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
The Best Way to Apologize
- The art of apologizing is not easy. It doesn’t come naturally to most of us, but we can learn it. And it’s worth the effort. We all make mistakes. The question is, what do we do after we’ve made a mistake?
A true apology can bring closure to tensions, conflicts, and hurt feelings that have been sore spots for months, even years. It can break down barriers faster than any other words or actions can.
Women, Trade Self-Worth for Awe and Wonder
- If you’ve spent much time in Christian women’s circles, you may have noticed that we have devoted many gatherings to exploring our identity.
Retreats, conferences, and topical Bible studies rush to assure us that we are redeemed and treasured, that our lives have purpose, that our actions carry eternal significance. If we just understood who we are — the message goes — we would turn from our sin patterns and our spiritual low self-esteem and experience the abundant life of which Jesus spoke.
40 Things Everyone But You Is Doing This Summer
The phrase “Comparison is the thief of joy” is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. Whether he said it or not, it’s definitely true. This piece by Kelly Catchpole turns that on its head, though, and helps us laugh at ourselves.
- 1. Finding perfectly ripe avocados on sale. They are scooping out the pitts, creating no irregular divets, leaving no flecks of greeny goodness behind.
2. Raising their arms to the cloudless sky, in jubilee.
3. Laughing.
4. Oh, yes. Tossing their heads back and laughing. Clear, bright laughs. Like a chorus of mermaids. Like a bell buoy on a breezy morning. Like a happy gull! Caw!
So Many Wonderful New Picture Books, Summer 2016
Melissa Taylor has a list of new picture books at Imagination Soup.
- I know you love finding new, wonderful picture books to read with children just as much as me. Here you’ll discover funny, silly, thought-provoking, and fun new books to share with your kids.
I continue to wish that the human characters in picture books reflected the diversity that is in our communities. I don’t understand why that’s so hard!? So thank you, Ada Twist, Scientist and One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree for having a main characters of color.
Around the Warren
How Dark Stories Can Lead Our Children to the Light
Guest Heidi White helps us remember the ways dark stories can shine light.
- My son hates evil because of Harry Potter.
On a cold January night, Jack and I sat by the fire. He was immersed in a Harry Potter book. I watched him turn pages, eyes racing, shoulders tense. He was near the end. He’s almost there…I thought. Almost at that part….
He put the book down. His eyes were wide and disbelieving.
Whispering, he told me of the grievous wrong he had read in the story.
“I know, Jack. Voldemort is evil, and evil is evil.”
He stared at me for a long time.
“Mom,” he said at last, “I hate evil.”
The Pen-and-Paper Remedy: One Parent’s Screen Solution
Loren Eaton shares his solution to screens for his family.
- I’m not exactly proud of this, but I think it’s time I finally copped to it: I got my six-year-old addicted to video games.
Ironically enough, I was six myself when I got my first real taste of electronic entertainment. The original King’s Quest made my Apple IIe’s floppy drive shudder as though suffering from Saint Vitus’ dance, but I still loved losing myself in a fantastic world filled with wonder and danger at every turn. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t think much about downloading a game for my phone called Wayward Souls, a title so challenging that The Wall Street Journal dubbed its ilk “masocore” gaming. I also didn’t mind when my six-year-old saw the icon and asked if he could play it. Surely a kid wouldn’t find an intentionally frustrating game interesting, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The fantastic setting, the sword-swinging action, the mysterious monsters—he loved it all, and soon it became all he could talk about.
That got me worried.
Something to Do with Your Kids
If you need some help thinking of something to do with your kids this summer, check out this list of 101 suggestions!
And Something to Watch
Garip Ay is a Turkish artist who creates paintings using pigment and water. Watch him replicate Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
- The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 39 - November 9, 2024
- The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 38 - November 2, 2024
- The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 37 - October 26, 2024
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