What I Hate About Working From Home

Audrea's job is so much harder than mine, and most of her rewards are so intangible.

She spends her whole day serving our family by cooking, cleaning, teaching, organizing, singing, shopping, saving, praying, disciplining, peacemaking, shepherding, crying, remembering, forgetting, suffering, laughing, restraining, preparing, planning, understanding, thinking, praising, rebuking, caring ... shall I go on? I could.

I spend 8 hours of my day serving my family by sitting upstairs at my computer thinking, writing, and coding. I get to listen to music all day, experience mostly peace and quiet, and have a view that is amazing. It's so unfair. It just seems like a crime.

While I truly appreciate the blessing of working from home, I hate having to stay put, do my job, and know that Audrea is doing so much more than I am doing.

This drives me to realize two things:

1. When a husband comes home from work (or in my case, comes downstairs!) to a wife that stays at home with the children, and especially if she is one who also teaches at home, he should do whatever he possibly can to help her in fulfilling her role as wife and mother of her family. This is just as applicable to those families who are unable (or choose not) to have one parent at home: the roles of each partner do not change--the work/ministry (in my mind) would be still there to do, but would need to be done with less time available.


2. A husband (like myself) should be motivated to work as hard as he possibly can at his job in order to honor God in the fulfilling of his role as provider and protector of his family.

One other thing that these impress on me: I love my wife more than you can even know.

This Truly Incends Me

I'm having a hard time writing this post without displaying unbridled anger in my language... so I'll keep it simple and let it inflame you.

I double-checked with Strunk's Elements of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, and American Psychological Association style guide and verified 1) capitalization of a personal pronoun is reserved for the first-person pronoun (however, references to deity are acceptable--Him, You, etc.) and 2) that the word--Bible--is to be capitalized when referring to the Christian scriptures.

Two sad commentaries on our American culture today:

Last Monday, before Inauguration Day, CBS published this story discussing how the Lincoln Bible would be used to be sworn on by then-President Elect Obama. Unless specifically referring to the book which Lincoln used for his inauguration, the author would refer to God's Word as simply "the bible." Five times, he or she clarified that the book to be sworn in on was simply--a bible.
While the tradition of swearing in using a Bible is simply that-tradition--it does reflect the distinctly Christian heritage the United States of America was signficantly influenced by. The Bibles used for swearing in Presidents have not just been any holy book for some miscellaneous religion: if it was a Bible, it was The Holy Bible, the testament of the Christian faith. It is denigrating to my faith and to our country's heritage to reduce it to simply "the bible"--as if it was irrelevant which religion was associated with the book.

Today, then, Audrea pointed out to me a Garrison Keillor op-ed piece in the Courier Journal. In referring to President Obama, Keillor says:

"People were being marshaled into waiting areas for each train to D.C., each of us with a Commemorative Train Ticket with a picture of Himself on it"

Did you get that? "Himself."

Specifically, note this question and answer from the Chicago Manual:

Q. Is it proper to capitalize pronouns that refer to a deity? For example, “God is willing to forgive anyone who comes to Him.”

A. Yes, although it’s not Chicago style. Capping the pronouns can imply an expression of religious faith on the part of the writer; lowercasing them leaves the writer’s beliefs unclear. The choice of style should be made with sensitivity to the type of reader you are addressing. Lowercasing is more inclusive, but it might offend in some kinds of religious literature.

So, if it wasn't obvious to you already, it should be now: People are worshipping the President as a deity, and are trying their best to relegate God to a myth.

Horse-Riding Lessons

Savannah has talked about taking horse-riding lessons for a couple years. It used to be that she would ask us to buy a horse. We told her how much work it was and how fast the poop accumulated, but that usually didn't deter her. Eventually we said, "Well, how 'bout lessons, instead, someday?" Our mistake. From that point on, she had talked about lessons. This Christmas, her favorite gift was a certificate for horse-riding lessons. According to her, "It's the best gift I've ever gotten."

There is a horse riding club right here in town, just 5 minutes away from our house that we take her to. You'll notice in the picture that she has her coat on and looks bundled up. The lessons occur in a large barn but the barn is not really heated. She loves it all the same, though.

(It isn't extremely bright in there, so you'll have to excuse the graininess of the pictures.) When I took her for one of the lessons, I was kind of nervous, considering my horse-riding accident last spring. Watching her go around the fence without any help slowly built up my confidence in her.

Meanwhile, she goes on loving horses and still talking about a career centered around horses.

Encouragement for Sufferers

Hear a good word from John Piper on proper perspective through hard times. Though his subject concerns the economy, this was encouraging to me in my present trials.

Vote for the Quads Blog!!

Hey everyone who sometimes takes a look at my blog--could you do me a favor?

My friend, Jen Murray, has a blog about her quadruplets. Please take a moment today and as often as you want (but no more than once per day) to vote for it being one of the best parenting blogs of 2008. Her blog is an encouragement to those parents who wonder how to take care of several children at once and is always an amazing display of God's grace in many ways. Her blog can be seen here and you can vote for it here.

(Funny note about how I know Jen: I met Jen when I lived in Danville and worked at the Open Door. She would come in and give me a hard time about this so-called girlfriend (aka Audrea) that must not exist since she had never met her. It wasn't until much later that I found out that she was the kid sister of my dear friend, Kirby Myers!)

Oh my... no words for this

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Morning Report: Even the porn industry wants a bailout

Finally, in this era of unprecedented government bailouts, there is an industry worthy of our tax dollars.
In a story that no sportswriter could invent, CNN last night reported that another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis unfolds.
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said yesterday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.
Things must be tough all over.

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2009, everyone!!!!!

My family and I wish you all a happy new year and pray that you will experience afresh God's grace throughout the whole year!