James Fenton:
The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.
Friday, August 22, 2008
For Grandma Gross
Maddie-For Grandma Gross: Potty training before her two year old birthday. God bless her!
And reading a fishing magazine of course.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Love Lavishly
Friends, I recently watched the beautiful transformation of the women on Enchanted April, a Merchant and Ivory film that I think is well worth your next Netflix pick.
In it Lottie moves from a woman who "meets out love in teaspoons" to a woman who has found abundance and can therefore love lavishly.
Yesterday with our Tuesday morning "Luminous Women" group in our little yellow cottage, we looked at the "Kitchen Service" chapter from Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and encountered the lavish loving of Jesus who washed his disciples feet.
Here's the opening verse of John 13:
"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
He was showing them, making them feel what lavish love looked like (creating a sense memory of His humble, abundant love) and there was certainly no "meeting it out in teaspoons."
The question is, can I (we) be so secure in the lavish love of God, spending enough time in His presence that it overflows into our home, our neighborhood and the surrounding world?
Shine bright, dear ones, but remember, your light will grow dim fast if it is only your own light.
In it Lottie moves from a woman who "meets out love in teaspoons" to a woman who has found abundance and can therefore love lavishly.
Yesterday with our Tuesday morning "Luminous Women" group in our little yellow cottage, we looked at the "Kitchen Service" chapter from Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and encountered the lavish loving of Jesus who washed his disciples feet.
Here's the opening verse of John 13:
"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
He was showing them, making them feel what lavish love looked like (creating a sense memory of His humble, abundant love) and there was certainly no "meeting it out in teaspoons."
The question is, can I (we) be so secure in the lavish love of God, spending enough time in His presence that it overflows into our home, our neighborhood and the surrounding world?
Shine bright, dear ones, but remember, your light will grow dim fast if it is only your own light.
Mommy Vitamin of the day
The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery. The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests. ~Author Unknown
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Motherhood and Perspective
GK Chesterton (a friend of CS Lewis) has the following encouraging words about motherhood:
“I can understand how [mothering] might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about arithmetic, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”
Thank you GK. I needed that.
“I can understand how [mothering] might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about arithmetic, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”
Thank you GK. I needed that.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Joy
An underused word.
So, where does it come from and how is it related to happiness? Here's my definition: Happiness is something that I have worked at manufacturing from the outside in and joy comes from God from the inside out.
A few weeks ago I started to ask God to provide joy for me and was shocked with the tiny but beautiful moments in my life where my heart burst open like a spring. The most surprising and seemingly ordinary, was a moment at which I heard God say in my spirit, "Summer, here is beauty for your morning, enjoy." Right then, the sun burst through the leaves glittering and shimmering. Even more surprising was that my heart rose up to meet it. (Let me tell you that it was definetely not self-created because I was marching up killer hill from South Beach towards St. Basils with 2 kids in the stroller, exhausted.) But, wow, I received beauty and couldn't help but laugh!
What a total revelation - I can trust the creator of joy to lovingly hand it out. God just wants us to know that He is the Giver, the Lover, the Bestower...Of course!
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (NIV James 1:17)
AND below, thanks to the easily understandable Message Bible:
Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. James 1:17 (The Message)
So, where does it come from and how is it related to happiness? Here's my definition: Happiness is something that I have worked at manufacturing from the outside in and joy comes from God from the inside out.
A few weeks ago I started to ask God to provide joy for me and was shocked with the tiny but beautiful moments in my life where my heart burst open like a spring. The most surprising and seemingly ordinary, was a moment at which I heard God say in my spirit, "Summer, here is beauty for your morning, enjoy." Right then, the sun burst through the leaves glittering and shimmering. Even more surprising was that my heart rose up to meet it. (Let me tell you that it was definetely not self-created because I was marching up killer hill from South Beach towards St. Basils with 2 kids in the stroller, exhausted.) But, wow, I received beauty and couldn't help but laugh!
What a total revelation - I can trust the creator of joy to lovingly hand it out. God just wants us to know that He is the Giver, the Lover, the Bestower...Of course!
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (NIV James 1:17)
AND below, thanks to the easily understandable Message Bible:
Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. James 1:17 (The Message)
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