Happy Birthday, Marilyn

Today is my mother-in-law Marilyn's 83rd birthday. We celebrated with a hike at the Audubon Center in Santa Fe, and Chinese food for lunch. And tonight we'll have cake and gifts.

Happy birthday, Marilyn!

The domains of grace...

"If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."
--Galatians 5:18

We who looks at his own character and position from a legal point of view, will not only despair when he comes to the end of his reckoning, but if he be a wise man he will despair at the beginning; for if we are to be judged on the footing of the law, there shall no flesh living be justified. How blessed to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law!
~C. H. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, September 6

Ben: update on the poor fellow

Well, Ben's horrible week continues...

The car remains unfixed, though they have replaced everything they planned on replacing. More diagnostics to follow next week.

The jury duty finished in one day (on Thursday all day.) It was a terrible trial, dismissed for lack of evidence, and left Ben pretty stressed out.

Last night he dropped his cell phone, and it completely broke in half and now has no audio.

This morning he went to the bus stop to catch the bus for campus to take his comps. The bus never came. NEVER! He eventually did catch a bus that could get him there, but he was VERY late for the test. He explained everything to the Prof giving the test, who realized that Ben has really had a rough week of it. They had already arranged another time for Ben to take the test in case his jury duty wasn't over, and so they agreed to meet then and he'll take it then. I haven't yet made contact with him, so I'm not sure when that is. This is all through his little bro, Tim, who managed to talk to him.

These are the times when God seems to shine strong in our weakness. Please pray that Ben would trust Him in the midst of all these reminders that Ben is not ultimately in control, that all would be well, and that, even though he is an adult and 25 years old, his momma could stop worrying about him and feeling heart-broken for him!

Training up human beings

The new school year begins for me this coming week, and I've been gearing up. A few excellent resources I've run across lately have helped me get my mind focused on the work ahead.

There is an excellent essay by George Grant here. I plan to share this with my students at the beginning of our first class together. He says in part:

Arthur Quiller-Couch, the mentor of a host of literary luminaries including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Maurice Baring, and Dorothy Sayers once described what we have received in this fashion, “You are indeed the heirs of a remarkable legacy--a legacy that has passed into your hands after no little tumult and travail; a legacy that is the happy result of sacrificial human relations, no less than of stupendous human achievements; a legacy that demands of you a lifetime of vigilance and diligence so that you may in turn pass the fruits of Christian civilization on to succeeding generations. This is the essence of the biblical view, the covenantal view, and the classical view of education. This is the great legacy of truth which you are now the chief beneficiaries.”

I'm hoping that will help provide motivation for self-learning this year! I've also just read an excellent article by Jeff Baldwin on the Socratic method of teaching and why it's important. You can read the whole thing here, but he says in part:

But ultimately we want to train up human beings, not parrots. Although the passive approach to education is challenging at the grammar stage, it invites laziness in the logic and rhetoric stages. Students need only parrot in the grammar stage, but as we become adults we need to learn to learn for ourselves. In essence, that’s what education is. “For the sole true end of education is simply this” writes Dorothy Sayers: “to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.” The best minds are not the minds that have absorbed the most facts—the best minds are the minds that can identify and own truth, incorporating that truth into their lives.

What’s being said here is not radical. Any Christian parent, given a moment’s reflection, would agree that the ultimate purpose of education is to train the student to own his Christian faith for himself—that is, to think and live like Jesus Christ.

This dove-tails nicely with a short post I read yesterday from Randy Greenwald here. indoctrination, indeed!

And if you are reading this post on Saturday morning or early afternoon, Gentle Reader, would you please pray for my ds Ben, who is even now sitting in his PhD comprehensive exam in Greek Literature? The jury duty is over, the car is still not fixed, and yesterday he dropped and broke his cell phone. It's been some week for him. Please pray for his focus and success. I am sure God has his own training rpogram going for Ben. Thanks!

Providence leads to gratitude...

…[P]rovidence is our comfort in life. It is not our guide. Our guide is God’s law. God requires of us only what He commands, Calvin says in Book I, chapter 17, section 5. So, you do what you believe God is instructing you to do through His word and then you take comfort in the fact that God is in control of all things. Calvin says that providence leads us to gratitude of mind for the favorable outcome of things.
~David Calhoun, Lectures on Calvin’s Institutes (Lecture #6), Covenant Seminary (http://www.worldwide-classroom.com/courses/info/ch523/)

A loaded week for Ben

Gentle Readers, please pray for my eldest son, Ben, this week. He's had a rough day.

Ben and Elsa's car has been in the shop for several days, and today he got news that there are more parts needed and more days needed to get the parts. It is their only vehicle, and it is an expensive fix for a fuel pump, hoses, etc.

He received this call while being interviewed for jury selection, and he was selected. They would not excuse him because of his classes, or because of his PhD Greek comps scheduled for this Friday. So he HAS to serve, and the trial starts tomorrow. Please pray for the Classics department to be as understanding as the bailiff said they had to be, and help Ben rearrange all his responsibilities for the duration of the trial. Also, please pray for him to be wise, discerning and just in hearing the evidence and rendering a verdict in whatever type of case comes before him.

And lastly, his dear wife leaves on a trip to Alaska tomorrow for the wedding of a dear friend. Ben already couldn't go because of his comps. So he will be a bachelor for the rest of this week on top of it all! Pray for safe travels for Elsa, and a wonderful time with friends.

Thanks for your prayers, Gentle Reader! The boy needs them!

Teaching...learning

Today I am organizing in earnest for classes to begin next week. I am printing out cover sheets, making class lists and calendars, organizing notebooks and working on lesson plans. I love these sorts of things: new notebooks with tabbed dividers, lovely colored pens and fresh notebook paper, the smell of roasting chiles and Fall in the air! Out in my kitchen, 10 pints of canned apple slices in cider syrup are cooling, and I am turning to teaching prep for the rest of the afternoon (or at least until nap time!)

If you are interested in what I am up to, Gentle Reader, you can check out my updated pages at Mrs. Finnegan's Fellows. I am looking forward to all I will learn this year!

"You teach best what you most need to learn."
~Richard David Bach