We already take Fridays off. Last Wednesday we had history all day. We hit the point in the history textbook (Story of the World Volume 1) where it skips a couple hundred years between Phoenecian civilization and the second rise of Assyria. Contained within this neglected timeframe is the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, Judges, and the kings of Israel and Judah all the way through the fall of Israel to Assyria. So we are spending quite a bit of time in the Bible going through an overview of the history of Israel. On Wednesday we spent the morning in Exodus and the afternoon in Phoenecia.

On Thursday we spent the morning in the Word and in Science (the digestive system). At lunch we did an experiment involving tracking the digestion of our lunches. The afternoon was spent watching a few documentaries (always a supplements to what we are learning about, never a substitute).

And today my husband (a.k.a. the principal) called a 2 hour delay and ordered us all to sleep in.

I love homeschooling.

Did I also mention that I love the flexibility of homeschooling?

This year we prayerfully decided to homeschool. I am going to be posting our homeschool journey on here as well. I will post pictures of what we are doing. I will post what I’ve learned about the ins and outs of homeschooling. I will post what I have been adjusting and changing as we find our groove. I hope someone can learn from what we are learning from. I also hope this serves as a bit of a journal for me to look back on and see where we’ve come from as we move along on our educational journey. I hope to post several times a week – especially because I don’t want to forget these lessons I’m learning.

So please  feel free to grab a cup of coffee and look over my shoulder as I share our lessons, both school-wise and life-wise, spiritual and practical, serious and comical, and anything in between.

Since I have been saved I have kind of viewed the things of my childhood like you came to understand the things you stole from the Sam’s Club before you were saved.  You had been set free from them and you had peace about not having to go back and pay for everything you’d ever taken.  I thought that the person I was as a child was dead, long gone, and I didn’t have to dwell on the way things used to be because I have been made new in Christ.  I no longer think I deserve the biggest piece of cake or things to always be the way I want them to be, ignoring all others.  I really don’t.

Maybe this is why I identify so much with Eustace from Narnia’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader (more on how I got to this thought later…).  The book begins, “There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”  It is funny because “Eustace” sounds like “useless” and a “scrub” is someone who is useless, and Eustace was a spoiled brat who never wanted to do any work and had no friends and was utterly useless at the beginning of the book.  He complained about everything, and eventually his self-seeking got him turned into a dragon.  In the end it was an encounter with Aslan that turned him back into a boy and changed his heart.  But in the book Aslan did not merely scratch the sand to take away Eustace’s scales like he did in the movie.  In the book he scratched off his very flesh.  The scales came off because Aslan removed them himself, and Eustace was made a humbly new person.  I feel like God has done this in my life.

I’ve always felt like the friendless, spoiled Eustace.  I have walked around and walked into any room with the assumption that no one really likes me.  No one really cares about me.  Everyone thinks I’m a loser and I’m annoying.  Everyone always picks on me.  I used to think that being bullied was the other person’s fault, but now I think that maybe I really was that horrible of a child that no one liked me based on my own poor character.

But now I have been made new.  Yet I still have found myself walking around with the assumption that no one really “likes” me.  It seems to be subconscious, but every now and again it comes to the surface.  For example, when we went over to the mission and saw Rhonda the other week, she gave me a hug and I thought, “Wow, Rhonda really does care about me.”  This thought surprised me.

Anyways, my purpose is not to go down some road of self-pity.  I didn’t set out to say that.  My point is that I have been guilty of being a horrible person with nothing but selfish motive.  I never really learned how to love or be loved.  Although I have been made new and the Lord has remade my heart, I sometimes run into the residue of my old life and my old assumptions.

I need the Lord God to remove the scales that still exist in my heart.  I need to receive a softer heart.

Which leads me to why I got thinking about Eustace.  I read today’s Slice of Infinity, and it mentioned a scene from another Narnia book, The Silver Chair.  Eustace’s friend Jill ends up in Narnia with him.  I don’t remember, but I don’t think she believed in Aslan in the beginning.  The scene is that she is dying of thirst.  She comes to a stream, but she is scared to drink of it because Aslan is standing next to it.  Aslan tells her to come and drink, but she refuses.  She says, “I will find another stream then.”  Aslan tells her there is no other stream.

Another thought came to mind yesterday, this one as we were worshipping.  I thought about mountaintop experiences and how I longed for one.  I thought about how I felt I had been wandering in the desert for a long time.  When in the desert I often think about how it is still the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that is the glory of God that leads me though those times.  If I do nothing but follow those, even if I remain in the desert it is okay because the Lord is leading me.  Even if I never reach the land.  Yet I always know that there is a Promised Land.  It had been promised, and so I hoped.  The week of our first service I said that I felt like Caleb entering into the Promised Land.  Yesterday I was remembering all this, and thinking about the mountaintop, and the thought came to me that there was no mountaintop experience for the Israelites entering the land.  Moses went up to the mountaintop and died, but the Israelites went straight into battle.  Now is the time of battle.  There is no time now to rest or seek any “retreat” (it is interesting that time away is called a retreat).  Now is the time to fight.

And so I find myself thirsty, and knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only living water.  I find myself wondering what a proper apology looks like (sad, I know, because you’d think I’d already be an expert at apologizing…).  I remember the verse that says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs,” and I think this is why I can move on with life even when I feel like someone has wronged me and I know that I cannot sit back and wait an apology.  I would be paralyzed if I kept a record and refused to move until someone apologizes to me.

But you’re right.  We should never just move on and act like nothing is wrong.  Overlooking an offence against myself is not the same thing as overlooking an offence I have committed.  “As much as it is up to you, be at peace with everyone.”  I can make peace even if no one else does the same.

So here is the conclusion of my thoughts…

I am sorry for everything I ever did prior to becoming a Christian, especially my selfish pride.  I am sorry that you have had to put up with the residue of this.  I am sorry for every time I have not apologized for doing wrong.  I am sorry for fighting with Cynthia over the camera and fighting with Bianca over the computer.  I am sorry for ever saying that it was too exhausting or not worth it to do everything possible to make peace.  I’m really sorry that I ever said that.  I’m sorry that I’ve given Satan a foothold in this house and that I have allowed the root of bitterness to grow up.  I’m sorry that I don’t pray long enough or hard enough.  I have not been obedient to praying for an hour a day, and I have no asked for clarity about what that looks like.  I have clung selfishly to “my time” and neglected to see that no time belongs to me at all.  I have been lazy in the house and have lacked diligence in keeping things clean.  I have been too proud to ask for help, and when I’ve asked for help I have complained about the help I have been given instead of giving thanks.  When asking for help I have complained about the lack of help.  When talking to you about something that’s wrong I’ve complained about things instead of being clear with you about the issue at hand or making sure that you know I am not trying to complain or attack an individual.  I have been a poor example of reconciliation and a poor example of how to deal with a problem when there is a problem that needs to be addressed.  The truth is that I really don’t know what healthy conflict resolution looks like.

I have the weed of a critical spirit wrapped so tightly around myself that I don’t know how to get rid of it.  I allowed the root to grow.  I remember once you told me I would have to denounce my critical spirit.  I am at that place where it has taken over.  I need to be free from it and I denounce it now in Jesus’ name.

Please forgive me for failing to be a good wife and a good mother to the children I have been entrusted with.  I love Michael and Ciara and Monique and Jane and Joshua and Elizabeth, and you Rigo, and I have not done enough to show it.  I have had a horrible attitude and I am sorry.

Please forgive me for my sin towards you and the children.  I beg for mercy.

Yours truly

“It is not the duty of the clergy to blunt the sharpness, to soften the hammer, to quench the fire. Woe to the preacher who protects the people from the Word that kills, because he protects them also from being made alive – truly and forever alive.  Woe to the preacher who acts as a buffer, deflecting the force of the Scriptures to soften the blow, because in protecting the people from the stroke, he prevents their healing” (Robert Hart).

This is a woe that cannot be misunderstood. We’re not talking about preaching. This is talking about proclaiming. And what’s being proclaimed is the very Word of God.

We read in the book of Ezekiel, Chapter 2, how the Lord God himself challenges Ezekiel in this same manner:

“1 He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

3 He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. 4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ 5 And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

9 Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, 10 which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.”

We notice the similar warnings between Mr. Hart’s words and what the Lord proclaimed over 2000 years ago in the book of Ezekiel. The warnings are similar in the sense that they challenge the speaker to not hold back what needs to be said; to not be complacent in the words that need to burn; and to not be afraid of the fire that comes out of his mouth.

“Woe to preacher who acts as a buffer, deflecting the force of the Scriptures to soften the blow.”  This is the reason why the prophet must never look to speak for his own interests but for the interests of God.  For the Lord said to Ezekiel, “You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.”

“If his labors in the pulpit amount to a lifetime of standing between the people and the word of God, reducing its effect, taming it and making it polite, presentable, and harmless, he will have nothing to show for it in the end but wood, hay, and stubble, instead of gold, silver, and precious stones” (Hart).

This second paragraph of the article takes me directly to Ezekiel 37. Here we will see a bridge that is very much built of the same message that Mr. Hart is saying.

“1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”

Oh the sadness of the man who spends hours in prayer and meditation, seeking the Lord for a word to his people, and the moment he receives it he assumes to be ready for the task.  He prepares the passage, he sets the time and the hour where he will bring this word of God. He waits for the introduction. He’s brought to the altar of God behind the pulpit.  And instead of releasing the sweet fragrance and aroma of sacrifice to the living God he brings the sacrifice of Cain, that which in God’s eyes is despicable and not accepted.  And we look among the congregations of today and the dry bones of the valley are no more alive after the man has stepped down from failing to offer the proper sacrifice.  And the Lord says to him as he said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?”  The goal of God is that the word of prophecy should do exactly what the word did when Ezekiel proclaimed it. “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”‘  So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”‘ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”

“He will have nothing to show for it in the end but wood, hay, and stubble, instead of gold, silver, and precious stones” (Hart).

“If the passages that have been read speak of life and death, then elaborate on life and death.  If they speak of repentance, then preach that men should repent.  When they encourage faith, proclaim faith.  When they warn of hell and the judgment to come, then blow the trumpet as a faithful watchman on the walls.  When they comfort, speak as a pastor who feeds the sheep” (Hart).

This third section of this message is clear as the Word of God says in 2 Timothy 4:

“1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

The reason the Lord God Almighty commands us not to mask the words that he puts on our tongues, not to put flowers on them and make them sound sweet and delightful, is because of the warning of what is yet to come. Verses 3 and 4 say “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” God is making it clear that this will happen in the last days.  He warns that foolish, sweet-talking, delightful expression are the very thing that people are going to want to hear.  Sad to say they are already doing it. Their itching ears have been scratched for them. And the church is responsible for doing it.

“Let the meaning of the Scriptures be expounded to their full effect; proclaim from them the truth that affects the eternal destiny of the souls in your care.  It is far easier to preach if a man will ride the Scriptures like a wave, letting them make their own point and arrive at their own destination” (Hart).

And finally, how is it that the prophet or man of God should carry out the proclamations that God has put on his tongue? The Word of God is very clear. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 says:

“6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:

‘No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him’—

10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

16 ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?’

But we have the mind of Christ.”

And the reason it is important to ride the wave of the Word of God, it is for God to expose the man who has not the Spirit of God. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (v. 14). And in this day and age it’s sad to hear and to even say, that it’s no longer the listener who suffers from not having the Spirit of God. It is the speaker that has failed to have it and to receive it to begin with.

The report was on Brian McLaren’s book “Jesus, Reconsidered.”  McLaren advocates a rethinking of Christianity.  For the other side of the debate NPR interviewed Al Mohler.  I am glad they picked someone who represents traditional Christianity, and not some liberal or right-winger.

Mohler pointed to the motives of McLaren and other such teachers.  They are trying to be relevant.  As McLaren himself said, today when a Christian goes off to college, chances are their roommate will be of a different belief system.  “How can you condemns someone to hell who you have come to love?” he asks.  Some statistics are also giving, saying that 2/3 of young people believe people other than Christians can go to heaven.  Mohler says that Christianity is being lost for the sake of relevance.

I agree.  The whole postmodern approach is tearing apart the church.  Now first let me qualify what I mean by “Christianity” and “the church.”  I do not mean what it has become – a building put up by human hands and taught with human wisdom, full of false gospels and false converts.  I do not mean Christianity as a watered down version of Christ somehow coming to love and redeem us but leaving out the power of God to change our hearts.  I mean faith in Christ Jesus as the Bible teaches (yes, literally), and I mean the church as the Bible says it is – the holy, spotless bride of Christ.

There must be a pure church, and that standard must exist in order to contrast it against any perversions of the gospel.  Otherwise McLaren would be right, Christianity can be changed to suit our culture.  But God transcends the centuries and cultures that come and go.  God transcends fad doctrines and popular teachers.  The message of the cross is timeless.  The Bible says, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” For the sake of cultural relevance these false teachers are rewriting the message of the cross.

Now I am not holding up some ultraorthodox view that says we should stick to tradition for tradition’s sake.  I am not saying we should abandon our culture, burn the NIV Bible and build our houses without electricity to completely separate ourselves.  I am not saying that.  What I am saying is that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t change.  It is a message for our culture as much as it was when the Lord Jesus walked the earth.

They misunderstood his message too.  They thought that he was going to be some kind of political leader who would overthrow an oppressive government.  Or else they saw him as some miracle worker who could solve their maladies, ignoring that he could do more – forgiving their sins and saving their souls.  This lesson we learned from the lame man.  Jesus did not first heal him, but said, “Your sins are forgiven.”  The leaders took offense and questioned his authority to do this.  Then to prove his authority to forgive sin he also healed him, and he got up and walked.

Have we forgotten the power of our Lord?  Have we made him out to be just another political figure, popular teacher, or magic trickster?

I tell you the truth, the church has prostituted itself for the sake of the wolves and their false gospels.  Rather than serving the one who can forgive its sins, the church has turned away from God and followed these false teachers.  Thus the church has become no church at all – no bride of Christ, no one to be united with God in perfection – but a whore.

Where is the true church of Christ?  Where is the spotless bride?  Where are the ones who follow the true and living God and his gospel of salvation?  Where are the ones who believe that he will heal their black hearts, and not just their pocketbooks?  Where are the ones who would rejoice in hearing that their sins are forgiven, regardless of whether their maladies are ever healed?

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of false gospels! I am tired of hearing people pervert the gospel of my Lord, the Lord who I love.  He was and still is relevant.

The cross is not just a love story.  It is a violent story of what it costs to be redeemed.  And yes, blood does need to be shed, for “without the shedding of blood their is no forgiveness of sins.”  There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood because sin has a cost, and that cost is death.  Death exists because sin exists. But Christ paid the price so that death can be put to death just as sin can be put to death.  And this death is not only on the day we die, but NOW as we walk with our God.

The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t stay dead either.  He rose again on the third day.  The postmoderns would have you believe that such a thing cannot happen, and that the resurrection is just another made-up fairy tale.  It is not.  “Without the resurrection you are still dead in your sin, and your faith is useless.”  Death could not be put to death if Christ stayed in the grave.  But he did not!  He rose again on the third day, proving that he is God, Lord of all, the one who can redeem us from our sins, not a mere man but God made flesh for our redemption.  The resurrection means that we too can come out of the grave of our sin and be born again.  Only then can we truly become the spotless church.  There can be no church where there is no death to sin.

Finally, Christ ascended back on high, again proving he is who he says he is.  “And he seated us up with Christ.”  This means that we are where Christ is and can continue to walk in victory over sin, saying no to it, and remaining holy in Christ Jesus.

Holiness is not this lofty ideal handed down to us in paintings and now shown to us on TV by visual effects of shiny white angels with golden halos.  In fact angels can be dreadful beings, ones whom some men have trembled at the feet of when they are seen in their splendor.  No, holiness is not that caricature of something beyond us.  Holiness is given to us in Christ.  It is definitely a standard, but one that is attainable.  It is simply walking in faith the standard of purity that God has laid out for us.  Without faith there is no holiness.  The church today lacks holiness because it lacks faith in the full gospel of Jesus Christ – it only wants the forgiveness, or it only wants the temporal healing without the spiritual death, or it lacks the power or the knowledge of its power to walk in victory.

So what can we do?  Pray.  Fast.  Weep and mourn.  Wail and lament at the loss of our gospel.  But do not stay there.  Find the gospel again!  Find what is real and true about what Jesus Christ did for us.  We are not coming up on some random “holy week” akin to that of any other belief systems.  Next week is Easter.  We are celebrating salvation itself.  Do not prostitute yourselves, and do not prostitute the gospel, for any reason!

Francis Thompson was a brilliant man.  He dropped out of medical college and became addicted to opium, spending most of the rest of his life on the streets.  He read newspapers he picked out of garbage cans and wrote letters to the editor.  The editors said, “A genius greater than Milton is among us,” but he wrote anonymously so no one knew who he was.  Eventually he made acquaintances with a couple who had some of his poetry published.

Thompson spent his entire life running from God, but in his last year on this earth he came to faith in Jesus Christ.  The Hound of Heaven relates his life’s struggle.  He was looking for love yet failed to see that the very One who could give him that love was the God he was running from.  Only God could fulfill that need in his life.  “Don’t you know that when you run from me you run from love?” God says.

I too can relate to this poem.  I am so thankful that the Hound of Heaven continued to pursue me until I was made his own.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes, I sped;
And shot, precipitated
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat–and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet -
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”…

…Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
“And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!

“Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught” (He said),
“And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited -
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come.”
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

Preheat oven to 350.  Carefully clean mushrooms with a wet paper towel or vegetable brush (do not run under water as this will remove their flavor).  Remove stems and place bottom side up on a baking sheet.  Dice half of one small onion and half of one green bell pepper.  Spoon onion and pepper into mushroom caps.  Top with grated cheddar cheese.  Bake 15 minutes.

Refrigerate cooked potatoes until cooled.  Cube and toss potatoes, celery and onion into a bowl.  In separate bowl, mix together mayo and dressing to taste.  When you’re satisfied with the flavor, pour over salad and stir until evenly distributed.  Serve.

Last November in Chicago, Illinois, Nancy Leigh DeMoss of Revive Our Hearts hosted the first ever True Woman conference.  This has sparked a movement as Christian women are seeking God’s plan for their lives in their roles as women, wives and mothers.  On her website Nancy has a 30-day True Woman Make-Over where she goes through Proverbs 31 and talks about what a godly woman looks like.  Each day for 30 days you will receive an email with the day’s main points as well as a link to that’s day’s message.  I have also appreciated this message, The Most Influential People In The World,  given by John Piper at the conference.

I hope that you will be as blessed by these messages as I have been.

-  Shampoo or nice-smelling bubble bath makes a great tub and shower cleaner.  It takes a little more elbow grease than Clorox if things are really scummy, but it really works.

- Dish soap instead of Pine-Sol is a great floor cleaner.  Again it takes a little more elbow grease but does the job well.  This is especially good if you have to ring out the mop with your hands and may have to drop it to go pick up the baby, which is not safe to do if you have Pine-Sol or other cleaners on your hands.

- Just plain hot water is great for mirrors.  My daughter likes to touch the tall mirror in the hallway so I was concerned about using Windex and having the possibility of her getting some on her hands and then passing it onto the food she eats.  Cleaning with hot water and then drying with a cloth or paper towel is just as effective.  For the streak-free results I’ve found it best to dry in a circular motion.

- For the toilet I will use a toilet bowl cleaner and brush, but another great way to keep the bowl clean and smelling nice comes when you flush your mop water.  If you use nice-smelling dish soap to mop your floor, when you get rid of the water it cleans everything out and the smell also tends to remain.

One other concern with cleaning is the danger of cross-contamination.  This should especially be given attention with young infants.

- When washing baby’s dishes, use a separate sponge or cloth from the one you use to clean the rest of the dishes.  Your sponge may contain bacteria harmful to baby – for example, it may have come into contact with the bacteria from raw meats when washing a dish used to prepare food – and baby having their own sponge eliminates this risk

- Always wash your hands after cleaning.  You don’t want to be holding baby after you’ve gotten dirt and grime all over your hands.  This is especially true after cleaning the bathroom as it is a breading ground for germs, and after cleaning the toilet as you will usually use a chemical cleaner for that.

- You may also want to change your clothes after you’ve used chemical cleaners.  You may have gotten some of the cleaner on your clothes through spraying or splashing, and it is not safe for baby to come into contact with these.

- When you need to use chemical cleaners such as toilet-bowl cleaner or Ajax, it is best to wait until after baby has gone to sleep because you are less likely to have to drop what you’re doing to grab them.  This also leaves time to wash your hands thoroughly in hot soapy water to ensure cleanliness when you’re done.