Nancy Wilson's Blog, page 8

A Joyful Advent

I have a fondness for German advent calendars, having spent four happy childhood Christmases in Germany where my dad was stationed. This calendar pictured above is much like those I remember. We opened a little window each day, and the culmination was the church doors opening Christmas Eve to a manger scene.

This is a great metaphor for our own Advent celebrations. Each day should open onto a happy scene, looking forward to the big event, the appearance of the Christ child Himself.

Since this is obviously true, we should determine that all our Advent celebrations will be about joy and with joy. Look at your list of things to do each day, and determine to do each one with joy. If fact, if you can’t do it with joy, scratch it off the list. Joylessness is out of place. It would be like opening a window on the Advent calendar to find a troll.

It’s easy to excuse a lot of fussing over the massive pile of gifts to buy and wrap, cookies to bake, cards to mail, trees to put up and decorate, and all the rest. But pause for a moment. Each day opens up looking forward to the appearance of the Child. Joyful anticipation should be building.

Take joy with you in every task. Bestow it on every preparation. And remember, if you can’t do it with joy, don’t do it at all.

 

The Thanksgiving Feast

I’ve been rolling a Thanksgiving post around in my mind the past few days, and I happened upon one I wrote for Credenda in 2009. So why start over? Here it is.

Thanksgiving is a mysterious American feast day, buried in the month of November, on a Thursday, of all things. It requires several simple things of its celebrants: a turkey, some trimmings (called side dishes), and several kinds of pie, preferably using pumpkin, pecans, or apples. (And don’t forget the cranberries.)

At a certain moment in the late fall each year, the grocery store workers dutifully lay out the ingredients for the pies and the side dishes, and the butchers offer turkeys, fresh or frozen. Other shopkeepers provide tools for preparing the required dishes: meat thermometers, basting bulbs, measuring cups, and gravy ladles. Some sell dishes and platters decorated with turkeys, pumpkins, or leaves, all for the splendor of the Thanksgiving table.

The American citizens file in to the vast grocery stores, searching for the required elements for the feast, and they transport these ingredients home in paper or plastic bags, to be stored until the day of many preparations.

Some of the side dishes, like cornbread stuffing or marshmallow topped sweet potatoes, are only prepared and eaten once a year, at the Thanksgiving Feast. But each holds a treasured spot on the Thanksgiving table, and some even have their own serving dish just for the annual occasion. (Don’t forget Grandma’s silver gravy boat.)

The word thanksgiving means an expression of gratitude, particularly to God, for His many kindnesses shown to us creatures throughout the year. Those people who first came to this inhospitable land of ours found reason enough to give thanks, and they did. We call their celebration the First Thanksgiving, and we follow in their path, setting aside a day each year to eat traditional Thanksgiving food, and render thanks to God for our lives, our families, our homes and His good provision for our health and comfort and peace. We remember Him as we sit down together and enjoy the feast.

Never mind the atheists who have no one to thank. But they still want to eat turkey and dressing and corn pudding, so the thankless ones call this day Turkey Day, for lack of any better idea. They gather their food and make preparations, sometimes spending more money on the bird and the side dishes and the pies and the wine. Their Turkey Day tables look much like the Thanksgiving Feast tables, both shining with crystal and candlelight. They eat their stuffing and mashed potatoes, but their praise goes to the dead turkey resting on the platter rather than to the Maker of heaven and earth. No wonder their feasting is so much weariness. They are like those described in Paul’s letter to the Romans (1:21): “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

But the thankful ones make a feast around the table, delighting in their Maker and rejoicing in the abundance of His gifts of food and wine and faces, old and young, around the table. Thanksgiving belongs to the thankful ones, and the others press their faces to the window glass, wondering.

God loves for His people to rejoice. In Deuteronomy 28:45-48 the curses are pronounced over the people “because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.” In Deut. 14:22-29, a description of the kind of feast God has in mind is described. It sounds like something that makes our Thanksgiving Feast look pretty tame: “And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.” There’s more, so be sure to read what follows. God loves to attend the parties of His people. In fact He chooses the place and the menu. And when we feast thankfully before the Lord, we are learning to fear Him. That is not what normally comes to mind when we think of fearing God. What a kind God! How sweet it is to render Him thanks! So as you lift your glass and slice your turkey and slosh gravy on your mashed potatoes, know that this is how you are to fear the one true, kind, gracious, sovereign Maker of heaven and earth. And what a Happy Thanksgiving that is!

Funner, Part 4, Mess Investments

Our children are in the middle of what is well and truthfully known as the “formative years.” This is the time in their lives when it is still hard to tell the difference between nature and nurture. They are learning all the important lessons about God, love,  family, life, purpose, joy , and sacrifice right now – and they will carry these things with them for life. We know this to be true! How many of us spend years trying to unlearn things that were taught to us incidentally when we were children?

Even though we know this, we think that our children will hear what we say and learn from that – and never think through what kind of belief system we are acting out for them. They learn far more from our behavior than they do from our words – and ideally those two things act as one.

At our house, we provide our children with a lot of opportunities to make messes, and at least as many opportunities to clean them up. My kids have access to a lot of craft supplies. I have a yarn room, and my girls all knit, crochet, sew random things, cut up felt, make potholders, beg me to teach them to embroider while I am trying to make dinner, make messes with beads, etc. I buy them books on how to do things – and I let them do them. I am aware that rainbow loom loops vacuum well. We have a pottery wheel in the garage, and all of my kids love to mess with clay – but it is Titus who really loves it the most, taking after his Daddy there. All of my kids color like crazy maniacs. We give the children largely unsupervised access to scissors, sharpies, duct tape, cardboard boxes, and generally whatever else they can find, rummage, or dream up.

Why would we do this thing that is clearly shooting ourselves in the minimalistic foot?  Lots of reasons, but here are a few.

First of all, I think that it is incredible easy to get messed up in our home priorities. Is this going to make a mess?! Then not in this house! Is this ultimately saving us money?! No? Then it is not worth the trouble! Is this contributing towards making our house quiet and orderly? If not, I have a legitimate reason to shoot it down! No! We will not have Perler beads if people spill them! Did you see that mess?! We simply cannot afford the mental noise of you trying to do a paper mache project……. I will not go buy Aida cloth when you and I both know you seldom finish any projects of value….. I don’t want to bother with your idea….. I do not think that sounds like what I want to do….. Why would I let you have a marker when we all know what happens next…… You have to be sixteen before you can own  glitter…..  etc. etc.

At our house, we want to invest in our children being unafraid to try things – and this area as a great place for us to make that investment. We want them to have ideas, give it a whirl, and then sit around in a big mess of plastic canvas pieces wondering why they did that. We want them to learn to use their hands, use their minds, and get the two to act together for the occasional wild success. We want them to not be afraid to work – and to learn about the rewards that can only come through making messes.

This may sound like a giant leap here – but I promise it isn’t! We want children who are not afraid to deal with messes – and not just because I want them to all be artsy. Switch this away from crafts and into the future –  we want our children to be the kind of church members who are not afraid of things that they may have to clean up. I want them to understand the kind of beauty that comes out of mud, out of big tangles of yarn, out of confusion and frustration and reading the directions 15 times before you finally understand what it meant. The lessons that your children learn here, nestled in the midst of a failed cardboard camera, or a wild success of a duct tape wallet -are the kinds of lessons that stay with you for life. I know this, because I still remember many of these moments in my life. I know that not every single experience results in this kind lesson or a breakthrough. But without the freedom to try things , you cannot learn the unexpected.

Once, back in the day, I decided to make bagels. They turned out terrible. I wrote the recipe off in my mind as a dumb one. Later, I know not why, I felt convicted about this. I realized that maybe, by some crazy fluke, this was actually user error. What if the recipe was brilliant and I was lame?! So I made it again. And again the next day. And for the rest of the week, possibly two (it was a lot of bagels), I made bagels every day. And in the course of that journey I learned several very important lessons. First of all, my mother has the patience of Job. Not once did she express concern or displeasure with the amount of mess that was being made in her kitchen every day. No one asked me what was wrong with me and my weird bagels. No one tabulated the expense of the experiment. I just pursued the bagels until the bagels were worth the time. Now not only did I know how to make decent bagels (a life skill I assure you) – I learned something really valuable about how to learn.

Later in life, I have applied that method to other things . Just because something does not work out the first time does not mean that it won’t work out with a lot more working! This is not only a lesson in the kitchen – there are so many places in life that this is relevant. Let’s say you try to apply some kind of Biblical principle in your life – like hospitality. And lets say it doesn’t go super well the first time. Do we stop trying? Do we count our one effort as the ultimate test of whether or not this is a good idea? Or do we give ourselves over to figuring it out?

I have met many women who say things like, “I have always wanted to know how to knit (or whatever), but…….. well……… no one taught me. No one bought me the stuff, sat beside me, held my hand, coached me all along the way. No one made that happen for me, and it would have been great, and I would have really liked to be a person who could do that, but alas.”

Clearly I exaggerated that. But seriously. I want my children to have the ability to look around for themselves, gather the materials, read a book, ask a friend if they need to. I want them to be the kind of people who are not afraid to follow through on an idea. I want them to do the work, not just imagine a result. This is why it makes me smile when one of my children turns up with a shopping list of things they need to complete a project. They are thinking of something, and beginning the long work of following through on that. And yes, it interrupts my house cleaning. But it makes my house an awful lot more productive at the same time.

One of the biggest obstacles is when we start trying to judge whether this investment was worth it based on what item got turned out first. That first saggy scarf that is made in the wrong yarn with big holes was not worth the investment in itself. However, that little girl who tried something and loved it and thinks she is going to wear this all winter even though it can barely fit around her neck – that little person is completely worth the investment. Because it won’t always be fruit of no value! There will come a time when their abilities will catch up with that heart.

I do not think that handcrafts are the end all. They aren’t. But they are a wonderful training ground (and there are certainly others). When our children are old enough to be rolling up their sleeves and really working for the Gospel with us – I know what kind of workers we need. The kind who see a need, desire to fill it, and begin the messy, hard, creative task of trying to do that. We want children who have the heart to try. This is why we invest in the kinds of things that shape our children in this way. In our house, that is why the the arts and crafts sometimes run us over like a freight train – a freight train that we pray will not slow down, but rather grow in speed and strength as it gains focus and purpose. As they mature, so will their mediums. I pray that these skills translate into other things as our children begin throwing their abilities into needs they see – and I am confident that they will.  When they are serving God to the best of their abilities, they will find out what those abilities really were – and I know it won’t be limited to crafting projects. As for now, I know (because I experience it everyday) that these children are an incredible force! I don’t ever want that to change that, I just want to pray it into maturity, and survive the mess joyfully until then!

Let Us Do That For You

If being a stay-at-home mom to raise your own children is such a demeaning, unfulfilling, and unimportant job, then why is our government so eager to take it over for us? I will tell you why.

Because the sooner they can get their hands on your children’s minds and hearts, the sooner they can shape their thinking and mess with their faith. Everyone knows (whether they admit it or not) that the mother has the most important job in the world: bringing up the children God has given her. The hireling does not care for the sheep the way the shepherd does. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep just like a mother will lay down her life for her children all day long. The hireling does not and cannot love the sheep the way the shepherd does (John 10:11-13).

Apparently K-12 is just not enough time for the government to indoctrinate the kids, so the push is to get a hold of them sooner. It sounds so thoughtful: let us take care of the little ones while you go find something productive to do. Something with a paycheck. But it turns out the children are the ones who actually pay the heavy cost of government-run day care.

Twenty years ago, or so, at a very exciting town meeting that was full of liberal activists, an angry lesbian shouted at a group of us Christians, “Ten years and your children are ours!” I remember thinking at the time, “Not our kids.” But the tragedy is that so many kids have been won over. It is a strategy that has worked all too well. The “free” education of the government school system has been the means they have used so effectively, even with Christian kids. But if they can get them enrolled as babies or toddlers, so much the better.

Mothers, you are irreplaceable. There is no substitute on earth for what you can give your children. Teach them. Pray with and for them. Feed them. Love them. Read to them. Discipline them. Wash them. Wipe their noses. Change their diapers. Fold their clothes. Make them cookies. Decorate their birthday cakes. Stuff their Christmas stockings. Tell them stories. And when they are old enough for a formal education, make certain that it is “in the Lord” and not a secular education. Whether it is by means of homeschooling, or private Christian education, your children must receive a thoroughly Christian education, start to finish. This should be a non-negotiable. And once you are started, don’t stop until you are finished. Don’t get your children reading and writing and then hand them off to the state to “educate.” They will.  Sadly, many Christian parents take the pains to home school until high school, and then right at the moment when their kids are ready to learn how to apply a Christian worldview to all of life, their parents send them to the government school to finish the job.

This little booklet pictured above is one my husband wrote for Athanasius Press. It is only $5.00 at Canon Press, but I will happily give away ten copies. If you would like one, leave a comment, and I’ll send it off to the first ten of you.

 

 

Marriage Troubles

In the big world of marriage troubles, God’s Word provides the only real solution. Divorce is always an easy answer, but God hates divorce, and it ought to be a last resort reserved for cases of infidelity or other sins of similar magnitude.

But living in a state of long-term misery is no solution either. So let’s just consider a few principles that might produce some measure of improvement. At least it will be moving you in the right direction. It’s always easy to make things worse, so let’s think about how we can make things better. Even if you can’t change your husband, you can change your own heart and attitude. So let’s start there.

1. Think about what you could improve rather than only focusing on what your husband could do better. Confess your own sins rather than his.

2. Consider his perspective. What is it like for him to be married to you?

3. Do not harbor resentments. Love covers a multitude of sins. Ask God for that kind of love.

4. Once you’ve forgiven something, don’t bring it up again. God doesn’t do that to you.

5. Harping and nagging are always negatives. Cut him some slack.

6. Express gratitude. Surely he is doing something right. Thank him for those things.

7. When he asks you what’s wrong, don’t say “nothing” unless that is really true.

8. Don’t attribute motives (“He said that because….”). There is no way of knowing for sure unless you ask him, and it’s unfair to put your husband on trial when he has no opportunity for defense.

9. Are you trustworthy? Is he safe with you? Do you tell him the truth?

10. Remember what it was that attracted you to him in the first place. He must have had some qualities that you appreciated. Remind yourself of those things rather than thinking only of how he is falling short.

None of these are “quick fix” answers to weighty problems. But they can help you move from a state of unhappiness to a state of contentment, even in the midst of troubles. Finally, and most important, remember your vows. You made promises about better and worse, rich and poor, sickness and health. Ask God to help you keep those promises.

All His Works

We all are taken up with our own work, as we should be. But think about what makes our work meaningful: God Himself has prepared our own specific work just for us. It has His autograph on it. Work is good. God invented it. In fact, He works harder than all of us.

Consider these few verses in Psalm 111 that refer to God’s works. But before we look at them, look at the opening to this psalm: “Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.” And the psalm ends with more praise: “His praise endures forever.” So what is sandwiched in between that praise? In this particular psalm, it’s a whole lot about God’s work.

Verse 2: The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.

Verse 3: His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endures forever.

Verse 4: He has made His wonderful works to be remembered;

Verse 6: He has declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.

Verse 7: The works of His hands are verity and justice; all His precepts are sure.

God is taken up with His own work, and we are called to praise and admire His work. Not only that, but He has given us plenty of good work to do as well, in imitation of Him. So as we go about our own daily/weekly work, we should keep His works in view: His works are great, honorable, glorious, wonderful, memorable, powerful, true, and just.

When the alarm goes off, and we turn our own hands to our own meager works, we should remind ourselves that we are imitating our good and gracious God in His work. We may feel a little like the toddler with the tool bench, but this pleases Him. We glorify His work, and we glorify Him when we offer all our work to Him. Work is a gift! It is good for our souls to be working for six days and resting for one. Just like He did. The wise woman works. She looks after the many needs of her household, which is a whole lot of work. She is too busy to even think about eating the bread of idleness (31:27). Nor does she want to.

The idle or slothful, on the other hand, is compared to vinegar, smoke (Prov. 10:26), and thorns (15:19). He is a beggar (20:4), conceited (26:16), and poor (24:34). He makes excuses (22:13), takes frequent naps (20:33; 6:9), and is above working (21:25). His home is falling apart (Ecc. 10:18), his fields are overgrown with weeds, and his fences need mending (Prov. 24:31).

We sometimes think that we would work if only our work would have some lasting impact or if it had more significance. And yet look at the picture of the dawn above. It only lasted a few minutes. God throws away His beautiful works on us by the ton. How often do we see them and truly appreciate them? Yet He keeps working.

His praise endures forever!

Life on the Altar

I’d like to look at the content of the familiar text of Romans 12:1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

First we must see that Paul is pleading with us, begging us to do something. He is very earnest about this, and he bases his appeal on the mercies of God.

What are these mercies of God? They are His tender mercies. He loves us in Christ, He has adopted us as His own children, He has extended forgiveness to us in Christ, and He has transferred us into the Kingdom of His Son. Not only that, but He has plans for us, plans that are good and acceptable and perfect.

Based on these mercies, what is it Paul is urging us to do? He wants us to give our bodies to God as a sacrifice. Not as a sacrifice to be slaughtered, but as a living sacrifice. He wants us to live on the altar of God. And when we give Him our body, our mind and spirit come along with it.

What kind of sacrifice is this? A holy one.

How does God like this idea? It is acceptable to Him.

Is this going above and beyond the Christian’s duty? No. It is only reasonable that creatures would render to their Creator such service.

How do you like this idea? Is it acceptable to you? If you’re not sure, go back to the beginning and consider God’s mercies. He is to be trusted.

Living on the altar brings about remarkable changes. You will be transformed, which means your will be made into something new. Your mind will be renewed. The deadness will fall away, and resurrection life will be ushered in. You will have an entirely different vantage point from the altar, and the view is spectacular.

You’ll see the world’s eagerness to get you to comply and follow, and you’ll turn a deaf ear.

How do we get there? Present your body to God: “Here I am, Lord. Do what you will with me. I am at your disposal to bring you glory any way you see fit because I know your will for me is good, acceptable, and perfect. My circumstances, my family, my home, my background, my health, my troubles, my blessings are all acceptable to me because they are acceptable to you.”

It turns out that living on God’s altar is the safest, most reasonable thing a creature can do.

 

Here Comes Halloween

Once upon a time when we were living in England, I kept hearing this one particular song everywhere I went. I think it was around Christmas, so I was out shopping a lot – and the song was everywhere. It had a great vibe and I liked it, so I downloaded it and added it to the mix. My dad had taught me early on that you should always read the lyrics so that you know what you’re singing along to . . . and that’s a habit that has stuck with me to this day. As an aside, that habit is especially important as a parent – who wants to find out later that your kids have all memorized something filthy that you’ve been playing around the house every day? Anyway, I remember that I had looked up the lyrics to this song and they were completely nonsensical and poetically unimpressive, but there wasn’t anything problematic about it in that way. And it was a great song to cook to. I always love it when the music is turned up and everyone is in the kitchen helping, and like I said, this song had a great vibe. So it was definitely having a presence around the homefront as well as in the Christmas sales around Oxford.

After a week or so, apropos of nothing, I looked up the band. It wasn’t a group that I was familiar with, and so in a moment of curiosity I googled them.

What I found out was that a couple of the members of this band had met at a Halloween party – and they had instantly hit it off and had known that they were destined to be friends because of the costumes they were in. One of them was dressed as a botched back-alley abortion, and I can’t remember what the other one was but it fit in nicely with that first. Seriously, it turned my stomach – and that was the last of that song for me. I deleted it straight off my playlist and that was that – I absolutely couldn’t listen to them anymore without being completely revolted.

But why on earth am I bringing this up? I’ve been hearing a lot of Christians lately talking about how wonderfully symbolic it is to dress up as ghosts and goblins and demons and witches on Halloween – and the reasoning is that by dressing up as these things we are making fun of Christ’s enemies. But to be honest I’m dubious about that reasoning. Dressing up as a botched abortion is dressing up as an enemy of Christ’s – but I fail to see what kind of great postmillenial point could be made with that.

I’m curious if the folks that self consciously dress their kids as various members of the demonic team (as opposed to those who do so without thinking it through at all) would be equally ok with dressing their sons up as a transvestites, or their daughters as a couple of lesbian brides? Throw an abortion doctor in there? To be honest, I think most Christians would be horrified at that idea – and rightly so. I think this is because we intuitively know that dressing up as something is not actually how you mock that thing. A man wearing his favorite player’s jersey to the game is not mocking that player – and no one who sees him thinks he is. Everyone who sees him knows at a glance that this is an act of solidarity with the team, not the other way around. An actor in costume for his play is not in the act of mocking the character he’s dressed as. Heck – even a man in a hot dog suit who’s holding a sign advertising the nearby hot dog stand . . . he’s not mocking hot dogs. He’s telling all the passing traffic that if they are fans of hot dogs they should step this way. I actually can’t honestly think of one single instance of putting on a costume where we are all supposed to intuitively understand that this is an act of mockery.

I’m not arguing that parents who are doing this as an act of gospel symbolism are in high rebellion. If those parents are using this method to catechize their children about Christ’s victory then I believe them to be sincere . . . I just think that they’re mistaken about the way the symbolism works. In my mind it would be similar to teaching my kids swear words with entirely different meanings attached to them. If I told my kids that the f-bomb meant “Hooray!” then when they used the word they wouldn’t be guilty of swearing . . . they’d just be very confused. And so would everyone else be around them.

My second problem with this approach to Halloween is that, even assuming that the symbolism does in fact work, mocking the principalities and powers is actually something that we are forbidden from doing in Scripture. Jude specifically addresses this in verses 8-11:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

My thought is that if even the archangel Michael wouldn’t speak disrespectfully to Satan, and if the people who heap abuse on celestial beings are soundly condemned as having taken the way of Cain, rushed into Balaam’s error, and those who were destroyed in Korah’s rebellion . . . well I think that maybe we should think twice before launching a campaign with our children of, “Hey everyone! Let’s mock the devil!”

So I guess my two problems with this approach boil down to this. That’s not the way you mock the devil, and even if it was you probably shouldn’t do it.

So how do we celebrate Halloween in our house? The kids dress up and go aquire as much candy as possible. I’m totally on board with that. Yahoo for costumes, yahoo for trick or treating, and yahoo for sugar in bucketloads. We just don’t dress up as the other team.

Giveaway Winners!

We have our four winners! Congrats on your new magazine Rachel, Kate, Katie, and Kelley! Thanks everyone for joining in on the fun, and don’t forget to go get yourselves a subscription!

Give Away! Nature Friend Magazine!

The fun news today is that I have 4 subscriptions to Nature Friend Magazine give away! They are one year subscriptions, 12 issues each. To enter the drawing you only need to leave a comment here. You have the option of entering twice if you share it on Facebook, and come back to say so here. Otherwise, please only comment once!

I love this magazine! The subtitle is “Helping Families Explore the Wonders of God’s Creation” – and that right there is what I love. You can see how much use these see in our home by all the wrinkly covers – and apparently even our dog is attracted to them. Well, she is a bird dog after all so maybe that makes sense.

This is the only magazine that we get for our kids, and they enjoy it so much. My mom subscribed me when I was little and I went so far as to write a letter to the editor about my Grandma seeing bear cubs, going to great pains to use the word “astonishing.” Since my kids have been old enough to read it has been a constant in our home, and there is always great rejoicing when we find one in the mailbox. So much to learn, things to draw, interesting animals to find out about, beautiful pictures – it really is a delight.

I will do the drawing next Tuesday for four different winners. Nature Friend has been so kind as to offer a coupon for our readers who don’t win but want to get the magazine all the same. You can see that info on their website, here.

They are also offering a deal right now where every subscription gets you entered in a drawing for a pair of $300 binoculars – one pair for every 50 subscriptions, so your chances of winning are pretty good! You can find out more about that on their website – when you go to sign up, which you totally should!I am sure your kids will enjoy it as much as mine!