Daily pages of reflection...for knowledge, understanding, to wisdom
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Christian Marriage

May 10, 2018
Year 3, Day 130 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Marriage in its application has a checkered reputation in world history, both on the personal level and as a major factor for general society.  In the United States the personal and social tensions related to marriage and the family, have escalated since the great wars, emerging during the Flapper period after World War I. Young women began expressing their human equality with men by a flamboyant pattern of conduct so to challenge the traditions of domestic roles and safe social contexts.  There was some invasion in former male haunts that carried something of a carnal context.  There was a happy-go-lucky attitude with some release for women from limited home-life experience. The movement was abruptly interrupted by a great depression with… Read more

Preference and Prejudice

May 9, 2018
Year 3, Day 129 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

Every person has preferences that some other persons may interpret as prejudices.  Our experience with the ugly prejudice found in the conflict of races, genders, status and the variant other identities of persons and positions distorts the contexts of our lives.  There is a massive population that simply follows their preferences and that without prejudice so to find a practical way to live in a complex world that can eat up the time of life by fighting prejudice with carnal or negative feelings about each other.  I had a student of African descent quite popular with other students, talented in body and personality, played football and proved an excellent speaker in my classes.  He never assumed to take umbrage at… Read more

Believing Life

May 8, 2018
Year 3, Day 128 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

A basic human right is that an individual can believe anything he or she chooses to believe.  Even God honors that right in that it is part of freedom, and the free choices made in the direction of the meaning of the creator are important to him.  This is one factor that distinguished mankind’s relationship to God as higher than that of angels. (Hebrews 2:2-16)  God stands alone above all other factors and served by a magnificent entourage of his own making.  That creation belongs to God’s artistry and the miracles of his competency to create that he wants to create from nothing.  In mankind he has created creatures from nothing (dust) but reflecting his creative nature in procreation and… Read more

Discipline

May 7, 2018
Year 3, Day 127 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

What is effective discipline in either or both natural and spiritual life?  The answers do not come easily in that both contexts have been interpreted differently in various generations, oscillating between stern measures and gentle interpretations, often with critical attitudes of that which held majority approval in a previous generation.  Scripture suggests that spiritual discipline may sometimes be very dramatic.  For society strong nature factors may include illness, warfare, excesses of weather – what amounts to be a response of an angry God using evaluation and judgment upon humankind through dramatic nature.  God not only acts to limit human violations of righteous principles, but also to elicit humility that leads to amendment of damaging thought/conduct.  Discipline appears in Scripture with… Read more

Little Things

May 6, 2018
Year 3, Day 126 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

There are several values found in Scripture that we miss, because they seem insignificant.  They relate to both affirmative and negative belief and conduct – and they become important.  A teacher wrote an article to our newspaper on her move from two decades of teaching in public school to a position as instructor in an education department of a university.  She wanted to inform the public about the persons from whom she learned the most about the matter of educational practice from her experience.  She learned the skills and attitudes that made her effective as a teacher so to be invited to join a faculty teaching students how to become good teachers.  Her first kudo went to the staff of… Read more

Counseling/Counseled

May 5, 2018
Year 3, Day 125 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

My elder son and I fell into conversation about education and scholarship.  Because of my life he was drawn early in life into a circle of persons quite respectful and dedicated to scholarship and practiced it as one of the dominating factors influencing life.  Education was made vital to my family members with a college degree made as important to us – as a high school diploma was important to many families with college left optional.  (College entry has become more common in the passing decades since that first awareness in my life.  Reviewing back through several generations of my family, I was the first in my family review to earn a college degree.)  My inquiring son, who holds a… Read more

Counselee Education

May 4, 2018
Year 3, Day 124 | No Comments
Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

At one time or another virtually every person acts as a counselor.  The most common tribes of counselors are called mothers and fathers.  Their life suggestions vary widely usually formed from their own response to life experiences.  Those experiences are often guided by informal education (daily living in relationships with others and nature), and formal education (provided in an institutional environment by hired personnel with special competencies).  It is commonly believed that persons gaining broadest experiences and more thorough formal educations will offer the best responses to human questions for belief and conduct.  It is a test we apply when we seek information and courses of conduct.  Although a reasonable and important test related to competency, it may fail us… Read more

Tone Deaf

May 3, 2018
Year 3, Day 123 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

Some persons who have come to my office for counseling are tone deaf to counsel, or partially so.  A tone deaf person can hear a tone but not reproduce it.  They hear something that is a noise to them with some meaning but not the adequate meaning, either to their minds or their ability to follow it in its own vibrations.  The tone deaf person, insisting on singing with the choir is a scourge to the director and the choir, and may even reach the congregation so to reduce the rendition meant for excellence to devotion – replaced in the distraction from the intended meaning.  An analyst, in reviewing major films noted that Marlon Brando acted in a way that… Read more

Common Sin

May 2, 2018
Year 3, Day 122 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Common sin grows out of human nature.  It is even found in innocent infants.  A recent study offered evidence that prejudice was found in the individual before any outside education gave it added impetus and negative belief and/or conduct.  The preferences of the child in reaching for and receiving this or that in a human presentation created some satisfaction for the emerging infant.  Denial of the preferred thing was met with negative response and some mistreatment or misrepresentation of the alternative choice offered.  Neither the individual nor society appears to know how to manage the negatives drawn from the flaws of human nature, which in theology is identified as evidence of depravity.  Depravity is heartily disliked as a word and… Read more

Do-Gooders

May 1, 2018
Year 3, Day 121 | No Comments

This Page may strike one as too narrow accent on Christian culture.  In fact it is an important discussion, related to stewardship, personal security and generational boundaries.  It challenges thought and planning by any person, even though the Christian context is preferred for persons who would not be identified as materialistic.  In summary, I believe that the individual can enter a win-win situation with the following consideration, or a reasonable facsimile projection.  We can manage (invest) personal resources with a minimum of risk, with contribution to the work assigned to Christians by Jesus Christ (Matthew 28), and with proper planning for retirement years that extends to some legacy for participating persons.  I have reviewed various programs and offerings of legally… Read more

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