Jump rope

I guess this is going to be Emery's year of major milestones since she's about to turn 6. Riding a 2 wheel bike, reading, what else is next?

We can add jump roping to the mix. Not exactly a major milestone, but doesn't she look super cute and hilarious doing that?

2 wheels

We took off the training wheels 8 months ago and tried to see if Emery was ready to ride on 2 wheels. She wasn't. Click here for that story. Well, for the last few months, Emery's been getting that 2 wheel feeling again. She's been asking for a few months. Since she's turning 6 in just 2 months and seems to pedal furiously well on 4 wheels, I thought, "Hey - why not?!"

Today I remembered "Why we didn't try again for the last 8 months." Different day, same result. For whatever reason, Emery can't seem to stay upright on the bike. Once the boys got moving, they were fine on the bike. But for the girl, every moment she is on the brink of wiping out! I caught her about 10 times just before she crashed before I got too tired, and we called it a day.

Give it some time but around the 30 second mark you can see us getting closer. She would slowly start drifting over to one side or the other and then, BAM, the next thing you know she was going down unless I caught her. I'm running like a crazy man behind her.

Awards night

Tonight was Victory Christian School's Awards night for grades 1 to 12. Matt's class was the first to go up and get their awards.

I'm really proud of Matt for his first year in a school. He started out with a B average. Then in the next quarter he had an A average. Then this last quarter he got straight A's!

They also give out a Christian character trophy to one kid in every grade in the elementary grades. And guess who received it?! Great job Matt! I think this is his first trophy ever.

Andrew also made some serious improvements this year too. Moving in the middle of the year was hard for all the kids. But he made good improvement every quarter and almost had straight A's this final quarter. He did get 100% perfect on all his Bible quizzes and got a new Bible with his name on the front cover. Great job Andrew!

#12 - Protestant Biblical Interpretation

When Sandy purchased and read Protestant Biblical Interpretation by Bernard Ramm, I didn't know that it was a standard introduction to hermeneutics for evangelical colleges and seminaries. That's the kind of wife I married - she reads seminary/college texts for fun.

I had heard of it, and it has been on my to-read list for years. Finally I got around to reading it. When I was in seminary, I took a hermeneutics course in my 2nd semester. Unfortunately, it was a lot like my seminary experience in the first couple of years - trying to drink water from a fire hose at full blast. There was so much fabulous, rich and deep biblical teaching that came fast and furious. My biblical and doctrinal knowledge was so shallow at that time in my life that it was hard to digest all of the great teaching I was receiving.

But this time around, 11 years after graduating seminary, it was a far different experience studying hermeneutics. Hermeneutics can be defined as the "science and art of biblical interpretation. It is a science because it is guided by rules within a system; and it is an art because the application of the rules is by skill, and not by mechanical imitation." Hermeneutics is important to pastors and elders, but it should be important to every Christian. "[Hermeneutics] is important, therefore, to determine how God's Word is to be understood that we may know what God has said. This is the chief and foremost need for hermeneutics." Every Christian needs to know what God has said in His Word.

Ramm divides the book into 3 basic sections. First, he describes the history of various types or schools of interpretation. This section was the least interesting to me because I spent most of my undergraduate years studying these liberal methods of interpretation. Second, Ramm explains the classic protestant system of hermeneutics. It was gratifying to read this section and know that I am at least attempting to apply all of these principles consistently. Lastly, the book concludes with some chapters on some more complicated issues such as the interpretation of types, parables and prophecy.

I especially appreciated his chapter on the devotional or practical use of the Bible. It seems that these days, many Christians are seeking to get specific direction for their life from the Bible every time they open it up. Ramm writes, "The Bible is more a book of principles than a catalogue of specific directions." While I believe that the Bible is immensely practical, that does not mean we set aside a normal reading and interpretation of the Bible in order to receive some fortune cookie like personal wisdom for our day. "In the intense desire to find something practical or devotional in Scripture, we are in danger of obscuring the literal or genuine meaning of the passage. It may sound harsh to so speak, but not too infrequently a very devotional message is conjured up from the Scriptures by a method of interpretation which is nothing short of trifling or tampering with Scripture."

I must say that this book wasn't the easiest reading, but it wasn't the most difficult either. If you are interested in gaining more knowledge of hermeneutics or sharpening your skills, I recommend this one.

Kindergarten Graduation

Last night, my little baby graduated from Kindergarten!

Before the festivities began, we took some pictures. Matt and his class was participating in the evening as well so he got dress up too.

Mom and her girl look beautiful.

They started off with a musical performance of Peter Rabbit. Emery was Mother Rabbit. Matt was part of the chorus. Emery was quite the actress! With plenty of facial expressions, actions and inflection. Unfortunately, we didn't get any of her speaking parts.

Then Matt's class did a little presentation. Here is Matt reading Acts 17:28.

Then the processional started. Those Kindergarteners looked super adorable.

Emery read some of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. She is starting to read pretty well.

Even though Emery was super nervous, she did a great job. And we are very proud of all her hard work this year.

Matt

Matt's been saying some real keepers lately that have been heart melting. The other day he told Sandy, "When I hear dad give messages, I get a funny feeling inside. I feel like I should go home and do something." Praise God he's listening to my sermons!

And the other day he told me with a wistful sigh:
Matt: Dad, I can't wait to go to heaven.
Me: Yeah, me too. Why do you want to go to heaven?
Matt: So I can do whatever I want.
Me: Well, heaven doesn't exactly work like that. But in heaven, you'll only want to worship and serve God.
Matt: Oh.
Me: So do you still want to go to heaven.
Matt: Yeah.

Precious.

1 Peter 3:8-9

One of our family values is that brothers and sister are best friends. We want to instill a close relationship in the boys and girl now so that they are close when the become adults.

Needless to say, the sin nature within each of them has been fighting against us. So we've been working on harmony, sympathy, a brotherly spirit, developing a kind heart and humility with one another as in 1 Peter 3:8-9.

Hula hoopin' it up

Emery just got another hula hoop from the dollar store.

She's been going round and round and round...it's been a well spent $1. And the minute I stopped filming, no "mess up" just pure hula!

The lawn

Contrary to popular belief, grass does grow here in the desert. Really, it does. I mowed the lawn yesterday here for the first time. It took me 5 minutes. Yep, just 5 minutes. What usually took about 2 hours in KS, took 5 minutes here. As much as I thought I love grass and a nice green lawn, I'm not really missing my old lawn much at all.

Here's how the lawn looked just 2 months ago in March. Brown as dirt, eh?

Here it is 1 month later in April. We had just seeded the lawn but there wasn't much to show for it.

And here it is now! Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Although for this lawn, I can't take any credit. Sandy and the automatic sprinklers did it all.

Spring flowers

One thing that has been nice here in ABQ is the spring flowers. In fact, spring in general has been great here so far. It's been warm, sunny and green - well, more green than I thought it would be.

Sandy has been using her green thumb to revive some old rose bushes on the property. What once were a bunch of dead looking, hopeless roses have come to life!

There have been quite a nice variety of colors too.

And we have a local roadrunner too. He keeps popping up few days. I managed to snag a quick pic of him through our window.