How often do we look to cut corners or take short cuts or simply not put forth our best effort? I am afraid that I have to answer this one in the affirmative far more frequently than I would like to admit. Well, Edwards helps us this week with Resolution #6.
Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
May we all take this to heart and live with all our might, while we live.
I was looking for another song when I came across this one, though I was not familiar with the song itself I was with the two authors, Philip Doddridge and Augustus Toplady. Apparently, Toplady wrote or altered the 3rd and 5th stanza’s of this hymn. Read through the lyrics as you prepare for another Lord’s Day.
Grace, ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to mine ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear. read more…
The Super Bowl of the NFL is possibly one of the single biggest sporting events in the world. No matter who is playing, people all over the world will be watching and talking about the game in the days that lead up to it and even the day after. There are various reasons people watch, for some it is love of the game, for others it is love of the commercials. Well, whatever the reason, I think it worthwhile to prepare for the Super Bowl. A couple of years ago, when the Patriots were preparing to play the Giants in the Super Bowl, hoping to remain undefeated, C.J. Mahaney wrote about his thoughts on that game. At the end of the article, though he gave some great tips on watching the Super Bowl. Here is what he wrote, read more…
Mom and I just read through Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Then Mom had me write an essay about it.
I am going to write about three interesting characters in Macbeth. Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare. The characters I am going to write about are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff.
The first person I am going to write about is Macbeth. Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis and he meets three witches that say he will become king of Scotland. Their prophecy proves true because Lady Macbeth makes him murder Duncan the king, and he then becomes more bloodthirsty and evil.
The second person I am going to write about is Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wicked wife. She makes him commit all of these murders and he becomes bloodthirsty to protect his crown. Lady Macbeth dies thinking about Duncan’s murder.
The third person I am going to write about is Macduff. Macduff is a good thane of Scotland. Macduff fights against Macbeth because Macbeth is a bad king. At the end of the play Macduff kills Macbeth; Malcolm, Duncan’s son becomes king. Now Scotland is a better country because they have a good king.
Macbeth is a great play. I learned that becoming king or having power is not as good as doing what is right. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff are all very interesting characters. They helped me to learn this lesson.
Andrew recently participated in his first piano recital. He had to play his song from memory and did a really great job. Here is the video of his performance.
I think he needs to work on his bowing. I think it needs a much more dramatic flare to it. We’ll work on that.
And we all thought that John Piper had the market on not wasting our lives with his book. Well, in resolution #5, Jonathan Edwards resolves to not waste his life, and I am pretty sure he wasn’t the first to think this way either.
Resolution #5
Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
We happen to be singing this one in our worship service on Sunday morning, but I have been meaning to post this one for a long time. I love the 2nd and 3rd verses, what a great reminder they give us. Meditate on these words and have a blessed Lord’s Day!
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure. read more…
While we are on the topic of Shakespeare, I thought that it would be fun to introduce you to this site that Jessica found while doing some online research. It is webweaving.org. It is designed to give you a different Shakespearean insult each time you open the page. If you need a laugh, try it out. Once you open the site, just refresh the page for a new insult each time. You will find great come backs for those heated arguments such as,
Thou venomed swag-bellied skainsmate!
Thou artless base-court apple-john!
Thou errant dread-bolted death-token!
Thou impertinent fool-born gudgeon!
Thou roguish pottle-deep moldwarp!
Thou churlish boil-brained boar-pig!
or my personal favorite,
Thou bawdy bat-fowling baggage!
Now, this is all in fun, I hope that you don’t really call anyone by these names, but it may give you a good laugh at the end of a long week.
Andrew and I are studying Shakespeare right now in history/literature. We’re reading through MacBeth, considered to be readable and accessible enough for fourth graders. Since I love integration, I had him write a persuasive essay on why everyone should read Shakespeare. I told him if it was good enough then I would post it. It was, so here it is:
Everyone should read Shakespeare. Shakespeare is one of the greatest geniuses of his time. There are many reasons why you should read Shakespeare.
The first benefit of reading Shakespeare is he brought the story to life. Shakespeare’s plays are full of surprises, murders, plots, revenge, love, and much more. The second benefit of reading Shakespeare is he is one of the greatest writers of all time. Shakespeare wrote many plays like comedies (The Taming of the Shrew) and tragedies (Romeo and Juliet). The third benefit of reading Shakespeare is he invented a lot of words into the English language. Shakespeare invented thousands of words that he put in his plays and improved the English language.
I think everyone should read Shakespeare. Shakespeare brought the story to life, is a great writer, and invented thousands of words in his lifetime.
We have updated our reading section with some of the books that we have either recently read or are currently reading. Check them out. You can help us by clicking on the Westminster icon or the book covers (theology books) that bring you to the Westminster bookstore. We get credits for each click to their site from our blog and eventually we can get a gift card for free books, which means we can then update you on more great books that are available from Westminster.
Also, I added some other books at the bottom of the list to prove that we don’t only read theology. The links for those books bring you to amazon where you can learn more about them. Graham Greene is an author that has captured Jess and I am reading the history book on Andrew Jackson and Andrew is stepping into the waters of Charles Dickens with Great Expectations.
John
Jess
Andrew