Sunday Activities

In keeping with the Lord's commandment of remembering the Sabbath Day and keeping it Holy, I'm wondering, what are some of your favorite activities for Sundays?

Right now, I really enjoy sewing or knitting or even working on a puzzle. I understand some may not agree with those being completed on a Sunday (I was once told in response to knitting 'Some would call that work'), but I believe as long as I am enjoying the activity then it is okay. If I start to get frustrated I walk away :) One Church I attended believed that fellowship and napping were the only two activities for Sundays...and occasionally reading (that one depended on who you talked to).

If I want to stay away from work then I would not cook on Sundays! Oh how I do not care to cook :)

I think I may go sew a little bit and then maybe work on the puzzle I have out right now. What are you going to do with your afternoon?

Blessings in Christ,

Which is right?

It was brought up in Sunday School two weeks ago how many different denominations of Christianity there are. I don't remember the exact number, but it was somewhere around 35,000 if I remember correctly. The question was brought up of how can we say that we are the "right" denomination? Obviously 35,000 people (or so) thought that they were right too, in order to start each of the different denominations.

Do I believe each denomination is right? Not completely, but nor do I believe the denomination I fall in line with is completely correct either. I would not be willing to say "Conservative Mennonites are the only right denomination", nor would I be willing to say that any other denomination is the only right one. I pray that each of those people who started the denominations prayed and meditated before breaking off from their previous group, but can I say that truly happened? No. I believe it is up to us each individually to pray and mediatate before we align ourselves with a specific denomination. God will lead us to a church He believes is right in the Bible and that we will fit into.

I feel that it is a red flag if a denomination is willing to say it is the "right" one. I try not to judge when I hear that, but I want to blurt out "how do you know you're the right denomination?" Hard to refrain sometimes :)

Bottom line is that based in scripture, there is no right denomination, we should focus not on what denomination we follow, but rather if the church we attend is a Bible teaching church. Someone once said to me, God is not going to ask what denomination you belong to when you die, but rather 'Do you believe in My Son, do you believe My Word, and did you keep My Word?' and I believe that is so true.

Blessings in Christ,

Further Education?

I just realized that I wrote about this topic last year, but this keeps coming back to me so I think I will go ahead and post a second one on it :)

I have often wondered if we should limit children to the amount of formal education they receive. As many a times as I have thought about this, I have concluded that I do not believe we should limit. I understand certain groups take a stance that an 8th grade education is all one needs and I respect their decision, although I do not understand it. To my knowledge, there is nothing in the Bible that states an education hurts the child, and there are some things that only a book can teach. I by no means am against hand-on training, as I am a hands-on learner, but I do think that if I did not have the book learning to go along with it, the hands-on training I have received would not be as effective. Of course this may differ person to person.

The church I attend now leaves it up to the parents on how long the child attends school or is homeschooled for. This church would also consider the possibility of further education past the 12th grade if a member was interested in it. Although I have been told the member would most likely have someone who would "chaperone" them and hold them accountable to the church standards at all times.

A church I attended earlier stopped education after the 8th grade. There was one mom who homeschooled her children and said "We go through the 8th grade but I continue an extra year so that we can get in more material, but it is only an 8th grade education".

In the past I have tried to ask a man who was very adament that any education above an 8th grade education would inhibit the child from staying near to the Lord why he believes so and unfortunately he could not answer me. As I told him, it was college for me that brought me closer to the Lord and where I eventually learned of covering. Not that I learned it from a class, but being on my own gave me my own time to study the word and read what I felt led to read and then study the material. From the little that he did eventually mention, it seemed that he believed an 8th grade education was all that should be pursued out of fear that some of the children might leave the church for a more liberal church. To me it seems that if a child really has a yearn for learning, he or she might leave the church anyway to pursue their passion, but if a church were to allow the learning while under close supervision of an elder would that almost not be better? The child could learn while being guided by the Lord and an elder from the church.

I have a Bachelor's degree and started working on my Master's degree. If I cared for either of the areas of study, I would probably be working in the field of my degree (Mechanical Engineering), but I learned that although I love the math and design components of the degree, I do not care for some of the other aspects. I have considered getting a degree in either teaching or nursing because I know I would love both of those fields, but I have yet to pursue either one.

Blessings in Christ,

The Perfect Christian

A newcomer to headcovering posed the question (paraphrased), how do I transition to covering because my husband, kids, and co-workers know I am a Christian but they see my flaws?

I thought about this and read some of the responses to this woman and I really hope she was blessed by what she read. None of us can be a "perfect" Christian. The only one who was is Jesus our Lord and Saviour, we can only emmulate His actions and follow His word and hope that we are doing good by Him. Just because we are not perfect does not mean that we should not follow His instructions. If that is the case then it does not matter if we go around breaking the 10 Commandments or other commands in the Bible.

Yes, others will see our flaws and maybe some will hold us on a higher pedastool than others because we cover our heads, but it does not mean that Jesus holds us any higher. He knows that we will sin and the greatest thing is that He has already forgiven us bearing that we forgive those who sin against us. He has already given Himself for us so that if we follow His commands we may have eternal life.

How can we be the "perfect" Christian? We can't :) We can only try and hope that Jesus will guide us down a better path.

Blessings in Christ,

1 Tim 2:11-12

1 Timothy 2:11 Let the women learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

What exactly does this mean? To what extent should a woman not teach?

I take it to mean that in church a woman should not give her interpretation of scripture or ask questions when in the presence of men her own age or older. The church that I have attended the past couple weeks separate the adult women and men for Sunday School so in that case I do believe it would be okay for a woman to give her interpretation or ask questions (the teacher is a woman as well). This church also has the teen and adult women to teach the young children up to the age of 8 approximately. I believe that is okay because in a home setting, the wife/mom is still the primary teacher up until this age. I think 8 is usually the time then when the man/husband takes over the scriptural teaching for the boys of the family but the woman/wife still leads her daughters. Do I think it would be wrong to have a man teach all ages of children? No, but I also know that sometimes younger children are more likely to shy away from a man they are not familiar with than to shy away from a woman they are not familiar with. Although, most of the people in this church are so close that they know everyone... but it does not mean that the children understand who someone is :)

Blessings in Christ,

The purpose of an apron

My roommate and I have been discussing clothing a lot, hence my posts trending that way for the time being :)

She is an absolute fan of aprons, one that is a full apron like below.



She wears these over dresses that do not have capes on them and feels "more covered" as she says :) Another reason she gave is that it makes her look not Amish and not Mennonite (but really people just look at the kapp she wears and think that she's Amish without looking at her clothes, just like they look at my kapp and think I am Beachy Amish). Last night we were talking about how she would rather wear an apron to church than a cape dress but she wants a black dress without a cape to wear the apron with (it's a nice teal color). I told her I don't feel aprons are appropriate for church because the purpose of an apron is to protect your clothing while you work. At church, we are not working so why do we need an apron? I do not wear aprons, even when I am working or cleaning. If I get something on my dress I just clean it, but I was not raised in a family that wore aprons for anything -- not even while cooking or baking.

I know many groups do wear aprons to church and I am not criticizing them as I am sure they have "reasonings" for wearing an apron :) But I do wonder why it would be worn to church if the purpose is to keep clothing nice while working. Maybe someone who knows could share with me :)

Blessings in Christ,

Separate Dress

One thing I have become to wonder about is the dress of Conservative Mennonites, more so of the men. The church wants the women to dress differently than the world everyday of the week, which I understand and agree with wearing a dress or modest skirt and shirt as that is how the Bible teaches a woman should dress. This makes her stand out against others in her community as a Mennonite (or some may think an Amish especially when wearing a cape dress), but either way she is known to be different. During the week, I can look at a group of men, mixed with Amish, Conservative Mennonites, German Baptist, and "English" men, and I can pick the Amish and German Baptist men out. The Conservative Mennonite and the "English" men appear the same. I wonder, how is this okay? A Mennonite man would not be known as Mennonite if he is out alone without his wife, she is what makes them look different. He typically would wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt during the week (unless his work specified otherwise).

I think this is one thing that I definitely appreciated at the Beachy Amish church that I attended for a while. The men expected the women to dress differently than the world, but they also dressed differently every day of the week. Not just on Sundays. Even some Mennonite men are going away from wearing the Plain dress coats on Sundays and even away from the white shirts. I really am curious as to how they feel it is okay when the Bible directs all Christians to be separate of the world. But for now I will most likely keep my wonderings to myself :)

Blessings in Christ,