May

10

a note to my children

a-note-to-my-children

When I was a little girl, all I could dream of was being a mommy. Your aunties and I played dolls until we were way too old for it. We crafted baby books with photos torn from clothing catalogs to document our imaginary children’s lives. I spent hours daydreaming about how many children I would have, what their names would be, what color hair they would have and, most importantly, what I would dress them in for family pictures. Once I was old enough, I spent my time babysitting and playing with kids in the church nursery, then later nannying for a family and falling in love with those children.

My friends in college would sometimes laugh at me because I just wanted to get married and have kids. I wasn’t looking for a career path, I didn’t have a strategic post-graduation plan. I had a boyfriend {your daddy} and the dream of marrying him and becoming a mommy.

Now that I’m here – on this side of my dream – with four healthy, bright, happy and unique children, there is something I want you to know.

My darling children, you have made my dream come true.

In my young mind, I wanted kids to dress up and cuddle and show off. I do that with you sometimes and it’s fun, for sure.

But, as it turns out, that is not my favorite part of motherhood.

From the moment I realized you were going to be part of our family, you each captured my heart. That love developed through the months of growing you in my tummy, holding you for the first time, staring at your perfect little face, admiring how you looked so much like your siblings and yet so very different. Each of you have your own personalities, you own talents, your own struggles and needs. As you grow, you become more and more of your own person and I get the best view to watch it all play out. I see things in you that remind me of daddy, you have mannerisms that you get from me. Then there are those things that are all your own and I get to find ways to encourage you, protect you, understand you … those are the best parts of being a mommy.

You are mine; we are forever connected, and I love you so much deeper than I ever knew was possible.

Yesterday a mama duck and her little ducklings started crossing the busy road. I slowed down and came to a stop {on the highway!} to avoid hurting them. After a few moments, their mama turned direction and her babies followed quickly after her.  It was the sweetest sight watching those tiny baby chicks waddle after their mama. They needed her and she led them confidently towards safety.

Sometimes, that’s how I feel. I feel like the mama duck with my little ducklings following after.

Sometimes I feel confident and walk with my chest held high, confident of where I’m going. I have four well-behaved, darling little babies and parade you proudly. Look what I’ve done!, I say. Look at these amazing children who call me mom!

But sometimes {okay, maybe a lot of times} I feel exhausted. I feel selfish. I feel ill-equipped.

Sometimes I feel like I’d rather not have four little ones following me at every turn. Sometimes I want to turn around and tell you to sit still or leave me alone or find someone else to follow. Sometimes I actually say those things and I’m so sorry for that. I’m not always the nicest mommy to you and I hope you will forgive me for my times of impatience and rudeness.

Sometimes I don’t know if I’m very good at motherhood. Am I answering your questions? Am I nurturing your heart? Am I teaching you to love people more than things? Are you well-rounded? Are you kind? Am I praying for you enough? Reading to you enough? Saving for you enough?

What I have learned over and over in my short years of being a mom is that as hard as I try to lead you confidently, I will let you down.  I am still a work in progress – I’m still figuring out how to be less selfish and well-rounded and kind right along with you.

So, my babies, here’s what I want to say to you today:

thank you.

Thank you for making me a mommy. For being a dream come true. For teaching me about selflessness and forgiveness and my unending need for grace. For making me laugh and being my companions. For following after me like those baby chicks. For wanting me and needing me and accepting me. You are the best children ever.

I love you, my darlings. Oh, how I love you.

xoxo,

mom

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May

09

winner of the voice bible {and a few good explanations}

krista-the-winner

I’ll be honest … I like to select giveaway winners randomly just to keep things fair, but this time I did not. I read this comment and just knew the bible needed to go to miss Krista. I think anyone who wants a bible should have one and I’m so honored to give Krista the first of her own.

If you’d like to buy a copy, they are actually quite affordable. You can get a hardback for $24 or a paperback {like the one shown} for $48.

A handful of you had some questions and concerns about the use of the word Eternal rather than LORD – maybe getting the sense that it sounded new-agey and to be careful about any bible that doesn’t use the words Christ or Apostle or Angel.

These were concerns of mine as well. I certainly don’t want to be filling my mind with a false or misleading version of The Truth.

David Capes, one of the leading scholars who worked on this translation emailed me on monday and I was able to ask him a few of these questions. Rather than recap, I’ll post his complete response because he is way smarter than I am and words things a bit more eloquently.

Here’s what he had to say:

Emily,
Thanks for your email and questions.  I have written a little book called The Story of The Voice which details a number of our translation decisions and our translation philosophy.  We didn’t take these decisions lightly.
 
Regarding translating the word generally translated as LORD (note: all caps in most translations), I wrote 3 blog posts last year. 
 
Here they are:
 
I think these should give you more information than you may want to know. If you want more detail than that, I can provide it. I am currently writing the entry “Lord” for one of the Oxford encyclopedias so I’m rather well-versed on these matters (or at the least the people at Oxford think I am ;-) .
 
Regarding translating the Greek word normally rendered “Christ” by “Anointed One,” that is probably the decision which created the most controversy.  At least it did last year when I was interviewed on CNN.  Until now all major Bible translations did not translate the Greek word CHRISTOS.  They merely transliterated it Christ.  The unfortunate effect is that people do not understand what it means.  They think it is a name, not a title.  And CHRISTOS happens to be the earliest honorific title given to Jesus.  “Jesus Christ” is not a name.  It is a confession: “Jesus is the Messiah.”  The word “MESSIAH” is Hebrew for “Anointed One.”  So we are trying to help people understand the titular meaning of the confession.  You will note that at key places, we gloss a phrase like “Jesus Christ” (in most translations) with “Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King.” The addition of ‘the Liberating King” is there to unpack the meaning of the title “Christos” which is not self-evident to modern readers.  It is part of our contextual equivalence approach.  
 
In translation theory we work with “equivalence” not “exactness.” Whenever you move from one language to the next, you realize a given word has meaning and associations (or denotations and connotations).  Take the difference between words like “home” and “house.”  Though they mean the same thing . . . roughly, the former has associations the latter doesn’t have.  Consider the phrase “apple pie.”  In America there are associations which you don’t find in South Africa, for example.
 
To put it in mathematical terms 5 is 5 but 3+2 is equivalent to 5.  In other words it might take 4 words to express the meaning of a single Greek word.  This is probably more than you want to know.
 
Regarding Revelation 22:18.  When John wrote Revelation, he didn’t realize it would be the last book of the Bible.  He is referring specifically to his own book.  “The words of the prophecy of this book” refers to Revelation not the entire Bible (after all, not all the Bible is prophecy; Leviticus for example is law code).  The Bible is actually a collection of 66 books not a single book. This is not controversial.  Any good commentary will confirm what I’m saying.  So John is warning people not to add to or take away from the prophecies of this book (that is Revelation). 
 
That said, it is standard translation practice (goes back in English to the King James Bible) for words to be added in order to help make sense out of what is being said. Original readers would have understood idioms, context, social customs, which modern readers don’t.  Every translation adds words to help make sense of these foreign languages, but not every translation tells you up front.  In fact, the NIV translation team did. I think I read that is your favorite translation.  They chose, however, not to tell you which words were added the same way we and others do by italicizing them (e.g., KJV, RSV, ESV, etc).  The above example is a good one.  The additional words are giving to explain or unpack the meaning of words which are not readily understood.  We did this translation, by the way for people who have never read the Bible before or find the Bible a hard book to read and understand. 
 
I hope this helps some.  If you have further questions, let me know.
 
thanks,
dbc 

Hopefully this eases your fears {if you have any} as it does mine. More than anything, I love that this version was written with the new-bible-reader in mind. It can be a confusing and intimidating book to read so having a resource like this with the chance that it will be read, understood and applied makes me a big fan.

Again, if you’d like more information on The Voice translation, you can visit their website here.

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