Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

The Warren & the World Vol 7, Issue 5

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I wrote the date today and suddenly did a double-take. Is it really 2019? Are we really a whole month into it? I feel like the world spins faster every day, and I can imagine you do, too. If you’re in the trenches of family life, I bet you know the feeling. May you savor the days.

Around the Web

The Life-Changing Practice of Paying Attention

Christie Purifoy reminds us of the importance of paying attention.

  • Anyone who ever stood, flummoxed, in the lightbulb aisle of a hardware store knows that light isn’t simply light.
    Is it warm?
    Is it white?
    Is it bright?
    I admit, I have no idea what to choose in the lightbulb aisle of a hardware store.
    Read more

Remedies for the Mom Who Keeps Blowing It

If you’re in a part of the world in the grip of polar vortex, you might be stuck inside and losing your temper. Here’s a word for you.

  • It’s difficult to seek forgiveness. It’s especially difficult to seek forgiveness for the same actions over and over again.
    We might be quick to apologize to the friend, spouse, or child we’ve sinned against on one day, and loathe to do it another. When we begin to feel trapped in patterns of sin, our sense of guilt compounds and tempts us to find refuge in pride. Within this fortress, we succumb to the lie that it’s safer to excuse our sin than it is to repent of it.
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Sports Books That Pack a Punch

You might be watching the Super Bowl this weekend, or maybe you’ve got a kid who LOVES sports. If you’re looking for some reading material on the theme, the folks at Redeemed Reader have a suggestions for you.

  • Are you watching the Super Bowl this weekend? Do you have young football fans at home? What about baseball? soccer? basketball? track?
    Sports books are a distinct sub-genre, a definite “hook” for many reluctant readers. A good sports book offers more than just a sports story, though: it often offers insight on character issues, relationship conflicts, teamwork, perseverance, and more.
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Should We Pay Kids to Do Chores?

Jen Wilkin considers teaching our kids responsibility.

  • Teaching children responsibility is a primary task for parents. The question of whether or not an allowance should be paid for completing chores requires parents to consider training in two areas simultaneously: responsibility for work and responsibility for money.
    As a recent Atlantic article points out, “The vast majority of American parents who pay allowance (who themselves are a majority of American parents) tie it to the completion of work around the house.” With new apps to organize paying kids per chore, allowances have obviously advanced beyond the dollar-a-week payments of my own childhood. There’s not necessarily one right answer to the question of whether completion of chores should be tied to monetary reward.
    Read more

Around the Warren

What Isaiah Taught Me About Imagination

Carissa Holzer points us to Isaiah’s imagination forming language.

  • As I sit to write this, it’s one of those times in the year where everyone is starting to wrap up their old lists of to do’s while looking ahead to what is next. This is true for me as well. One of the largest personal projects I am currently wrapping up is a year long commitment to the book of Isaiah. Yeah I know, what a book to voluntarily spend a year in. The wariness toward it was exactly my reason though. What is it about this message of doom and gloom for an idol-toting, child sacrificing nation who had forgotten who they were that feeds the otherworldly hope in our most ancient and joyous Christmas carols? How can it be so daunting a book to study, yet still fill us with wordless wonder? While I came it at it with all these questions, I find myself leaving with something completely unexpected — excitement over imagination’s role in God’s kingdom here, now.
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Nonfiction Fun: Art History

Laura Peterson reviews an art history book created for kids.

  • A nonfiction picture book is just the perfect thing for a lazy afternoon, isn’t it? Even those industrious Ingalls girls, Laura and Mary, spent some time probably sprawled on the floor, looking at the animals in Pa’s “big green book,” The Wonders of the Animal World. I recall many hours from my own childhood of slowly turning pages, studying pictures in detail, skipping a few boring-looking parts, and pausing to read bits of text that seemed interesting.  A great nonfiction picture book I stumbled upon recently and wanted to share here at Story Warren is an art book; not really your standard catalog of paintings and drawings, but one that frames significant works of art in history and looks into the methods and ideas behind art—just for kids! The book is David Hockney and Martin Gayford’s A History of Pictures for Children.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

Outer space play dough? Yes, please.

Something to Watch

I have friends who have lived in Antarctica for a few months (up to a year!) and just today was talking about them. So I thought I’d share an Antarctica video with you all—whose is it, anyway?

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side.

-The Story Warren Team
Carolyn Clare Givens
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