CarpeBanana

That phrase “diligent vigilance” once tripped up our pastor badly. We felt we had the makings of a whole new tongue twister if somehow we could work ill villagers into the whole.

A news item about watchfulness for birds carrying the dread H5N1 virus in North America set me pondering watchfulness. We are careful to guard against birds with viruses (plural seems wrong there). We are on the alert for rogue cancerous cells in our bodies and seek them out with different tests. We inspect water and food supplies. And yet in all those cases we are watching for something we hope to never find - searching a haystack for a deadly needle.

What are things we should watch just as closely hoping to find?

What are the signs of godliness we would like to see show on any sort of scan we could run? 

I am starting my scan with this passage in Proverbs 4:20 

Our attendance at the new Prince Caspian movie was part of a birthday feast. Miss Language was volunteered to make our theme centerpiece. Here is the battle scene as re-created on our dinner table:

and on the sideboard, Susan took a shot at the soldiers who had hog-tied the D.L.F.:

and Caspian and Miraz found themselves locked in combat in the frosting of a triple chocolate cake:

the battle continued undaunted even when surrounded by flames:

For posterity, two random Bananalet quotes. Miss Dance ~ “Cake is the world to me.” Miss Dog Lover ~ “Don’t you think Edmund looks a lot like himself?” (still not sure just what that one means.)

Miss Dog Lover is such a delightful child. I don’t do coffee so my brain requires a morning warm up session, a lot like on the old cars when someone had to get out and wind that huge handle on the front, only in the case of my brain, this handle often takes the form of my loud and tuneless singing of whatever worthless ditty is floating around the fringes of my mind. My crew is mostly immune to this, but not completely, as demonstrated this morning by Miss Dog Lover.

I was warming up by singing the old “I’m a Pepper, He’s a Pepper, She’s a Pepper, We’re a Pepper, Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?” ad and, after a moment’s pause, I heard her say, “No, I wouldn’t, to answer your question.” Perfectly serious.

Then, later in the day, she was asking me why Miss Language was behaving in a way Miss Dog Lover found goofy. I said I didn’t know and Miss Dog Lover pointed out that she (Miss Language) is my daughter and I ought to know. I replied that she (Miss Dog Lover) is also my daughter, and I cannot explain everything she does, either. To which she responded, “You’re full of daughters.”

And now I see she has prepared a shopping list on a tablet (guess what manufacturer supplied it?)

1. Buy Suave products (that was printed on the pad)

2. Buy makeup/& lipstick

3. Buy fashion clothes

4. Buy a new purse. / wallet

5. Buy Hair things

6. Buy more magnet earrings

7. Buy jewlery

8. Buy more cream/spray

9. Ipod/music

10. pink flipflops with high-heels. / Digital camra pink

Somehow I don’t think this is her Mother’s Day shopping list. I suspect that because I also do not do high heels. They are not a good idea for someone whose brain is often only partially engaged.

O LORD,

May I

            never fail to come to the knowledge of the truth,

            never rest in a system of doctrine, however scriptural,

                         that does not bring or further salvation,

or teach me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts,

or help me to live soberly, righteously, godly;

never rely on my own convictions and resolutions,

but be strong in thee and in thy might;

            never cease to find thy grace sufficient

in all my duties, trials, and conflicts;

            never forget to repair to thee

in all my spiritual distresses and outward troubles,

in all the dissatisfactions experienced in creature comforts;

            never fail to retreat to him who is full of grace and truth,

the friend that loveth at all times,

who is touched with feelings of my infirmities,

and can do exceeding abundantly for me;

            never confine my religion to extraordinary occasions,

                        but acknowledge thee in all my ways;

            never limit my devotions to particular seasons

                        but be in thy fear all the day long;

            never be godly only on the sabbath or in thy house,

                        but on every day abroad and at home;

            never make piety a dress but a habit,

                        not only a habit but a nature,

                        not only a nature but a life.

Do good to me by all thy dispensations,

                                    by all means of grace,

                                    by worship, prayers, praises,

And at last let me enter that world where is no temple,

            but only thy glory and the Lamb’s.

~ from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.

The old Carpe can be found here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/carpebanana Trying to see how to navigate these reformed waters.