Grace-period

First, I would have to say that blessed are they that only read me and don't have to listen to me.  I noticed today that I am whining.  To myself in thought.  To God in prayer.  One would think that a whine comes with the shrill crescendo in pitch and emotion.  Nope.  It can even be done silently. This post is part of the blog carnival which is hosted by Peter.  A bunch of us strange, wordy folk like to post our different perspectives on a word or a topic.  (You can check out more posts, better than mine, here .)  This is how I came to realize today that I was whining: I was debating what I have to be disappointed about.  While I admit I don't think about this topic often, I did today.  And that is where I found the quiet voice that became louder the more I prodded: I am disappointed that I struggle with pain.  And this is why those who read me are more blessed than those who have to listen to me (because friends do need to listen to each other, right?).  I have talked abou

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  Ephesians 6:4 NIV What a simple verse, but oh, how it irked me yesterday.  My friend, a single mother, sat beside me.  While I know the brokenness of our relationships is due to sin, what now?  What about the fatherless?  What about those who have experienced failure as parents?  What about those who no longer have children in the home?  What does this verse mean for those not parenting? (Note: As I was researching this blog, my NIV translation actually says fathers could be translated parents.  That was not brought up in the message yesterday and I did not utilize that understanding as I processed this verse.  Although I often bristle at the patriarchal tone of Christianity and the Bible,  for this post it is inconsequential.) Sometimes the sermon just has little to do with you.  On those Sunday mornings, it is just a time to have fun singing with a rockin' band, cat

Oh, the lovely chapter 5 of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  It causes feminists to bristle and men to stick out their chests, right?  Well....not if you read the chapter. Today Kirk led  Hope  farther into the text, to how the husbands should treat their wives.  You can read the verses here .  Now, based on my earlier post on submission, y'all, (all 2 readers that I have and one of you is my husband), probably think that I would be hooting and cheering.  Not really.  What I thought was actually how odd that things seem so backwards in society. Perhaps it is the feminist movement of the 70s that all my friends who are mothers and also work full time outside the house despise, or the self focused, self help generation of the 80s, or just the ancient, good old, sinful self-centeredness of the ages.  Somewhere, we as women, have gotten so used to giving up all dreams for the good of the family that when women began to gain more rights in the culture, we decided that men need

I was angry earlier this week.  While I want to buy into submission, all I have ever seen associated with it is a twisted devaluing of the marriage relationship.  Never have I seen it pleasant or what I would consider godly.  My grandmother, who is probably one of the most God fearing women I know, once told me that how she saw submission is the man is the head, but the woman is the neck that turns the head. I "get" that, but it has left me dissatisfied with a sense of underhandedness that I am sure she did not mean. Must we be so covert in our dealings with our spouse as to allow him to "think" that he is in charge because he is too dumb to realize that he isn't? Or is there a way to honor both the husband and the wife in a relationship, not at the expense of the other? While I have been wrestling with this subject, a friend, who is not a Christian, was listening to what I was working through this week.  I casually mentioned this topic of submission and she

It has been a while since I have blogged, but Hope gave me a great topic and I am gonna get right to it: Ephesians 5:21-24 New International Version (NIV) Instructions for Christian Households Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.   The world often sees submission as this:  I can see it as that as well, but I can also define it a little better now. I cannot do it all.  Submission to me looks a lot like a housewife.  Or worse yet, a woman who works outside the home and is still expected to do the work inside the home.  Submission looks like a man on the couch while the woman does the cooking, the dishes, & the laundry.  Submission looks like a lopsided relationship when it is great to be