Early Summer in Texas

A bird perches in a leafy tree. Thanks to all of the rain we have had lately, everything is still green here.

Texas wildflowers are at the peak of their bloom. The center flower looks like Purple Horsemint.

A baby bird hides in Landon's hummingbird garden.

Giant sunflower.

Birds at one of the feeders.

Indian Blanket.

Pippin loves the mild weather and spends most of his days out of doors.

All photos by Landon

For Young Women

Some simple advice for you.

Found in My Inbox Today:

from my Mom

From the girltalk blog today - I really liked this quote from Nancy DeMoss:

*Finally, what in your opinion, is the most urgent need among Evangelical Christian women today?*
To know Christ—really know Him; to trust Him enough to obey Him; to love and enjoy Him—“Christ in you, the hope of glory”; to “own” the Gospel in its incredible, life-giving, transforming fullness and implications; to be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.

Just stopping by...

... To share some of my favorite finds from this week:

The New Attitude conference mP3 set for free.
Mark Dever, Al Mohler, John Piper, Eric Simmons, C.J. Mahaney, Josh Harris: all spoke on the topics of spiritual discernment and humble orthodoxy. You can only benefit...

For the single gals: Heather Koerner's 10 Things Now to Stay At Home Later

Londonistan Calling:
The London neighborhood of the author's youth, Finsbury Park, is now one of the breeding grounds for a new phenomenon: the British jihadist. How did a nation move from cricket and fish-and-chips to burkas and shoe-bombers in a single generation? Christopher Hitchens
(Yes, that Christopher Hitchens. I'm working through his debate with Doug Wilson over at Christianity Today.)

Everything Nancy Wilson posts on her blog.

R.C. Sproul, Jr. is writing a new book and allowing us to read as he writes. Very, very good.

The French Open. My brothers and I are eagerly anticipating a match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

I'm already shopping for knitting patterns for babies, as my brother and his wife are expecting their first child in December. I especially like this collection. I'm just waiting to find out whether I'm getting a niece or nephew...

Summer Plans...

I read this article when it first appeared on the BBC homepage back in April. I saved the link, hoping to revisit it when I had time. Now that teaching is wrapped up for the school year, I finally have time to catch up on reading, listening, and writing on subjects interesting to me.
Such as...
I want to read more about global warming. Not that I think we're all going to die from it, mind you. (This frenzied rush to save the world - Y2K flashback anyone? Just one example of media-induced, pointless panic...) I want to study Anti-Americanism and America's influence, good or bad, over the rest of the world. I want to catch up on world events. I want to read more about health and scientific discoveries. (Chocolate constituent better than fluoride?) I want to read more literature and history.

I really want to read this. Watch this. Knit this.

Summer just isn't long enough...

Come Take a Hike With Me

Yesterday I accompanied my mom, brother, sister, aunt and cousins on a hike through a local nature preserve. We didn't even try to explore all 20 miles of the preserve and just tackled the trail leading onto a lake island. A small journey, but a satisfying one.

Lexi gets started.

Cactus blooms.

A cardinal perches above us.

Cousins exploring and discovering.

Cone flowers.

Lovely, delicate blue flower.

Dragonflies were everywhere. One persistent fellow flew ahead of us for awhile. When we stopped, he buzzed around. When we walked on, he would stay just ahead of us.

More yellow cactus blossoms.

A lovely shade of purple.

Lake in the background. Some white plant in the foreground.

The lake.

Look closely - what can you see?
I see two little eyes looking at me.

The trumpet vines were in profuse bloom.

There were many butterflies flying around us, some of which were very colorful and the size of a large hand.

A caterpillar inching his way up.

More trumpet vine.

A tree in profuse, pink bloom.

All photos by LTS

Her Children Rise Up and Call Her Blessed...

Love you, Mom.

Newly On My Bookshelf

And Lifelines by Edith Schaeffer.

Good reading awaits...

Just In Case

Should you happen to meet Her Majesty this weekend during her visit to the US to commemorate Jamestown's 400th anniversary, here are a few helpful etiquette tips for you to remember...

The Virginia governor's office offered these etiquette tips for interacting with the Queen:

Protocol

• When first meeting the Queen, she should be addressed as "Your Majesty" and then "Ma'am" (rhymes with jam) thereafter. When departing, address her as "Your Majesty" again.

• By rank, the Duke of Edinburgh is lower than the Queen; thus he is addressed as "Your Royal Highness" (NOT Your Majesty, aka King). After first introductions, he should be addressed as "Sir" and when departing addressed as "Your Royal Highness" again.
  

• Whoever hosts the Queen is expected to walk beside the Royals and make introductions as required.
  

• At least in Britain, when the Queen stops eating, you stop as well.
  

• In general, there are no obligatory codes of behavior, especially in the U.S. -- as we do not recognize the Queen as our Head of Nation, etc.
  

• Bowing is not required of U.S. citizens; shaking hands is acceptable. In Great Britain and the Commonwealth states, men bow and women curtsy. Men bow their head only, dropping it from the neck. Women perform a small curtsy, placing the right foot behind the left heel and then slightly bending the knees. Handshakes also work in the Commonwealth.
  

Dress

• Members of The Royal Family do not wish anyone to be put to unnecessary expense by buying special clothes, hats or gloves. The following points may, however, be of use in answering queries:
  

• There is no requirement for hats to be worn, though it is entirely acceptable to do so. Hats are not normally worn at functions after 6:30 p.m.
  

• There is no requirement for gloves to be worn. However, if a woman wishes to wear gloves, they need not be white but should not be taken off before the wearer is presented.
  

• Where black tie and long evening dress are called for, cocktail dress, national dress and dark lounge suit are also acceptable.

On A Happier Note...

My brother and sister-in-law have some pretty exciting news.

VT: One Week Later

A week after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, I have so many thoughts and opinions to share, but very little time to write them out. Perhaps I will compile and edit my thoughts soon, but until then, I will simply post some articles that I found compelling and helpful during the days following the tragedy.

On our culture of passivity
Mark Steyn writes I haven’t weighed in yet on Virginia Tech — mainly because, in a saner world, it would not be the kind of incident one needed to have a partisan opinion on. But I was giving a couple of speeches in Minnesota yesterday and I was asked about it and found myself more and more disturbed by the tone of the coverage. Read the rest here.

Nathianel Blake wonders, Where Were the Men? and, just for asking, gets called the "worst person of the year"

Weighing in on the tragedy...
Doug Phillips:
Thousands will be deeply affected, probably for the rest of their lives. The most serious pains belong to the mothers, fathers, and sisters and brothers of the murdered victims. What shall we say to them? What are we to learn from these events? Read here.

Doug Wilson on VT and atheism:
Let's tie two timely issues together. This is sometimes dangerous, because when issues are timely, they are also frequently raw, and this means that it is easy to be misunderstood. But I will try to state this basic argument against atheism as briefly and as clearly as I can.
Read more.

Resources and Statistics
Desiring God posts helpful resources for those who want to know how to respond to tragedy.

Ligonier offers this month's Tabletalk online.

George Barna has some interesting, insightful statistics.

The BBC weighs in with their opinion on gun control. They try to be balanced, but still come off sounding as though we would be better off if we, like the UK, banned firearms altogether. Thankfully, they were honest enough to provide this statistic:
There are no recent statistics available but UN figures from 2000 showed for every 10,000 Americans, 0.3 were killed by firearms... In Switzerland where every man of military age is required to keep a gun at home as part of the country's civil defence policy, the number of deaths per 10,000 population was 0.05. (emphasis mine)

Abraham at the DesiringGod blog revisits Pearls Before Breakfast:

Here's a clarification: I don't think it was actually wrong to be one of those who walked past without the least interest. It's no more wrong to ignore Mr. Bell and his violin than it is to ignore an old man with a 3-string guitar playing bad covers of Bob Dylan. My point was to draw a comparison between Bell and God--both creating beauty and being disregarded. It is only immoral to ignore the beauty of the latter.

Read the rest here.

What If You Had Been There... ?

It was little more than a year ago that I had the incredible opportunity to see Joshua Bell in concert. It was very exciting for me to be able to see one of my favorite classical musicians perform in person. Better still, I sat front and center, only about 5 rows from the stage. He stood near the stage's edge, close to the crowds, and every move he made, every facial expression, even the sweat on his face was visible to me. It was a packed house that night and thunderous applause was sustained through several curtain calls and an encore. This is not surprising since this renowned, uber-talented violinist plays to crowded venues all over the world. Joshua Bell's cd's are good, but better still is it to hear him in person. It is music that is indescribable and leaves the audience breathless.

It was more than amazing, then, to read this Washington Post article about an experiment involving Joshua Bell that they staged in January with the famous artist. The article is long, but worth the reading time involved (it does contain some mild language). If you do nothing else, be sure to watch the videos that the Washington Post reporters took of the Avery Fisher winning artist performing to - not the crowds at the Carnegie, or the crowned heads of Europe, but- the bustling, rushing, working class crowds at the L'Enfant Plaza in D.C.

(I have condensed the article for those needing some background on the story before watching the videos)

At the top of the escalators are a shoeshine stand and a busy kiosk that sells newspapers, lottery tickets and a wallfull of magazines with titles such as Mammazons and Girls of Barely Legal. The skin mags move, but it's that lottery ticket dispenser that stays the busiest, with customers queuing up for Daily 6 lotto and Powerball and the ultimate suckers' bait, those pamphlets that sell random number combinations purporting to be "hot." They sell briskly. There's also a quick-check machine to slide in your lotto ticket, post-drawing, to see if you've won. Beneath it is a forlorn pile of crumpled slips.

On Friday, January 12, the people waiting in the lottery line looking for a long shot would get a lucky break -- a free, close-up ticket to a concert by one of the world's most famous musicians -- but only if they were of a mind to take note.

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

It was all videotaped by a hidden camera. You can play the recording once or 15 times, and it never gets any easier to watch. Try speeding it up, and it becomes one of those herky-jerky World War I-era silent newsreels. The people scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their hands, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim danse macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity.

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive until near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Department, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, but she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert at the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, sawing away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it.

Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She had a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in that spot until the end.

"It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa says. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"

When it was over, Furukawa introduced herself to Bell, and tossed in a twenty. Not counting that -- it was tainted by recognition -- the final haul for his 43 minutes of playing was $32.17. Yes, some people gave pennies.

What would you have done if you had been one of the 1,000 people who had passed Joshua Bell that day? It's a question that, if I am honest with myself, I am ashamed to answer.

Happy Resurrection Day!

How deep the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
And make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulder
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

© 1995 Kingsway's Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

The story behind the song here.
More Resurrection Day songs here.
My personal favorites here and here.

How did God take evil, despicable people like us and make us acceptable? By the most evil, despicable deed ever committed.

God reconciled sinners to himself through the blood of the cross. Murder is the extent of hatred—we cannot be farther from God than when we murdered him!—yet that is how he made peace with us. We can draw near to God because of the very act that pushed us the farthest away from him.

Read the rest here.

Conference Quotes

"We are living in a day when people are listening with their eyes and thinking with their feelings. We need to see through the eye…not with the eye.”

-Ravi Zacharias during a Q&A at Contending for the Truth

Friday Night Concert

Very unfortunately, I was unable to get pictures of the conference. I think the Ligonier photographers did a much better job than I ever could have done anyway, so I'm just going to point you to their site.

However, I did get a few pictures of the Friday evening concert featuring the Westminster Brass with John Catchings, cellist and Jennifer Velazquez, organist, also performing:

Relaxing at the Lexington

After a full, fun-filled day driving around Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, we headed back into Orlando to find our downtown hotel.

I loved my room's color scheme. Light blue walls, chocolate carpet and pillows, dark wood furniture and white/natural accents.

Fluffy towels and delightful bath accessories greeted us.

Florida Snapshots

We were driving and suddenly came onto this sign. We had no idea that we had run straight into Patrick Air Force Base.

Birds on the beach...

Cocoa Beach

Ashley and I headed to Florida last week to enjoy the Ligonier National Conference in Orlando. We flew in a day early since we had to be at the conference site early Thursday, and took the opportunity of visiting Cocoa Beach, the closest and least-crowded beach we could find. It was a cloudy and windy day, so the waves were very strong and beautiful.

Jane Austen Season on British TV