A book about Turmoil...

Seeds of Turmoil. The Biblical Roots of the Inevitable Crisis in the Middle East, by Bryant Wright.

Disclaimer-I spent a Summer 2000 in Ramallah, teaching English in the refugee camps, worshiping in a small Palestinian Baptist church and playing basketball at the community center.

After requesting this book from Book Sneeze (where I get free books from Thomas Nelson publisher for reviewing them on my blog), I started to regret it and knew that it would just make me angry. But in some ways, I was pleasantly surprised; Wright gave a very balanced, fair report on how Arabs must feel about this injustice and their current plight in the Middle East. He also says that Christ came for all, Jew and Gentile, and that salvation is available to all through him.

But it wasn’t all great. The beginning of the book could have been called a very slow and repetitive walk through the Genesis story of Abraham and his family; which is where he gets the biblical basis for the current conflict. Then he gives three different perspectives and finished with three burning questions: Does God play favorites-Yes; Is God unfair-No; Is the Middle East conflict God’s fault?-No. I am glad he included these but for many it doesn’t clear up everything.

My (probably until eternity) remaining questions:

1. Okay Abraham sinned and messed stuff up but WHY did the consequence of Ishmael have to be thousands of years of conflict?

2. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day got what the Messiah was going to look like all wrong and rejected Christ. Is it possible that the current Evangelical thought about the modern secular nation-state of Israel being what God has planned for the end days be all wrong too?

I pray for peace and know that God had the most amazing plan for the Jews by bringing Jesus through them and still has a plan for them in the end. I would love to see a solution in the land but also know that it most likely won’t happen until Christ comes again. I know that Jesus said in Matthew that the end will come not after some political things happen but when the gospel of the kingdom is preached to all people. I, however unlike Wright, don’t get all warm and fuzzy about what a wonderful place Israel is and how going there makes you love Israelis, I guess it was because I didn’t have Jewish Holy Land tour guides there to meet my every evangelical need, instead I had to deal with check points and airport security and listen to the stories of people who still wear their house key around their neck even though it has been lived in by someone who stole it from them in 1948.

Overall the book is good for the easy to understand way he presented the Bible knowledge, the fair treatment of all perspectives, and the emphasis of Jesus’ salvation, but I don’t agree with the end thought of blindly supporting a state that often acts very ungodly.

A good day

Since two Moms have told me to enjoy my kids while they are little this week, and I have a hard time doing that when Gloria is fighting her nap and peeing in her pullup and Lydia is defiantly disobeying, I am going to record today to remember there is a lot to enjoy.
We began the day with Life cereal (which is square). Lydia found one that was missing a corner so she said, "Look its New Mexico!" I then found a square one and said, "Wyoming" She then proceeded to say NM or WY for all her cereal. I love her geography knowledge. Something we need to work on though: While I was away from the table for a moment, Lydia said to Gloria rather sternly, "Gloria do not play with your food, the Bible says Do not play with your food!" Yeah we have never told her that.
My girls are normally horrible in the car and only want to listen to the Wiggles but on the drive home, Lydia requested the music be turned off and told us about five stories: Once upon a time in a very far away house lived a mommy, a daddy, a big sister and a baby sister, and do you know the baby sister's name? Airplane (or corn popper dee or something else totally random) hahahaha loudly and then Gloria would laugh too.
During Rest Time, in which Gloria took a great nap, Lydia and I watched Pocahontas for the first time and she kept asking what her 'prince's' name was. John Smith
Then when Gloria woke up, they put on princesses dresses (I love it when G sees L in Snow White and then says Princess dress please) and danced ballet to Wiggles Christmas Silent Night (English and French) on repeat (so we heard it for about an hour). After dancing Lydia said Bad guys were chasing us so we hid under my covers, then (possibly from watching Pocahontas) we got more aggressive and Lydia gave all of us swords to fight them, kill them and bury them. When that got old, we played a new favorite Sleeping Beauty (we played this at friend Laura's many times in their gazebo the other night) when one touches the spindle, another is normal the prince and one the bad fairy (Gloria says Bad fairy scare me, I bad fairy). Well today there was no prince so sleeping beauty go to wake up whenever she wanted the pretend prince to come, while the others hid in the bad fairy's house (my room) when it was my turn to be SB, I got a magazine and laid on the couch , and right then Caleb came home and caught me down on the job :) After dinner we had half naked ice cream outside, "Gloria is a disaster." I bumped my toe on the swing so Gloria voluntarily kissed my owie and then said ok now all better.
Now we are ending the day with a bubble bath (we'll see if they get to bed with a fit!) And we know they are angels when they sleep! (pics from last night)

Friends!

We had a quick and full DFW weekend. Including seeing some old friends from Oman, two nights at Carries (see pjs above). Moms had lunch at a tea room and saw the Sound of Music at the Casa Manana stage. Coffee with a friend from Austin now at Seminary. Then Sunday brunch with Caleb's Nana and cousins. Great weekend!
E's family came to Austin for David Watts' wedding. Jessamy was a trooper with three kiddos and Jonathan and Gloria did enjoy some smiles together!
Friends from church at Mr. Gatti's. Crazy 3 year olds.

Potty Power

On Aug 15, we had a potty party for Gloria. Parties at our house include balloons, presents and sweets. We spent the day reading books about the potty and watched Potty Power. Gloria also began wearing big girl panties with Tinkerbell on them. She is doing great. Not fully there but doing great!

TV!!

Gloria is not quite two yet but she now gets to watch TV at home. So we have started all over with Tad and Letter Factory again. Since Lydia got a post like this I thought I should do one for Gloria (and the chairs this year are a lot more comfortable)

Gloria thought her babydoll would enjoy learning her letters too :)

Preschool & More

Lydia and Gloria now go to Preschool on Tuesdays. The first day was raining and crazy but today was good. They enjoy snack time and playing on the playground and everything else too. Gloria had to go to the director's office for a time out after scratching a friend (more than once). We are hoping that won't last long!!

Backpacks on First day.

Then at church Lydia started Children's Choir and AWANAs. She is doing great on memorizing the verses and has a blast along with 29 other 3 & 4 year olds!

Change the World

The Boy Who Changed the World is a story about how all of us can change the world by showing, in reverse order, how a boy affected another boy who affected another boy and together it made the world a better place. The first time I read it, I loved the concept (and since have been thinking about how each action, good and bad can have an effect, like that stupid Hummer in front of me in traffic…..) My three and half year old daughter sat and listened to the whole story (though she didn’t grasp the whole concept). When asked, she said her favorite part was the barn on fire (destruction) and we enjoyed finding butterflies on most of the pages. I got a little chocked up because it is a meaningful story but didn’t cry. I really enjoyed how the stories fit together. I had heard of George Washington Carver but liked hearing about the men than impacted him and those he impacted as well. The art was well done-colorful, pretty, life like but in a child’s way. This is one we will read again and again and I look forward to the day when my little ones will more understand the truths presented. One big complaint-the packaging, it came in a huge box with lots of brown paper, they need to be much more eco-conscious. I got this book free for reviewing it on my blog from Thomas Nelson’s Book Sneeze.

Max Lucado's One Hand, Two Hands

Caleb loves Max Lucado's children's books (the Pancanello series) so when One Hand, Two Hands showed up on BookSneeze (where I get free books for reviewing them on my blog from Thomas Nelson) I was super excited. But this book is just okay.
The pictures are super cute, though I was confused why a big bear showed up, in second reading I realized that her stuffed animals came to live.
The thought behind the story is wonderful: there are many ways to use our hands that are practical, fun, loving and kind. But the rhyming was awkward; the situations not always applicable to preschoolers whom I assume this book is aimed at due to its layout. "Squish cheese, ooey, pooey???" The list at the end is nice but rather random.
While my girls (almost 2 and 4) most of the time sit through it, the first time through Lydia didn't even know they were still talking about hands.