An Epiphany on Scars

I was reflecting today as I was working and meditating on God as to where we (God and I) are at in our relationship.

He spoke truth to me about something that has troubled me considerably in these recent years.

 

I was mediating on why I felt that, though I am closer to Him now than say four years ago, I am worth less.

My reasons? I have been through difficulties that have refashioned me. In shaping me, I have grown. However, I have also received scratches that healed to form scars. I have more gravity, but more weighs upon my spirit. 

It has been my thinking that I am not as pure before God because of the baggage I carry from wounds that have defaced my beauty. I am worth less. 

God visited my meditations today, however, and spoke truth apart from this deception. It is a personal epiphany in my life. 

He let me see as he does. I saw that any residual materials from past trials are but stepping stones. They are Gilgal's memorial stones of Jordan. I can pass over the locale, remembering what I learned, and apply it to the current situation.

Should I feel less valuable for winning a battle because I must recover the cost of war? War brings devastation. It can also produce resolve. God instructed my heart to understand that rubble does not indicate failure. It is only proof that a battle has been fought. 

If you can honestly say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," be assured that there is a crown of righteousness -not Holy disdain- that will be restored unto you.

Critical Thinking: A disciplined approach to receiving information

(I am not an authority on thinking clearly and precisely about things that I am in receipt of all of the time.  Nevertheless, it behooved me to consider the following steps in analyzing and interpreting information imparted to me.  If I can systemize a thing, I can understand it.  If I can understand a thing, I will enjoy and commiserate it.  If I identify with something, then I can apply it.  

If your brain works in similar fashion, perhaps this simple outline will do you good.)

 

Whether we are considering products, meeting people, or evaluating claims, critical thinking should be employed before we except and settle a thought as fact. Critical thinking is by definition a disciplined approach to receiving and to accepting/rejecting information.  Here are a few steps to implement so that we can utilize this essential method of thinking in our everyday lives. 

1)      ASK QUESTIONS

What is the bottom line? What issue does this address/resolve? Who benefits?

2)      EXAMINE EVIDENCE

Look to past history. The current situation is what? Is the statement accurate? Is it researchable? Be skeptical!

3)      TRADE PERSPECTIVES

Look at both sides. Walk a mile in their shoes.  (You’ll be a mile further down the road, and you’ll have their shoes.)

4)      ANALYZE BIAS & ASSUMPTIONS

Who is the source of the info? What is their background? Their view system? Their agenda?

5)      AVOID EMOTION & PERSONAL DESIRES

Just because we want something to be or not to be doesn’t change the facts…but it can taint our perceptions.  With as much as lies within you, take an objective stand-point and stick with it!

 

 

**One last side note, critical thinking is not negative thinking.  To think realistically, we must weigh the accounts of truth and error.  Don’t believe anything that cannot withstand a good argument.

 

Today I was teaching Mathematics to my two younger brothers. We were working two-step reading problems.  The problems were something like the following example: 
         

           What is the cost of 1 1/4 lbs. of cheese at $2.16 per lb.

While working out examples for them on the blackboard, I somehow wandered from Arithmetic to Reasoning.  I have been giving much thought of late on the subject - particularly in the area of Apologetics.  Little wonder!  :)

I will replicate for you what my Math students turned their attention toward for the remaining twenty minutes of my class period. 

Problem:

            1 1/4 multiplied by $2.16 = ?

Circular Reasoning:
               
                1 1/4 multiplied by $2.16 = ?
 >             1 1/4 =  5/4 = 4 divided by 5 = 1 1/4
 >             1 1/4 multiplied by $2.16 = ?

We are left with the same premise/conclusion and data points that we began with when using this method of reasoning.  Remaining are also the same questions unanswered.  (In my class, I demonstrated this point by working the circle over again until they reacted.)

I am thinking namely of the presuppositional method of argumentation in apologizing for the existence of God, the inerrancy of scripture, etc.  The conclusion is essentially a restatement of the original data and/or thesis.  We are left with the problem unanswered.

 

I left the room briefly.  While I was away, my little opportunist took the liberty to take a sneak-peak at the teachers manual that lay open on my desk.  When I came back, he immediately informed me that he had the answer.  He did have the answer, but could give no rational defense for it.

So it is with the “confessional method” of argumentation.  If we do not subscribe to the “faith-without-reasoning” belief, we can not be satisfied with the answers that this argument gives.

To find a solution for our problem, we had to consider the mode of the numeral (i.e. decimal, improper faction, etc.).  We also had to take into account that we were working with two separate systems (monetary verses nominal). Had we neglected these factors, we would have ended with an alternate incorrect solution.   Alternate Solution:
                      1 1/4 times 2.16 =

    >              1.25 times 2.16 =
    >              368.00

Rather pricy?!  Pay if you will; I’ll bypass that method.

Correct Solution:

1 1/4 multiplied by $2.16 =

>              4 divided by 2.16 = .54
>              $2.16 + .54 =
>              $2.70

Above we have utilized in our correct solution both deduction and induction.  Moreover, we were able to come to the answer not by the given data solely, but also due to the fact that we could transfer one system of calculations over to another system, thus solving for inferred information.

We can be intelligent.  We can come to and give forth intelligent answers. After all, were we not created in the likeness of an intelligent Creator?  Whether we are discussing the weather or other things more important, let us not forget this fact.  :)

 

   

     

Musical Temperaments: Now and Then

Because music of the time is interrelated with the temperament of the time, historical developments are central to discussions of temperament. In 2500-2001 BC, the Chinese developed the five-note (pentatonic) scale. Two hundred to three hundred years later, we have record of five-tone and seven-tone scales in Babylonian music. We credit Pythagoras for his Pythagorean Temperament at approximately 550 BC, in which the chromatic scale was generated by tuning in perfect 5ths, using the circle of 5ths. He is said to have introduced the octave around this time.

Although we appreciate the concepts he promoted, we must recognize that his thoughts were imperfect. For example, when tuning in perfect 5ths, there is much to be desired with the 3rds. Moreover, although the Pythagorean temperament results in a scale with perfect 4ths and 5ths, at the last it ends in very poor dissonance. Due to this factor, we see the development of the Equal Temperament (ET) scale not but one hundred or so years after the invention of the Pythagorean Temperament. (If we were to tune by contracting each 5th by 23/12 cents, we would end up with exactly one octave and that is one way of tuning an ET scale.)

Since the introduction of the Pythagorean temperaments, all following temperament have been improvisions of the named temperament. Thus, we have the Meantone Temperament (MT), in which the 3rds were made just instead of the 5ths. I can see the sense in this idea because of the prominent role that 3rds play in certain music, especially during an age when music made greater use of 3rds. * The flaw presented by the MT is of a greater degree worse than that of its predecessor.

*{To illustrate, play a simple 4/4 timing song that changes chords only on new phrases. I noticed today, that as I played the tonic chord in my right hand [while still leaving the melody at top], and played the 3rd as the bass line for my left hand, it actually sounded more consistent in the Dorian mode. (When ending in the Dorian, I felt the need to play the tonic. I think perhaps that my ear is trained that way however, because it was not at all erratic to end on the 3rd.) Moreover, I played first in the Dorian mode, and without pausing switched to D Major to play the song anew. It was necessary to play the tonic in this key; and I would naturally have it no other way except for in passing tones, etc.}

Well Temperaments (WT) struck a compromise between Meantone and Pythagorean. Additionally, WT opened the door for not only good 3rds, but also good 5ths. It appears by Bach’s harmonies in his compositions that essentially all the details of tempering were already worked out by Bach’s time (before 1700). (Example: His "Well Tempered Clavier").

Over the past one-hundred years or so, ET has been the excepted temperament while the other temperaments are labeled "historical". The musical freedom presented by ET and our current trends toward increasing dissonance are two primary reasons for this preference. The advantages for the piano tuners are numerous. Moreover, ET reduces many lurking wolves that the various other temperaments allow to creep in with indiscretion. We do harm to the purity of intervals by providing security from these beasts by sacrificing the very motivation for chromatic scales (i.e. pure intervals).

I think that Bach would have us shed the muddy, tasteless water of ET for the pure, sweet tones of the WT. Yet what of the wolf tones? And what are we to do with the complexities of such the WT system? The quantry is age old. Unfortunately, I do not know much at all on this vast topic. Yet I would love to hear about you explorations and brainstormings on the topic...

Past thoughts concerning Halloween...

I wrote this to the editor of a local newspaper a few years back...  Publication: The Vandalia Leader;Date: Oct 13,2010 Section: Commentary;

Page: 2

  Dear Editor,
    I am writing in concern of your previous support and promotion of a holiday in which generations of Americans are embracing as traditional - Halloween. Some may find it shocking, however, that Halloween is a holiday of the Druids.  “Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts”(Encyclopedia Britannica 2005)  In May 1977, the National Geographic wrote (pp.625-626),  “Halloween.  That was the eve of Samhain...firstborn children were sacrificed...Samhain eve was a night of dread and danger.”  Parents are deeming Halloween as harmless fun and fantasy, thus subtlety disarming their children of discernment of witches and the occult.  Its time to wake up!  More than 1.3 million proudly practicing witches exist in America today.  Is this any wonder when nearly every mother dresses her vulnerable little child in a witch costume thereby verifying to the child that the witches he/she saw on TV are “cool”?  Silver Raven Wolf, a witch who is the author of the book “Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells” says:  “Today, just about every little girl in our society, at one time or another, has chosen to costume herself as a witch...If you choose a witch’s costume this Halloween...Hold your hear up and wear your witch’s garb proudly in their honor.”  ...And some would say why not?  What inherent evil does witchcraft have?  If you are one who respects the bible, I would refer you to Lev. 20:6 which states that: “the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul.”  The original Halloween was a hellish night of Baal worship, child sacrifice and death!  A startling fact is that many of our current Halloween customs derived directly from ancient Baal worship (See “The American Book of Days” p.566).  “Baal is also a synonym for the devil.”  (Burns, Cathy.  “Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated” p.327)  As a Christian, you would know that you are to have no other gods before the great I AM.  According to the “Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience,”  “They (Druids) sacrificed victims by shooting them with arrows, impaling them on stakes, stabbing them, slitting their throats over cauldrons and drinking their blood.”  “Since they are man-eaters...and since,further, they count it an honorable thing, when their fathers die, to devour them” (Strabo, Geography).  (Other activities described in this article are to explicit to discuss.)  For the unknowing sceptic, this is a taste of the evil behind such things.  Halloween is a “Witch’s New Year”, and does not deserve observation from any decent citizen of this God-fearing nation.  I must agree with the statement that Satanic High Priestess Blanche Barton made on The Church of Satan’s web site stating that “It [Halloween] gives even the most mundane people the opportunity to taste wickedness for one night.  They have a chance to dance with the Devil.”  That chance is given to the child by the parents of the child and is promoted by the society as a whole.  Granted, trick or treating, pumpkin carving and ornaments are not the “new rage” of this society.  The Druids had thought of that as well.  Instead of jolly masked children trick or treating, they were people who claimed “to be possessed by the supernatural being”, masked behind the gods of their time.  Jack-O-Lanterns, in that day, were severed human heads.  Bats were killed so that their blood could be used for spells, rather than the dull plastic figures American’s hang in their windows.  Black cats were “embodied demons”, not fury friends.  The skulls that some like to dress their bodies with were a symbol prominently of witchcraft and demon worship as a celebration of death.  (These disturbing facts may be found in “Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated”, p.388 written by Cathy Burns.)
    Why do we celebrate a “holiday” that promotes the decay of our society, as well as our very lives?!
                                                                        Respectfully,
                                                                   Evangeline Schultz

 

Vehicles: A medium

My foot pressed the acceleration petal as I drove the Interstate past a line of houses on the edge of a nearby small-time town.  I slowed, hastily stepping on the brakes when I noticed a little lump in the road ahead of me.  I approached the limp figure of a tiny Min Pin at a slowed pace, middling the car to pass over.

My mind flitted to our own vivacious Miniature Pinschers.  What a pity!  Someone had no doubt lost their beloved dog-friend.

The dog lay there dying, if not already dead.  I turned my head in time to see a girl of about ten years of age running down her short, broken cement walk.  The screen door slammed in her wake.  She ran toward the road with her eyes riveted upon the still animal that I was just ready to pass over.

As I did so, I looked at the child.  She stood there, a complete picture of despair and hurt.  My car was over the child’s companion by then, and her focus was forced to turn upon me.  She looked me full in the face then.  Her expression tore at me.  The river of tears that flowed from her eyes became a riptide that carried her accusations of blame upon me.  It washed over me, and my conscience could not escape it.  I, the driver of a vehicle, took the blame those eyes had hastily spoken.

A car had taken the dog from her.  As I drove by, she needed no further reason than that to lay upon my person the fault of that cruel circumstance. 

Her look haunted me as did the tender scene that I witness in my rear-view mirror.  I turned on the radio hoping to shift my mind from its current thoughts.

 

Obama was speaking.  He was addressing the recent school-shooting.  He spoke of the gun bans that he planned to impose, of the past harm done by such weapons, and of the damage that guns would cause in the future if laws were left unchanged. 

In his voice I heard the accusing eyes of that child that hated me for the loss of her play-mate.  The unspoken blame for my car’s cruelty to her friend was being cast by the President of our world’s leading nation as a legitimate judgment and response to the hurt and pain that we were feeling over the death of innocent, helpless playmates and family members.

If guns (or cars for that matter) are the cause for unfair deaths and unjustifiable behaviors, we need-no, we must seek a solution to be rid of such terrible and heartless destroyers.

But in thinking that way, we are approaching this topic with the anti-logic of a wounded and hasty child.  We need to be mature and sound enough in our reasoning to realize that guns are simply vehicles.  A car doesn’t drive itself; and a gun doesn’t discharge itself either.

When we focus the blame solely upon the weapon, we must ignore the good potential for it as well.  Was it not these objects that the American Revolutionists uncovered and utilized to buy the freedoms that we love and cling to today?

There is an evil behind the weapon.   This is the focus that our solution should be upon.  We cannot blame the trigger; we must understand the source of the problem.  Let us use our level heads on these issues.  Stop excepting the idiocy of unfounded arguments that result in more violence and the infringement of our costly freedoms.

A correct understanding of this issue will lead to the power of finding an adequate solution.

Homemaker - For Girls in the Prep Stage of Life PART 1