Easily Amused

It really doesn't take much to amuse me. I laughed for days (to my family's chagrin) when Kolbi called Saddam Hussein, So-damn Insane. It still makes me chuckle.

While reading The Common Reader (a book catalog with great descriptions) I spotted a clever book title,

Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.

This type of phrasing is called a Chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus). The adjective being chiastic.
I thought this was interesting enough to borrow the book from our amazing local library. Dr. Mardy Grothe explains much more about the chiasmus in this tiny tome.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Try to learn something about everything
and everything about something."
-Thomas H. Huxley

"A comedian does funny things;
a good comedian does things funny."
-Buster Keaton

"It is better to be looked over
than overlooked."
-Mae West

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them
than to have them and not deserve them."
-Mark Twain

"Better to write for yourself and have no public,
than to write for the public and have no self."
-Cyril Connolly

"It begins when you sink in his arms.
It ends with your arms in his sink."
-Anonymous, on marriage

"You can give without loving
but you cannot love without giving."
-Amy Wilson Carmichael

And finally, last but not least...

"He made football players out of some men,
but I think he's much more proud that
he made men out of some football players."
-Marie Lombardi,
on her husband Vince

Go Pack :o)

Just a small sample of the chiasmus.

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Calm Confidence

I am thankful that my husband and I don't have to parent alone. We trust that we have a Heavenly Father who is very much in control. So when things are out of our control...we have confidence that God knows exactly what He is doing. Our oldest was traveling by air across the country this week and was stranded Las Vegas (Lost Wages as my father used to say) on his way to Seattle. I was sad and disappointed for Patrick (21) to have to endure this inconvenience, but I was able to sleep soundly because I knew that he was in God's care.
There is no doubt that I CAN worry like a champion. But as I get older and trust more in God's words (in the Bible) I am learning to caste my cares on Him.

For Our Children

Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying,
We are praying for our children.

Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril,
From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand, pluck them.

From the worldling's hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Holy Father, save our children.

Through life's troubled waters steer them,
Through life's bitter battle cheer them,
Father, Father, be Thou near them.
Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.

-Amy Carmichael, from "For Our Children."

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I would not know who Amy Carmichael is were it not for lovely Elisabeth Elliot. You are loved!


Donna