Welcome

Hey, welcome to the Bright House! Or a tiny part of it, anyway—we’ll get to that later.

I’m assuming you’re here to learn more about me and this blog. Children of the Day is a blog designed to help teens live out their faith in the modern world without isolating themselves or compromising their faith. Basically, being very in the world but definitely not of it. 

To that end, I’ll be making two types of posts here: structured articles explaining some thoughts on the Christian life, and random musings sharing my current thoughts on a related topic (Thoughts From the Bright House). Sometimes, it can be so easy to take everything the world tells us—that we haven’t been explicitly warned about—as a given. But the Bible tells us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves”, meaning we need to be on the lookout for the many harmful worldviews buried so deep as to be invisible. We’re all still figuring it out, but hopefully, we can do it together!

Who Am I?

I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? I’m Beatrice, a Christian teen who’s passionate about thinking deeply about every idea I encounter. I’ve grown up in a weird mix of two worlds—I go to a public school where, although there are plenty of other professing Christians, no one thinks about their faith the way my family does; but we’re very involved in our church community, and, to put it bluntly, (almost) all my friends are homeschoolers. Of course, a given homeschool family and a public school one can be quite similar, but they’re separate cultures, and I think that’s influenced my thoughts and experiences in an interesting way.

My identity is in Christ, but there are a few things that are still very important to my personality:

1. I’m a writer. You’re reading my blog, so that’s probably not much of a surprise. I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, but most of my fiction is nowhere near ready to share with the internet at large.
2. Currently, my life is centered around (well, God, but you know what I mean…) Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, Ninjago, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 and Rise, if you’re curious).
3. I’m also very interested in MBTI and, for some reason, linguistics
4. I’ve been doing Taekwondo for the past five years
5. I’m a PCA Presbyterian, and I love my denomination!
6. I have lived in East Tennessee since I was eight months old, and it’s my favorite place in the world.
7. And I’m the oldest of four girls!

Who Are You?

You’re probably a Christian teen, like me, or at least somewhere around that age. You also probably love God and want to understand how to follow Him in a world so radically different from what it should be. You want to stay strong in your faith while being active in the world around you. Maybe you love listening to other peoples’ ideas and wish you had more opportunities for interesting dialogue with people your age.

(Or maybe you’re my grandmother.)

Christianity is always countercultural. Sometimes it’s explicitly so, like in an area where people are being jailed or killed for their faith. Sometimes it’s less noticeable, but still clear if you’re looking, like here in modern America or other areas of the West. Sometimes it’s in “Christian” societies, where nominal Christianity is expected and social norms are built on Biblical laws, but many sins go unnoticed or affirmed. Despite this, the goal isn’t to be countercultural—there are plenty of countercultural ideas that are evil! Instead, “countercultural” just kind of happens. But it always will if you’re following Jesus.

What to Expect

You can expect posts every other Friday (unless I let you know beforehand)! There will be some more traditional articles, and some collections of thoughts I’ve had lately—I want to share a mix of both because I love writing in each category.

What’s With the Name?

Well, “Children of the Day” comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness.) I thought it summed up the purpose of my blog well—to discuss being “children of the day”. And it appealed to my dramatic side.

Now, what about this “Bright House”? I mentioned it at the beginning of this post, and some of my posts will be categorized as “Thoughts From the Bright House”. So what does it mean? Well honestly, and perhaps disappointingly, the Bright House is something I made up (though it probably contains some obvious pop culture reference that I don’t understand). And it’s my term for God’s people.

That seems random, so let me explain. My favorite book series is C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy and my favorite book in that series is That Hideous Strength. The first time I read it I was struck by the atmosphere of Dr. Ransom’s house, where Jane ends up living. It is ruled by a wise leader who teaches and improves every member of the household, contains a variety of people with differing roles and levels of authority, and works in an organic yet systematic manner.

But that wasn’t what truly made an impression on me. There was a feeling to the place that I can’t quite describe—it seemed beautiful and ordered, and every time I pictured it I imagined it flooded with golden evening sunlight.

I (re)-christened it the Bright House.

And, for previously mentioned reasons, I couldn’t help connecting it to the house (family) of believers that God rules. I ran to my notebook and jotted down, “God as Master of the Bright House”, thinking it sounded pretty cool, but would seem pretty stupid in a year or so.

Well, about a year later (that is, a few months ago), I was flipping through my notebook and remembered the concept. And, happily, it didn’t seem at all stupid—though I’m confident it will be next year. Till then, I’m going to use it all I can.
So, why Thoughts From the Bright House? Because they’re my thoughts, and I’m part of the Bright House. Your thoughts are thoughts from the Bright House too if you’re a child of God. And, of course, these particular thoughts will involve what it means to be a member of the Bright House, what my role is in the Bright Household, and hopefully nothing too boring.

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