So you want to be in a courtship, but there is no one around who is interesting and/or interested. What can be done about this? If I had the answer to that question, and if I could sell it in a package, I would be rich. (Which is why dating services are big business.)
Though I can’t offer such a product, I can offer a few suggestions which I hope will be helpful to you. The first thing is to keep your perspective on marriage realistic and biblical. In your thinking, do not let marriage become an end rather than a means. Marriage is a means of glorifying God, not an end in itself. Determine to use your unmarried state as a means of glorifying God as well, and don’t allow marriage to become something other than what it is in the created order. In other words, don’t let it become an idol, something that has way too much importance to you, so that you believe you are only half a person or that you are being held back spiritually because of your unmarried state. This is another way Continue reading ‘Unmarried and Fruitful’
Poor guy – I really owed him this. When the twins were new and up in the night all the time (and that meant that we were also up in the night all the time), tricky things would happen. Sometimes (ok, almost all the time) Titus would wake up nicely swaddled in a pink blanket, and Chloe in the red one. To be fair to us, more often than not we would wake up to find that we had tucked some diapers into our bed, so it wasn’t just Titus who felt the brunt of our sleeplessness.
My tender domestic side suffered acutely. But now, what with diaper incidents and other mishaps, and even though we can tell the twins apart  in the night, sometimes this little dude has to use a floral sheet or two. We do have white ones, but you know, things happen. So before he got old enough to notice, I made him this. Cute, huh?
But all this talk about the sleepless nights has made me remember the highest of high points for us as an up-too-much-in-the-night couple. Continue reading ‘Blanket for the man-child’
I know, no one asked for this, but spring is in the air and courtships are blossoming all around. So, here’s a little motherly advice for the young ladies. Two things. And I’ll keep them brief.
One: Don’t be too easily impressed. Make sure you admire this man’s character. It’s not enough to think he is handsome and charming. Is he a man of integrity? Is he a man after God’s own heart?
Two: Guard your heart. Some courtships advance all the way to the altar. Some don’t. Keep your heart at the same level as the commitment. Don’t let your heart race ahead.
I always turn to The Loveliness of Christ when I want to hear an old, godly, Scots preacher offer comfort to his people. This little book is a selection from his letters, mostly letters of comfort to suffering saints. Doug is conducting a funeral service this morning for a little two-week old saint. And of course I found something right away from Rutherford.
The child hath but changed a bed in the garden, and is planted up higher, nearer the sun, where he shall thrive better than in this out-field moor-ground.
“My counsel is, that ye come out and leave the multitude, and let Christ have your company. Let them take clay and this present world who love it: Christ is a more worthy and noble portion: blessed are those who get Him.”
Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ
Yes, this is outdated and essentially old news. But then again, I’ve only just peeled myself up off the floor after Easter and so I could hardly have been expected to mention it earlier!
Here’s what happened. In the comment section from last week when everyone was giving their ideas for Easter menus, I loved the suggestion (from Cindy I believe) to make Resurrection Rolls. I mean, how festive is that? (I should mention at this point that I also made Cheryl’s deviled egg chicks . . . because how could you look at that picture and then NOT make them? Mine looked like googly-eyed owls wearing flight goggles, but still quite a striking presence on the table. They lent a high tone to the whole proceeding.)
Anyway, I thought I should definitely make the Resurrection Rolls for Easter breakfast. But since I didn’t get around to that until about 10:30 pm on Saturday night, I decided that I would just do the old trick of letting them do their second rise in the fridge overnight and baking them in the morning. I made my favorite dough for cinnamon rolls which makes a lovely, squidgy dough – and wrapped them round the marshmallows, dipped them in butter and stuck them in the pans And now we come to the moment where I stop, drop, and show you a picture of my fridge. Brace yourselves.
(I would also like to take a moment to congratulate myself on my great spirituality . . . I didn’t even photoshop out the grimy floor underneath, or even reduce the resolution so Continue reading ‘Slight Symbolism Glitch’
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