From a Cluttered Desk

I am Tammy Cardwell, she of the cluttered desk. (Hey, you think I'm kidding?!) I'm having a blast here in Blogland and invite to you to peruse my ramblings. Like a buffet, they offer variety - essentially whatever makes it to the top of the piles that sometimes clutter my brain. We'll eventually cover it all - homeschooling, God, our church, the Eclectic Homeschool Online, books I'm writing and publishing, conferences I speak at, the joys of grandmotherhood, and hopefully chocolate. Of course, this is only what's near the top now. Who knows what's in those piles?

I love this quote by S. Augustine. It so concisely sums up my own thoughts on the issue.

We are talking about God. What wonder is it that you do not understand?
If you do understand, then it is not God.
~ St. Augustine

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

This is actually an excerpt from an article I wrote several years ago.
In reading it again, I realized that this is yet another of my favorite quotes
and that what I wrote back then still applies today.

I realize now what the imagination is and why Jesus used parables to teach. The imagination is the bridge between the heart and the mind.                                                ~Michael Card

Thinking about this, it hit me hard that, yes, the world (or the devil using the world) IS out to destroy our children’s imaginations, because imagination is necessary to faith. The scripture says that "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) How do we ’see’ those things "not seen"? We use our imaginations! How do we access anything God has for us from salvation onward? We get a vision…we imagine.

Now I understand even more why particular games get such a hold on their players. Even aside from the demonic influence people talk about, there is imagination’s desperate need to be ‘activated’, to be fed. When given no healthy food, the human body will latch onto anything it can get. It seems possible the same holds true for God-given imagination.

I have heard many homeschoolers discuss how their children’s playmates lack imagination - how sad it is to see. Now that I’ve had time to really consider it, I see it as much more than sad. Rather, I think, it is spiritually dangerous. If we would pray that those around us would awaken to the goodness of God, perhaps we should pray also that their imaginations be awakened so that they can truly SEE.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.
                                                                                             ~Edmund Burke

Never has this truth been so clearly illustrated as it is in America today. We can blame society’s evil on a great number of things, but the bottom line is that "good men" have spent decades watching the evil flourish - and not done anything about it. We all believe that someone else is responsible, that someone else should stand up, that we should be careful not to offend people or…

Yeah, this quote rings totally true.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

I’ve collected awesome quotes off and on for years. They always seem to end up on scraps of paper and scribbled in notebooks here and there, so I’ve decided to start putting them here instead. Now at least I’ll always know where to look for them. I found the following at the bottom of a friend’s email. I believe it’s from Mere Christianity.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Thank you C.S. Lewis for expressing so clearly something I’ve felt most of my life. There’s just not enough in this world to satisfy me. This is one reason I’ve tended to read fantasy, and it is definitely one of the reasons I continually return to the Bible - it is always hinting at what’s to come.

Those who have never experienced it think people like me are crazy, but sometimes I get so homesick for eternity that it hurts. I truly believe that Jeremiah 1:5 speaks truth when God says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Personally, I feel that we’ve been with Him before and those of us who choose correctly are destined to be with Him again.

I also think this has something to do with why we sometimes meet people for the first time and come away feeling oddly convinced that we’ve known them forever. It seems to me that we likely have.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C