Related Posts with Thumbnails

Going away for a while!

Hi all, I am just dropping in to say that the posts I had planned for before the wedding are obviously going to have to be put on hold! After I come back from my honeymoon I plan to begin a new blog that does not have the address www.sherrinward . . . because after August 18 I will be Mrs. Drew! Currently there are flowers that need to be done, lots of phone calls, final dress arrangements, rehersals, friends from every direction, six nieces and nephews filling the living room . . . so blogging is not a priority. Thanks for your support of my blog over the nearly two years I have had it. I will post my new blog address here when I have it. Please pray for peaceful and joyful wedding preparations and family time.

Read more...

Howard vs. Rudd: the webcast

This year Australia goes to the polls to elect a new federal government. Whichever party wins the most seats can form government, and their leader becomes the Prime Minister. John Howard has been Australia's Prime Minister for 11 years as leader of the Liberals, and Labor leader Kevin Rudd is challenging him.

On Thursday night the Australian Christian Lobby organised a live webcast of the two leaders speaking to churches. Many churches across Australia signed up to watch this event. I attended the webcast at a local congregation.

Mr. Howard spoke first, then received questions from church leaders in the audience. Mr. Rudd's presentation followed the same format. Both leaders began their speeches with a commendation of Australia's Christian heritage. Both also professed to hold a Christian faith.

As a former political science student, I was very interested to note the way that the two leaders framed their speeches to focus upon their key concerns. They spoke partly to their audience specifically, but also treated the webcast as another opportunity to press home their platforms on issues such as the economy and workplace reform. It was also very interesting to listen to each leader for 20 minutes or more, as usually we hear only soundbites on the news.

In my opinion, Mr. Howard made more effort to justify his policies and practises to the Christian public, and respond to complaints against his party. Especially in the area of welfare and the workplace, Mr. Howard sought to demonstrate that he does care for the underprivileged.

Mr. Howard also made more effort to explain the way his faith impacts upon his decisions, and pointed out that his party includes many strong Christians. He mentioned that he and many other members of the Liberal party voted conservatively on issues such as stem cell research.

Mr. Rudd's speech was much more humorous! He made serveral jokes about parts of his speech being pitched to various Christian denominations. For example, he stated that including a quote from John Wesley was "a pitch for hte Methodist vote". I enjoyed Mr. Rudd's humour.

Mr. Rudd also did a good job of focusing on some alternative issues to those Mr. Howard promoted as important. For example, he spoke about the effects of the Iraq war upon the Christian minority in that country. He also emphasised the importance of helping refugees. Both these issues pull my heart strings, and I am sure they have a similar effect on many other Christians.

During the question time, church leaders asked Mr. Rudd questions that were very relevant to the past history of the Labor party and the future of the country. For example, his stance on anti-vilification laws.

However, I was disappointed that no one asked Mr. Rudd for his personal stance on issues of life and death. His record on issues related to abortion is poor, and it would have been worthwhile to ensure that voters were aware of this.

Overall, the "a word" (abortion) was not mentioned in the entire webcast. This shows the low priority placed upon this issue in Australia, including in church denominations, in comparison to the high priority that is placed upon it in the USA.

In conclusion, this webcast provides much for Australian Christians to be grateful about. It is wonderful that we have leaders in both major parties who are willing to profess faith in Christ, speak to Christians, and acknowledge the right of Christians to be involved in public life.

It is also excellent that Christians are becoming more politically aware and wanting to vote in accordance with God's will. One of my favourite parts of attending the webcast was the break in the middle of it, where we prayed together. Many churches across the nation did the same. I am certain that this was the most powerful part of the evening. God will surely work, and reveal to us what we need to know about our leaders, in response to our prayers.

Read more...

First comes love, then comes . . .

“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage”. For many years little girls have sung this rhyme while pushing their toy prams.

Yet is it true anymore? On August 5 The Sunday Tasmanian featured an article on falling marriage rates, titled “To tie the knot or not”.

Increasingly, young couples are choosing to live together or date for many years before marrying. A Relationships Australia advisor even suggested that marrying young may not be a good idea.

“. . . adolescence seems to stretch out longer these days,” Chris Street said.

“A lot of individuals wouldn’t be ready for marriage.”

So first comes love, then comes dating for years, then comes living together. Then comes marriage if you are really, really ready and you think it might be a worthwhile commitment.

It seems that the baby carriage is also an unpopular item these days. Immediately following marriage, most couples think of anything but babies. If they do dare to want them, they are told that it is a really good idea to put them off at least a year or two.

After marriage, travel, careers, home loans and “getting to know each other” must come before a baby carriage.

While many Christians choose to marry young, fewer choose the baby carriage over careers and getting to know each other. Most people I know wait about four years before having their first child.

Many well meaning, godly people have told Dave and I that we should also forgo the baby carriage for at least a year or two.

Ultimately though, each person and couple must make decisions that are in accordance with their beliefs about marriage, children, and birth control.

For me, waiting to have children simply because it is the “done thing” is not an option. I believe that the Bible is clear that fertility and children are a blessing, and that barrenness (which birth control deliberately creates) is a curse.

One way that God builds his kingdom is through his people bearing children and raising them to serve him. Right at the beginning of the first marriage, God told humankind to “be fruitful and multiply”.

Sex is not just about pleasure, although that is very important. It is equally about the privilege and responsibility of bringing children into the world.

When God created sex, he meant pleasure and procreation to go together. Human beings have compartmentalised this, enjoying one part of God’s good creation without feeling any obligation to accept the other.

Dave and I are both committed to these truths, and for us that means that we have chosen not to wait to have children.

This does not mean we are committed to never, ever using natural family planning (NFP) or barrier methods to space children or due to very serious circumstances. I have studied NFP and charted my fertility.

It just means that for us, welcoming children rather than preventing them is the default option. Very serious circumstances like severe illness, my chronic pain getting much worse, or extreme poverty (like, starvation level) could cause a re-think. We live in a fallen world, and the ideal is not always possible.

Unless a change of beliefs occurs though, wanting to have “time alone”, car size, not having bought a home yet, or the ordinary difficulties of pregnancy and child raising would not qualify as very serious circumstances.

So for us, the rhyme may just come true. We’ll have to just wait and see what God does. He may decide that we wait for a year or two, and we hope that we'll be at peace with that even though we're all excited up about the possibility of having a baby soon.

Children are gifts from God. We cannot presume to recieve them at our timing, and this is yet another reason why we've decided not to assume we can "wait" a year or four. If God does not bless us with children, we don't want the regret of knowing we once chose not to welcome them.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage . . . ? We'll see.

Read more...

Recommended pre-marital reading

When I reviewed One Flesh recently, I promised to share some books I do recommend. For pre-marital reading on the topic of sexuality, the books Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris and The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace have helpful sections.

Chapter 11 of The Excellent Wife is called "Intimacy: The Wife's Response".
Martha Peace helpfully outlines God's intentions for physical intimacy in marriage. This is useful to read before marriage, or even before engagement, because it is important to have a biblical view of the joys and responsibilities of physical intimacy before committing to a lifestyle (marriage) that involves it. Many people marry without thinking through this. Martha points out that "God designed sex in marriage for physical intimacy and the procreation of life". She elaborate upon this, and also outlines six biblical principles about physical intimacy.
1. Sex within marriage is holy and good
2. Pleasure is assured and is not sinful.
3. The wife should be "other-orientated" and not "self-orientated".
4. Sexual relations should be a regular part of marriage.
5. The wife should never bargain with her husband in return for her favours.
6. Sexual relations are to be equal and reciprocal.
To be honest, sometimes I feel daunted when I read about a biblical view of physical intimacy. However, it is great to understand these principles so that I know what God requires of me in marriage.

In Boy Meets Girl Joshua Harris devotes chapter 9 to the topic of "True Love Doesn't Just Wait: How to Be Passionately in Love and Sexually Pure". This chapter is very edifying, inspiring and encouraging. Joshua challenges readers to store up passion for their wedding day, rather than pushing physical boundaries during courtship and engagement. He says we should "love God's original design so much that we see the world's perversions of it as revolting" and "plan and work hard at being captivated by the good" in God's plan. Joshua encourages readers to demonstrate their love through choosing to guard one another's purity. My favourite part of this chapter is the fact that Joshua is so positive about being inexperienced on the wedding night! I felt reassured that even though Dave and I do not plan to kiss before our wedding day, we will probably still have a great honeymoon . . . perhaps even a better one than if we had been more physically intimate before marriage.

Several friends who like One Flesh have spoken to me about the reasons why they recommend it, and the reasons why they disagree with my review. As a final word, I'd like to say that it is understandable that many people have found this book helpful after marriage. However, it is a book designed for pre-marital reading and I would not recommend it for that purpose. If I was to recommend anything for after marriage, I would like to investigate books that are designed for that such as Intended For Pleasure by Doctor Ed Wheat. However, I am of the opinion that such books are not necessary unless you find yourself having problems. Many people manage to work these things out for themselves, without the aid of explicit books. Physical intimacy is a process of learning through experience, and books can only be of limited help.

My decision to write about this book . . .

One Flesh: a practical guide to honeymoon sex and beyond

also stems from being appalled at the authors' response to my concerns about what they had written about
hormonal birth control. They were very polite, but excused statements in One Flesh that they seemed to realise were inaccurate at some level. Why they think it is acceptable to misinform fellow Christians without feeling any obligation to provide scientific evidence to back themselves up is a mystery to me. While this is not my central reason for choosing not to recommend the book, it did influence my decision to write about it on my blog. Christians need to hold one another to account for public statements. Private decisions are one thing, and I am not nosy about the choices my fellow believers make about birth control. Public statements are in quite another league.

Read more...

It is not all about me

As a woman getting married, you are often told that the wedding day is "all about you". Apparently, it is "your day". To some extent this is true. The bride is a big focus on the wedding day. Traditionally, the day marks not only her marriage but also her transition from living with her parents to making a new home. In many ways I am living out this tradition. On my wedding day I will not only be gaining a new name, it will also be the first time I move out of my parents' home with no intention of returning there to live at some stage.

Despite this, I have to come to the conclusion that wedding day is not all about me. No part of a Christian's life is to be "all about me". We live every day to love God and to love others. I make choices about my wedding day not just on the basis of what I want, but also on the basis of what will bless my guests, my parents, and my husband-to-be. Most of all, Dave and I aim that the occasion will bring praise and glory to God.

Read more...

  © Blogger template Shush by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP