by jot and tittle

Children are a big part of life. In fact, they seem to radiate life. If you walk down the hall of nursing home with a child's hand in your own the faces of all those who see you, or rather the child, will light up. Children are believers, trusting, hopeful, creative, and always looking to something they have yet to obtain and yet are still content with what they have. Children have always been a big part of my life. And it is from these little people that I have learned many things. The five boys I used to babysit taught me how to climb hay bales, scrape feed, play with their farm animals, and also kindly inform me that they can do somethings better without my help (like build their Lego trucks and planes.) They taught me how to deal with conflict and laugh at their antics. The children at church teach me what love is when they share their toys and books and hug their mothers close. My music students teach me to explore and wonder and learn and overcome hard things.  Proverbs 2...

In his book, The Five Love Languages , Gary Chapman speaks primarily to spouses about the different ways to love each other. He categorizes how we love each other into 5 different sections; touch, acts of service, time, words of affirmation, and gifts. The issue he deals with is that different people have different love languages. It can be frustrating to be married to (or friends with someone) whose primary love language is touch while yours is gifts. He encourages people to learn the love language of their spouse; and I would like to add to this by encouraging my readers to learn the love languages of their friends and family. I've always enjoyed the concept of love languages because it's interesting to see how God made us all differently. Over the past several weeks I've been thinking about them when it comes to single people, specifically who fills up a single person's love cup? Then I thought about who fills up my love cup and the answer was so beautiful that I ...

Last week a group of about 180 young people made a great migration up north to Bracebridge, ON. They gathered at a camp, Camp Tamarack, and there they were introduced to 6 chaperoning couples and 3 different speakers. The theme of the week was gratitude, taken from Col. 3&4. Upon arrival each person was given their own book with all the information they would need throughout the week including their cabin number, sport's team, discussion groups, workshops, map, schedule, and room to write notes. The campers threw their stuff into their cabins and went down to the theater to hear the rules of camp. Following rules and welcome Rev. Bouwers came forward to speak about the focus of our gratitude; namely Christ. After the seminary we went to our designated discussion groups and then back to our cabins to finish unpacking. Dinner followed shortly after and then we changed into our grubby clothes to get down and dirty in Opening Games. I never really knew what the purpose of openi...

Today I was leafing through the newspaper when a thick pink piece of cardboard fell out. It was covered with dark pink words and pictures of girls. DEFEND GIRLS were the bold words in the top left corner of one side with more information on the back. Oh , I thought, that's nice that people are bringing awareness to the genocide of unborn girls. I already believe that's wrong . I was about to throw the paper in the garbage when I read these words on the back "what can you do?"  I stopped.  What could I do? I don't know any abortionists and I'm not facebook friends with the Prime Minister. It's not like I normally interact with powerful people who make laws or with people who would want to kill their baby before he/she is born. I was going to throw out the paper again when I saw some websites on the bottom of the flier. I should at least look them up .  I did.  The fact that I was going to just throw the flier out because I already disagree with all ...

After my last post it was brought to my attention that modesty rules don't apply only to women. A comment was brought up that there have been a lot of spandex legs walking around lately with the warmer weather and the need to exercise out of doors.  Let me just speak the unspoken rule that spandex (and it close relative; leggings) are not pants and should not be treated as such...EVER. Now that we have that cleared up I would like to share with you something that is a bigger problem among men when it comes to them being modest toward women. It has to do with emotions (you know, those feeling inside of you that make you do things. Men seem to think they don't have any of them while women have been blessed in abundance.) The dictionary definition of modesty is "regard for decency of behavior, speech, dress"(from dictionary.com). The problem men face in being modest is not so much in their dress (now that we've dealt with the issue of spandex) but with the issue of...

Winter is finally over and that means flowers, sunshine, warm weather, the beach, sports, and Christian magazines printing articles about modesty. I was thinking about this last week when I saw two fifteen-year-old church girls, one with yoga pants that outlined her panties and the other with shorts that resembled jean underwear with pockets, and I thought "I don't think those articles with rules about modesty make a difference." Here's why.  The church today seems to be more interested in the outcome than the principle. We would rather deal with the repercussions than to nip them in the bud. We live in a society that is existential and self-seeking and we are raising young people that are believing the lie of post-modernism. Everyone should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, because they want to. There is little thought for others in our society (especially those who cannot benefit me) and that thought has not merely "dripped" into th...

It must be almost a week and a half since I walked among the stones. Some were old and laying covered in a bed of grass to sleep; their owners under them. The one I came to see was new and it stood straight up with the family name proudly displayed at the top. A cross went down the middle and while the dates on the left were missing, the right side displayed a name. Jack. Aug 8, 1932-Nov 23,2011 Now I hadn't been to see his grave since the day we laid my grandfather in it but much to my delight these words were under the date; "I know that my Redeemer lives" Job 19:25 I continued to walk among the stones. Some had phrases like "beloved husband and father" "mother of" some had Bible verses, and one said "at peace at last." I wondered what kind of a person lay underneath such a stone. Had this person struggled long with his fight on earth? Had he really found peace when he departed?  I circled around and came back to stand before my gr...