In case you aren’t checking on Lady Kirkbay regularly, I wanted to send you over to see all the inspiring crafts the ladies are producing by the truck load. And Bekah posted a picture of her homemade chore chart which she calls “an attempt at managing the Merkle circus.” Be sure to check it out!
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
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My husband exhorted us this morning in his sermon that it is time for Christians to rev up the Easter celebrations because at His resurrection, Christ recreated the world. Therefore, Easter is the greatest, most cosmic-shaking event ever. So he suggested we make our Easter celebration even BIGGER than Christmas. You’ll have to listen to the sermon yourself if you want to follow his argument. But immediately after church many of us ladies were thinking about what we could do to make Easter more of a celebration in our families.
I have great childhood memories of Easter. My mother always made (or bought) us girls a whole new Easter outfit. We had new shoes and a matching purse (usually white patent leather), lacy socks, a pretty new spring dress with a slip to go with it, and a hat. We were filled with anticipation. My dad always bought us girls (and Mom of course) a corsage. We colored eggs a few days before, and Easter morning we hunted down our Easter baskets and had a big Easter breakfast.
After church Mom prepared a big dinner and the table was set with the crystal, china, and sterling. The candles were lit. And we were not by any means the only people doing this. Everybody got a new Easter outfit. My brothers wore suits and ties, even at age three. Everyone was feasting after church. And Dad presided at our table, praying and carving the meat.
Sometime in the sixties or seventies we had a pietistic revolt against such things. I don’t know exactly where it came from, but it seemed more “holy” to ditch the Easter finery Continue reading ‘Chocolate Eggs and Jesus Risen!’
This recipe requires a bit of an intro. All through my childhood years my mom baked bread. I got the best part of this tradition, because as the youngest, I was home to help her while my siblings were off at school. I had my own baby loaf pan, and helped her roll out the dough and shape it. Sometimes I made bread men who were never very good because they were mostly crust.
Anyway, this wasn’t just a fun time, it was great bread. The kind that makes pbj’s worth eating (especially with raspberry freezer jam!). When mom made it on Saturdays, she always had Dad do the kneading.
The funny thing was that she just sort of stopped making it when we were a little older and she was a little busier. As I recall we were also going through a poorboy phase that lasted several years. Much later, when I wanted to make it, we found a little problem. Mom had had the recipe memorized, apparently lost the hard copy and didn’t notice. But, after a long sabbatical, she no longer remembered any details.
I tried to pioneer my own favorite loaf bread, but never liked anything I made as much as what I had grown up on. Eventually, I had a brilliant idea – I called my childhood friend’s mom, who had been our neighbor in that era, and asked if she had the recipe. I remembered that she made it too, but hers was all wheat and crunchier. Anyway, she did have it. It was called “Jane’s hardly ever fails bread”. I got the recipe Continue reading ‘Childhood Bread’
Hi there all-
I thought that you might be interested in a new blog Lady Kirkbay
It is an online forum for the women in Christ Church and TRC to talk about the upcoming (October 11) fund-raiser which will include a craft fair. The idea was for a place to post patterns, questions, craft supplies for give away, and anything else potentially craft fair related. We are hoping to see some in process pictures, some “hey what about this” posts, and lots of plain old fun fellowship. Since it can be a little awkward to lug a project to church to ask for feedback, we thought this might be a good way to do it. The local women are all invited to become authors on the blog, and all of you friends out there are invited to come check out what we are working on (you are of course invited to comment!)
Hope you get a kick out of it!
Sometimes I talk with Christian women who are trying to overcome discontentment when I think it is really grief they are dealing with. It could be the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a wayward child who has left home. It’s helpful to identify what’s really going on in your heart, so you don’t beat yourself up over something you really are not doing.
Discontentment is, at the bottom, a surly attitude toward God, blaming Him instead of thanking Him. It is a refusal to submit to His ways, His doings in the world, particularly those things in your life that are difficult. And discontentment won’t receive comfort. When you try to comfort a discontented person, responses are often things like, “But you don’t know what it is like. You don’t understand. Leave me alone.”
Grief is a different thing all together. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Grieving is not a sin, unless it is indulged to the point where it becomes unhealthy. This is when it can morph into discontentment. A godly grief can even receive clumsy comfort from well-meaning friends. But discontentment doesn’t have grace to extend. Continue reading ‘A Godly Grief’
When troubles come, we need to process them like Christian women. Grief over the loss of a loved one is trouble indeed, and it is important for Christian women to take heed to their souls in the midst of such trouble.
We have a Savior, and we believe that He governs the world with wisdom in every last detail. This means that we can rest in His kindness, even (or I should say, especially) in the midst of troubles and griefs.
The Christian woman must consider her grief something she needs to exercise good stewardship over. God has entrusted her with an affliction, a hardship, a trial, or a grief because He loves her and means it for her soul’s good. Therefore, she should seek to honor and glorify God in her troubles.
This requires much faith and courage; it means believing God’s promises. The Puritans are exceptional when it comes to teaching in this area. Not only were they saturated in God’s Word, but they were well practiced in bearing hardships. Consider these few jewels from Samuel Rutherford (a Scots Presbyterian in the Puritan era, one of the commissioners at the Westminster Assembly):
Our best fare here is hunger.
It is our heaven to lay many weights and burdens upon Christ.
Read and spell right, for He knoweth what He doth; He is only lopping and snedding [pruning] a fruitful tree, that it may be more fruitful.
Send a heavy heart up to Christ, it shall be welcome. Continue reading ‘Grieving Like a Christian Woman’
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