"laestadian, apostolic, gay, lgbtq, ex-oalc, ex-llc, llc, oalc, bunner" LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Garden Musing

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Garden Musing


Daylily
Originally uploaded by Free2beme.
What you don't see in my garden photos is the bright turquoise wading pool, the yellow inflatable duck and blue whale, the purple tricycle, silver bicycle, pink doll stroller and a red wagon. These lurid objects, courtesy of our children, distract considerably from the tranquility of our urban sanctuary. It looks like a daycare.

But yesterday, as I drew an exasperated sigh over the abandoned menagerie of stuffed animals, plucked a Tinker Toy from the lady's mantle and freed a Hot Wheel the birch tree, I saw the future in a flash: my husband and I will be taking our ease in a lovely, serene, plastic-free garden. And we'll be talking about how much we miss the kids.

Do you have fond memories of childhood? I have no memories of the activities my own children enjoy. Because there were no "Christian" children in our area, I never had a playdate or sleepover. No bicycle or scooter, no lessons of any kind. I didn't visit a zoo or aquarium until I was an adult.

It puzzles me: how did I spend the days, especially in summer? Sewing? Baking? Reading? Nothing memorable, apparently.

13 comments:

  1. Different topic here, LLLreader decided it was too hot today to go out and spent some time reading Gunnar Jonsson's sermon "Beware of Dog's, Beware of Evil Workers, Beware of the Concision". He delivered this sermon in 1968. I think some of these old sermons are important to read, if one (or two) are interested in understanding some of the OALC's beliefs. He quotes Romans 10:17 as "Faith comes from preaching, and preaching from the power of God's word". Both the New American Standard and King James' Bibles say, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ", meaning the spoken word rather then the written word, based, of course, on the Bible. Jonsson takes his version and says that "faith, therefore, does not come from reading or praying but ONLY from preaching" and not just any old preaching. The preaching has to come from "men God uses as his mediums." And, guess what, the OALC preachers are these mediums. He continues by quoting Jesus in Mark 16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Taking these two bits of scripture Jonsson writes,"Though a man be baptized, he is condemned, if he does not believe, if he has not become a partaker of the faith which comes from the power of Christ's word through a preached sermon. This is the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles." So, he is telling us that both Jesus and his Apostles said that salvation is only attainable through hearing the preaching at the OALC. Good Grief!

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  2. Wow. Thanks, LLLReader. Where did you get the sermons of Gunnar (my uncle!). I want copies! Would you be willing to mail me them, and I'll post them on the blog?

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  3. The GJ preaching sounds positively scary from my adult vantage point. I've come so far! But your comments about childhood brings back so many good memories. Sunday night was visiting time, a ritual in our community. Sometimes there would be several families at one house and the kid-noise would be so great, I don't know how the adults could hear one another. But we kids would play Button Button on the Stairs and, in summer, Ghost Ghost Come Out Tonight and Statues. All the cousins on my mom's side of the family exchanged names at Christmas. We'd get together the week before and open them. I remember SO looking forward to it. When we were in our teens, my mom let us have slumber parties during Christmas break. We'd have quite a large group with lots of food and noise and no sleep. My dad got rather grumpy about it but he never prohibited us from doing it. One year we went sledding on the street late at night, and my mom heard complaints from another mom the next week (inappropriate behavior for Christian girls). It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I acknowledged to myself that I was different from the rest, and so I lived parallel lives for awhile.

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  4. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ", meaning the spoken word rather then the written word, based, of course, on the Bible.

    And of course, written at a time when very few people knew how to read. Therefore, the only way they could know about salvation would be by hearing someone speak of it - they certainly couldn't read about it!

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  5. Even in the ALC, there are some who believe that. They say that when they hear of people who claim to have been saved while listening to Billy Graham on the radio, there is no way they were truly saved, because they weren't listening to a preacher in person.

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  6. (m2has) It's more than that... they wouldn't believe it , because Billy Graham didn't go to the right church, and because he didn't lay his hands on them and preach the forgiveness of sins to them.

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  7. free--
    Gunnar Johanson's sermons can be found in such lovely books as "The Elder's Letter Book", etc.
    If you don't have access to these, let me know.
    I'll hook you up.

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  8. Ex, if I asked my OALC relatives for the book, I'm afraid they would put their hopes up in the wrong places. I'd love a copy.

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  9. Wouldn't we all love a copy of that book....I have heard of it, but have not seen it.

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  10. Free... Gunnar is you uncle? Here I thought you were someone else all the time.

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  11. I have fond memories of lazy summer days spent sleeping in late(7:30 ish) and waking up to a cool breeze blowing through my bedroom window. I would hurridly dress and go outside to eat breakfast under the elm tree near the creek. Cantaloupe tastes so much better in the company of brook trout and butterflies. Later my sisters and I would meet up with our friends to cool off in the city pool or river. We would often sleep out in a little army pup tent or in the treehouse built on a private island in the neighbor's yard. We looked forward to company visiting because it meant trips to the local landmarks and lots of good food usually reserved for special barbeques. We rode bikes everyday and our flesh was always in some stage of burn, tan or peel. Late summer meant apples and plums and berries from the roadside. I remember the summer I was 12 I spent two weeks with an aunt in Eastern Wyoming. It was so exciting to be away from my family, yet I missed them dearly. I remember getting the worst sunburn of my life while at my aunt's house. I cried and shivered as she gently tried to soothe my burn with Solarcaine and vinegar. She was the sweetest lady and I cherish the time I got to spend with her. During that visit, she took my to a large town in South Dakota and we went to the Mall. My first time and it has stuck with me...I still love to shop. Summers also meant meetings and travels and vacations spent in better places than home. I loved family reunions and seeing the 100+ cousins and aunts and uncles. I loved summer as a child and I try to make it as special for my children as it was for me.

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  12. Darma...you could go into writing I think for a living. I read the above and it brought tears to my eyes as it brought me right back to my secure and fun summers I had as a child. I can almost smell the free summer air reading your post. It almost brings back the smell of my sandbox when I was really little. I built castles with the warm sun on my back and absolutely no worries, because my mom and dad were stable, wonderful parents. I keep reading and hearing about abuse and I feel so blessed to have been brought up in a family with none of that. I just had to think about riding my bike and friends and fun. I was brought up in the OALC, but my parents were not so strict that everything was a sin. I thank them for that and I thank my heavenly Father for taking care of me. I do wish that I would have woken up to God's Word and love sooner than I did. Thanks for your wonderful post.

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