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Pro-life - Abortion

You can save pre-born lives this summer

Yesterday I stood on a sidewalk holding a sign. It read, Pregnant? Need Help? I watched as the crowds hurried by and saw, on our other signs, what...
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Interview with an artist

Created to create: a practical person’s thoughts on creativity
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Assorted

The evil of simplicity

If ever there was an idol thoroughly ripe and ready for a great heaving into eternal hell fire, it has to be the idol of simplicity. This leapt to ...
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Articles, Articles, Book Reviews, Entertainment, Movie Reviews

We are not trashcans: how to analyze stories

Why is it important for Christians to understand stories? Obviously, God loves to tell them. Our world is saturated with His stories and the stories o...
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Education

If grades are dropping, should we drop grades?

A new trend in Canadian schools ***** Imagine a student who has struggled academically for several years. In the past, their grades would have alerted teachers and parents that intervention was needed. But this student is at a school where there’s been a shift from A’s and B’s to something called a “proficiency scale.” Parents understand percentages and letter grades, but this proficiency scale uses terms that aren’t at all clear. • Emerging • Developing • Proficient • Extending The result? Our imaginary student falls through the cracks in the system instead of being noticed early on. This scenario isn’t just imaginary. I talked to Joanna DeJong VanHof, Education Program Director at Cardus, a Christian think tank, and she explained that this is what’s happening under British Columbia’s new method of assessing students. In 2023, B.C. abolished letter grades for Grades K-9 and adopted a Provincial Proficiency Scale with those four categories. The scale was introduced amid concerns that grades stressed deficits – they emphasized where the student fell short – whereas, with a scale, learning would be regarded as an ongoing process. B.C. is not an isolated case. Their shift was part of a broader trend in Canadian schools away from traditional teaching and grading methods. Schools are replacing quantitative assessments – letter grades and percentage scores – with qualitative approaches, like observations, narrative feedback, and ongoing conversations about student learning. VanHof says this shift is problematic because qualitative assessments measure student performance “relative to their peers” rather than against “actual content.” While intended to support struggling students, the approach raises questions for educators. Is compassion for students being confused with lowered expectations? The BC proficiency scale: a case study Victor Brar, a University of British Columbia professor with expertise in K-12 education, has written on the rationale behind B.C’s proficiency scale. In an article on The Conversation news site, he made a case for the change. He noted that while grades “highlight the deficits of underperforming students,” the scale focuses on the process of learning itself and encourages teachers “to assign equal value to all the learning that happens between tests.” However, eliminating letter grades has left parents confused with what their child’s progress has been. According to the National Post, only 36% of parents could correctly interpret what an “emerging” grade meant. Similarly, educators needed to interpret and translate what the criteria meant, raising concerns around subjectivity. “There's always a sense in which grading is subjective,” said VanHof, but when that subjectivity is taken to the extreme, there are unintended consequences. One of them, VanHof said, is grade inflation where students may have high marks on paper, but “the actual content knowledge that has happened isn’t at the same level as it has been in previous years.” De-streaming: equity or erosion? VanHof drew a parallel between B.C. 's proficiency scale with Ontario’s 2021 “de-streaming” policy, which eliminated separate Grade 9 academic and applied courses for a single course. Previously, the applied math courses focused on the math we need in our every day, like balancing our household budget, while academic courses prepared students for the university level. The goal of de-streaming, like the proficiency scale, was to promote an equitable learning environment. According to Ontario Educators, streaming reinforced economic disparities and racism, disproportionately placing Black and Indigenous students in applied courses and creating a “class system” that perpetuated a “self-fulfilling prophecy” of lower academic achievement. However, Michael Zwaagstra, Senior Fellow at Fraser Institute said that while de-streaming policy “sounds fair,” it does not serve students who may be disinterested in academic coursework, or may be choosing other paths like trades. On the other hand, VanHof criticized de-streaming for the demands it put on teachers to accommodate to a much wider spectrum of abilities. It’s like teaching two classes at once, and to do it properly would require additional resources, like TA assistance, in the classroom. “You can implement a policy. But the capacity and the resources that you have to implement it well is a totally different question,” VanHof said. Since educators were not given additional time or support, the result was that no one was receiving the “targeted instruction and time they needed.” John Wynia, League Coordinator at League of Canadian Reformed School Societies echoed the perspective. “The standards have been lowered in the grade nine class to allow for equity, but then that results in reaching the lowest common denominator.” The bigger picture: declining test scores VanHof’s concern that students are learning less content has been reflected in declining test scores, as seen on the international PISA test (Programme for International Student Assessment). PISA, administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), assesses reading, math, and science skills of 15-year-olds. Although Canada has ranked among the top ten countries, since the 2000s its scores have consistently declined. The 2022 PISA test was on mathematics, with Canada’s score falling by 35 points compared to 2003, roughly equivalent to a drop of two whole grade levels according to the Fraser Institute. Some attribute the decline to the COVID school closures, and to the increased screen time kids have had in the last decade. However, B.C. has been restricting phone usage in schools since September 2024, so if phones were a big part of the problem, there should have been a rapid increase in student performance after the phone ban, right? The results are still out on whether that has happened but it will be interesting to see. In the meantime, Canada has experienced a statistically significant decline in all three subjects for over a decade (2012-2022). And that raises questions about our educational policy in the last decade. Is what we’re doing different causing the decline? Math methods matter: what Quebec gets right John Richards, emeritus professor at SFU's School of Public Policy says that the problem extends beyond the shift from numerical assessments and includes a change in teaching methods. For instance, Quebec outperformed other provinces on the 2022 PISA test, and Richards said this was because of how teachers in that province are trained and taught. “Probably the explanation of Quebec is that the math teachers who want to be math teachers in secondary schools have to do a lot more math courses than most teachers.” Richards also referenced Anna Stokke, a mathematics professor at University of Winnipeg. She is a strong critic of “discovery-based education,” where students find solutions on their own instead of being directly instructed. For example, in discovery-based math, a teacher presents students with rectangles drawn on grid paper and ask questions such as, “Is there a relationship between the number of squares in a row and the total number?” Under direct instruction, the teacher explicitly states, “Area = length x width.” Discovery-based learning was introduced with the goal of helping students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills over rote memorization of mathematical formulas. However, Stokke says the approach fails to provide students with the solid foundation students need so they’ll be able to apply critical thinking to complex problems later on. Without sufficient instruction or practice building on concepts – without enough time just memorizing the basics – Stokke says students become confused and fall behind. In response to concerns among educators and parents, the Ontario government promised reforms in 2018 and began implementing a “back-to-basics” curriculum, including direct instruction in math for kindergarteners. Changes are officially in effect since September 2025. However, Fraser Institute has criticized the new curriculum for “doubling down” on its DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) focus, including Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in math where students “work collaboratively on math problems—expressing their thinking, listening to the thinking of others, and practicing inclusivity.” This does not go back to the basics as promised. Meanwhile, declining math scores continue to sound alarm bells for a return to fundamentals in teaching methods. Qualitative assessment: is it all bad? Progressive reforms in Ontario and British Columbia have reshaped both teaching methods and assessment practices like B.C.’s elimination of letter grades. But have all these changes been harmful? Unlike British Columbia which completely eliminated letter grades, Ontario’s 2010 Growing Success policy retained letter grades but expanded qualitative assessments such as observations, portfolios, and self-assessments. The policy also introduced a “no-zero” approach, discouraging teachers from failing students or giving late penalties. Jack Huizenga, Academic Dean at Covenant Canadian Reformed Teachers College, sees benefits with Growing Success. The policy sees “assessment as not something for the end of learning,” with grades providing a one-time snapshot of student performance. Instead, it regards assessment as “something along the way to help improve learning” with formative and descriptive feedback. “So, then assessment can't just be about a multiple-choice question or true and false question or short answer questions,” Huizenga said, describing how the new approach communicates a fuller picture to parents on the student’s progress. Nevertheless, Huizenga said grades were indispensable since colleges and universities also look for those numbers. “That pendulum has to be somewhere in the middle. I think there's room for proficiency type scales to measure. But there's also going to be the need for grades to communicate where students are at.” Independent schools: a call to higher standards The declining international test scores that accompanied the national trend to remove academic benchmarks would seem to suggest this removal doesn’t serve students. And that challenges independent school educators to balance measurable standards with empathy and support. The Cardus Education Survey has studied schools with a focus on the independent sector in recent years. According to VanHof, the question for independent schools was how they would translate policy “into something that is meaningful for parents,” and even “exceed the standards” of the policy. For example, within B.C.’s proficiency framework, she saw independent educators engaging in meaningful conversations with parents around the criteria. “What does an ‘emerging’ student, what does that actually mean in terms of real objective standards of learning?” VanHof asked. She noted how Christian and independent schools had the “ability to be nimble and to make changes that are in line with their mission and vision.” John Wynia’s time at Hope Reformed Christian School is an example which exemplifies this. He shared how students thought of him as a tough teacher because they had to work hard to achieve good grades. “But they often thanked me for that,” Wynia recalled, “because when they went to university, they were very well prepared.” Within the Growing Success framework, Wynia also continued to assign late penalties, though he was lenient around extensions. “There's a lot of research and a lot of evidence that shows that if you have high expectations for your students, your students will rise to meet those expectations.” Wynia cited the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002 under George W. Bush, which targeted the “soft bigotry of low expectations” that assumes some groups are incapable of meeting high standards because of their background or socioeconomic status. No Child Left Behind measured school progress with standardized testing in reading and math and coincided with higher student performance – especially among low-income students. Wynia added that teachers should tell students honestly where they are at – it’s not at all compassionate to hide the truth. VanHof echoed this view. “I think we disservice children by saying policies like this will make learning less stressful,” she said. “It sounds kind and considerate, but we all know that’s not what learning actually is.” VanHof maintained that qualitative feedback has value, but “quantitative assessment has to form the backbone of any education system.” Education as a “formation of persons” Education shapes the society we become, underscoring the critical role of assessment methods in that process. VanHof said that education is more than about ensuring students can enter the workforce. “It is much more than that. It's about the formation of persons,” said VanHof. From a Christian worldview, it is about enabling students to know their Creator and to “help them to live within that world to glorify Him.” To elaborate on this, VanHof referenced Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.” As she explained: “That to me speaks so clearly about the fact that education is about the joy of learning, renewing our mind, about being transformed, about understanding who God is, and learning for learning's sake.” But without measurable benchmarks, she said, students were missing out on the sense of accomplishment which comes from hard work, progress, and learning new things. VanHof also referenced Jonathan Eckert, Senior Fellow at Cardus Education who served in the US Department of Education in both the Bush and Obama administrations, and who coined the phrase, “gritty optimism.” “I love that phrase because I think it really captures the fact that education done well is education in which there's hard work involved,” said VanHof, which she said involved both student and teacher. While Canadian schools have adopted models like de-streaming and the proficiency scale to promote equity, they fail to meet students who need the most support. By combining qualitative feedback with measurable standards, clearly communicating with parents, and providing teachers with proper training and resources, schools should help students grow academically and in character, equipping them for real-world challenges....

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Conferences

“We believe…” 1,700 years ago

Redeemer University conference celebrates the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed ***** In times past, scholars and theologians may have found themselves travelling across countries and continents to attend meetings about doctrines of particular importance to the Christian faith. One of the most famous of these occasions was the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, when bishops from all over the Mediterranean gathered to address heresies about the nature of Christ. More recently, theologians met once again in discussion of these same issues – not to write new creeds, but to affirm and celebrate the council and the creed which it produced. They met at Redeemer University, a Reformed Christian university in Southern Ontario, which hosted the conference: “Defending Christ: Celebrating 1700 Years of Nicaea.” Historians, theologians, pastors, and laypeople attended this conference to glean knowledge from one another and re-immerse themselves in the rich theology of Nicaea. What follows are a few of the highlights. On the history of the council The council was called by Emperor Constantine, not primarily to address doctrine, explained Dr. Stefana Liang, but to find solutions for a divided church and empire. The result of the council, however, is evidence of the providential work of the Holy Spirit, and even Constantine recognized it as such. He referred to the council as “great and holy” and “a complete blessing from divine providence.” “It cannot be other than the doctrine of God,” he said. The women of Nicaea A presentation by Reanna Lingley investigated the women behind the Council of Nicaea. While no women were in attendance, figures like Macrina the Elder and Macrina the Younger (respectively the grandmother and sister of brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa) and Nonna (wife of Gregory the Elder) embodied the vision of the Christian life and were active shapers of the theological tradition that raised up the men who participated in the council. Macrina the Elder survived in hiding for seven years during Emperor Diocletian’s persecution and was described as a vessel of theological continuity. Nonna’s persistent faith led to the conversion of her husband, and she spurred her husband and sons on to holiness and service. Instead of regretting the absence of women at the council, Lingley argued, we ought to recognize the tremendous but quiet influence that women did have on the theological landscape of the Early Church. A Nicene AI? Another interesting presentation evaluated the most theologically sound large language models (LLMs). If that’s an unfamiliar term, it’s what makes AI chatbots go, and you can think of the term as almost a synonym for the chatbots. Studies show that increasingly more young people are turning to AI for important questions, so an organization called ChristianBench tested the biggest AI chatbots on their theological stances. Commonly these bots will refrain from giving a pointed answer – they will present all the options as equally valid. But, of course, that sort of relativization of the truth is a strong stance of its own. However, depending on how a question to the chatbot is framed, the LLM can anticipate what kind of answer the prompter is looking for and give an individualized response. (For example, a question about the “natures of Christ” will generate a theological answer that could be solidly in line with the Nicene Creed, whereas a more general question about “Who is Jesus?” will usually result in a more all-options-on-the-table response that provides the user with a variety of answers to consider.) The only chatbot that scored exceptionally high for adherence to the Nicene Creed was a Catholic LLM called Magisterium AI, an AI chatbot that aims to provide answers to questions about the Catholic faith. Art as theological testimony The conference’s main presentation was by Dr. Megan DeVore, and was centered on Christian art during the time of Nicaea. Early Christian artists used pagan motifs which they adapted and redefined to reflect the gospel story. After the Council of Nicaea, depictions of Jesus began to showcase the artists’ understanding of His divinity. Jesus also started being portrayed in Old Testament scenes, like the story of creation, reflecting a trinitarian understanding of God’s work throughout all of Scripture. Christian art in catacombs show something noteworthy about the Christian faith and the doctrines of Nicaea: Jesus’s divine nature provided early Christians with eschatological hope. The depictions of the deceased in Christian catacombs were of hopeful and prayerful believers, in stark contrast with the mournful depictions in pagan catacombs. The art shows that Christians found real, impactful, and lasting hope through the doctrines they believed. Dr. DeVore outlined how early Christian art was characterized by theological declarations rooted in intricate Christological hermeneutics. She asked whether modern Christians are perhaps missing out on a key aspect of theological understanding by overlooking the value of faithful creative expressions through the arts. The use of the creed The Nicene Creed formalized for the church the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. Written in Greek, almost all of the words in the creed are found in the New Testament. The handful that are extrabiblical nevertheless convey strongly biblical ideas and were necessary to clarify the biblical concepts that were debated at that time The Nicene Creed is especially helpful for interfaith conversations today. It lays out a “mere Christianity” that distinguishes orthodox Christians from Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Latter-day Saints. The classical trinitarianism expounded in the creed, argued a paper presented by Matthew Waddell, is the only trinitarian view that can provide proper responses to scrutiny from Islamic apologists. But while encountering Christianity may begin with the Nicene Creed, it cannot end there. Interestingly, as passionate as these scholars at the conference were about the Nicene Creed, all of them agreed that it cannot even be compared to the riches of Scripture. The formal doctrine laid out by the creed is meant to lead us toward biblical doxology (see Jude 24-25). The creed can be seen as a CliffsNotes summary of biblical doctrine; it was never meant to be a substitute for the original text and cannot match its force and power. One scholar likened the creed to a beautiful doorway with magnificent engravings. It may be wonderful, but it is merely meant to provide access to something much greater: the full extent of the biblical witness. THE NICENE CREED We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father; through whom all things were made. Who, for us men and our salvation, came down from heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he arose, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified; who spoke through the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; and we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. *** Picture at the top (as generated for ChatGPT) is of Athanasius taking it to Arius. Emperor Constantine I (272-337 AD) called the Council of Nicaea so the Church could deal with the dispute these two were having over the nature of Christ. Athanasius proclaimed Christ as coeternal and of the same essence as God the Father, while Arius claimed Jesus was created by the Father and therefore not fully divine. While the Nicene Creed we have today probably wasn’t completed at the Council of Nicaea (and not for another 50 years) it is named after that council, because it professes the truth defended there....

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Parenting

The importance of risky play

“Make sure you're home by suppertime... and don't get your feet wet!” Mom called out as my brother and I hurried to our bikes. We were about 9 and 11 years old at the time. “Have you got the matches?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, patting his pocket and jumping on his hand-me-down bike. Our plan was to use the matches to light birch-bark torches so we could see properly inside the cave we wanted to explore. It was pitch black in there, and last time the battery in our old flashlight had died right away. To get to Kelly's Cave we first had to cross the multiple sets of train tracks that were two blocks from our house. But this time out, a long train of coal cars blocked the way. Thankfully they were just coming to a halt, so we waited until they stopped, then glanced up and down the tracks looking for any adults, and quickly crawled under the middle of one of the cars, dragging our bikes behind us. We knew that it took a long time for railcars to start moving after coming to a standstill, and we’d have plenty of time to scramble out if they did begin going again. Biking briskly down the service road, then veering off onto the old trail at the base of the mountain, we soon arrived at the bottom of a pile of loose rocks that had been carved out about 70 years earlier to form the cave. Before we scrambled 100 feet up the steep slope that led to the entrance, we first found a nearby birch tree and stripped off several sections of bark, then broke off some branches. Arriving at the cave’s mouth we wrapped the bark around the end of our sticks and pulled out the matches. When the bark was lit it curled tightly, allowing it to burn slowly and steadily, while giving off a wonderful aroma. Quickly, we moved to the end of the first 25-foot stretch of tunnel, where the daylight still reached. Then we turned right, keeping our heads down, looking at the ground ahead of us; soon we came to the pack rat’s nest of shredded paper and random objects we’d seen last time. I’d spotted a ball-peen hammer in the mess and really wanted it, but I was convinced that, should there be an angry and cornered rat in there too, he was liable to jump for, and bite at, my throat. So, I worked up my courage, shielded my neck with my hand, and then lunged for the hammer – thankfully this time the nest seemed empty, so I came away with a great prize which I could proudly take home! Then we continued on, shuffling along deeper into the mountain. It was very cold and damp, and the only sound was the crackle of our torches and the steady dripping of water hitting the cave floor. We were very careful not to brush the walls since we'd once seen a large clump of spiders clinging onto them. Our dad, who’d been in the cave with us before, had warned us about a water-filled pit further in, so we moved slowly and carefully, and we soon saw some logs and branches which spanned an ominous pool, which was who knew how deep? After testing the strength of this wooden span, we slowly crept across, imagining a bottomless crevice filled with icy water. A few years later I learned that it was only about two or three feet deep, but at the time we assumed it was bottomless – better to be safe than sorry! Our torches were burning down, so we pushed ahead, promising ourselves we’d turn around shortly, since we didn't want to end up stranded in the pitch dark! Soon enough, there it was – the end of the tunnel. We’d made it! Somewhat disappointed that there wasn't a treasure chest or other artifact (I was reading The Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators books at the time!), we shuffled quickly, but carefully, back the way we’d come... over the bridge, around the corner, past the nest, one more 90° turn, and then we could see daylight. We emerged just as our torches were flickering out – we’d finally made it out again! Thrilled at our conquest, we slid down the scree slope (this is why we always changed into play clothes after school), discarded our torches (making sure they were completely out so, as not to start a forest fire), and pedaled down along the trail, elated and ready for another adventure. So much to explore The author zipping around in his younger years. We knew this forested area well, having spent many hours exploring and playing in the bush, and near the tracks. Over here was where we’d spent many days chopping small trees down with a hatchet, attempting to make a log cabin. We learned that this was harder than Farley Mowat’s books made it seem, and we often came home tired, and with scrapes or bruises. Once, when we were pushing over dead trees, a top snapped off and smashed to the ground right beside us – a close call! Farther down the trail was the site of the old ski jump where you could still see some outdoor lights attached to trees. In the winter many hours were spent climbing up this hill, and sliding down on inner tubes, toboggans, and even a homemade sled. A few hundred yards off in another direction was an old dump site where we had explored and found many rusty objects, and well down the other way was a railway siding where we could clamber into boxcars and pretend we were hobos. Halfway between, under that one spruce tree, was where our dad had shot a grouse with his old .410 shotgun. His catch motivated us to try to go after grouse too, or rabbits, using our homemade bows and arrows or slingshots, but without any success (although my Boy Scout manual did explain how to snare rabbits, so that was a plan for later in the fall). During those childhood years we spent many hours roaming, playing, and trying not to get hurt or get wet feet in those forests, trails, and caves. On other days we biked around town, explored the alleys and dumpsters behind businesses, looking for treasures, and collecting cans and bottles to exchange for quarters which we quickly spent in the arcade games in the back of the seedier stores. We rubbed shoulders with the local youth in these places and even had to turn down the offer of drugs because we knew that they were bad for us. But what about… Maybe you’re wondering, “What about the risks and dangers?” Yes, we got plenty of minor injuries and had some close calls and moments of genuine fear, but these became excellent learning opportunities and helped us grow in confidence and wisdom. Also, we were very aware of the consequences of foolish actions, and knew that recklessness, and endangering ourselves, was wrong. However, there is a big difference between fun adventures and recklessness, and a kid can do some exciting and even foolish things without crossing this line. Kids learn from the direct instructions of their parents, by watching others, and from reading about or experiencing the consequences of dangerous or reckless choices. They learn quickly from their own mistakes and accidents, and will develop a strong sense of self-preservation. Thankfully, rarely do minor childhood mishaps have serious consequences (and let’s not forget that “safe” and sedentary lifestyles comes with their own health hazards!). By learning to manage the risks and cope with the results, our kids can increasingly be empowered to make good decisions, and to take care of themselves. The reality is, Mom and Dad only vaguely knew where we were when we went out on our adventures, but they trusted and prayed that we wouldn't do anything foolish, dangerous, or illegal. Besides, they were very busy working, and looking after the younger siblings, and they didn’t live in constant fear of the world or other people. They also modeled an outdoor playful lifestyle (including taking risks), and encouraged us to get outside and entertain ourselves. Over time, these factors fostered confidence and bravery in us, while still showing us that recklessness was both wrong and foolish. For example, my dad was actively involved in my late-November childhood birthday parties, taking my classmates and me on hikes, exploring and making fires, and crafting equipment like slingshots or bows and arrows, and doing all of this despite the snow and the darkness that came early in northern BC. When the climate or other factors discouraged outdoor play and adventure, we would busy ourselves with indoor forts, Meccano, electronics kits, and reading. Oh, the books we devoured by the hundreds! We were going on adventures with the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, Wambu, Scout, and many others. Their exploits were recreated in our imaginations, as we pictured ourselves with them in the jungle, desert, tundra, or under the sea. Our knowledge and understanding of the world, and of people, broadened, and our worldview solidified as we incorporated these stories and experiences with the Christian perspective with which we were raised. Many lessons were also learned about safety, and taking risks, as we experienced, vicariously, the exciting exploits of the books’ characters – lessons that were often useful and realistic, thus also helping to prepare us for life in the real world. Tech takeover Screens and technology were lurking on the horizon though, already way back then in the 1980s. As the decade progressed, more and more parents would rent a VCR and videos to entertain the kids at birthday parties. It was so much easier, less messy and tiring, and sure kept the partygoers happy. Within a few years we had a Commodore 64 computer in our home, and by the time we were adolescents many hours had been spent on Test Drive (1!), Winter Olympics, and other games. Our play-based childhood was being affected by screens, and in the next decades this transition only accelerated for others in my age group. Thankfully we all had a solid grounding in the outdoors, and TV and technology were still regarded with suspicion by the older generation. However, as the years and decades have passed, the temptation to spend time on screens has only increased. There are other dangers… Three of the Penninga boys – from left to right, Tim, Jeremy and Dave – up on Hudson Bay Mountain. So, how much do these childhood experiences matter? And what’s been the cost for the children who are not allowed to explore and have adventures, and who spend way more time on screens than reading? No doubt these kids are a lot safer physically (and cleaner!), and parents probably worry less, as their children are shuffled between adult-supervised activities like after-school programs and sports, or are quietly gaming, or scrolling through social media on their phones. Does this trend towards supervision and screens have significance? According to lots of careful research it has become very clear that the cost of replacing a play-based childhood with a screens-based one has been enormous, especially on kids’ mental and emotional well-being. In his book, The Anxious Generation - How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt makes just that case. Its first section outlines the impact smartphones and social media have had on children and adolescents in the last 15 years. Data conclusively shows that rates of anxiety and depression have greatly increased (depression for girls rose 145% between 2010 and 2020; for boys 161%), as have suicide rates and visits to ERs for self-harm. These destructive trends occurred across many different countries around the world, and correlate directly to growing up with smartphones. Haidt’s theses are backed up by data that is both scholarly and current. While the author has evolutionary, atheist presuppositions, his book is still an excellent research-based overview of the damage that Internet-enabled devices (especially smartphones) have done to the Millennial and Gen Z generations. Thankfully, Haidt also addresses what can be done about it all. He points to play, the sort that is unsupervised and unstructured and has elements of genuine risk – the kind of play that most kids all around the world naturally engaged in prior to the recent explosion of fears and screens. According to Haidt: “Unsupervised outdoor play teaches children how to handle risks and challenges of many kinds. By building physical, psychological and social competence, it gives kids confidence that they can face new situations, which is an inoculation against anxiety... a healthy human childhood with a lot of autonomy and unsupervised play in the real world sets children's brains to operate mostly in ‘discovery’ mode with a well-developed attachment system and an ability to handle the risks of daily life. Conversely, when there is society-wide pressure on parents to adopt modern overprotective parenting, it sets children's brains to operate mostly in ‘defend’ mode with less secure attachment and reduced ability to evaluate or handle risk.” He goes on to explain how being in discovery mode means you are curious and excited about life, and eager to explore and move ahead. Those who operate in defend mode are careful and suspicious, and “tend to see new situations, people and ideas as potential threats, rather than as opportunities... being stuck in defend mode is an obstacle to learning and growth in the physically safe environments that surround most children today.” A play-based childhood, Haidt argues, encourages the positive discovery mode while a screen-based one promotes a more fragile and restrictive defend mode. Overprotective parents, trying to guard their children from risks and conflicts, actually harm their kids who need to experience thrills, fear, and conflict to learn how to manage it in the real world. Children are thrill-seekers who need adventures and risks to overcome their fears and develop resilience. How does Haidt stack up against the Bible? This rings true because it lines up with Biblical principles. For example, in Proverbs 28:1 it says, “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” King David trusted in God to protect him, and, consequently, took on bears and giants with confidence. Meanwhile, in the list of curses for covenant disobedience God says “…those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you” (Lev. 26:17b). Godly leaders need to be brave to stand up against threats and deal with challenges. For example, God tells Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified: do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). In the knowledge of God’s providence, we can face life and the future without fear and can be confident that nothing will separate us from His love since nothing happens by chance (Lord’s Day 10). Since our eternal future is secure, and we can trust that God will be with us, we do not need to live in fear of catastrophe or death like the unbelievers do. Yes, bad things do happen in a fallen world, and we need to accept that sometimes, even with abundant caution and care, people will get hurt or even die in accidents. But this should not scare us or make us elevate safety to the status of an idol, thinking that somehow we can control everything. If we love the Lord and live according to His will, we can trust that He will provide and care for us, and gives us what we need to face life’s challenges and dangers with confidence. As those who live with a view to eternity, our spiritual health should be our main concern (1 Tim. 4:8). We must live in fear of God, who controls our eternal destiny, and not of man (Luke 12:4-5). Recklessness and foolish behavior is an evil on one end of the spectrum, but living in constant fear of injury or death, and thinking we can control everything also is sinful. The balanced Christian life lies somewhere in the middle. What does this sort of play look like? So, what does this beneficial play look like? It usually happens outdoors when there is free choice, and not when supervised or structured by adults. Researchers have found that play needs to be thrilling and exciting with a real risk of physical injury and an element of uncertainty (think merry-go-rounds, exploring forests, and bike jumps!). Six factors characterize this kind of play: 1. heights (climbing, trampolines, haylofts); 2. high speeds (sledding, swings, racing down hills); 3. dangerous tools (axes, saws, knives); 4. dangerous elements (waves, fire, ice); 5. rough and tumble play (wrestling, tackling, “king-of-the-hill”); and 6. disappearing (hiding, exploring and wandering, not fully knowing where you are). Roller coasters, zip lines, and other thrill rides are a good example of combinations of these things. Kids need, and seek out, these factors but too often parents, teachers, and other adults try to deter them. The adults are overly afraid of injuries, abductions, or lawsuits, and treat even minor scrapes and bruises as akin to serious harm. Many adults have an unrealistic sense of danger and are too overprotective, and they don't trust other adults to intervene, or don’t trust their kids to know their own limits. A growing culture of litigation, insurance, and well-meaning but harmful “safety police” work together to counter these important parts of childhood play. In the August 11, 2025 entry on the After Babel Substack, Haidt and his two co-authors of “What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones” wrote: “Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. These intuitions don’t even begin to resemble reality. According to Warwick Cairns, the author of How to Live Dangerously, kidnapping in the United States is so rare that a child would have to be outside unsupervised for, on average, 750,000 years before being snatched by a stranger. Parents know their neighborhoods best, of course, and should assess them carefully. But the tendency to overestimate risk comes with its own danger. Without real-world freedom, children don’t get the chance to develop competence, confidence, and the ability to solve everyday problems. Indeed, independence and unsupervised play are associated with positive mental-health outcomes.” Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world. Organized sports have their own dangers Unstructured and risky outdoor play is actually safer for kids, with fewer injuries per hour, than participating in adult-guided sports teams, according to play researcher Mariana Brussoni of the University of BC. Unstructured and unsupervised physical play also has more developmental benefits for the children since these kids “must make all the choices, set and enforce rules, and resolve all disputes. Brussoni is on a campaign to encourage risky outdoor play because in the long run it produces the healthiest children” (Haidt, writing in The Anxious Generation). In their paper “What is the Relationship between Risky Outdoor Play and Health in Children? A Systematic Review” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Brussoni and her co-authors found that risky play had overall health benefits for children aged 3-12. “Specifically, play where children can disappear/get lost and risky play supportive environments were positively associated with physical activity and social health, and negatively associated with sedentary behaviour… There was also an indication that risky play supportive environments promoted increased play time, social interactions, creativity and resilience. These positive results reflect the importance of supporting children’s risky outdoor play opportunities as a means of promoting children’s health and active lifestyles.” As an example, despite my adventurous childhood, I only ended up in the local hospital once for an injury, and that was a broken foot I got in an indoor-soccer PE class at school! One of the main messages of these books? Put away the screens and kick your kids outdoors! A sudden shift In general, children born before 1980 were much more likely to grow up engaging in risky play and were allowed and encouraged to roam out and about, away from parents, by age 7 or so. Kids had more freedom to walk to school, play with neighbor children, get into and resolve conflicts, and generally have a more exploratory lifestyle. But, as Haidt details, in the following decades parenting became more intensive, protective, and fearful, resulting in kids who were more sheltered, coddled, and unable to roam freely until much older (age 10 or 12). Safety became paramount, as a fear of strangers, abductions, injuries, and death, skyrocketed. At the same time, technologies like computer games, DVDs, and phones made it much easier to keep kids from playing and exploring. Haidt goes on to provide other reasons why this change occurred, including more intensive parenting, more supervised and structured sports and programs for kids, and a renewed focus on academics. When it rains in the world, drips are felt in the Church As is often the case, Christian parents are swept up in these changes and can too easily accept them without thinking critically about the disadvantages. After all, isn’t it better to be safer? To provide more structured and supervised activities for the kids? To supply a tablet or phone to keep them quiet? And do we speak out when the merry-go-rounds disappear from the playground and are replaced by much safer (and more boring) equipment? Do we read books or articles that feature research about factors that affect our children? For example, a very good book that addresses many current challenges to parenting came out in 2019 entitled Gist: The Essence of Raising Life-Ready Kids. It was by child psychologist Michael W. Anderson and pediatrician, and the book was featured as a Focus on the Family Resource. This very practical manual discourages parents from always trying to protect and control everything, and it encourages them to back off and let their kids sort out way more of their own problems. In this sin-tainted world life is full of challenges, difficulties, and disappointments, and children need to learn how to face and overcome these to prepare them for managing in adulthood. Although the book is not overtly Christian, Gist is clearly grounded in Scriptural principles and displays a nice balance between truth and grace. It’s the kind of book I wish would have been available sooner, so I could have read it when my children were small! What’s to be done? The final section of Haidt’s book provides many more examples of what schools, parents, and governments can do to promote a return to a play-based childhood, and a turn away from a screen-based one. Several of these ideas are already being implemented, such as more rugged playgrounds, and banning phones in schools. It seems that the pendulum is swinging back towards a healthier balance again, from the safety paranoia, and excessive screen time, back to how it was more in previous decades. Conclusion God’s people do not need to live in fear, since we know we have a Father in heaven who watches over us and protects us. As it says in Proverbs 1:33, “whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” We must also heed what the Bible teaches about this topic, as it is found in the Sixth Commandment where we are told “you shall not murder.” In Lord’s Day 40 of the Heidelberg Catechism, it explains that this commandment means we are not to “injure my neighbor, personally or through another… or harm or recklessly endanger myself” and we must “protect our neighbor from harm as much as we can.” To takes risks is different than being reckless. Also, Proverbs 27:12 tells us, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” We need to use or heads. Since his childhood adventures, Kelly’s Cave has been all boarded up. And let’s consider also the Fifth Commandment, where we are taught that authority needs to be obeyed, like wearing seat belts and bike helmets, and not trespassing (including on railways!). But we also need to speak out against and resist the multiplication of safety rules imposed by overly-zealous authorities and companies. As an example, the entrance to Kelly’s Cave was blocked by a thick cement wall in the late 1980’s (as were other caves around here), closing another door to adventure. Of course, many children do not live near forests, caves, or railway tracks, or attend schools that have any forest or brush land. Families are smaller and there don’t tend to be packs of kids roaming around outside together. Still, there are many things that can be done to encourage healthy play: parents need to model fun and adventurous behaviour, screens need to be avoided or severely limited, and it’s helpful to have spaces where kids can explore and which contain materials they can use. It can start small with pillow and blanket forts inside, wooden blocks and other basic items for toys, trips to nearby parks or bush areas. But then parents need to be brave and begin to pull back from constant supervision and intervention and let the children explore and figure things out for themselves. It’s also important to understand that the world is not nearly as dangerous a place as the media suggests (yet another reason to avoid too much media), and that disallowing adventurous and risky play comes with very serious negative consequences (anxious teens and young people who struggle to cope with the demands of adulthood). So set a good example by confidently getting out into the yard or neighborhood and finding adventure and fun! It takes more effort but is far better for you and makes better memories, too! Be wise and discerning but not fearful, and remember that we have a Father in heaven who watches over us and blesses us, also as we seek to do what is best for our children....

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Education

A load of lumber is a wonderful thing

Back in 2007 Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School here in Smithers decided to supply the students with an “imaginative play kit.” What was it? A pile of lumber, fence posts, plywood pieces, shovels, and rope. And since then the students have spent countless hours using these materials to make forts, obstacle courses, bike jumps, and many other creative structures. Over the years pallets and plastic pipes have been added, and the students complemented the supplied equipment with long grass and rocks from the grounds. Since the uses are limitless, the students’ interest has not waned. In fact, it is so popular year-round that a schedule had to be made to ensure that the grades all got their own turns. The entire package was less than $1000 – paid for by the school’s “Helping Hands” committee – an amazing value for the amount of enjoyment over the past 18 years (especially compared to the cost of ultra-safe playground equipment). Yes, many structures have collapsed, students get slivers and scrapes, and there have been minor injuries. But the kids also get to use their imaginations, learn how to cooperate and resolve conflicts, and grow in confidence as they take risks while having lots of fun!...

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Conferences

2026 Summit Reformed Young Adult Conference

Why you (or someone you know) should plan to go ***** I once heard a sermon in which the pastor compared faith to salmon. “A dead salmon floats downstream with the current,” he said. “A living salmon, however, must battle upstream, against the flow.” Then he smiled and said, “An imperfect analogy, but you get the point, right?” There is a deep flaw within the young community of Reformed circles; in day-to-day life, we don’t easily talk about our doctrine with each other. And we frequently fail to encourage each other in it. We might not be dead, but too often we seem to be doing little more than floating along. It’s not true of all of us. But it is true of too many of us. Sure, we may know what TULIP stands for, or be able to recite the Apostles’ Creed, but how often do we discuss theology outside of our church’s fellowship hall, or a weeknight bible study? We tend to avoid more personal conversations about faith, and don’t easily share our deep questions with each other, or invite each other into thought-provoking or challenging conversations. We float, leaving that all to the “grown ups.” It is almost as though there is an unspoken taboo: “We’re too young to get serious about that in our free time. Let’s keep things light; if we have questions, we can talk to older people. There’s no need to talk to each other about it.” However, in conversations I’ve had with fellow young believers about this problem, many of them have expressed the same thing: a desire for this mindset to change. Many of us do want to learn better how to grow together and push each other on to deeper faith walks; many of us have a hunger to discuss these important topics. The problem is, we don’t know how to naturally broach them, and we often let the fear of awkwardness keep us from pursuing them. We need help fostering this change and growth. Therefore, I would like to advocate for an event which has greatly helped me and many of my friends in this learning curve: the Summit Reformed Young Adults Conference or RYAC. This past year, I was privileged to be a member of the organization committee for the conference, which takes place every February (est. 2021) in Calgary and is hosted by the Bethel URC. This was my third time attending, and my first time helping organize. It is an extremely edifying event. The richness of it, as always, shed a light on the stark contrast that RYAC offers to the weekly culture of young adult life in our church circles. I had several conversations with attendees who were new to the conference, and many of them expressed a strong appreciation for the experience, often noting how “different” it was in its encouragement and doctrine-focused environment. In hopes of further promoting the incredible spiritual benefits of this event, I interviewed several other members of the organization committee – all young adults themselves, who have now attended the conference several times – to discuss the positive impact this conference has had on our faith lives. Additionally, this past year’s speakers, Rev. Paul Murphy and his wife Julie, also shared some thoughts. Q. RYAC encourages young believers to discuss theology and faith life. In today’s social climate, why is this especially important? Mark G: Young adults, especially young men, struggle to talk about faith and life, and a conference like this gives an organic setting for those conversations to happen. Even apart from the times set aside to discuss our faith, many conversations about faith and life happen, with others beyond your own church, over meals and games that do not happen very often in our everyday lives. John P: As young adults who are just venturing out into the world for the first time, it can be a confusing and challenging environment to navigate. At times it may feel like we are lost in this environment, but coming together with a group of likeminded people who are all in the same battle together not only strengthens you, but everyone in the group together, in the fight against the world and the devil. As Ecclesiastes 4:12 says: “Though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him - a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Q. What would you say are some of the benefits of attending a Reformed conference specifically geared towards your age demographic? Mark M: In recent generations the wider church community in North America has suffered from a lack of sound doctrine. Having active discussions about theology is especially important among young adults, as we are the future of the Reformed churches, and thus it is essential for us to know what we believe, why we believe it, and how that aligns with Scripture as the ultimate authority. This is one of the many things that the Summit RYAC conference is good at. Both times I’ve attended the conference, I’ve had my understanding of the Bible and certain doctrines challenged, and that has strengthened my faith. It is also incredibly encouraging being around people my age who believe the same thing. Julie T: At its core, this conference is about training soldiers for Christ and sending them out as active members of God’s church, wherever they might be located. The conference helps build that sense of Christian unity and community: young adults leave the conference with newfound connections all over the country, knowing not only that their struggles or doubts or temptations are not unique to them, but also that the church of God is so much bigger than just their own little corner of it. Rev. Paul M & Julie M: This age group is often in university or in the workforce, maybe now living away from their parents’ home. These Christians need great friends; ones who live faithfully to their Lord and Savior in every area of life. Iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17). We need the benefit of each other’s differing perspectives, thoughts, and experiences. Together they serve as a multitude of counselors in which safety and wisdom are found (Prov. 11:14). Such conversations also serve as correctives to the subtle influences of our post-Christian culture; that is especially important in today’s social climate. As Paul states in 2 Cor. 10:3-5, we are engaged in an ideological warfare, in which Christians are assaulted almost daily by the thoughts and ways of the secular world. We need to encourage and equip one another to be strong and faithful in that battle. In conclusion, RYAC is not merely a fun weekend to meet friends, or find a significant other, or to simply get away on holiday. It is an event that presents incredible learning opportunities, as well as an environment in which to stretch new muscles of the mind and heart. It is an event that provides us with the opportunity to encourage one another forward, just as Timothy was encouraged by Paul: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” For information on how to sign up for the 2026 conference visit www.summitrefcon.ca. Photos, and the video below, are by David Visser and Kyle Vasas from Faith to Film. ...

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Parenting

Why it’s good for teens and kids to do chores

We should do chores for the same reason we go to school – preparation ***** Chances are, as a part of the family, you are asked to do various menial (or not so menial) tasks about the house or yard. “Son, will you take out the trash?” “Sweetheart, would you dust the house for me?” “Will you mow the lawn?” “Will you start the laundry?" “Would you put away the dishes?” Or, if, like myself, your mother decides to finish writing a fifty-lesson Bible study in a week flat, then you find yourself generously helping her keep the house running by taking over the role of “housewife” for a week. This should be easy. Now, to most of us, the word “chores” sends us running to our bedrooms where we promptly take solace under the bed where nobody can find us (unless that’s always the first place you go when you’re trying to avoid doing something. Too predictable, mate. Find a new spot). Your parents assign you chores from an early age because you are a part of this family, and so it is your duty to contribute to the running of the house. What if I told you that chores will inevitably prepare you for being an adult? And if you hope to be married, you need to be doing chores for along the same reasons why you do school. It’s imperative that we all learn how to read, write, and calculate arithmetic so we can be better prepared for what the world has in store for us. It would be a bummer if you were not able to read your Bible because you had never learned how to read. Same with chores. What if you had never learned how to load the dishwasher until after you moved out? Any roommates wouldn’t be impressed. Or what if you never learned how to fold clothes until you were finally forced to do it after your marriage? Your husband would come home and find his clothes smelling awful from not being washed, and all his shirts wrinkled after being stuffed carelessly into the bureau (hang them up – Braendlein men’s shirts should be hung up in the closet!). What if you had never dealt with the trash in your life, and now you watch helplessly as your roommate drags the overflowing garbage bag to the apartment hallway, where he leaves it for no other reason than “I don’t know what to do with it!” …and you don’t know either! What if you had never learned how to make a decent peanut butter and jam sandwich, and you starved? Or your kids starved? Or you starved your husband of the nutrition he so sorely needs in order to support his growing family? What if you never learned how to scramble a decent egg, and all you could do, to surprise your wife with breakfast in bed, was bring her the box of Cheerios? Doing chores and learning how to manage a household will get you off on the right foot as you prepare to leave your home and someday get married. And if you think that women should learn how to do women’s chores, like dishes and laundry, while men should learn how to do men’s chores, like mowing the lawn and taking out the trash, then think again. Both sexes should learn how to do all of the aforementioned chores, regardless of whether or not the wives will spend their married days mowing the lawn and the men folding the clothes. You might find that your husband is great at folding laundry, and that you actually love mowing the lawn. My father is terrible at folding laundry and figuring out the difference between his boxers and his son’s (what an awkward day it was when he tried on my brother’s boxers and found that he had put the wrong ones in his own drawer). But he will do it if it blesses my mother (actually, scratch that; he will willingly make his four children fold the laundry if it blesses his wife). So if your mother asks you to move over the laundry and start a load of delicates, or your father asks you to take out all the trash in the house (how many trash cans are there, seriously?), do it with joy, and know that knowing how to do chores will save you a lot of pain when you finally move out or get married. And besides, you get to do all the chores when you’re a grown-up! Pictures by Hannah Penninga....

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Assorted

Why Charlie Kirk’s death hit so hard

For a time, in September, my Facebook feed – I’m sure yours too – was full of tributes to Charlie Kirk. At this point, I don’t need to tell you that Kirk was big. He was the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization maybe best known for setting up tables at university campuses across the USA, with Kirk, and sometimes his friends too, willing to debate anyone who would take the mic. Some give Kirk credit for Trump’s win in 2024, because of the way Turning Point was so effective in its outreach to young voters. I felt a weight when I heard about his assassination. And the weight increased as I processed. Maybe that’s how you felt too. If you track the news, it’s been a heavy year. Overdoses. Transgenderism. Abortion. Stabbings. Euthanasia. Shootings. Never mind the economy. Now this. But why is this hitting so hard? I only watched Kirk’s videos occasionally. Why am I mourning someone who had so little impact on my day-to-day life? Of course, you have to feel sad for his loved ones – but it’s not that kind of grief. Assassinations are jarring, by nature. Not that I’ve lived through too many. But this is different. Charlie Kirk’s murder crystallized the hatred that I’ve been seeing directed towards Christian ideas and towards prolife activists. The hatred that activist Christians have felt directed our way through the condescension and the shouts, now manifested through murder. Across America, and Canada too, thousands celebrated. Mocked. Laughed. Who watches a man die, and laughs? That scares me. The apostle John equated hatred with murder (1 John 3:15), and I’ve never felt how close that link is until now. In her video commemorating Charlie, Christian commentator Allie Beth Stuckey put it, “We’re bringing words. They’re bringing weapons.” Ultimately, Charlie Kirk was murdered for views that I hold. Probably not all of them, but the fundamentals. Many of those views are non-negotiable Christian convictions that you and I and all God’s people hold. Christianity wasn’t a part of Kirk’s message: it was the driving force behind it. The gap and the bridge For a while, it’s been pretty clear that Christianity stands at odds with secular beliefs. Now, two seemingly contradictory things come to mind: 1. It’s not an “us” versus “them” We can’t just write off everyone on the other side. Christ came and died for us while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8-10), and if not for Him, we would be enemies still. So, if God can do that for us, what might He be working in those folks over there? So we need to talk. As Charlie put it: “When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When churches , they fall apart. When civilization stops talking, civil war ensues. When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group.” The Christian response is to treat everyone with dignity (Matt. 7:12), and pray for anyone who hates us (Matt. 5:43-44). 2. There are two sides We can’t be confused about how there are two sides (Josh. 5:13-14): God’s side, and everyone else’s. As God’s people we are, and are called to be, fundamentally different. To me, the spiritual battle was brought to light by this assassin’s physical act. Are these two conflicting views? No. These both make sense when we recognize what we share with our enemies: we’re all made in the image of God (Gen. 9:6), and we’re all in desperate need of a Savior. We can look across the divide in humility knowing there but for the grace of God, go I. Social media makes both sides think, “Duh!?” The algorithms selecting what’ll show up in our social media feeds only sharpen the division, making it difficult to actually have compassion for others. Everyone wonders: How can anybody support ____? It’s just so obviously wrong! Then we all click on what we want to see, and afterwards the algorithm feeds us more and more of the same. My liberal friend commented, “He shouldn’t have been killed. But he said the gun deaths are worth it, so it just feels ironic.” Worth it. Worth what? Did he really say that? What did he mean? But the internet clip stops right there. “Hah,” laughs an anti-gun activist. The assumption is that had Charlie known he would be killed by a gunman, then his tune would’ve changed. I disagree, largely because I got to see what else Charlie said. Another thing Kirk said was: “I don’t believe in empathy,” and since his murder that quote has been pasted across the Internet. “How heartless can you be?” thinks the social studies student. Missed is the next phrase that isn’t included: “I prefer sympathy.” And Kirk went on from there to explain why. One student asked him, “If your ten-year-old daughter was raped, would you want her to have the baby?” Kirk answered: “Yes.” Some stop listening at “yes.” Those who listen longer hear a compassionate “why.” Explanations on immigration and marriage aren’t heard, but clips “proving” xenophobia, transphobia, and homophobia dominate YouTube. Charity is dead. Assumptions of good intent are gone, and undiscerning scrolling forms a worldview. Those who hear only what they want call him a hateful, dangerous fascist. When that’s your belief, then all redeeming qualities fail. They’re not redeeming qualities at all – they’re manipulation tactics. And assassinating a fascist is a heroic act. One spray-painted billboard read: “Death to all Charlie Kirks.” That’s enough Internet for me today. Can we get back to normal life? It’s tempting to dismiss this as a one-time event. A crazy person shot a MAGA activist. We’re not American. Most people aren’t crazy. Right? Maybe we could start to be discerning again. More neutral. The words “He had it coming,” will always be wrong. But we might reflect, “Should he really have linked his Christianity so closely with partisan politics?” or “He was unnecessarily controversial… if he just spoke the Gospel, this wouldn’t have happened.” Not quite victim blaming, but maybe we should adjust the halo a bit? Should we really call him a martyr? If he is one – if that’s what we were to conclude – we’d also have to conclude that Christianity itself is hated, not just some Christians who don’t put a good face to it. Then it’s not just about Charlie; you and I are hated. And I think the 100+ church burnings across Canada in the last 5 years bear witness to Who is really hated. So no, this wasn’t a matter of tone. We don’t look at prophets in the Old Testament, and suggest perhaps their tone was off. Sorry, Jeremiah. You were a bit harsh there - a little too blunt on that one! Watch any of his videos – in whole – and listen to those who knew him; Charlie Kirk was incredibly patient and well-versed. He was grounded in the Gospel, in both public and personal life. Many young people attribute their own shift to conservatism to Charlie Kirk, and many are now opening their Bibles for the first time while navigating the loss. Charlie Kirk was targeted because he was effective. The turning point I’m not the first to say this – it’s ringing all over the Internet: in the bullet, hate took a physical form. And this is how Charlie’s wife responded: “You have no idea what you have just unleashed across this world and across this entire nation.” Erika Kirk is right, God has so used this that in Charlie’s death his voice has been amplified. His videos are being watched even more. And I’m excited for all the new voices who have been emboldened to speak. Christian voices. As I’m writing this, a lot has already been said. An insane amount of commentary. But the hate felt personal, so I wrote too. I’ve done outreach – speaking up for the unborn – some of it on university campuses. My life hasn’t been in danger, but the hate’s been the same. The people in Kirk’s videos are the same sort that pro-life activists talk to every day on the streets. Like Charlie Kirk, I enjoy talking to someone who radically disagrees with me; I get to show my own humanity, and I get to tear down the image of heartless, ignorant pro-life monsters that they’ve crafted about us in their minds. Conclusion Charlie’s assassination brought it home: they hate us – they really hate us. And there are so many of them. I wrote a poem a few years ago, while struggling with the weight of others’ opinions of me. I find it a good measure for checking my own heart and actions. Am I doing something wrong, or am I just scared of being ridiculed? Am I hesitant to speak because I think it’s prudent, or because I fear the opinions of others? Strive, at the end of the day When fingers are pointed my way, To have no fault but Thine. Let them hate my faithfulness, I say. Your laws, they laugh at. Your love, they despise. I pray, they find those in me, And be not me, they criticize. You and I both know we’ll do it imperfectly. But that’s not the calling. We don’t have to worry about perfection – Jesus has accomplished that for us. The outcome of evangelism isn’t on us either. But obedience is. May God grant us the courage to speak out boldly and patiently to a world that so desperately needs to hear His Good News. Picture is adapted from one by Gage Skidmore and used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license....

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Assorted

Dominee’s friend

There is style and there is class. Dominee may not have had much style, as the world considers style, but he had class. Dominee had accepted a call to another church. At such a time we cover up the pain of separation with laughter. How could we be happy? This was the man whom God had sent to us to speak to us the Word of God every Sunday. We heard the voice of the Great Shepherd through His under-shepherd twice every Lord’s day. Because Dominee’s voice was so familiar, and his sermons somewhat predictable, we thought we knew him. We knew from the cadence of his heavily accented sentences when he was wrapping up the sermon — just the final song yet, and the benediction, and we’d soon be outside chatting, swapping stories, and laughing. Dominee was not what you would call an especially stylish man. During all the years he preached to us he wore a grey suit. He may have replaced it with a new one once in a while, but we never noticed because the new one was identical to the previous. Nothing stylish about Dominee. Even when he would drop by because of illness in the family or if someone needed encouragement, he’d wear a grey suit. We thought we knew him, until his farewell evening. As I said, when we are sad, we turn to laughter. To cover up our sadness. The farewell evening had begun and was evolving in a predictable way. There was only one unusual thing that immediately caught everyone’s attention. Near the front of the church sat an old Sikh gentleman and his wife. We could tell he was a Sikh because he was wearing a turban. The turban happened to be pink. Later I was told it was, in fact, lavender. The chairman of the men’s society, a serious man, ascended the pulpit. He read some Scripture, prayed, and invited us to sing a well-known Psalm. On behalf of the men’s society, he spoke some kind words of farewell to Dominee, his wife, and the children, and then presented them with a gift, a beautiful painting of local scenery: “We don’t want you to forget this beautiful part of the country!” This was followed by several presentations — women’s, young people’s, youth. And on it went, predictably and comfortably. The presentations alternated between funny, sad, and poignant. But mostly we laughed. When the elders and deacons performed a humorous skit about Dominee’s typical way of leading a meeting, we laughed heartily. When one of Dominee’s local colleagues told a story about Dominee at a classis meeting, we laughed so hard we thought our sides were going to burst. After several hours, when everyone was good and ready for coffee and cake, the chairman of the men’s society ascended the pulpit once again. With gravity, he thanked everyone for coming, bade Dominee farewell once more, and asked if there was anyone whom he had missed, or who had not been on the program but yet wanted to say something. The Sikh gentleman stood up. Well, this was interesting. Slowly, with age and dignity, he walked to the front of the church. He began to speak. This was very interesting. No one could remember a Sikh speaking in our church. He began to tell a story. It had been a hot summer afternoon when he and his wife were walking along the sidewalk. Suddenly overcome by heat, thirst, and exhaustion, he sat on a stone wall in front of a house. That house, as it turned out, was the Manse. Dominee was sitting in the shade reading a newspaper from the old country that had just come in the mail. He noticed the Sikh man sitting at the end of the driveway on the stone wall, and the man’s wife bending over him with a look of concern on her face. Dominee got up to see if he could help. “My husband is very thirsty,” said the lady. “Could he please have some water?” Dominee went to the house and came back with a pitcher of water and some glasses. He poured two glasses of water, and then he took a moment to speak about the other water, the living water that Jesus provides. On that day Dominee and the Sikh became friends. The Sikh gentleman and his wife would drop by more often to talk with Dominee. We never knew. We thought we knew our Dominee. We all listened intently to the Sikh as he told us the story about our kind Dominee. He considered it an honor to count him a friend and wanted to give him a parting gift. The Sikh explained that it was their custom to give the turban they are wearing to their departing friend. The turban would be a reminder of their friendship. With that the Sikh removed the turban from his head, reached forward, and placed it on Dominee’s head. Dominee was mostly bald and had a smaller head than his Sikh friend, and so the turban sank down over Dominee’s forehead. It was a sight to behold! Our Dominee clothed in his trademark grey suit, the only way we had ever seen him in all the years he had ministered to us, wearing a lavender-colored turban. No one laughed, snickered, or tittered. Instead, after a moment during which you could have heard a pin drop, the congregation slowly rose and began to clap. We did not know whether we were clapping for Dominee or the Sikh. Likely, we were clapping for the Lord. We had seen a remarkable thing. Our immigrant congregation may not have had much style, but on that evening we had class. Dominee wore the turban for the rest of the evening, during coffee and as we all came by his table to say farewell. He wore it with pride. Dominee did not have much style, but he had a lot of class. And we thought we knew him. There is style, and there is class. This is a true story, which I experienced as an adolescent boy at the departure of a neighboring minister. The references to style and class were inspired by Sietze Buning’s “Style and Class” collection of poems. This first appeared in the January 2015 issue....

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Theology

The Lifelong Battle

I hate it. I love it. I’m held in its grip. Its power’s alarming. I feel myself slip. It draws me with offers Of quiet and rest, Of freedom from sorrow, Escape when I’m stressed. But it always leaves me So cold and alone, With shame and confusion – I reap what I’ve sown. And yet I keep going, Returning for more; A slave to behaviors I also abhor. The devil, he whispers, “Just do it once more; This time you’ll enjoy it Far more than before.” I’m weak, and I know it, And fighting is hard, For moment by moment I must be on guard. It is so much easier To give in to sin, To yield to temptation And let Satan win. But while sin allures me, I hear Jesus say, “Come, ask me for mercy, For help every day. I lift up the fallen, Forgive all your sin; I’ll strengthen and help you Again and again.” I hate it. I hate it. When ‘gainst God I sin. Oh Saviour, please help me The vict’ry to win....

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Assorted

Why I don’t have a bucket list

Admittedly, to get guilt tripped into a camping trip exposes character weakness on my part. When someone bounds up to you, excited as a kitten encountering his first ball of yarn, and says they have the best idea for a geology fieldtrip, spanning 3 days (“ooh, ooh, no let’s turn it into 4!”), 400 miles, and something like 8 piles of rocks, any person with their wits about them would laugh and say, “Y’all have fun now, I’ll be over here, sleeping in my own bed.” People who camp on purpose, non-ironically, are an utter mystery to me. The more I learn about camping, the more outrageous and certifiable it seems! Did you know that KOA (one of the largest campground empires in the United States and yes, there is such a thing as a campground empire) stands for Kampgrounds of America?? How are we not promoting illiteracy and the overall degradation of our dignity by paying these people to borrow their dirt so we can sleep on it? Did you further know that after you have paid to sleep on dirt out in “nature,” you still are required to either buy or pack in your own wood for building campfires? In the (wait for it...) woods? Yet for the longest time during the diabolical planning of this trip, whose chief stated end was to go and stare at rocks, I could not bring myself to say “no, absolutely not, life is too short.” Which leads me to the character flaw, and my grandmother. ***** In the same week that this trip was scheduled to take place, I received word that my grandmother, my dad’s 94-year-old mother, had suffered a severe stroke. As I write this, I await further word on her condition; things didn’t look good last night. So I have been contemplating my grandmother, someone I have always found to be remarkable and not, perhaps, for the usual reasons. My grandmother was the quintessential farmwife. She raised four children, kept a lovely home, and was known for feeding people well. In many ways, I didn’t truly get to know her until I got married at age 20 and we both discovered that I shared her love of beautiful dishes, and of tables set to appeal to the senses. It was something she was teased about a bit over the years, her large collections of glassware, full sets of tableware, antique bowls and coffee service, but it has captivated me since childhood. She gave me my first everyday serving bowls when my oldest was a toddler – the same ones she used when her kids were little, and then proceeded to gift me antique glassware for my birthday for the next nearly 20 years. The year the glassware stopped was the same year she stopped calling on my birthday; that was, perhaps, the first time a birthday ever made me feel my age. I was blessed with 2 beautiful, intelligent farming grandmothers growing up; my mom’s mom went to the Lord a couple of years ago, and I like to think there are flavors of each of these women’s influences in my own farmwife homemaking. My maternal grandmother was known for ingenuity with the food at hand, with using her abundant garden to set visually peaceful tables, with the sort of minimalism that employs only that which is meaningful. My paternal grandmother was known for overflowing tables (why serve one kind of meat when you could serve three?), and for leftovers that could feed an army, created with simple recipes that everyone loved, served with what I find to be an uncommon blend of elegance and utility. She had no shame in making her mashed potatoes from a box, and paper napkins were a blessing. No one ever left her table hungry. I asked her once to teach me how she cooked various meats, how her meals always taste so good. She shrugged and said, “just a little salt and pepper?” As a person tempted by gourmet magazines, it was an important lesson for me. ***** And this, obviously, leads me to the ill-fated camping trip (not obvious, you say? We should spend more time together). The thing that guilted me into agreeing to this grand adventure of curiosity and literally leaving no stone unturned was the feeling that good mothers, or for that matter, that really interesting people, are the sort who long to travel the world, to always be experiencing new things. They are the ones who cannot simply read about a volcano, they have to climb it! At sunrise! And then go glissading down it, trying all the while to avoid hidden frozen lakes (you think I am making this up. Friend, I couldn’t make this stuff up. I refer you to your friendly neighborhood internet browser to prove the point)! How could I be worth anything at all if my bucket list was not perpetually on the verge of overflow? What does the truth – that I don’t even have a bucket list– say about me, about my value as a mother, as a wife, as a Christian? My grandmother has run well. She has lived an extraordinary life, and why? Because her life has been marked by extraordinary faithfulness to the task at hand. She has steadily built the portion of the kingdom wall God put in front of her. The pitfall I fell into was to believe that true faithfulness had to look different than embracing the life God has given me – it had to look both more “normal” and more exciting. I gave room to the lie that setting a gracious table was inferior to seeing something new, to having an adventure outside my own home. I am kicking myself as I write this... how could I have been so daft as to think that kicking rocks was more full of glory than grilling fresh corn on the cob, that sleeping on dirt had more inherent value than putting clean sheets on my family’s beds? Sitting here in the morning light, having removed myself from the geology fieldtrip, the truth of what it means to live well shines brightly before me. Only what’s done for Christ will last....

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How to stop taking the Bible for granted

“Scripture has never been easier to obtain, and Scripture has never been more difficult to absorb.” Let that sink in for a minute. I read that quote the other day in The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg, and was struck by that sad truth. It reminded me of a recent discussion around our dinner table, when Pop told us the story of Mary Jones. She was a poor young Welsh girl who saved and saved for a Bible, and when she finally had the funds she needed, she walked 26 miles to buy one (just a heads up that is 42 kilometers – a literal marathon!). So, after a long arduous trek barefoot through the countryside, Mary arrived at the house of the clergyman Thomas Charles to make her purchase... only to discover there were no Bibles left! She burst into tears. Her heart was broken, because she could not buy her own Bible. Do not worry though, the story does not end there! There is a happily ever after! Mary ended up with a Bible (one set aside for purchase by someone else, but a Bible nonetheless). And God used this interaction in the push for more Bible translations! What a beautiful chain of events. Now, as we contemplated this story at home, Pop asked a question I would like to pose to you: How many Bibles do you have? Most of us probably have a few Bibles, either from our school days or due to the changing translations within our churches. And that does not even take into account the access we have through the internet! But with all this access, all these Bibles... do you ever desire to read Scripture like Mary? Satan knows the Word has power. Saving power (John 5:24; 1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16). So any time you even think about opening the Bible, you may well find yourself faced with temptations and distractions placed there by the devil, the world, or simply your own sinful flesh. Suddenly there is something else that requires your immediate attention, or there is a notification on your phone, or you just do not feel like it. And once the first battle has been waged and won and your Bible is open... the spiritual war resumes! You are once again distracted, or start skim-reading, or your brain just goes numb. The sad, unspoken truth is that many people find the Bible boring. The length and strength of our attention span has been weakened by our dependence on external stimuli. The overconsumption of short and shallow content through social media has decreased our capacity to focus. Therefore, in a world with so many easy options to amuse or distract our minds, we all have to learn to be fed by the Bible. So, how can we do this? How can we make sure we are truly listening when we hear the Bible all the time? How can we make sure we are still looking for God’s Word when it is right in front of us? John Ortberg had a few suggestions for improving our engagement with the Scriptures, and I would like to share them with you. 1. Read with expectancy Sometimes people bring energy to a gathering. Sometimes they just show up. Consider this: when you spend time in the Word of God, you get to spend time with the God of the Word (James 4:8; Jer. 29:13). If I really understand that, then when I open up my Bible, I do not just “show up.” My mind is awake. I am building my relationship with my Father. It is His turn to talk. I am expectantly waiting to hear what He has to say! 2. Read with an active mind Satan loves to paint a mental glaze over the familiar words of the Bible. So break through it! Use your critical thinking, voice your musings, and ask questions! Read the way you watch a movie. Nobody “tries harder” to watch a movie, but everybody is engaged. Everyone has something to say. However, when it comes to the Bible, the conversations become stilted. People are so concerned with making sure they get the “right” answer, that everyone backs out. The good-natured revealing of different perspectives creates much more learning than just anxiously filling in the blanks with the right answers. 3. Memorize the Word I can’t emphasize how much I believe in hiding God’s Word in your heart (Ps. 119:11). I know it can sound hard, or tedious, or time-consuming, but you can start small! Just start! The words we carry in our minds are available to transform any moment. Memorize the encouragements or warnings that you need most. When God’s Word pushes out lies and resides within us, we will reach for truth, and it will be ours to have. 4. Don’t just read. Do something! It is easier to be smart than to be good. In all our love of debating what we need to do, sometimes we just need to do what we already know (James 1:22)! Practice loving a difficult person (Luke 6:27-29; Col. 3:12-14). Give away some money (Deut. 15:10-11; 2 Cor. 9:7). Be patient with your siblings (1 John 3:16-18; Ps. 133:1; Eph. 4:31-32). Respect your parents (Deut. 5:16; Ex. 20:12). Confess your sins (James 5:16; 1 John 1:9-10; Prov. 28:13). Trust God’s plan (Ps. 37:3-5; Rom. 8:28; Prov. 3:5-6; Matt. 6:25-34). Now I cannot promise this is the perfect recipe for engaging with the Scriptures. Reading God’s Word is part of a relationship we cannot build on our own. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work within you, daily transforming your heart and your desires. If you truly love God, then His Word will never be boring. I’ll leave you with a short text to hide in your heart. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2). A version of this article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of “Contender, the FRCA Youth Magazine” under the title “Boring Bible” and it is reprinted here with permission....

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Assorted

Am I lazy or just relaxing?

What does Proverbs say? ***** After a long and hard day at work or school, the last thing someone might want to do is more work. So, some don’t. Instead, maybe we’ll sit around on our phone, scrolling social media, catching up on the latest news. Then, when the weekend rolls around, doing house chores can be the last thing on our minds. So, some don’t. Instead, we’ve sat on the couch and binge-watched our favorite TV series to waste the day away. Taking a break isn’t a problem, but how much is too much? Relaxation can be good, but laziness isn’t. What exactly does the Bible say about laziness and how can we fight against it? And how do we determine whether we are being lazy or just relaxing? Laziness means excuses While the dictionary defines laziness as “the unwillingness to work or use energy,” the Bible has a more applicable explanation. Solomon, in Proverbs 26:13-15, pictures it in this way: 13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!” 14 As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. 15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. In Warning Against Laziness, Alistair Begg says of verse 14: “He can turn to his left, or he can turn to his right, but that’s about it. He absolutely loves it. He makes movement but no progress. Where you found him at seven in the morning you can find him later at eleven in the morning, and perhaps at three in the afternoon.” And what of the lion? The sluggard is happy making excuses for reasons not to leave his house. He becomes a procrastinator. As Begg notes: “And the longer they go on filling their mind with that kind of thing, they have imaginary reasons for their inactivity, and these imaginary reasons finally convince them of the fact that they can rationalize the fact that they don’t get up. Of course, the real danger is not the imaginary lion in the street. The real danger is the roaring lion, the devil, who loves to come and lull people into indolence and defeat.” The more excuses we come up with for avoiding tasks, the more we begin to think it isn’t a problem. A strong temptation Throughout the book of Proverbs laziness arises repeatedly. If God repeats a warning, we know that it matters for our spiritual lives and that it’s a tough temptation to overcome. Proverbs 24:30-34 gives us an image of how detrimental laziness is for our souls. We are given a description of the vineyard of a sluggard and as expected, it is overgrown with weeds, full of thorns, and the walls are in ruins. It is a testimony to his laziness. When challenged with the work and upkeep of his vineyard, this is someone who’d prefer “a little more sleep, a little more slumber.” He or she would rather have 5 more minutes of sleep than do the tasks God has asked of them. Laziness affects more than just vineyards. A few chapters earlier, in Prov. 21:25, we read that “The cravings of the sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work.” Laziness keeps the heart empty and provides opportunity for the devil to enter an open door. Laziness occurs when we do nothing productive for the soul and the mind. The truth of the matter is that we were made to work. Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam was given work to do, to tend the garden and name the animals (Gen. 2:15-20). We work to glorify God, and God has so created us that when we live out our purpose, it is good for us to work too. When we fail to obey the command to work hard, we are more susceptible to other temptations as well. We need to be working hard, whether that is in the home caring for our children, providing an income for our family, or doing our best in school so that we aren’t easily tempted. We need to be aware of laziness as a sin. It isn’t a joke because sin, left unchecked, separates us from God. It effects the wholeness of our lives, and it needs to be dealt with. Those hours spent on Instagram or Tik Tok are times that you could be enjoying communion with others, doing the tasks God’s set out for you, spending time with Him in His Word, and more. The point is that if you don’t discipline yourself to be diligent in your work, studies, in practicing hospitality, and in the reading of the Bible, as well as prayer, you will become lazy. Laziness is the default; it’s the result of not trying. Remember the Parable of the Talents, with the servant who buried his talent – the master took it from him and gave the talent away to someone who would actually do something with it (Matt. 25:14-30). God is not happy with the bare minimum from us. We need to make the most of every opportunity lest laziness hinder us from serving God wholeheartedly. Fight laziness with productivity What can we do to assure ourselves to not fall into this temptation? We can ask ourselves one simple question: Have I been productive today? If you can list off a number of things, then a break might be just the thing. If you ask this same question to your parents, or your spouse – “Have I done anything productive today?” – you’ll likely get an honest answer. Another good starting question could be “what does productivity look like in your home?” Learn from others what it means to be productive. Each individual has their own happy medium so there is nothing wrong with asking around. And if you are struggling with laziness here are some other tips that have helped me: 1) Pray – Ask God to show you when you aren’t putting in a good effort 2) Read what Scripture says about laziness and work 3) Listen to (or read) Alistair Begg’s “Warning Against Laziness” 4) Go for a walk when you can – keep yourself in shape 5) Call a friend whom you haven’t talked to in a while – put effort into your relationships Fight laziness by resting On the other hand, burning out isn’t godly either. Just because God calls us to work hard doesn’t mean we should work to a point of pure exhaustion at the end of the day. How can we ever thank Him if we’re too busy to see what He is doing? Jesus reminds us to rest, “And He said unto them, ‘come away by yourself to a desolate place and rest awhile’” (Mark 6:31). He says rest awhile. He tells his apostles that even the most active servants of Christ cannot always be upon the stretch of business and work. They too need some time to recharge. Christ understands how weary our lives are. He went through it every day during His ministry. We can turn to Him knowing He’s experienced exhaustion too. So He provides those free afternoons or evenings when there’s no homework taking over. He gives us the weekend for a change of pace from our daily work, and to go out with friends. He has even set aside a day every week where we can step away from our obligations and come praise Him in His house with fellow believers. We have an obligation to serve Him wholeheartedly and always, but this doesn’t mean working 6 days a week for every waking hour. It’s just that having a break doesn’t have to mean pulling out your phone to doomscroll. It might be as simple as taking a moment to consider every blessing that God has given, and express gratitude for them. It means being present with your family, teaching them the ways of their Maker and training them up in His word. When you feel deflated, read Psalm 23. God leads us to the still waters, not the raging sea. He restores our souls and gives us quietness of mind. How do I know it’s rest? The difference between rest and laziness might come down to its purpose. Laziness is an avoidance – avoiding the laundry piling up, the lawn that needs mowing, the taxes that need doing, the kids that need engagement, whatever it might be. Rest is about restoration, to make yourself ready again to do the work God has prepared for you. Rest will feel good, it will be enjoyable, and it’s God-given. When I find myself being lazy, I notice that it stinks. I feel sluggish. A sluggard man does not enjoy being lazy. In contrast, a busy man enjoys a day of rest. He is satisfied because he has completed the task to which God called him. Keep this in mind as you go about each day. Serve the Lord wholeheartedly with your hands and with your rest. We must be good stewards with the time we’ve been given glorifying God in our work. Laziness is serious; it is incredibly dangerous – the Bible has nothing good to say about the fate of the sluggard. So, when that snooze button is tempting you, think through who God is calling you to be, and how much more important obedience to Him is, than 5 more minutes of sleep. And because we aren’t alone in this race, we can be an encouragement to one another, reprimanding each other gently to stop putting off things until tomorrow. The difference between laziness and rest matters! God has saved us. He sent his Son to die for us, and we have only a limited time here on Earth to express our gratitude towards Him. So let’s repent from the opportunities we’ve wasted, and ask Him to help us take up “the good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10)....

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Assorted

Our forever home

Reflections on finding permanence from someone who has lived in 27 homes. ***** Home is Where the Heart Is. God Bless Our Home. Home Sweet Home. Have you seen or heard these slogans lately? Maybe on a plaque or as an embroidered craft on your grandmother’s wall? Maybe on a hand-painted sign? Or how about this. You’re searching real estate online and a beautiful property is described as “your new forever home!” Recently, I heard a Christian podcaster use that term – forever home – in reference to where she was living. It made me think a little deeper about how we bandy those words about. Perhaps a little carelessly? God understands Although the idea of finding the perfect place to live is universally appealing, what should our perspective as Christians be? We’re all going to die one day so the concept of finding a permanent place on this planet is fundamentally flawed. So where is our forever home? As believers we know that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). And yet God understands our earthly desire for home here and now. He promised the Israelites that one day they would enter a land flowing with milk and honey. They would build houses and dwell securely. Psalm 132:13-14 says, “For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place; ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it’” . If God desired an earthly dwelling place, then surely, He understands our desire for one. How do we live with our own intense longing and need for an earthly home, knowing that this planet ultimately is not where we will spend eternity? The conundrum set before us is to create loving spaces where we can raise families, practice the art of hospitality, and honor God… all the while remembering the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:19-21. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Did you catch that last part? Sounds a lot like Home is Where the Heart Is, doesn’t it? My parents did an amazing job of keeping the tension between our earthly and heavenly homes foremost in the hearts and minds of their five children. Whenever we drove home from an afternoon of shopping, a visit to another family, or our annual camping trip, my mother sang an old-fashioned song… ‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. But she always followed that up with… There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar. To an impressionable, often sleepy young child, sitting squished between her older siblings in the backseat, that balance struck home. The yearning for a safe place at the end of a long tiring day became permanently intermingled with the conviction of knowing this world isn’t our final abode. Citizenship? Fast forward through the years and I’m in a car again. Over our 40+ years of marriage I’ve moved many times with my husband and have given a lot of thought to this subject. Each time we moved into a new place, I prayed for God’s hand of protection to cover us. Each time we moved out, I learned to hold our earthly possessions lightly, letting go of material things and clinging ever more tightly to heavenly treasures. My car is parked beside a booth. A uniformed guard perches on a stool inside. “Citizenship?” he asks brusquely. I’m at the border. Crossing the invisible line between two nations. On my way to visit our daughter who married an American and moved there fifteen years ago. Every time I’m asked that inevitable question, I want to answer “my citizenship is in heaven.” But then I remember that the agent posing the question has the authority to lawfully detain me or send me on my way. I dutifully answer “Canadian.” How much more can God, who has the ultimate authority, welcome us one glorious day into His everlasting kingdom… or banish us from His presence. Our forever home is not and never can be here on earth. One day, at the brink of eternity, we will all stand before His judgment throne, and our citizenship will either be in heaven or hell. Let’s be diligent to lay up our treasures where they rightfully belong. In our true forever home....

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Politics

Man Up: ARPA leaderboards and the call to courageous action

We live in a time of deep confusion about truth, morality, identity, and even the basic purpose of life. Many young people today are unanchored, unsure of what faithfulness looks like in the world around them. As Francis Schaeffer noted, “Modern man has both feet firmly planted in mid-air.” But following Christ is not just about holding the right beliefs in private. It means living those beliefs out boldly, in public, and without compromise. God calls His people to bear witness to the truth in every sphere of life, including the political realm, where laws are made, values are shaped, and the vulnerable are either protected or ignored. Young people are not exempt from this calling. Scripture gives us examples like Daniel in Babylon, David facing Goliath, and Timothy in the early church – young men who stood firm in the face of pressure, hostility, or fear. That same spirit of faithful action is exactly what ARPA’s Leaderboards competition aims to cultivate. Over the past school year, students across Canada have stepped up by writing letters, hosting events, engaging with elected officials, and standing for life and truth in their communities. Their efforts are a reminder that Christian youth can be courageous, creative, and committed to something far greater than themselves. This article highlights what they did and why it matters. In particular, it takes note of a striking feature from this year’s competition: the individual winners at the top of the Leaderboard were all young men. In a culture where male leadership is often dismissed or diminished, that’s worth celebrating. More than that, it invites us to consider what godly leadership actually looks like, and how we can raise up the next generation to embrace it. What is ARPA Leaderboards? All sorts of ways to be active, and earn your ARPA club points. ARPA Leaderboards is a national student competition that turns political action into a hands-on, community-based challenge. It’s designed to encourage Reformed high school and homeschool students to bring a Christian witness into the public square, and not just in theory, but in practice. Throughout the school year, students form ARPA clubs – these are usually based in Christian schools or homeschool co-ops – and then choose real-world political or cultural actions to carry out together. These actions include things like organizing pro-life flag displays, writing letters to MPs or editors, meeting with local representatives, collecting donations for pregnancy care centers, or educating others through public events. Each completed action earns points, and photos and reports are posted on the Leaderboards website. There are prizes both for individual students and for school clubs, but the real reward is learning how to serve Christ with courage and clarity in public life. While Leaderboards encourages competition, its deeper goal is to encourage young people to take initiative and speak with clarity in the public square. By combining teamwork, creativity, and accountability, it helps young people gain confidence and conviction as they speak out on issues of justice, life, and truth. And it makes political engagement less abstract – less something “for us as adults later” – and more of a concrete expression of public obedience to Christ here and now. Immanuel Christian School students singing at an old age home. Highlights from this year From September to May, students across the country took action that was thoughtful, bold, and often outside their comfort zone. What began for many at an ARPA Youth Conference (where they learned about pro-life advocacy, wrote postcards, and distributed flyers), soon turned into a steady stream of public witness in their own communities. One of the most visible efforts was the all-pink flag display in Burlington, Ontario, drawing attention to the injustice of sex-selective abortion. Students from TEACH Home Educators of Brant and Emmanuel Christian High School of Fergus came out to plant flags, engage with passersby, and take down the display afterward. Emmanuel Christian High School went on to host not one but four flag displays throughout the year! Some actions were deeply relational. Several clubs, including Immanuel Christian School of Winnipeg, organized visits to seniors’ homes, singing, encouraging, and reminding elderly residents of their value and dignity in Christ. Others gathered resources for local pregnancy care centers or raised funds through school-wide initiatives. Emmanuel Christian High School students meeting with their local Member of Parliament Some students stepped into more direct engagement with public officials. Emmanuel Christian High School met with both their Member of Parliament and newly elected Member of Provincial Parliament to talk about key issues. Mia Vandermaarel of TEACH Home Educators of Brant wrote letters to the editor that were published in the Toronto Sun, Winnipeg Sun, and Hamilton Spectator, helping shape public conversation from a Christian perspective. Many clubs also came up with entirely original projects. One group from Coaldale Christian School hosted a student-led apologetics night, where students taught their parents the basics of pro-life argumentation… and even cooked dinner for them! Another group, involved in ARPA’s Let Kids Be campaign, set up a roadside sign warning about the harms of gender transition for minors. When the sign was vandalized, students from Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School returned late at night to repair and re-install it. Not every action was large-scale, but each one mattered. Students wrote pro-life messages with sidewalk chalk for people to see along public pathways. Others knit baby hats (each one representing a life lost to abortion) and sent them to Parliament. Stickers with clear, hopeful pro-life messages appeared on cars, lockers, and backpacks. Taken together, these efforts showed that faithfulness isn’t about age, comfort, or platform. It’s about showing up, speaking out, and putting your beliefs into action – even when no one is watching. The men on the Leaderboard “The world cries for men who are strong: strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer.” – Elisabeth Elliot One of the most striking details from this year’s competition was the individual leaderboard. At the top were three young men: Evan Roth, James Thalen, and Asher Vandermaarel. These weren’t just occasional contributors; they were consistent, committed, and quietly courageous. Evan registered for an ARPA Youth Conference in the fall, participated in the March for Life, visited an old age home, handed out Let Kids Be flyers, and used sidewalk chalk to spread the We Need a Law message. He also wrote postcards to MPs and MLAs, took part in several flag displays, and repeated most of these actions more than once. James and Asher took on similar efforts, showing the same kind of persistence and dedication over the course of the school year. In a time when male leadership is often absent or dismissed, these young men modeled something countercultural: initiative, responsibility, and public conviction rooted in their Christian faith. They didn’t act alone. Like most students in the Leaderboards program, they had guidance from a teacher or club leader, and encouragement from the ARPA staff along the way. But what set them apart was their willingness to take initiative. They followed through, again and again, often going beyond what was expected. They acted faithfully, consistently, and with conviction, because they believed it mattered. This kind of leadership matters. In many of our churches, we’re seeing fewer men entering the ministry and fewer desiring to serve as elders and deacons. And while ARPA’s local adult chapters across the country continue to thrive, many still see greater involvement from women than men. That’s not cause for despair, but it is a reminder of how valuable it is to see young men stepping into public responsibility with clarity and courage. Evan, James, and Asher are reminders that faithfulness doesn’t require a title or a platform. It requires conviction, courage, and the willingness to be counted. A brief biblical case for male leadership in public life Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School students getting the message out with a ”Let Kids Be” sign. The Bible presents a consistent pattern: men are called to take initiative, accept responsibility, and lead with humility and courage – not just in the home and church, but also in the broader public realm. From the beginning, Adam was placed in the garden to “tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15), a charge that includes cultivation, guardianship, and stewardship. That calling – to bear responsibility for the world God made – echoes throughout redemptive history. Again and again, we see God raising up men to stand in the public square and confront injustice, call rulers to account, and proclaim His truth: Moses stood before Pharaoh, not merely asking for Israel’s release, but declaring the sovereign rule of God over kings: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go’” (Ex. 5:1). Nathan confronted King David after his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba, saying, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7), a courageous act of public accountability. Elijah boldly rebuked Ahab for Naboth’s murder and Israel’s idolatry (1 Kings 21). Isaiah stood before kings like Ahaz and Hezekiah, urging trust in the Lord rather than foreign alliances (Is. 7; 37–39). Jeremiah warned Zedekiah and the officials of Judah, saying, “O house of David! Thus says the Lord: ‘Execute judgment in the morning…’” (Jer. 21:12), even as he was imprisoned and persecuted for his message. Amos condemned Israel’s ruling class: “They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly” (Amos 5:10), calling out systemic injustice. Micah declared, “Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel… who hate good and love evil” (Micah 3:1–2), directly confronting civic corruption. Daniel, serving under pagan kings, boldly interpreted dreams and declared divine judgment: “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting” (Dan. 5:27). These men were not grasping for personal gain or prestige. They bore public responsibility because they feared God more than man. Whether they held office or spoke prophetically to those who did, they understood that political power is not evil in itself – it is a tool to be used in submission to God’s authority and for the good of others. They spoke with clarity, even when it cost them dearly. The New Testament carries this same vision of principled courage. Paul exhorts believers: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13). Though the church is not a political body, it is called to form men who will lead well in every sphere of life, including the public square. This is not a call to control others or seek power for its own sake, but to take initiative with conviction, courage, and a willingness to bear responsibility for the good of others. What we saw this year in the Leaderboards competition was a glimpse of that calling. In a time when many young men are uncertain about their role or place, we saw a few step forward – not perfectly, but faithfully. And that is something to thank God for, and to build on. Speaking truth at the Toronto March for Life. More than politics: preparing for lifelong engagement Leaderboards isn’t just about winning a prize or checking off action items. It’s about planting the seeds of long-term involvement – helping students gain the confidence, skills, and motivation to be engaged Christian citizens well into adulthood. We often hear from ARPA chapter leaders that they wish more men were actively involved. That gap doesn’t close by accident. It closes when young people are shown early that political action is a normal and necessary part of Christian responsibility. Leaderboards helps do exactly that. It gives students a framework for understanding the issues and a place to start acting on them. The hope isn’t just that they participate for a season. It’s that they carry these habits into the rest of their lives by joining ARPA chapters, meeting with elected officials, and encouraging others in their church community to speak up. If we want faithful, engaged adults tomorrow, we need to invest in opportunities for them to participate today. That’s the kind of momentum we want to carry forward – not just into next year’s competition, but into a lifetime of public faithfulness. The work isn’t finished This year’s Leaderboards competition gave us a glimpse of what’s possible when young Christians take action. Some wrote letters. Others planted flags. A few stood in front of MPs or in front of their entire school. And at the top of the individual leaderboard, a handful of young men took initiative, showing maturity, discipline, and a willingness to lead. But this isn’t just about one season or a few standout students. It’s about what comes next. Canada doesn’t just need more political activity. It needs principled, faithful leadership – rooted in truth and directed toward the good of our neighbors. It needs Christians who understand that public responsibility is part of their calling and who are prepared to act accordingly. As André Schutten and Michael Wagner write in the Second Edition of A Christian Citizenship Guide: “When it comes to political action, if not we, dear Christian citizen, then who? Who else would have the courage? Who else would know what to do? Who else would know how to fix the problem? We are a nation lost, without any sense of reality or morality. Canada needs a compass and a guide. The compass exists: it is the Word of God. The guides to read the compass are the faithful members of the church, scattered like leaven (Gal. 5:9) throughout all the institutions and spheres of Canadian culture and society and applying the truth and beauty and goodness of the Word of God in every sphere of life.” Leaderboards will return in September, Lord willing. Until then, we celebrate those who stepped up and we invite others to join them. The competition may end each spring, but our calling as Christians does not. Paul Lawton is ARPA’s Director of Grassroots Action, while Naomi Meerstra is ARPA’s Eastern Grassroots Coordinator. Pictures provided by ARPA Canada....

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Internet

How to stay sane in an overstimulated age

Reconnect information and action ***** In today’s hyperconnected world, information comes at us fast and furious, from every direction, 24-7. We wake up to news alerts about a major earthquake in Japan or a political assassination in Ecuador. We open our social media feeds and, within the first minute of scrolling, see the latest grim headlines about war or rumors of war, the latest anger-inducing missive in this or that culture war debate, and the latest foolish oversharing from this or that uncle or college friend. Because we are human and emotionally wired, it’s natural that these things provoke us and inflame our hearts to want to do something. Yet what can we do with this abundance of troublesome information aside from being informed about it? We are overstimulated but underactivated. Information bombards us but action is elusive. I’m convinced this dynamic is one of the major sources of anxiety and mental unhealth in today’s information age, and it’s something Neil Postman warned about. More info than we can do anything with Postman talked about it in terms of what he called the “information-action ratio.” For most of human history, there was a high correlation between the information that filled human brains and the tangible actions they could take in response. “News of the world” was inaccessible to most people. The information that concerned them was closer-to-home realities of family, farm, or community: information with direct bearing on the actions of everyday life. But this all changed, Postman argued, with the invention of the telegraph. Suddenly, the “news of the world” was much more accessible to average people, who found it an amusing novelty. The problem, however, is that this influx of far-flung information “gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.” As Postman observed, “For the first time in human history, people were faced with the problem of information glut, which means that simultaneously they were faced with the problem of a diminished social and political potency.”1 If Postman’s observations about “information glut” were accurate forty years ago, how much more are they today, when we’re speeding down the “information superhighway” faster than ever via our ubiquitous smartphones and ever-present Wi-Fi? And the resulting problem of impotence is even more pronounced than it was in Postman’s era. In today’s world, it’s not just occasional televised traumas that burden our souls; it’s the constant feed. “Breaking news” is no longer the alarming verbiage that signals a rare calamity; it’s the everyday parlance of twenty-four-hour news and social media publishers skilled at the art of clickbait. These media publishers are eager to garner eyeballs by any means necessary. Another school shooting. A salacious scandal. An election “shock poll.” A helicopter-filmed police chase. An Amber Alert for a missing child. But what are we to do with all these alarming headlines and triggering dings of “breaking news”? Media outlets don’t care about this question. Their only interest is that we have tuned in, clicked, and fallen for the pseudo urgency of the Important Information they’ve put on our radar. Making audiences “aware” – at best, helping them become “informed citizens” – seems to be the chief value proposition the news industry can offer in its defense. But awareness to what end? Is this tidal wave of chaotic information informing us merely for the sake of us “being informed”? Awareness as an end unto itself We’ve come to a point where, yes, the primary goal of most information mediated to us is that we should be informed and aware of it. Not educated or activated about important things happening in the world, mind you; merely aware. The benefits of an informed citizenry have long been trumpeted as a valorous purpose of the free press (and indeed, the benefits are real). But we also need to talk about the liabilities that come with an overinformed or trivially informed citizenry. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman argued that TV had altered the meaning of “being informed” by “creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation.” This is not the same as outright misinformation, he said. It’s rather misleading information, which “creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing.”2 In Postman’s view, mass media (led by television) created a world of dilettante experts whose absorption of vast amounts of information – packaged to them as entertainment – gave them a false sense of know-how about the happenings of the world. Referencing this know-how (e.g., “I saw this news story about ____” or “I read this Atlantic article about ____”) became status markers. Information awareness took on a cultural cachet quite apart from its actionability. Fast forward four decades, and we now take it for granted that “awareness” is a value in its own right. The conversation starters might be different today (“I saw this TED Talk on YouTube about ____” or “I saw this TikTok about ____”), but the status it brings has only increased. Our ability to cite, allude to, or summarize secondhand information about a breadth of things (even if our grasp of the “thing” is actually wafer thin) turns information into a means of signaling our claim on that most coveted virtue, relevance. For digital natives who’ve lived their whole lives in a hyperaware, globally connected information ecosystem, it’s understandable that a word like woke would come into prominence as a shorthand for social justice. In the twentieth century, social justice “activism” involved tangible actions like volunteering or picketing in a real physical place; in the twenty-first century, someone can be an “activist” without ever getting off his or her phone. Activism (or “slacktivism”) moves from being primarily about doing to largely about saying: participating in the correct lingo, hashtags, and accepted speech (e.g., preferred pronouns) becomes the means of activism more than, well, actions offline. “Doing justice” becomes a discursive activity more than a tangible one. In this upside-down world, people can – and often are – accused of apathy and inaction for being silent (“silence is violence”) on social media, even if their offline, unpublished activities are thoroughly oriented around addressing the injustice they’re being accused of ignoring. So it goes in a world where discourse about a problem (talking about it publicly) occupies a higher social standing than actual efforts to solve the problem. This is problematic. Problem of being overinformed Five years after publishing Amusing Ourselves, Postman gave a speech to the German Informatics Society that elaborated on the information-action ratio. In the talk, titled “Informing Ourselves to Death,” Postman described how, for the average person in 1990, “information no longer has any relation to the solution of problems.” The way he described it could just as easily describe the average person in 2025: The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one’s status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don’t know what to do with it.... Our defenses against information glut have broken down; our information immune system is inoperable. We don’t know how to filter it out; we don’t know how to reduce it; we don’t know how to use it.3 Remember, Postman observed this “information glut” problem in the pre-internet era. How much more are we glutted with information today? If we didn’t have good “information immunity” defenses back then, we’re even worse off now – especially in the age of ChatGPT, deepfakes, political misinformation campaigns, and the resulting epistemological crisis. The information crisis we face is at least threefold: too much information that moves too fast and is algorithmically tailored to be too focused on me.4 In a sense, “being informed” is more of a liability than an asset in today’s world. The quality of digitally mediated information is simply too untrustworthy. What happens to us when we’re overinformed but underactivated? From my experience and observations, some common side effects occur. We become anxious – When a world’s worth of “breaking news” calamities, injustices, and apocalyptic headlines steadily feed our souls, we naturally feel anxious and on edge. We become angry – Rising blood pressure and seething anger follow when we’re constantly exposed to partisan clickbait, triggering troll provocations, and other forms of foolish talk. We become addicted – Algorithms easily figure out what types of information each of us can’t resist. Soon we’re scrolling and clicking like addicts, unable to resist the intoxicating allure of our favorite genres of “news,” trivia, or juicy gossip. We become numb – A diet of information disconnected from tangible action makes information abstract and surreal, disconnected from our real life. Eventually, headlines about a horrific mass shooting become things we scroll past as casually as we glance at a friend’s vacation photo. We become lonely – When we spend large segments of our lives binging on digital information far removed from local, embodied communities – even if it’s information we debate or discuss with others online – we become lonelier. The online influencer we listen to, or the interlocutor avatars we fiercely debate, are hardly substitutes for the know-and-be-known community we really need. We become delusional – Because of the algorithmic shape of information today, no two of us live in the same information universe. We all see things differently, in ways tweaked to please our preferences and biases. Naturally, this further entrenches us in echo chambers, deepening our confidence in our own rightness (however wrong we are). We become detached from reality – The cumulative effect of all the above is that an overinformed life becomes a pseudo real life. When awareness trumps action and we’re more compelled by narratives than by reality, our sense of the world becomes ever more surreal. Perhaps C. S. Lewis sums it up best in this letter to a friend, when he laments the dynamics of an information-action disconnect: It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know.) A great many people do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is.5 Not only is Lewis right to challenge the social merit attached to “the mere state of being worried” (i.e., the social capital of awareness), but he hits the nail on the head when he says we should avoid fixing our minds on problems we can’t solve. This not only burdens us in all the ways described above but tends to distract us from the local problems we can help fix. Neglecting the local With all the energy we devote to keeping up with the goings-on of the world, we might neglect the people we can love and the problems we can address in our own backyards. For Christians called to love our neighbors and tangibly pursue mercy and justice, this is the crux of what’s wrong with an imbalanced information-action ratio. Such is the state of our mass-mediated information environment that your average twenty-first-century young person can tell you far more about national politics than local politics. He develops strong opinions about presidential candidates and Supreme Court cases but couldn’t tell you the name of the mayor or a city council member in his city, nor identify the most pressing challenges facing his proximate community. Of the millions of Gen Zers who posted a blank black square on Instagram in June 2020 (#blackouttuesday) to protest police brutality, how many have ever had a conversation with a police officer in their own neighborhood? Of the millions who changed their social media avatars to the Ukrainian flag in February 2022, how many have tangibly helped refugees or immigrants from war-torn nations in their own cities? Online hashtag actions are well intentioned. And maybe the viral power of such “collective online action” makes some difference. But as Lewis points out, the danger is that such actions “become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know.” There are many reasons why everyone should strive for a more balanced information-action ratio. It’ll help your mental health and ground you in local life and embodied community. For Christians specifically, it’ll remind you of your creaturely limits and deepen your trust in a sovereign God who is omniaware in ways you can never be. And it’ll present more fruitful avenues for loving your neighbor and being a faithful witness in the particular place where God has situated you. Bringing balance to the ratio Christians should be countercultural by striving to reconnect information and action, modeling a healthier way of living for a world out of balance. How can we do this? Here are ideas for individual Christians and ideas for churches and leaders. For Individual Christians Audit your news and information diet – Make intentional efforts to reduce your intake of national and global information while increasing your intake of local information (which has more potential to be actionable). Don’t turn your ears off to the cries of the world. But listen more eagerly to the cries closer to home. Embrace your limits – As you become more “unaware” of the steady hum of information in the news that might be making others anxious, angry, and stressed, see this as an opportunity for resting in God’s sovereignty and praising him for his power. A world’s worth of burdens is too much for you – but not for God. Contemplating our limits in contrast to God’s unlimitedness is a fruitful path toward wisdom (see Ps. 90). Rejoice in how God designed you – You are an integrated mind and body. What comes into your brain has a natural outlet in your physical activities. You weren’t made to just be aware of faraway problems and global chaos about which you can’t do much. You were made to bring order to the chaos in your immediate vicinity. You weren’t made to be a gawker but a gardener (Gen. 2:15). Pray – Prayer is an important action we can take. When you inevitably encounter information about an injustice or tragedy in some far-flung part of the nation or world, don’t let the information sit idly in your troubled brain. Take it to the Lord in prayer. As much as our secular culture demands more than “thoughts and prayers,” Christians know prayer is actually potent and crucial. If we can’t do anything else in response to troublesome information, we can pray to the one who can. For Churches and Church Leaders Disciple people in media habits – Information intake should be a subject addressed in discipleship – not in a legalistic sense but as part of wisdom. Help the people in your church think through the amount and type of information they consume and how it’s shaping their souls. Promote localism – Church leaders should lead people (especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha) to prioritize the local, proximate, and offline as much or more than the distant, disembodied goings-on of the online world. Make the case for why a balanced ratio of information and action is not only a recipe for improved mental and spiritual health but conducive to a more effective Christian mission. Gather people for prayer – When some national or global calamity does occur, in such a way that most in your Christian community will be aware of and troubled by it, prayer is an appropriate communal response. Both in the regular church gathering and in impromptu meetings, the church can and should take the action of prayer. It’s an “action” in the truest sense, and one we should never neglect. Call people to take action – Churches should regularly organize opportunities for people to tangibly solve real problems in the community. Often this works best by establishing long-term partnerships with organizations already doing specific work that aligns with biblical neighbor love: crisis pregnancy centers, foster and adoption agencies, homeless shelters, food distribution centers, and so forth. There is no end to the needs in your own backyard. And if a national news headline happens to be about something happening in your city or community, then your church should spring into hands-on action. This is a rare opportunity for burdensome information about calamity to directly translate to tangible community service, in partnership with local organizations and civic authorities. Beauty of activated Church For much of my adult life, I was an overinformed news junkie. The onset of social media amplified this addiction – and my soul suffered as a result. Thankfully, I found a healthier way to live, in no small part because I rediscovered the beauty and necessity of the local church. Once I gave myself wholeheartedly to local church life, I came to see that the burdens and griefs of ten people in my small group were far more important for me to carry than the burdens and griefs of countless sufferers on social media. Not only could I see the actual tears on actual faces as they shared, but I could hug them and know them in their suffering – and help them through it. I also came to see that the tangibly activated local church is a far more satisfying and functional community than the virtually aware community of social media. Whether they’re distributing food in partnership with local food banks, mobilizing volunteers for a local foster and adoption agency, or simply rallying the congregation around the needs of the community (single moms, meal trains for sick families, house cleanup for elderly members, and so forth), a church’s localized, tangible action is beautiful to behold. And when troublesome news from distant places does reach our corner of the world – as it invariably will – the local church is where I go first to process and pray through it, even if no other “action” is possible in response. For centuries, the church’s “prayers of the people” liturgies have borne witness to the fact that in those instances where we can’t “do” anything with our hands to help, we can always drop to our knees and pray. Christians can model a different mode of living in an over-informed, underactivated world. It’s a mode that isn’t numb or ambivalent to the countless problems that plague our world but realistic about our limited scope and where we can best be used. It’s a mode that leads to calmer minds, more focused souls, and more engaged bodies. It’s a mode that syncs up with how we were created and resists the digital era’s many temptations toward god-like limitlessness. Content taken from “Scrolling Ourselves to Death” by Ivan Mesa and Brett McCracken, ©2025. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org. Endnotes 1 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 20th anniversary ed. (1985; repr., New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 68. 2 Postman, Amusing Ourselves, 107. 3 Neil Postman, “Informing Ourselves to Death” (address to the German Informatics Society, Stuttgart, Germany, October 11, 1990), https://web.williams.edu/HistSci/curriculum/101 /informing.html. 4 I devote chapters to each of these three challenges in my book, The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), chaps. 1–3. 5 C. S. Lewis, letter to Dom Bede Griffiths (1946), quoted in Paul F. Ford, ed., Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), 119....

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Being the Church

Christians don’t pray

Who says that Christians don’t pray? Of course, Christians pray, don’t they? Isn’t prayer one of the essential characteristics of Christian life? Every time the family sits at a meal someone prays asking God to bless the food. When they go to church, the preacher prays and people bow their heads and join him in prayer, don’t they? What kind of nonsense is this to say that Christians don’t pray? Wow, what a way to start an article! Let me see if I can explain. ***** It is Friday evening and a missionary has come to your church to present the situation in Upper Castelia. He says that the national leaders are in some distress, the people are poor and mistreated, the missionaries are understaffed, and the government is refusing to grant visas to new missionaries. They are also having difficulty with their financial support. The people need Bibles, food, medical help, and national pastors. But his main concern is the need for prayer for the people. He asks the congregation to pray for him and his family as they will be returning to Upper Castelia Castelia next month. The appeal strikes a chord in your heart and mind. You say to yourself, “By God’s grace, I will pray.” As the pastor closes the service, he mentions the need to pray for “our sister Martha” in the hospital with cancer. After the service you shake hands with the missionary and give his wife a hug. You whisper to them, “I’ll pray for you.” You get into your car and drive through traffic rehearsing in your mind the words of the missionary. You are a careful driver but there are so many bad drivers who speed or forget to signal. And some guy seems to be glued to your back bumper. Aloud, you say, “Why aren’t there any police around to arrest him for tailgating? Drivers these days need to take a refresher course on driving courtesy.” When you arrive home a little frustrated, you have things to do. The kids have to get to bed on time because Saturday is a busy day. After you tuck them in you can relax. This will give you some time to check a few things on Facebook. A few hours later, you pull yourself away from the computer and turn on the television evening news. Looks like taxes are going to increase. Cost of living is up. There was an accident on the major highway. An offender was released on parole after serving only half of his sentence. The fire crews were called out to a blaze on Main Street. There’s a hint of some impending scandal in the government. The sports scores show that your team is not doing nearly as well as it should. Ahh, here’s the weather. Tomorrow is going to be pretty much the same as today with the slight possibility of precipitation. After the news you tidy up the place, put the few empty snack dishes into the sink, yawn, and get into bed ... too tired to pray. Saturday is another busy day. The children are up early. Bob needs a ride to sports practice and Barb needs to go to swim class. The Thompsons are coming over for the barbecue. You’re too busy to pray. On Sunday morning you rush around getting the family ready for church. During the service, your pastor mentions the good meeting last Friday with the Upper Castelia missionaries. Yes, you silently agree, “We need to pray for them.” Apart from church, Sunday’s routine doesn’t differ significantly from the other days. You said you would pray for the missionaries, but you haven’t. You are irritated by bad drivers, but you don’t pray for them. You are disturbed by what you hear and see on the news, but you don’t pray. You complain about the government, but you don’t pray. Since Martha wasn’t in church, you forgot all about her. And I say, “Christians don’t pray.” ***** I hate to say it (having been a pastor, now retired) but even some pastors don’t pray. They lead in prayer in church services, they pray at the bedside of suffering people, and they promise to pray for you. But with all the cares of the church, they don’t spend time praying in their offices or in their homes. Again I say, “Christians don’t pray.” Jesus prayed. Many times He went off alone to pray. The disciples watched the Lord pray and came to the realization that compared to Him they really didn’t pray. They heard the self-righteous prayers of the Pharisees, but Jesus prayed differently. They came to Jesus with a simple request: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). They wanted a life of prayer. The Lord’s response was just as simple as their request. In the Sermon on the Mount, He told them to avoid the way that their leaders prayed. Then He gave them a template for prayer. You have probably memorized it. “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matt. 6:9-13, NKJV). The ancient Greeks argued about which was more important: form or content. To a thirsty person, form without content is like a cup with no water. Content without form is like a splash of water in the face. Both form and content (cup and water) are necessary. When it comes to a life of prayer, the same is true. The words and requests are the content, but the structure is the form. A prayer list needs some structure. The Lord’s answer to the request of the disciples provides us with a very comprehensive structure. “Hallowed be Your name.” Begin with exalting God. When Jesus died on the cross, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51). And now we who believe in Jesus Christ have free access to God. We can approach God’s throne of grace boldly to “obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Prayer, therefore, begins with adoration of God as your heavenly Father who invites you into His presence. “Your kingdom come.” Pray for the extension of the Lordship of Christ in the lives of your relatives, friends, and neighbors. Pray for missionary work around the world. Be specific. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God has set leaders over us so that His will might be done here. He has given the church pastors and elders to give spiritual guidance. Pray for them. We are to be subject to the civil authorities, too. Pray for teachers, police, firemen, wardens, medical people, employers, and political leaders. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Notice that our needs are not first in the list and it is not “my” need but “our” need. What are the daily needs of your family, church, friends, co-workers, and neighbors? The elderly need safety and health. Parents need wisdom. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” In the same way that we forgive others, we want God to forgive us. Remember the story of the steward who would not forgive the man who was under him although he himself had been forgiven a vast amount (Matt. 18:23-35). The man who has truly been forgiven cannot help but to forgive others. “Lord, forgive me for my sin.” “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” This is a prayer for spiritual safety as well as physical safety for you and all those you know. We ask to be kept from temptation, including the temptation to waste our time that keeps us from our prayer time. Your temptation may be different from mine, so ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for spiritual victory. Early in our marriage, we spent a few days with my wife’s parents. Her father was a successful pastor. I asked my mother-in-law, “What is Dad’s secret?” She said, “I have patched the knees of his long johns many times, but I have never patched the seat.” On a personal note, every day for the 60 years of our marriage, we have spent at least 30 minutes each evening as our devotional time. I will read about two chapters of the Bible aloud and my wife will follow along in her Bible, then she will pray aloud. The next night it’s her turn to read two chapters and I pray. We have read the Bible through cover-to-cover many times in many versions. We have several pages of prayer requests. Each page follows the pattern of the Lord’s prayer. May I encourage you to turn off the computer and the TV half an hour before bedtime. Dedicate that time to reading aloud and praying. I started this article with the words, “Christians don’t pray” but after reading what I have written, I hope you can say, “Some Christians don’t pray, but with God’s help, I pray.” John Barach has been a pastor and Bible college professor and still runs a biblical Greek tutorial website at GreekDoc.com. He and his wife look to celebrate their 60th anniversary in August....

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Internet

How to use AI like a Christian boss

Imagine you’re the boss of your own company. After months of searching, you’ve just landed the most brilliant assistant in the country. He’s lightning-fast, top of his class in every subject, and available 24/7. He never sleeps, never complains, and never forgets a deadline. You can ask him for ideas, outlines, editing help – even technical research – and he’ll give you an answer in seconds. Best of all? He’s already sitting at your desk. His name is AI. Now here’s the catch: he’s not human and doesn’t share your values, or know right from wrong, and he always speaks with confidence even when he’s completely wrong. If you hand over your work to him, he might give you something that sounds smart, even impressive. But he might also serve up something misleading, shallow or just plain false. And because you’re the boss, it’s your name – and your integrity – on the line if anything goes wrong. Most of us aren’t bosses of our own companies…but every Christian has a calling to steward time, talents and resources. From the beginning, God made man to rule over creation (Gen. 1:26), and that includes ruling – rather than being ruled by – technology. There are valid reasons to approach AI with caution (as we’ve seen in previous Reformed Perspective articles like “Will AI Replace Reading?” and “Is AI Just Another Tool – or Something More?”). Even so, AI is here to stay, and it’s already reshaping the job market, communication, and everyday life for many people. One global management group says AI has the potential to be as transformative as the steam engine. AI is a tool unlike anything we’ve seen before, but at its core, that’s what it remains: a tool. And like any tool, it can be used for good or evil, depending on the people designing and directing it. Used wisely, AI can be an excellent assistant, capable of drafting hundreds of words in a short time. However, not all that AI produces is wise, relevant or true. That is why it’s important to think critically and test everything it says. Proverbs 14:15 reminds us, “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Just as it would be unwise to operate heavy machinery without proper training, Christians should not use AI without preparation and thoughtfulness. Quick answers can be tempting, but Proverbs 21:5 reminds us: “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Rushing to use AI without wisdom or careful review can lead to shallow or even dangerous results. I work as a project coordinator for a company that produces curriculum and I use AI almost daily in my work. It’s helped me draft content, edit writing, brainstorm ideas, and even develop Christian material (it does know a thing or two about Reformed theology). But I’ve also seen how quickly it can go off course. Used wisely, AI can be part of faithful stewardship. If you’re considering AI – or already using it – these seven principles can help you use it to the glory of God without compromising convictions or integrity. 1. Be the boss – not the bystander AI is here to assist, not lead. Think of it like a new apprentice: helpful, fast, and tireless – but not wise. AI can draft an article, summarize a report, or give you a list of ideas, but it doesn't know whether those ideas are any good. That’s your job. Use AI to boost your productivity, not replace your discernment. If you're an engineer or electrician, you know how this works already. An apprentice can be a huge help – they might prep materials, run calculations, or handle basic wiring to save you time. But when it's time to sign off on the plans or certify the work, it's your name that's on the line. If the apprentice makes a mistake and the building collapses or catches fire, you're the one held responsible. That’s why every detail needs to be carefully checked and approved by the licensed professional. AI is no different. It's an assistant – not the one who signs the final plans. 2. Think critically and watch for mistakes AI tools are designed to sound convincing – but convincing doesn’t always mean correct. Sometimes they generate information that looks polished but is actually shallow, misleading, or outright wrong. This is known as a “hallucination.” For example, a US lawyer who used AI for legal research is now facing his own court hearing after using false AI-generated information in court. The lawyer didn’t realize that several of the legal cases that AI had cited for him didn’t actually exist. He passed them along unchecked. I’ve experienced many hallucinations myself, such as when I asked AI to clarify a punctuation rule and it said one thing in the rule and presented the opposite in the example it gave. That’s why you can’t just copy AI’s response and hit “send.” You need to review the results carefully. If you’re using AI to explore a topic you don’t know well, make sure you double-check the facts, confirm the logic, and – if possible – ask someone with more experience to give it a second look. AI has saved me significant time researching unfamiliar topics, but before finalizing anything, I verify the sources or have someone with expertise review it. Ideally, you should have at least some grasp of what good work looks like in the area you’re using AI for. If not, treat the AI’s output as a starting point, not a finished product. Use it to learn, refine, and check your thinking… but don’t assume it’s right. 3. Train AI like an apprentice What AI gives you after your first prompt is often just a rough draft. The result might be serviceable, but it’s rarely great unless the task is very simple. After all, apprentices need training. Here are some key tips for getting better results from AI: • Tell AI the role it should take on (math teacher, history professor, writer, business expert, travel agent, event planner, etc.). • Outline as many details as possible – task, tone, purpose, websites it can research, intended audience, length. • Provide examples. • Ask AI what questions it has for you. • After reviewing the output, point out how AI can improve the results. • Do a few edits of your own and let AI know what you did for future reference. For example, a first prompt for writing could look like this – you would tell ChatGPT: “Assume the role of an expert copywriter, familiar with Reformed theology as taught by John Calvin and R.C. Sproul. You are deeply familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort and Belgic Confession. Your job is to write articles for Reformed Perspective magazine. Here are some writing guidelines for this magazine… “I'd like to write an article for this magazine titled ‘How to Use AI Like a Christian Boss.’ In it, I'd like to compare AI to a smart apprentice. You can use what they come up with, and it might be very good, but before an engineer or architect can put a stamp on it, they have to go through every detail and make sure that they stand behind it… “Write this article in prose, but structured with numbered points for how to use AI like a Christian boss. Start with an outline. But before you do that, what questions do you have for me?” The first prompt is just the beginning. After that, a “Christian boss” process would look like: • Answering AI’s questions. • Instructing it to draft the outline for the article. • Carefully reviewing the outline, making some refinements yourself and/or telling AI to make refinements. • Instructing AI to draft the article. • Doing a detailed review and editing. The edits can be done on your own or by prompting AI (see the next point for some tips on that). I usually do a mix of both personal and AI-prompted edits. With refinement, specific instructions, and key edits, working with AI can turn a mediocre first result into a solid piece of writing. Note that because getting an excellent AI response often requires multiple rounds of prompting and giving feedback, it’s not always faster to use it for a task that you only need to do once. 4. Use AI like a creative sidekick AI can be a great help when you need a creative boost. You might ask it to: • Rewrite a sentence five different ways so you can choose the best version. • Give practical examples to strengthen a concept you’re trying to explain. • Help you generate ideas for starting or improving a project. • Reword a section of text for clarity, flow, or tone. • Give feedback and ideas for improvement on something you’ve written. • Ask you questions to help you think about something in new or deeper ways. Sometimes AI comes up with something surprisingly helpful. Other times it completely misses the mark. The key is to use it as a creative partner, not a crutch. Be prepared to write things yourself if AI just doesn’t give you what you need. (Yes, AI can have an off-day too.) 5. Protect your privacy – and your mind AI tools aren’t generally private. What you type may be stored or used to train future models, depending on the platform. That means anything personal or sensitive might not stay confidential. So be cautious. Don’t share anything you wouldn’t want repeated or misunderstood. Because it can mirror your tone and affirm your ideas, AI can start to feel personal, to the point that some people have started treating it like a friend, therapist or romantic partner. However, hearing exactly what you want from a machine can pull you away from real, God-given relationships. God calls us to grow in community, where we can be encouraged in our faith and held accountable when we wander. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (ESV). AI can echo your own voice, but it will never call you to repentance, speak truth in love, or walk alongside you in genuine discipleship. 6. Train for discernment before you use it Just as students need to understand what 2 + 2 means before using a calculator, Christians need foundational knowledge before turning to AI. Skills like reading, writing, theology, math, and logic help us recognize when AI is inaccurate, shallow, or biased. AI is trained on massive amounts of data, and although it can recite the Heidelberg Catechism, most of its data likely didn’t come from a Christian perspective. One English teacher shared that when her students used an AI tool to give feedback on their writing, it consistently flagged Christian content as “too one-sided.” Romans 12:2 warns: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God calls us to use discernment. Without a strong grounding in Scripture, truth, and general knowledge, we won’t have the tools to spot harmful ideas or use AI wisely. 7. Don’t let AI replace real mentors AI can be a useful support for learning, without replacing skill development. It can offer feedback, generate ideas or ask helpful questions to deepen your thinking. But it should never replace the guidance of real people. For Christians, learning isn’t just about improving skills or producing results. It’s about growing in wisdom and character. AI can’t be trusted to help you think biblically, challenge you in love or walk you through real-life decisions. That happens best in relationships. God commands, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). That is not a task we should trust to AI. If young people are going to use AI, they need a strong biblical foundation and wise guidance. Without that, AI becomes a shortcut rather than a tool – and we can’t shortcut godly wisdom and discernment. Conclusion Used wisely, AI can strengthen our work and spark new ideas. But as Christians, we don’t just care about what works, we care about what honors God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Faithful stewardship isn’t measured by cleverness or creativity, but by our trust in Christ and obedience to His Word. AI reflects the priorities of the person using it. So let’s bring ours under the lordship of Christ. Take responsibility. Stay alert. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23). Whether you use AI or not, let this be your aim: to honor God in all things, rule over creation, and never let created tools rule over you. P.S. In case you’re wondering, I did use AI like a Christian boss to write this article. See the short article below. ***** WHOSE SPEECHES WERE THEY? A quick conversation on having AI, and others, writing for us JON DYKSTRA: The one question I know readers will be asking, so let’s give them an answer, is, approximately what percentage of the article is AI written? Or is that even something you can put a percentage on? VALERIE VANDENBERG: That percentage question is a tough one. My process with AI involves a lot of back and forth. To give some more details, by the time AI drafted the article, I had already given it about 1,500 words of my own instructions (including the ideas I had for the article and answering AI's questions for me) in addition to giving it your writing guidelines from the Reformed Perspective website. JD: Can you get into the process just a bit more? VV: My first prompt included my ideas for the article and detailed instructions for my vision for it. Then I had AI draft an outline, which I adjusted until I was satisfied. After that I instructed AI to draft the article itself, which was followed by detailed editing (sometimes done by me, sometimes prompting AI to edit a section, and usually a mix of both). I often have AI write things a few different ways so I can glean the best ideas from the list. Or I just write it myself if I think my idea is better than what AI suggested. JD: This is something Reformed Perspective staff have been wrestling with, trying to think through the extent or limits we’d want to use ChatGPT or other AI. To this point I haven’t used it to generate text, but that’s been more a hesitancy – I’d like to listen in on the debate some more before coming to a firm conclusion – than any specific principled objections. Your article is a part of that debate, and I’m grateful for it. My initial take is that using AI to generate text, as in this article, is akin to a president using a speech writer. The writer crafts the words, but the president sets the direction, and adds in his own tweaks and orders rewrites, such that at the end he will so completely own these words, that we will fully attribute this speech to him, and not the writer. VV: Yes. The key Christian boss part of the process is that by the time I hit send to submit the article, every aspect of it (tone, content, structure, wording, etc.) is something I can stand behind, and as good as I could do alone or ideally better....

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Assorted

Fun is something you make

11 tips for family road trips ***** “Bored” is a curse word in our house. Say that word, and my mom is liable to wash your mouth out with soap. Because here’s the thing: boredom is just a socially acceptable word for ingratitude, for being discontent with the things God gives us. Your kids have plenty of toys and activities to occupy themselves, so why are they coming to you looking for something to do? Maybe it’s because we tend to think the toys are the ones doing all the work, the ones keeping kids from getting bored, when in reality, the child is the one bringing the fun. As with everything else, this is a heart issue. This is an attitude that needs changing. And that is all well and good if you are in your home, surrounded by possibilities during a normal day. But let’s say you’re in a situation where you literally have nothing to do, like waiting in the waiting room of the hospital, or driving six long hours to visit relatives, or standing in a long line at the grocery store. How do you teach them to occupy themselves? How do you ban boredom from your family? It is fair to say that my family and I have done a lot of driving. We have always been the one family that is farther away from relatives, from town, from church, and from practically everything, so we have had to learn how to pass the time well! It bears repeating, so I’ll say again that with the tips and suggestions I have for you the key to the success of all remains gratitude. Without gratitude, without recognizing that God has given you the exact moment you are in and equipped you to delight in it, you are waiting for the game to entertain you, which almost always end in boredom. But if you enter everything with gratitude, it’s like sitting with your hands outstretched, just waiting for God to bless you with that present you know you’re getting. And the gift is ten times better when received in thankfulness. With that said, here is a list of things that have helped my siblings and me numerous times. Would you rather? A simple game where one player makes up two scenarios, and each of you say aloud which you would rather do if given the choice. Questions can be as wild or as ridiculous as can be! Encourage the players to explain the pros and cons of each situation, and the hows and whys. I have played this very recently, and my brother gave the following scenario: “Would you rather be on the very top of a skyscraper, or below the earth approximately the same height as the skyscraper?” Personally, I’d choose the skyscraper, because there’s no oxygen the deeper into the dirt you go, but my brother was assuming there would be air. See how many digressions there can be within one topic? Rock, paper, scissors A classic that is highly underrated! Play multiple rounds high speed, and your kids will dissolve into giggles. (Maybe it’s only me...) We have learned a trick to the game from watching YouTuber Mark Rober: You have rock, paper and scissors in a row in your head. Let’s say you start with rock. If you win with rock, you move to right, which would be paper. If you win with paper, you continue with scissors. Now, if you lost with rock, you go to the left, which would mean you would play scissors. If you lose with scissors, you play paper. This is a tested strategy by Mark Rober that, if followed, will help you win a disproportionate percentage of time. But if you want to have plain fun without all the technical junk, just play the game as you normally would. It’s still fun either way. 20 questions Definitely a go-to for us, because each person comes up with the weirdest things to think about! Each person has 20 questions to ask the one who has the topic in their head. If I’m thinking about spiders, well, you have 20 questions to find that out. No cheating! No giving hints! And make your topic as clear as possible. I once picked oblivion as a topic, and my siblings were infuriated because they couldn’t figure it out. It’s literally nothingness! You can’t guess that! (Which is why I chose it.) Make everything a competition I cannot begin to relate how many things my siblings and I turned into a competition! Who can leave their bare hand on the icy car window the longest? Who can hold their water bottle at arm’s length the longest? Who can make the silliest face? Who can hold their breath the longest? And the list goes on! (All of those examples are real competitions that have been hosted in our van on long drives, and all too recently. I participated in them all. In fact, I came up with them. Mad skills, anyone?) Buggy Fingers What an odd name for such a simple game that can be played anywhere, because everybody I know possesses fingers! Many long hospital stays granted us ample opportunity to play Buggy Fingers. You stick your pointer finger out, and this becomes the head and face of “Buggy,” while the rest of the fingers on that hand act as the legs. Now, the original character, made by my father, was named Artie, and Artie would eat everything in sight, but finding it inedible, would spit it out and grunt, “Needs salt.” The future generations of Artie broadened their horizons, and tales were spun surrounding these little misbehaving fingers. Stuffed animal adventures Grab those stuffed animals, because you’ll be needing them here. My older sister and I would place our stuffed animals on the ledge of the windowsill of the car, and pretend they were on a motorcycle. The motorcycle would travel along the scenery that rushed past our windows. Was Kitty Cat about to collide with a barbed wire fence? Well, for pity’s sake, JUMP! Once you were over that obstacle, you might have to navigate through a field of smelly cows, and end up on the other side without getting caught by the farmer. So many stories and exciting adventures are at your fingertips here! Sing hymns My whole family loves to sing around the piano, and in fact our parents are trained musicians, so a love for singing runs deep in our veins. We enjoy bringing our church hymnal, the Cantus Christi, into the car, and singing in harmony to the various hymns selected, especially the 4-part melodies. It is much like caroling, but not in winter. And not to an audience. So feel free to warble your way through a song. We won’t laugh. Count cars Who hasn’t done this, seriously? My brother is an avid vehicle enthusiast, and he and my little sister began counting how many Teslas they would see on any given drive, because we live in the Seattle area, and Teslas seem to be popular there. There were so many Teslas, we soon got tired of counting them, so we have now moved on to cool and unusual cars, as well as vintage vehicles. Make landmarks We have driven across Washington State many, many times, and we have come to recognize familiar landmarks along the way. There’s the lonely tractor that’s always sitting at the base of a hill; there’s the bicycle that is parked by a street sign; there’s the company that Grandpa used to work for years ago, before we were born; there’s the blue bridge with the American flag mounted on it; there’s the train yard, where we count how many trains’ lights are on. I have such happy memories of those drives, and the excitement of searching for the “landmarks.” Make traditions As a child, my older sister and I were forever going to the children’s hospital in Seattle, and those doctor trips were depressing and no fun in and of themselves, but we made the time fun. There are a couple of tunnels you have to drive through on your way to that specific hospital, and my sister and I, as soon as we entered the tunnel, would suck in our breaths and hold them until the car emerged out the other side. Of course, Dad would slow down on purpose and see how purple he could make our faces by the time we finally could draw a breath. Another tradition we had was ducking under tunnels, overhead signs, and traffic signals. To signify this, we would shout “Duck!” To signal that it was clear, we would shout “Peacock!” The point is, make your own fun. With a bit of prodding, and a dreary situation to be placed in, you can come up with a lot of great games and memories that will be treasured for decades, and will hopefully help you survive those long relentless hours with nothing to do. Count it all joy I’ll say again, how much fun your kids have with these will depend largely on the gratitude they bring. They might not like you for reminding them of this, but they should take even boredom as an opportunity for joy, like the Apostle James says in James 1:2; “My brethren, count it all joy, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” God has given you so many gifts; you just have to use them....

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Theology

Celebrating the Sabbath

“Many people see the Sabbath or the Lord’s Day, as an infringement of their personal liberty – a day that God has taken from them, instead of a gift that He has given to them, for rest, worship and celebration” – Rev. Bruce Ray ***** Scientists and secular historians can account for the division of time into years, seasons, months and days on the basis of ancient observations of the cycles of nature. The year and the day obviously are tied to the cycle of the sun and the rotation of the earth. A month finds its origin in the cycles of the moon. But secular historians are puzzled by the week. There is no natural basis for the week, and since they reject Holy Scripture as a historical source they can’t turn to it for an explanation. However, whether they acknowledge it or not, the weekly, seven-day pattern of work and rest has its origin in God’s work of creation. We have the week because God ordained it, and indeed this is the origin of Time, not only of the week, but all divisions of Time. God is the Sovereign over Time. This is one of the first points that Bruce Ray makes in his book Celebrating the Sabbath. And he notes that if God is sovereign over time, then it only makes sense that He is sovereign over what we do with time, both work and rest: "Six days you shall labor" God said, “but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work.” The Sabbath through time Now many people assume that work is the result of the Fall, but Adam had a job assigned to him before the Fall (Gen 2:18-20) so that assumption is wrong. And just as Adam had work do before the fall, so too there was a Sabbath rest before the fall. In fact Bruce Ray identifies from the Scriptures four distinct stages in the Sabbath: 1. Creation Sabbath – Sabbath rest before fall into sin 2. Exodus Sabbath – Sabbath rest given to Israel 3. Resurrection Sabbath – New covenant, new Sabbath 4. Final Sabbath – Christ’s return ushers in this final rest Intention of the Sabbath "The Sabbath was designed as a day of gladness and not as a day of gloom," notes Ray. It was intended by its Creator to be a day of rest and worship in celebration of God’s wonderful works. The Sabbath promised both physical and spiritual refreshment for the whole man. The Sabbath was a day off from work, a day when men and women, their families and servants, visitors, and even livestock could enjoy the gift of rest from God. It was a day for "complete rest" (Exodus 35:2), a day to leave the briefcase at the office, and the tools locked up in the shed. Even during the busy times of the year, during the plowing season and the harvest (Ex. 34:21) the people were commanded to rest on the seventh day in honor of, and in obedience to, the Lord who made heaven and earth. "Moonlighting" was prohibited on the Sabbath. The worker who tried to get ahead of others by working on the Sabbath was even subject to the death penalty! Exodus 23:12 reads: "that you may REST" and rest here isn’t only about “not working." The Sabbath was appointed to minister to the whole person, and it was therefore also a day of spiritual rest. Legalism Bruce Ray writes an interesting little chapter on the "Babylonian Sabbath." During the Babylonian Captivity the elders and Rabbis of Israel became very interested in spelling out precisely what people could and could not do on the Sabbath. Eventually they came up with over 1000 rules. The spirit and intention of the law became lost in a sea of technicalities. When Jesus came, that is, when God, the eternal Son, took upon Himself the nature of a man and visited His people, He came to set the captives free, including the captive Sabbath. Jesus challenged the Pharisaic distortions of His holy day. He repeatedly and purposely did things on the Sabbath that violated their legalistic understanding of Sabbath keeping. But make no mistake, Jesus came to restore the Law, including the fourth commandment, not to dismantle it (Matt 5:17-20). So Jesus blasted the Pharisaic Sabbath, but in doing so, he did not harm the biblical Sabbath at all. Indeed He liberated it, restored it, and filled it full of meaning once again (Matt 5:17) Ray examines one by one, the six skirmishes Jesus had with the Pharisees over the Sabbath Day: 1. The Battle of the Wheat Field (Mark 2:23-28) 2. The Shrivelled Hand skirmish (Mark 3:1-6) 3. The crippled-woman conflict (Luke 13:10-17) 4. The Dropsy disaster (Luke 14:1-6) 5. The Battle of Bethesda (John 5: 1-9) 6. The Spit Spat (John 9:1-41) These texts are well worth looking up and show, as Ray puts it, how "the conflict was not so much a conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, as a conflict between the Holy Sabbath of God and the painfully distorted Pharisaic Sabbath. It was part of Jesus’ mission to liberate, heal and redeem the Sabbath from captivity.” Do’s and Don’ts? Coming to our modern day celebration of the Sabbath/Lord’s Day, Ray speaks about keeping the Sabbath "Holily and Happily," saying: "In the fourth commandment, God declares that He is sovereign over time (He made it), and over our use of it (He made us!). He has from the very beginning of time appointed one day in seven as a day for rest and refreshment in Him" "All people observe the Sabbath, all people everywhere do. Sunday comes along once every week without fail, and we all do something with the day. The question is not whether we observe, but how we observe it." Now, finally the reader may be thinking to yourself: "He is going to get to what I wanted in the first place. I can still have my laminated, wallet sized card with "do’s and don’ts" after all." Sorry folks – as author Bruce Ray writes, life just is not that simple. It is about thinking out principles. That is the real hard part. Many of us would like to have someone in authority – a pastor perhaps – tell us what to do and what not to do in great detail. That would certainly make life simpler and tidier. May I jog on Sunday? Go sailing in the afternoon? Mow my lawn? Go shopping at the Mall? Fire up the grill for a barbeque? And so on. But don’t despair. The good news, Ray writes, (that is if you are a Christian), is that you have everything you need to figure out what God wants you to do on the Sabbath. God has given you His Word and His Spirit. What then are the general principles that will help us to keep the Sabbath as the Lord wants us to? The author mentions four: Keep it Holily, Happily, Honestly and Humbly. Keep it Holily This includes gathering with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day and realizing that corporate worship is necessary, not optional. Keep it Happily The author stresses the great importance of bringing joyful worship to our God, and quotes Psalm 100 "shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs." Keep it Honestly The Sabbath is also a day for physical, emotional, and even intellectual "rest." God is concerned with our bodies as well as with our souls. On the Sabbath we need to cease from our works and pause and refresh in God’s rest. Rest, however, does not require idleness. Rest can also be active. Throughout the Old Testament rest is defined as refreshment. The prophet Isaiah zeros in on the essence of the Lord’s Day (Is. 58:13-14 – this is another great text to look up). He brings into clear and bold focus: whose Day is it? Who is the Lord of the Sabbath and will I bow before Him? How does the Lord of the Sabbath want me to use the day for my good and His glory? Keep it Humbly The Sabbath is admittedly a problem for many Christians, but that problem is primarily spiritual in nature. That is because of the rebellion in our hearts. We must remember not to come into our King’s presence and to our spiritual family reunion tired, late and unprepared to worship Him Conclusion In conclusion: Sabbath keeping is a means of Grace to all who love the Lord. Someone said about this book:" Bruce Ray’s book is a wise and balanced book, helpful, biblical and encouragingly, taking a fresh look at what the Lord’s Day should be for every Christian." Definitely recommended....

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Book lists, Book Reviews, Children’s picture books

Demi's fresh folk tales

Demi (1942-  ) is the nickname that Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt's father gave her as a child because she was half the size of her sister. Demi grew up to be a prolific author, crafting more than 300 picture books so far. Her popular output can be divided into two categories: biographies of famous figures, many of them religious, folktales from most Eastern countries like India, Russia, and especially China. It's these folk tales that drew me in. We're so familiar with our Western catalog of Hansel and Gretel, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk that a new-to-us folktale is quite a treat. That freshness is what drew me in, but there's a real educational value here too – these offer a taste of foreign lands and cultures. Of course, it's that same originality that bears watching – these are not Christian tales. A few of her biographies could also be worth a read, but the biggest problem with Demi is her lack of discernment. She always lauds whoever she is writing about, and since the people she covers come from a variety of religions that contradict one another, these figures can't all be good – it only takes a little logic to understand that if two people say opposite things about what most matters in life, then at least one must be wrong. But Demi celebrates Jesus and also Muhammad, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Buddha. This lack of discernment means parents and Christian school librarians shouldn't buy her books en masse. And, that need for parental and Christian school librarian discernment is all the more important because of Demi's 4-8-year-old target audience, who have yet to learn much discernment themselves. I've read 40+ of her books so far, and what follows are the 11 I can recommend, 5 more that could be good with some parental or teacher involvement, and then an overview of her many books that would be best avoided. I've also focused on her books that are the most available, so I think you should be able to find copies of most of these either at Amazon, or from your local library. They are ordered by year published. RECOMMENDED (11) Marie Curie 2018 / 32 pages Marie Curie was, without a doubt, a genius, being one of just four people to win two Nobel Prizes. This is the story of her upbringing, education, and marriage to fellow scientist Pierre Curie, and how they discovered radioactivity, which was both a brilliant accomplishment and, they learned too late, a very dangerous one. While radiation can be used for good and to cure via inventions like X-ray machines, radiation can also cause sickness, especially after prolonged exposure, which is why Marie died of leukemia at age 66. Her husband also suffered ill effects from radiation, but was struck dead in the street in an accident, or he too might have died of some radiation-related illness. Demi has a tendency to hype who she profiles, and while that hagiographic approach can be a problem (especially when she inserts legends as if they are facts), in this book it is a boon – it means that while she mentions the grim effects of radiation, she doesn't dwell on it, making this book appropriate for even small children in a way that a more detailed, and consequently more grim, book wouldn't have been. The shady tree 2016 / 32 pages The boy Ping (from The Empty Pot, see below) makes his return, this time as a poor boy who just wants some shade on a hot day and sits down in the shade of a tree. Rich boy Tan Tan chases Ping away, declaring that, "This is my tree! I own all of it: the trunk, the branches, the leaves, and the shade – everything." All Ping wants is the shade, so he makes an offer on it. The rich boy, thinking he is scamming Ping, accepts. But the joke is on Tan Tan, because a tree's shade moves throughout the day, and the new owner of that shade is moving with it, right into Tan Tan's house and even his bedroom! Tan Tan can't go back on his deal, and in frustration, eventually moves away... but far from any friends. So, at book's end he comes back, and Ping is very happy to share his shade. This is a fun folk tale with an understated moral (maybe, share? or, don't scam folks?). Demi first published a version of this story in 1979 under the title The Shade of the Mulberry Tree, with the principal difference being that instead of two boys, the story is about two men, and the rich man never comes back. Florence Nightingale 2014/ 40 pages This is an inspiring account of the life of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the "mother" of modern nursing. A brief nod to her love for the Lord is made: "Florence was a religious person, and she felt that God wanted her to help people." Her innovations are taken for granted now, but were life-changing then – she made sure patients got good food, and were living in clean conditions. She had also traveled to different hospitals across Europe, noting their best practices. The results her approach garnered had her being consulted by the English army, the US government, and by the Queen too. As her true tale highlights, she was a hardworking, smart woman who was responsible for medical care improvements that saved countless lives. The magic pillow 2008 / 32 pages Ping makes another appearance, and this time he comes across a magician with a magic pillow that can grant your every wish. When poor Ping falls asleep on it, he dreams of becoming rich and powerful. But with his wealth and power comes jealousy, and people begin telling lies about him and accusing him, until he is thrown in jail. After a long time he is set free, and regains his power and wealth. But then he sees his sons and grandsons seeking power and wealth too. When they gain it, people become jealous of them too, and tell lies about them too, and get them thrown in jail too. On and on it repeats, the rise and fall of his family. Then Ping woke up. When he did, he thanked the magician and told him he was now content to live as he was, and did not need wealth or power. The hungry coat 2004/ 40 pages "Once upon a time in Turkey there lived a funny, little wise man named Nasrettin Hoca. He wore a huge, white turban and a worn-out coat made of patches upon patches. Riding about on his little gray donkey, he liked to help whomever he could." Nasrettin was popular, but when he helps catch a goat and then heads to his friend's party in his patched coat – now smelling of goat – his friends won't even sit next to him. So he heads home, gets cleaned up, and puts on a new fabulous coat. When he returns to the party, he is now the guest of honor, placed right next to the host. But as the food and wine is shared, Naserttin does a strange thing. He starts to feed his coat. "Eat coat, eat," he says as he tucks lamb chops, sugar cakes, figs, and apples in his coat. When asked to explain himself he notes that he is only treating his coat as the guest of honor. It was clear, from when he was here earlier, that it was not him they liked, otherwise they would have treated him better when he first arrived. But now that he is back with a better coat, they love him, so it must be the coat that is the guest and not him. It's a clever way to call out his friends, and they take it well, praising him for his wisdom. The donkey and the rock 1999 / 32 pages When a wood seller's donkey knocks an oil jar off a rock, the oil salesman is distraught – how will he feed his family now? Who is at fault, and what can be done? The two men – wood seller and oil salesman – are both honest, hardworking, and good fathers and husbands, so they decide to go to the king for his judgment. He rules them both not responsible, and demands that the donkey and rock be arrested and brought to trial. That has folks wondering what's going on, so they all come to see this trial of the century. And when they arrive, the king charges them all money, because they came to see a spectacle. Then he gives the money to the oil salesman to make up for what he lost. Seems like there is a lesson here parents could share about always wanting to see the latest thing – itching eyes are not a new phenomenon. One grain of rice: a mathematical folktale 1997 / 32 pages Set in India, this tells a tale that begins a bit like Joseph's advice to Pharoah to store up grain. Each year the local raja takes most of the people's grain, promising to store it safely "so that in a time of famine everyone will have rice to eat and no one will go hungry." But when the famine does come, he won't release the grain, keeping it for himself in case the famine is very long. But when a peasant girl earns a reward from the raja, she asks for what seems a modest reward. She would be given a single grain of rice, but given two the next day, and continuing to double each day thereafter for thirty days. The raja agrees. For the first week it is only a paltry reward – she gets 1, then, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and finally 64 grains of rice, the last of which isn't even a handful. But by the end of two weeks, she is now getting two full bowls of rice grains. As adults may realize, by the end of the thirty days she will have all the raja's grain, as the compounding really adds up. This is, as the subtitle notes, quite the "mathematical folktale"! The one practical problem is that this book features a two-page foldout to show just how many elephants were needed to carry all the grain on the last day. And such foldouts are liable to not be refolded with due care, and can get a bit crumpled, as happened with the copy I read. But otherwise, a very good book! Grass sandals: the travels of Basho 1997 / 32 pages Basho was one of Japan's masters of the haiku, and this brief biography follows him on a walking tour of Japan. Each double-page spread includes a hundred or so words describing his latest stop, but also a haiku covering the same topic. The quiet nature of the story (the illustrator shares her daughter's complaint, "Mom, nothing happens in this book") means that while it would make a charming introduction to haiku poetry, it won't be enjoyed simply as a picture book. The firebird 1994 / 32 pages This Russian tale's title makes it seem as if it is about a bird. But none of the three main figures here can fly. The first two are an archer and his loyal talking horse, and their opponent is the tsar they serve, who won't let any good deed go unpunished. He sends the pair out on one hazardous magical mission after another, but in the end he gets his just, self-inflicted desserts, and the archer and his pony get their happily ever after. The empty pot 1990 / 32 pages George Bush Sr.'s wife, Barbara picked this one, when it first came out, for her Mrs. Bush's Story Time radio program. It's about a Chinese boy named Ping (who shows up in The Shady Tree too) who has the greenest of green thumbs – he can make anything grow, almost like magic. The country's aged emperor needs to pick an heir and settles on giving all the children a flower seed to grow, and tells them "Whoever can show me their best in a year's time will succeed me to the throne." Ping figures he has a great chance, but try as he might, he can't get the seed to grow. He tries everything, but.... nothing. When the year passes all he has is an empty pot, whereas all the other children have all sorts of gorgeous flowers to show the emperor. It turns out, however that the emperor cooked all the seeds, so none of them could have grown, and only Ping was honest enough to show his true best effort, so the Emperor names the boy as his successor! The moral of this story and its surprise twist (I don't think little kids will see it coming) make this quite the powerful little lesson. Liang and the magic paintbrush 1980 / 32 pages Liang desperately wants to learn to paint, but the local art teacher will not give lessons to someone as poor as Liang. However, as he slept "an old man appeared on a phoenix and placed a brush in Liang's hand." It was a magic brush able to turn real whatever he painted (reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon). When the emperor hears of it, he demands that Liang paint a dragon. Liang paints a frog instead and is sent to prison. He makes a deal that he'll "paint whatever the emperor wished." The emperor demands Liang draw a sea, a boat, and, after getting on the boat, the emperor demands Liang draw him wind. So Liang does – lots of wind! The boat capsizes with the emperor on board. This is a "just desserts" tale, as many a folk tale is. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT (5) These are not bad books so much as they have a caution or two that parents should consider. King Midas: the golden touch 2002 / 48 pages You likely know about the curse that came with King Midas's golden touch. He asked a Greek god for the power to turn anything he touched to gold, but then found he was going to starve to death, as even his food turned golden. But did you hear about how he was cursed with donkey's ears? This is a longer retelling of the myth of King Midas, including this donkey bit that often doesn't make the cut. The downside is that the Greek god Silenus is depicted as covered with roses rather than clothes. You don't see anything, but some skin tone shows up through the flowers in places that should really be covered. I'm making it sound worse than it is – there are a lot of roses – but it did strike me as weird to have any skin showing through in a kids' book. The other downside is a practical one for any school library considering this book. It has a two-page foldout that is bound to get crumpled... as it was in the copy I borrowed from our public library. The greatest treasure 1998 / 32 pages Pang, a rich man, finds it hard to keep track of how much money he has, because whenever he is counting it, the poor man next door, Li, distracts him with his flute playing. So the rich Pang decides to give Li a generous monetary gift... but only to distract him from playing his flute. And it works. Li is soon so busy worrying about and counting and hiding his money that he doesn't play his flute at all. Finally, his wife steps in and reminds him, "He who has heaven in his heart is never poor." Li agrees, and gives the money back, along with flutes for the whole Pang family! This warns of how money can be an obsession, and I would have rated it higher but for the title. Peace and happiness are good indeed, but children need to understand that they are not "the greatest treasure of all" any more than money is. So, this could be a good one to get out of the public library and read along with your kids. The stonecutter 1995 / 32 pages An envious stonecutter thinks the grass is always greener elsewhere but eventually learns contentment. How does he learn his lesson? By being granted his wishes. First, he's envious of a rich man, and wishes to be one. When that wish is granted, he becomes envious of the governor, and wishes to be one. But even when that's granted, there always seems someone stronger and greater, so on and on his wishes go. Finally, he wishes to be an enormous, immovable stone – what is stronger than that? Well, stonecutters. And so his final wish is granted and he returns to stone cutting, content in his life. The only reason Stonecutter got bumped down here is that the wish granter is an angel, and, as opposed to genies, angels are real and don't act this way, and we shouldn't confuse kids on that point. But it could be a good read with a parent along for the ride. Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina 1988 / 32 pages With lots of text on each page, this is quite a lengthy retelling of Thumbelina, the girl who was only a thumb tall. This a more fairy than folk tale, with fairies at the start, and fairies at the end. As she does in every version, Thumbelina has quite the series of adventures, getting kidnapped by a frog, and basically imprisoned by a mole and mouse, before being freed by a swallow she'd nursed back to health. There is a happy ending, with Thumbelina finally finding the right match for her. As nice as the story is, it's also a pointless one, which is why it is in the "Take it or leave it" section. Chen Ping and his magic axe 1987 / 32 pages A poor Chinese boy, Chen Ping, is sent to the forest to chop wood for his master. His master is very stern, so when Ping accidentally drops his axe into the river, all he can do is sit down and cry. Fortunately, a mysterious stranger appears and dives in to retrieve Ping's axe for him. When the stranger surfaces, he asks if the beautiful silver axe he has recovered is Ping's. "No," Ping replies honestly, "that is not my axe." Next up is an even more amazing golden axe, but Ping again tells the truth that it is not his. Finally, the stranger comes up with Ping's axe and notes that for his honesty, the axe will now magically do most of the work for him. When Ping's master hears Ping's story, he heads straight to the river and drops in an axe. Sure enough, the stranger appears and offers to retrieve it. But the master keeps saying that each axe the stranger retrieves is not splendid enough to be his. When the stranger comes up with a huge gold one, the master excitedly claims it as his own. But on his way home, in his excitement, he jumps up and down and breaks the bridge, and falls into the river, never to be seen again. This is a classic folk tale complete with a moral to the story that honesty is good and lying is bad. I was going to place it in the recommended section, but will note a caution for it: unfamiliar folktales are both a treat (different than another retelling of Cinderella), and have a little bit of a danger in that they can confusingly sound like the miracles of the Bible. So, for example, Elisha recovered an axe too, making an axe head float (2 Kings 6:4-6), and the chariot the stranger comes riding in on could have a child thinking of the chariot Elijah rode off on (2 Kings 2:11-12). So, this is a good book, but one that'd be better with a parent or teacher reading and explaining it. DON'T BOTHER Demi authored 300 titles and among those are many stories lauding pagan religious figures. She doesn't pick sides, praising Florence Nightingale as a Christian heroine and then praising Muhammad and Confucius in the same manner. This has me thinking of 1 Kings 18:21 where we read about how: "...Elijah approached all the people and said, 'How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.' But the people did not answer a word." Demi waffles as well, which means lots of her books are not worth bothering with. Even her biographies of Christian figures – laudatory though they are – should sometimes be avoided because she treats as fact some legends. So, for example, in her biography of St. Nicholas (the real man who inspired the mythical Santa Claus), we learn that "on his very first day he stood up in his bath and prayed to God!" Her Mary is full of what I presume is Roman Catholic nonsense about Mary being raised in the temple from the age of 3. As there are actually far too many bad titles to cover, I'll share just a partial list to give you a feel of what to avoid: Confucius: great teacher of China The legend of Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching Buddha stories Muhammad Mother Teresa The fantastic adventures of Krishna The wisdom of Solomon CONCLUSION Demi may have quite a bundle of titles to avoid – she might have many more bad than good – but her best titles offer a new and fresh-for-us twist on folktales. That makes these recommended reads worth trying to track down. You and your kids will love them!...

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Book lists, Book Reviews, Children’s picture books

10 picture book authors parents will love

Ready to settle down and read your kids a cozy bedtime story? Looking for some new and fun ideas? When choosing a picture book, some things to look for are a high quality story, great illustrations, and a tale that teaches without being preachy. And the very best books bring a smile to the face of adults as well as children. Here are some fantastic picture book authors we’ve covered in Reformed Perspective over the years, and why they’re great. Since not every book by an author can be a winner, we also break down a few books to be cautious about, or to avoid so click on the author names for detailed reviews on which books are their very best. That's also where you'll find the full list of their recommended books. These authors have so many books to love – more than a 170 are recommended below. Exploring their works will give you enough bedtime reading for nights and nights to come! So grab hold of your library card, and let’s go! Keiko Kasza: All about cartoon critters (12 titles) Keiko Kasza’s skill is in sharing a gentle moral in a playful way! Colorful illustrations of furry and feathered friends fill the pages of her books, and each story builds to a fun punchline. This makes them a joy to read. Check out Ready for Anything, where Raccoon wants to be prepared for every disaster while Duck can only imagine all the good things that could happen. Or try The Dog Who Cried Wolf, where the family dog learns that living like a wolf is not all the fun he imagines it would be! Jerry Pinkney: Making the classics kindle (10 titles)  We often want to introduce our children to classics, but that can be challenging because even classic children’s stories can cover all kinds of mature (and dark!) topics. Introducing Jerry Pinkney, who makes these stories more approachable for younger readers. And by adding his own spin, he brings in his creativity instead of simply retelling these stories. Some of the classic stories he covers are Aesop’s Fables, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (by Rudyard Kipling). Even adults might find a new appreciation for some of these stories! Virginia Lee Burton: Queen of nostalgia (4 titles)  Nostalgia can be fun to indulge in, and Virginia Lee Burton’s stories excel at presenting an idyllic yesteryear. Even better, parents might remember reading some of these stories from their own childhood. We might have to remind our children that everything in the past is not necessarily better than the present, but with that in mind, these stories are delightful. Katy and the Big Snow is a classic, where a red crawler tractor named Katy saves the day by clearing snow off the road for police cars, ambulances and more. And Maybelle the Cable Car imagines the life of a cable car in San Francisco. David Wiesner: Weird and wonderful (7 titles) Children’s books that aren’t predictable! This is the achievement of David Wiesner, whose stories are full of living clouds, flying frogs, artistic lizards and super creativity. And if you’re on the hunt for a few wordless picture books, some of his works are excellent options. Art & Max is an incredibly creative story about two lizards, one who can paint and one who wants to learn. Max, who wants to learn, is challenged to figure it out quickly when he needs to help out his friend. If you’re looking for a wordless book to try, check out Free Fall, where you get to come alongside a little boy in his dreams. Jan Brett: Picture books’ peak (20 titles)   Illustrations are a huge part of what makes picture books come alive, and that means Jan Brett needs to be mentioned! Brett excels at using the edges of pages to give hints about what’s coming next, which rewards children who pay extra attention to all the details on the page. Some standout books are The Mittens: A Ukrainian Folktale, which follows what happens to a lost mitten, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Brett goes into detail about exactly how the bears knew Goldilocks had been in their chairs and beds. David Macaulay: Author and architect (14 titles)     Does your child have an inquisitive mind that needs to know how things work? That’s exactly who David Macaulay’s books are for. He’s explored how pyramids, jet planes, our bodies, and even toilets work. Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction is his first and a classic. It dives into every detail of the whole construction process, complete with illustrations. As cathedrals took over a hundred years to build, the book covers a lot of ground, and even adults can learn something. Another fantastic book to explore is Castle: How It Works, which explores the construction of a castle in a similar way. Excellent books for budding engineers. Cynthia Rylant: Mr. Putter & Tabby’s sweet stories (25 titles) Cynthia Rylant has created a sweet series of stories about two lovely seniors and their pets. Mr. Putter and Tabby are the main male and cat pair, and they go on adventures with Mrs. Teaberry and her dog, Zeke. Throughout the stories they bake cakes, pick pears, paint a porch and more. Some intriguing titles in this series are Mr. Putter and Tabby Dance the Dance and Mr. Putter and Tabby See the Stars. Mo Willems: So many to choose from! (51 titles)  Mo Willems has worked for Sesame Street and Nickelodeon, so it’s no surprise he has a knack for creating fun and entertaining picture books for kids. Christian parents might wonder if that means his books are suitable for their children, and thankfully they are. His most well known characters, Elephant and Piggie, and Pigeon, are well on their way to becoming classic children’s book characters. The stories are all simple, energetic tales full of silly fun. Pick up Let’s Go for a Drive! to find out what Elephant and Piggie think they’ll need to take on a trip, or We Are in a Book!, which is an inventive story in which Elephant and Piggie actually realize they are inside a book. For even more Mo Willems ideas, check out the books which feature Pigeon as well! Amy Krouse Rosenthal: The Ginger Rogers of picture books (19 titles)   Amy Krouse Rosenthal published more than 30 picture books before her death at 51 in 2017 and there are so many innovative and fun selections in her works. Take I Scream! Ice Cream!: A Book of Wordles, which pairs up soundalike words and invites the reader to guess them. Another, This Plus That, creates fun “equations” like “1 + 1 = us” and “somersaults + somersaults + somersaults = dizzy.” Having fun with words and pictures through her books makes story time interactive and exciting. Check out our review for all of her best, as well as a few that can be skipped. Demi's fresh folk tales (11 titles)   We're so used to Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, that it can be quite a treat to hear folks tales from lands further afield. Demi's selection from India, Russia, and especially China will be a treat to both young and, maybe more so, old, who will appreciate getting to read something they haven't read a million times before. As refreshing as Demi's folk tales are, her output isn't all good, so do be sure to click through for which of her books are recommended and which are rejected. Conclusion There you have it – more than 170 picture books to fill your story times for a long time to come! These authors have many tales to delight you, make you laugh, and teach you something new. We hope you enjoy reading them, and if you have any other authors Reformed Perspective should check out, be sure to let us know at ReformedPerspective.ca/contact....

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