Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night we celebrated Valentine's Day as a family with parmesan chicken and salad. Mr. Honey got *all* of his sweethearts special cards and big Hershey's bars. Then we watched several episodes of the first season of The Burns and Allen Show (from 1950!) and laughed and laughed at Gracie Allen. She was hilarious.

This morning we got up and went to church. Our minister preached on how we are to carry our crosses as Jesus carried His, and how we are to both give and accept help in carrying our crosses. It's funny that he preached on that, because I just spent some time yesterday doing a Bible study on why God allows difficulties in our lives. Here is my narration on that study:

Through trials we learn to have faith in God. We learn to wait on Him, we experience His provision in our lives, and our hope for His deliverance in the future gains strength, increasing our faith in Him. Our attitude as we go through difficulties ought to be patience, diligence, faith-- we are set apart for a particular purpose, and are being refined as gold in a fire. We have a high calling to praise the Lord with our lives. He allows us to go through trials in order to teach us obedience as well as increase our faith. Eventually we will reap the rewards of our struggles, if we are faithful. We will have a closer walk with God and more inward peace as we learn to obey Him.

You'd think I would already know that, but I keep forgetting. I really like being comfortable. It's good to be reminded that "there's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me", and that God uses the struggles we have to remind us to seek Him.

As my girls get older, I often think about the story of the butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, and how it *has* to struggle in order to build up its little butterfly strength-- if the burden of struggling is removed, the butterfly will be malformed, unable to fly, and may even die, not having exercised its body in the proper way. Children are like that, too, as they grow and emerge into the next stage, and the next. We are God's children.

Brother Mark talked about that at church today, how Jesus owned His cross-- it had His name on it (Jesus Christ, King of the Jews). Each of us also owns our crosses, our own struggles. Even if someone helps me carry my cross, the struggle is still my own. I am still that butterfly pushing and struggling to emerge from the chrysalis.

This is kind of jumbled, but I guess I am saying that the Lord knows what He is doing, and He loves us so much.

Ideas That Had Consequences

Andrew Kern is doing a series of posts on the rise of Hitler in Germany, which I find terribly interesting. I have always been fascinated by the human aspects of World War II (as opposed to the military paraphernalia and strategy aspects) and have wondered about Hitler for a long time. I have a few half-formed thoughts on it, but Mr. Kern gives more thoughts to ponder on the specific situation in Pre-WWII Germany, as well as on the influence of ideas, and human nature.

He has posted three articles so far, and plans to write more. I have excerpted a portion of each post, but please go read them in entirety:

Coming to a Republic, But Can You Keep It?

But Franklin knew, and his confederates knew, that a Republic is a precarious form of government, for human nature always tends toward some sort of collectivism.

Either people turn toward populism, which always leans on the monarch or the Fuhrer or the Messiah or the dictator to protect it from the ravages of the plutocrats.

Or they turn straight to the One to be protected from the uncertainty of life and the market.

But few people want to be free for the simple reason that freedom requires hard work, wisdom, and risk.

Germany, Austria and the Beginnings of Hitler

The great question of the 20th century has to be, “How did regimes as cruel as the Nazi’s in Germany, the Fascists in Italy, the Communists in Russia and China, find acceptance among the people’s they ruled?”

To be honest, though, the Nazi question is more important for two reasons. First, the Chinese and Russians came to power through a ruthless cruelty that involved a great deal less acceptance by the people they dominated. Second, we are much closer to the mindset of pre-Nazi Germany than we are to the mindset of pre-Bolshevik Russia or pre-Maoist China.

The disturbing thing about Nazi Germany is that Hitler was not only elected democractically (in a parliamentary system), but that he was elected under circumstances that allowed plenty of time for reflection.

Preparing the Way for Hitler

An evil on the scale of Nazism, or Communism for that matter, does not come about without a long gestation. It requires enormous technological power, ideas about reality and human nature, a certain national spirit, political systems and assumptions, and probably a good dose of demonic involvement.

The same is true of a good on the scale of our constitution and liberties.

Life is the interchange of ideas and applications. It is not possible to determine which comes first for the simple reason that neither exists apart from the other. An idea not embodied is an idea not thought.

Practically, therefore, our lives are a dialectic between our ideas and our circumstances. We dream big and try to make it happen. We find that we can’t perfect it, so we have to make a choice.

We can love the dream enough to accomplish as muc of it as possible. Or we can replace the dream with a fantasy and chase the hobgoblin of our dream. Or we can abandon the dream altogether.

Snow and Gerbils

It is snowing again today. Three times in one winter! Wow. Our elm tree is beautiful with a dusting of fairy feathers.

But the real news is that we have two new little creatures at our house. Mariel and Cornflower got gerbils yesterday! Their names are Leonardo da Vinci and Sasquatch.

I ought to post some pictures, but I have misplaced my rechargeable batteries again. Amazing how those things just walk off.

I am going to try to convince Aravis or Mariel to take their cameras and go outside and take pictures of the elm tree and the sweet scalloped edging of snow on the back fence. I guess snow is old hat to us now, because the girls are not in the least excited about getting out in the cold and playing in it.

Correction-- they are now officially pleased, outside, and playing in it. The neighborhood schools are closed and their friends have come knocking. So we are having a 'friends day'. :D