Book Review: Her Hand in Marriage by Douglas Wilson

We were asked recently if there are any good resources on biblical courtship, specifically for young men. Hence the number of courtship books and sermons that we have been ploughing through recently…and thanks to the Twiss family for lending us some. I have to admit that at this point I am yet to find anything specific to young men: if you have any thoughts let me know…we also need something more general which works for our Aussie culture.

Anyway, that leads us onto this book, which is Doug Wilson’s Her Hand in Marriage. It is a short book though it hits all the essential points that you would expect it to, in Doug’s trademark style. If I had one beef to pick with it, I would say that a few real-life examples would not have gone astray. There is a reasonable amount of material around about the theory of biblical courtship, but not enough stories of how families have actually gone about it. Not that we want to precisely copy the example of others , but it would be helpful to reflect upon their successes and mistakes. Nevertheless, it is a straight-forward book which is easy to read.

BTW, thanks to my Mum buying me this dvd for my birthday, I can tell you that the cover of this book features Vermeer’s “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window”. Maybe she is reading a letter from a suitor?

Let them tend cows

In this post for the opinion pages of the New York Times, Meredith F. Small argues that instead of overloading small children with school work,  we should be giving them age appropriate tasks that contribute to the household economy and  help them to master life skills. I like it :)

Thanks to Althouse for the link.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/06/12/whos-ready-for-kindergarten/young-children-should-have-chores-not-desks

Last hurrah at Borders

When I was a little boy we would sometimes meet my father in the CBD after work, and he would take us to Haddons Bookshop which specialised in children’s books. A couple of years ago we started our own family tradition which was very similar: every now and then on a Saturday morning we would head into town, go to Borders for a coffee and then a wander around. Each child would be allowed to choose a book.

Last Saturday was the last hurrah for this family tradition, which will (hopefully) be remembered by at least some of the older children. Borders is closing down. Yes, even the big bookstores in Australia are now closing. The  trend which was depicted in this terrible movie has now come to an end, as a decline in reading and the shift to e-books seems to be taking a toll.

By way of consolation, we had Yum Cha after visiting Borders for the last time, and then managed to find a few absolute bargains in the State Library’s bookstore:

• “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” – Barbara Robinson
• “The Icebound Land” – John Flanagan
• “The Capricorn Bracelet” – Rosemary Sutcliffe
• “In the Reign of Terror” – G.A. Henty
• “Manhunt” – James L. Swanson

The kids books are all 50c at this bookstore and a lot of them are in almost mint condition, apart from the library stickers, etc.

Steve

Speaking of parenting…

In this post, Kevin DeYoung provides a great defintion of parenting, from Andrew Ferguson:

You fulfill yourself by denying yourself, preparing the people you can’t live without to live without you.

Oh, and did I mention that there is a funny picture too?

Steve

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/05/28/a-good-definition-of-parenting/

Dealing with quarrels

Have you checked out the Doorposts blog yet? We are keen on their materials and this post about dealing with quarrels will give you a great excuse to head over there and have a look. This type of training is time-consuming but I feel that it will bear fruit in the long run.

Steve

http://www.doorposts.com/blog/2011/05/24/dealing-with-quarrels/

Hospitality and small children

 

In the post below, Abigail speaks about the joys and challenges of being hospitable with small children at home, and provides 8 insights to keep in mind. I particularly liked the one about expecting everything to go wrong, because it will :)

Steve

http://abigailsleftovers.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/hospitality-and-small-children/

Book Review: Before you meet Prince Charming by Sarah Mally

This is a wonderful book written to encourage young women to live their lives with purity and integrity. Each chapter begins with an ongoing story of a fairytale princess and her longing to meet her own prince charming which makes it a particularly enjoyable book to read. I found it be a very thorough book covering the basics of guarding your heart, respecting parents, reserving yourself for one and more - but it maintains a lovely innocence, so I felt quite happy allowing our eldest daughter (almost 12) to read it all. I really appreciated the author’s detail in explaining how God expects a young lady to guard her mind and encourages her to consider a life purpose bigger than marriage.