Chickens, Part II

I've learned a lot about chickens in the last few weeks.  They are often classified as not too smart.  They will kick their food out of the dish, they will kick bedding into the water dish, sometimes they will shiver rather than go toward the heat lamp, and sometimes, you may have to gently put a chicken's beak in the water to get it to drink. 

This morning, while cleaning out one of the brooder compartments, one with chicks in it that we have had two full weeks now, I was impressed with how terrified these chicks are of me.  We have fed them, cleaned their bedding, provided fresh, clean water, and provided adequate heat as their feathers are growing in.  But they are still terrified to be held.  We are told that the more time a chick spends being held and in contact with humans, the tamer they will be as adult chickens around humans.

I suppose they don't know what is going on, for the most part, and are scared, wondering what I will do to them.  Yet it is a neat principle for us to understand: the more the contact, the more comfortable they become.  On the spiritual side, the more contact we have with God, through prayer and time in His Word, the more comfortable we are with Him.  As we learn and grow, the difficulties in life won't terrify us as they did before, because we'll trust God's hands.  We won't doubt His plan and how it is playing out in our lives, because we have become comfortable with His handling of us.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.   - Psalm 16:11

God's presence is terrifying to think of in terms of His holiness and righteousness, but when we understand His love, kindness, and care for us, His presence can be a source of joy in our lives.

Chickens!

No, I'm not calling names.  We have recently been working at raising chicks.  That will be my excuse of the day for not blogging for the last several weeks.  We are well into the process of raising chickens - a pretty, red coop in the side yard, a reinforced run for the chickens to roam in, and heat lamps in the brooder room full of 22 baby and not so baby chicks.  They range from a few days old, up to 4-5 weeks old at this point.  We have Cornish Rock (meat birds), Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Amberlinks, and some assorted birds that we are unsure of what they are as of yet. 

This far into the process, we have learned something.  Chickens are a lot of work!  Building the coop, preparing the brooders, cleaning the brooders, feeding and watering the chickens.  There has been plenty to do!  There hasn't been any complaints about all the work, as of yet.  The families love for the cute, cudly chickens, and my love for designing and building things have made the work light. 

We heard that chickens are easy to raise, and I guess in comparison, they are right.  Compared to children, chicks are low maintenance.  Compared to cows, they don't eat very much.  Compared to elephants, they don't soil their bedding much. 

Then I think of our Heavenly Father.  He not only provides for the chickens of the field (loose translation), and the flowers of the field, but He provides for us.  What a lot of work that must entail on a daily basis - but my God is up to the task, and has the love to mean that the work will not become a burden to him.

As you think of the work you have in caring for your responsibilities, remember the joy Our Heavenly Father has in caring for His responsibilities and smile, realizing that even though His burden is so great, He has promised to take all of our cares upon Him as well.

Humble yourselves therefore 

under the mighty hand of God, 

that he may exalt you in due time:

Casting all your care upon him; 

for he careth for you.- I Peter 5:6-7

When things look dark.

It has been a few weeks since a post.  That means that I've been a lazy blogger.  There has been plenty of lessons learned over the past 3-4 weeks, I just haven't sat down to put them into writing.  There have been a few discouragements, but, as always, I am amazed at the goodness of God in turning dark times into bright times.

Perhaps no where is that point made more clearly than the events that we celebrate this week.  Jesus was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death without actually being convicted.  Instead of passover being a time to celebrate God's deliverance, his disciples and followers were mourning his loss.  A three year 'ride' that they thought would propel them into leadership in Jesus' kingdom appeared to be brought to a screeching halt.  They probably felt a huge sense of loss - of Jesus, and maybe the loss of three years of their lives, their reputations, their dreams.

With God, darkness doesn't have to be the end.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, God can turn dark times in our lives into bright times as well.  It starts by turning the darkness of our sin into the brightness of Jesus' righteousness. 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

I John 1:9

Once we've taken that step, we find that the darkest that the world has to throw at us cannot hide the light of His glory from shining through in our lives.  I could give many examples from my own life, but if you've asked for forgiveness, you have plenty of your own, and if you haven't come to Jesus for forgiveness, you probably wouldn't believe me anyway.  

I hope as we approach "Good Friday" and Resurrection Sunday, that you are able to celebrate the light that God has shone into your life.

The Things We Get Used To . . .

Have you ever thought how easy it is to get used to things in our lives.  Bad habits can stack up like firewood when we get used to things that are not beneficial.  We get used to driving, instead of walking - even get used to finding the best parking space so we don't have to walk a few extra steps.  We get used to eating for pleasure rather than for nutrition and strength.  We get used to having what we want, when we want it.  We get used to things to the point of feeling we deserve them (affordable health care, nice cars, comfortable homes, 'good' food, high-speed Internet, phone service, cell service, cable/satellite tv, etc.)

How much work does it take to get 'used to' these things?  Very little - in fact, we kind of fall into these habits.

Yet how easy is it to get used to good habits?  Growing in our walk with the Lord, reading our Bibles, prayer,  loving our neighbors, helping those in need?  Why don't we 'fall' into these habits?

The things we get used to easily shows us the things that we value in life.  When we value comfort, convenience, and pleasure it is easy to fall into bad habits.  When we value growth, godliness, and spiritual things, it will be easy to fall into good habits.

Often we may struggle to conform our actions to what we desire them to be, but if we conform our hearts to value those things that God values, we will find it easy to follow through with proper actions.  I must confess that I often fall short in this area,  but as the blog says: "Moving on up" - I hope these thoughts help you (and me) to move on up today.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.- Luke 6:45

Lessons from a loaf of bread

I love to bake!  I think I pretty much always have.  My favorite things to bake has almost always been sweets: cookies, brownies, cakes, pies - anything sweet.  In an effort towards a more healthy lifestyle, we have been doing more baking of breads and bread products (bagels, pitas, rolls, buns, you name it!)  We have been using whole grain wheat and grinding it at home for over a month now, and have enjoyed the extra flavor of good homemade bread, and the knowledge that our bread was better for us.  This past week, we saw mention of the dangers of whole wheat flour - and an investigation has followed.  Phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors are present in whole grains and many suggest soaking grains to convert the phytic acid and neutralize the enzyme inhibitors.

After looking into various facts and points of view, we have decided that phytic acid is not a dangerous substance for most diets, and enzyme inhibitors are not dangerous when fresh fruits and vegetables are part of the diet.  At this point, you're probably wondering what my point is, this blog is not usually about baking.

In our investigation, we stumbled onto sourdough bread - a fermented starter that neutralizes phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, and food spoilage bacteria.  And the bacteria that causes the rising in the bread, even though killed in the baking process, gives added flavor and nutrients to the bread.  So for the last several days, we have had sourdough starter (named 'Fred') sitting on our counter.  Fred is a hearty guy, but fred needs something on a regular basis.  Fred needs to be fed.  Fred is healthy; his bacteria fight off food spoilage, kill of non-beneficial bacteria, and cause my bread to rise properly when preparing for baking.  Fred takes carbohydrates and gives off tiny CO2 bubbles that make light and fluffy loaves.  But in order to do that, Fred needs food - good food.  So every 12 hours on the counter (2-3 days in the fridge), I need to add more flour and water to Fred to keep him growing and protected.

Fred struck me this morning as a picture of our spiritual lives.  With proper feeding and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we grow healthily to fight off the attacks of sinful influences and spoilage that comes from wrong thoughts and actions.  With proper feeding, growth is evidenced in out lives and spreads easily to infect all areas of our lives.  But without proper feeding, just like Fred, we would cease to grow, and not have the strength to fight off unwanted influences and the spoilage that comes from them.

Fred likes to be fed twice a day, when is your next feeding?

"As newborn babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word, 

that ye may grow thereby:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 

- I Peter 2:2-3

Sheltering

It's always interesting to hear how some people talk about 'sheltered' kids in a way that makes it clear their disgust for the parents who shelter, and sympathy for the poor children being sheltered.  I suppose, at one time or another, I have made comments about someone living a sheltered life - because they didn't know what a tuna melt was, or was unaware of some piece of pop culture that I was familiar with.  Yet, everyone could be considered sheltered in that respect.  No one knows everything or has experienced every experience.  So the question is, what things should we experience?

If experience is your god - that is, if your list of experiences and knowledge is what is important to you, then any sheltering might seem to be bad, but is it?  Would such a person want to experience exposure to a desert climate with no water, or an arctic environment without proper protection?  Even for such a person, there is a limit to what they desire to experience.  Not many people would want to experience that which would harm or destroy them.

We have always sheltered my children.  We do not allow them to play in the street, we always attach them to their car seats, we keep the poisonous chemicals out of reach, and we have trained ourselves to avoid 'bad' words in our speech (stupid, dumb, idiot - in favor of biblical words like foolish and sinful).  Recently, we have stepped up our efforts in the sheltering area.

To some, it may seem like we are already overboard.  To others, they may wonder what took so long.  At any rate, we have seen that sheltering does not just apply to our children - it applies to our lives as well.  What message does it send to tell a child that "This is a show for mommy and daddy?"  It tells them that sinful words and behaviors are OK to watch when you are more mature.  Wouldn't it be better to show my children that sinful behaviors and words are less tolerable to a spiritually mature believer?  A healthy man who eats right and exercises cannot ingest poison without consequence 'better' than an out of shape couch potato.

For the last several years, I have enjoyed NASCAR races, and even real sporting events like football from time to time.  All  the time trying to tell my children that I find it unacceptable that their jobs require them to work on Sunday.  My children would 'play' sports and talk about sports as something they could do when they grow up.  Could a football player take a stand and not play in the Superbowl because it was on Sunday?  Would coaches agree to take on a player that would only play games that didn't fall on Sunday?  The long and short (mostly long) of it is that we have disconnected the antenna from our TV.  Even our favorite viewing of PBS is training our children to be entertained.  As I look at my goals for my children, I want them to be creative, to serve others, but most importantly, to put God first in their lives.  As I look at my goals for myself as a parent, I want to be a parent that spends time with my children, and interacts with them rather than entertains them.

So, we are simplifying.  But simplifying is not simple.  As you think of us (whether you agree or not), please pray that we would be diligent in seeking the best for our family and our children.  And if you want us to pray specifically for you, leave a comment and we'll be in prayer for you.  I'm looking up because my future is bright!

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Revelation 21:23

Standardized Testing

Ah, the joys of homeschooling!  As headmaster of the school, I am not responsible for the day to day teaching of our students.  I am, however, responsible for filling in, printing, and filing paperwork with our local school district.  Every year, we need to submit some form of evaluation of our children's progress.  This also is my responsibility.  For the last two years, we have used the Iowa tests, given in the spring to submit tangible proof of the education of our children to the district. 

The Iowa test is a battery of tests that are 'standardized'.  This means that grades are not computed on percent of answers right, but grades are computed based on where the student's score compares to other students in their age/grade level.  A child is then labeled by 'percentile' in each area of the test.  A child may score a 98%, meaning that they scored better than 98% of children at their grade level.  Standardized tests are nice because they show how well a child is progressing compared to their peers.

But a standardized test has it's drawbacks.  A standardized test has the drawback of only being useful in comparison to another person.  This works decently for education purposes, but it fails completely when it comes to our walk with God.  A standardized test grades on 'the curve': a normalized distribution of grades under a bell shaped curve.  In a normal distribution 68% of individuals fall within 1 standard deviation of the norm.  68% of people are characterized as average.

When we carry this over to our walk with God, it is easy to think that if we are average, we must be doing OK.  This would be the case if God's standard was the 'norm' - or the average of all behavior.  But God's standard is absolute holiness.  That means that the bell curve can be thrown out, because no matter where we fall compared to others, we fall far short of God's absolute standard. 

In school, there was at times pressure from some in a class for everyone to 'throw' a test.  If it was known that a test was graded on a curve, it was believed that if everyone did horribly bad, then everyone would get a good score.  I never knew this to work perfectly, because someone always did their best.  In that case, someone who only scored a 70% could get the highest grade in the class! 

Since God's standard is different, we ought to pressure one another to do better, we ought to rejoice in the spiritual victories of others.  They don't 'throw off the curve' for the rest of us, but as we grow together, we can encourage one another to press on towards God's holy standard.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

 - I Peter 1:15-16