . I was knitting on the drive up AND at the campsite itself.

But I did it!

And it was super-fun, especially because I let each child choose the yarn for his or her own cap. I loved seeing what each of them picked! And here's how they turned out:

PINK for Lucy

Sunset colors for Anna

"Beehive" colors for Gamgee

Oceany-blues for Bess

The pattern I used for all of these is really basic (and free!), and you can find it here.

I had so much fun making my kids hats that they really, really liked. I loved letting them each choose their own materials.

I kind of want to do it again. Maybe scarves next time?  :)



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Anxiety, "The Problem of Pain", and work

So, I had a day last week that was really hard. It was hard in a parenting sense. It was hard in an anxiety sense. It was just hard.

And I decided (God's grace!) to meet the anxiety with faith and with - here's the surprise - with work.

I'm learning, more and more, that the thing to do with anxiety is to meet it square. Not deny it, not run from it, not pretend it's not there. But just to say, "Oh, there you are. I see you. I accept you're there. And now I get to choose what to do."

And so often, the right thing to do in answer to anxiety is to go to work.*

Activity, even if it has nothing to do with the worry at hand, is amazing for dismissing anxiety.**

The value of work 

Stopping, praying, journaling, and then getting actively to work . . . it’s everything. It’s the difference between despair and joy.

And that’s not running away from the fear. It’s not hiding it or denying it. It’s saying, “Here it is. I see it. And” – not but. And – “I am going to do this.”

On that hard day though, all the same, I was so glad when my husband came home.  He sanes me. And if "sanes" is not a verb, it should be.  

Also, another thing that really helped me was some quotations I'd copied down from my reading. Rereading the words of wiser Christians is terribly grounding.

Lewis on pain

Speaking of quotations from wiser Christians, I also want to copy down, oh, all of the chapter entitled “Heaven” from Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain”. But I’m not sure that’s very practical.

First Lewis talks about the jeer “pie in the sky” and observes either there is pie in the sky or there isn’t . . . and that it’s safe to talk about heaven to the pure in heart, because there’s nothing in heaven any mercenary soul would want. Those who love God are the ones who want to see Him.

And then he talks about his idea of “joy”, and oh, it’s glorious. The thing I’ve been looking for all my life . . . and I realized that that, really just that, is the reason why, in the end, I write fiction. Because it is the time I come the closest to grasping – and to expressing – that thing it is that I see

always on the edge of breaking through” – that thing that “beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for . . . you have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest – if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself – you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.’

Yes. That. It's what I mean when I talk about "domestic glory". It is the “home” theme that shows up in all my stories. It’s what I mean when I talk about the scent of the sea and roses against the white-and-blue sky. But . . . but it’s not quite any of them. It’s what draws me to romance, and yet also to science fiction and fantasy. It’s that boundless horizon married to the sweet comfort of a snug house. It’s . . . yes. It’s that thing.

And then Lewis points out that God put this difference in all of us – that He made us individuals on purpose, and that this secret, unique hunger in each of us is no mistake:

Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.

And then he points out:

For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you – you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another’s. All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His good way, to utter satisfaction.

And oh, that makes me want to let God have His good way with me! Be gone, oh sins.

And then Lewis goes on to his next point, and it really, really resonated with me after the way work seemed to be what saved me from despair, just a few days ago:

And if you will not go out of yourself to follow it, if you sit down to brood on the desire and attempt to cherish it, the desire itself will evade you. ‘The door into life generally opens behind us’ and ‘the only wisdom’ for one ‘haunted with the scent of unseen roses, is work.’ This secret fire goes out when you use the bellows: bank it down with what seems unlikely fuel of dogma and ethics, and then it will blaze.

I am reinspired by the idea to “do my work with gladness while it is day, that when night cometh, I may rejoice to give thee thanks”.

And it gives me an entirely different way to look at that hard day's difficulties. When my child's  meltdown, and the scary money costs of dental work tempt me to despair – and even less (or more) than that, to whine and pout and complain – instead, these words of Lewis show me that my troubles are actually not just difficulties or attacks.

They are part of the work God has given me to do.

How do I say this properly? Because I see it really clearly, and I want to get it down in words so that I don’t forget it in other times.

These trials, these worries, these events, these hardships . . . they’re just part of the work. They’re not threats. Because they are allowed by God, and he has allowed them to come in my way, which means that He means to help me deal with them. It’s not me cowering in a corner being hit. It’s me walking in the way my Lord has directed me to walk, ready to take care of what’s in front of me because those are the tasks he’s asked me to take care of.

Do you see? There’s such a difference there.

And, with that, I go to work.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*Other times the right thing to do is to build a blanket fort and borrow in for the day. Just saying.
**Clinically significant anxiety is not necessarily why I'm talking about. For that, psychotherapy and medication may also be necessary and commendable and even life-giving. Really, truly.




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