After learning that my second little one is a girl, I have been thinking lots about my grandma. As I wrote two weeks ago, my baby girl will be her great-grandma’s name sake and I can’t wait to tell her how privileged she will be to carry that name.
That brings me to our latest idea here at girltalk, which I’m very excited about. With Mother’s Day just around the corner (for all of our closet guy readers, it’s never too early to start shopping for your mom or wife) we thought it would be fun to borrow a bit from the past. Two years ago we asked you to submit tributes to your mom from which we chose several to post the week of Mother’s Day. This year we want to honor grandmothers. We know many of you have a grandmother who has had a profound influence on your family, and we would love to hear about her life and legacy. Now this could be your grandma, your husband’s grandma or even someone in your life that has been like a grandma to you. Or maybe you want to honor your children’s grandma (your mom or mother-in-law). Write up a tribute and send it in! We will choose some of our favorites to post the week leading up to Mother’s Day. Oh, and please include a picture if at all possible.
Our deadline to receive tributes is Friday, May 2nd. Just click the “Email me” link on the left-hand sidebar and send away.
All this week we’ve been “apart for the gospel” but today we are “together for the gospel” with our husbands and children. Here’s a little video to send you singing (or not) into the weekend…
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:19
When I read Psalm 34:19 this morning, three friends immediately came to mind. One has a little girl in the middle of chemotherapy treatment. Another has a husband who is experiencing seizures while she is enduring severe morning sickness from her sixth pregnancy. Still another friend has a daughter with epilepsy, and only this week she learned that there may be some health concerns with her younger daughter as well. Talk about many afflictions! I cannot relate to the kind of suffering that my friends are enduring.
You too may be suffering many afflictions. They may be health or job related, they may be relational or spiritual. If so, may dear Mr. Spurgeon’s comments on this verse give you hope:
Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Thus are they made like Jesus their covenant head. Scripture does does not flatter us like the story books with the idea that goodness will secure us from trouble; on the contrary, we are again and again warned to expect tribulation while we are in this body. But – blessed “but,” how it takes the sting out of the previous sentence! – But the Lord delivers him out of them all. Through troops of ills Jehovah will lead his redeemed scatheless and triumphant. There is an end to the believer’s affliction, and a joyful end too.
My righteous friends, may this “blessed ‘but’” ring long and loud in your ears today! May the truth of the second half of this verse be greater to you than the first. Yes, we may have to suffer many afflictions in this lifetime. But God has promised to deliver us from every one! Not some of them, or most of them, but “them all!” Our trials will come to an end—a joyous triumphant end!
I pray these words will comfort my three dear friends, and all of you, today.
This week, our husbands, (and maybe yours) are attending the Together for the Gospel Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. And while they are joined “together” for the gospel, our friend, Laurie, over at “Ordinary Mother” wrote a wonderful post about how we are “apart” for the gospel. Maybe your husband is away on a business trip or serving in another capacity. I know that her post will encourage those of you that have given up your husbands this week. Read it here.
Every week here at girltalk we receive emails from single women who have questions about relationships with guys. How do I know if this is the guy I should marry? What do I do about my feelings for a guy when he hasn’t expressed any interest? How do I deal with a broken heart? What if my parent’s don’t approve of my relationship? How do I wait patiently for God to bring the right one for me? What if the right one never comes?
Many of these difficult questions require on-site advice from pastors and friends. However, on the Na blog today, Erin Sutherland shares how a little girl reminded her of God’s answer to all relationship questions—and indeed, to all of life’s questions. Be sure to check it out.
The blog Of First Importance boasts authors from Thomas Watson and Charles Spurgeon to JI Packer and Sinclair Ferguson. Every day, the owners of this blog post thoughts from these esteemed men on the topic of greatest importance: the gospel. Several days ago they posted this illuminating quote by Thomas Brooks. I immediately printed it out and pinned it up on the bulletin board above my desk:
“That Christian who has free grace, who has free justification, who has the mediatorial righteousness of Christ, who has the satisfaction of Christ, who has the covenant of grace most constantly in his sight, and most frequently warm upon his heart—that Christian, of all Christians in the world, is most free from a world of fears, and doubts, and scruples which do sadden, sink, perplex, and press down a world of other Christians, who daily eye more what Christ is a-doing in them, and what they are a-doing for Christ, than they do eye either his active or passive obedience. Christ has done great things for his people, and he has suffered great things for his people, and he has purchased great things for his people, and he has prepared great things for his people; yet many of his own dear people are so taken up with their own hearts, and with their own duties and graces, that Christ is little eyed by them or minded by them! This is the great reason why so many Christians, who will certainly go to heaven—do walk in darkness, and lie down in sorrow.” - Thomas Brooks, A Cabinet of Choice Jewels
I’m one of those Christians who is often more focused on what Christ is doing in me or what I should be doing for Him than the great things He has already suffered and done for me. I want to take this advice to heart and daily walk in the joy of my salvation.
A friend sent this to me and it gave me a good laugh. Definitely a show I would enjoy watching!
Hope you enjoy some spring weather this weekend! Kristin for the girls
The next “Survivor” series:
Six
married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six
weeks.
Each
kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes
There
is no fast food.
Each
man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all
homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of
‘pretend’ bills with not enough money.
In
addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.
Each
man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send
cards out on time.
Each
man must also take each child to a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.
He must
make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.
He
must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.
Each
man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers
outside and keeping it presentable at all times.
The
men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores
are done.
The
men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear
uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows
groomed.
During
one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back
aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or
slow down from other duties.
They
must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to
spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
They
will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night and in the
morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00
am.
A
test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be
required to know all of the following information: each child’s birthday, height,
weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor’s name. Also the child’s weight at
birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child’s favorite color,
middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest
fear and what they want to be when they grow up. The kids vote them off the
island based on performance. The last man wins only if…he still has enough
energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment’s notice.
If
the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for
the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be called Mother!
The theme of the book is to explore what’s happened in the last 200 years in terms of feminist thinking and to sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly to understand our culture’s current thinking and how that compares/contrasts with what the Bible teaches. We’ll look at issues related to men, marriage, children, domesticity, sexuality, and the church. My goal is not to create an us/them self-righteous dialogue about feminism for two reasons: 1) Scripture teaches us that our real enemy is not flesh and blood; and 2) intellectual honesty demands that we acknowledge feminists initially addressed serious problems for women. We have derived some (limited) benefits from the three waves of feminism (1848 to today), but we need to be wise about how our culture thinks about key issues. Good observation does not make for correct interpretation. The interpretation has actually created many more problems for women. So that’s why in today’s world it’s truly radical for a woman to live in a counter-cultural way, glorifying God.
On second thought, maybe I don’t want to wait the six months plus the couple of days it will take my Amazon.com order to ship. Maybe, come October 1st, I’ll camp outside my local bookstore with other Carolyn McCulley fans to get the very first copy that hits the shelves.
In the meantime, we can all listen to Carolyn’s recent messages on Radical Womanhood shared with the women of CrossWay Community Church in Charlotte, NC a few weeks ago. They won’t last you until October but they’ll be great weekend listening.
My Grandma makes the best donuts in the world. Oh and her homemade bread, toasted with some butter—it really doesn’t get much better than that. My love for my mom’s mom goes a lot deeper than food of course, but I cannot write about her without at least mentioning her yummy cooking!
My mom dedicated her book, Feminine Appeal, to my grandma and wrote the final chapter as a tribute to her. These lines are the perfect description of this lady that I’m privileged to call “Grandma”…
“Now if you had the honor of meeting Margaret, you would at once be impressed by her joy. But her vivacious, delightful character is most conspicuous in the arena of her home. She’s always smiling or singing. She is excited by the simplest of pleasures. She loves to laugh—so hard the tears run down her cheeks. And all through the years she marshaled this joyful energy for the well-being of her family. Never once did her children hear her complain. And not until they had children of their own did they comprehend the sacrifices she had made, for all her sacrifices had been masked by her perpetual joy.”
My grandma is one of my heroes. She’s a woman whose life I want to emulate and I will never be able to thank her enough for the legacy that she has given me.
That is why my second daughter will bear her name: Margaret Janelle. We’ll call her “MJ” and Lord willing, she will meet her great-grandmother at the end of August.
We’ve been considering our words the past few days. But what should we do when someone else’s words about our husband are critical or complaining? In a recent post on my dad’s blog, Mom shares thoughts for pastors’ wives (and all wives, really) on “How to Help Your Husband When He’s Criticized.”
. So what that it’s not due out until October 1, 2008. I’m just that excited about it. And you should be too.
