A Girl's Perfect Day

Blessed day with my girls....and two new blessings to add to my list.

(Okay three blessings, cause I love the humongous bouquet of roses with light blue and sagey green hydrangeas that my daugher arranged)

But first I scrubbed our back deck preparatory to staining it and gave two rhodies severe butch haircuts. Marauding blackberry vines stretched the rhododendron bushes out of proportion, hence the hacking back. I was very brave to tackle this, as this was the-very-area where I saw a snake a couple of weeks ago. I would have felt better in hip-waders; snakes are ungodly. (I think I need to share my snake poem with you. Future blog post.)

But then the siren song of Stratford Tea House called and off we girls went. Picture warm Italian villa colors with flowered tea pots. A perfect girly place. My tea cup was a luscious lime green with pink roses. I begged for that one - very grown up of me. Scones with jam and Devonshire cream, Hungarian mushroom soup, flowered pots of ginger-peach tea and Russian Caravan tea. We imbibed and indulged and giggled our way through the tasty treats. (Blessing number one)

Then the girls talked me into shopping at Old Navy. Why is shopping such a panacea for all that ails a girl? I once asked Chris if it was unchristianly to adore shopping. Thankfully he just chuckled and didn't give me any black and white answer. Don't YOU either. I bought a wild redish orangish top and a feminine lacy-edged peach cardigan. Who wouldn't feel better, I ask you. (Blessing number two)

I'm almost done reading "Holiness" by JC Ryle. There is a chapter near the very end called something like, "Understanding the Times." It has challenging and convicting words for us. Listen to this for starters:

"The man who is content to sit ignorantly by his own fireside, wrapped up in his own private affairs, and has no public eye for what is going on in the church and the world, is a miserable patriot, and a poor style of Christian. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times." (ouch)

The section that stood out to me was where he elucidated on the fact that the times require at our hands distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine. Listen to his eloquent and colorful language as he passionately speaks to this topic:

"...beware of this undecided state of mind in religion. It is a pestilence which walketh in darkness, and a destruction that killeth in noonday. It is a lazy, idle frame of soul which, doubtless, saves men the trouble of thought and investigation; but it is a frame of soul for which there is no warrant in the Bible...."

"For your own soul's sake dare to make up your mind what you believe, and dare to have positive distinct views of truth and error. Never, never be afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions; and let no fear of man and no morbid dread of being thought party-spirited, narrow or controversial, make you rest contented with a bloodless, boneless, tasteless, colorless, lukewarm, undogmatic Christianity."

"Mark my words, if you want to do good in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a distinct, sharply cut, doctrinal religion. If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing...."

"Christianity without distinct doctrine is a powerless thing. It may be beautiful to some minds, but it is childless and barren."

Oh, I love the solid truth of Scripture - the forever-settled-in-heaven truth that God has given us. And I love these old time authors who are passionate about truth and challenging to this generation where we are tempted to be wishy-washy and tolerant to all views, and can tend to be uncomfortable with dogmatism. Bible truths are worthy of a strong stance and firmly held beliefs.