Responsibility Training

"For each one should carry his own load."

Galatians 6:5

I recently listened to a recorded seminar called, "Raising Large Families," from the 2008 Seminary Wives Institute Seminar Saturday. One main point of the speaker's message was "don't do anything that someone else in your household can do."

This got me thinking: am I doing things for my children that they really should be doing themselves? I realized I was tidying Calvin's room every day, sometimes more than once. If he makes the mess, can't he clean it up?

So I've added to Calvin's list of responsibilities, which I wrote about back in October. He now is responsible for tidying up his room every morning.

I've walked through this process daily with Calvin over the past few weeks:

• Books don't belong on the floor. Put your books in your book box or on the shelf.
• Neither do clothes belong on the floor. Are they clean or dirty?
• Dirty clothes go in the laundry hamper.
• Hang clean shirts in the closet.
• Put clean pants, shorts, underwear, pajamas, and socks in the correct drawers.
• Close the dresser drawers.
• Close the closet door.
• Put your pillow and blankets on your bed (he's not to the point of actually making the bed, but this is a good first step).
• Look around. Did you do everything? Doesn't your room look good now?

I see some progress. Cleaning his room is now an expected part of our "morning jobs," and, for the most part, he has been doing it without grumbling.

Of course, I like his room to be clean. But I hope that I am instilling in him a sense of satisfaction from orderliness and a job well done.

I'm finding out that, yes, a three-year-old can clean his room, though teaching him how is tedious.

Poor Man's Pools

Girl Talk

Though this book may look like the chick-lit novels on the racks at Target, don't let the cover fool you.

Girl Talk: Mother-Daughter Conversations on Biblical Womanhood, by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre, is a significant book for women, specifically mothers and their pre-teen or teenage daughters.

It could be extremely helpful as well to youth workers, not only to pass on the content to teenage girls, but to gain a greater appreciation for the significant mother-daughter relationship and to encourage teenagers to "talk to Mom," as Mahaney and Whitacre like to say.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to making the mother-daughter relationship strong. The second part is all about carrying out a purposeful relationship, one that passes on the character qualities of biblical womanhood from mother to daughter. In doing this, they write, the gospel will "sparkle" in our lives. Topics discussed include communication, conflict, salvation, roles of men and women, friendship, courtship, true beauty, modesty, homemaking, good works, and marriage.

With book lists for further study, discussion questions, and a list of memory-making activities, Girl Talk could be just a starting point for years of fruitful discussions, reading, and memories.

Boys Play Rough

Check out this rough-housing:

This is the type of play we have daily! Boys are fun!

Cave Hill

I've been curious about Cave Hill Cemetery for months. I drive by it and around it often. It's hard to miss: 296 acres in the middle of Louisville.

Until today all I had ever seen were the miles of stone fence surrounding the cemetery along Grinstead Drive and Lexington Road.

But this morning, we took our family walk in the cemetery. Sounds strange, but it was fascinating and beautiful.

Walking through the cemetery was a history lesson, for sure. All the big names of Louisville history are buried at Cave Hill: Speed, Seelbach, Colonel Sanders, Gheens, Norton, Belknap, Boyce, Sampey, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., and many more.

We passed by the graves of Breckinridge, Henry Watterson, Zorn, Grinstead, Baxter. It seems every street in Louisville is buried here :)

Cave Hill is known as a "Garden Cemetery," and is in fact an arboretum, the only one in the city. The foliage this season is full with roses, peonies, Iris, and Japanese Maple. Probably many more exotic things, too, but I'm still at a basic level of plant appreciation.

Part of the grounds were used as a Civil War burial site. One section for Union solders; one section for Confederate soldiers.

The elaborate monuments are quite a sight, all in memory of wealthy and influential Louisvillians. Fountains, statues, obelisks, mausoleums with stain glass windows, elaborate family plot gardens. One monument was a life-like statue of a magician, his hand outstretched in invitation to his audience. To his side was a trunk with a cape draped over top. Many amazing works of art, really.

We didn't intend for the morning to be any more than a walk through a sort of outdoor museum. It turned, however, into a spiritual lesson when Calvin asked, "Mommy and Daddy, why do people have to die?"

We discussed with him Hebrews 9:27, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment."

What a profound question he asked us, and what an unexpected opportunity to once again share the gospel with him.

Ken's Summer Reading

Well, break is over...now I must begin studying and reading for summer classes. I have ten books to read this summer. I will also need to keep up with my Greek because I have one more Greek class in the Fall that builds upon the Greek class I just finished. Here is the list of books I will be reading this summer:

Baptists and the Bible by Russ Bush & Tom Nettles
Uneasy in Babylon by Barry Hankins
A Hill on Which to Die by Paul Pressler
The Baptist Reformation by Jerry Sutton
Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel by Eugene Merrill (who is also teaching the class, he is a godly, pastoral scholar, I took an exegesis course on the books of Judges and Ruth from him last summer)
The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
An Earnest Ministry by John Angell James
The New Guidebook for Pastors by James Bryant & Mac Brunson
Preaching & Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
It's Still Greek to Me by David Allan Black

Peonies

At our home in Minnesota, I planted a Sarah Bernhardt peony in the front flower bed. I never saw it bloom. We were always in Louisville for summer term classes, ironically, while the peonies were in bloom. (I did see pictures, thanks to my neighbor Mary, and they were gorgeous)

God always gives the most thoughtful gifts. Look what is blooming in our side yard ~

Peonies!