Here are Four Great Things from the week of 08/23/2024.

In Awe of You

Clint Stevens has released another single, In Awe of You.

"Through your overwhelming steadfast love,

I will enter the house of God.

I will bow before your holiness

And forever be in awe of you. . ."

I can testify to the thoughtfulness here—and that's one (of many) things I've always appreciated about Clint's music. He uses Scripture with new melodies to encourage the Church.

Why (& How) My Mother Starts Cooking Thanksgiving in August

She has a deep freezer just for Thanksgiving. . . Sherri Maxman's mother will plug in this appliance in August to prepare for the yearly Thanksgiving meal she provides for her family. This is inspiring to me not in an imitation sort of way, but more like a "I want to give that much thought into feasts" sort of way.

"How does she do it, everyone wants to know? How does she successfully feed all those people so many different and delicious things (last year’s menu included ten appetizers, three main dishes, ten sides, and dessert) without dropping dead of exhaustion? Does she really freeze so many things? How does she know what she can freeze? Does she have an order to things, or does she just make what she feels like making? Does she really make everything herself?"

What a woman!



Surgeon General and Social Media

I grew up reading only warnings about cigarettes from the Surgeon General, so it has been something else to read the current hazards: social media. The interesting this is that we all have seen this coming.

"In June, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for social media companies to take measures to better protect young people online. These measures include adding warning labels to social media platforms, limiting addictive features like push notifications and autoplay, and sharing internal data on how their products affect young people."



Strength to Stay

I don't find myself in this place nearly as often as I did when the girls were younger; however, this is nicely written and still encourages all of us to piety.

"And I hope that we can continue as a family to endeavor to be faithful, to stick around and simply show up for the next thing — even if it’s small, even if it feels insignificant, even if we’re sometimes not good at it, and even if there are a million other things one of us would rather be doing. That, I tell my children, is real strength."

What I'm working on:

I'm still sketching out an article about translating. John Donne paralleled it to death and eternity, so I am pulling at that thread to see what could be. The current direction is surveying what our souls should look like between conversion and death/Christ's return. My goal is to post it in the next 2 weeks.

Quotable:

“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted : and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them ; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Worth the Memory

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem for boys called "If"—it's a call for their maturity and manhood. I recently discovered "An 'If' for Girls" by JP McEvoy from 1924. It's now our first memorization piece when school resumes.

‘If you can hear the whispering about you,
And never yield to deal in whispers, too;
If you can bravely smile when loved ones doubt you,
And never doubt, in turn, what loved ones do;
If you can keep a sweet and gentle spirit
In spite of fame or fortune, rank or place,
And though you win your goal or only near it,
Can win with poise and lose with equal grace;

If you can meet with Unbelief, believing,
And hallow in your heart a simple Creed,
If you can meet Deception, undeceiving,
And learn to look to God for all you need;
If you can be what girls should be to mothers:
Chums in joy and comrades in distress,
And be unto others as you’d have the others
Be unto you – No more, and yet no less;

If you can keep within your heart the power
To say that firm, unconquerable “No”;
If you can brave a present shadowed hour,
Rather than yield to build a future woe;
If you can love, yet not let loving master,
But keep yourself within your own self’s clasp,
And not let dreaming lead you to disaster,
Nor pity’s fascination loose your grasp;

If you can lock your heart on confidences,
Nor ever needlessly in turn confide;
If you can put behind you all pretenses
Of mock humility or foolish pride:
If you can keep the simple, homely virtue
Of walking right with God – then have no fear
That anything in all the world can hurt you-
And – which is more – you’ll be a Woman, dear.’

What are your great things from the week?