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The Whole Being

6 / 6 / 213 / 10 / 23
By lizziejank | Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized

When the twins were born, I was not ready. I had two toddlers, a small rented house, we still had a business downtown (for a few months) and we used software from this paystub example to make payments. We didn’t have a lot of money, we didn’t have a lot of time, we didn’t have any volunteer live in help (worst luck). Life was full. Full of diapers and wipes, lost shoes, crying infants. Leaking milk, croup in the night. My full time job was being touched. I was deliriously tired nursing the twins, and the older two were hardly hands off.  It was a time of life when 45 minutes seemed like an eternity, when I might not cry when my husband came in the door and asked how the day was.

This was the year when our toddlers got a bunch of toys for Christmas (the twins were barely one month then) – the kind that had lots of pieces – and I actually packed them into a black garbage bag and hid them behind our bed ( I don’t think they noticed). God had promoted me right out of my comfort zone, and into a new and way more demanding lifestyle – one that I couldn’t help but notice I was not naturally good at. I wanted to start smoking at this time – because when I saw people outside in the cold sucking hard on a cigarette that just really looked good. It looked quiet. And alone. And perfect.

Now I didn’t start smoking, and I didn’t die – although I am sure I suggested I would many times. I cried a lot and I laughed a lot, and I learned a lot. I learned about losing your patience because you haven’t slept like people are supposed to. I learned about asking toddlers to forgive you and trying to explain why to them. I learned not letting my fleshly attitudes win. I learned about how I actually could keep on going when I thought I couldn’t. And at the heart of all this, I learned about God. I learned that there is a tremendous amount of scope for spiritual growth in the home. I learned that far from being a haven of peaceful domestic bliss, the home can be a straight up battlefield for the faith. Believing what God has said, acting in faith, praying for grace, repenting of sins, teaching children to abandon their sins, cleaning bathrooms for the kingdom, loving people close to you when you don’t want to. Children can be a refining fire, burning out all kinds of dross. And God delights in our being purified through this.

That time in my life was physically awful. I was physically stressed, physically broken, physically sleep deprived and physically a major mess. But looking back on it is was spiritually rich. Every one of those very bodily weaknesses drove me to a very spiritual strength in Christ. Physical stress drove me to spiritual peace. Physical brokenness taught me about  wholeness in Christ. Physical exhaustion taught me about spiritual renewal. Physical mess drove me to spiritual tidiness. As the house got messier faster, my attitude got tidier quicker. This is because Jesus Christ was there with me. I knew that no matter my situation, Christ was the first answer. If I need sleep and I am angry, it is still sin, and His blood is still the answer. If I am selfish, even if I have my reasons, it is sin, and looking to Christ is the only way out. If I am despairing,  I need to look to Christ.

As Christians, we believe that we are both spiritual and physical beings. An illness can drive us to get our soul in order. Bodily trials are like compost for your spiritual garden. We cannot divorce our bodies and our souls from one another. We are whole beings.

This brings me to the heart of what I wanted to say, which is that the first answer, the first response – must always be Jesus Christ. It must always be calling on God and seeking His will. After we have done that, there may be physical helps. Maybe making yourself a cup of coffee would be a good idea. Maybe trying a soothing oil. Maybe magnesium lotion will be great for you. Maybe salts and teas and vitamins and stretches and remedies of diverse origins will help something. But if you haven’t gotten things right with God, maybe they are only clouding the issue. If you are constantly irritated with your children, the answer is Christ – not a lotion, not a bath, not a healthy bacteria. If you don’t feel like loving your husband, maybe you need to ask God to look at your heart first – and maybe looking into the medicine cabinet will only make the actual problem worse.

Imagine a situation where a woman describes to you her symptoms: she is crabby with the kids, really low on energy, can’t sleep, is anxious, feels like giving up, doesn’t like her body, wants to quit, and any other extreme sad time you can think of.

What do you think of first? What help do you offer? Is it an arsenal of oils? A prescription you heard about? A delta 8 vape cartridge at ExhaleWell? Is it vitamin D? Is it an exercise regime? If you ask a room full of Christian women what to do about these things – you will get testimonial after testimonial for products.

The sad truth is that many Christian women have been caught without a testimony to Christ. We don’t treat our worries, our hurts, our stresses like they belong to him.

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Kind Husband Article

3 / 8 / 154 / 9 / 15
By Nancy Ann | Filed under Marriage | Tags: Uncategorized

My husband has a great article up at Desiring God, and I thought you might like to read it!

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Here Comes Halloween

10 / 19 / 1410 / 19 / 14
By rebekah | Filed under Family Stuff, Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized

Bel Halloween

Once upon a time when we were living in England, I kept hearing this one particular song everywhere I went. I think it was around Christmas, so I was out shopping a lot – and the song was everywhere. It had a great vibe and I liked it, so I downloaded it and added it to the mix. My dad had taught me early on that you should always read the lyrics so that you know what you’re singing along to . . . and that’s a habit that has stuck with me to this day. As an aside, that habit is especially important as a parent – who wants to find out later that your kids have all memorized something filthy that you’ve been playing around the house every day? Anyway, I remember that I had looked up the lyrics to this song and they were completely nonsensical and poetically unimpressive, but there wasn’t anything problematic about it in that way. And it was a great song to cook to. I always love it when the music is turned up and everyone is in the kitchen helping, and like I said, this song had a great vibe. So it was definitely having a presence around the homefront as well as in the Christmas sales around Oxford.

After a week or so, apropos of nothing, I looked up the band. It wasn’t a group that I was familiar with, and so in a moment of curiosity I googled them. Read More

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True Beauty

6 / 11 / 14
By Nancy Ann | Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized

indexI’m so pleased that Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre have tackled the subject of true beauty, a topic we need to think and learn about from a Christian perspective, particularly in our beauty-crazed, beauty-obsessed age. The world is always trying to press women into its mold, particularly on this point, and this book helps us think about beauty in a completely different way. True Beauty is for all women, no matter what your calling or age.  You can buy it here.

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Reading For Fat Souls

6 / 4 / 146 / 4 / 14
By Nancy Ann | Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized

photo(47)

One of the comments on the last post asked me about my favorite Puritan writers, so I have taken a short, very non-intimidating pile off my shelf and stacked them here for you to browse.

On the top is my red leather edition of The Loveliness of Christ. I  have an older copy that Diane Garaway gave me a few years back, but it sits with some of our other old book treasures on top of the piano. This edition is in my bedside table. Samuel Rutherford was a 17th century Scottish pastor, one of the Westminster divines, who was expelled from his church and forbidden to preach any where in Scotland (which tells you right off that he was a powerful preacher). This little book contains excerpts from his many pastoral letters.

Next is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. This is a well worn copy and has seen me through at least four book studies with the women in our church. It is a treasure, full of solid, biblical teaching on attaining contentment.

Then you see All Things for Good by Thomas Watson. This book, combined with the book on contentment, has blessed me immeasurably. I truly thank God for these men and their sermons that have been preserved for us.

A few other Watson titles that I have used for book studies are in the stack: The Godly Man’s Picture, The Art of Divine Contentment, Harmless as Doves, Religion Our True Interest, and Heaven Taken By Storm. I see now that I got The Art of Divine Contentment in twice, once in paperback and once in hardback. It is that good. Read it twice. It is a toss up which book on contentment I prefer. They are both fantastic.

Finally, just so I don’t wear you out, is The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit, by Matthew Henry. He is a wonderful writer, and I love his commentary on the Bible. Wish I could read the whole thing (it’s large). But this book on a meek spirit is short and excellent. As he says, there is much provocation in this world, so we might just as well learn how to take it without getting our feathers ruffled. Well, he actually says it much better than that.

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Two Things You Should Know About

3 / 25 / 143 / 25 / 14
By Nancy Ann | Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: Uncategorized

One is that Femina now has its very own phone app! We are pretty thrilled about that.

Second thing to note is the Spring Sale over at Logos Press.

 

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