Emily Cook's Blog, page 49

Messy Mommy Jobs & Link Up

We started out our Advent season with a little of this:



And then, the cat joined the fun.
(How dare you! Let me get my camera, and then you are SO getting out of their, you stinkin' cat!)



Too slow,joe.



And then, this happened:




That was a new one for me.  I'd never really thought of THAT space as a blank canvas, made to inspire creativity.

You may undo your creativity now, boys.


And then, this happened.
Can you guess what this is a picture of?



It was barely 8am, and the wiggly boys were already getting to me. One punched one, one poured milk on another, and I put them in the tub for a minute, with the hopes that a little water would distract them from beating each other up for a minute. It didn't. So I got one of the boys out, and I stood him on the counter to dry him and dress him. He fought me. I tried to put his shirt on. He danced. I covered him with lotion. He pounded on the mirror and laughed at my frustration. I reached for his pants.

He defiantly smashed his lotioned bottom up against the mirror.
And I was mad.
"Can't you just BE STILL for a minute! Look what you did! There are butt cheeks on my my mirror!"
As my angry words flew at him, he tried hard to look sorry, but he was trying not to laugh.
After all, mom did just yell the words, "butt cheeks."

And just like that, I saw it. The ridiculousness of it all, both the butt cheeks and my own anger. We laughed and laughed. And the entire tone of the morning was reset, just like that.

And I left them there for an entire day. They made me smile every time.


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Do you have any ridiculous messy moments to share?
Link up below, or send me your pictures for next week!


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Don't forget to check out some of the links below!

Happy Advent!

Not Seeking Soma, but accepting God-Given Relief

(This is Part 5 in a series. Read Part 1,  part 2, part 3, and part 4)
There’s a difference between seeking soma and accepting relief.
By seeking soma, I mean seeking to fill oneself with the good things in this life.  Pleasure gluttony, in all its various forms.
When I seek soma, when I approach my life intent on bouncing from one pleasure to the next, I find myself irritable when any of those things are taken away. I think I have a right to naptime, to a night’s sleep, to an uninterrupted cup of coffee. I feel injured when those things are stolen from me.  I consume all that I can out of the pleasures around me, and I still find myself unsatisfied, wanting more, not numb enough, not happy enough.  I am inconvenienced, interrupted, and put out all day long.
And the law shows me my sin, and reveals my heart for the selfishness that is in it. And still I whine that I deserve a break, I deserve a little comfort cheese, I deserve a day off. And yet, even as I whine I know I do not deserve, not from my God whom I have ignored while seeking my own happiness in other places.
Before God, I have no rights at all.I have no right to have an easy day today.I cannot whine if He asks me to suffer, to sacrifice, to deny myself.I do not have a right to wake up healthy today.I cannot demand another day with my family.I have no right to any pleasures, any joys, in light of my sin.
The wages of sin is death- that really means, for our sins, we deserve to die.  This minute of life is pure gift. We are not entitled to it, or to the next one.
And then we see Jesus—Jesus who gave up his legitimate rights and became man; Jesus who emptied Himself, for us, to pay the wages that are too much for us to pay.  Jesus who did the thing we struggle to understand- who chose suffering.
It’s simply not natural, not for us.  And yet, for us, it has already been done.
And we, His children, get to rest in His love for us, His strange love that is so unlike what we find in our own hearts. 
Sitting there with him, His love rubs off on us.Our hearts grow, and ache, and suffer as His does.  This is the life of the Christian, called to be God’s hands and feet to serve others, called to be God’s grace with skin on for the sake of others.
He does not give us soma, he does not give us numbness, or heartless happiness as we follow Him. And when we see ourselves for who we are, and Him for who He is, we know we cannot demand it. 
How can we insist on being free from suffering, when God himself suffered for us?
And yet, he has mercy on us.He does not give us soma, but He does give us relief.
Relief.

Not by right, but by gift, the sun shone on me today.I was not entitled to it, but even so, He gave me a moment of laughter.And a healthy body. And the energy to mop the floors.

All good things from above, they are also gifts of grace from our Father who did not even withhold His Son.
How then shall we live?Not vainly clinging to imagined “rights,” gorging ourselves on the good things in this life.But seeking our contentment in Him, learning to suffer and to love and rejoice, learning as He teaches.And keeping our eyes open, intentionally noticing the manifold gifts of grace that He sends from heaven.
Sometimes, I can really see it, His hand in the gifts all around me.
Lord, open my eyes, and open my hands.

By grace, God gave me Jesus.AND, by grace, he gave me coffee.And He gave me television, to help us through sick days.And He gave me the blessing of a hot, quiet shower.And He gave me the kind words of a friend.
And He gave me daily bread, and it was sticky and sweet, and it made my children smile while we ate it together in this place where we live by grace.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  His mercy endures forever.
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What kind of relief did God send you today?
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Messy Monday link-up returns again this Monday!As you pull out the holiday boxes, take pictures of the chaos!Send them to me this weekend, or prepare a post to link-up!

Cling to Jesus while you swing

What is the opposite of happiness-chasing?

Love.
“Our soul fluctuates between thoughts and feelings we don’t like and thoughts and feelings we do like, and we don’t like those fluctuations… we try to stop that swing, because our soul’s fluctuations are unpleasant to us… We think that Christ maturity is getting that swing under control.” Dan Stone, as quoted in Grace for the Good Girl, p. 57
We try to stop that swing. The swing, of my emotions, and the circumstances of my life, makes me nauseated and unsettles me.I don’t like it, so I try to stop it.
I try to stop the swing by taking my soma, be it food or sleep or the distractions of technology.
And (sin upon sin) I even ask God to stop it for me.
I want to use Jesus like soma.“Grant me peace,”I say, when I really mean, “free me from having to care about something that makes me unhappy.”“Help me trust you,”I say, when I really mean, “let me stop aching, stop worrying, stop caring about this suffering person, because it hurts too much.”
Jesus, be my soma. Numb my heart for me.
But… what if those difficult emotions are symptoms of the love of Christ in us?
Jesus, who gave up the perfection of heaven to be God with us, in this place of suffering; Jesus, who has compassion, who wept, who sweat drops of blood; Jesus, whose body and blood are broken and poured out for you and for me.
Jesus, who has seen our lack of love, and yet (grace upon grace) still welcomes and pursues His children with their hard hearts.
Jesus, whose love for us is seen best on the cross.His love fills me, and it unsettles me.
And I don’t want him to let me numb it away, not if it is His love in me, growing me, moving me to be His hands and feet to love others in this broken place.
Jesus, fill me with your love.And hold tight to me, as your love unsettles me.

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(This is Part 4 in a series. Read Part 1,  part 2, and part 3)
See more Grace for the Good Girl Posts here.

Anything for a happy heart?

(This is Part 3 in a series. Read Part 1 and part 2 here.)

One man complains about the “brave new world,” and they call him a Savage.But, he asks, without emotion, without suffering and conflict, where is the nobility? Where is the heroism?
Read the description of a world without such things:
"My dear young friend," said Mustapha Mond, "civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended–there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren't any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There's no such thing as a divided allegiance; you're so conditioned that you can't help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren't any temptations to resist. And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears–that's what soma is.” Brave New World
So, what’s wrong with this? It’s a little difficult to sort out. Of course we want to avoid suffering, and in theory, this is not a bad thing.
But let’s see where this avoidance of suffering, or chasing of one’s happiness, leads: both in the Brave New World and in your own life.  Does chasing your own happiness lead you to a growing love for God and for others?
Or does it result in a smaller heart, one preoccupied with itself, and easily closed to the sufferings of another?
Part of me would love to achieve some sort of inner calmness. I’d love to be the one who can handle all things with a smile, with wisdom and cheerfulness. I’d love to be free from stress and grief and heartache.  (And I’d love to do this with my own willpower, but if I could use a magic pill instead, I’d probably do that too.)
But here, in this place, that sort of thing is simply not possible without making some major changes. For me to achieve that, I would have to snap my heart shut, and numb it. I’d have to make it harden, so that it could never be unsettled by the tragedies of this broken world.
As Emily P. Freeman writes, “Trying not to experience the whole spectrum of emotions is like trying to be inhuman.” p. 57 Grace for the Good Girl
So, do you agree?And if so, what else is there besides chasing our own happy feelings?

My Soma

Yesterday, we talked about the fictional drug, soma (like alcohol without the side effects.)(please note- I refer to the fictional drug from Brave New World, not this drug.)
And I asked you, if soma were for sale today, would you take it?
What would you do to escape your bad days, your trials, your emotions?
Now, let me ask a more pointed question… Is this kind of thing available, and DO you take it?
Because I do. 
As I read Brave New World, I judged the infantile people in the story who lived life in their comfortable bubbles, soothing any negative emotion with a dose of soma.
How could they? Don’t they see that by living their lives in a state of numbness, that they are missing… something? How can they be content to simply live life going from one pleasure to the next? How could they be happy by simply using each other, and letting themselves be used?  How could they possibly feel content with small, numbed hearts, capable of shrugging off any suffering or trial in themselves or others as if they were nothing?
Now at this point, I am tempted to rant and rave about our culture and how it encourages the same kind of numbness. Did you know they legalized marijuana here and there? Have you heard how people try to control their kids by drugging them?  Have you heard how easily doctors prescribe anti-depressants?!
(*Please note- In no way do I mean to criticize those who take medicine for medical problems. I take anti-depressants, and they are God's gift to me.)
But I can’t complain about our culture, without telling you what I found at home, right here, in my own heart.
Numbness. Calm happiness. I like these things too.In fact, I like them so much, I often find myself seeking them, ALL day long. And then when little people get in my way, I become frustrated. So I treat myself to a candy bar. And when my body complains that I have not rested it, I grab another cup of coffee.  I prop myself up with food and drink, not using it as fuel to help me do my job, but using it to make myself calm, happy, or numb.
I turn off the news because it makes me sad. I avert my eyes from those who suffer, and I go on facebook instead. 
There are many things that turn to when I am unsettled, like an addict to her drug.Suffering is simply not natural.
What kinds of things do you use like soma?What do you do to escape your bad days?

Soma: A Prescription for No More Bad Days

Soma. Don’t you wish we had a drug like soma?

It’s like alcohol without the side effects. It’s an instant good mood, a cure for any negative emotion. It is a holiday in a bottle, with no consequences. And, in Brave New World, it is socially encouraged, accepted, expected.
"One cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments."
It’s an easy way to reset any bad day. It’s a way for people to stop feeling weary and tired and angry, and instead become cheerful, functional, and productive again.
“Punctured, utterly deflated, he dropped into a chair and, covering his face with his hands, began to weep. A few minutes later, however, he thought better of it and took four tablets of soma.”
Poof. The bad day is gone. The bad mood is melted away. He is “himself” again.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it?So let me ask you, if soma were for sale today, would you take it?
What would you do to escape your bad days, your trials, your emotions?
(Join me this week for daily posts on the topic of suffering, love, and numbness.)

Life, here. (and Happy Thanksgiving.)

In a tree outside my window, there is a nest.
The next is empty.
Quiet.

Life grew there, I think to myself.
And I turn around and I see my house.
Life grows here.

Life is growing in this house, with noise and bold colors, with music and mess.  
His blessings are so abundant that I cannot even see them all to count them. I breathe them in, walk on them, wear them, eat them, rest in their arms, and dwell in them.




"It’s almost too much this passing of time, the dying of dreams and the budding of new ones, this growing of babies into children and children into women and hearts to maturity. And I cry because I want to hold it all forever, His goodness in this place. I run fingers over knife-worn counters and time runs too fast. And people are sent out from here. People heading home and people heading off to new futures and one day, these girls, too. I serve meals in this kitchen but I want to serve them what counts. I want to offer them the living bread, the only food that truly fills.
I have laughed here, I have wept here, I have created here, oh, I have prayed here. And here in this place, I have known Him more. I haven’t always done it right and some days I feel that I haven’t been enough, but I know that He has. He has. Right above the oven are painted the words of Acts, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and generous hearts… and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved,” and I know it like I know my own breath and the warmth of the sun on my skin, time passes, and they will go, and only He will remain.
My eyes find the trail of footprints leading to the door, and through bated breath I ask it, beg it, “Lord, if I could have just one thing, could I have served them You?”"  ---- Katie Davis

Read the full post here. It is well worth your time.



Giving thanks with you this weekend, for abundant blessings,  and for the love of God we have in Christ Jesus.
Happy thanksgiving.

Where are the rules? Cleaning rage, law, and gospel series continued

Did you miss the first part of my series?Let me summarize (though I encourage you to go back and read for yourself- see links above.)
First, I found myself in a messy basement having an enormous fit of cleaning rage. Picture garbage bags, yelling, and stomping.
Second, I realized I was annoyed not only with my children and their irresponsibility, but with our abundance, and the fact that it sometimes inconveniences me. And even so, God was gracious to this mother, and again gave me grace instead of what I deserve.
Third, I passed the lesson of law and gospel on to my children. I made an enormous list of their sins and I read it to them, one by one. Then, I surprised them with a fresh picture of grace, and we watched a movie under blankets.
Part 4: Underlying theology of Law and Gospel
I had cleaned the basement "for them," in large part because I was running on rage and adrenaline. This is an obvious example of the way that even my best attempts at loving my children are mixed with sin!  I promise you, it was only by the help of God that the evening did not end with a lecture and a mommy-fit!
But as we sat under blankets of grace, and they had no consequences for their irresponsible behavior, I wondered,
Wait, did I just teach my children that they get to shirk all responsibilities, and let mommy take care of their messes forever, all because of Jesus???
Grace feels risky, doesn't it? As if it could nullify all rules and order and responsibility?
Let’s go back to the beginning. What is it that we are called do as Christian parents? We are to love our children with the love of Christ.
“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)Yes. So how then, exactly does He love us? 
That's a big question. We know His love is not like our love, His ways are not our ways.Here’s what we know for sure:
The LawGod hates sin. Sin is wrong and evil and leads to death. He never, not once, pretends that it is something less. God’s Word condemns each and every one of us under the Law. The wages of sin is death, and all are guilty.  Our sin is so dreadful and pervasive that we could never hope to atone for it, and all of our attempts to earn our own pardon serve only to trivialize the gravity of the situation. Our works are filthy rags.
If you think the Sin List I wrote for my children was harsh, just read the Ten Commandments, and make your own itemized sin list. Bitter medicine.
The medicine is bitter, but it is necessary. The law is given to us so that we can rightly see our sickness. As Paul explains,
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Rom 3:20)
Why in the world do we need to become conscious of sin? So we can try harder, do better, and fix ourselves?
No. Read the verse above again. The law does not make us righteous.The task is even more overwhelming, more impossible, than a messy basement is to a four-year-old.  You will not become righteous through the law, through the lists, through self-effort, through moralism, through sincere and whole-hearted attempts to follow the law.
The GospelWe continue reading in Romans 3But now, a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. (Romans 3:21-22a)
Do you see? Sinners crushed by the law, sinners with unclean hearts and hands and an impossible task, are not therefore turned away. 
They are given Jesus.Jesus, God with us, God taking on our sins and carrying them to the cross.Jesus, God in us, God filling empty sinners with His righteousness.Jesus, God for us, God dying in our place, and giving us life.
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Rom 3:22b-24)
Justified freely.The gift is free, unconditional, and complete.  He first loved us, with a love that is so strong it seems irrational, seems impossible, seems too much, too easy, too risky.
And we can stop here. We can rest here, under blankets of received righteousness.  We can set up camp, here, dwell here, abide here.  We can live and move and have our being here, in the safety of God’s love for us in Christ.
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-----------------Where are the rules?
They are excluded, and have been replaced with grace.
Where is my pride?
It has been melted by love.
Where is my gold star?
It has been forgotten for something much better: mercy.
“Where, then, is boasting?It is excluded.On what principle? On that of observing the law?
No, but on that of faith.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Romans 3:27-28)
-------------Read more: Law and Gospel 2 sides of the same coin
Coming next: The proper context of works

Or, if I make them clean the basement someday, will I just cancel everything I just taught them about grace?

Epilepsy Awareness

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