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!
Around the Web
Two Bedtime Prayers for Weary Parents
- God has called parents to a difficult task. We are called to prevent the giant pile of children’s laundry from overtaking the house, cook meals for picky eaters, and clean up never-ending messes. But most importantly, we are given the eternally significant duty to “bring [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).It can be a tiresome undertaking. Some days you plunge headlong into another challenging day of childrearing, praying God will help you make it to bedtime alive. After the bath and toothbrushing, and fetching a glass of water, and the search for the lost stuffed animal, and the barrage of excuses trying to delay lights out, you’re tempted to skip prayer time, say a quick goodnight, shut the door, and crumb into the nearest sofa.
I was the mom crying in the pick up line
- That was me.Not the simple brush away a tear kind of cry, but the full fledge tears streaming down my face kind of cry where people look at you and nod with empathy and pat your back.
Yeah.
So you see my youngest guy started kindergarten today.
That’s him. I still think of him as the baby, but sigh, he’s kind of big now.
Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History
This one’s not brand new, but I just discovered this site this week and did some digging into past posts. Over at Aslan’s Library (how could I not click onto a blog with that title!), Sarah recommends a book of stories from church history.
- I love church history. As a young adult, learning that this faith I professed in the late 20th century was something received and that had a living past, that we weren’t just making it up, was incredibly helpful as I wrestled into a more grown-up belief. And ever since, reading church history has been like an exercise in genealogy for me: I love getting a better understanding of the family history, including the crazy, woolly, and sometimes downright broken parts. It’s enormously humbling and enormously encouraging at the same time, seeing God’s Spirit and his people work this whole being-the-church thing out through history.
Learning to Linger in a Spotify Age
Jimmy Needham examines the challenge of gazing in a world of shortform content at The Gospel Coalition.
- Humans were made to gaze. God uses long, loving looks at Christ in the gospel as a primary means to our sanctification (2 Cor. 3:18). Experience confirms this intent in my own life. My greatest times of growth and dependence on God have come when I’ve taken an extra hour, day, or week to wrestle with a passage, meditate on a truth, or enjoy a promise. I remember pinning the apostle Paul to the ground one Sunday afternoon as a junior in high school, trying my hardest to understand what he meant by “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7). The best things in life don’t come in an instant but over time, which means we must cultivate the ability to wait, listen, and linger.
Our age, though, is one of short-form content.
Around the Warren
Sounding
Helena Sorensen expresses her gratitude to those who take great truths and present them in beautiful language, as the echos of verses learned from the King James Bible ring in her memory.
- I find myself in a bit of a conundrum, though, when it comes time to pick out memory verses for my kids. I choose passages related to the topics we’re studying. Then, with great care, I scroll through dozens of translations looking for the best one. I weigh the options. I try to judge which is the clearest, the loveliest, the easiest to commit to memory. And then, more often that not, I choose the KJV. It happens all the time! I get lost in the poetry, the imagery, the delightful way those Elizabethan phrases roll off my tongue.Of course, there’s a hefty dose of nostalgia influencing my decision.
“…everyone must choose a side.”
Words from G.K. Chesterton. Art by Paul Boekell.
The Breath of Life and Podcast Creation
Guest Allison Burr of TruthBeautyGoodness tells how podcasts fed her soul as a young believer and introduces us to their new podcast, Melody, Mystery & Mayhem.
- Ten years ago, podcasts helped breathe life into my soul, which was – like a seconds-old baby – gasping for the air of Life for the very first time. I was 27 years old, newly converted to Christ, newly adorned with the mantle of motherhood, and utterly desperate for Truth. Someone at my Bible study suggested I begin listening to a couple of pastors, who happened to have daily podcasts broadcasting their sermons. I jumped in, went deep, and hardly came up for air for several years. Those pastors watered the tiny buds of new life in my soul, sometimes upwards of eight hours a day (or night).Having come to Jesus with zero biblical knowledge or Christian cultural context, everything I listened to was new and life-giving. I wept my way through sermons on Romans and rejoiced when I understand, for the first time, doctrines like the preservation of the saints. When I meet my Savior face-to-face, I will surely thank Him, in tears, for the creative technology that allows His undershepherds to cultivate souls during middle-of-the-night feedings, drowsy nap times, and extended months of bedrest during difficult pregnancies.
Who Has Seen the Wind?
S.D. Smith shares a family favorite: Christina Rossetti’s poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?”, complete with an illustration by Jamin Still.
Something to Do with Your Kids
The folks over at The Artful Parent made a list of their top ten materials to work with with kids…and then added 15 more favorites as an addendum. Maybe you can find some new materials for your budding artists to try.
And Something to Watch
There are days that you encounter something you didn’t know you needed–like this dramatic reading of “It’s A Small World” by Animal and Sgt. Flo.
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 4 - February 1, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 3 - January 25, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 2 - January 18, 2025
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