The Burnt-Over Blog: February 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

Winter Happenings

January was a cold and snowy month for us here in Tennessee. The kids got to miss out on a whole weeks worth of school although, ironically, the snow did not last that long! Our sweet Ella Bekah also had her 4th birthday last week and of course it was celebrated by going to the kids' favorite Chuck-e-Cheese.

Lincoln's favorite thing to do in the snow is throw snowballs at everyone.

We actually had enough snow to make a snowman this year!

Lincoln and Bekah's favorite toy for the month was this box. They would just spend hours playing together in there.

Never did you see better friends. They got into Lincolns bed and watched each other play their leapfrog while eating popcorn.

Our little sweetheart turned 4 this year! Hard to believe she has gotten so big.

All she wanted was a white cake with lots and lots of sprinkles on top!

She loves her purse from Grandma Joyce. She even hangs it up with my purse!

And or course thank you to cousins Lexi and Brynn for picking out the Littlest Pet Shop toy for Ella. You know she loves her animals. Thanks guys!

And I didn't get a good shot of Alphie the robot but thanks to Amma and Papa and Auntie Annie for that. It has provided lots of fun entertainment.

Happy Birthday sweet little Beks! Never was there such a girl as you. Daddy, Mommy and Lincoln all love you so much.

Doctrine and Covenants 163:10a-b

Del Gue's Parting Words

I ain't never seen 'em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! Keep good care of your hair! These here is God's finest sculpturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here! And there ain't no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live 'til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent...

The Meaning of Christ on the Cross

At the heart of divine love is sacrifice-the willingness to be diminished so that another may be increased. This is the meaning of Christ on the cross. God, who could have insulated himself from pain, descended to earth, assumed the aspect of his children, and bore the greatest pain in his own person. Rather than hoard the heavenly feast for himself, he invites beggars to his table. He breaks bread with us and drinks from the cup our lips have touched. When he speaks to us, it is no longer from a great white throne, centered in a vortex of light, surrounded by celestial griffins, warding off the unwashed. He speaks to us eye to eye, from a traitor’s gibbet, with his blood and sweat and shame upon him for all to see, and with his wounds forever open. He comes not as king, but as slave. He comes not as judge, but as accused. He comes not as patriarch, but as bastard. He comes not to punish us, but to let us punish him. He does not ask us to love him until we are first certain that he loves us. He is the great failure who saves us from our success. He is the great fool who spares us from our wisdom. He is the rejected lover who will not, in turn, reject his love. He is a prophet without honor, a citizen of a despised nation, a poor relation, an unwanted guest. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness of every human heart. He is the God of grief and sorrow who is the joy of our desiring. He is utterly good because he loves us in our sins and imperfections, because he freely made himself equal to us, and because he freely opened the way whereby we may be made equal to him.

--Paul Toscano's "Priesthood Concepts in the Book of Mormon," Sunstone (Dec. 1989): 17.

True Conversion

Conversion is a permanent process in which very often the obstacles we meet make us lose all we had gained and start anew. The fruitfulness of our conversion depends on our openness to doing this, our spiritual childhood. All conversion implies a break. To wish to accomplish it without conflict is to deceive oneself and others: "No one is worthy of me who cares more for father or mother than for me." But it is not a question of a withdrawn and pious attitude. Our conversion process is affected by the socio-economic, political, cultural, and human environment in which it occurs. Without a change in these structures, there is no authentic conversion. We have to break with our mental categories, with the way we relate to others, with our way of identifying with the Lord, with our cultural milieu, with our social class, in other words, with all that can stand in the way of a real, profound solidarity with those who suffer, in the first place, from misery and injustice. Only thus, and not through purely interior and spiritual attitudes, will the 'new person' arise from the ashes of the 'old.'"
--Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 118

The Burnt-Over Blog

Friday, February 4, 2011

Winter Happenings

Blog Archive

Seth's Chaplain Blog

Independence Temple

Doctrine and Covenants 163:10a-b

Del Gue's Parting Words

The Meaning of Christ on the Cross

True Conversion