March Madness Brackets 2009

Around our home March means two things: Abby’s birthday and college basketball. Once again we are running an online bracket for friends and family. So come join us! Click here to enter our bracket (password is “crispinhoops”) and make your selections after the March 15 selection show.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

I thought I would share my favorite love poem (besides the dozen or so Joe has written me, of course!) on Valentine’s Day.  Ever since reading it back in February 2003, it has been the prayer for our marriage, for the marriages of our children one day and for the marriages of all those we know and love.  May you be blessed by it today!

Love Her More and Love Her Less
by John Piper

For Karsten Luke Piper
At His Wedding to
Rochelle Ann Orvis
May 29, 1995

The God whom we have loved, and in
Whom we have lived, and who has been
Our Rock these twenty-two good years
With you, now bids us, with sweet tears,
To let you go: “A man shall leave
His father and his mother, cleave
Henceforth unto his wife, and be
One unashaméd flesh and free.”
This is the word of God today,
And we are happy to obey.
For God has given you a bride
Who answers every prayer we’ve cried
For over twenty years, our claim
For you, before we knew her name.

And now you ask that I should write
A poem – a risky thing, in light
Of what you know: that I am more
The preacher than the poet or
The artist. I am honored by
Your bravery, and I comply.
I do not grudge these sweet confines
Of rhyming pairs and metered lines.
They are old friends. They like it when
I bid them help me once again
To gather feelings into form
And keep them durable and warm.

And so we met in recent days,
And made the flood of love and praise
And counsel from a father’s heart
To flow within the banks of art.
Here is a portion of the stream,
My son: a sermon poem. It’s theme:
A double rule of love that shocks;
A doctrine in a paradox:

If you now aim your wife to bless,
Then love her more and love her less.

If in the coming years, by some
Strange providence of God, you come
To have the riches of this age,
And, painless, stride across the stage
Beside your wife, be sure in health
To love her, love her more than wealth.

And if your life is woven in
A hundred friendships, and you spin
A festal fabric out of all
Your sweet affections, great and small,
Be sure, no matter how it rends,
To love her, love her more than friends.

And if there comes a point when you
Are tired, and pity whispers, “Do
Yourself a favor. Come, be free;
Embrace the comforts here with me.”
Know this! Your wife surpasses these:
So love her, love her, more than ease.

And when your marriage bed is pure,
And there is not the slightest lure
Of lust for any but your wife,
And all is ecstasy in life,
A secret all of this protects:
Go love her, love her, more than sex.

And if your taste becomes refined,
And you are moved by what the mind
Of man can make, and dazzled by
His craft, remember that the “why”
Of all this work is in the heart;
So love her, love her more than art.

And if your own should someday be
The craft that critics all agree
Is worthy of a great esteem,
And sales exceed your wildest dream,
Beware the dangers of a name.
And love her, love her more than fame.

And if, to your surprise, not mine,
God calls you by some strange design
To risk your life for some great cause,
Let neither fear nor love give pause,
And when you face the gate of death,
Then love her, love her more than breath.

Yes, love her, love her, more than life;
O, love the woman called your wife.
Go love her as your earthly best.

Beyond this venture not. But, lest
Your love become a fool’s facade,
Be sure to love her less than God.

It is not wise or kind to call
An idol by sweet names, and fall,
As in humility, before
A likeness of your God. Adore
Above your best beloved on earth
The God alone who gives her worth.
And she will know in second place
That your great love is also grace,
And that your high affections now
Are flowing freely from a vow
Beneath these promises, first made
To you by God. Nor will they fade
For being rooted by the stream
Of Heaven’s Joy, which you esteem
And cherish more than breath and life,
That you may give it to your wife.

The greatest gift you give your wife
Is loving God above her life.
And thus I bid you now to bless:
Go love her more by loving less.

Photo Caption Winner

Thanks to everyone who participated in my photo caption contest.  I got some really good guesses in there!  My winner was Morgan, who guessed correctly that we were trying to tell the photographer something about the button to press to take the picture.  On our camera, it needs to be held down a bit longer, which he eventually did as you can see by the picture!

So here were the options of a “prize” I gave to Morgan.  Obviously, I am pretty pathetic on what I have to offer!
1) guest post on anything you would like to share
2) ask me any question you would like me to answer
3) ask me to write more on any topic
4) tell me to keep my mouth shut on a topic for a month!

Here is part of what Morgan responded with:
I am always looking for good advice on raising Christian Children, discipline, setting and sticking with rules, and necessities items for children overseas.

So I am going to be doing a lengthy series on our journey as parents. It will be based around books that have made a huge impact on us as parents and the different themes we worked through in different seasons of our parenting so far. So stay tuned for the first post.

And just so everyone knows. You are always welcome to ask me any question or request more posts on anything.

Outtakes

As anyone with multiple children knows, it is tough to get a good family photo.  Add in being overseas where you speak very little of the language and the result is almost impossible.  Here is one of the goofs we got on our trip this weekend.  Come up with your own caption in the comments and a prize goes to whoever is closest to what really happened there!