Like Sunshine in the Home

31 July 2012

Clovelly - Cottages, Cobbles, and Cats

This week we visited the ancient little Devon fishing village of Clovelly. Clovelly is family owned (none of the residents own their own cottage), there are no cars allowed. Goods are transported through the steep cobbled streets by sledges and donkeys. The little ol' cottages are all white-washed wattle and daub. I just love the little white cottages, particularly the ones with the blue painted windows, they remind me of the little white houses on Greek islands that I just love. The South West coast is one of my favourite places in England.

This kitty was snoozing outside the visitor centre until a pigeon caught her attention. Here she is scoping out the birdies.

We stopped at some workshops first to make some dishes. This is Squidge.

And now Chatterbox making hers.

View from the top of the hill towards the sea.

Squidge looking down the steep cobbled street.

So pretty, but can you imagine this street in icy weather? :)

Inside of the Fisherman's Cottage.

Another kitty, this one didn't stop to chat but was on some kind of mission.

Hubs and the girls looking out across the bay.

Some really gorgeous cottages, I would post all my photos but it would take hours!

Down to the little harbour.

This kitty did come to say hello

Start with a kitty, end with a kitty.

27 July 2012

Look Mummy!

My dandelion looks like a bird.

So it does. :)

Book Review. Your Own Jesus: A God Insistent on Making it Personal

Another of my Good Reads reviews:
3 stars

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't life changing on the whole, some chapters I felt like skipping thorough. However, there were one or two chapters that really spoke to me.

I love the fact though that that the book is about a personal Jesus, one who wants a deep relationship with us.

Hall writes near the beginning of a conversation with a youth group member who had been in college for a few months:

" "Man, I need help," he said, his voice almost a quiver. "These professors are pounding me. The entire culture here is mocking everything I heard you say."

He spent the next several minutes asking questions, though one unsettled me more than any of the others. He told the story of an assertion someone made in class that left him too befuddled to reply, which is why he had called me for help.

"Now, what do I believe about that again?" he asked.

Less than a year after leaving the cosy spiritual nest of our church group, where everyone shared the same beliefs and lingo, he was facing the white-hot furnace of a hostile universe and its ungodly worldviews. And he folded like paper in fire.

He didn't have his own Jesus. "

This part resonated with me because it is a fear that my children will be able to parrot their handed-down beliefs, but when they step out into the big wide world they may find that you cannot live off someone else's beliefs. But, it is good to have that fear - my children need Jesus, not me (as Mark Hall puts in one of his songs, "We can't strap ourselves to the gospel because we are slowing it down"). This also fitted in with the parts of the other book I've just read 'Why Christian Kids Rebel'.

I need this for me too. I need my own relationship with Jesus. Not a predigested relationship given to me from the pulpit. I need to know him for myself, I need to walk with him and to know him. He isn't a theory, a philosophy, he is real.

26 July 2012

Book Review: Why Christian Kids Rebel

Here is my review from GoodReads:
4 stars

I read Tim Kimmel's other book Grace Based Parenting a few years ago and loved it. I did start this book some time ago and stopped for some reason, but this time I read the whole thing.

I enjoyed it mostly and agree with many of his conclusions, but it didn't speak to me as deeply as Grace Based Parenting. Maybe this is because I haven't experienced rebellion from my children...yet! (Let's hope the 'yet' never comes!)

As I said, though, I do agree with his outlook on parenting children as a Christian in the main.

He categorises Christian parenting which may create rebellious children into five groups:

Compulsory Christianity
Cliché Christianity
Comfortable Christianity
Cocoon Christianity
Compromised Christianity

The dangers in modern Christianity for our children is that we have created cocoons for our children – evangelical ghettos. We listen to Christian music, watch Christian TV, mix with Christian friends, go to Christian events…I could go on. We treat our faith as a hobby, enjoying our church events and church meetings, but a hobby that doesn’t change us or anyone else. We drill our children with Bible study and catechism but we don’t demonstrate an authentic relationship with Christ lived out under stress in a world antagonistic towards the true gospel. We create children who can say “Hallelujah” when things go well, but don’t realise they are living a cliché where they don’t know the Yahweh Whom they are praising. We keep our children safe from the world, but they never know what a changed life is, what a sacrificial life is, what sin really means to a lost world. We keep our children ‘safe’, but when they meet real life their faith will not weather the storms.

~oOo~

At the end of the day I agree with much of what Tim Kimmel says, but having never fully tested his theory (my eldest child is nearly 11) I can't say that everything he says is correct! But I do believe that children need to develop real, authentic relationships with Jesus that can be lived out in a stressful and testing world. He has to be their rock and their fortress. I am afraid to wrap my children up too much in cotton wool that when they reach the age of responsibility they are unable to cope with or are enticed by the world. I am afraid that just because now as youngsters they say and do (mostly) the right things doesn't mean that I've got it made and can be complacent.

I can only...
Pray.

Trust.
Guide.
Love.
Offer grace.
Try to live a REAL life in Christ.
Love...again (because you can never love too much).

My gorgeous girl

Ready for high school (she's 11 in August), but still my little girl. Still a chatterbox, always smiling. Her primary school reports from nursery until her final year start with saying how smiley she is to ending with how smiley she is. My gorgeous girl.