Quotes and Links from This Week

• Teen Sex Linked to Children's TV Watching from the Southern Baptist ERLC blog this week. The article says, "Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston found that early teen sex may be linked to viewing adult content on television as children. The study tracked children from ages 6 to 18 and found that the sooner children began to view adult content on television programs and movies, the earlier they became sexually active during adolescence."
• This looks like an interesting upcoming book, Sacred Friendships by Kellemen and Ellis. From Kellemen's blog, "Our new book.... shares captivating narratives of over 50 women spanning 2,000 years who have so much to teach men and women about life and ministry today."
• I mentioned Monday that my 3 1/2 year old and I are struggling. I did buy Ginger Plowman's book "Don't Make Me Count to Three!" I'm enjoying the book and her biblically based parenting/discipline principles are really helping. For example, "God has given us His Word and He expects us to use it in training our children."
• Kristi over at Run the Earth, Watch the Sky shares her thoughts and struggles with the Proverbs 31 woman.
• And from Twitter: MichaelHyatt I just posted “The Importance of Building Your Platform.” It is especially applicable for authors.
  

Mentoring Ministry

I've been chronicling my church's mentoring ministry, Heart to Heart here on the blog. It's time for another update, and of course, you're welcome to give advice, suggest resources, or just offer encouragement!

We are forming a Heart to Heart Steering Team. The team is made up of three components: pray, plan, and partner. The women who volunteered (or were recruited!) were assigned one of these components based on interest and giftedness.

The women on the prayer team will receive weekly updates from me on how they can pray for the ministry. All of the women on the steering team are expected to pray, but these women are our "prayer warriors."

The women on the planning team will first plan the banquet set for September. This banquet will kick-off the ministry. They will then plan at least four events between September and May for the Heart to Heart partners (we will invite all the women in the church to these events, but they are hosted by the Heart to Heart ministry team).

The partnering team will work to partner women together for the mentoring. This will include organizing the women who want to be involved who already have a mentoring relationship, and partnering women who want to be involved who don't have a mentor/mentoree yet! The partnering team will also help provide resources for the partnerships, and address any issues that may arise.

But Mommy...

We took our boys (3 1/2 and 1 1/2) to my husband's church softball game last weekend. Our oldest was in a very stubborn mood and did not obey me well. The next morning we were talking about how it makes Mommy sad when he doesn't obey.

He said, "But Mommy, it makes me so happy!"

So this week I'm praying hard and reviewing the books I have that may help with the wall I'm hitting in disciplining my son right now- Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tripp, The Strong Willed Child by Dobson, and I hope to get Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman. I've seen it recommended on other blogs I read.

What are your favorite parenting books or websites?

This Week's Quotes and Links

• Amy Bayliss gives great tips and resources in her post- "How to Submit to On-Line Publications." Amy even lists sites that accept pieces. If you are interested, be sure to click over!
• I took four semesters of Greek in seminary (and not because I enjoyed it!) On my third and final (and successful!) attempt at Greek II, we used Bill Mounce's text book. He is well-known and respected as a Greek scholar. In a recent post, he discusses whether Jesus was rude to call His mother "woman" at the wedding in Cana- "How Rude Was Jesus?" If you teach the Bible to women, you need to be able to answer this possible criticism. I know I've been asked about it before!
• Over at Boundless, Heather Koerner lists new words that made it into The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. My favorites that made it? Staycation and locavore!
• A post that generated discussion this week at my house, "Why Do the New Calvinists Insist on Complementarianism?" by Kevin DeYoung. He discusses why we overlook some differences in beliefs and not over look other beliefs. Let's just say my husband and I have different "hot-button" issues.
  
• And from my Bible reading this week, Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?" (HCSB)
  

Making an Idol of Your Ideology

Today is the 500th birthday of John Calvin (born July 10th, 1509). Some of the blogs I read and the people I follow on Twitter have been celebrating his life and legacy (and being honest about the parts of his life we don't celebrate). It has been interesting to learn more about the man, as opposed to just thinking of "Calvinism."

The posts and Tweets about Calvin reminded me of a sermon by Mark Driscoll from the Advance09 conference in May (audio here). Driscoll's sermon was on idolatry in ministry. One quote that really stuck with me (and I'm paraphrasing here) was Driscoll saying he's reformed and complementarian, but he tries not to make those idols in his ministry. He said when you idolize your views, you demonize the opposing view.

We all have hot-buttons in ministry or theology- areas we are so passionate about, we can't even see the "view from the other side." For me this is certainly complementarianism. I believe it is the truth of Scripture so strongly that not only do I discount the opposing opinion, I discount the opposing person. Ouch!

I certainly believe you can be a Christian and be an egalitarian! But I believe I've let it become such an area of pride in my life, that it has become a ministry idol. So I repent today, not from my ideology, but from idolizing my ideology.

And may God in His grace remind me of this sin next time I'm tempted to get puffed up with pride in this area and other areas of my life.

photo credit: Tug O' War