Nancy Wilson's Blog, page 17

Childhood Cancer

Some of you may have a child with cancer, you may have cancer yourself, or you may have a friend with a child who is fighting cancer. But even if you don’t, you will still be blessed and encouraged to read this mother’s story of her son’s battle with leukemia. The battle isn’t over yet, but she has tasted the Lord’s victory over her own fear and worry.

The Human Shield

Many years ago when my husband was both in high school and working at a Chicago food restaurant, he burned himself badly. It was an exciting tale of the gas hose being loose and popping off behind the stove when a mop handle hit it, and the gas coming out of said hose while he crawled back behind the stove to fix it, just before he realized that the pilot light was still burning. He had flash burns all on his face, and some second degree burns as well as missing eyebrows and eyelashes. He went to school the next day with bandages here and there and a lot of Bacitracin on his face. His brother was at the same time running a political campaign at the school and saw his opportunity to have Luke advertise. So my husband stood outside of Chapel holding a sign that said, “Don’t get burned, vote for Mongold!”

Now one of the first results of this obvious stroke of genius was a furious girl who launched a rebuke. “This isn’t funny, Luke! People really get burned!! It’s not funny, and you should be ashamed of using something that hurts people for a joke!” It took a few minutes before she believed him that he himself was the burn victim she so cared for, and I think she still left the conversation with a parting shot about it not being funny.

I bring this up because this is something that I have noticed lately and that I believe is a real problem in Christians circles. Whenever someone says something about anything that might be interpreted as a standard, Christians bring out the victims. A christian woman says girls should be modest, and all everyone wants to talk about is sex trafficking tragedies. A pastor says our kids should not be in day care, and we can only see the women who have been abandoned by selfish men. Someone says we should be thankful for bread, but the conversation becomes entirely about the sorrow of the people who were put in a coma because of wheat allergies.  Someone says wives should submit to their husbands, and the whole world shrieks and waves their arms about battered women. We act like serious Christians don’t have the time (or the malice) to talk about little details of Christians life. But Scripture takes the time to mention it and I think it is important that we not shrug it off like we know better.

The thing is – and the heart of the matter, is that the hurt people are often not putting themselves there. They are brought out. They are held up as a human shield between Christians and conviction of sin. If there is teaching that might sting us, we want the weakest and the most hurt people to get in front of us and absorb it. “Don’t shoot! You’ll kill her! And she has already been through so much! You are so heartless!” But the person who is seeking to honor God in the details of their Christian walk is actually the one showing compassion.

The problem here is that many Christians have bought in to thinking that true compassion always talks about the saddest victims. If your heart is tender towards the troubled, towards the sinner, towards the molested, towards the needy, then you would bring them out by the neck, hold them in front of yourself and refuse to be held accountable to your own sin.  This is how we do it. What a refuge we are.

But the reality is that people are hurt by other people who do not take sin seriously, and do not hold themselves or others accountable for it.

True compassion accepts responsibility. True compassion does not flinch at conviction. True compassion believes that holding ourselves accountable is the only way to provide a safe haven for the hurt, for the needy, for the defenseless, and for the messed up. We do not want to be shielded from conviction, because hurt people need us to hear it. They need us to value purity. To value modesty. To value faithfulness. To value true compassion. To value mercy. To value truth. They need us to do this when it is not easy for us. They need us to do it when it goes against all of our impulses.

Christians should stand like a shield wall of faithfulness around the people who have needed that their whole lives. It is not kindness to use these people as excuses. It is furthering their status as victims, as the hurt, and as the reason we may indulge in sin. It does not matter if the sin that hurt them was a billion times worse than the sin you are currently committing. Hate your own petty sin like you would hate an infestation of bed bugs, because that is what it is like in the life of the church. This is what makes a comforting place a hell hole. This is how you change a restful place into a place of nightmares. By hiding sin. By refusing to deal with it. By thinking it is so little that it won’t make a difference.

Now, I know that many of you are probably already feeling angry about this. So let me assure you, I do not believe that everyone who does this is intentionally trying to shield themselves. I believe that we have lost track completely of what compassion is. We believe this is it. We believe compassion means getting bitter on behalf of people who have been hurt. We believe it means always using their story, Always holding them up as our mascot of the messed up. Opening their wounds up whenever we would like to stop a conversation and look kind at the same time.

Jesus Christ is the only answer to the brokenness of sin. When people have been ruined by sin, our answer should not be to only say Jesus to them, but to live like we know Jesus. We need to stop saying “Grace” to them, and actually  be Grace to them.

 

Why Modesty, Why?

Modesty can be a super discouraging topic of conversation, but it doesn’t need to be. Surely we can all discuss it like Christian women who are serious about what God has for us. Titus 2 lays out the things that are important for the older Christian women to be teaching the younger Christian women, and in that list there are three things that really stand out to me. 1) To be kind 2) To love their husbands and love their children and 3) To be self controlled and pure. Now each one of these things is very relevant to the topic of modesty.

Yet the topic of modesty continues to be one of the most outrageously emotional discussions that women get into. Quite possibly because this is a topic on which the teaching of the older women is often at odds with the desires of the younger. But Scripture is clear that the younger women need to be taught this. They do not spontaneously combust with this knowledge. They need to listen to women who have been around longer than they have and perhaps have some insight that they are missing.  I’d like to run through a quick ten points on the subject of modesty, which I hope will be helpful.

1) This discussion is not directed at unbelievers. These are not suggestions for springboard topics for your street evangelism. We are talking about how Christian women in our own churches ought to be viewing modesty. This is about practical Christian living.

2) Parents (and later on, husbands) who are respectable and trustworthy are absolutely critical. Many times in my youth I got myself into an outfit that I believed to be great, and appropriate, and cute, and perfect,  that was shot down by the authorities. Because I loved my parents this was a momentary disappointment, and because they loved me, it was always in kindness. But what if you do not have parents like this? Well then you need to be working to become this for your children. Wisdom will not grow where foolishness is being cultivated. Seek it out, and you will be richly rewarded.

3) Lets keep our priorities in mind here. I have heard many young girls take a stand that could boil down to, “If God doesn’t want me in bikinis then He isn’t a God for me!” Seriously?  Be honest with yourself here. I do not believe that Scripture calls us to be frumpy. But what if it did? Are you ready to walk away from the faith?

4) Thinking that the God who created breasts is too uptight for you is pretty awesome. He made sex. He made the desire to have it. He made the shapely girls and lusty boys. Refusing to listen to what your Creator tells you about yourself  is outrageous narcissism. Refusing to listen to your mother is bad too, though not as bad.

Many Christians act like the world invented sex, and God is too prudish to deal with it. Like the editors of Cosmo made this up in their little think tank and God hasn’t caught on to the trend yet. We are too hot for Him to handle! This is really embarrassing. God gave you that body, He gave you your sexuality, and He wants you to use it to His Glory. Think about that.

5) There is a lot of talk about not wanting to make the young Christian girls feel ashamed of their bodies. As though respecting your body and behaving modestly is going to result in a crisis of future bad lovers. First of all, total side point: there are many modest women in thriving marriages with loads of children. Sort that out.

But the most important thing is that there are far more young women who would rather have the Christians thinking they are worldly than the world thinking they are Christians. If they knew we were Christians it would ruin our witness. If they could tell by the swimsuit I wear that I believe God can see my actions, then my testimony would be blown. If my clothes said that I believed in abstinence before marriage I would be so embarrassed. We would rather be associated with the immoral women who wear pretty clothes than with the League of Godly Womanhood for the Domestic Future. There is something deeply wrong with this. We are more ashamed of the Body of Christ than we are of our own sexuality, and that is a far more spiritually crippling problem.

6) Some Christians overemphasize the lust of men to the point of making it the responsibility of women. This is silly and wrong.  Yet let’s consider this Titus 2 kindness again. About those leggings that aren’t pants, nor are they tights, nor are they underwear, (yet you are using them for all three). Those. Who are you serving with those? How are they serving your brothers? How are they serving your sisters? How are they serving you? And how are they serving God? Is God just pleased that your butt looks so great? Is He glad you found a way to make everyone look at it? Are the brothers who came to the Bible study to learn about The Gospel of Mark struggling through the logistics of your underwear usage instead? Are the sisters having to agonize over what to say to you since they know your friendship hangs in the balance? Here. I will say it. That is not kind. Be kind.

7) Scripture is abundantly clear about the immoral and immodest woman. When Christian parents teach their sons about the bad kind of women,they are pouring out mercy and strength to him. When a Christian mother says “you will know her by her immodest selfies on Facebook” the response of other Christians should be “amen!” and not what it currently is. We are so quick to fury about this. But if an immodest selfie is not standing in the gates with wanton eyes, I don’t know what is. Here is the deal. This is a main theme of Proverbs. Men! Stay away! If this hurts your feelings then you need to think about why, and you need to find a way to get your heart on track with Scripture on this.

8) Because we mistakenly believe that the world invented sex, we feel that an obedience to God is moving away from our sexuality. But God gave us our bodies with the intent that we use them to His glory. If you are not yet married, you can be honoring your Heavenly father and your future husband with how you use your body now. You can be protecting your future children now. I’m not even joking when I say that you are investing in your sexual future. Love, in your actions now, the people who will be dear to you then.

If you are a married woman, recognize that this body you have was given to you as a vessel of love, and joy, and satisfaction, and life. Carry your babies in gladness. See the stretch marks and changes in your body as a reminder of the grace that God is, and has, and will continue to pour out on you and through you. See the legacy that He is giving you to build in joy, and continue in joy as you build it.

Modesty is only a small component of the most complete sexual experience on the planet. The way God wants us doing this starts with vows before Him and ends with headstones beside each other. And when we are gone, the legacy of our love will be all wrapped up in people. Honor God in all the parts of that story – including the parts that are preparation. Do not get so fixated on what the cover of this book looks like to others that you neglect to think about the story inside. The world tells us that sex is all about self satisfaction and feeling good about yourself – it is a flashy, shiny cover that has cute shoes. But on the inside it is a story full of confusion, guilt, and sorrow while the heroine struggles to love herself.  But think about this. God tells us that it is all about loving others. Pouring yourself out for others. Investing in others. Giving life to others. And all because we are loved by Him first, and second by human reflections of that love. Let your story be a story of faithful love that tells of His.

9) Recognize that often times the issue is not the issue. The skimpy tank top that started the discussion was not the only reason for the concern. If immodest outfits were frozen in time with no meaning and no directionality, it wouldn’t matter so much. But this is your life being written and you just introduced a plot point that looks to be going to a bad place.

I think sometimes the older people feel like they have been watching the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp on endless repeat. Another young girl eating spaghetti that ends in kissing the world. Only the world is not a cute dog, it is a devouring sorrow. Stop eating!! I am not saying that this excuses people who get super shrill and panicky about modesty, but at least they are acknowledging the danger. Meanwhile the sweet little girls roll their eyes at the older women and say, “Oh. My. Word. Get a grip woman. I am just having a bite, or two, or three, or whoopsies!”

Related to this, it doesn’t matter how many times you have been wronged by up-tight modesty police in your life. Your duty before God continues. Stop thinking about how other people could best be nice about you and start thinking about how you can best be honoring God.

10) Let’s just be honest about how easy this actually is. We do not need to get tangled up in what modesty meant at different times and in different cultures. Just start with here, now. Picture a spectrum. On one side, put an immodest t-shirt. On the other, put a modest one. Where does yours lie between them? Is a skoochy strapless mini dress a modest dress in our era? Is a bikini a modest swimsuit in our era? Are you a modest girl in our era?

One of my daughters recently claimed that it was impossible to get onto our trampoline because of the unbelievable infestation of ants. They were swarming. They were biting. You absolutely could not pass. Any mother who would send her child into that piranha-like situation was completely heartless. So we went out there together to check and we were able to locate, after some time, one. It looked gentle. It was tiny. Pretty sure it didn’t bite.

This kind of behavior has become commonplace among Christian women. “It is impossible for me to find a shirt that does not show my cleavage. Impossible. ” “I have to wear skirts that slit up to my insufficient skivvies because my legs can’t walk otherwise. It’s tough, but I hold up ok.” ” I never KNOW when I am bending over ostentatiously! I forget that I have such an ample bosom when I am getting it out for a little performance.” “I can’t wear a bra that provides any kind of modesty. It is annoying to me to have straps or closures.” “I simply am unable to swim otherwise.”

Come on ladies! Surely we are up to a challenge. And the ants aren’t going to eat us alive. I promise.

 

Indulge me in a parable . . .

Once upon a time, in a church far, far away, there lived a not-very-attractive middle-aged woman who was terribly insecure. She seemed to both resent and fear any and all attractive women, and she also considered herself to have “the gift of rebuke.” Because of this happy combination of character traits, her duty was clear. She appointed herself as the Modesty Sheriff, and she diligently and patiently informed the women in her church whenever she felt that their skirt was too tight. Or when a slip or a strap was showing. Or if they needed to be more careful about their posture. Needless to say, no one liked her much, and behind her back she was called Cranky Fun-Buster.

But she doesn’t come into this story at all.

In a different church (your church actually) there was a very young and very cute girl. So cute, indeed, that whenever she went to the mall, random pimply teenage boys would ask for her phone number. When she walked down Main Street, truckers honked and whistled. She kinda liked it. Well ok, let’s be frank. She really liked it. So much so that she started to really work it. She noticed that the shorter her skirts were, the better the reaction, so she began to shop accordingly. The skimpier the bathing suit, the better the day at the beach – which made her bathing suit choice a no-brainer. She filed away all those whistles in her heart, and when she thought about them they made her smile. Her shirts got tighter, and as she walked down the street she learned to spend most of her time in her peripheral vision – anxious to see if any guys were noticing her.

Of course she couldn’t say any of this out loud. If she’d been a pagan cheerleader down at the local highschool she could (and would) have talked about it all day long. But she was a Christian girl, so she had to pretend that none of it was happening. It was tricky to do, but she mastered it in the end. Her solution was elegantly simple – what she did was to burn down the bridge between her internal self and her external self. Her internal self counted whistles. Her external self said, “Geez Mom – it’s not about that at ALL. What do you think I am? I didn’t even notice that he was looking at me.”

Of course, all this meant that her nickname really should have been Hypocrite Pants, but she was very careful never to let anyone get a glimpse into her internal self and she had mastered a very sincere and genuine facial expression which fooled many people. As a matter of fact, she had also managed to fool herself. She carefully avoided ever noticing that her internal self flatly contradicted everything her external self said, and vice versa. Her internal self practiced her best sultry-pouty-lip-face in the bedroom mirror, her external self practiced her wide-eyed, slightly tearful, I-can’t-believe-you-would-even-say-that face which she used when speaking with her parents.

Every so often this girl heard some older woman speaking about modesty. If she thought about it very much she would inexplicably get very angry, so she cultivated an ability to not listen. If and when that failed, her next defense was to pretend that this woman was in fact The Legendary Cranky Fun-Buster. (Everyone has heard of Cranky Fun-Buster, even though very few of us have actually met her.)

This young girl grew up, and as she did, her addiction to male attention grew as well. But so did her knowledge of Scripture and theology. She grew past her, “la la la I can’t hear you” defense, and began to manufacture a defense of the way she dressed that sounded much more mature and Scripturaly relevant. She said things like,

“For pity’s sake – the verse about modesty is NOT about cleavage. Grow up people! Paul was actually speaking about ostentation which is really a heart attitude more than anything.”

“The Bible has ONE verse on modesty. Count em – ONE. Would everyone please stop panicking about bikinis? Let’s be mature people – please.”

“The Bible never tells us what modesty actually means – and these things are obviously societily determined. Latching onto a particular dress code simply creates a legalism which is far more deadly than legs.”

“Lust is definitely a problem, but it’s really the man’s duty to guard his heart and be righteous. We women can’t be responsible for a man’s thought life. That’s really between him and God.”

This tactic worked for the most part. When the young woman ran across posts like this online, she groaned and rolled her eyes to all her friends on facebook about the embarrassing naivete displayed by women who get “so wound up” about modesty. She was aggressive enough about it that lots of ladies who ought to have known better felt kind of stupid about the whole thing and so they chimed in with their agreement. What we all need to do, they agreed on facebook, was to worry less about modesty. Let’s be adults for heaven’s sake.

But then one night something very awkward happened. A very difficult fairy named Be-Sure-Your-Sin-Will-Find-You-Out visited her while she slept and tapped her with her Wand of Consistency. When the girl woke up, she had a thought bubble above her head in which everyone could read every thought which passed through her brain. As she stood in front of her closet deciding what to wear, her roommate saw the thought bubble say, “Ooh – I’m walking past that construction site today. Definitely the tight jeans. And heels. And I’ll wear my hair down. They won’t be able to handle it.”

Well you can imagine how embarrassing this situation was. The girl was so deeply in the habit of thinking this way that she absolutely couldn’t stop herself. And everyone all day long saw every licentious thought which passed through her head. At church everyone saw her comparing herself to the married women and speculating about whether the husbands were struggling with contentment. Everyone saw exactly what was going through her head as she walked past the row of college guys – as she imagined to herself what they were thinking. (AND they all saw her spell “hot” with an “aw” as she pictured to herself what was going through their heads.) Everyone saw her compare herself to every other girl in the room. They all saw the flicker of fear when she noticed a girl prettier than she was.

And suddenly everyone saw that girl exactly the way God had always seen that girl. As Hypocrite Pants. And suddenly all her mature statements about modesty became simply pathetic – obvious and embarrassing covers for her own lust problem. Everyone saw, in horrible clarity, the truth that a lustful man lusts after a woman – but a lustful woman lusts to be lusted after. And everyone saw – as clear as day – that her biggest problem certainly wasn’t the bikini that they had all been worried about. It was her hard heart. And her pride. And her self deception. And her dishonesty. And her lust.

Choose your own adventure: How does it end?

1. The girl broke down and repented. She gave up all her inconsistencies, all her self deception, all her self righteousness, and prayed that God would help her to die to herself every single day. She prayed that God would convict her whenever she started down that path again. She took down all her stupid facebook self-justifications and threw away all her immodest clothes. She prayed that God would help her to be honest with herself, and that she would learn to differentiate between beauty, which God loves, and immodesty, which He hates.

2. The girl pretended the thought bubble wasn’t there and continued on just as before. Only no one would talk to her anymore.

Chokey chokey choke choke

The other morning while we were in a frenzy of putting hair in ponytails and putting lunch bags with school bags and finding shoes and reminding Chloe to take a bite again, Blaire broke a necklace. It was made by Daphne with regular sewing thread and a lot of different colored plastic beads. The little beads scattered all over the dining room and no one even really stopped to think about it (including Daphne who laughed at Blaire’s apology). We kept on with our hustle and our bustle. But because man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, Shadrach did not forget. He sought out those beads. He crawled around in them and popped them in his mouth. He belly crawled under chairs and stretched fat fingers out to their limits. I kept hauling him out of the beads and putting him somewhere else – eventually in high chair with a Ritz cracker.

Later in the day, I wondered to myself what Shadrach was doing so quietly and found him, yet again, rollicking in the beads. This time I was actually cleaning the house up and so I swept up the beads and eliminated that problem. I couldn’t help seeing how much this is like all of life with little kids. When there are choking hazards on the floors of our soul, you can trust your children to find them. You can trust them to keep on sitting in them until they actually do choke. Be sure your sins will find you out, and be sure your children will find them out first. 

If I lose perspective on my life and start feeling selfish and grumpy, it is like shattering a million beads into the lives of my children. Anger can sprinkle their lives like broken glass on the floor. Discontent and contention with your husband might not feel like a huge threat to you (though it is), but to your children it is like barbed wire. Bitterness. Strife. Envy. Harshness. To you they might feel like an understandable mistake, but to your children it is a great sorrow. Your children cannot escape and ignore these things like you do.

My Dad has always said that the difference between a clean house and a dirty house is not how many things are dropped, but how many things are picked up. When sin shatters on the floor for us – we might just try to ignore it, not walk that way, not look in that closet, not take our shoes off. Ignore the crunch of the glass beneath your feet, or the stickiness as you walk. We might plan to clean it up later when we feel motivated to, and when we have time. But when we have children these things are basically thrown in their face. Their whole world is this. What falls off our branches falls directly into their lives. And this is why your petty sin is not petty to your children. It is fundamental.

This is why cleaning up the little sins is not a picture of being uptight and worrisome, it is simply being faithful to love and nurture your children as you should. Cleaning up discontent is pouring out long- suffering. Cleaning up harshness is pouring out gentleness. Cleaning up selfishness is pouring out kindness. Cleaning up disrespect of your husband is pouring out faithfulness. Cleaning up worry is pouring out peace. Cleaning up snippiness is pouring out patience. Cleaning up the words you said in haste is pouring out self control. Cleaning up the sins of the flesh is pouring out the fruit of the Spirit.

It is so easy for us to act like the Fruits of the Spirit only exist in a sin-free vacuum when often times the fruit of the Spirit are seen in how hostile we are to our own sin. The fruits of the Spirit are not lazy and unchallenged. They do not grow in a hothouse to a  fat bubble of shiny sweetness. The fruit of the Spirit are grown in wind and rain and stormy weather.

So take this as an encouragement to be quick to clean.Ask the Lord to show you what you have missed, what you have ignored, what you have been living with so long that you don’t see it anymore. Then, when all that is left is a faint stickiness, a little grit, a haze of dust – use joy like mop water for the soul- gratitude and laughter sloshing all over your life, picking up any little snark, any little envy, or unkindness, and pouring it down the drain.

 

The Church with Thick Ankles

It is incredibly easy to criticize your own church. Chances are good that your church is not friendly enough, does not hold each other up in prayer enough, isn’t hospitable enough, doesn’t have enough outreach to young moms, doesn’t do enough mercy ministry, or any other of a number of things that can frustrate or annoy us. And the reality is that many churches are failing in many ways – missing out on all kinds of opportunities that they should be taking. But there is a subtle lie that sneaks in and twists our perspective on this.

The church is like a body. Paul describes it this way – explaining how all the parts do different things, and that is a design feature. When we develop a critical spirit and complain and fuss about things that our church is not doing, it is like we have finally found what our role can be. We could be the part of the body that commits itself to developing poor body image. We will be the eyes that look in the mirror and shame the body for having cellulite – who compare the body we have been given to some photoshopped fakery that we think people have. What a wonderful role! We could be the carping, criticizing, shaming, fussing, complaining, destructive part of the body!

I can’t count the times that I have heard people refer to “The church’s responsibility”, or “The church’s role” when talking about an issue. Should the church look out for single mothers? By all means. Should the church feed the hungry? Of course. Should the church reach out to the lonely? Always. Should the church provide resources for learning and growing in scripture? Yes.

But the thing that so often seems to create a disconnect is this unfortunate reality: you are the church. It is us. We are it. The church is responsible to look out for the widows and feed the hungry, because Christians are responsible to do these things. We are Christians, this is our problem. If you see a specific problem, maybe you should read that as God calling you to action. You think people aren’t friendly? Figure something out. You think people in your church aren’t being welcomed? Welcome them. You think that people aren’t focusing on mercy ministry? Well then, live mercifully.

Ronald Reagan once said, “There is no end to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” And this may actually be at the heart of the matter. We don’t mind exercising our gifts when people know it is our gifts. But it bothers us to become assumed. To be taken for granted. To have people call our gifts theirs.  We don’t want the rest of the body just assuming that it can run on this ankle without concern. God called us to this life together so that we might do things, and it wasn’t stand in front of the mirror and compare ourselves to other churches. It wasn’t getting together so that we might accuse one another of not being enough.

If you see a failing in your church, you have your chance to fill a need. If you see a weakness, chip in. If you think of something that would be good for your church to do, you have thought of something that would be good for you to do. Because make no mistake about it – you are your church, and your church is you.

Design Class Update

The fashion and fabric design class starts next week – and I found out that they have extended the deadline so it’s still possible to sign up! There are a few slots in the class left – so if anyone was saying to themselves, “Durn -  I missed my chance,” it turns out that you still sneak in before things get underway. Thanks to all of you who signed up! I’m looking forward to it – should be lots of fun!

Blowing the Budget

You know what’s awkward? Accidentally taking such a long break from blogging that you have to open up your post by saying that you are not pregnant. Nope. I have not been too busy puking to blog – which is great. Of course this brings up the question of why I have fallen off the map so entirely, and I will tell you. It has been summer. Things have been wild in that way that only the end of summer can be -when the lawn is dead and only the thistles grow tall.

Inside the house has also been something of a trip. It turns out that six active, delightful, busy, busy, busy children is something of a job.  I have been trying to incorporate working out again and that has felt like trying to hang a purse on a moving ceiling fan. I moved the computer downstairs to make room for a new table that plays into extending our regular table to 17 1/2 feet. And that is not quite long enough for a regular Sabbath dinner. Hilarious. But the real problem is that now when I get the kitchen clean and the living room tidied and the junk on the stairs picked up and things  fairly decent enough that sitting down to write something is not unseemly – now I walk downstairs to the room by the laundry room with a view to the playroom. This is not helpful for the writing. Add that the plug here is right next to the Calico Critter playing table which makes it easily bumped and frequently shuts down the computer. And that is just enough thwart to be effective.

Of course all the things that are keeping me away are not troubles caused by overactive Calico Critters. Some are new hobbies. We now have a potters wheel and a kiln in the garage. I am not even joking. We get the kids in bed at night and then go out in the garage and goof off with clay. This is turning into it’s own problem – drying bowls and pots and mugs all over the place – but it is also totally fun and funny. We finally got the kiln wired so soon we should actually finish something all the way – rather than just having tons of greenware piling up on shelves everywhere. At first we were calling ourselves the Wonky Pot Emporium, but we are gradually learning to make something on purpose that ends up straight. Woah.

Blaire asked me the other day if she could make a tower and I said sure because I knew she was at the table where they usually color. But soon enough I found that she had snagged a box of butter out of the fridge and made a tower. Awesome. Because that had not occurred to me.

But don’t worry! We will soon kill the thistles too. We will move the computer. We will pull out the carpet that has become something of a coffee crime scene. We will make that run to the dump. We will start having an excessive amount of serving bowls that can actually be used. And let me tell you – when that all happens it will be time to start something else, to make a new mess, to press on with all the fatty parts of the meat of life. Because this life is meant to be spent – and you know what? We are blowing right through it without a budget.

 

Hope You Can Join Us For…

True Companion

Years ago I started a little newsletter for ministers’ or elders’ wives that I sent out via email. I started out writing it rather regularly, and it gradually became sporadic to practically nonexistent. But Canon Press has helpfully gathered them all up into a book called True Companion that is now available here for preorder.

Pastors’ wives need all the encouragement they can get from one another, and I sincerely hope this book will be a helpful tool for all of you who labor behind the man who labors behind the pulpit, as well as for those of you who labor in other ways in the church.

I have to say that I love the cover. For many years Doug has driven a pick up truck. He started out with an old yellow one. Then came William the Orange (a very old truck that once drifted out of its parking space and into busy traffic…). And then ten years ago he was upgraded to a much newer green one, which he still drives (and loves). I think they have all been Fords…and I don’t know if the one on the cover of my book is or not. But still. It’s cute.

If you click on over to Canon, you’ll see the fun deals they are offering.