Gina sent this to me, because she knows this is something I believe is important. I’m a “big” advocate of using big words around kids. Obviously, there are some qualifiers to be explored. But overall, I believe parents generally don’t use enough mysterious (to them for the moment), meaningful (growing) language with children. Of course explain as you go, to be sure, but don’t shy away from using more and more elaborate language. It’s how we all learn. Kids are just way more capable than most humans to absorb it.

I think this goes for Theological/Biblical language as well. Explain UP, don’t DUMB DOWN. (I understand the need for clarity. But we need a clarity that serves people for life, not only for the moment.) We are aiming to build up understanding, not reduce the deeply meaningful, mysterious, magical wonder of Holy Scripture to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Note: This is not an elitist position, or a stuck-up thing. It’s just about giving children more. Not more money, prestige, or high status. It’s about equipping them, endowing them, blessing them with an amazing and priceless gift. I know that writers ought to most often use the clearest, most common words, but I think that’s a bit of a different discussion.

We want our own children to have a deeper capacity. It doesn’t need to always issue in using all those words all the time. We want to expand their arsenal, not really recommend that they use the grenade launcher all the time. We just want them to have more than a squirt gun. Though often a squirt gun is called for.

Here’s an excerpt from the article by Amanda Morgan:

Don’t shy away from the big words. It is very common for adults to simplify their language when talking to young children. Instead of referring to the veterinarian, we talk about the “animal doctor”. While a sentence full of new words would be a bit overwhelming for anyone, throwing in a new word now and then is a great opportunity to build vocabulary! If we are referring to the veterinarian, we should use that word, offering “animal doctor” as an explanation, and then referring to “veterinarian” a few more times in the conversation. If you’re explaining what something is, you might as well use the right word the first time. Children may not always pick up on those big words, but they certainly won’t if they don’t ever hear them. There isn’t much opportunity for growth if we’re always using words they already know. So go ahead, use words like “identical” instead of “same” and “metamorphosis” instead of “change”. You’ll be surprised at what your children will pick up on when you give them the chance!

From The Big Picture. Click on the pics to see them larger.

Claudio Santana/AP

Carlos Gutierrez/Reuters

Carey Wallace has an excellent article in Cardis called “On Discipline.” It’s about the relationship between a disciplined life in general (and specifically a disciplined spiritual life) and a disciplined creative life. Looking for answers to why you’re too busy, blocked, or unproductive in creative work? I am. Here’s a portion below, but read her entire post here.

HT: Dr. Jonathan “Hat Tip” Rogers

There is no such thing, we discovered, as disciplining one corner of a life. There are only disciplined or undisciplined lives.

Let me be clear. Too many artists already raise artificial barriers to creation: they can’t write, or think, or paint, they claim, unless they’re seated at a pristine desk, with southern light, perfect silence, and a dozen sharpened pencils all pointed west. These are not aids to creation, or marks of real discipline: they are a group of excuses not to create if the conditions are not met. I am not saying, “Don’t bother to create unless your whole life is in perfect order. I am saying, “Creation will require your whole life.”

For years, I had seen my early commitment to prayer and writing as separate concerns. Now I wondered if my spiritual disciplines and my creative disciplines had been more deeply bound than I knew. The actions of discipline are simple, but the barriers to discipline are spiritual, rooted in anxiety, despair, and fear. And approaching them as if they’re simple matters of practicality will only result in the failure that most artists already know so well.

All spiritual problems are creative problems, and all creative problems are spiritual problems. Doubt, depression, lust, rage, greed: because the artist herself is the mechanism of creation, none of these things can be separated from an artist’s work when they’re present in the artist. And an artist’s failure to work is rarely mechanical—fingers that fail to curl around a pen or a brush—but spiritual: a fear that has rendered them artistically blind or deaf. The solution to them all is to draw closer to God, the source of all order, rest, and freedom, and of every image, sound, and word.

I no longer draw a distinction between my spiritual and creative disciplines.

–Carey Wallace

Consider me stoked. It took me about ten seconds to order this. This is maybe my favorite non-fiction book written in the last sixty years. Definitely way up there. Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl is fantastic. The dvd series looks equally excellent. I shall find out soon. Anyone want to do this series with us?

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl Movie Trailer from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.

I have never read a Donald Miller book. I’d like to read one some day, but today is not that day.

But I read his blog every once in a while and recently he had two really good ones. 1. His review of Love Wins was outstanding. 2. Here’s Don’s Ten Characteristics of a Disciple. Kind of a You Might Be A Disciple If….

1. You think Jesus wants to take over the government so you cut off a soldiers ear in order to get the fighting started. (The neo cons are definitely disciples!)

2. You keep pestering Jesus about who he will give more power to in heaven.

3. You have no theological training but own a small fishing business which somehow makes you qualified because you “get it.”

4. The Holy Spirit crashes into one of your mini sermons so everybody can speak different languages and outsiders think you’re drunk.

5. People ask you if you know Jesus and you freak out and say no and run away.

6. You hear they killed Jesus on a cross and you figure the whole thing was a wash and you got duped.

7. You choose other disciples by playing rock, paper scissors.

8. You teach bad theology and have to have somebody else come over and correct you.

Very good. Read the entire post for a bit more. I bet we could add some good ones to this list. The end result is a real rock ‘em sock ‘em to the false religion of Moralism. So yay.

Jared Wilson has, as usual, something valuable to say to us. He writes a short post concerning Sehsucht, the indescribable (until now, thank you Germany!) longing we have –the mystery in the heart of man. He suggests we do a few things with this deep, eternal longing. I have included only the title of each (read the post to fill in the short description), except I included number 3 in full.

Re: number 3. This is a serious concern. The elevation of Doubt to creedal status is one of the most disturbing fads among believers of our age.

Anyway, here’s what Jared says we do with this longing.

1. We drug it

2. We deny It.

3. We deify it.
This approach is becoming more popular in professing Christian circles, particularly among younger generations. At some point, the longing itself became more interesting than the longed-for. Idolaters of Sehnsucht don’t mind reveling in the mysteries at the expense of their Author, because mystery seems so much more interesting than revelation. Those who settle for the longing itself rather than the settler of the longing coddle their doubts, cherish subjectivity, and elevate uncertainty.

4. We delight it.

Read the entire thing. It’s very good.

Seth Godin wonders over the comparative value of social media and books in this short, worthwhile post. This is taken from his conclusion:

“I get the flux, the flow, the connective power of social media. It’s incredible to be able to widen your circle, to be aware of so many people and so many inputs. I wonder though… Is one status update enough to get you to alter a habit or make a better decision?

“This is why books matter. Books, used properly, immerse us in a single idea. Books bring a voice into our head, create a different brain chemistry, open doors to a more powerful lever, a learning that can yes, change us. Dozens (perhaps hundreds) of times in my life, a book has changed my mind. So have some powerful lectures or direct engagements with teachers or mentors. These are the moments of true change, times when we are entrained with the message, when we feel the learning happening in real time.”

Seth Godin here.

I’m on Facebook and Twitter and I like them. Seth Godin’s book Tribes is excellent. I love football.

According to this article from the Mother Country (The Telegraph), these are the top ten most irritating phrases:

The top ten most irritating phrases:

1 – At the end of the day

2 – Fairly unique

3 – I personally

4 – At this moment in time

5 – With all due respect

6 – Absolutely

7 – It’s a nightmare

8 – Shouldn’t of

9 – 24/7

10 – It’s not rocket science

Those aren’t bad (I mean they are, of course), but I’d like to add my own. Because hey, this is America and we believe in taxation with representation and footballs that are mostly used by the hands and in giving the Queen an iPod and movies that don’t work.

So, what phrases irritate me? Let me put on my smarmy cap, which I hope doesn’t fit too well. Most of these I’ve used myself and don’t even know the dumb ones I still employ.

1. “Things of that nature…” Almost always used for filler with no real meaning. It was also used non-stop by former WVU coach Rich Rodriguez.

2. “Irregardless.” Never used properly, irregardless of who is trying.

3. “De-thaw.” Maye it’s just around here, but this is used pretty often. Note: It just needs to thaw, not de-thaw.

4. “As it were…” Also filler, gives me bad flashbacks. I prefer to employ the more popular “ummm, uh, ummm….” for filler.

5. “Put your John Henry right here…” This phrase is used around here a lot when asking some one to sign something. Um, I think you mean John Hancock. He’s the one with the famous signature. Could John Henry even write his name?

The most irritating thing? People who get irritated by the way less sophisticated people communicate. I’m all for saving civilization and rescuing language, but I don’t want to die on that hill. Especially with a smug look on my face. Because when it comes to not being smug, I’m the best around. I hope you notice, but talking about it further is like, so beneath me.

“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
(Deuteronomy 20:19-20 ESV)

This is mentioned over at a Gospel Of The Trees by Alan Jacobs, which I love.

Photo by Gina G. Smith

Regarding the quotation below, Zach Nielsen says, “Tozer was great, but don’t be like him in this way.” I srongly agree. Many Christian men (esp. leaders) are busy with many things and are easily tempted towards a lifestyle of neglecting our families and leaving to our wives great piles of lonely, largely-thankless work. Men, this should not be. This is the first province of our stewardship. We all fail in many ways, but failing here is like standing on the porch of our burning home aiming a water hose everywhere else.

“With a burning desire to learn and a keen sense of educational inadequacy, Tozer began to devote long hours to reading. He not only read a lot, his mind was preoccupied when he was home, as he continually sorted out ideas and wrote articles in his mind when he could not be alone to put them on paper.

“By early 1928 the Tozers had a routine. Aiden [Tozer] found his fulfillment in reading, preparing sermons, preaching, and weaving travel into his demanding and exciting schedule, while Ada learned to cope. She dutifully washed, ironed, cooked, and cared for the little ones, and developed the art of shoving her pain deep down inside. Most of the time she pretended there was no hurt, but when it erupted, she usually blamed herself for not being godly enough to conquer her longing for intimacy from an emotionally aloof husband.”

Lyle Dorsett, A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer, p. 81