In Lew of Arguing...

God's Boys will be good boys!

I'll light the fire, You place the flowers in the vase that you bought today!

Where did that 6 dollars go? That was the argument in Life with Father and life hasn't much changed for a loving couple in that hundred years and probably since the beginning of time.

I grew up with Love American Style, where every conflict and problem was solved only one way. Seals and Crofts reminds us, we are not strangers and this conflict needn't even make us enemies, even for a little while. Let's kiss and make up, in anticipation of our interdependence. I think it a waste of money and you think it a beautification or some other reason. I will try to see your side and you try to see mine.

The Hippie generation seemed to have the right idea somewhat. All you do need is love, sometimes to sort the problems out. It is amazing how the most devout people do the most arguing about the most silly little things. Is that good stewardship?

I think not!

I know that the angels are ministering when I am so together and able to put things together that ordinarily I forget.

God's Boys will be good boys! My example of the efficient, contemporary woman is Aunt Gwen. This trip was Aunt Gwen's example directing me. Some of our trips from the first trip away that we took to this one. I have seen Aunt Gwen, always the perfectly organized packer. She always comes out with something or other unusual that she thought of that others don't think of. This time, it was as thought Aunt Gwen said to me bring your own coffee, there are no real coffee places in that "coffee forsaken" land. You will be annoyed at that. I packed the coffee in a ziplock and my creamer in another ziplock. What hotel doesn't have brew it yourself coffee? I had just gotten a coffee cup from the "food-place" I brought that just in case there was a problem with the coffee.

Sure enough, when we got to the hotel, I opened the coffee maker and there was some white yucky stuff in it. Ginger's example of teaching me to quick brew my own and Aunt Gwen's example of being a forethinking careful for self comforts that can become a real distraction in emotions when you are at the end of your rope. I am thankful for the women who have shown me that.

I hope that you can be a man whose masculinity can still appreciate some of the little things that women share with eachother that can become a strong family bond and comfort in some of the moments of anxiety that could take people to the edge or draw them back from the precipices. There are unspoken love languages that women pass from generation to generation. The silence of what older sisters show to their younger sisters in their examples of how they keep it together amidst the love and concern that they have for each one of the younger children in the family. Are we able to juggle love of parents, love of siblings, love of husband and wives and love of children in one limited heart? God gives us many others in life to show us how to juggle these battling priorities.

It seems that a man's mission in part is nurturing a family where the loves can be demonstrated and passed on to the next generation, without shame. This is hard. Travelling to Chowan gave us time to reminisce in our demeanor the people before us, who we got to see let their children go that far away. We are always growing.

Philippians 4:5-7

God's Boys will be good boys!

Be Anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God...

Lord, I request not to be anxious. I pray for the peace of God on my soul. I pray for the encouragement of Christ on my life.

Unfortunately, some folks are given to the difficulty of chronic anxiety, sometimes for a season and sometimes for their entire lives. David often spoke in clear anxiety in the Psalms. He was a believer. We cast those cares upon the Lord and He will uphold us, we know. Sometimes we slip and He will pick us up. We will trust You, Lord.

Thanks for praying with me this morning, EN!.

Elements of the Multicultural Soul!

God's Boys will be good boys!

Praise God, to the utmost. My Soul exults in the Lord.

Mother, why do you praise in different accents? Who is that West Indian Woman that we see, every once in a while, in praise?

I am so glad you asked, dear young man. Are you mocking, people or praise, Mother? No, my son. I must hide parts of my soul, for decorum's sake. The first parts of my life, my father tried to crush any semblance of the West Indian woman who is a great part of my soul. He saw her and waged his greatest war against her. In marriage, I have stifled any semblance of her to learn, what I consider the more humble and quiest "Southern Culture" that I married into. But in praise and worship, she creeps out and loves the Lord with all of her soul and she is the abandon of praise that was David's part when the ark was brought back into the camp. I will become more undignified than this, for my Jesus.

Don't be like Eli, who misjudged Hannah's devotion to God for being a drunkard. He missed God's presence for the entirety of his life. 20+ years after this was a punishment for sinning without restraint, in the "supposed" presence of God. You will know His presence and you will know His absence. I pray that you will pursue His presence in fullness of joy and reality and not in "form or fashion". Live under the public rules of decorum, but be true in Christ's presence and Christ will be true in your life.