Keeping Up Appearances

I have been challenged this summer in a Bible study I've been attending about keeping up appearances. It is easy to do that, isn't it? We go to work and put on the appearance of being very professional, we go to church and put on the appearance of being very spiritual, and we homeschool and put on the appearance with our fellow homeschool friends of teaching our kids a wide variety of subjects, including Latin, all while they are sitting at the table quietly, with clean faces and their hair nicely combed.

I until very recently thought appearances were pretty important, especially when going to church. Except for Amy, who is now 13, and old enough to decide for herself, I required that my girls dress nicely for church - it didn't have to be in a dress, but certainly no jeans or t-shirts. And tennis shoes? Well, not unless it is raining!

But through conversation with the gals in my group, one in particular, I have been challenged in this area. If you asked me why I had my kids dress up for church, I would say it is to show respect to God. And I do believe our God is a holy God and certainly worthy of our respect, and that to dress up when we go to corporately worship Him is a very small sacrifice.

However, the Bible says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So even if my girls are dressed nicely for church to please mom, but their heart isn't pleasing him, what do I have? Just well-dressed young ladies. How much am I concerned with where their heart is on Sunday mornings, and every morning of the week?

After consideration, I think that I am not going to have nearly as much of a say with what my kids wear to church. I need to be first and foremost concerned with where their hearts are with the Lord. I still personally believe it is nice to dress up to go to church. I like to honor God in that small way. And I do hope that by my example, the girls will choose to dress a little nicer to go to church too.

But my goal is to have kids that are authentic for Christ, not little Pharisees that on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are like white washed tombs, full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (Mtt. 23:27) The older my girls get, the more I see that their heart, their heart is what matters, and that is the most important area to work on.

Why is Creationism Assumed to be Non-Scientific?

After reading in today's editorial section of the Dallas Morning News about how "intelligent design is a religious and not a scientific alternative to Darwinian evolution", I shake my head and sigh. I think evolutionists think we Christians just blindly believe that God created the earth without seeing any evidence for it. But that is the point - there is LOTS of evidence that God created the universe.

The more that is discovered by looking at the fossil record, geology formations made by catastrophic means (think Mt. St. Helen's), the more there is evidence that indeed God, and not chance formed the world. And it just makes so much more sense. There is still no evidence in a complete fossil record that plants and/or animals have slowly changed over the years from one kind to another either. I think evolution takes a lot more faith than creation.

Some resources I have enjoyed reading are Answers magazine, The Geology Book by Dr. John Morris, Footprints in the Ash by Morris and Austin, and It Couldn't Just Happen by Lawrence Richards.

The "cost" of generosity

This afternoon my 7 yo daughter wanted to go buy a gift for her hard-working daddy. The plus is that a new Wal-Mart opened just a couple of miles away from us. We didn't have any grocery stores within 5 miles of us until the Wal-Mart opened. Yes, I am one of those spoiled people that lives barely in the country, but still very close to suburbia.

The minus is that I already had some things going on and didn't really want to go. I had just gone grocery shopping, so there was nothing in it for me. Selfish me.

Well, I decide to go, just because I love my daughter. I tried to tell her that Daddy would be just as happy with a card, but she wanted to buy him gum. She is willing to spend some of her hard-earned money (she doesn't have much of an income) to please her father, even though it means she will have to wait a little longer to buy a Webkinz. So off we go. Since we were going, I went ahead and decided to pick up a couple of things to go with dinner.

Once in the store, we need to find the long packs of gum - you know, the Wrigley's gum that comes in a long wrapper with 10 to a package. I mentioned that Daddy would be fine with one big pack. Nope, gotta have the 10 pack. We found one with 5 packages of gum - wouldn't do. So we head to the candy aisle where we find the coveted 10 pack.

She wants to pay first, so she takes her thrice folded $10 bill out and gives it to the cashier, I buy my groceries, and we get home not 20 minutes after leaving. I am so glad I took that small amount of time out of my schedule so my little girl can honor her daddy's hard work. He now has a several week supply of Doublemint, thanks to my daughter's generosity. Why I don't seize opportunities like this, I don't know. It was such a little sacrifice, the cost of my time, but it meant so much to my daughter.

And generosity has its benefits - Rebecca asked her Daddy a little later if she could have a couple of pieces of gum. :-)