“Read your Bible from end to end. Read it everyday. Some of you say, “if I read my bible through 5 time in one year I wouldn’t get anything done”. You’re right, you would get a lot less done. But you know what, you just might become the kind of person who in the very few things that you do, would make an everlasting difference in the world.” John Piper
Family
Family, Monday, May 31, 2010
Especially When You Can Fit Inside Them
We recently purchased a new washer, which has many cool and interesting features. It’s one of those new top loading high energy efficient models with the glass lid that allows you to look down and see the clothes spinning and churning. But for Matthew and Claire the most interesting thing about the new washer is the box that it came in. It is actually big enough for the two of them to sleep in.
This new box stayed in our house for two days or more and this was not the only time that a box has provided so much enjoyment. Recently, Nana Lynn sent Matthew a cool batting toy that automatically grabs the ball and dangles it in front of you to hit; but the box that it came it was the most interesting thing to him. He immediately climbed into the box and sat in it like it was a rocket that could take him to outer space. Of course, later he did love the toy after we had put it together and it was actually doing what it was intended to do. However, that curious fascination and love boxes is also present in our children as that classic and mysterious enjoyment that all children share.
Family, Saturday, February 06, 2010
We Are Enjoying 34 New Books
Went to the South San Jose Santa Teresa Library Grand Opening. The library opened with all new books. It was amazing. Literally, every single book in sight was brand new. This evening we looked over at Claire reading one of her books to find her taking stickers out of the book and sticking them to the cover. Normally library books don’t have stickers in them! These were very new and Claire was on it. We let her keep the stickers, but we peeled them off the cover and put them on the train table.
By God’s providence we were there at the same time as Dianne Carlo and kids. Lance and Matthew borrowed the same Firetruck picture book. I found Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, Mark Driscoll’s Religion saves, and a few very new computer books. Jenn found some cooking books on cupcakes and soups.
There was so many people and the lines were plenty long. The people in line with us had so many books that they were finding surfaces to place their books on as they waited in line. They encouraged everyone around them to do the same: it was funny. We held onto our books because we had settled into a comfortable hold on them, and we knew the line was going to keep moving.
When we first entered the store we ran into another neighborhood mom that Jenn knows. While in line we saw Nate and his son quickly walk buy, we said hi and they were taken back for a second at the size of the line. A few people in front of us was another family that we vaguely recognized but could not remember from where we remembered her; we kept staring and staring, but just couldn’t remember.
What a nice library visit. We thought it would be too busy to bother, but it actually turned out to be a fun time.
Family, Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Simple Faith of a 2 Year Old
At the end of our family worship we ask each of our children to prayer for something. We asked Claire if she would prayer for the children in Haiti. We explained that their houses were crushed and some of them don’t have any mommy or daddy.
Claire said, “I share my daddy; I share my mommy” (She’s only two, so the English is a bit broken).
Jenn and I looked at each other and were moved by her compassionate response. We asked her a second time to confirm that she would really want to share us: she did. What a simple solution, at least form her perspective!
In her prayer she continued to voice her desire to share her daddy with the children of Haiti. I must admit I was a little choked up at that point. We all finished our prayers and Jenn asked, “so, will we be adopting a child from Haiti?”
I said, “Who knows, I guess we’ll see.”
Well, that’s quite a prayer. It’s easy to discount her little prayer as just the naivety of a 2 year old who’s prayer is straight from the heart. She really wasn’t thinking about the difficulty of the thing she was asking. At the same time, the Bible calls Christians to do this very thing.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (Jas 1:27)
Perhaps this is one of the qualities of a child that makes them the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3-4).
Family, Friday, November 13, 2009
I haven’t wrote many posts on what’s going on inside the Lombardi household, so I could go into details, but I’ll just give an overview.
Jenn and I are coming upon our 7 year anniversary (woohoo!). It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I’ll have to write more about that. Matthew is now 4 years old and Claire is 2 years old. It’s nice to hear Claire talk more and more; she’s such a bundle of joy (and spices). We have been endeavoring to provide a spiritual nurturing home environment. Jenn can probably write more about what she does during the day; during the evening we regularly have family devotion time which involves opening prayers, worship from the hymnal, bible stories, and closing prayers where everyone is required to pray.
We are now attending at two churches; West Hills is our home church, and Veritas is a church plant that we have recently began attending. I’ve also began leading a community group at our home with people who attend at Veritas. I love this group of people and I really do hope to see increased spiritual growth and vitality for everyone in the group~including me.
My parents (a.k.a grandparents), are coming over most Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings before dinner and watching the kids for a little over an hour while Jenn and I go to Gold’s Gym and work-out. They seem to enjoy the time, my mother commonly saying, “take your time”, as we head out the door. I know what she means although the Gym is not someplace that you should be taking-your-time.
Jenn and I have been fitting in some additional learning time with DVD’s from Puritan Picks. So far we’ve watched Christian conference videos and seminars; our community group is currently going through the “Battling Unbelief” series; I had chosen it for our group after having rented it from Puritan picks and watched it with Jenn.
I’m also becoming a bit of a self-proclaimed web-designer, pouring over articles online and learning all I can about this world-wide-web and the social conversation that’s going on on-line. I have a lot more respect for web-designers after trying to learn the trade myself; and of course, I’m still just a newbie at this. The reason I’m doing this is to both redesign the Veritas website, but also to redesign my website and also begin a new website focused on spiritual topics and discussions.
And lastly, what’s going on with Rob AND Jenn Lombardi? Well, we don’t share everything, but lets just say that we are greatly in-love with each other and I know I speak for the both of us when I say that it is an amazing grace from God, that the two of us, an engineer from California, and a country girl from Alabama, have come together and are now experiencing all that we are experiencing between each other: love, spiritual-unity, fidelity, integrity, joy, passion, transparency, and children. But of course, it’s all tempered by a fair share of fleshly struggles which we get through by the grace of God with the strength that He provides, which repairs our brokenness and increases our unity.
Family, Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Will the next generation of children be characterized as undisciplined, selfish, unloving people as they grow into adults? There are many parents out there who have grasped hold of today’s popular methods of parenting which promote themselves as progressive intelligence, and evolutions in parenting. Some of these parents are only a short ways into their parenting journey and are already seeing the warning signs. Instead of a child growing in wisdom and good character qualities, they grow in foolishness and selfishness. The child is quickly learning how to manipulate their parents and become the rulers of their family. The parents are dumbfounded as to how they arrived in such a place, and as a result, they do not enjoy their children as they aught, and some, perhaps openly or secretly, begin to hate having children.
Jenn and I consider the Bible to be divine wisdom, the Words of God, perfect for teaching parents (2 Tim 3:16-17) to deal properly with their children. Consider the qualities of God: good qualities, perfect in every way (Ps 18:30). So it is natural to expect that His instruction for parents is going to be perfect in every way. Now consider the qualities of the average psychologist; they have a finite understanding of the subject and their authority on the subject is not tried and tested—it is common to discover that their methods were completely wrong and disastrous. So, who’s advice would you rather follow? The answer is obvious, trust God, not man. God instructs parents to take discipline seriously (Prov 29:15, Prov 22:15, Prov 23:13-14, Prov 13:24), and it is for the good of the child; but again, the important question is, who’s advice do you have your faith in: God or man?
The results of parenting gone bad seems to have made it’s way into cartoons and books. Parents are depicted as frazzled and with little control over the children; the children rule the household. Daniel Zalewski wrote an article in the New Yorker titled, “The Defiant Ones”, where he makes very astute observations of this very thing. Albert Mohler further discusses it in an article on his blog.
Parents would do well to buck the cultural trends in parenting; trends that tout themselves as evolutionary, advanced, and modern. Rather, parents should embrace methods that go deeper into our spiritual being; methods that are godly, holy, and divine; methods whos source is not from the mind of man, but from the mind of God.
