Prata's Potpourri: Discernment, Lent, Sinclair Ferguson, Jesus Calling, Battling Bitterness, More

Here in North Georgia we have run the gamut with weather. Snow flurries so pretty and swirling the bus driver at our school said it was like being inside a snow globe. Then we had a harsh freeze and temps in the low teens with bad wind chills. Yet today things bounced back with sunny and warm air and the forsythia is popping out. I love the early spring here in the south (early compared to my previous abode in Maine). Once last week in a warm spell, I heard peepers.
Peepers are tiny frogs, which according to Wikipedia,

is a small chorus frog widespread throughout the eastern USA and Canada. They are so called because of their chirping call that marks the beginning of spring. 

Spring means Easter and Easter means to Lent or not to Lent. The Lenten season began yesterday.
Lent, yes or no? By 9Marks
Five reasons not to observe Lent by Entreating Favor
Origins of Lent at Grace To You
In this day and age of apostasy, hatred, and brutality- and I'm speaking of inside the church- a bitterness grows in the wounded Christian heart. Bitterness is a killer, Eric Davis says, we have to be on guard against it. Here are some ways to combat it as outlined in Davis' essay The Normal Battle with Bitterness
Seven years ago Dr Al Mohler wrote against a novel that was sweeping the church, The Shack. Tomorrow I am doing a retrospective on the book and digging deeper into the discernment realm by jumping off from this article from Dr Mohler, but until then, here is his article, The Shack — The Missing Art of Evangelical Discernment
Need encouragement? Sinclair Ferguson provides, in his essay A deeper lineage than our genes
Here is Lil, a pastor's wife at Embracing the Lovely on Why I won't be finishing Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

I’m 9 days into the New Year and 10 days into reading "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. It’s been one of the best selling devotionals for the past 10 years, so I decided to pick up a copy on New Year’s Day. ... I’m on Day 10 and I just can’t bring myself to read any more. I. Just. Can’t.

We in America have been blessed with the opportunity for unfettered freedom of speech. The internet has been a boon for those wishing to use it for a Christian witness. However, Twitter is making some troubling moves. Read more at the Daily Signal
The ever gently discerning Mrs Sharon Lareau has completed her second part of reviewing Beth Moore's Audacious simulcast, here.
One side note. In the satanic effort to get feminism into the faith and into women's hearts, I keep reading about having audacious faith, praying audacious prayers, of discipling an entire generation, of stepping into leadership roles, of being a brave girl.
Yet I am living a little life in an out of the way place and the only thing I'm stepping on is a juicebox or cheerios at snack time in kindergarten. I am not brave or audacious or leading. I don't have "crazy strong risky dreamer kids" and I am not running a multi-million dollar corporation ministry or globetrotting to empower local women. I don't really rather be doing this in my living room over coffee with you. No. Please don't come over for coffee. If you do, my table won't be artfully arranged with perfect flowers and I won't be artfully arranged with a Bohemian scarf draped over my shoulders and I really do not believe laundry is a holy experience.
Brave, audacious, leaders, empowered... Whatever happened to submissive, meek, quiet, and sober? Out of fashion I guess. I am simply a para-professional working in a public school who grocery shops at a local Mom & Pop store and goes home and reads the Bible and repents and asks Jesus to help me be a better witness for His name tomorrow than I was today. The Christian life is wondrous and hard. It's at home and at work, not necessarily at a huge conference I've founded or in Africa where I go when I leave my two toddlers behind to do some more important work or discipling an entire generation (an entire generation? and anyway, doesn't the Bible already tell us to disciple generationally? Duh). These younger women really have to get a grip on themselves by getting over themselves.
Next, a lot of great photos of satisfying perfection at work. For the OCD in you or the person who just exults in symmetry and order, here you go. You're welcome.