Dear Gracie,
Life is an epic adventure. There will be exuberant laughter and tears of brokenness, peril and security, exhilarating mystery and introspective stillness. Preparation and completion – equally important. Knowing your identity is necessary when choosing to sacrifice for another. You will need both strength and humility. Embrace balance and grow through every experience, sweet Gracie.
God holds the key to your identity, and it's truly fascinating and thrilling to meet your true self. He made you interesting in your own right. You are not the stage setting of another person's show. If your calling is one of poverty and service, answering that calling is the only time you will feel truly alive. Don't throw it away when you fall in love. It's sacrilege to worship your man instead of God. It's idolatry to sacrifice God's design for your life to another human being. To be completely frank, you'll become a shadow of the living, breathing, vital, exciting woman he fell in love with.
Your true self will not be denied. Whoever Grace is – she will break down every barrier and burst through all the chains you or others try to contain or imprison her within. It's easier to never deny her in the first place than to clean up the mess when she “gets out”. And she will get out. She may resemble a wild-haired, wild-eyed, rebellious hellion if you make her work too hard for it. This will require an adjustment period for people you love most, until she settles down a bit.
One last thing... consider the wisdom of your mother carefully. The more it annoys you, the closer you should pay attention. Set your pride and brilliance aside for a moment and see what you can learn. Her epic adventure has made her wise. Your mother's love may be the purest human love you ever experience. When you look back at the times you thought she was clueless - you'll appreciate the wisdom in her patience. You'll marvel at the self control enabling her to resist slapping the arrogance right off your smug little face. Humility will serve you well in your relationship with your mother.
Love,
Granny
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
C. S. Lewis Was An Atheist
C.S. Lewis became an atheist at age 15. He "was very angry with God for not existing." (This is an Irish attitude which I understand completely.) He was unable to avoid God forever, though he gave it his utmost effort until:
"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." (Surprised by Joy, CS Lewis)
He converted from Theism to Christianity 2 years later.
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity, Lewis)
"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." (Surprised by Joy, CS Lewis)
He converted from Theism to Christianity 2 years later.
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity, Lewis)
Friday, January 6, 2012
New Year, New Start, Lotsa Books
I'm posting in case someone clicks on a comment I've left as I've surfed all over the blogger universe this weekend. Hi! *wave*
I've been away. I've written for Bellaonline.com for the past six months, and I've been arranging and rearranging my "creative space"(sewing room). I've now renamed that space as my "studio", however the sewing machine and ironing board are still residing there. Studio sounded quite serious, and when I call it that, then open the door and see it... it makes me laugh.
Last month, a lovely editor of a magazine critiqued an article I wrote. It was an offer she made to everyone in the class last summer... deadline was December 24th. I had NOTHING to write about until December 20th. It was mailed overnight on the 23rd. She wrote such lovely things and was helpful in some editing tips - I was high-fiving myself all the way home from the post office.
I'm submitting the finished article next week.
Today, I stopped by twitter and realized people HAVE been tweeting, even though I've not been reading them. Actually, life goes so quickly at Twitter that I can't keep up.... you could get married, conceive a child and send the kid to preschool and I'll have missed all that. I'll have stopped by the day you discovered that Claussen pickles "rock".
What I learned on Twitter today is: Bookish Dad is reading 100 books this year. I've joined the madness. He agreed to read the first title recommended in each comment. I offered up "One For The Money" by Janet Evanovich. Others were going for classics and literary works. I thought he deserved a little brain vacation, so I provided one.
I'm currently reading:
Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
First Things First by Stephen Covey - this doesn't count because I've read it already.
I'm NOT promising to read suggested books for two reasons. First, I haven't written here for so long.. I'm not sure anyone will read this. Second - If someone DOES stop by, I don't want to risk reading something awful. If you stop by and you have a really good book to recommend, I'll check it out. No promises, though.
I've been away. I've written for Bellaonline.com for the past six months, and I've been arranging and rearranging my "creative space"(sewing room). I've now renamed that space as my "studio", however the sewing machine and ironing board are still residing there. Studio sounded quite serious, and when I call it that, then open the door and see it... it makes me laugh.
Last month, a lovely editor of a magazine critiqued an article I wrote. It was an offer she made to everyone in the class last summer... deadline was December 24th. I had NOTHING to write about until December 20th. It was mailed overnight on the 23rd. She wrote such lovely things and was helpful in some editing tips - I was high-fiving myself all the way home from the post office.
I'm submitting the finished article next week.
Today, I stopped by twitter and realized people HAVE been tweeting, even though I've not been reading them. Actually, life goes so quickly at Twitter that I can't keep up.... you could get married, conceive a child and send the kid to preschool and I'll have missed all that. I'll have stopped by the day you discovered that Claussen pickles "rock".
What I learned on Twitter today is: Bookish Dad is reading 100 books this year. I've joined the madness. He agreed to read the first title recommended in each comment. I offered up "One For The Money" by Janet Evanovich. Others were going for classics and literary works. I thought he deserved a little brain vacation, so I provided one.
I'm currently reading:
Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
First Things First by Stephen Covey - this doesn't count because I've read it already.
I'm NOT promising to read suggested books for two reasons. First, I haven't written here for so long.. I'm not sure anyone will read this. Second - If someone DOES stop by, I don't want to risk reading something awful. If you stop by and you have a really good book to recommend, I'll check it out. No promises, though.
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