day no. 17,390: the first shall be sassed

Proverbs 18:17

The one who states his case first seems right, 

until the other comes and examines him.

The one who quotes Proverbs 18:17 first seems to have the moral high ground...

day no. 17,370: talebearers

Proverbs 11:13

A talebearer revealeth secrets: 

but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Talebearers call you with news; witnesses are called upon to report.

A false witness tries to report first; a faithful witness wants to report accurately.

A talebearer shares other people's sins; a faithful spirit looks to cover them.

day no. 17,337: desperate is dangerous

Proverbs 27:7

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb;

but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Desperate is dangerous.

Desperate people are in danger of devouring poison.

Contented people are in danger of being devoured by desperate people, if they're not careful.

Do not get too close to someone who needs closeness too much.

Do not confide in someone who needs to be needed too much.

Do not give attention to someone who needs attention too much.

Desperate people are a danger to themselves and others.

"For you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." — St. Augustine

Restless hearts will give you no rest if you get mixed up with them. Until they find Christ, they are not safe. They are like a drowning victim who will take down anyone who tries to help them. Unless Jesus saves their lives, they will drown and they will drown anyone else who gets too close to them.

day no. 17,054: beggers and choosers

Proverbs 20:4

The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; 

Therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

Some excuses are more convenient than others, but none of them can cover the bill when it comes due. It may really be cold, but that fact won't warm you when the heating bill is due. If you beg your pardon during planting season you will have to beg from someone who did not. If everyone took advantage of the same excuses, there would be no one left to beg. Some people felt the cold, but plowed ahead in hope.

“Sometimes it might really be cold. Sometimes there are obstacles that the industrious experience as well, but they push through. For them, the glad fruition of harvest is on the other side of not giving up. Confronted with a genuine obstacle, the heart of the sluggard is greatly encouraged because he won’t have to come up with an excuse that was manifestly ridiculous. But as the proverb indicates, the one thing the excuse won’t be able to do is put food on the table when the time of harvest comes.” — Douglas Wilson, The Rubbery Bones of the Lazy

Men do not make excuses, they take responsibility. The sluggard looks for excuses. When they are easy to find, the lazy man rejoices for his work is made all the easier. But when the excuses are hard to come by, the ne'er-do-well works hard to find one. Thus, the lazy man demonstrates that he has the ability to do hard things, but only when they get him out of what he perceives to be harder things. He would rater be up all night working hard on an excuse than up early working hard at his assigned task.

Excuse farmers can squeeze blood from a turnip, but they can't draw responsibility from their bones. They hunt and gather plausible deniability like a skilled hunter and have no meat or clothing to show for all their efforts.

day no. 17,009: the twins turn ONE

Happy Birthdays, Knox and Eulalei!!!

It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that it has been a full year since you were born. It is still hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are two of you. What a blessing you both are! We knew we were expecting our ninth child, but we did not expect a tenth. We knew what to expect for labor and delivery, but did not expect to do it all twice in the same day. God is kind and has good things in store for us. You both are living proof of that. He gives more than we can ask for and lavishes grace upon grace. That is you two: grace upon grace.

Knox, you are the butteriest boy. You were the firstborn. You came out soft and quiet and you've stayed the same ever since. You are the happy donut. You were the first to sit up, but will be the second to crawl. You like to do Tarzan and ET phone home, but you also like to just sit and watch people. You eat right handed and use your hand like a paw to shovel scraps into your mouth. You like shaking your head back n forth. You have the sweetest smile and big dimples on your cheeks. You don't talk a ton, but when you do, you have a sweet little voice. You are a sweet boy and I love you so much. You are so fun to cuddle. You don't fight it and you are so soft and warm and fuzzy.

Eulalie, you are the beaniest babe. You were the surprise sister. You came second and have held your legs in a state of constant shock ever since. You may have the silver medal in birth order, but you have the gold medal for leg flexing. You are always moving and usually smiling. You were the second to sit up, but the first to crawl around. You like to boot scoot and boogie around. You like it when people say, "winner, winner, chicken, dinner" and bob your head when the dinner music drops. You eat left-handed and get most of your dinner down your shirt or in your highchair. When you grin, whch is often, it is from ear to ear. You like to milk the cow as your way of saying "Hi" or "Bye." You don't like to cuddle as much as you like to stand. You are so much fun and I love you so much.

You are both well-loved and well-liked. Your siblings are always fighting over who gets to hold you. You will never know a time where you were not VERY loved from every angle. We have had you surrounded since day one. I am excited to watch you both grow up and into the people God has made you to be. 

Happy Birthday bubs and beans, 

Love,

Dad 

day no. 16,977: thin soup with people you love is better than thick steak with people you hate

Proverbs 15:16-17

Better is little with the fear of the Lord

than great treasure and trouble therewith.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,

than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Better to have thin soup with people you love than thick steak with people you hate.

Proverbs 17:1

Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith,

than an house full of sacrifices with strife.

Better to have some stale bread with brothers than a battle over bounty.

Ecclesiastes 4:6

Better is an handful with quietness,

than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.  

Better to have less stress in one hand than more drama than you can handle.

Psalm 37:16

A little that a righteous man hath

is better than the riches of many wicked.

Better to have nothing but righteousness than all the wickedness you want.

In short, the quality of the company is more important than quality of the cooking, but the best of both worlds is good fellowship over a good feast. If you have to choose, pick better people over better provisions, but if possible, create a community that includes great characters having grand celebrations.

day no. 16,909: hungry and thirsty

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

The hungry do not complain about being compelled to eat again.

The thirsty do not complain about having to take another drink.

day no. 16,784: the mess of blessing is the best problem to have

Proverbs 14:4

Where no oxen are, the crib is clean:

but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Plowing with oxen makes for larger harvests. The livestock barns are messier, but the harvest barns are bursting.

The mess of blessing is the best problem to have.

Everything has problems. The clean crib is an empty crib. The occupied crib comes with dirty diapers. While problems are inescapable, some problems are better than others. In other words, everything costs something, but somethings cost too much. Barrenness is too much to pay for cleanliness. Sterility is not worth paying for peace and quiet. Self-imposed infertility is too much to give up to gain self-actualization. Emptiness is too high a price to pay for hygiene. A man without teeth has no cavities, but he also can't eat steak. A house without children has less milk on the floor, but it also has less birthday cakes on the table. A life without work has less pulled muscles, but if also has more weeds in the garden.

Everything costs something. Some things are worth it.

Everything has problems. Some problems are better than others.

The Bible tells us which problems to have. It commands us to pursue certain problems. It isn't enough to merely accept the fact of problems, it is the willingness to pursue MORE of the right kind of problems.

Mo' talents, mo' problems, but the servants who multiply their problems by multiplying their talents end up receiving rewards and commendation for their faith and faithfulness while the ones who attempt to reduce or eliminate their problems by burying the problems they have end up receiving a tongue-lashing from their Benefactor. They have their small problems taken away and inherit a Hell of a lot bigger problems for all their trouble.

day no. 16,742: the grace of God is getting caught

Proverbs 5:21-23

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

The grace of God is getting caught before it's too late. Everyone gets caught eventually. No one gets away with anything. It is the grace of God to catch us out. Discipline is being caught and corrected in sin. Folly is being caught up in the cords of sin and calling it freedom. Foolishness is being bound to unbelief and believing that you're getting away with it.

day no. 16,705: the imports and exports of parenting

Ephesians 6:4

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Parenting involves nurture and admonition, discipline and instruction, imports and exports. Fathers are called to discipline certain things out of their children: sin, foolishness, selfishness to name a few. They are also called to sow certain things into their children: wisdom, righteousness, the Word of God, etc... We discipline things out and instruct things in. Godly parenting cannot exclude one or the other. Both are required if we are to raise our children in the Lord.

Proverbs 22:15

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child;

but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Foolishness is hardwired inside your child. If you do not discipline it out of him, it won't go anywhere. In fact, it will set up a successful shop and even seek to begin franchising. Discipline stops foolishness from flourishing. It weeds the garden of your son's soul.

Proverbs 22:6-8

Train up a child in the way he should go:

and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The way a child should go is not known to them. You must train them in it. You must introduce them to the way of the Lord. You must not only show them everything which He has commanded them, but show them how to obey everything He has commanded. You fulfill the great commission in teaching your sons the obedience of faith (Matt 28:20, Rom. 1:5, 16:26)

Education is a leading out of, literally ex (out of) + ducare (to lead). A Christian education is leading a child out of his wickedness. It is teaching him how to say, "No," to himself and how to say, "Yes," to Christ. Our children need to know what's wicked within them and provided with help to distance themselves from it. They also need to know what's wonderful without and be introduced to it so that they might close the distance.

Change must come from the outside. A heart left to itself will rot. But the force of sin can be disciplined out and the way of faith can be instructed therein. In similar fashion, Christ is at first without; but by grace, He comes and visits within. He condescends to visit the Bethlehems of our hearts and to take residence there on the outskirts. By His Spirit, God uses parenting to pull out the wanton and to put in wisdom.

day no. 16,669: running from rumors

Hebrews 10:39

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Christians do not fade to black, they march ahead. 

Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: 

but the righteous are bold as a lion.

The wicked run from rumors. 

The righteous face their fears.

Do not skedaddle on spec; battle in broad daylight.

Do not retreat from possibilities; run toward realities.

day no. 16,655: the wise see the waylay

Proverbs 27:12

A prudent man sees evil and hides himself,

The naive proceed and pay the penalty.

Those with eyes in their heads move when they see the blow coming, but the fool takes the jab.

A prudent man bobs, weaves, and counterpunches; but a naive one goes down for the count.

The wise see the waylay a ways off and get out of the way.

day no. 16,380: not so stupid

Proverbs 12:1

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Stupid is a word children should not be allowed to say. Not because it is a "bad" word per se, but because it is a good one. It is the right word where well applied, but the wrong one where wrongly applied since it can do more damage than other words. That is because it is a strong word. It belongs to a class of words that carry their own weight with them wherever they go. For that reason, "stupid" is a dangerous word. Not so dangerous as to be banned, but dangerous enough as to be reserved for the mature.

Stupid is no more bad than swords are, but just as dangerous. A sword is a good thing in the hands of a gentleman, but a bad thing in the hands of a child. So, children should not say "stupid" for the same reason they shouldn't be given matches -- that is to say, they don't know how to use it yet and can't be trusted to remember.

Beyond the matter of danger, there is also the matter of propriety. You can use a gun to dig a hole in your front yard, but it will take a while and the cops will be called before you're done. That's because it is the wrong tool for the job. It CAN make a dent in your yard, but it cannot do so without raising a fuss in your neighborhood. You CAN use a machete to cut your carrots, but you cannot do it without making your dinner guests uneasy. Stupid is a word that is perfect where it fits the occasion and a mess wherever it doesn't. In other words, it causes more trouble than it solves when it is misapplied or misused. 

day no. 16,251: the sway and the swing

"The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of them." ~ Turkish proverb

An axe may win over the forest by appealing to what they have in common while laying waste to the forest with what they don't. Do not let shared interests blind you to the ulterior motives for sharing them. The axe leverages its shared values against the trees. Its handle is what gives it power to fell the forest. It provides the sway and the swing.

2 Corinthians 11:13–14

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Satan puts on a costume of light in order to conceal his darkness in the company of the lit. He cuts down the orchard by first brandishing bark.

2 Corinthians 2:11

Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

This should not require any of us to haul out our shocked faces. We know he is doing this. It is his modus operandi. The only way this works is if we aren't paying attention or are incentivized to look the other way because of darkness we are already giving quarter to within.

Ephesians 6:11

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

The armor of God enables us to withstand the wiles of the wicked. We are not caught up in them or caught off guard by them. We are ordered to suit up. There is no reason to be unaware.

Proverbs 25:19

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble

is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

Be careful who you rely upon. A broken tooth can be tolerated, but not when trying to eat and a twisted ankle may be endured until you try to put any weight on it. 

Proverbs 25:26

A righteous man who falters before the wicked

is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

It is disappointing to discover that some who stood by you have fallen by the wayside. It is like the waste of good water. A spring that once gave refreshment is now spoiled and soiled. It is not only the loss of something helpful, but the introduction of something awful.

day no. 16,124 continued... a man without walls

Proverbs 25:28

He that hath no rule over his own spirit

is like a city that is broken down,

and without walls.

A city without walls is incapable of defending itself. A country without border control is incapable of remaining a country. To free the boards from the frame is to destroy the home. You do not liberate the pool by poking holes in its walls. To deliver the maze from its walls is to destroy the maze. 

A city is defined by its city limits. A country is defined by its borders. To remove either is to destroy both.

So too a person must be able to defend his borders. He must be given the freedom to discern what gets in and what gets out. If a person is not permitted to have security in his physical person, he is not free.

2 Chronicles 32:5

Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.

Broken down walls must be rebuilt in order to have a city. Without a system of defense, you do not have a defined place. A city without walls is no longer a city. It is indistinguishable from the wilderness to the east.

Nehemiah 1:3

And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Walls define cities, nations, and persons. 

A man must be permitted to exercise self-control. If you take away his walls, he is vulnerable to penetration by whoever or whatever comes along. My skin is my outer limit and I must be permitted to decide who and what gets into me and what is extracted from me. If I am not allowed to decide for myself what goes into me and what is taken out of me, there is no "me" left. I am whatever someone else wants me to be. But that's just another way of saying, "you."If I can be added to our subtracted from without my permission, I am merely clay in their hands, but no man has permission to place others on the wheel of his imagined moral superiority. Only God can sit in the place of the Potter. In His hands alone is clay safe.

day no. 16,116: think about what you care about

Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

Think about what you care about.

What you care about shapes you and flavors what flows out of you. Ideas have consequences and affections find their way out our fingertips. What we love affects what we do and when and where we do it. It influences why we do anything and informs how we go about doing it. If you allow poison into your drinking water, you can expect it to show up in your body. You export what you produce. You import what you value. Guard the gates of your heart well. Keep tabs on who gets in and what gets out. For from the town hall of the city center, all the loves and laws of living are proclaimed to the rest of the kingdom.

day no. 16,052: systemic sin

Proverbs 16:9

A man's heart deviseth his way: 

but the LORD directeth his steps.

We must make more room for margin. When we wring everything out, we often end up stressed out since something inevitably takes longer than we planned or something unforeseen springs up and spoils our plans. Since God's plans are superior to ours, it should not require a Herculean effort to delight in His interruptions instead of kicking against them. 

We must plan, but we must not fail to plan for God's plans. There are few better ways to live a frustrated life than to live without margin. Organize every square inch without any room for wiggle and then live exasperated in all the inevitable wiggling. We need faith to plan and faith to roll with audibles. It is faithless to refuse to plan and it is faithless to refuse to change your plans. There will be planning, that much is inescapable. The question is whether or not your plans will account for God and whether or not having done so, you will count His interruptions superior or inferior to your instructions.

God have mercy on me, a well-organized, systematized sinner. May Your plan of salvation take fully into account my failed attempts to account for everything.

day no. 15,182: hit hard or don't hit

On my jog home from work the other night (11/21/19), I pondered the following proverbial wisdom...

If you must throw a punch, you must also land it.
If you have decided to hit, you must also decide to hit as hard as you can.

There is no point in soft hitting.
Either hit hard or don't hit.

Never hit first, always hit hard.

If you decide to fight,
you must also decide to win.

If it's worth fighting for, it's worth killing and dying for.

In order to be right,
you must be willing to be wrong.

Right cannot exist if wrong is not an option.
And if it is an option, some assuredly will choose it.

If you are unwilling to be called wrong,
you will be wrong without being called it.

day no. 15,089: the democracy of the dead

Proverbs 22:28
Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.

Proverbs 23:10-11
Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,
for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

"Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.” - G.K. Chesterton

Do the dead get a seat at the table or not?
Do the traditions of our forefathers matter enough to allow them a turn to speak?
And if they do get a seat and chance to speak, how much weight do their words hold?
How much gravity do their governing principles gain for them in present discussion?
Do you give the dead a place in your personal decision making?
If so, how much say do they get?
Are you able to dismiss their landmarks without considering why they put them where they did and why they put anything anywhere at all?

Do not be too quick to dismiss something that meant something to someone just because they happen to be deceased. Moving landmarks is not to be avoided without exception, but it should be an exception nevertheless.

day no. 15,069: rest is preparation for work

Proverbs 12:11
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,
but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

Proverbs 28:19
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,
but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.

Everyone will have plenty of something. That something is determined by to what one applies themselves. If you work the land with your hands full of toil, you will reap plenty of fullness. If you work people over with empty-handed excuses, you will reap plenty of emptiness.

Proverbs 21:5
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

The diligent benefits from plans, the hasty employ relentless planning as an excuse to avoid being diligent.

Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

The lazy, while able to calm his fingers, cannot calm his cravings. He can keep himself from work, but he cannot keep himself from wanting. Wishing may fill his dreams, but it cannot fill his belly.

Ecclesiastes 5:12
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer

Rest prepares for work,
Laziness for poverty.

Rest without work is laziness.
Work without rest is slavery.