It's an Allegory!

All year I have been trying to explain "allegory" to my Sunday School kids as we read The Pilgrim's Progress together. All year we've been working on "no, you probably won't literally meet Apollyon/get locked in a dungeon/go to Vanity Fair/whatever is happening". So far they seem to get it fairly well and can see the meanings behind the allegory.

And yet they are convinced that Christian and Faithful have to drown in the river because they have to die before they get to the Celestial City.

On Sunday Christian and Faithful will cross the river. My job will be to make the kids see that the river itself represents death, no matter how you actually die, and yes the characters are dead even though they didn't die in the river.

Also, no matter what happened in the movie, Christian and Faithful will not meet Apollyon in the river. I am gaining a deep dislike of that particular version of the story.

Sunday may be a challenge.

A Busy Weekend

Friday I headed out to roughly the middle of nowhere to visit with friends. Actually, I took the bus as far as I could and they picked me up for the rest of the drive. They have a lovely home and it's so beautiful out there. Mom, oldest daughter, and I went for a walk to see some of their property and I loved it. We chatted as she finished making supper and discovered more we had in common and that was nice.

After supper we all headed back into town for soccer. It's mostly church kids and there are teams from the little ones all clumped together chasing the ball wherever it goes to the high school kids who actually (mostly) know how to play. I watched part of 5 different games and cheered for everyone.

Saturday was the woman's spring brunch at the church. There were over 100 ladies present. We had fun talking and eating and then listening to the leaders answer questions about topics including friendship, confronting sin, and how to make your home welcoming. Also, there were new pens!

Sunday was the regular routine of church and Sunday School (and I don't say "routine" like it's anything boring or mundane, just that it's a regular thing, one that I enjoy greatly). Then I hurried home, dropped stuff off, picked stuff up, and raced out the door to catch the bus to downtown. There I met a couple small people in my life for our outing to the symphony. My young friends are around 8 and 9 years old and loved the symphony for kids; it was about the history of music, told with a lot of joking, fun, and brass instruments. After that, we took the train and bus back to my house (public transportation is part of the fun for them) and ordered cheeseburgers, fries, and ice cream for supper.

It was a full, busy weekend, and I'm very glad for a quiet day! It was also a wonderful, fun weekend, and I'm very glad that I got to enjoy it!

A Sunny Day

It's been grey and wet this week, and I'm glad of it because we need the rain. Today, though (right now at least) the sun is out. And, bonus, I'm free to enjoy it! 

Right now I have the windows open to let in light and fresh air. 

I started putting the plants outside and getting the planters ready for more plants. I need more dirt for the planters (although I guess that depends on how much I want to plant this year). My entire garden is on my balcony, but that doesn't stop me from planting tomatoes, onions, sunflowers, bulbs, flowers, and whatever else looks good this year.

It smells good outside and the birds are singing away. The trees are still in "early leaf" stage but are getting fuller and the grass is green.

I'm heading out later to go to the library and maybe for a nice walk at the same time.

Tomorrow the weather report says "more rain" and that is still good; we need rain to make everything grow. 

For right now, though, I'm enjoying the sunny day.

Sunday Stuff

We are so close to getting Christian to the Celestial City! Our entire Sunday School year has been based around "Will he make it to the Celestial City by the end of the year or will he be stuck on the other side of the river (or worse, in the river)? I'm pleased to say that we are on track to finish the book and have week for review and a celebration.

This week's class was interesting because it was Christian and Hopeful's second encounter with Ignorance, when they discussed false assurance and what really makes someone a Christian. They also talked about how Ignorance expects God to justify his works, not him. He holds to a works  + grace salvation, not a "through Christ alone" salvation. I pause sometimes as I read to make sure they're tracking with me and understand the content, and this week I could see some of them thinking hard about what they were hearing. My prayer always is that God will work in their hearts and that they will see the truth and believe and be saved.

James finished Romans 13, preaching verses 11-14. I found myself convicted (again) about things that I am holding to that are not necessarily sins but that are, as Hebrews 12:1 says, encumbrances, those things that I know I need to give up because they are interfering my walk. For me they tend to be reading and viewing time-wasters that aren't bad but also aren't edifying. So again I had to confess and put off things and realign my life and mind. It's hard because they seem like harmless amusements, but they tend to take over my time, keeping me from doing more worthy things; it's also very easy to justify reading and watching things when they just start to glorify sin because it's become a habit.

The evening was fun; a group of us got together to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday. There was good conversation, good food, and good friends. There was also a sweet baby to amuse us! It had everything I could want in a gathering.

It was a very good Sunday.

Do More Better: A review of sorts

In my on-going quest for an organized life, I just read Do More Better by Tim Challies. To be honest, I started it during my outrageously busy time, then realized that I did not have time to implement ideas, and finally finished it this week!

I like the book. Challies starts with "why" we need to do more better: for God's glory. And what is "better": to do good for the glory of God and the benefit of others. He defines productivity as "effectively stewarding your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm of the good of others and the glory of God." I work much better with a purpose and one that makes sense to me.

I'll be upfront with you: I am not implementing everything he suggested the way he suggested it. My life doesn't quite fit into nice categories simply because of the mix of "somewhat busy", "wildly busy", and "fairly quiet" months, and what works well for one month might not work for the rest. Also, Challies is very much a tech guy and I still prefer taking notes on paper and using my paper agenda. Just as with Redeeming Productivity by Regan Rose (see here for my review of his book), I read everything, started up things that I could see would help me, and will go from there. In fact, I'm now using my own system built from pieces of both books.

What did I find very helpful? 

First, listing my areas of responsibility and breaking down what each one actually looks like. That gave me the opportunity to decide if I wanted to keep being responsible for all the tasks, if I was missing anything, and what to do about it.

Second, despite my desire for non-tech methods, I did download a task tracking program (a free one, at least to start). I have all of my current and summer responsibilities set up and I can see what needs to be done. I have a number of lists for this week, upcoming, regular items, and long-term plans, some of which are broken down into many steps; for example, there are 31 different tasks under "Sunday School Fall Prep"! It's a good system and I can add things as I think of them so I don't have to worry about forgetting things.

I suspect that someone who has a different sort of work and life schedule than mine might benefit more from this book. That said, I'm glad I read it and found some help in getting things more organized so I can be more productive for God's glory and the good of others.

April

April is a very, very busy month for me and flew by, so I'm not sure I remember it all that well!

I know there was a bridal shower for one of the lovely young ladies at the church. Her wedding is unfortunately the same weekend as my sweet nephew's wedding, and since his is in B.C., I can't make it to both (and sweet nephew's wins).

I had 21 facilitator meetings, and had to rebook 4 more meetings for various reasons (e.g., illness, family emergency). 

I taught Sunday School each week (Christian and Hopeful got away from Giant Despair and met Ignorance and are well on their way to the Celestial City; I think we're on track to get there by the end of Sunday School in June).

On Wednesdays mornings, I read to some homeschool kids and played trivia games with others. In the afternoons, I taught history class.

Tuesdays are for tutoring; in the morning I have some on-line kids for writing, and in the afternoon I have a family of three for reading, math, games, country studies, and crafts.

I took Easter Monday as a day completely off. I spent the afternoon watching The Great Escape and Chicken Run (The Great Escape, but with chickens) and working on nephew's wedding present. Just a day of total rest helped a lot.

I enjoyed most of the everything happening in April; it just seems so very busy. There are only a couple more weeks of very busy and then things will slow down and I can start looking at the "things to do this summer" list!