I got to sleep in today. At 7:55, Little Em barged through the door, turned off the Noise Fan, grabbed the pen and Tums from Daddy's bedside table, and ran pell-mell around the bed to my side, shoving them into my still-asleep hand. It's the traditional way she wakes up the Dude, who usually sleeps later than I do.
"Wake up, mom! It's SEVEN-FIRTY!" I chuckled at the cuteness of the irony, because for weeks I've been teaching her to lay in bed and cuddle till the Legal Hour of 7:30. (Capt, we have retention!)
I'll skip the part where she used all of her 3yo might to peel back the covers only to bellow with laughter at the sight of my "unnerwear"...
Tuesday continued in full force. The Dude gratefully retreated to the office to work once I made my morning entrance into The Workstation of the kitchen/dining/living areas. I assigned math lessons, paid bills, washed dishes, picked up alphabet sets, and broke up bouts of bickering. All the while walking on a crumb-covered floor which I refuse to sweep pre-lunchtime due to the canceling-out nature of lunch to clean floors. Kid lunch was served. Afterward, the Dude and I had nearly an hour of lunch together during Quiet Time, before I resigned myself to a list of computer work for the remainder of the afternoon. With that (mostly) done, I wanted to contribute to Tuesday Unwrapped but couldn't find anything but dust and mediocrity around me. (The kids were still schooling or resting during Quiet Time, and are of course neither dusty nor mediocre. *wink*)
Then my eyes fell upon the notebook from a recent women's conference I attended. It's propped up between my desktop CPU, tax folders, catologs, and business checkbooks.
...oh, and there is some dust in this picture.
The sight of the logo reminded me of the theme and speaker, which were both a blessing and a downright thrill to me that weekend. Whenever I see it, it renews my zest for normal, boring, domestic life. Because, let's face it - ministries and resources that promote thinking among believers aren't too rare, but among women? Nearly non-existent. (You know how it is...women's classes only ever tackle "felt needs", and there are no authors of Bible study materials besides Beth Moore.)
My favorite talk that weekend was the main speaker, Mary Jo Sharp's, "Redefined Confidence" during the general session on Saturday. She built a case for the desperate need of biblical literacy among believers as the only sure way to counter influences of society (atheism, etc.) on our thinking, the lies of which eat away at our confidence...and even our faith. It is critical that we hunger and thirst for the knowledge of God (Prov. 4:5-7; Hos. 4:1-2, 6), otherwise we are left open to attack, and unable to give a defense of our faith!
Deepening knowledge of God ---> builds belief and faith --->
strengthens confidence in who we are.
Naturally, I nearly rocketed out of my seat when she used the word "apologetics" repeatedly, and could hardly contain myself when she even mentioned Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason a number of times. (She highly recommends his book, "Tactics".) The wow factor in all of this was that I was surrounded by women, instead of the usual living-room-full of seminary students/grads and keen laymen discussing such things with my husband (who happens to have his PhD in Apologetics). Whee!
Mary Jo Sharp is a speaker/apologist/debater/author who co-founded the website Confident Christianity. Enjoy the extensive resources and goodies on her site, and don't miss her blog!
So that's my Tuesday gift, unwrapped. What I do matters, what I read matters, and - most of all - what I think matters.
