Is Our Life a Peaceful Protest?

Our daughter Marianna...

~Marianna

Photo taken by our daughter, Rebecca


...Marianna showed me this neat site, and one of the articles was:

To Set a Standard or Not

This is really good. What is our standard, what is our foundation? So many these days will follow a herd but not the Word, the Father's love letter to us.

The herd may be going after something that looks good, and it may make us feel included to be included in that herd, but all of that can dissipate if we are not firmly rooted in our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes the herd can recite the Word but it is cold, not in love or concern. It's rules with no relationship with Jesus.

I've noticed that some families who used to look so conservative now look like the mod squad. I wonder if they followed a herd mentality instead of the Word? That is so sad to me when I see that...

Are we following the Lord Jesus, our anchor, and spending time with Him? Do we know the Lord, our Father? Have we strayed from our Father? Much like drifting far away, little by little as we go into the water at the beach. Before we know it, we can't even spot our starting point....how far we drifted without realizing it.

How do we know the Lord? We spend time with Him. We read His love letter to us, the Bible daily. If you know someone, you spend time with them and listen and share with them your intimate feelings and thoughts, our questions and problems in life and our praises too!

Here is a wonderful blog entry by our daughter Michelle on prayer, a much needed message for today.



I ask this question.... Are our very lives a peaceful protest to a crazed world? Does our very life and our demeanor represent Christ?

The way we dress, the way we talk, the spirit of things we watch and listen to, how we treat others...

Oops! Your philosophy is showing!

My daughter Marianna will share at times on modesty. She uses this picture of this celloist playing his beautiful music in the midst of war ruins as a peaceful protest. Pictures paint a thousand words...

We too can be a Peaceful Protest by our lives showing what our philosophy is by the way we dress and act...What picture are we painting?


From the blog of Chris Rice...

Sara (Groves) continued to introduce the song with the story of Vedran Smailovic, a cellist with the Sarajevo String Quartet. In 1992, in the middle of the war in that country, Smailovic witnessed a bomb attack that took the lives of 22 of his neighbors standing in a breadline at a bakery. In protest of the chaos, hatred, killing, and stupidity of war, the cellist immediately brought out his cello, sat in a chair in the middle of the crater, and filled the air with beautiful music for 22 days (one day for each person killed on that spot).

As Sara told this story every night, she emphasized the importance of BEAUTY as a protest in the face of all that is wrong in the world. While bombs were still exploding and sniper fire rang through the street, a lone cellist risked his own life, and protested the ugliness by holding up beauty in its face.

The ideal still matters, even when reality does not reflect it. Love conquers hate. Light pushes back dark. Beauty matters.

Some people can't see God unless a Bible verse is included. They are blind.

~Chris Rice



Here is the song Sara Groves wrote about this Peaceful Protest:

Why it Matters ~Sara Groves

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And it's protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters

Show and Tell Time...

We really enjoy the Duggar Family and purchased their book after two of our daughters had checked it out from the library. This is such a great book, there are cute recipes, their house plans and most of all, poignant thoughts of how the Lord has dealt with them in their personal lives. For me, it has been a bit of a support group in a book. So refreshing to me. My husband and I were reading it and it was such a renewal for our souls....

The book:

The Duggar's: 20 and Counting

Christian Books.com has nice pricing for a new copy as well.

Here is a question in the book the Duggar family is often asked:

Q: Seeing how you all dress so much alike, I'm wondering how the children in your family are allowed to expres their individuality.

A: We always laugh when a question like that comes in! As one of my sisters said, "Mom, when we go out to an event somewhere, we often see groups of teenagers who are all dressed alike -- sometimes they're all in black, or they're all wearing jeans, or they're all wearing the same kind of T-shirt. Sometimes they all have nose rings and tattoos!" We're just like them; all of us Duggars wear similar kinds of clothes. But instead of being influenced by peer pressure, we're guided by our family's standards of modesty and what we read in the Bible.

~Jessa Duggar, age sixteen


Let's Wrap it Up...

I would like to add to the Beauty how about you? : )

I hope you enjoy this additional Sara Groves song as well...
(feel free to mute the music on the bottom of this page)



Let's add to add to the Beauty...

May our lives be a Peaceful Protest unto the Lord.

Hope to add to beauty on thats-italian.blogspot.com soon, maybe a new recipe or something? Have a blessed week! ~Amelia

P.S. For a nice booklet that hits the nail on the head on the subject of modesty, we suggest this booklet: The Look: Does God Really Care What I Wear?