Danette > Recent Status Updates

...her heart was grateful and full of hope. She had lost the father of her children and the dear companion of her life, and that loss could never be made good. Still her mind acknowledged the riches she possessed in her children, so she confessed herself neither desolate nor forsaken, but something in a humble human way that the Lord could take delight in.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
Acts 17:30-31

But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love.

Psalm 59:16-17

Let us release our kids’ performances and successes from our control. Let’s not look to them to validate our worth. Let’s prioritize the health of our families over the idols of success and activity. Let’s continue to remind our kids that there are things more important than being the best and cheer them on for things that matter, like character and kindness.

Tech-addicted kids don’t play well, they don’t attach to their families well, they are exposed to sexual images earlier, their reading suffers, their imagination is crippled. You absolutely must get this piece close to right or die trying. I don’t say this to overwhelm or discourage you but because I believe it is so crucial to modern parenting. We have to be different from everyone else here.

If you do not want to send your kid to preschool and prefer to keep him or her at home with a day rich in conversation and play - going to parks, making cookies, visiting the library, reading books, taking naps, mashing Play-Doh - I do not believe you are doing your child a disservice. On the contrary, your child is doing just precisely what a little three- or four-year-old should be doing: Playing.

I think one of the tragedies of our times is how everyone is segmented according to how old they are. Schools, churches, gyms - whenever people tend to gather, they’re grouped according to age. This is to everyone’s detriment.
Childhood is made richer by doing life with those who are not exactly the same age - those babies and old people.

I agree with the chapter “The Gift of Being Uncool”.

But even now, as the mother - the keeper of the home, the playdate maker, the activity chooser, the controller of the remote, the setter of the passwords, and the owner of the devices - I am the biggest influence in my children’s lives. I can use this influence in a powerful way.

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
Acts 5:30-32

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:11

Jesus Christ is no security against storms, but He is perfect security IN storms, He has never promised you an easy passage, only a safe landing.

Since 90 percent of your serotonin is made in the gut, a damaged intestinal tract can also mean descending into an inexplicable fog of depression or feeling as if your life is being run by a humming undercurrent of anxiety.

So when I proclaim, “Let them be kids!” it is mostly NOT passive. It is NOT an exhausted resigning of duties, a last-gasp, fizzling at the end of day, free-range, unsupervised, “Oh, what the heck…” free-for-all. To let them be kids, we must be adults. When we let them be kids, we are the gardeners working faithfully so childhood can grow. And our work is worth it.

But the fact is grief doesn’t know we invented time. Grief has its own tide and comes and goes in waves.

Women carry on. They endure the way old ships do, breasting into outrageous waters, ache and creak, hull holed and decks awash, yet find anchorage in the ordinary, in tables to be wiped down, pots to scrub, and endless ashes to be put out.

There is an important connection between your delight in God and your usefulness to the people around you - or between your delight in God and living out your purpose. As you delight in God, you will find delight in serving others. As you find joy in him, you will most joyfully bless others.

His rifle is wavering, they haven’t really explained this bit, that running and shooting is quite different to standing and shooting and that running and shooting while being shot at is for obvious reasons, chaps, not taught at all. It’ll come to you; don’t worry, men.

Irish people will read anything as long as it’s about them. That’s what I think. We are our own greatest subject and though we’ve gone and looked elsewhere about the world we have found that there are just no people, no subject as fascinating as We Ourselves. We are simply amazing.

From that moment on, I understood that the Lord didn’t save me just to sit in a church pew and listen all my life - but, rather, to serve.
Ivan - Chile

There are unhealthy movements that grow out of a need to show that others are mistaken, and there are healthy movements that grow out of a joyful discovery that powerful and precious realities about God and his ways have been obscured, and need to be recovered for the full fruitfulness and joy of God’s people.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:76-79

But, there were some faithful Israelites who knew that the Savior would fulfill what the Promised Land symbolized: a place in eternity with God. Jesus Christ was this Savior. Though many believed Him to lead a revolution against the Roman government’s oppression, Jesus actually led a rebellion against sin’s oppression.

“When she heard the news, it seemed to him that Emma was her old self again - not that it was any improvement.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel:you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:22-26

That’s what (expositional) preaching does - it makes people realize that what is being taught comes from the Bible and that the Bible should be our authority for everything we say and everything we believe and everything we do. So, when you preach expositionally to people who do not know how to read, it gives them the desire to learn to read and own a Bible.

The gospel must be preached to this generation, and then passed like a torch to the next generation - and the next - because Christians are not born but are born again by the grace of God.

There’s always more we can do in ministry, but God is not asking “Can you do more?”, He is asking “Do you love me? Some of those extras are not always as vital as we think them to be.

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does its successive journeys run;
His kingdom spread from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

Isaac Watts, “Jesus Shall Reign,” 1719