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by Patty Morwood  Image via Bloom and Bless “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” John Calvin Knowing yourself is a lifelong lesson and a lifelong battle. When you are led by the Lord to peel back layers, it’s a deep experience, for after submitting to the Word and asking the Lord for the big reveal, He answers by wrenching you with the truth. Your conscience screams “confess” because you can’t stand what you see in your character. You eagerly bow the knee, yearning to live in peace with God. Here’s what happens to me in this situation. Eventually my “flesh” comes to the surface. Its quest is to satisfy my hunger for God with worldly treasures rather than Heavenly ones. It lures; it whispers and soon it just takes over if I’m not sober-minded and aware of what my mind is thinking. I think this is the familiar cycle of the pilgrim journey: victory in the Lord and a beautiful satisfying walk with Him in the high places … then a flesh-struggle. Victory again and another flesh-struggle. Victory again. Step after step and year after year. But one really good thing continues to happen: in every step of the cycle I see myself more clearly. I also become aware that a godly hunger for the Lord Himself is deep within the core of my being and is actually is stronger than the power of my fleshly drives and desires. God gave each of us a hunger for Him that threads through our lives to a final victory. And I am so thankful! Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Redeemer of our souls has designed this lifetime-walk so once we’re born again we can discover that our hunger is always there. Even though its voice may be small sometimes. And the result of this constant hunger? A deepening walk into sanctification, right through it, and into the gates of heaven! I have advice for you. Keep this hunger for fellowship with Him in the heart of your mind, not the outer edges; at the front of your brain, not in the muddling cloudy part where things get lost. Focus on it, so you don’t find yourself led by the flesh. Feed it by looking for Him all day, every day. Talk Scripture back to Him; memorize it. Talk about Him with people you know. Tell strangers and acquaintances about Him. And journal your gratitude for His providence in your daily life, where He reveals both Himself and you. “You made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.”
Augustine; 400s AD by Patty Morwood Linda Thistleton has a reputation. She’s a mother of six who just four years ago adopted four young brothers out of Ethiopia. She’s a resourceful wife, fashioned by God, petite, but metaphorically broad-shouldered for carrying life’s burdens. I know her as a wise and faithful friend who is transparent and real, an astute Bible study leader, a prayer partner. And in regard to her open-home family-style hospitality … she’s renown! I met her when she and her husband, Tom, established Cincinnati’s first classical Christian school. Then through the years, I was fortunate to know her in deeper ways; we eventually became good friends who truly enjoy each other’s company. I’m delighted to introduce you to her!  Tom and Linda had been married only three months when the greatest life-changer a human being can ever experience happened. The Holy Spirit did the Father’s work by giving Tom eternal life. Linda was a tad shocked. The only born-again Christians she knew of were on TV and rather bizarre. This wasn’t the man she married! Though she was concerned and a bit scared, her husband simply lived the truth day after day, growing into a new man before her eyes. In grad school they committed to a PCA church where the Gospel was preached. “A young lady at the church and I were going through Packer’s Knowing God. There was something on one of the pages of that book that was simple, obvious and speaking to me: We’re sinners. I knew I was a sinner. I am a sinner. How freeing to know who I am! That I need Jesus. That Christ worked for me.” recalled Linda. Pinpointing the moment of salvation isn’t always easy; “it’s line upon line with the Word of God.” Tell me about your young adult years and how you and Tom did family life. Our married life seemed like an amusement ride whirling out of control while I was barely hanging on. But in reality, God was having His way with me. He just kept giving me children and difficulty. Babies…grad-school…moving. I grew up in a small town with neighbors knowing each other from birth through growing up, and into marriage and beyond. But because of Tom’s occupation as a business consultant, we moved. I was so insecure as a mother and as a new Christian. I was barely keeping my head above water. There was so much I didn’t know. For example, I didn’t really know that new babies sleep twenty hours a day, that that’s normal. I don’t think either of us would have made it without the other because we are so opinionated. And I love to have my way; I get desperate sometimes to have my way. He’s strong-minded too. For a while I took the lead spiritually and in the home. In everything. I had some feminist tendencies coming into the marriage. I could change the screens on the second floor and mow the grass when eight (8) months pregnant … while homeschooling and starting a school. It was a little ridiculous. And I was miserable; I made everybody miserable sometimes. We had a lot of wrong thinking in those days. After grad school we went to St. Louis, where we attended a church that was built out of L’Abri. Their lifestyle was hospitality. We learned that hospitality is really just putting a few more potatoes, carrots, and celery into the pot; it’s never for show, but always to minister. Dinner could be on ceramic plates, paper plates, or china. Sometimes a young mother needs to see that other families eat off paper plates, too; and sometimes they need to see lovely things. They really need to sit around the table with other families and participate in conversation involving both younger children and older children. My husband grabbed on to this immediately. The first family we had over for dinner had eight boys! We were driving home from church one day and Tom said, ‘Honey, we need to have the Crums over. Nobody has them over.’ I said, ‘No! And what if it rains?’ We had a very little apartment. 'We’ll sit on the floor.' , Tom replied. Just having them over was like jumping in the deep end. After that I thought I could do anything. My long-term aspiration is to continue to live life with people invited to be a part of it. We’ve have kids from dysfunctional families and from really good families, and everything in between. College kids love to have the ears of adults. From encouraging a young lady afraid to get married, to teaching young people who are testing theological beliefs. It’s stimulating to have our adult children and college kids and families around the same table…with our youngers right there in the middle of the conversations. Talk about culture surrounding the youngers, as contrasted to that of the olders. Things have changed dramatically. The technology now is so prevalent, even in a conservative community. To us, there are lots of dangers. If there is no down time, if a child fills time with entertainment, this means he is never quiet with himself. When you mow the grass and have nothing in your ears, you think. Most of the things kids fill their down time with are surface-level things in today’s culture. We’re thankful we had been parents for twenty-five (25) years before we adopted the boys. A lot of fear has been taken out of the equation because of that. Besides problems with today’s culture, we’ve seen plenty of regular kid-issues. For example, kids are pretty good at tricking their parents. And with the six, we sinned in overlooking that. I’m just very thankful that God continues to reveal Who He is, who we are and what He requires of us. And I’m so thankful for our four little boys, otherwise I would have been past all this.  What is the wisest thing for children to learn in childhood? Being taught to fear the Lord, because it’s the beginning of wisdom. We require our children to read the Bible on their own, and we read it together as a family. We use Scripture in conversations because it’s applicable to everything. Teaching your children to think scripturally is the best gift you can give. Besides that, I try to set as many things to a schedule as I can. But I also try to balance making decisions for my kids with giving them freedom to make their own decisions. I love to be around your family. There’s stability and real enjoyment. It’s great to see. What is your perspective on your influence in today’s world? I see myself a little different than the stereotypical older, wiser woman because I’ve gone backwards. I’m not only a mother and grandmother, but I’m a mother of young children again. I don’t have the freedom to give myself to younger women that a lot of older women have, though I wish I could do it more often. What I can do is participate in a Titus2 group which meets twice a month. Sometimes I think, ‘What do I have to give?’. I’m in the trenches with a six year old and younger women are struggling with the same things. But, I do have a perspective they don’t have. Since I also have older children I’m able to encourage mothers to be faithful, and to walk by faith, not by sight. I have the advantage of remembering that, by God’s grace, I was faithful in the commands of the Lord and the Lord was faithful too. Today, by that same grace, my children have their own children and they are themselves being faithful. Many times I’ve been in Linda’s home, around the table with families, students, college and young adults, who are in and out their doors almost as often as the family is. And every time I wish more families would bless their world with such transparency and open hospitality. I pray that as we hold our wifely hands out to others, God’s good things are not only received and relished, but multiplied into the lives of others. by Allison Wilson Lee, Guest Blogger  Image via Natalie Lesnefsky (@athomewithnatalie) Picture this: morning craft time with my two children. I’m sitting on the floor in front of our coffee table. One son sits to my left; the other sits to my right. Paper clips, along with other bits and pieces, litter the surface of the coffee table. For the record, I didn’t put the paper clips out. My almost-five-year-old can take credit for that. This same son asks me a question; I turn to answer him. The next moment, I hear from my other side, “Oh mah!” the Korean word for “mother.” Although my younger son Calvin did nothing but call out my name, I could hear the cry for help in his voice. When I turned to give him my attention, I saw a paper clip sticking out from his mouth. He had wedged a single wire of the clip between two of his teeth and couldn’t get it out. As I murmur a prayer, I move into action. The first thing I try is simply to pull it out. It did not budge. I tried again. And again. And each time, Calvin reaches his hands up to pull my hands away. He feels uncomfortable, is crying slightly, and must be afraid. But I can’t help him if he pushes my hands away from his mouth. So each time I reach for the paper clip, I ask him, “Calvin, will you please put your hands down?” Finally, after I considered the horror of buckling him into his car seat with a paper clip protruding from his mouth to take him to the doctor, I laid him down in our recliner and asked him once again to put his hands down and to keep them away from my hands. This time, I tried wiggling the paper clip before pulling on it, and the new plan worked! With only the tiniest bit of blood on his gum, we’d fixed the problem! As I held and cuddled my baby boy, comforting him (and myself), I thought about what was absolutely necessary in my being able to rescue him from this ordeal: his cooperation. And not cooperation that involved any work on his part — his surrender was what was needed. If Calvin had fought me and resisted me, I couldn’t have helped him. Or at least, it would have taken much longer to remove the foreign object, the thing that didn’t belong in him, that was hurting him. There was an important job I needed to do to help my little boy, and I needed to have his acceptance of my work in him so that I could make him better. His trying to push me away because my help caused him discomfort only prolonged his pain. I wonder how often my Father God feels this way about me. In the end, I did get the paper clip out of Calvin’s mouth. And in the end, God will remove all the unwanted, interloping, painful substance from me. And I pray that I can cooperate with Him and surrender in the process. *Allison Lee is a lover of good books, real food, new experiences, serving others, her sons, her husband and most of all, her Savior. She's not afraid of risks, gray-hair or home schooling while wearing pajamas. You can learn more about Allison and read more of her posts on her blog, Presentmindedly. |
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AUTHORSCornel Warren, Managing Editor of Live with Heart & Soul, shares her heart as she reaches Christian women with timeless, beautiful content to encourage and inspire their walks with God, themselves and those around them. |
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