I haven’t participated in one of Homeschool Diva’s Photo Fridays in a while but thought I would jump in again. This week’s theme is “A bit of Whimsy”. So, here’s my whimsical, playful photo that makes me smile today. Make a wish…
Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman
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Before I moved to Prague I knew very little about this area of the world. Even though I majored in History in college, I still feel like I didn’t really know all that much about the area that I now live in. I’m guessing that many of you also aren’t all that familiar with the history of Prague or the Czech lands. So, I decided that I want to occasionally post a history blog so that you can better understand this place that I live and maybe a bit about why I choose to live here.
Let’s start with a brief account of Cyril and Methodius…
It is said that Christianity came to the region with the great missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. They are often referred to as “Apostles to the Slavs” and their work did much to influence the development of the region. Though German missionaries had been in the area before Cyril and Methodius they had not seen much success in converting the area. Cyril and Methodius took a different approach from the German missionaries and the results were also quite different. They translated the Bible into what is now know as Old Church Slavonic, which allowed liturgies to be said in the common language of the people. In order to do this they created a Slavic alphabet which is in use in many places even to this day. There were of course those who opposed their use of the Slavic language and who argued that Latin alone should be the language of the church and church documents, but because of the success of Cyril and Methodius’ mission both Rome and Constantinople honored them.
I think the story of Cyril and Methodius is very interesting. It seems to me that they at least partly cared about meeting people where they were. At a time when most church services where performed in Latin and when many missionaries insisted on Latin being used, Cyril and Methodius reached people in their native tongue. They entered into the lives of the Slavic people. The brothers worked in Moravia for just less than five years but because they taught the people in their own language they have been forever remembered as the ones to really bring Christianity to the Slavic lands.
It seems that often today we do the same thing that the German missionaries did, we try to convert people by forcing them to do things our way. Maybe we don’t make them do their service in Latin, but we do make them conform to our cultural standards. Cyril and Methodius didn’t do that, they allowed the people to be Slavic instead of trying to make them something they weren’t.
Lord, may we each minister to those around us without trying to take them someplace they aren’t ready to go. Without trying to force anything to happen. Without trying to make them look and act like us. May we meet people where they are at and reach out to them in ways that allow them freedom to be who you made them to be.
Rejoicing in the journey –
Bethany Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)Today I finished reading Outliers
This book is about “The Story of Success” – basically he talks about how many of the things that we think make people successful aren’t necessarily the whole story. He argues that much of what makes someone successful are the opportunities they are given and the culture they are born into. He writes:
“People don’t rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It’s not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”
This is not a book to help you learn how you can pull yourself up by the boot straps and be successful. It’s much broader and bigger than that. It’s more about how we as a larger group of people can understand success culturally and instead of blocking success for people can extend the boundaries and give more opportunities for more people to be successful.
“The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsoft’s would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all. If Canada had a second hockey league for those children born in the last half of the year, it would today have twice as many adult hockey stars. Now multiply that sudden flowering of talent by every field and profession. The world could be so much richer than the world we have settled for.”
I found this book to be incredibly intriguing and I encourage you to read it as well.
Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany
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Beth Stedman. wife. mommy. daughter. friend. homemaker. sinner. believer. writer. cook. dreamer. artist. yogi. photographer. more.
