Here are Four Great Things from the week  03/07/2025.

Non-Anxious Presence

Mark Sayers brings so much clarity to why we are anxious on a global level, and the genesis isn't social media. He talks of our current wilderness period (or a gray zone) since the ending of the pandemic and the start of. . . well we don't know what's next.

He gives solid counsel to leaders to not retreat into comfort zones of just trying to make everyone happy, but to lead in a biblical way and then stay with it. His book ends with a mini case study of comparing Saul and David as kings. I got the privilege of doing this book with a small group of women, and it was an immense blessing.



Trial and Triumph

After the kind of dinner when the whole family is home and around the same table, Clint reads "Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History" aloud. This was set to be an independent reading in Harper's homeschool curriculum, but I am grateful we are tackling it as a family.

God, in His immense goodness, has preserved historical traditions and stories of faith enacted since the first century church. Many of these readings have left the room silent afterward with an awe at how God has built and sustained the Church. We have all been encouraged and spurred on!

(I will say, though, that this is for older students. What many of these saints and witnesses endured was nothing short of prolonged torture in attempts of their renouncing the faith. Our youngest is 8, but she's been in the throes of me homeschooling to the highest level in our home for 3 years now. Preview before reading aloud to younger ones!)

Watercoloring

A new hobby I am trying my hand at is watercoloring. This is the set I purchased, and I like the matte pans much better than the tubes. I was able to sit with a new friend here and learn a few techniques. My middle daughter cooks us dinner every Tuesday night, so this is the hour I sit and watercolor—no matter what else is on my list.

Gah! That part has been hard because it seems like I am throwing away daylight to be productive with all the current spinning plates. But! It has proven to be very fruitful with two areas: modeling producing rather than just consuming, and remembering how hard it is to learn something for the first time.



America's Test Kitchen

Another delightful amount of time I spend upon one thing is cooking—and it is *mostly* done with eagerness and joy. But one partner I have come to rely on is America's Test Kitchen. From two separate magazines to a whole host of books, they are a major voice for me right now. What I like most is their diversity of meals and their lack of sponsorship. They own themselves, so they are free to endorse the absolute best kitchen tool on the market.

What I'm working on:

In the last 6 weeks I've drafted another 3,200 words—again, not a ton. But early Saturday morning basketball games have usurped my best writing window, ha! At least I have moved on to chapter two: You Are What You Eat (consumption vs. production).

Quotable:

“If people reach perfection they vanish, you know.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

(This is the new read aloud)

Worth the Memory

"Prayer"



Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,

God's breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

—George Herbert

What are your great things from the week?