A Birth

A birth took place in our family today. And no, it wasn’t Tori. She’s still comfortably waiting until someone forces her into this big wide world.

This delivery is the edited manuscript of our book, Shopping for Time, to Lydia, our editor at Crossway Books. God was very gracious to allow us to finish before baby Tori’s arrival!

Thank you to all of you who prayed for us these past few weeks. We experienced God’s mercy in numerous ways—sustaining grace for early morning hours of writing, wisdom and clarity for what direction to take the book, and insightful edits from Dad.

We wanted to share an opening illustration (unedited, mind you) from one of the chapters. Our prayer for this book is the same as the one we had for Girl Talk. It’s from Philip Doddridge: “However weak and contemptible this work may seem in the eyes of the children of this world, and however imperfect it really be, [may it] nevertheless live before thee; and through a divine power, be mighty to produce the rise and progress of religion.”

“When Kristin’s three energetic boys visit Mom-Mom’s house, they burst in the door—all smiles and yells—and run several laps around her kitchen, hallway and sitting rooms before coming to a stop…but only for a moment…in front of the jelly-bean jar. Candy in fists, they’re off again.
    In fact, wherever they are—at home, church, or in the store—Andrew, Liam and Owen are one big happy bundle of constantly moving arms and legs. They jump up and down, wrestle incessantly, and run in circles if there is nothing better to do.
    Sitting still: not exactly their forte.
    So, in an effort to teach them this refined art, Kristin recently instituted “No Moving, No Talking, No Touching (oh, and No Silly Faces) Time.” For fifteen minutes or more each day, the boys must sit on the couch with feet forward, folded hands in laps, and of course, no moving, talking, touching (or silly faces!) while Kristin reads to them.
    You can see the tension in their little bodies—which explodes the minute the kitchen timer rings and they bound off to one of their favorite activities such as climbing a tree, sword fighting, or kicking the soccer ball.
    Sitting still is hard work for little boys.
    It’s not easy for us women either. We’re doers, not sitters by nature. We awake each morning, our minds whirling with all we want to accomplish that day. We bound off to complete these urgent tasks. But we must sit before we do. In order to effectively shop for time, we must first sit—sit at Jesus' feet.”