The Burnt-Over Blog: September 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

John Daniel Bryant

John Daniel was born on September 11th 2012 at 3:05pm. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 22 inches long. He is the only kid that has had so much dark hair. He is a real sweetheart and such a good boy already. Here are some pictures of him.

The kids just love their little brother. They love to talk to him and hold his hand and give him his binky.

Here he is at two weeks old!

He hates his baths and you can see him holding Amma's arm but what you can't tell is how hard he is gripping it. He didn't want to let go!

Lincoln took the rest of these pictures! He is getting better with the camera.

And that is our new addition to our wonderful family! More pictures I'm sure will be forthcoming!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

More Summer Fun!

Here is the rest of the pictures from the adventures we had over the summer.

We took Lincoln to the new attraction of Cars at California Adventure. He loved it!

This is Lake Fulmor up in the San Jacinto Mts.

Seth got to use his float tube!

The kids got to feed some ducks.

This is Lake Hemet near Idylwild.

We also made it to the beach a couple of times before it got into fall.

Lincoln loved holding daddy's hand and jumping in the waves.

Ella loved running away from the water as it came in.

Bekah would only go out further if Daddy held her.

We had a great summer and look forward to all the fun that comes with fall.

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

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