18 things I do not regret my parents doing with me

Inspired by when Anti Catrin showed us that Challies article when he wrote the 18 things he doesn’t regret doing with his kids.

1. Praying with us before bed.
That was part of the everyday routine for us, and that’s remained into my adult life. Praying with Sibyl before sleeping goes along with brushing my teeth and putting on my PJs.

2. Giving us pocket money.
Dad borrowed a method from the de Jongs in our church; we would receive our age squared (in pennies), every Saturday. Enough to buy sweeties (or da da as we’d call them in Welsh), but we had to save some for collection in church the next day.

3. Talking with us about theology as we walked
On the way to the sweet shop every Saturday, Dad would ‘teach us diligently when we walked by the way’. I remember the freedom to talk about any theological concept, ask any question. “How do we know if God even exists?” “Who is the Holy Spirit?” “Can God sin?”

4. Playing us Christian songs.
I still remember every single Steve Green Hide ’em in Your Heart song, along with great family hymns like Holy, Holy, Holy. I was even helped when Dad tried to get us all to sing Keep on the Sunnyside from the Oh Brother Where Art Thou OST.

5. Leading us in family devotions
Not a day went by without us having a mealtime (sometimes breakfast, sometimes dinner) when the Bible was read to us. I’m indebted to those times for a huge chunk of my Biblical knowledge now.

6. Prioritising a family meal everyday
Leading on from that, we always ate together. I remember a school-friend moaning that his Mum forced them to have a meal together once a week. I remember thinking “Once!? Who else would you have a meal with the rest of the time?”

7. Feeding us amazingly tasty food
Yes, I’m dwelling on these mealtimes, but that’s because they were so good! Roast potatoes, homemade chips, roast chicken, sausages, turkey bake, quiche, tuna pie. And then there’s the puddings… chocolate brownies, chocolate pudding, chocolate bread and butter pudding, millionaire shortbread (with chocolate), little pastry pie things with brown sugary raisin stuff in them, fridge cake, flapjacks, cookies, and shop-bought battenberg was always a hit too.

8. Disciplining us
We knew when we’d been naughty and often had to learn the hard way. But those smacks could well have saved my life, they helped me honour my parents, and I know that that means I can now enjoy long life on the earth. However the downside is I do have a phobia of all wooden spoons…

9. Taking photos and videos of us
There’s a great VHS of me when I was a baby which is amazing to watch, and there’s lots of photos which I love looking at, people who’ve died that I now have images of to look at, memories of birthdays and Christmases, great stuff.

10. Taking us to church
That was just normality on Sundays. Morning and Evening. What’s come home to me recently is that I heard the gospel so many times before I listened to it, God gave me (literally) thousands of chances, and so much time, this helps me to have patience with others who have not grown up with that privilege, and who are not converted as soon as I tell them the gospel.

11. Sending us to schools
Firstly, the Welsh primary school solidified my contact with Cymraeg and Cymru, a language and place where much of my heart is with, so I’m thankful for that. As for the secondary school, I’m grateful for the socialisation and contact with the secular world that that gave me practice in.

12.Teaching us how to decipher what they were teaching us in school and the Bible
Dad would often ask us after school, “Did they mention God even once today?” The answer was usually no. I went to one of the most humanist schools around, but I’m glad I went home and was given the tools to engage with all of that.

13. Telling us to watch things critically
Along the same lines, these were the tools that we were to use when watching TV and films. Dad’s catchphrase was indeed “are you watching this critically?” And from speaking to my fifteen-year-old brother this week, he still says that.

14. Giving us time to play outside in our garden
Hours and hours and hours spent in our garden, mostly playing football, but also making a treehouse with our friends the Barnses, and also digging holes, even making fires sometimes! And the tree-swing was amazing too. And the climbing frame. And the paddling pool in the summer.

15. Encouraging us to do household chores
Lay the table, clear the table, empty the dishwasher, tidy your room… all things we were encouraged to do, but I must confess were very poor at even those few tasks. Poor Mam. I’m still working on that one. But I’m glad I was shown the importance of them.

16. Telling us how important books are
I was a terrible reader as a child, Dad at one point even offered to give me £2 for every book I could finish, it still didn’t work. He is a voracious reader, and that example has served me well as I’m slowly growing in my love for books. So even for the times I was forced to read boring Enid Blyton books about inane supernatural teddy bears, thank you.

17. Encouraging a love of music in us
There was more often than not music playing in our house. From Mam it would be The Carpenters and Lionel Ritchie, from Dad it would be Focus and The Beatles, and on Sunday we’d have Classical music. Did you know, I still love music?

18. Deciding to have loads of kids
I love having four brothers. It’s so fun. It’s also mad. But I can’t think of a better community to grow up in, one in which you are in a house with four other kids who all share the same parents and space as you, and are all so different from you, but also share so much in common with you too. That’s been great.

I stop and stare at the younger, my heart goes to ’em.

A weekend in London babysitting my little brothers and an extended bank holiday have filled the past few days of my life. My parents had gone to a wedding in Yorkshire and were keen for me to keep an eye on ‘the younger’. I had thought that they wanted me to make sure they didn’t do the classic teen-movie thing of inviting all their friends round for a huge party and get the house trashed, but it was more of an opportunity for some sibling-bonding. We had a lot of fun playing videogames, going to the park and I enjoyed watching some good fistfights; I also benefitted from seeking to share the gospel with the little ones who have not yet professed faith, I’m thankful that God uses our feeble words and answers prayer.

It’s surprising how true the abovementioned school-time situation is. I imagine most attendees to a Western educational establishement could tell you a story about someone’s habitat being ransacked by an entire school-load of children. It were like that when I was in school, as soon as one person said that they were thinking about having a house-party, the news would spread around the grounds like (queue Southern States drawl) wildfire.

The culprit in our year suffered all the more due to the fact that he wanted to party at his own party. You can picture the situation, hundreds of teenagers in a suburban semi, putting calculators in the microwave (this happened); puking in expensive ceramic containers (this also happened); and throwing bicycles over the neighbour’s fence (yes it did really happen). The ‘host’ was passed-out on the floor. Prior to this he too had had the urge to empty his stomach. Whilst rolling around on the parlour floor, he did not want to ruin the carpet, so when the heaving begun he clawed his way past the Persian rug, and stretched his neck like an athlete on the finishing line, so that his mouth reached the threshold of the next room where the laminate flooring began and then it was safe to vomit… and then fall asleep in it. From that point of the evening on, the poor boy was unable to manage his parents’ household and their possessions (wine cellar etc.), until they returned home and everyone either left or suddenly became very polite.

Day-To-Day

I’ve had less cause to write this week and this is unexpected because I’ve been thinking about a lot more things! I come away from an average day with one or two thoughts that I can jot down for the blog but this week I’ve heard so many sermons and seminars, had so many conversations, had so many Bible passages read to me that I have simply not know what to commit to web. Conrad Mbewe has been used by God to show me that preaching truly is speaking the very words of God, being his mouthpiece. I came away from this morning’s sermon longing for heaven. Off the top of my head, other things I’ve learned this week are the real meaning of cessationism, the importance of talking about suicide and the reality of persecution.

Doubts are still very much a reality of day-to-day Christian life. Oh so momentary, but it has to be met by a constant scramble to a specific passage or verse in scripture; a reminder of the historicity of the Bible; or a thought about nature’s sublime brilliance being a finger pointing to God, that quickly brings me back. I won’t ever forget Stuart Olyott saying that he genuinely never doubts. This I can understand, being so close to your Father in heaven through the Holy Spirit’s presence; knowing his book well; and also possessing common sense or logic will inevitably add up to that blessed conclusion.

Summer Heaven

The episode is called ‘The Pen’, Elaine is staying at Jerry’s parents’ house in Florida and neither of them can sleep because it’s too hot! Tis a funny one. That’s my first and maybe last summer thought.

I really haven’t had the urge to write for such a while and I wouldn’t have if jonblog (who’s new look blog is fab) hadn’t tweeted me to do so and follow WordPress’ suggestion to write about one’s ‘favourite summer sound’. I felt too constricted by the imperative to just write about a sound so I widened the margins to include summer as a concept, but now I feel I will widen it even further and just use summer as a spring board for yadayadayaing (to tip my hat to Seinfeld once more).

Summer is good though on the whole, it’s just generally a happier time. I often ponder what the weather will be like in heaven, I know that it will not be unpleasant (baby bear weather if you like). But will we have such beauties as snow and frost? Frost is beautiful when it sparkles in the sun, but is unpleasant to touch and inconvenient when one slips over upon it. More biblical study should be done by me on the criteria for heavenly features. The main thing will be the absence of sin and the presence of Jesus. That’s what I should look forward to most, but part of me just keeps wondering about the little details like snow, and whether we’ll be able to levitate.

At this point for no particular reason I am going to stray defiantly from the subject of heaven and summer and anything relevant to this post, because I want you to sympathise with my excuse for not blogging: busyness. I preached two sermons last month and am preaching another this Sunday (in Shrewsbury if you’re in town); we’re working in the Christian Bookshop in Aber as well as moving from our upstairs flat to the downstairs one. We had the arduous experience of having two holidays in a row, one to the Greek island of Santorini and the other to South Wales’ Gower peninsula. I also entered a play I wrote into a competition called ‘The Bruntwood Prize’ and I am currently praying that it would win it.

So, summer. Tis a funny one.

The Westminster Catechism Rapped – What to Think!?

I’ve been listening to this.

I really am trying to get to a conclusion on what I think of it! I’m struggling a bit. I didn’t like Don Carson saying ‘Westside’ even if it was a joke. The only thing I can think is that this song would be a really good way for some people to remember the doctrines held in the catechism. It makes me consider the nature of hip-hop – it’s a boastful sound, it’s a big sound, it’s a hey look at me sound, and I find it hard to compute all of that with the Westminster Catechism! I don’t not like it though! It just makes me cringe, even though it’s already done in a tongue in cheek way (I think)!?

Shouldn’t give it too much thought, I should just think of a better way to remember the Westminster Catechism [or the 1689!?]

(Via.)

Pros and Cons of the Crime Drama ‘Bones’

Pros:

• It’s a well written, interesting drama and I’m well glad that it isn’t something like Glee she is obsessed with. (By the way, I have been known to enjoy Glee from time to time, don’t get me wrong – it just isn’t exactly intelligent TV)
• I love seeing Sibyl’s enthusiasm as a typical episode reaches its denouement, I also enjoy experiencing the joy she finds in getting to know characters in a television series well.
• She finds that she can do Uni work as she watches it, which is also a positive thing, better than playing the Wii because that cuts out the potential of doing some work.
• It’s scientific, so there are a lot of potential educational opportunities there too. It’s all about human relationships ultimately (that’s not unique) but very specific world-views are presented. Dr. Brennan has an extremely rationalistic, sceptical view on everything, so to give an example she thinks humans are just mammals (a very common view), which make her conclusions directly go against the Bible’s teaching on many things, it’s good to engage with that sort of thing and know where people are coming from so that I have reasons as to why I believe what we believe. Agent Booth is presented as some sort of Christian but does not live a moral life – how should I react to that? I hope I think.

Cons:

• It’s American (cheap point, sorry I’m just warming up)
• It’s got gross dead bodies in it which make it unsuitable tea time viewing.
• It’s well written, but it’s not as good as Lost.
• These super long American television ‘seasons’ have the capacity to take over your life. (Lost is most guilty of this crime) I am willing to commit extraordinary amounts of time to watching TV or listening to music, but often I don’t commit anywhere near as much time to reading the Bible or praying, writing creatively or school work. Hmmm…
• This whole doing more than one thing at the same time thing is quite a big hit with the ladies. But I find myself doing it too, and it’s not necessarily negative. For example I will very rarely do the dishes without having music on, but I have heard from quite a few sources that not concentrating on just one thing is negative. For example right now I am trying to blog and I have Agent Booth in my ear arresting some murderer and my brain has the capacity to stress out. Maybe it’s good, I don’t know, keeps your brain active maybe. But I know personally it instead of one thing having my full attention, two things are getting half my attention. Apparently it leads to alzheimers too, but I don’t remember who told me that. Also I am aware I sound potentially Buddhist.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Hello there reader, it’s been pretty busy with the Bradys recently. These are some things that I’d like to share with you:

I am at this present moment leaning back in the man of the house’s arm chair rubbing my satisfied belly after a joyful full English brekkie, the highlight of which were some lovely fried mushrooms – a delicacy I never imagined as a child I would find myself even touching. Growing up ‘ey!? Mental.

I am really enjoying a song by a man called Dan Black the song is ‘Wonder’ which I found on the FIFA 11 computer game. The track has a minor key mystery to begin with, moving into some clacky drums, big bassy movements, hip and with it lyrics and a major major chorus there are some lovely harmonoisatations too. Should’ve done GCSE music, darn it, wasted talent.

I rewatched The Incredibles last night, I think at the moment I would happily put myself out there and say it is my favourite film of all time, I really really really really like it. Okay!?

I thought it would be nice to share with you that I am currently wearing some great Iron Man socks which I received for Christmas from a certain resident of the real life Pontypandy (might be a different order of letters now I think). Her fiancé was preaching for us on Sunday, his evening sermon particularly moved me to more concentrated prayer for our nation to turn to God, and I was further moved to do so by a verse I read in one of those daily reading books, it’s from Psalm 44:23 “Awake, why sleepest thou, O LORD? arise, cast us not off forever.” Prayer is such a privilege. As I’m gradually growing as a Christian, I am slowly learning how essential prayer is, I find myself being drawn to him more and more, though I would not say it has become easier to pray – I do feel that I can acknowledge more than ever before the firm fact that I would crumble without my God.

To finish off would you like a YouTube music video with Thomy Yorke in it? Here you go…

I like his dancing (good song too).

The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!

Went to bed extremely late last night for the complete and utter wrong reason, I was too tired. Maybe it’s happened to you, you’re ready for bed and you just sit down and have a wee flick through what’s on, before you know it it’s half past two and you can’t bring yourself to move. It is bad, it is very bad, and wrong and I repent from it, genuinely. Because late nights mean waking up in the afternoon, which means missing out on the little sunlight we get this time of year and loads of other joyful things that are to be found in the day! The verse is found in Romans 13:12-13…

So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime.

I had a walk with jonblog two days ago, we walked across some rocks for a good mile to the next coast which is called Clarach, then walked back through a forest. It was delightful. Do read all about it on his blog. I’ll have him know that the shoes are from Store21 and not Matalan, the cheek.

My Father will be pleased to know that I’ve got some use out of the ukulele he got me for Christmas, not that I’ve played anything profound, but O’Hara taught me how to play that song by Noah and the Whale that sounds good on ukulele. It’s a word I only recently learned how to spell, after a particularly difficult round of gnilleps during New Years Cranium session – I thought it was spelled ukelele, school boy error.

A book that was first recommended to me by a certain tie wearing champion and then recommended — via a facebook status — to me by Soli Deo Gloria is called Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic. I started reading it this week, it’s very short, but I’ve found it extremely helpful. When I think about evangelism I have these preconceived ideas about how to do it, and most of them are quite removed from biblical methods.

Chantry takes the example of a story I never really got, the one where — in my mind — it goes like this… a nice enthusiastic guy, eager to learn runs up to Jesus and respectfully calls him “good teacher” then asks how to get to heaven. It seems like the evangelism opportunity of our dreams, perfect on every level! But Jesus wastes it, by not even answering his question and being picky about his choice of words “why do you call me good? Only God is good.” Then going on about The Ten Commandments and then worst of all says he should sell everything he owns! It really does seem ridiculous.

But Mr. Chantry explains the incident so clearly, and it has completely changed the way I think about how I evangelise, and the way Christians are encouraged to do it these days and the way they talk about it. Jesus firstly wants him to know who God is, the man called him a good teacher, which is what we hear people today calling Jesus a lot, but he wasn’t just a good teacher, he was — and is — GOD!

Secondly Jesus shows him the law, it’s not too hard to get someone to admit they’re not perfect, we all know that, but that’s not going to break their hearts to the extent in which they feel they should turn to God. What can move them is God’s law, they need to know they’ve broken God’s law.

Thirdly, repentance. People are often told to ‘make a decision’ for Christ, but in the Bible, that term is never used, people need to turn around from their sins to come to God.

Fourthly, we need to be preaching faith, faith in God’s son, repentance and faith are Siamese twins. I haven’t read the last two chapters, but they are assurance of acceptance from God and dependence upon God. Christians today need to know this stuff!

I’m off to Morrisons this afternoon, they had the ingenious slogan ‘more reasons to shop at Morrisons’ which on the surface of it doesn’t sound that clever, but it sticks in your mind because it sort of rhymes. Listen… ‘morreesons to shop at morreesons’ my Dad pointed that out to me, very clever.

Another successful supermarket campaign involving rhyming for me is the CoOp – ‘good with food’ again on paper, doesn’t sound that great, but the Scottish guy on the advert saying it? Transformation… “The Cohohperrativ… Gud with Fud.” I can’t see the slogan without saying it in my head.

I should go into advertising, because I think I know what works. For example the current Stephen Merchant Barclays adverts, he’s managed to get me looking up from whatever distraction I have (book or laptop) during the adverts, to hear him humorously talk about current account financial packages, very clever. He will often comment on the fact that there are some ‘unconvincing metaphors’ about in this advert, which gets him on our side, whilst also placing us in opposition to any other bank advert which uses elaborate illustrative techniques to get us to use their banks.

Tesco mobile adverts, also very clever, they start off like a lot of adverts do these days, bright scene, pretty white woman, maybe in a forest or lying down on some grass or on a cloud speaking to the camera: ‘I want to live in a world where I communicate with everybody‘ etc. We are drawn in but not convinced because it doesn’t mean anything. Then an average looking fellow with a regional accent comes onto the screen and tells us he just wants something simple. Brilliant! That’s what we all want! You’re our friend Tesco! You’re not, I know you’re not.

Finally, my favourite advert at the moment is the one for something which can’t be that good because I can’t remember the name of the company or what they do, but it involves a narrative between two toasters, it’s a stroke of genius.

God bless.

Blewog’s Firey Diary – 05/11/2010 (Love Letters, Boardgame Settlers and Cymru Cheesecake Trend-Setters)

This week we’ve had:

• Early mornings (if waking up at 8 can be called early?)

The thing you begin to realise when you’re getting up at a semi-reasonable hour of the day is that you need to go to bed early. Now, I am still suffering from a state of mind I lived with in childhood, it’s called inevereverevereverwanttogotobed syndrome, the main symptom of this disease is a connection in one’s mind of sleeping at night with a ceasing of ‘fun’. I’m slowly recovering, but the knowledge of 24 hour Spar is always a demon.

• Some exciting letter writing.

I found myself trying to scan some of the old files in my cerebrum for files on ‘how to write a letter’ I remembered that there were all these formatting rules and courtesy regulations, it took me back to my penpal days with a certain Tiger Tim of Thirsk.

• Readings and spectatings of some good examples of post-dramatic theatre (Martin Crimp, Cupola Bobba).

No plot, no characters, no words, no conflict, no stage, no actor, no audience, no life, no earth, no God. Well, it’s not exactly that, but that description is getting close.

• An evening of home made burgers and a session of cheese tasting followed by a game of ‘Settlers of Catan’.

We found ourselves in Morrisons, talking to the lady at the deli counter, sampling some of the country’s finest cheeses, in the end settling for some Australian cheddar which I didn’t even know existed and doesn’t sound particularly appetising, it was good though. I also enjoyed some onion chutney. Friends are good for recommendations like that aren’t they, they’re also good for German multiplayer boardgame related joy.

• A blessed Welsh CU meeting thinking especially about The Creation or should I say Y Creu.

My Taid was our speaker this Thursday, and what a joy it was to have him there. A good number, and a clear message for us to chew on.

• A baby birthday celebration, a victorious game of Articulate and a surprisingly engrossing viewing of first twenty minutes of Finding Nemo.

We had chocolate cake and cheesecake, and as we consumed, the topic of ‘why do Welsh people talk about cheesecake more than other nationalities talk about cheescake’? I’d never heard such claims. I have no opinion on the matter, do you?

So, as you can see, this week’s been a busy one and on top of all that, I feel that most of my time has been taken up with trying to learn lines, and then desperately trying with oh so much of my strength to make my sultana sized brain remember them during the rehearsals! I hope we’re making progress on the play. I really do hope so.

Listening to:

Virally Contracted:

Banksy fancy dress costume.

Blewog’s Firey Diary – 27/10/2010 (Scotland, Mars & Bat-Cats)

You may have read on my friend Jon’s new blog all about an exciting trip me and a few of the students (as well as my second cousin) took to Edinburgh. As you can tell, we had an enjoyable time. What he failed to report to you was that one of the first things we saw when we got into Edinburgh was none other than Alistair Darling! Black eyebrows, white hair and all! As well as the fact that we had a joyous walk up Arthur’s seat, and the fact that we saw actual bagpipes being played in the streets. Very exciting.

Last night Professor Stuart Burgess came and did a talk for us at A.P. on Extra Terrestrial Life. If you want to read an angry article against him see here. My favourite quote:

Modern Science has not the slightest need to even shrug when confronted by nonsense of this kind…

Yes, that’s why you just wrote a six thousand, six hundred and fifty nine word article about him.

His talk was enlightening and through it I was able to see for the first time why scientists are so desperate to find life on other planets, it’s because there is no evidence for evolution on earth. It is not coincidental that the Mars probe was called ‘Beagle’ (Darwin’s ship) and other such missions have been labelled ‘Darwin’ and other such evolutionary fan-tags.

I admired Professor Burgess’ imovability on these issues, when asked to tell us what the probability was of evolution being true, he replied calmly that it was zero. His mannerisms were composed and at the same time passionate, polite but not afraid to be direct, intelligent yet never showing pride, always giving praise, credit, respect and worship to his creator and showing love to those he was seeking to share with. What an example to us on perhaps the issue of our time.

This week, it’s half term in the schools, so I enjoyed a flying visit from my Mum and the two youngest Brady boys. My Mother-in-law arrives this afternoon.

I am now into full swing with rehearsals, and it’s exciting to see my character starting to take shape. I look forward to the performance in either December or January (they still haven’t sorted it!)

Virally Contracted:

Batman Cat

 Listening to: