One new blog

I have been, as you know, streamlining all three of my blogs into one. I decided to stick with the name, "the way I say" because all three blogs can be combined under that title and still make sense.

The original blog, bringing up daniels, began when I started getting questions from friends on raising kids through biblical, common sense parenting. I found such a hungry audience that it encouraged me to keep going. Many gracious people have kept me going on this. Thank you for also teaching me many things.

I have always been interested in stimulating my sister's in Christ to spiritual growth and in return being challenged by them. Sister got slapped was born out of this blessed interaction.

Then I found I had no place to put things like poems, song lyrics, quotes and otherwise good-feelings-causing inspirations and/or things that cause outrage in me (videos, pictures etc.) So I created, the way i say.

It became chaos! I started spreading like a disease, and taking up too much space on the Internet. Simplifying things became a necessity.

All new blog posts, on the way i say, will be categorized according to what the old blogs were called. For example when I post about raising kids it will be labeled bringing up daniels: then the title of the post. The same with sister got slapped: and The way I say.

For those who have been so kind to even read my ramblings, I hope this makes it easier for you. Thanks for your patience,

Amy

The triple combo...coming soon

It has been suggested to me that I combine my three blogs into one big mega blog. I have decided to do that to have mercy on those who faithfully check my latest posts.
I am working on a new blog to replace Bringing up Daniels, Sister got Slapped and The way I say. I will leave my original blogs up for a few months with a link to my new one before closing them out. More information to come. Please feel free to comment on this blog or the other two until it no longer appears online. Thanks for all of the encouragement you have given me.

The 2nd annual CareHouse Garage Sale

Every year some high school and middle school students from Racine Bible church hold a garage sale to benefit homeless teens. They work hard and have a ton of fun. By the third day, everyone is pretty wiped. It has become a tradition to make a video. Here it is. Have fun.

This should enrage you

The following is taken from Dr. Albert Mohler's blog today.

A recent court decision in Canada should send chills down every parent's spine. The ruling is so out of bounds that the news story sounds like a parody -- but it isn't. A Canadian judge ruled that a 12-year-old girl was "excessively" punished when her father told her she could not go on a school camping trip because she had broken rules for use of the Internet.
As the Globe and Mail [Toronto] reports:
First, the father banned his 12-year-old daughter from going online after she posted photos of herself on a dating site. Then she allegedly had a row with her stepmother, so the father said his girl couldn't go on a school trip.
The girl took the matter to the court - and won what lawyers say was an unprecedented judgment.
Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled on Friday that the father couldn't discipline his daughter by barring her from the school trip.
This judge needs to be grounded and sent to her room. A 12-year-old girl violated rules and disobeyed her father. The rules, by the way, were intended to protect the girl from endangering herself on the Internet. In posting pictures of herself on the Internet -- on a dating site, for crying out loud -- she defied her father and his authority. After going to the court, she got away with it.
For years, we have been warned that the courts were poised to usurp parental authority. We have seen chilling judicial precedents and the encroaching reach of bureaucrats and government agents. Warnings were offered by prophets like Philip Reiff and Christopher Lasch, who saw the family being stripped of its functions and replaced by an army of eager agents. Parents are supplanted by professionals who are "experts" in raising other people's children.
The Canadian case is among the most chilling yet. The father is appealing the decision, even though the girl has already gone on the camping trip. The family is involved in a difficult divorce situation, but the father was granted custody. Gladly, outrage over the judge's ruling is building in Canada.
Lorne Gunter of Canada's National Post described the ruling as "sputteringly enraging." The Canadian blogosphere has taken notice, as are parents.
Gunter drew particular attention to the fact that the girl's attorney explained that she took the case to court because it involved the school trip, "For me that was really important."
Gunter responded:
"For me that was really important." So what? Just who are you? Are you the kid's parent? Are you a relative of any sort? No? So why, then, does your opinion matter? And if it does matter, how is court action appropriate? At most, even if you are a close relative, you are limited to calling up the dad and expressing your view that his punishment is over-the-top.
Ms. Fortin insists that while court was a last resort, the situation called for it: "This was not a question of going to the movies or not, or going online or not -- because obviously, I wouldn't have intervened in that."
Just how is that obvious? It should have been obvious that you don't go to court over missing the camping trip, either, but that doesn't seem to have dawned on Ms. Fortin. She called the trip a rite of passage. What will be the rite next time, a missed sleepover, her first out-of-town volleyball tournament with the school team?
The logic of this ruling is not limited to Canada. In 1970, Hillary Rodham, then a young lawyer (and later Sen. Hillary Clinton), wrote a law review article, "Children Under the Law," in which she argued that minors should be treated as "child citizens" who should, under at least some conditions, be able to challenge their parents in court over parental decisions.
This father may win his appeal -- we must hope that he does -- but the damage is already done. This 12-year-old girl has defied her father and been rewarded by a secular court. The judge and the court have now become complicit in the girl's disobedience. This father has had his rights as father denied and his authority undermined. We can only imagine the costs of this judicial malpractice in the life of this girl and her family. Beyond this, the precedent is now set for further judicial mischief.
America's parents had better look north and take notice. This judicial atrocity hits very close to home.

It is finished

I have been doing a study of the completeness of Christ's work for our salvation. I am overwhelmed by His grace. I posted just a small list of verses on thewayisay. Just reading through them with the thought in mind, that Christ has completed all of this for me, makes me want to glorify Him more. Check it out if you want to.

Quit eating your lists

My kids are kids. Are yours? Do you make chore lists? Some days I think that list is just an exercise in futility. But it doesn't have to be. It can be a reminder. Solving problems with a list of dos and don'ts can only point to how little they can really accomplish without certain swift and effective prodding from me, my hands helping, and my mouth instructing. In a nutshell, they need me.

(Here's the "so it is") And so it is with the law.

Fulfilling the law of God will not get you closer to having obtained what Christ has already purchased. It is yours and mine if we believe. There is certain great motivation toward holiness in that.

Abstaining from a long list of don'ts will not make us spiritually mature. Being with Him just has that effect if we are truly with Him. I don't think I could bring myself to say "Jesus, I just don't need ya today, I've got my list," anymore than I could say, "Hey Spence, I'm giving you a rain check on that romantic date. I'd like to curl up with this marriage book"

You can't supplant people with lists. They are not good substitutes. For one, they can't hold you or wipe away your tears. Lists don't make promises. They are not deeply committed to your joy and they do not carry you home. I have never met a list that has tasted good.

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!" I think I'll stick with the bread of heaven.

Habitat for Humanity did the right thing

They abandoned the plan.
This is a victory.

The Sum of all things

Oh to count the many blessings to be found in not getting what we want when we want it. How blessed is the son who goes without? Giving is such a wonderful thing. Withholding is also. Have you seen the result of having and going without in your own heart? Have you seen it in your kids?

Like the rich young ruler, I have slumped away from the Lord is disappointment because I was expected to give up what I wanted in order to gain that which would truly satisfy me. This is how we walk by sight and not by faith.

I see, I want, I think I need.

I get, I have, I know I'm entitled.

I deserve, I crave, I idolize.

I stop wanting Christ.

Someone I met recently, told me she doesn't think she can bring herself to try to have children because she can't afford child care. See where this is going? I asked her if she could stay home. She said she and her husband would have to change their entire lifestyle, downsize their home and sell their car etc.

Exactly. You could have a person, but you'd have to give up your things.

The kid who pitches a fit in the grocery store (there is always at least one) thinks the water gun, or whatever toy he's screaming about, will satisfy him more than his daily bread until it's time to eat. Then he wants food.

And I have become so very entitled to all that I am accustomed to having. When I am inconvenienced by the lack of some small luxury, I well up with ingratitude and reject the very thing that is best for me, which is to have nothing at that moment but Christ.

Limiting our children to a very few things can made them better. They can be smarter (books instead of game systems), more creative (they build swings and invent games), more physically fit (they run outside and climb trees), They talk more and enjoy people more than things. They can be less selfish if they are used to giving things up for others. They do not expect something every time we go some where. They say thank you for the little things.

It is exactly the same for me as it is for them.
When I limit myself, I am happier, less distracted, more content.

So, in counting my blessings, I am so unimaginably ahead, that it is a pitiful joke to list what is in the corner of things I've lost.

In the "what-I've-lost corner": stuff.

In my corner: My most wonderful husband, our children (eternal souls), the privilege of shaping them and watching them change the world, eternal life, love, joy, peace, and every fruit of the Spirit, hope, deep satisfaction, unspeakable happiness (yes, better circumstances and happenings in my life), sharpening and unconditional love for and from other believers in Christ's body etc. If we can imagine this list stretching on to count the eternal attributes of God, we can start to maybe begin to fathom the magnitude of all we gain and how little we've lost.

And it's all because of the One thing, the one Person I have counted all things as loss for, Christ.

"...that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in
the heavens and things upon the earth."

Scripture quoted above:
Eph.1:10