Sunday 13 December 2009

Temptation, Elsie and the X Factor

It's been a busy weekend but good. My grandparents just celebrated 50 years marriage (an amazing achievement) and of course there was family here visiting for the occasion.

Anyway, the title of the post ... starting with the Elsie books, I have to admit they're one of the best I've ever read. Set in the 1800s so not entirely up to date, but you get a bit of history lessons in there added onto the story of a little girl with amazing faith. The first two were books I've had about two years and just love.

Book 1, Elsie's Endless Wait, was quite tear-jerking because we see Elsie living in a house full of six aunts and uncles close to her own age, who mistreat her. It's not only their teasing, their mother often claimed that since she was no blood relation she couldn't excuse a punishment as she would her own children, so for that reason in the very first chapter she is punished through no real fault of her own. Yet she is then consulting her Bible and reminding herself that Jesus bore worse than that patiently.

But the main focus is her endless wait to meet her father, which does happen in this book, but they conflict slightly as he doesn't agree with her strict principles. He is a very determined man, and we see a glimpse of what is to happen in the next book, Elsie's Impossible Choice. She had strict principles about the Sabbath, as to what is or isn't suitable to do on a Sunday. If you think that's easy back in the 1800s, by reading this it is not. The real conflict is caused by her refusing to read a newspaper on the Sabbath. A small thing maybe, but it all built up to a big thing and she suffers HUGELY.

So after reading those I wondered about trying out the Sunday idea .... which was easy enough at first but these past few months it has got so much harder to keep the faith that I'm doing the right thing. Back to another part of the title post ... X Factor. I don't watch TV much nowadays, but got a bit hooked on X Factor last year and it's hard to stop once you've started - it's quite good actually.

The only problem that arose this year was that it was extended for the whole weekend with the results on Sundays. I thought it would be simple to just record and watch another day, but because we are so busy and it's hard not to find out when you're out on Mondays, it just became much tougher than I anticipated it to be. I haven't seen the final yet so that's 4 hours to catch up on tomorrow.

When you're making things complicated for yourself, I admit I was tempted to give up and just watch it at the usual time. MANY times. I never thought I would ever say that, but there you go.

However, luckily the Bible has something to say about that:


"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." 1 Corinthians 10:13

2 comments:

Eilidh said...

Interesting thoughts Emma,

A thought of my own. Did God create the Sabbath for us to rest or for us to obey a bunch of rules which someone else has for us, not God? Like you're saying, this fictional character wouldn't read the paper on Sunday because it was the Sabbath. Did she read the Monday paper? Because the Monday paper was printed on the Sunday, which means that someone else had to work on the Sabbath.

I've known people who won't hardly breathe on Sunday. I respect that, but I don't see the Biblical evidence for it. Jesus himself went into the fields and picked up food for himself and the disciples on the Sabbath. He healed people on the Sabbath. He understood it as a day of rest and a holy day, a special day on which he could worship God. But he didn't stop functioning! Whether he'd be watching the X Factor on Sunday is another question entirely (I think he might have had more trouble with the Saturday night show though, being Jewish!).

But it's an interesting point, and worth thinking about. Good post.

Michelle Riggs said...

The book sounds wonderful.

Thank you for praying for Abby.