In Word

Seventeen years ago today, God gave Toni Michelle a special gift.

This gift’s name was Beth Nicole.

Toni loved Beth.  She loved to play horses with her.  She loved to dress up with her.  She loved to play dolls with her.

Toni also took Beth for granted sometimes.  She didn’t treat her right, or always act like she loved her.  Actually, she did that a lot.

Toni wasn’t a very smart kid.  She was also very wrong.

Toni is just now fully realizing what a special gift God gave her, seventeen years after she first received it.

And Toni doesn’t want to ever take that gift for granted, ever again.

After all, what more could a sister ask for?

I love you, Beth!

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The Austin Rhetoric Club met for the first time this season last night.  And as I expected, it was absolutely fabulous.  I’ve never been so happy about the beginning of the debate season, although I’ve been through it several times now.  You never know what you’re missing till you give it a chance to be…miss-able.  (The potential meaningfulness of that line was somehow marred by the inclusion of a non-existent word.  Oh well.)

In any case, I’m excited about the year ahead.  Not for the competition’s sake…that can be fun, mixed in with all the stress, but it’s really not what makes me so happy to be back.  But…wow.  You wouldn’t believe the amazing people I’m honored to hang out with once a week.

God is doing amazing things with the Austin Rhetoric Club.

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Pronunciation: \?ha-p?-n?s\

Function: noun

1 a : a state of well-being and contentment  b : a pleasurable or satisfying experience.  c : a new desk.

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10 Rules of Constant Travel:

1. You can never have too many pillows.
2. Put the loudest kids in the back-back-back seat.  They’ll distract each other.
3. While the loudest kids are distracting each other (loudly), take a moment to enjoy your earbuds.
4. Forget that old “keep your feet off the seats” rule.
5. Never underestimate the power of sleep.
6. Be flexible.  Mold yourself to the shape of the seat, and deal with the subsequent falling asleep of arms and legs.
7. Don’t let your mom pick the CD unless you want to listen to sermon tapes.
8. On that note, bring plenty of good music.
9. Avoid sitting in the middle front bench seat.  You will be doomed to pass food and other items back and forth for the rest of the trip.
10. Start the day in a good mood.  That way you’ve got a better chance of retaining it.

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I’m always excited to pull the monthly package from Crossway from the mailbox and see what I’ll be reading next.  But I must say, when I opened What He Must Be, I couldn’t help but feel a just a little disconcerted—this was for parents, right?  Or at least for the guys trying to figure out “what they must be.”

The book, written by popular teacher and speaker Voddie Baucham Jr., is a basic run-down on the Biblical qualities fathers should look for in potential suitors for their daughters.  But it’s more than that—because it’s not only the fathers who need to know.  It’s for the daughters as they seek to become young women of God; for the young men who face the challenge of overcoming our culture’s expectations; for the parents who raise their children to fill the necessary roles.

What He Must Be isn’t anything life-shattering—but it’s a solid, Biblical approach to something that has been severely undervalued and trampled upon in today’s world.  Mr. Baucham calls upon Christian families to return to the principles that some might call “old-fashioned,” but that are in fact the cornerstone of a healthy, functional family.

I don’t have any complaints about this book, except for a minor error in which the author mistakenly cites a scene in a certain movie (no, it wasn’t Lucy who was involved in the ill-fated Caspian romance).  But regardless of his Chronicles of Narnia knowledge, Voddie Baucham Jr. has done a commendable job laying out the basics of What He Must Be.

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We’re back in Texas now—but rewind for some picture from our last days in Nashville.  We decided to make the not-so-short drive over to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Civil War battlefields.  Chickamauga was your average battlefield, so I’m skipping to Chattanooga, specifically Lookout Mountain.

The fighting at Lookout Mountain is often called the “battle above the clouds.”  If the weather back in 1863 was anything like it was the day we visited, I can understand the nickname:

The view behind us is supposed to be one of the top 10 views in the south.  If you squint, you can imagine Chattanooga somewhere down there…

Above the clouds, indeed.  On this side of the mountain we could catch a glimpse of the Tennessee River.

Posing in front of the…cloud.

And then it rained.  Which was perfectly exhilarating and inspiring, but didn’t help the view much.  Oh well…Lookout Mountain is still pretty cool.

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