The Warren and the World, Vol. 3, Iss 47

The Warren & the World is Story Warren's weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We're glad you're here!

At the Story Warren Store:

A quick note: We have some great deals going on in the Story Warren Store this weekend. If you haven't had a chance to pick up The Green Ember by S. D. Smith for your kids or The Shiloh Series by Helena Sorensen for yourself, the deals have never been better! Read more.

Around the Web

The Art of Marriage

As we enter the holiday season, where many meals will be cooked and shared, a look back to this piece by Makoto and Judy Fujimura on the art of marriage through a look at Julie and Julia:

The movie progresses almost as if the young Powells were being mentored by Julia and Paul Child, played most delightfully and affectionately by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. When Knopf finally accepted Child’s 752-page manuscript after it had been rejected elsewhere, Julia Child is said to have exclaimed, “Oh Paul, they are printing our book.”Stanley Tucci as Paul Child and Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Columbia Pictures’ Julie & Julia.
It’s a simple statement, with only a sliver of difference between “my book” and “our book.” But such a nuance is as crucial to marriage as warming the bowl is to making splendid mayonnaise.

Dear Friend

Alison writes a letter, recognizing that sometimes we need to say to ourselves what we say to everyone else.

Here you find yourself in a confusing, strange place. A place that is uncomfortable and unwanted much of the time. Sure, it isn’t all bad, but it is difficult at times and hard to understand why the Lord has placed you here in this season. Your work feels small and unseen, compared to others’ seasons of visibility and accolades. It’s okay that it feels hard. It is okay that the tears come at weird times. It is okay to miss people. It’s okay to not be okay.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day has passed, but gratitude is a daily exercise, founded in the words of Scripture. The folks over at the Mom Initiative remind us of that.

So, here is some scripture that teaches us to be thankful. You may want to add it to your prayers before you take part in the bounty and feasting of today.

The Liturgies of Shaun the Sheep

The folks over at Christ and Pop Culture have an excellent review of the Shaun the Sheep movie, just out on DVD and Bluray.

In many ways a descendant of silent films due to its reliance on visual storytelling, Shaun the Sheep Movie is filled with kid-friendly slapstick. The quality of the old school stop-motion animation is of the highest caliber, as one would expect from an Aardman production. Beneath the fun and games, however, the film also illustrates an important truth about the nature of humans: deep down, we are liturgical creatures, designed to live, to learn, to work, and even to play according to guided rhythms.

Around the Warren

Lessons from Little People: Paying Attention

Alyssa Ramsay reminds us what we can learn from our kids.

Kids notice everything.
Sometimes this can be problematic. Yesterday, for instance, my four-year-old was horrified by some imperfection in a stranger’s complexion at the grocery store. “Mama, what was that THING on that man’s face?” And of course, the man with the thing on this face was still well within earshot.

But my kids’ keen observation skills also serve a good, non-embarrassing purpose. They remind me to pay attention.

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine…"

Words from Walt Whitman, beautification by Paul Boekell.

Gifts for the Girls in Your Life

Liz Cottrill shares some book recommendations for the girls in your life, inspired by Marmie's gifts to the March girls in Little Women.

The opening line of the classic, Little Women, is famous: “’Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,’ grumbled Jo.”
But, of course, Mother did not let them down and presents were given–copies of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Each of the March girls go on with their own pilgrimage to adulthood throughout the rest of that novel with Pilgrim as their guide.

Little Women and Pilgrim’s Progress, as well as a host of other stories, guided my own steps as I grew up. The supply of admirable heroines for growing girls is endless, but in case you are too pressed with Christmas preparations to think beyond Anne of Green Gables, I have a few other suggestions for you to consider for the girls in your life..

Verity Finds the Words

Helena Sorensen and Jamin Still pair up to bring us an illustrated tale.

The floor was polka-dotted with buttons. Blue and red and yellow and green. Round and square and scalloped. Someone had bumped the button jar and spilled it, but it wasn’t Verity. She just happened to be sitting nearby. Her teacher gave her a stern look.