Thompson Chain RULES

Well, the Shock Family Revival is in full swing and The Parson's Son is emerging (oops!) as the Prime Time Evangelist!

Due to Eat This Book, the class that I (The Good Wife) have been teaching on how to study the Bible (which the ENTIRE household of the Parson is attending, INCLUDING the Parson), the Parson's Son declared that he could not live one more day without a KJV Thompson Chain Bible.  So, of course, we set out to buy him one.  After all, if your Son asks for Bread, you don't give him a Stone.  And if he asks for Thompson Chain, you don't tell him to just continue to use his Kiddie Version, cartoon-illustrated, New Living Translation.  You get him a Thompson Chain.

Once home with his brand-new, black leather, gold-embossed, KJV, Thompson Chain Bible, he immediately began to practice some of his new Bible Study Skills that he has been learning at Eat This Book.  And he immediately received insight into why none of us need to complain on this 40-day Daniel fast that we have now been on for 14 days.  He drew verses from Jeremiah and tied them into a passage in Esther, and lo and behold if that Boy didn't come up with some Really Good Stuff!

He said it was all because of his new Thompson Chain Bible.

And I said that if that was all it took we would buy Gold Plated ones for each young person in the youth group.

The Parson said that he has won the right to claim Chief Evangelist title for the rest of the duration of the Shock Family Revival.

Shock Family Revival!

The Parson's House is having Revival!

Well, we haven't really got to the Revive part yet, we're still just in the "darkest hour is just before the dawn" stage.

Three days ago, we began a 40-day sacrifice as a family.  We are all four fasting in some form (Daniel, no meat, etc.).  We met a few days before we began and talked about our goals and prayer requests for this fast and what we are praying to see in the Spirit.

As part of our fast, we are making a Special Effort to meet as a Family once each day for 15 minutes and share what we feel God has laid on our heart for the family that day.

The  Parson's Daughter immediately christened this time "Shock Family Revival" or "SFR" for short.

Bless Her Heart.

The first morning, we met at 8:00 a.m. Some were dressed and chirpy, others were bleary-eyed with bed-head.  It was a sight.  NO pictures.  Don't even ask.  But The Parson delivered a beautiful Word which kept us inspired the rest of the day. (I even posted about it on Facebook: "The high calling is never realized on the low road." Love that! It's from Terry Shock's twitter, but since he isn't on Facebook, I'm sharing it here. That was his thought to us in our family devotion this morning. I DO love a man that will speak such wisdom to the four of us in a family room..)


Yesterday was one of the Can Until Can't days, so everybody Rushed into the Family Room at 5 pm to hear Me (The Good Wife) deliver her word for the day.  It had a lot to do with Talents and Fulfilling Our Potential.  I do believe that it Ministered. . .


Today was another one of Those Days.  The Friday Schedule called for Hither and Yon, so Shock Family Revival (SFR) was scheduled for 7:45 a.m.  (In case you haven't figured it out, we have Rotating Evangelists--The Parson, The Good Wife, The Parson's Daughter, and The Parson's Son).  If you are good at interpreting patterns, you can tell who was the Evangelist scheduled for today's SFR.)


Unfortunately, today's Evangelist slept through the Revival service and we were left Bereft--not knowing what was what.  


What to do?  Well, a Quick Prayer for Safety, Blessings, and Thankfulness and we were off to School, Simulcasts, and Airports!


Tomorrow's is scheduled for 10 p.m. . . .

January Blessings

The Homeplace has had more than its share of Blessings this year already.


Due to canceled flights and long goodbys, one Monday Family Night in January was made much richer by the presence of several guests from different parts of the world who are helping to spread the Good News!

We ate, we laughed, we talked...and we listened.  I was thankful that our House had the privilege of extending hospitality to some of God's Family.  The stories, the inspiration, and the faith that flowed throughout the rooms created an energy of faith that has lasted several weeks.

Heaven will be a wonderful place.  Because when you mix us all together, the Family of God is a marvelous thing.

Perfection?

Although it's not a new revelation, every now and then I am surprised at the realization of how many people expect Perfection to ooze from The Parson's House.  It's okay.  We aren't in Crisis.  Our World is spinning normally and in control.  Nobody is mad at us that I know of.  But inadvertent Little Comments made blithely in passing give one a glimpse into this Realm of Thought Reality which does exist although we prefer not to think about it.

We DO strive to make every decision a Right Decision.

We DO strive to live lives as Godly Examples that are described within the Word.

We DO strive to make the right Call on Black and White and Gray (and Purple and Pink and Red).

We DO strive to love Everybody.

We DO try really, really hard to not get Tired or Hungry or Irritable.

But, since we have Two Teenagers and Two Middle Agers all co-inhabiting one dwelling and we are made of Flesh and Blood, that is not always possible.

So, yeah.  Perfection doesn't live here.  Although we HAVE extended the invitation. . .

More Snow!

...and this time it was a Hum Dinger!

It started with 24 hours of Sleet, then about 12 hours of Real Snow.

The People down here in Dixie were ecstatic. Roads closed, schools closed, businesses closed -- just about everything closed.

A Day of Celebration ensued complete with Soup, Smiles, Sledding, and Snow People.

The Parson's House turned into a Thomas Kincaid painting and the People Inside were content.

Happy New Year, 2010!

The Time of New Beginnings has arrived at The Parson's House!

Out with the Old, In with the New!

And my, my.  It takes a lot of Flinging and Flailing, Shining and Shaping, Cleaning and Clanging for New Beginnings to happen properly.  It's not enough to just put away the Christmas Decorations.  Oh no.  Here at The Parson's House, we always make it a practice of taking things just One Step Further.

Therefore, in the best interest of going Above and Beyond, we are not just putting away the red and green and bringing back the drab.  Absolutely not.  We aren't just vacuuming the glitter and sweeping up the berries.  We aren't just rolling up the Twinkly Lights and packing away the Plastic Mistletoe.  No indeed.

We are DISMANTLING the Parson's Son's bedroom and MOVING it across the hall after we have DRAGGED the tons of JUNK from the empty bedroom across the HALL and dispersed it to various and sundry Points of Charity and at the same time we are PULLING mountains of materialism from under FURNITURE and WASHING off dirt from said FURNITURE and THROWING AWAY piles of petrified toys, books, clothes, and unidentifiable objects which APPEAR in every imaginable CROOK and CORNER and PAINFULLY HAULING all of the MASSIVE AMOUNTS of STUFF from one point in this house that has suddenly grown quite large to another.

Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do with all thy might.  Even if it kills you.

Bunch n Breeze

They just have a way of bringing it all together....