Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

When it comes to the movies, the fourth installment of the Harry Potter series, has always been my favorite. Likely this is mostly nostalgia as I used to listen to it going to sleep on the nights Jim was at work, but I think it's also because of the turning point in the series. While the movie is excellent, the book far exceeds it!

Thus far this book is my favorite in the Harry Potter series. The story is so woven to keep you on your toes and wondering what is going to happen. If I did not know the outcome of the book I would NOT have suspected it at all. Rowling does an excellent job of weaving character stories, descriptions, character's feelings and thoughts so that you are never quite sure what it going to happen next. This is the epitome of story-telling.

For those who have not read this book, it follows the Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts where he is mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament in spite his being underage and a Hogwart's champion being selected.

It begins with the Quidditch World Cup where dark wizards torment muggles and begat fear among all who are in the wizarding world. When the Tournament comes up even more questions arise about why the dark forces seems to be so strong yet again. Harry has dreams that are vivid and full of questions. The world of house elves is even more deeply exposed causing more tension with the main characters as well as exposing more of the story at hand.

As Harry works through his school year while preparing for the grueling events of the tournament we see friendships tested, lessons learned, deep emotions and questions arise for this young man. While no one in our world will experience exactly what Harry is going through, you can relate to what he is thinking and feeling as well as see different angles. While it's not the genre specifically, it is an excellent coming of age book and as an adult I can appreciate the struggle while also saying, "Why did you do that?" now that I have lived through the teenage years.

While this book is an excellent read, it is very dark and needs parental guidance before a young person reads it. There are also blatant rule breaking and getting away with it. This installment also has a bit of language as well.

Even with the parental warnings I still give this book five stars for the excellent writing and story line. If you love a good fantasy book, I highly recommend it.

Reading Challenges:
This book is being used for a book of at least 300 pages in the Tim Challies 2020 Reading Challenge.

Prayer by Timothy Keller

This is a book I've been reading with one of my women's groups from our church and it was amazing! Prayer is a spiritual discipline that I love and one I still need so much growth in, and this book helped me to go even deeper in understanding prayer, it's power and it's importance.

There are five major sections: Desiring Prayer, Understanding Prayer, Learning Prayer, Deepening Prayer and Doing Prayer. In each section Keller gives a clear Biblical reason for this aspect of prayer and practical ways to grow in that area.

Desiring prayer can be challenging, even for the strongest of Christians because of life. The necessity of prayer is made clear as Keller breaks down the myths and challenges of prayer and points us toward God and growing our relationship with him. In the Greatness of Prayer he points us to the fact that prayer points us to God and does a mighty work in us as well as God using prayer to work through us. What a gift to be able to pray prayers that God uses to accomplish His will!

In Understanding Prayer, Keller explains what prayer is, conversing with God and encountering God. This section was beautiful and brilliant as Keller tackled the theology behind prayer, the knowledge of God that allows us to pray and in prayer moves us to really experience God, finding the balance between stoic theology and emotional experience. As Keller says on page 80, "Prayer turns theology into experience."

Learning prayer gives practical examples of how and what to pray. Keller shares Letters of Prayer that look at how church fathers explained prayer from Augustine and Luther and gives advice from their advice. Rules for prayer explains basic principles that we should abide by in prayer from the Scripture. Keller carefully walks us through the Prayer of Prayers to show how we can use the prayer Jesus gave us as an example to pray deeply about all things. In Touchstones of Prayer he shows the elements of prayer that should effect us and how praying walks us through these different touchstones to show us our insufficiency and the all sufficiency of God

Deepening Prayer takes you to a deeper level, as it states, in understanding and practicing prayer. Keller talks about the conversation of prayer, which is meditating on Scripture and responding to it. All of our being is to be meditating on Scripture and so he discusses meditating with both heart and mind as well as fixing your mind on the Word leading to meditating on the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who has given us the privilege of prayer. He then moves into Encountering God, which is seeking His face. "We must not settle for an informed mind without an engaged heart," says Keller on page 165. We take the knowledge of God from His Word and move into experiencing Him with all of our being as we pray. This section is pivotal in understanding how truth and experience intertwine in prayer. It was so eye-opening for me.

In Doing Prayer, Keller gets extremely practical in what it means to literally pray and also is honest about the struggles of prayer. We start with awe, grow in intimacy with God, tell Him our hearts and continue on. The last chapter gives practical guides to help you set up a routine for prayer.

This book is so rich and will be an asset to anyone who wants to grow in prayer whether you're new to the faith or have been a Christian for fifty years! I cannot recommend this book enough!

5 Stars

Reading Challenges:
I'm using this as a theology book in the light section of the Tim Challies's 2020 Reading Challenge.
In the 2020 Christian Reading Challenge for Women with Jami Balmet I'm counting this as a book on Spiritual Disciplines.

Our Ten-Year-Old Lillian

A Decade...

That's how long it's been since our precious, tiny Lillian was born.

A Decade!

The word is so big and yet so small. How can it only be ten years since she made her appearance, fast a furious with no effort on my part? Yet, ten years. There's no way that it's been ten years since I first held this precious little girl.

But the dates do not lie. This amazing gift from God is ten years old today!

Where do I even begin with our only little girl? Lillian is so full of life! She loves to live. She wakes up ready for the day, blazing to go and get started on what needs to be done. She is a go-getter and doesn't like to slow down for anything. Carpe Diem will likely be her life motto.

Lillian's passion is baking and cooking! She could do it all day everyday! She dreams of having her own bakery and providing treats for people in all walks of life in what they can and cannot eat. Our family is consistently blessed by her decadent desserts and delicious dinners. Thus far she has not come across anything she cannot make. Cookies, cakes and pies are a regular at our house. She can also make caramel, tuiles and chocolate candies. Missing an ingredient? Lillian is not afraid to try something new even if it doesn't turn out right! The marks of a true baker. She's also starting to try breads and one loaf she makes regularly for our soup nights is absolutely amazing! I so look forward to see what God is going to do with the talent He has given this little girl.

Lillian also loves to learn. So much of her learning takes place in the kitchen which is probably part of the reason she loves math! But she also enjoys Latin and reading. Recently she has become very interested in reading the Bible daily and is working through the Guthrie Reading Plan for reading the Bible in a year with Smyrna First! It is such a blessing to see this and I pray God will use this to grow her in knowledge of God and that the Holy Spirit will show her the truth of God's Word so that she will see her sin and, by God's grace, turn to Him in repentance and faith.

With all of this, Lillian loves being with her family, and really with people in general. She loves to talk about things and discuss what she is learning. She loves to explore outside. Lillian is growing in caring for babies as she often helps with Timothy. Even when they annoy her, she loves being with her brothers. Often she can be found teaching Gabriel to bake something or working along side Reuben in the kitchen. She also enjoys building with LEGOs with her brothers and playing outside with them. She enjoys the sun and fresh air as well as going on adventures. She just loves life!

Recently, Lillian has begun to enjoy moments of alone time. She will walk around our yard by herself or curl up on her bed with a good book. This year she has read all of the American Girl books on her shelf and is working through the Dear America books that she has. She also enjoys the Magic Tree House Books. She is learning to journal as well and is beginning to write down prayer requests and draw pictures about what she's learning.

It is amazing to see how much this little baby has grown into a beautiful young woman. As she enters into the teen years, I pray she continues to grow and that she will seek the LORD with all her heart. We are so blessed to have a young woman in the midst of a household of boys. I'm always reminded that God knows exactly what we needed and I'm thankful for this girl to teach about Biblical womanhood and to help our boys learn how to treat women.

Father, thank You for the gift of Lillian! She is such a beautiful and precious image bearer and I am so thankful our family has the privilege of having her in our home. Thank You for the passion for life you have given her and the amazing talents she already possesses at such a young age. How I pray that she will use this gusto, this zeal for Your Kingdom and Your glory. Father, thank You for giving her a desire for Your Word and Your Way. Please take that love and turn it into a complete and devoted love for You! Let her love You with all of her heart, soul, mind and strength. Let her love her neighbor as herself. Let all of her passion for life flow from a passion for You, the Giver of all life. Show her that life without You is not truly life and that true abundant life is found only in the saving grace of Jesus. Thank You for this decade with Lillian! I pray we will have many more decades with her to watch her grow in wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and man. Make her like Jesus! I pray all of these things in Jesus Name. Amen!

When Wearing a Mask is Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself

I'm not the least bit afraid of the Corona Virus. In fact, I can't ever think of a time in my life I've been afraid of getting sick. I've never been a germaphobe, been obsessive about washing my hands or afraid of contact with humanity. This just isn't me.

I admit that when things started going crazy in mid-March I was among the top skeptics. I thought everything was being blown out of proportion and everyone was overreacting to just a virus and wondered what was the matter with everyone. Most likely I thought that because of my lack of germaphobia.

By God's grace sickness has not been a large part of my life story. I've had many of hard blows that have knocked me to the ground, but health and sickness has not been one of them. Even now I think of how blessed I am when I have been such a poor steward of my body and my health for most of my life and I don't know why.

I have been doing many things to improve my health over the past few years praying and trusting God would bless my efforts. To this day, I continue to remain in good health and for that I am grateful.

So when all of the shut down began to happen and I heard about people wearing masks, I seriously thought they were nuts. Why would you do that? What's the point?

Then someone I knew in healthy condition died.

I saw posts from a dear Sister who has a seriously medically fragile child.

I started looking at the numbers in several different places and letting God teach me through the knowledge He gave me in nursing school and through the independent study I have done over the past few years as I have studied health and I realized, this is far more serious than I thought.

I started understanding it's not just about me it's about my neighbors. I also realized that I was one of the immune compromised because I'm pregnant with gestational diabetes.

I became more rigorous with my oils, my cleaning of the home and staying home as much as possible, but I still refused to let it effect what I did when I went out. "I don't need a mask. I'm totally fine," is what I thought.

At my last OB appointment my doctor urged me strongly to wear a mask when going to the store. I had one in the car to say I had one but had no intention of wearing it. On the way to the car from my appointment, I ended up in the elevator with two elderly gentlemen, both wearing masks. One of them in sweet concern asked me, "Where's your mask?"

I smiled at him and said, "I'm just going to see my doctor and they are all covered. I've got one in the car." He seemed to "understand" and acknowledge the doctors were being careful, but it got me thinking.

While I'm out, I go ahead and get groceries, so when I got to Lidl I put on the mask Jim had brought home from a co-worker whose friend had made one for each nurse in the unit. It is cloth so not as bad as the plastic hospital masks, but half way through the store I was struggling to breathe and thought, "This is nuts! I'm going to die from wearing the mask!"

Yes, a little extreme I know, but the truth was I didn't want to wear the mask! It was uncomfortable and inconvenient and I straight up didn't like it. I had two more stops to make and decided I tried it and I wasn't going to wear the mask in the other two stores. And I didn't.

Most everyone else was wearing one, so I thought that was good enough. Herd masking right???

Over the next week I thought about it a little, but not much. Then Monday night, Jim and I watched a sermon from Pastor Richard Chin as part of our T4G online ticket. He taught on being Captured by Christ with Colossians 3 as his text. This chapter of God's Word teaches us to put our minds on things above and not on earthly things. We're to seek to put to death anything that is worldly and of the flesh and clothe ourselves in Christ righteousness, loving others the way Christ loves us.

"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity." Colossians 3:12-14

To be captured by Christ is to live for Him and His glory and not for ourselves. Pastor Richard talked about other crisis that others of the faith had lived through and shared this quote from Martin Luther:

"I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, He will surely find me and I have done what He has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God." 

This quote has stayed with me all week.

When I went to the grocery store on Wednesday I decided I would wear my mask.

And I did.

I had four stops to make because of the various items needed and I was not looking forward to wearing this mask. But as I got in the car after making two stops I realized that by wearing my mask I was living out my God-fearing faith by loving my neighbor as myself.

It is easy to take this command to mean I want others to do to me what I want done to me, but as I sat with my mask on looking at everyone else with their masks on God said, "No, it's doing for them what they want done for them."

I might be a healthy person that rarely gets sick, but what about everyone in the store with me? I don't know what they're fighting. I don't know if they are terrified of getting sick or maybe have major health problems, but have to come out because they have no one to help. They may even think I don't care about them because I'm not wearing one.

I also thought about my baby. It's not loving my baby to willingly put myself in unnecessary risk, tempting God because I don't want to deal with the nuisance of wearing a mask. It's not loving my husband, who needs to work, or my other children to be so cavalier because I don't get sick.

How selfish I had been. How I had loved my comfort instead of helping others feel at ease. How dare I treat human life so callously.

I repented right then and their and asked God to continue to show me where I was falling short in loving others.

I'm still not a germaphobe. I'm still not afraid of getting sick.

But I resonate completely with Colossians 3 to put on love and bear with others with a compassionate heart, kindness, meekness and patience as we face this pandemic together. I resonate with Martin Luther that says I will do what is right and necessary according to what God has directed so that no matter what may come, I have not tempted my God and done what He has expected of me.

So I encourage you today, love your neighbor as yourself.

30 Weeks with Number 10

On Friday I reached the wonderful marker of 30 weeks with our tenth baby! With this being number ten and in the last quarter of this pregnancy, I'm finding myself stopping more to cherish these little moments. Because life is a little slower right now with all that's going on in the world, God is giving me the reminder to stop, pause an enjoy these little moments that may never happen again.

Nothing is guaranteed in this life. In a flash everything can change.

It feels like life moves at breakneck speed. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant!

But right now, while the world is just a little slower, I want to take time and enjoy this (even though this pregnancy has been very draining). I want to remember the movements. I want to cherish the moments I get to carry the life of and image bearer of God. I want to be thankful for the fatigue and heartburn that reminds me that, even though it's uncomfortable, is part of the joy of being a mama.

I'm grateful to be at 30 weeks. Every week is a miracle. Every moment is a miracle.

I'm anxious to meet this newest little one face to face. But right now I want to take in the joy of carrying this child inside and treasure these moments of pregnancy before the delivery comes.

Confession: I'm Not Really Struggling

We're a month into the social distancing mandate both locally and nationally. It's been a strange month in many ways, but in others there isn't that much that's different. Not for us anyway.

It's been just over two years since we finally settled in Mableton after a long transition, and during that time we have done a lot at home. We've been homeschooling since our oldest was 2 and a half. We're a large family so we don't go that many places that often. The biggest changes have been not being able to meet with the church and not taking family trips to the stores to shop and learn together. We've really kept things quite simple.

So this last month has been a bit of fresh air in many ways. Don't get me wrong, I'm an extreme extrovert and I miss gathering with our people. But at the same time I've loved not having a reason to go anywhere. It's kind of nice being able to go quickly to the grocery store or take my time so I can adequately compare prices (when there are options to choose from at the store).

The Shelter at Home order being wide spread has also taken some of the pressure off our days and we're actually doing better! We've been able to disciple more intentionally. Everyone is working together to learn and get book work accomplished. Chores have been smoother. We've been getting outside everyday the weather allows to enjoy sunshine and mild exercise. Individual reading time has been reinstated. Creative expression has become more prevalent during our day with writing, drawing, LEGO building and cooking/baking. We're talking more about everything.

On top of the family growing together, Jim and I are working together more when he's home and because of the strangeness at the hospitals he has been home more! We've been working on marriage material, dreaming about ministry and blogging and seeking God's vision for our family. We have started another book and we're having intentional date nights in every week.

Personally, I have been seeing God more clearly as I'm studying the Old Testament with our church's reading plan and going through Revelation. Both are challenging me greatly and driving me to my knees even more. God is revealing my sin and showing me where I have been falling short. I've been praying more, looking for gratitude in the little things and enjoying being a mom more than I ever have. I've also been writing more and learning more. I'm writing blog posts, working on my book and have a virtual writing group that has been so much fun. Last week I was able to pray with a friend of ours who is preparing to return to Japan several times. I've had texts and sent texts. I'm learning how to be completely satisfied in God alone!

It's hard not being able to gather with the Body and worship together physically. But our pastors have done an amazing job streaming our Sunday corporate worship, even in their own struggles, and we've been able to use it to train our children in corporate worship decorum without bothering those around us. Even in the darkness, that has been a great light for us.

The kids have been a little antsy not going anywhere in a month. But they are growing in relationship with each other. There are more spats and squabbles, but it has been a time for growth and teaching, calling out sin and pointing our children to Jesus. The little ones have been demanding more attention, but they are learning to receive discipline and instruction with decreasing fight. They miss their friends, but they are growing in friendship with each other.

By God's grace this won't last forever. This virus will subside. We will be able to meet in large gatherings again. We will go to the grocery store, the park, museums or wherever we want to go to live life.

But also by God's grace we will never be the same. And that is a good thing.

The Daniel Plan

This book has been on our shelf for a few years after Jim's employer bought them for their employees and I've been meaning to read it. As part of looking into health information I decided to read it to know what it's teaching and how it compares to other eating plans out there so I can educate to the best of my ability.

Having already read other books, it was challenging to read this unbiased, which I tried desperately to do, but my review will come at it from a mixed view.

I have heard many good things about this plan throughout the years. I really appreciate the five essentials that they use to lay out their plan: faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. Anyone knows that this type of combination helps with the success of anything in life. They take a chapter to explain each of these in detail.

The Faith section had a some encouragement, but parts of it even left me discouraged. They also talk about promises out of context and did not do a great job of explaining the Gospel in this section. In fact, I don't remember it being clear that without Jesus none of the faith element works. Perhaps it was more than I realized, but I remember thinking many times "You can't say that." Without the true faith element, it doesn't work.

The food section I struggled with greatly. They immediately said they were a high carb diet, which was my assumption and while acknowledging you need good fats, I didn't see them incorporated well. This is a problem for pregnant and nursing women for sure and not at all good for children. If a long term diet is not workable in these stations I have a hard time with it. Since I have gestational diabetes I was looking at it from that angle as well and many of their meals I would have to tweak majorly to be able to eat. There are some recipes that I am excited to try though, which is a bonus.

The diet does have its merits and they have some great dishes in the back, but they were lacking in solid research. They also continually suggest Olive Oil for cooking but do not discuss proper temps to keep it from turning to a trans fat. Cornstarch was suggested in several dishes for thickening which I can't eat with diabetes. I was also disheartened to see the moderate demonization of gluten and dairy. There was a LOT of assumption that their diet fits everyone, and having investigated other eating plans and philosophies I cannot say this. What I can tell is this is a great cleansing diet, but many people would likely need to add in more fats after this period of cleansing.

Fitness was encouraging, but again many of the fitness exercises I could not do as a pregnant woman. I liked the encouragement to do what you can and build as well as doing what you enjoy doing as people are built differently. That was a good attribute of this element. I didn't see any acknowledgement of those who already work in physically strenuous jobs and recommendations to help with that. But on the whole the fitness element was well explained.

Focus was a mix of encouragement and discouragement as well. For quality health you do need focus, but they are assuming that their plan is the only one to focus on. I appreciated the section on renewing your mind, but this again only works with God as your guide changing and renewing your mind. The bit of research they shared on the brain was very interesting and good information to consider. I do 100% agree that we need to be focused on God, positive elements and thanksgiving in order to move forward with ideal health. I greatly appreciated this section as that type of research can be taboo in Christian circles.

The Friends element was probably the most discouraging of them all. Why? Because it comes at it from the assumption that this plan will work for everyone completely long term. It means that you have to have people doing this plan with you. Yes, for success we need accountability, but that means, in essence, you need people in the same place you are physically to do this with that can help you with this plan.

Again, I do think this plan has merits and I'm grateful for the five elements to help in guiding the plan, but there is too much of the "one size fits all" feel and not enough sound science or longevity to say that this is a good plan long term for everyone. There is not a whole lot of wiggle room. They also don't tell you a great way to make treats. This is sad and frustrating. Instead they simply expect you to simply say no to all of it.

They also recommend eating all day, which is contrary with other research I have done for those who are morbidly obese and struggling with diabetes. I'm sure there are some with these conditions that have had success, but is it dealing with the underlying issues? I also would love to see numbers in blood work (this is the nurse coming out in me) to see how these things are doing.

My biggest issue with this book is they base their entire plan on a paragraph of Scripture instead of the whole. They completely neglect other Old Testament and New Testament teachings in their program.

I recommend doing your own research and know where you are in your health journey. This book could be helpful in this, but remember there are many elements to consider and always seek a professional opinion.

3 stars for this daily living book.

Reading Challenges:
This book is being included in the Tim Challies 2020 Reading Challenge as a book about food or cooking in the Committed section of the challenge.