I finished listening to a class on the History of Hymnody by Kevin Twit. If anyone is interested, here is the link: http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resources/#!/courses-history-of-hymnody. I thought it was very lively and interesting. If you do, let me know what you think. Oh, I think to listen to it, you need to register for free. But it is another username and password to add to your growing list of logins.
-Mark
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
happy 2013 from the bunch of us milligans!
it's been a while since we've visited our blog
here's what we look like these days . . .
(and we asked the children to describe a bit about themselves for fun)
(and we asked the children to describe a bit about themselves for fun)
hogan, soon to be 12, with lego creations
he likes to read, play outside, make things (with legos and in the basement with misc. junk)
and he recently started playing football with some guys after our church meeting
he likes to read, play outside, make things (with legos and in the basement with misc. junk)
and he recently started playing football with some guys after our church meeting
owen goofballing with some birthday goodies - he is 10
he likes to climb, run, play with legos and has his own business, Owen's Herbal Industries
he likes to climb, run, play with legos and has his own business, Owen's Herbal Industries
our animal lover leannora with charlie dog
(grandpa bill and grandma sara's dog)
leannora is 8
she likes to play the piano, she loves horses, and really enjoys drawing
we all love to eat her cookies
she likes to play the piano, she loves horses, and really enjoys drawing
we all love to eat her cookies
nikao is going to be 7 VERY soon
and can't wait to share his middle man position in the family once the baby comes
he likes to have light saber fights with geldan and play chase, and play destroyer droids with able
he is really good at playing star wars angry birds
he likes to have light saber fights with geldan and play chase, and play destroyer droids with able
he is really good at playing star wars angry birds
able is 5
he is going to join nikao as the milligan middle men
he likes playing races, star wars pencil wars, and star wars battlefields with his brothers
and pretending to be the greatest american hero
he likes playing races, star wars pencil wars, and star wars battlefields with his brothers
and pretending to be the greatest american hero
shiloh jubilee - cute as can be - she is 3
and will turn 4 around the coming of our new baby
"i like making bed, i just said playing in the snow, having a nap and having snack and making snowflakes, coloring in my coloring book, and uhm pretending toys (dress up) and playing outside and in the snow and going down the slides we have . . . and watching movies and having pink buttons on my birthday baby . . . "
"i like making bed, i just said playing in the snow, having a nap and having snack and making snowflakes, coloring in my coloring book, and uhm pretending toys (dress up) and playing outside and in the snow and going down the slides we have . . . and watching movies and having pink buttons on my birthday baby . . . "
our 2 year old geldan is a grand little boy
here's how his siblings described him . . .
h -he likes light saber fights
o - he likes tickles and jumping on beds
l - he likes animals - real and stuffed
n - he likes playing the guitar
s - he loves playing with the dress up toys basically
a - he likes playing with his turtle
here's how his siblings described him . . .
h -he likes light saber fights
o - he likes tickles and jumping on beds
l - he likes animals - real and stuffed
n - he likes playing the guitar
s - he loves playing with the dress up toys basically
a - he likes playing with his turtle
here's baby milligan due to arrive march 9
(well, this was taken a couple of months ago,
so the momma and baby are considerably larger now)
happy days to you all!
(thank you ennis family for reminding us to update ourselves!)
Monday, December 17, 2012
New Covenant Theology
I just finished a book by Steve Lehrer called New Covenant Theology. I was impressed. I found it to be very Biblical and agreeable. I thought I subscribed to Covenant Theology, so I was surprised to read his perspective of Covenant Theology, especially concerning Israel being the believing people of God before Christ.
I am a bit uncomfortable with his treatment of the law for a new covenant believer. He suggests that our law, or the Law of Christ, is simply the sum of all the commands from Jesus or the Apostles recorded in the New Testament. I don't know how or what exactly to refute about this, but it just seems a bit narrow, or cold. I see the apostles reading and using the Mosaic Law for the church, and I want to know how to read Moses the way they do. When Paul quotes God's law concerning muzzling the ox while threshing, he seems to understand that there is more to the law than meets the eye. I'm pretty sure we can learn God's will for the Christian by reading Moses' writings, though we must learn to see beyond the veil. Steve Lehrer often says that we must read the Old Testament through the lens of the New - I agree.
All in all, I was very comfortable with his words. He directly answered many of my longstanding questions concerning the law, Israel, and the Christian - and with much grace and brotherliness. I found it addressed the crucial points of the debate with relative brevity, without getting bogged down with the rhetoric of many theological books. That means it was good for me, who has a hard time finishing books.
Mark.
I am a bit uncomfortable with his treatment of the law for a new covenant believer. He suggests that our law, or the Law of Christ, is simply the sum of all the commands from Jesus or the Apostles recorded in the New Testament. I don't know how or what exactly to refute about this, but it just seems a bit narrow, or cold. I see the apostles reading and using the Mosaic Law for the church, and I want to know how to read Moses the way they do. When Paul quotes God's law concerning muzzling the ox while threshing, he seems to understand that there is more to the law than meets the eye. I'm pretty sure we can learn God's will for the Christian by reading Moses' writings, though we must learn to see beyond the veil. Steve Lehrer often says that we must read the Old Testament through the lens of the New - I agree.
All in all, I was very comfortable with his words. He directly answered many of my longstanding questions concerning the law, Israel, and the Christian - and with much grace and brotherliness. I found it addressed the crucial points of the debate with relative brevity, without getting bogged down with the rhetoric of many theological books. That means it was good for me, who has a hard time finishing books.
Mark.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
hello again!
we recently undertook a little project at home. a couple of our children decided to help us get started by ripping some wallpaper off the wall instead of taking naps. we found tiny shreds of wallpaper in and under our bed. but the carpet that's older than both mark and i was also good incentive for digging in to some bedroom remodeling fun. we let the kids help out with the unloading of the room, destructo work, and painting. i just love getting to share this stuff with our children!
so here's geldan (soon to be 2) wearing his safety glasses and dust mask hat. we have a cute video of this, but i don't know how to add it here. maybe mark can help me out sometime.
owen, nikao and geldan sure enjoyed making a mess of our room. some of the kiddos were jammied already, but you know it was just too good of an opportunity to let them help out with the fun to pass it up because of pjs and bedtime. somehow we didn't capture any other pictures of our project, but everybody got to take turns painting. hogan even helped me with the trim! (actually, our room is back in order now - as of a couple of days - and i don't think we've even taken any after pictures yet.)
so maybe i'll be a little more on the ball and post some more shots of our finished project. and hopefully it won't be a year before we post again.
happy days to you all!
kim, for the bunch of us milligans :)
so here's geldan (soon to be 2) wearing his safety glasses and dust mask hat. we have a cute video of this, but i don't know how to add it here. maybe mark can help me out sometime.
owen, nikao and geldan sure enjoyed making a mess of our room. some of the kiddos were jammied already, but you know it was just too good of an opportunity to let them help out with the fun to pass it up because of pjs and bedtime. somehow we didn't capture any other pictures of our project, but everybody got to take turns painting. hogan even helped me with the trim! (actually, our room is back in order now - as of a couple of days - and i don't think we've even taken any after pictures yet.)
so maybe i'll be a little more on the ball and post some more shots of our finished project. and hopefully it won't be a year before we post again.
happy days to you all!
kim, for the bunch of us milligans :)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
the problem is _______________
we had this really incredible afternoon, uhmmmm, i think it was a couple of weeks ago? mark and one of the boys had picked out some ice cream in the morning while they were out. so i thought it'd be a good idea to have an ice cream snack with daddy before he left for his evening job at jb music. able and shiloh had missed their nap. the day had been one of those that just catches up with you. we dished out some ice cream, but our nice time with daddy before work didn't turn out quite as i had in mind. the kids were hyper and crazy - not listening when i instructed them to quiet down - interrupting our attempts at conversation - and mark was distracted at the computer for half of the time - not really with us . . . so when mark gave the word that he needed to run, i just about melted in disappointment. feeling frazzled, i left everyone at the table with strict orders to not make a noise, watched mark drive off, and shut myself in the little entry room at the front door to be ALONE. full of tears, i remember crying out to God. i usually do in those moments. but it was not a prayer of faith, just desperation. a what is wrong with me and why am i so upset and some complaints of sorts and a pleading "HELP!" kind of prayer.
the amazing part of this story is God's answer. somehow?!?!, even though my thoughts were pretty jumbled, i was able to sort out 2 problems. the first was that i was full of expectations for our "family time snack" and hadn't communicated those ideas to mark. so getting mad at him wasn't gonna fix anything. i had to put that trouble aside for the moment. second, the kids were disobeying me, and instead of correctly correcting them, i got angry.
so i came back to the table and the very quiet kids. i had resigned myself to a very long and miserable evening, but knew i at least need to confess for being angry. and in my waaaaaaaay too many words (another usual of what i do in those moments) i started off telling them something like this: "i was really wrong to yell at you. it was wrong for me to be angry with you. will you please forgive me?" . . . they did . . . "you know, i get angry a lot. but i want you to know that i REALLY love you. i think sometimes you might think that i don't love you when i get angry at you. hmmm. the thing is that i'm not really angry at you, but at your disobedience. the problem is (and here's where the lights not only went on, but the lights were flashing!!! whoa, this is great!!!) hey, daddy and i have been reading a book that talks about this! the problem is: when i give you instructions you don't obey right away or you have bad attitudes with me. so what i really should be getting angry at is the problem that is between us, not at you. but . . . okay let me show you on the marker board!"
so i drew something like this picture. i explained that the brother and sister in the picture have a BIG problem between them. we came up with some pretty crazy examples and had a great time laughing over them. so here's one example: the sister has a toy that the brother wants (or was already playing with or something like that)
now the brother usually sees his sister as the problem and gets angry at her.
if he punches her in the nose, what do you think she will do?
do you think she will give him the toy? NO WAY! she will whine and scream and make a big fuss and go tell mom among many other things.
and then the brother might call her a baby and a tattletale and so forth.
what happens to the problem? the problem just turns into a monster and gets bigger and bigger.
so what should the brother and sister do? how can they make the problem go away? they need to think about what the problem is and then talk about it.
so what is the problem? the problem is that the brother and sister both want the same toy.
then instead of attacking each other, they can attack the problem by talking about the problem.
brother: can i play with that toy?
sister: no, i'm playing with it.
brother: but i had it first. i had to go to the bathroom and put it down. i was coming right back to play with it again. sister: well, i have an idea! how about we take turns?!?
some the beauties of this are that as the children learn to communicate respectfully toward one another, they are also finding ways to resolve their problems without ever having to even involve the mommy who doesn't like playing the figure out what's fair in this situation game!
this was just the beginning of my waaaaaay too many words. we continued at the table for well over an hour! i know, my kids are amazing! to sit that long and participate! even the littles! AND we had the BEST time laughing and talking and learning together!!! (we talked about another big issue troubling our family too, but that will be saved for a future blog.) anyways, what i really wanted to share was that God used the troubling circumstance, and then our loooooong table talk to unexpectedly solve an issue that has troubled our family for a long time. this might not seem like a big deal, but it has been huge for this momma. for so long i have wanted a solution to the endless arguments and troubles. this day and conversation was something that i have longed for for sooo long. and this is just the beginning!
another cool thing was that mark and i have been reading a book called "the heart of anger" by lou priolo together each tuesday morning. it had been weeks before that we had read the chapter illustrating this problem lesson. God timed our reading, my understanding, the troubles, and then let us learn something all together by putting what we read into practice! and it seems that God had me wait until i could see the need to reach my children's hearts, not just fix the problem.
then to top it off, i got a text message from mark apologizing for overlooking the table trouble. he never sends me little i love you messages like that. it was sweet! i called him up to ask a question about something, thank him for the text, and tell him something awesome was happening in our home (but i'd fill him in later). then i received an e-mail from the front counter at jb music?! it was another sweet message from mark!! by the time mark got home i was so hyper. just thrilled and excited at what God was teaching me and our children - together!!
of course, the newness has worn off. the following day was totally rough! and we've definitely had our normal share of problems that are unresolved and continue to trouble us. there is really no "fix it" solution that changes our hearts from selfishness and sin. but there is one "fix it' that gives me hope to press on. and that is that we have a God who is bigger than our troubles. He loves us and is always working to win our hearts and show us that He is the answer to our problems!
the amazing part of this story is God's answer. somehow?!?!, even though my thoughts were pretty jumbled, i was able to sort out 2 problems. the first was that i was full of expectations for our "family time snack" and hadn't communicated those ideas to mark. so getting mad at him wasn't gonna fix anything. i had to put that trouble aside for the moment. second, the kids were disobeying me, and instead of correctly correcting them, i got angry.
so i came back to the table and the very quiet kids. i had resigned myself to a very long and miserable evening, but knew i at least need to confess for being angry. and in my waaaaaaaay too many words (another usual of what i do in those moments) i started off telling them something like this: "i was really wrong to yell at you. it was wrong for me to be angry with you. will you please forgive me?" . . . they did . . . "you know, i get angry a lot. but i want you to know that i REALLY love you. i think sometimes you might think that i don't love you when i get angry at you. hmmm. the thing is that i'm not really angry at you, but at your disobedience. the problem is (and here's where the lights not only went on, but the lights were flashing!!! whoa, this is great!!!) hey, daddy and i have been reading a book that talks about this! the problem is: when i give you instructions you don't obey right away or you have bad attitudes with me. so what i really should be getting angry at is the problem that is between us, not at you. but . . . okay let me show you on the marker board!"
so i drew something like this picture. i explained that the brother and sister in the picture have a BIG problem between them. we came up with some pretty crazy examples and had a great time laughing over them. so here's one example: the sister has a toy that the brother wants (or was already playing with or something like that)
now the brother usually sees his sister as the problem and gets angry at her.
if he punches her in the nose, what do you think she will do?
do you think she will give him the toy? NO WAY! she will whine and scream and make a big fuss and go tell mom among many other things.
and then the brother might call her a baby and a tattletale and so forth.
what happens to the problem? the problem just turns into a monster and gets bigger and bigger.
so what should the brother and sister do? how can they make the problem go away? they need to think about what the problem is and then talk about it.
so what is the problem? the problem is that the brother and sister both want the same toy.
then instead of attacking each other, they can attack the problem by talking about the problem.
brother: can i play with that toy?
sister: no, i'm playing with it.
brother: but i had it first. i had to go to the bathroom and put it down. i was coming right back to play with it again. sister: well, i have an idea! how about we take turns?!?
some the beauties of this are that as the children learn to communicate respectfully toward one another, they are also finding ways to resolve their problems without ever having to even involve the mommy who doesn't like playing the figure out what's fair in this situation game!
this was just the beginning of my waaaaaay too many words. we continued at the table for well over an hour! i know, my kids are amazing! to sit that long and participate! even the littles! AND we had the BEST time laughing and talking and learning together!!! (we talked about another big issue troubling our family too, but that will be saved for a future blog.) anyways, what i really wanted to share was that God used the troubling circumstance, and then our loooooong table talk to unexpectedly solve an issue that has troubled our family for a long time. this might not seem like a big deal, but it has been huge for this momma. for so long i have wanted a solution to the endless arguments and troubles. this day and conversation was something that i have longed for for sooo long. and this is just the beginning!
another cool thing was that mark and i have been reading a book called "the heart of anger" by lou priolo together each tuesday morning. it had been weeks before that we had read the chapter illustrating this problem lesson. God timed our reading, my understanding, the troubles, and then let us learn something all together by putting what we read into practice! and it seems that God had me wait until i could see the need to reach my children's hearts, not just fix the problem.
then to top it off, i got a text message from mark apologizing for overlooking the table trouble. he never sends me little i love you messages like that. it was sweet! i called him up to ask a question about something, thank him for the text, and tell him something awesome was happening in our home (but i'd fill him in later). then i received an e-mail from the front counter at jb music?! it was another sweet message from mark!! by the time mark got home i was so hyper. just thrilled and excited at what God was teaching me and our children - together!!
of course, the newness has worn off. the following day was totally rough! and we've definitely had our normal share of problems that are unresolved and continue to trouble us. there is really no "fix it" solution that changes our hearts from selfishness and sin. but there is one "fix it' that gives me hope to press on. and that is that we have a God who is bigger than our troubles. He loves us and is always working to win our hearts and show us that He is the answer to our problems!
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