The Social Porcupine

Women are leaders in grace, conversation, and reconciliation. You know what odd combinations I love to see most in evangelical home churches? A woman fully living in her femininity, and yet quite not silent in church. It isn't that I wish to defy 1 Timothy 2:12, but that I understand sobriety isn't the absence of speech or the presence of silence. It's that I understand that the works of the Proverbs 31 women are so perfectly aimed the attention lands where she intends --her fine work, her husband, her community.  Several years ago, I attended a dance that demonstrated traditional femininity and masculinity through honor, sacrifice, respect, and romance. The oddest of statements was issued: women traditionally were the leaders of conversation in society. They hosted spaces for men to converse, and certain women were sought after for invitations  because the spaces they held invoked the best discourses. Arguably, these women weren't brazen or given to much de...

Genesis 22  (NIV)   Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.  Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”  Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.  On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.  He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”  Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,  Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Ye...

When I was happy the most hurtful thing someone told me was, “I want to like you, Keturah. But you’re always behind a facade of laughter and I can’t ever get to really know you.” When I was falling apart, the most hurtful thing someone told me was, “Keturah, stop dwelling on it. Just get over it.” Both times these things were said to me by people that I respected and loved as close friends. I didn’t think my laughter was a facade … humor is always how I’ve dealt with life. But because of that, I was unable to laugh for a long time. When I was consumed with grief, I was trying desperately not to drown. I wanted to get over it. But being told that, when I desperately needed a friend to let me talk and rant, did not help me get over it . Instead, I pulled deeper into my grief and had no release. (I want to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that I have a few VERY good friends that laugh at my weirdness and talk with me during my tears. They never condemn me for either, but...

I always considered myself a bookworm. I used to bring a book everywhere, reading every chance I had (such as in the car) . I lived in the world of fiction, breathing impossibilities and oblivious to what was around me. I loved the worlds outside of my own. I have also always been very extroverted; so, many people didn't actually see me reading. But it was still obvious to all that I loved books because of how much I spoke about them and how I always had some book to recommend. I'd ask people questions (get to know them) and then I'd know just what sort of books they'd like and should be reading. Some of the first books I remember reading are all the old Nancy Drew books (my dad gave me most of  his old copies, still treasure books of mine) and a small book called Caterpillar Green. This book is still special to me, and now as I try to learn German I have bought a German translation. But as time passed I did not want books to control me. They were wonderf...

Baby of my new Au Pair family. He thinks I gave him my phone, haha! In November I went to a Freikirche German church service with my first Au Pair family. I didn't understand most of the sermon ... and yet I got the gist of it, and enough of that to be inspired to write this post. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food —Hebrews 5:12 I think most of us are familiar with both the actual life concept and the analogy that those who are young need something that grows them, and those that have grown need something that sustains them toward strength.  Often, churches talk about this without really talking about it. What is the difference between the milk and the meat? And which is that one needs for themself? And how do you know it's time to be "weaned" from the milk and to start participating in a healthy, wholesome meal that only an adul...

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. 1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, younger ones, be subject to older ones, and all being subject to one another. Put on humility. For God resists proud ones, but He gives grace to the humble. St. Augustine of Hippo  ' Pride is the commencement of all sin' because it was this which overthrew the devil, from whom arose the origin of sin; and afterwards, when his malice and envy pursued man, who was yet standing in his uprightness, it subverted him in the same way in which he himself fell. For the serpent, in fact, only sought for the door of pride whereby to enter when he said, 'Ye shall be as gods.' C onfidence.  Are you confident?  Do you want to be confident?  Many of you will think, "Yes!"  Some of you will wonder and even say , "No. Pride is a sin."  A few of you will say, "I am."  A few of you will say, "Am I allo...

I've always written stories, and have almost always had the dream that everyone would love my stories. I had a rude awakening, though, when I became serious about my writing and started researching. It came like this:  "Know your audience ... it can't be everyone." " Stick to a genre, and be true to it ... you can't write everything. " "There will be people who hate your book. That's okay. It's not written for them."  "Know the market, know the books like yours. Your book is not unique." And so I was told to narrow my dreams to a niche of people. You can imagine how depressing that was for me.  For a time.  You see, all these book beliefs are centered around people's desire to be labeled . Humanity likes everything organized and defined. We like to make charts and statistics, to better source our income. Even as writers who say we write for God when it comes down to it, we allow ourselv...

We writers love words. Many of us love speaking these words aloud almost as much if not more than writing. That's because we have opinions - opinions we believe ought to be shared. Even to the point of friendly   discussion unless that's impossible because someone completely stupid won't understand . But sometimes we opinionated verbalists take a moment and realize we need to fuel our minds and stabilize our opinions with facts.   That's why, occasionally, we choose to listen . lis·ten ˈlis(ə)n verb 1. give one's attention to a sound. synonyms: hear , pay attention, be attentive,  attend ,  concentrate noun 1. an act of listening to something.                                                                       ...