The Keener Way

  You know, the Bible is oddly full of "what ifs". Verses that pose the idea of "what if the Lord fails me?" Think of Daniel's three friends who were thrown into a furnace. "Even if our God does not save us from your fire, we will still serve him." Think of Job. He was convinced that God was doing unjust evils to him. He was questioning how God could be so cruel as to torture a righteous man. And he still said, "even if he kills me, I will serve him." Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, " Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the vines have no grapes, even if the olive tree fails to produce and the fields yield no food, even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls have no cattle-- even then, I will be happy with the Lord . I will truly find joy in God, who saves me." 1 Peter 3:14, " Even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened." Psalm 23, known and loved by so ma...

    Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. From KJV. I had someone give me the thought this morning that this may not mean what most of us think it means. On the surface, it looks like "There is a specific way to raise your kids that guarantees they will stick to those ways all their lives". Except then parents all over the world bemoan their misfortunes as they watch their kids stray from their upbringings. "We trained them as trained as we knew how to. How was it not enough?" Here's the thing. I don't think that's what Solomon meant. The individual who spoke to me this morning suggested that Proverbs 22:6 is saying "Train a child according to his inclinations/personality/interests and when he is old he will still be doing these things with excellent success." Which is entirely valid. Maybe you want your child to be good at math and become a rocket scientist. But maybe they have no inclination...

     A blog post about writing? Yes. I've really not done any of these yet. Namely because my blog has been terribly neglected for a long time. But I want to get into a better habit with time. And I want it to be multi-functional. Life lessons from Abba, plus personality psychology, plus writing advice, plus sharing some of my own writing. So, here's some writing advice. For all y'all fiction writers particularly. One of the biggest struggles people tend to have is character development. And there are many ways to develop a character, to which point I hope to cover many of these in the future. But today, I want to talk about a unique aspect that many people never even consider. Everyday Carry, or EDC. As defined by wikipedia: "Everyday carry ( EDC ) or every-day carry is a collection of useful items that are consistently carried on person every day. The main reasons for having EDC are utility (usefulness), self-sufficiency , and preparedness : to help individuals i...