Nostalgia...

“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.”

~Erma Bombeck

yet another nugget of a reward found in coordinating the 3rd grade lesson plans at DSCS... :)

p.s. Now reading with Ryan: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. How is it? Well, let me put it this way: it's been at the back of my mind all day, and I keep looking foward to the moment when I'll get to read some more with Ryan!! ...hehehe after I take him on our surprise date...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPS!!

Ryan says he always remembers you as the man who took him fishing and to Disney World, and probably always will. :) I know you as the man who adopted me straight into your clan, whose smile and gentle welcome still make me feel loved and accepted. We love you, Grandpa!!

(here he is deep in concentration, trying to help his team win over Thanksgiving...)

We hated missing the party this weekend... HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY!!! We see this being true in your life, and pray it always is!

"The righteous flourish like the palm treeand grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Psalm 92:12-15

-- your Szrama grandkids in Louisville

Being Appreciated...

Thursday was "Tutor Appreciation Day" at our school. As Corrie Ann & I were saying, "I LOVE being appreciated." Heheh, especially when the appreciation includes yummy FOOD!! Which it did. For me, that was thanks to Sina Shuey, who completely spoiled me (and made everyone not allergic to gluten/soy jealous) with a scrumptious salad, topped with mandarin oranges, carmelized almond slivers, and a homemade dressing; vegetable lasagna; garlic bread, and an entire tupperware full of chocolate chip almond scones!! Dude, I wasn't hungry again until 7 pm!!

For your enjoyment, some excerpts from my students' notes of appreciation (some are from the preschoolers, some from middle school choir students):

"Dear MRS. SZRAMA...we love being in your class. Thank you for being our teacher!! We love you more than we can explaine..."

"Dear Mrs. Szrama, I like when you teach me (I like my classmates, too!) I like when you hug me. You are my Valentine. Thank you because I love you. Thank you for telling me about Jesus. You are my friend. When you teach me I love you."

"Mrs. Szrama, thank you for teaching. It's been fun."

"Mrs. Szrama, thank you so much for teaching me choir. I have learned so much about notes and stuff. :)"

"...Thanks for letting your love for music and for our Lord overflow to our children" (from a Mom)

"Mrs. Szrama, thank you for teaching our choir this year. I alreday enjoy singing but you made the class so fun!!" "Mrs. Szrama- Thank you so much for teaching me choir. I love it! You are a great, great, GREAT teacher." (don't you know I love that!?) "Choir is my favorite subject!!" Mrs. Szrama, Thank you for teaching choir this year. I've learned a lot. Hope you're my teacher next year."

"Dear Mrs. Sarama, please have "Tender Mercy." From, G." ("Tender Mercy" is a song one choir is singing) That one made me bust out laughing!

"Dear Mrs. Szrama, Thank you so much for giving your time to teach us how to sing! You are very pretty and you are a great teacher. Hope you have a great day! Thank you! Love, S. :)"

One that especially meant a lot, because I've prayed for this child over and over: "Mrs. Szarama, I love you so much. You are a wonderful teacher and person. I admire you for everything you do and I hope one day to be just as kind and loving as you are. Thank you so much for your support. You don't understand how much it means to me!..."

...And then it's always heart-warming to read "You rock, Mrs. Szrama!"

Several of my Moms were so encouraging in their notes, telling me that I have made a difference in their child's life, and that my labor has already borne some fruit. That is so encouraging!! It has also served as a reminder to live righteously all the time: as I stubbornly refused to submit myself to Christ (and my husband), these words came to mind "You are a special light in their lives and you show them Jesus every day..." Was I showing Jesus to my husband right then? What about to the angels and demons?

Anyway, those are some scattered thoughts I wanted to share... my world every day. :)

Something About...

...Mom waiting for you when you get home from school...

If you were a child who grew up expecting this, secure in the comfort that Mom would be home after school-- would make after school "home"-- you know what I mean. Those of you who missed out on this blessing can imagine it, I'm sure. For us homeschoolers/private- schoolers, Mom often either never left school, or picked us up from school, but still... I remember the pan-grilled-cheese sandwiches and BLTs Mom made after school on homeschool days, or the way we'd unload from the van to get shooed outside (Mom knew we needed a mental break after school), then called back inside for our snack before we started in on homework again.

I got a little taste of that again last week, when my Mom came to visit us. And oh, yum! It was a SWEET taste! :) Home really is where your family is. I usually come home from work, and it's just me. I really enjoy getting the empty house ready for my family (Ryan) to come home-- filling it with clean-house and dinner-cooking smells, and emptying it of eye-sore mess. Then Ryan comes home from work, and I get to welcome him, and then it REALLY feels like "home." On two days last week, though, I pulled up to the 2-story house on Camp Street, and there already was a familiar face brightening the house. Heheh, both times I came home, Mom was doing yard work! Let me tell you, my Mom put me to SHAME!!! She came to serve, not be serve, and serve us she did! She did everything from the yard work to helping with floor-finishing to house-cleaning to coffee-grinding to cutting my hair to filling our fridge with tasty groceries!! AND she always offered to help cook dinner, and wanted to treat us when we went out... it really amazed me. The last two afternoons of her visit, she came WITH me to school, and served me AND my students there!! The preschoolers LOVED her, and she fit right into their little world. (those little ones are so blessed; their worlds are full of adults who love them and teach them of Jesus!!)

Mom came and just lived with us for 5 days, and we did our best to show her a full picture of our life in Louisville. Some of our excursions were not so exciting- Kroger, the gas station, the bank, etc. Some were a little more adventurous, and thus merited photographic documentation:

One of our favorite "hole-in-the-wall" eateries: the Santa Fe Mexican Grill. (on 3rd street...the purple building. If you're a Louisvillian, you've GOT to check it out!!) Ryan enjoyed being one of the few gringos there, and I got a HUGE kick out of this sign!

(it reads "We have a fresh-squeeze limenade. No free refills!") I just kept giggling every time I read it!

The Americano examining his "Americano burrito." This was a momentous occasion for Ryan; his first time branching out at a favorite restaurant -maybe ever! (he always gets the same thing everytime, every where we go... ;D)

Sorry for the zoomed-out-edness of all these pics. I haven't figured out how to crop pics on Ryan's mondo desktop (my laptop still lies, useless and un-alive...)

On Tuesday, I introduced Mom to "Napoleon Dynamite" as Ryan taught at the T-house. We stayed up a full hour after we went to bed quoting it to each other, lol. I think Moms of college students can appreciate that movie as few other post-teenagers can.

Wednesday, Mom & I had a fun time on my favorite street; Bardstown Road (despite the pouring rain. I think that's the only time I've ever deposited money at a bank solely for the purpose of using their parking lot! Drastic times call for...) We ate at the Butterfly Garden Cafe, which we HIGHLY reccommend, and browsed around the White Linen Tea Company, and the Clay & Cotton. No pictures, alas. :( I think we were all encouraged by Immanuel's midweek prayer meeting that night. Mom & I also managed to squeeze in a coffee date between my classes on Thursday, and she got to watch me conduct my 5/6th grade choir! I think they behaved better with Mom in the room. :) As House MD put it, "I think the world would be a better place if everyone lived like their Moms were looking over their shoulders." Some pre-school pics:

(during our music time)

(getting ready to put our flowers on the Living Cross, for Easter)

We had a last hoorah on Friday morning before Mom left, getting up a little early so we could breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. It was SO yummy, and so much fun!! I just love that place. What more could I- a girl who loves breakfast foods best of all, and is a little on the "nuts" side- ask for? Mom & I split a fantastic omlette (a dish she raised me to enjoy... actually, that was the first dish I ever cooked! ...though I don't know how Mom ate it... I didn't even put salt or pepper in it...yuck...)

My husband, VERY eager to eat his french toast.

All of us after a yummy meal. This weekend Ryan dubbed himself my Mom's "baby-in-law," and the term has stuck. Lol...

Everyone who knew my Mom was in town last week is asking me this week if I miss her. I guess they could see her missableness, just from that one meeting. And they are quite right. I do miss her. Thank you God for Mommys! I'm off!

--Christina

Who Knew!?

It's amazing the stuff you find out when researching for 3rd grade Phonogram Assignments...

It all started out with the poem our DSCS 3rd graders are reading this week. First off, I had no idea who this poem was by, so I had to research that. (Lord, thank You for giving me free internet access, and putting it in the hearts of scholars to make anthologies available, and SEARCHABLE online. I mean that prayer!) After a little digging, I found a great gem of a story! How many of you are familiar with King Sethon of Egypt? Now don't you be scared because the lines don't reach all the way across the page. Poetry ain't scary. 'Specially not the kind 3rd graders read. ;)

"Sethon"
by Maud Keary
From Enchanted Tulips and other Verses for Children, published in 1914

KING SETHON of Egypt
Cried out in his woe,
"My kingdom will perish,
My race be brought low.

"Ruthless Sennacherib
With warriors draws near
To conquer our country
With arrow and spear.

"Our men are a handful;
In vain we contend;
Vain, vain is our struggle--
But short be the end!"

Beneath the clear starlight
Of Egypt he stood,
The invaders' camp stretched
Far away like a wood;

When lo! through the stillness
Arose a strange sound,
A scratching and scraping
Came up from the ground.

And thick as when corn-blades
Each leaps forth a tongue,
Some thousands of field-mice
From the warm soil sprung.

They scrambled up palings
And scaled pediments--
They sped past King Sethon
To the enemies' tents.

And there helter-skelter,
They seized on the quivers,
They nibbled the bowstrings,
Bit into shivers

The wooden shield-handles
The enemies used,
Who woke in the morning
Surprised and confused!

Without arms, defenceless,
They fled fast before
The happy Egyptians,
And came back no more.

Then a statue of Sethon
Was made--very grand--
A crown on his head and
A mouse in his hand!

I was like "what is that talking about!?" So I did some digging, and HERE's the background story! King Sethon was a priest of Vulcan reigning in Egypt at the same time that King Hezekiah ruled Judah. He offended the soldiers of Egypt by taking away the land allowance they’d always been given. Therefore, when Sennacherib of Assyria invaded in 713 BC, no soldiers would defend Egypt. The legend is that Sethon prayed in great anquish all night, until he received a vision from his god that the god would win the victory for Egypt. Comforted, Sethon marched out with a group of non-soldiers. During the night, they were indeed delivered, by a very surprising force!

Even more intriguing: some historians believe that this story is a corrupted version of Judah’s miraculous delivery from Sennacherib’s army by the might of the One True God, recorded in 2 Kings 19!

Source: Ancient History, Vol 1: History of the Egyptians [and lots of other people. seriously, the title stretched on for lines and lines]. By Charles Rollins, 1844.

That story captured my fancy, for some reason. History is so cool!! WHY am I not a literature or a history teacher??? Choir... what was I thinking!?

...off to grade papers for said class... sigh...

Squirmenutics

Thank you, Jeannette...

Please, all you aspiring ministers... don't end up like this. It would be funny, except it's so SAD!!

And read all the follow-up comments. They're thought-provoking and at times hilarious. For an example of a thought-provoking one, Byron Harvey said...
"An observation: as a recovering fundamentalist (now an E Free pastor, still solidly evangelical, so don't worry), I spent some time in fundamentalist churches, and was educated at independent Baptist schools. There was much good there, but the truth is that some of the people who defended the inerrancy of the Bible the strongest did the most absolutely hideous job of actually preaching it. In that sense, this gentleman follows in a long, but sad, line..."

Blue Chair Blues

Grandma & Grandpa Presley gave us a very comfy BIG blue recliner, and it graces the corner of our little living room. (getting it here in the back of our truck over the mountains was quite its own adventure) It's the spot of choice on cold dark mornings before school; I eat my breakfast and drink my coffee in coziness and warmth as I read my Bible and pray. Ryan usually finds me curled up in it grading or reading or writing letters as he gets home. Before my laptop went nuts it was the perfect spot to sit and work on lesson plans, too. Ryan loves to sit there to study himself...on Tuesdays before he teaches at the Transformation House, I try to leave the chair for him. :) And after he tucks me into bed he usually reads there... sometimes I awaken in the wee hours of the morning and he's STILL in there, quite comfortable and sleeping happily. All that to say, we love our big blue chair.

I just dropped Ryan off at the airport; the first time I've done such a thing since marriage. The last time I did that, I cried (it was when we parted ways in Cincinnati after getting engaged in Oregon, last February). This time I got it out of my system a little before the parting... in the big blue chair, actually. Ryan's boss' girlfriend was going to pick him up on the way to getting Andy (Ryan's boss) to the airport, but I wanted the extra minutes so we called and canceled...and spent the short sweet time cuddled in the big blue chair, and just being together a little more. I cried... more at the anticipation of the missing-him-pain (I remember it way too well) than actual current pain. I was against his chest, after all, still comforted by the smell and feel of him...

"I'd rather you be leaving and be married to you than be saying goodbye without being married," I said. "I'd rather be married and leaving and sad than married and leaving and not sad," he answered. "It's right that we should want to be together. It's good to be sad that we have to be apart."

It's true, what Ryan said: it's good that we should miss each other. It's good that we should be sad and cry. It's good that there is love and one heart that hurts to be apart. I'm married now; not just myself, but part of a new One Flesh... Hmmm... guess that's why the blue chair makes me sad to look at just now. And happy, too. :)

It IS only for 5 days. And we'll both be happy and doing things we love to do. And we'll both rejoice in the presence of the Lord, and pray for the other's good...like every day. :) But just right now, in the "meantime," (Dad, you'll catch my reference) I think I may curl up in the big blue chair and seek a little solace. Prayer, the Word, my journal, a book, and just maybe some of that dark chocolate my Love gave me for Valentine's day. :)

Happy Lord's Day.
--Christina

Married in the Mirror

Sometimes the briefest conversations leave me with the deepest thoughts. You know what I mean? John Piper once wrote that "books don't change people: paragraphs do. At times even sentences." (and of course that's all I remember about that particular book, lol) Today I spoke ever-so-briefly with Rob Hamby, who was my campus minister (RUF) at Furman for my senior year in high school through my junior year of college. Anyway, long story short I haven't talked to him since I got married, and haven't seen him for longer than that. He asked how I was doing, and since he's a pastor and all, and a respected friend, I confessed "it's wonderful, being married... but honestly, you technically know you're "totally depraved," but I didn't believe I was totally totally depraved until I got married. Now I know ...all this sin just comes out. (I laughed) Ryan reminds me that it was always there, it just maybe would have stayed hidden longer." Then Rob said, in that quick way of his, exactly what I was thinking, in a way I'd never said it:

"That's right, marriage changes everything. It's a whole new way of looking in the mirror."

We said our goodbyes and "God bless"s, and hung up. Who knows when I'll get to enjoy his & Kendall's company... I'm sure their kids, Wells & Simeon, are nigh unrecognizable to me by now. But, Rob, wherever you are, your words have again taught me. "A whole new way of looking in the mirror." The mirror...seeing myself, in reaction to another, in the eyes of another Image-Bearer; another "God-with-skin," as Ben Patterson puts it. A whole new way of seeing myself as Scripture reveals me to be... a whole new avenue for the Sword of the Spirit to lay me open.

Amen.

It's off to watch Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children with my Mirror. Hey, Trin, I recognize the music!! :)

---EDIT:--- Sunday, March 2nd:
From my friend Kelsey's Blog...

"[...] Or how living in community truly causes you to see yourself? Which can make you want to just completely run the other way and not face any of your own sin or false identities. This season in my life, Jesus is my Healer. I find him taking the broken pieces and healing it in His time and His way, but also finding that He is bringing complete freedom and healing in areas that seem to have an unpliable grip and stronghold."

I pray that last part is true of me!

Business as Usual?

I'm currently listening to Wayne Grudem's 5-part series which is so graciously available for free download through Sovereign Grace Ministries' store. Too often, we don't talk about money as the very spiritual thing (as Ryan Fullerton reminds) that it is a holy way, then are suprised that people do unholy things with it...that doesn't make sense! I really found Grudem's session on investment helpful. As my Dad pointed out, we do have to live in the world, and in some ways the mere fact of our being here advances the causes of sin. Everything's so connected: when I buy one thing, my money goes to the company, which may support other less wholesome things, etc. I guess that means we should work even HARDER to advance causes of the Kingdom?

Anyway, as I said I'm really appreciating the talks, but have several nagging questions which I fear Mr. Grudem doesn't address at all. So much of our consumerism --our "good business" as he calls it-- in the States is driven by an impoverishing of other nations. There is a short flash video online that is a helpful starting point. Taken with a grain of salt (there's no need to sound like a snarky liberal nor to over-simplify facts) there is ample food for thought for the Christian...

There are two main problems I as a Christian see with our modus operandus today:
1) harmful stewardship: irresponsible impoverishing of the earth's natural resources-- the dumping of un-biodegradable substances (such as plastic) into natural areas, like the seas, is harmful pollution, not merely a stride forward in human comfort and convenience-- it's absolutely contrary to everything God does in caring for and creating His creation.
2) lack of neighbor-love --when we dump our trash or impoverish the lands of the "Third World," we actually harm those living nearby. We also take advantage of them when our companies fail to provide good working environments or provide a living wage, or when we buy from companies which fail in these areas. There is nothing holy in laziness or selfishness... and often that's what makes us into a nation of consumers.

These questions of neighbor love, and of responsible stewardship/care for Creation pop up that aren't addressed if all we look at is the end product in American hands. Sure, a piece of plastic may seem convenient (helpful), cheap and good use of creativity, but is it really? Something which is so "cheap" here in the US is really soooo expensive, and someone has to pay it. At times the hidden costs are shocking: the "Made in ___" products we buy so cheaply (ex. electronics) are, at times, assembled by imprisoned Christians in horrible conditions, or the ones we buy expensively (ex. gems) are, all too often, obtained at the cost of children's or other innocent lives (watch Blood Diamond if you need convincing).

- What about all the by-products of its production, including fuel and energy used to ship it?
- Where will it go when I'm done with it? (most plastics ARENT bio-degradeable) How will we increase the earth's productivity (which Grudem reminds us is good) if we're polluting it?
- Where did it come from (is it a resource that is too limited to consume so much of it? did we retrieve it responsibly or recklessly?) For these last 2 questions, we have to remember that spoiling land isn't loving to the people who have to live on or around it...
- What about the ones who assembled it-- how were they treated? Reading biographies of some members of the persecuted church, and how they were forced to assemble electronics for sale in the West, under horrible conditions in prison camps, I realize why China can sell stuff so cheaply...

What are your thoughts? I'm trying to make sense of this all myself, and would be interested in you all's perspective as those devoted to God's Word and His Smile.

--The Szrama Mama

[Side Note: We have some friends who run a food co-op here in Louisville, and they have some very strong opinions about being Christians and consumers-- ecological responsibility, neighbor-love, etc. They take it a little further than I'm comfortable taking it without binding someone's conscience where Scripture doesn't, but still, they make you think.]

At MEIJER

The program covers leading, oral generic antibiotics with a special focus on the prescriptions most often filled for children. The following are FREE with your doctor’s prescription, regardless of insurance or co-pay:

Amoxicillin
Cephalexin
SMZ-TMP
Ciprofloxacin
Ampicillin
Penicillin VK
Erythromycin

Sites my husband would like...

These are largely gifts from Matt Foreman...

Helpful tips for managing very small children.
The coolest houses ever!.... makes me jealous. Except...what happenes if your tree dies?
Motivations when sleeping in sounds better than church.

And... for all you "regular guys" out there... (except...some of us don't really like diamonds...)

A Tribute to Ronald H. Thompson, Jr. aka My Dad

My youngest sister, Anna, wrote this essay for a class assignment as well as an encouragement to my Dad before his latest eye surgery (which took place successfully yesterday). Praise the Lord for a successful surgery, for my Mom who will faithfully care for my Dad during the recovery, and for the way God has worked in my Dad's heart to make him a true Father to his daughters. We love you, Dad! And we love Jesus more because of you.

If you can, go give your own Dad a hug. Or call or send a quick email. They spend a ton of time, energy, emotion, and money on us, first with the whole raising thing, then the whole education thing, then the you're-out-of-the-house-but-I-still-want-to-be-here-for-you thing. Not to mention the hours of prayer, Scripture reading, thinking of, shopping for, grieving for and rejoicing with that faithful, Godly parents spend on our behalves.

Praise God for inventing families! :)
--Christina

"Not Your Average Dad"

by Anna K. Thompson

10:09pm Thursday, Feb 7th, 2008

It was always a given that my father would come home sweaty and out of breath. Since before I can remember remembering, I had known my father was a very competitive road cyclist. Winning the State Championship in this event was no small feat, especially to do so twice. When I was only four or five, I thought it was quite normal for your dad to ride his bike across town to work. I can recall the first time I realized that my father's biking was not just like grilling burgers in the back yard. It was not something every father did.

At about six or seven, I was naturally curious, and was snooping through some bookshelves in my parents' room. I came across a scrapbook of sorts, the kind with the static pages that make your hair stand on end if you lean too far forward. The first few pages had some pictures of my father in his college years, playing Monopoly in his bell-bottom jeans and muscle shirts. As I turned the pages, I began to see more and more of his cycling pictures. I had known he had been part of a team, so those photographs of him surrounded by teammates in spandex were hardly surprising. I then flipped a page and came to a newspaper article about a biking accident my father had been in. This greatly interested me. The article mentioned a broken collarbone and possibly stitches. I pulled the article off the static page to see if it was genuine. It was. I flipped a few pages farther forward and found even more articles and pictures of my father in his "glory days" of cycling. I had known these times had existed. I knew my dad had been South Carolina State Road Biking Champion twice in his life. I did not wonder that many other fathers had done the same. But to have your picture in the newspaper? Better yet, to have an entire article written solely about you? That was something special. Perhaps my father had some unique qualities I had never considered.

After my father was involved in a biking accident around 1995, he quickly became competitive in running. I, once again, did not comprehend how dedicated and talented he was. I knew he was fast, but, after all, he was a grown up, and they always did things better than kids. On so many Saturday mornings, I can recall my dad asking me to ride my bike while he ran beside me. The first two or three times, I agreed, but I soon learned that even in this situation, my dad was much faster than me, and it would only be fifteen minutes before I was begging him to slow down.

My father has always been sensitive to my interests, however strange they may be. I took on a keen love for turtles in elementary school. Turtles: those ugly greenish brown creatures that smelled of algae and would snap at your fingers and nose if you got too close. My father somehow understood. I have a solid memory of one such example of his sympathy to my bizarre hobbies and obsessions.

I was playing in my grandparents' back yard in Blacksburg, VA. Our family was visiting them the summer I was going into the third grade. I was crouched down, digging in the dirt with a stick. I heard my father calling my name anxiously. I turned to see him running up the hill, sweaty and in running clothes, as we so often saw him. He was bearing some sort of rock in his right hand, and he lowered it towards me as he approached in the yard. As I leaned in closer, I saw it was not a stone, but a tortoise. His head and limbs here tucked into his shell in fear, but as my dad placed him on the ground, he cautiously stretched his head out. I beamed in satisfaction. "Anna, I was running on Main Street and I saw this turtle in the median of the road," he said, panting. He wiped sweat from his face and continued, "I knew you would want to see him, so I picked him up and ran back with him." He spoke loudly. He always spoke loudly. I poked at the shell and smiled up at my dad. He grinned back, happy with my happiness. I set to work to find a container to house my new pet in. My father came to the conclusion that it was a box turtle. I know now it was really a tortoise, so it was in actuality a box tortoise. Whatever it was in zoological terms, I named him Elliot. It seemed like proper name for a turtle.

Our stay in Blacksburg only lasted a few more days, and my mother instructed me to say goodbye to Elliot, and to release him into the wild. I was greatly disturbed by this, and protested strongly, arguing that we had a creek in our backyard, and that Elliot would be much happier there than in Blacksburg. Somehow, my father convinced my mother, and my activist older sister Christina, to let me take the turtle back to Greenville with us. I can remember the four-and-a-half-hour car ride with Elliot clawing at the cardboard box the whole way home, joined by my sister's pleas of "Just let the poor thing out!" My dad even convinced my mom to let us use her back porch as a temporary home for the box turtle. He helped me construct a cage of sorts from chicken wire and two-by-fours. He also kept Christina from helping Elliot break free from me, his captor. My father even made a brave attempt to conceal his amusement, and suppress a smile when I revealed to him that I was training Elliot, and that I had even taught him how to swim. I am afraid my dad is not made of iron, and may have been unable to keep from howling with laughter. Then the sad rainy day came when our creek overflowed and the water rose to the turtle pen my father and I had built. The current swept Elliot The Box Turtle away. Although I was greatly saddened by the loss, I had assurance that Elliot was safe somewhere. I had, after all, taught him how to swim.

I have much to learn about the workings of this world. I am a mere freshman in college. What do I know about Corporate America? I am not even old enough to vote. What do I know about politics? I have never been in love. I do not pay rent or a utility bill. I am still an ignorant child in many aspects. But however long I live, however much I learn about the world, however much I am forced to grow up, I will know this. My father is extraordinary. He would stop at nothing to make sure I was happy and well cared for. He bears no regard for himself or his reputation when it comes to his family. He came to every soccer game he was in the country for. He was always willing to drive me to tap, ballet, and hip-hop. I can still remember hearing his booming voice at the swim meets. He listened through countless piano, violin, choral, and hand bell concerts. Running three miles with a tortoise in your hand is no small accomplishment. Nor is winning South Carolina State Road Biking Championships on two occasions. Nor is attaining a personal record of a four minute twenty-one second mile. Nor is, even at the age of forty-seven, being able to out run any guy your daughters try to bring home. However much understanding I gain from this life, I will never fully comprehend my daddy's love for me.

Bravo, Anners: not only did you encourage Dad, you also wrote a hilarious, thought-provoking, and moving essay! You'd better get an 'A' for that!! :)

The Shipleys

Chris Shipley was a pastor at Immanuel, and the best man in our wedding... here's what they are up to now, and how we/you can pray for them and their ministry! (click on the images to enlarge them)

--Christina

The Real Enchilada

I've been promising more personal, introspective posts for a while now, and have at least one good one still in the editing stages... but this will do for now. It's largely adapted from an email and journal entries...

The Boy & The Girl
Ryan & I are doing well. We reach these sweet stretches where things are wonderful, and we're serving each other lots, and just having fun! My prayer is that those will be longer and longer stretches, with fewer inturruptions! Usually I'm the one to get cranky and break the mood... yuck. The Lord has recently shown me how often an emotion (usually anger) is the root of my sins against Ryan or in other areas, and I'm learning to ask for help when I feel it coming on. I get suckered into thinking that my feeling HAS to determine what I do, instead of truth. Can you identify at all? Pray for me in that way.

Encouragement
Along those lines, Ryan & I are teaching the kids at church, and right now the lesson is on Jesus growing up as a boy. It hit me that He knew exactly how it felt to be SO annoyed that you feel you HAVE to react in anger or frustration..."yet was without sin." He is THE person who can help me when I feel like I'm there-- THE proof that I CAN not get angry. That's been an encouragement lately.

Ryan just got home and relayed the final version of the T-house lesson he preached tonight, on Jesus walking on water (Matt 14:22-33), and it was amazing that his application was almost the same exact thing! That Jesus is near at hand with power to save, just when the temptation is fiercest (waves & wind strongest). He's walking on the water, calm and unsinking in the same storm. ("yet without sin") And the proper response to foundering faith is dependance-- prayer!-- not despair. "Lord, save me!" not "I'm going to sink! I'll never get out of this!" I think God's trying to get some point across to me... =D

Good Books
The Lord's been prompting my heart to examine myself-- to remember that my first duty is to be defined by godliness, not wife-ly-ness. You know? I'm supposed to be a GODLY wife, not just a wife. And I haven't been really cultivating personal holiness as much as I did before I was married. Which is natural, I suppose-- the whole 1 Cor 7 thing. No wonder sin has been more of a losing struggle latetly. No wonder I haven't felt "as close" to my Father as I have before. I don't want to let sin become rooted and such a habit that it keeps me distant from God! Anyway I bring all that up to say I'm reading Sin & Temptation (John Owen), A Hunger for God (John Piper), and other stuff that I hope will help. I'm also enjoying good doses of fiction. :) That stuff can be SOOOOO encouraging!!

Via Audiobook, I read F. H. Burnett's A Little Princess, which is a wonderful children's story, quite convicting: the heroine goes from tremendous wealth to starving poverty and ruthless hard work, and all the while is determined to act "like a little princess," always polite, honest, hard-working, and kind. So sweet. And I also read the Thoenes' Jerusalem Scrolls, which is set during Jesus' ministry. It's the story of Mary Magdalene, the centurion whose servant Jesus heals, and Martha & Lazarus (among other NT names), before and during their conversions. I was struck by how, well, un-Christian most of these people were...how cold they were towards Jesus, how self-righteous and unkind. It offended my imagination of them, of first-century Jews. But that's how they must have been... they crucified the Lord of Glory, after all! It's given me much encouragement (God can save anybody!!), and startling humility-- "what am I thinking? that God couldn't save someone that opposed to Him? He saved me!" "...as such you once were..."

I'm in a Book Club here, and it's great fun. Gets me to read books I'd likely not read on my own (not "my style" you know?), which in and of itself may not be a good thing, but paired with insightful discussion, it is! A great way to build friendships with thinking, godly women of all ages and walks of life!

Out & About
This weekend Ryan's taking me to see Phantom of the Opera downtown; my Christmas present. WOOHOOO!! We're going out to PF Chang's afterwards. I'm looking forward to that!!

There are several beats of my heart... may they be used to edify those who read! May you each receive what you need, and that always is God's grace.
~Christina

Snow Day!!

It snowed here today; school for me was canceled. I was looking forward to day of productive work, but God had other plans... my friend Ashlea ran out of gas, and called me so of course I ran to go get her, stopping by the Shuey's to borrow their gas can. As I was getting to the exit where Ashlea had run out of gas and left her car, I saw it being towed away! So then we had to track down where they impounded it, find it ("it's the car without any snow on it, row 22" -- as if that helped!), put gas in it from a can (which takes FOREVER), then drive to a gas station! Always an adventure with Ashlea around... then I went back to the Shuey's to return the gas can/tutor Morgan in Latin, and it ended up taking quite a while because I had to wait while they had lunch in the middle of it...

I worked a little, then ran out to the store to buy more GF flour to make banana pancakes for dinner... and Ashlea came over and we made Turkish coffee, then watched Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (the first in a trilogy). It was about these people who get stranded on a desert planet right before an eclipse, and they find out the planet is inhabited by carnivorous radar-equipped things that only come out in pitch black... basically only 3 people survive and it's very unnerving. I'm glad I don't have to sleep by myself tonight! ... As you can see, not much work got done today!!

Amidst my changed plans, the Lord brought this verse to mind, brought up by several friends at our Ladies Fellowship last Saturday: "Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." 1 Peter 4:19 <-- if those suffering are to do this, how much more those who are having a wonderful day!? I guess the general attitude of our lives is to go about doing good, entrusted to God and His will for the day.

Glad to be warm and loved,
--Christina

Prayer Request

Please pray for a particular family here if you remember--a mother who was living with them is no longer able to care for her daughter, and so my friends have temporary custody of the baby girl, "Katie." Needless to say, a fourth child-- an infant at that-- is quite a lot of stress on them, and a tough adjustment for their youngest. And please, please pray for Katie's mother. We aren't exactly sure where she is, and it's really cold here. We fervently pray that she is somewhere warm, safe, and drug-free, somewhere she'll be able to think and realize what she's done and is doing. We don't know where little Katie will end up-- pray for her, too, that she will be protected and placed in a caring, stable, Christ-centered home -- either with a profoundly-changed-mother, or a foster family, or our friends.

The Vine Lady

From my visit last weekend to Nashville. I was visiting my Aunt Robin, Uncle Duncan & their two cuties, Caroline (4) and Luke (2)...with "baby Jack" on the way! One of Caroline's favorite local attractions is "the Vine Lady" who makes her appearance at the Opryland Atrium. Caroline even dressed up as the Vine Lady for Halloween! Anyway, the two of them were SO cute watching her and going to say hi to her, and then of course being the Vine Lady. TOO CUTE! The Vine Lady herself is rather impressive, I must say. (and I think her aim is to somehow appear seductive...but the stilts kind of negate that, I think...)

Response to my Previous Post

Here it is in full:

"You are trying your best to be a good preacher, lady, but you have no authority from God to preach like this to a man and you have no idea what you are talking about. You are deeply misguided."

D. Cloud


Hey! At least I got a response, proving my response was at least skimmed!

--Christina

Warning about Patch the Pirate?

Looking for some music for my choir, I came across an article warning against the inherent evil in "Patch the Pirate" music. That sort of thing galls me, for so many reasons. Two that come to mind: 1) this type of "Fundamentalist" thinking gives people a list of do's and don'ts and tells them that's how to be righteous. It grieved and angered me in Rome (the Catholic churches where pilgrims are promised pardon from any sin if they visit all 4 "big" churches), and in the lives of friends raised around Bob Jones University. NO!! ONLY throught JESUS are we made righteous!! The list either creates false hope or despair, depending on whether you do them or ont 2) because I love music! I've studied it, and throughout history "secular" music has been called sinful by one faction of the church or another...and then the age turns, and all of a sudden "Amazing Grace" is "the original tune" defended by old-timers, instead of being a contraversial tune to the textual composition of a questionable ex-slave-ship captain. How many "hymns-only!" defenders realize that hymns were scandalous when Watts wrote them-- "Psalms only!" was the conservative cry back then! Anyway, here is my response. Feel free to share any thoughts you may have:

To whom it may concern-

I just stumbled across your "warning" about Patch the Pirate music, and was physically sickened and at the same time incredulous. " The music would be right at home in a nightclub or a sleazy Broadway play and could easily conjure up such unwholesome images as that of a saucy woman sauntering across a stage."

Why would any child gets these images in his head? Where would they even get such ideas!? Any such association is, I'm afraid, a residue of Mr. Cloud's own sin-filled past, not a result of anything inherent in the music itself. ("To my great shame, I lived a very wicked and worldly life before I was saved, and I know as much about worldly music which is fitting for wicked environments as any other man.") I won't try to dissuade anyone of this "the Devil has a beat" position based on the hundreds of Scriptural and reason-based approaches, because my guess is that you are unwilling to consider them, and that better men and women than myself have tried to show you the sad, Judaiizer-istic errors in your this thinking. But I will say this: when Jesus saved Nicodemus, a Pharisee, do you think He would have warned him to now avoid anything that reminded him of his erroneous, pride-full self-righteous unsaved way of life-- to avoid anything smacking of Judaism? What about when He saved the woman caught in adultery-- would He have warned her to avoid anything that reminded her of her own tainted past-- maybe certain scents, certain sorts of fabrics? No... those saved from their own prisons of pride (legalism) now dedicated their desire for outward holiness and keeping of high holy days to the glory of Messiah; everything had new meanings for them now! For them, Jesus' blood redeemed everything that Satan had tried to twist to evil. Likewise, those saved from their prisons of license now dedicated everything once dedicated to self-indulgence to the worship of Messiah; one such sinner broke her box of nard to annoint His feet. Others surely married and enjoyed sexual intimacy (worship) with their husbands or wives, to the glory of the One who has bought all pleasure for His people.

There is nothing beyond the reach of redemption; not even a weak sinner's association with music he once enjoyed as a rebellious sinner. Sure, scars take time to heal, and some may do better avoiding certain "triggers." But they must be careful not to force the result of their weak consciences to label as 'evil' that which God created and called "good." Let the strong bear with those who are weak, until the weak can be taught and built up and be made strong, with consciences set free from condemnation, and bodies wholly dedicated to righteous living. (Rom. 15) In other words; let those whose consciences are weak and can't handle music that reminds them of situations where they sinned be helped along until they at least see that what led them to sin was sin in their own hearts (James 4:1) , not anything inherent in the situational musical soundtrack itself. "The world" is within our own hearts!! (Mt. 15: 10-20)

In Gospel bonds, and no other,
--Christina Szrama (Pre-K and Middle School Music Teacher)

Photo-Documentary

Too many photos to post, so here's a link to albums (on Facebook) you may peruse at your leisure!

Louisville Going-Ons ...birthday parties, church functions, friends eating food, and even a Christmas Tea!

Our First Christmas Together... pictures from our time in Ruston, LA with the entire Thompson Clan, pictures from Ashley & Craig Sarratt's wedding, and of our brunch with our dear friends Chris & Val Powell, in Greenville/Taylors/Greer, SC. Click and revel in the glory of my darlings, Hannah & Noah!! :)

~the Mrs.

ps- It's cold here!!!