Find me faithful

 <sup>Proverbs 31:10-31


10 [d]</sup> An excellent wife who can find?
 She is far more precious than jewels.
¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her,
    and he will have no lack of gain.
¹² She does him good, and not harm,
    all the days of her life.
¹³ She seeks wool and flax,
    and works with willing hands.
¹⁴ She is like the ships of the merchant;
    she brings her food from afar.
¹⁵ She rises while it is yet night
    and provides food for her household
    and portions for her maidens.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
    with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She dresses herself^[e] with strength
    and makes her arms strong.
¹⁸ She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
    Her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ She puts her hands to the distaff,
    and her hands hold the spindle.
²⁰ She opens her hand to the poor
    and reaches out her hands to the needy.
²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household,
    for all her household are clothed in scarlet.^[f]
22 She makes bed coverings for herself;
    her clothing is fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is known in the gates
    when he sits among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them;
    she delivers sashes to the merchant.
²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates.

I love this passage. It's really beautiful and powerful and just so well written. The Bible is full of beautiful, passionate, just awe inspiring sentences and passages. Every book needs a great introduction. Something to catch the reader, to hold their attention.

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

" And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters". I love that word, hovering. It so perfectly and eloquently describes the Creator moments before he began his work. Hovering... The second act of a play needs something equally engaging as the first. Something to unify both pieces and also to let the ones watching know that this is a new act entirely. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I love how it starts off with the same familiar words. Words you recognize, you know them, you trust them.  " In the beginning" but quickly you see that this act is different. It is something more... " and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made" If you keep reading, you'll find out exactly who the Word is.

 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He became flesh. That's so much better than simply saying " He was born." or " He became man".  He literally took on flesh. The God of the universe took on flesh. He took on every experience, every emotion, every challenge spiritual and physical that the flesh presents... He did not merely present himself in human form.. he took on flesh... just beautiful.

I've gotten way off subject.  I do that.

Today I want to write for my future daughter. The thought of having a girl both delights and terrifies me. I am delighted when I walk through Target and see adorable tu tu's and onsies and headbands ( oh my) and I am terrified when I think about a teenage girl living in my home. She has to live there. I have to deal with a teenage girl 24/7. I can't afford boarding school and we aren't Catholic, so a convent is totally out of the question, so I. have. to. do. it. 

Teenage girls are dramatic and moody and believe that high school is the mecca of life and that if anything goes wrong in high school their lives are ruined and they'll never be happy ever again, ever. I know this thought process because I was once a teenage girl. In all seriousness, if I have a daughter, my goal would be to point her to Proverbs 31. I wish that I could tell you that my youth was filled with excellent choices. I wish I could tell you that I always behaved in a way that would have pleased both my earthly and my heavenly father. I wish I could tell you that I have no regrets... I can not. I spent my time chasing after acceptance, looking for redemption and truthfully not knowing who I was at all. I was, whatever someone needed me to be, but  very rarely myself.  I knew the Word in they way that most people interpret " the word" to be... the Bible. I knew what it said, knew passages from memory. I did not however, know the Word as it is referenced in John 1. The Word is Jesus, and I did not know him. 

My darling daughter,

Above anything else I could ask on your behalf from the Father, I would ask him to make you wise and faithful. I have a dear friend( you'll know her, trust me. She can't wait to squish you) who pointed out some hidden wisdom in the final chapter of Proverbs. Notice the 12th verse. She does him good ALL the days of her life. She doesn't not only do him good once she meets him, or once she has some fun and decides it's time to settle down. ALL. I want you to know how valuable you are. Your father and I waited so long for you. We prayed for you, wept for you, thought about you every day. I ask that you recognize your value and in all things, EVERY day, live with dignity and honor and know, that you my girl, are not like everyone else. I ask that you would have a helpful and willing spirit and that you would want to work for what you have. ( v 13) That you would be strong and modest and know that modest doesn't mean frumpy and out of style, it simply means that a boy would know the color of your eyes and the contents of your heart before he knows exactly how your body curves. (v 17). I ask that you would be kind. That you would recognize the blessings you have and not chase after the ones you do not. That you would not be selfish ( as I have been in the past) and that you would give joyfully, just like your dad. ( v. 20 and 26) I pray that you would always laugh and know that sometimes, it really is the best medicine. That you would never live in fear but always, always be willing to set your sails and risk the ocean. ( v.25) I pray that you would know that beauty is here for a time, but we all grow old. There will always be someone younger, someone prettier, someone who might make you feel as if you aren't enough... but you are. I guess it isn't really that age robs us of beauty, but that it changes it into something different. You are not defined by how you look. Something so easily lost can not define you. Be gracious, be humble, be loving and you will see real beauty all around you. ( v 29 and 30)

 I ask that you would continue to pray for me and for Kindal. We are pulled in a thousand different directions and I can honestly tell you that we waiver often on what our next step towards a family should be. We have moments where we are so sure of what we want to do, and then moments when it seems like we have been standing still. I know our hearts. I know we want to raise daughters that are set apart, the kind that are strong and feisty and at the same time humble and wise. We want to raise sons who look to their Father for council and are not " like all the other boys". ( Not in a weird, socially awkward way lol, in a good way) I want them to set the world on fire... to leave this place better than they found it. I hope they find me faithful in my calling. That they will feel happy that I was chosen for them, that they will rise up and call me blessed.... (v 28)

We press on,

LB

 

something in the water

I have not been a very good blogger the last few weeks. Translation: I haven't blogged at all. Translation: I'm sorry... I'll do better this month. I had a pretty serious case of writer's block and I let life get in the way. Forgive me? In my defense, last week Kindal had a terrible car wreck AND our water line busted at our house, so I was kind of busy... but still. If I had time to Facebook, I had time to blog. ( See how I just disciplined myself? Beat ya to the punch!)


Tonight I wanted to write about something that came to my mind last week while I was at dinner with mom and daddy and Kindal. I was thinking about water. I try to drink lots of water throughout the day. If I'm feeling a little crazy, I add a lemon wedge. I'm nothing if not adventurous. Sometimes I eat cereal for dinner too. I hope you can accept that. I was looking at my water, lemon wedge floating freely... Water is an amazing thing because it can be so harmless, boring almost... " What will you have to drink tonight, ma'am? Oh I guess I'll have water." ( When you really want a coke but you aren't going to pay 2.79 for a drink. Ridiculous.) Water is actually an incredibly powerful thing. It can restore life, it can destroy man's creation in seconds. Things that took hundreds of years to build are erased... It can carve through stone, quench thirst... cleanse you.

Water is used quite a lot in the Bible. God used water to cleanse the earth sparing only Noah and his family. The water was a death sentence for mankind, but Noah found favor and in the same span of 40 days and 40 nights, the water carried him to salvation. Moses floated down the Nile in a basket. The water carried him to his purpose. He must become a son of Pharaoh in order to lead God's people through, you guessed it, water. Moses would later part the Red Sea and the water that led the way to Salvation from a Godless nation, would crash down on the enemies of the Father and become their graves. Jonah ran from God. Where did he end up? In the water. Well, in the belly of a whale who lived in the water, but in a round about way, he was as deep in the water as one can be. He was vomited up on the shore and decided that perhaps his future was better left to the one who filled the seas with water... and whales. In the New Testament, Jesus turns water into wine. It is his first public miracle and it will not be his last involving water. The woman at the well went to draw water because she was thirsty, in more ways than one... Jesus met her there and revealed who He was and who SHE was. He knew her. Her secrets, her shame, her mistakes and who should would become in Him. She came because she was thirsty, the tangible water made way for Living Water and she left fulfilled, for the very first time. Jesus walked on water, demonstrating that while he was  fully man he was also fully God. I don't know if you've tried walking in water... it turns into swimming real quick for us humans... real quick. Jesus calmed the seas, the same ones where he declared he would make his disciples "fishers of men". On the cross, his side was pierced. The wound released both blood... and water.... a means to salvation once again...
I don't know why, but that really just amazes me. Water. The stuff I drink from a bottle, even though it's a free, renewable resource and I can get it from my sink for free and I'm probably going to get cancer from drinking out of plastic every day... that clear liquid that washes my clothes, waters my yard ( I never water my yard but you get my point, you also know why my lawn is dead) and helps me brush my teeth is the exact same thing that flooded the earth. The same substance that wiped away a city in Louisiana, that parted before Moses and his staff, that carved out the Grand Canyon, that carried a baby to his destiny, that has crushed nations, that Jesus walked on.... water. It's not much to look at in a glass, but stand along the shore of the ocean, and try not to be filled with awe. Watch it drip from your hose and then look at the wall of water caused by a tidal wave and know that you are very small.

Tonight, I just want you to be in awe of the Father. I want you to think about water and see it's vast purpose. Without it you die, but caught in it's storm you're likely not to live. I don't have much to say about children tonight. I want them, you want them. We've established that. :) I hope that they, and you, read this and think about the vast power of God. He, like the water he created, restores life, sustains life, creates life and in the same way, he deserves awe. He should be looked at like the tidal wave about to crash, like the sea parting, like the gaping mouth of a whale opening wide.... knowing him is all the difference in how you see " the water".... it is either your salvation, or  it is your end.

We Press On,
LB