"For it is God’s love that warms me in the sun and God’s love that sends the cold rain. It is God’s love that feeds me in the bread I eat and God that feeds me also by hunger and fasting. It is the love of God that sends the winter days when I am cold and sick, and the hot summer when I labor and my clothes are full of sweat: but it is God Who breathes on me with light winds off the river and in the breezes out of the wood. His love spreads the shade of the sycamore over my head and sends the water-boy along the edge of the wheat field with a bucket from the spring while the laborers are resting and the mules stand under the tree.It is God’s love that speaks to me in the birds and streams; but also behind the clamor of the city God speaks to me in His judgments, and all these things are seeds sent to me from His will.
If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if His will would grow from my freedom, I would become the love that He is, and my harvest would be His glory and my own joy.
And I would grow together with thousands and millions of other freedoms into the gold of one huge field praising God, loaded with increase, loaded with wheat. If in all things I only consider the heat and the cold, the food or the hunger, the sickness or labor, the beauty or pleasure, the success and failure or the material good or evil my works have won for my own will, I will find only emptiness and not happiness. I shall not be fed, I shall not be full. For my food is the will of Him Who made me and Who made all things in order to give Himself to me through them."
~excerpt from pg. 18~19 of New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
And so that I might become the love that He is for His glory and my own joy, I attempt to consider all the seeds of His will so that they may take root. And so, I continue to count...
::Gifts 11~30::
{13} burdensome secrets, no longer hidden
{15} birthdays~celebrations of life
{17} tiny baggy jeans that sag to reveal
{19} little baseball caps, hair clips, and barrettes
{23} bonding moments overlooking the city river {with an intrusive SKUNK}
{27} the man who has the courage to be himself despite society's criticisms
{29} carrying toddlers on my hip
Oh how good it is to give thanks!
ReplyDeleteI especially like #17 :-)
Hey Leah!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog and commenting. Your blog is ADORABLE by the way ;)
Thank you for brining that question up about if I think ALL women/mother's should stay home. This is exactly why I said in my post to use caution because I don't agree with everything in those blogs I recommended. And this is one of those cases. While I think it IS a great resource and that teaching women their godly role as a wife and mother and to be feminine in their lives IS a good thing I do not agree that especially all women and all mothers have to stay home.
I do not think there is anything wrong with a single lady or even wife to work part or full time out of the house. I think that if a young women {even if she is married} feels called to higher education then go for it! That will bless your family and make you more godly and educated.
I also think that it is not a sin for a mother to work outside the home. Or even work a buisness out of the home.
Proverbs 31 talks of the excellent wife being industries and making money for her household. This is excellent and is to be admired. When I do think that working {or any activity for that matter} becomes sinful is when it interfers with a women's role as the keeper of her household and mother of her children. This doesn't mean she has to do ALL the housework and child rearing. But as a godly women that is her highest calling in life. If working full time and raising 4 children means that your children suffer and arn't being raised properly then yes the mother should probably reconsider some other options.
Haha this is a long post and I hope this makes sense. I personally feel very strongly that God is calling me to stay home with my children. I feel convicted to homeschool my children which would make working outside the home impossible even when they are of school age. Some mothers work while their children are in school. I also don't think that this has to be the norm for all families. For ours this is what we feel led to. But others feel led to put their kids in public school. It all depends on God's calling for you.
Does this all make sense? I kinda feel like I'm rambling on now ;)Thank you for bringing that point up!
If you ever want to email further here is my email: jamibalmet@hotmail.com or stop by my blog :) Thanks for the conversation!
What do you think about this?
P.S. My main attraction to Raising Homemakers is their focus on teaching our daughters the skills that people dismiss in this day and age. I want my girls to know how to cook and clean and how to manage a household! Something that I think is essential to any women regardless of being married or having children.
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