Beautiful Homemakers

Do you remember the Bible story about how on Day 6 of the peaceful march around Jericho the authorities told the Israelites, “We are sick of this. If you come back tomorrow, we are going to arrest each and every one of you. STAY HOME!” The Israelites were so chastened by this threat that they all rested on Day 7. Didn’t Saul, soon to be Paul, warn us to give authorities our spiritual rights, and in fact our life, by demanding to be hauled back up the wall after realizing his intended escape was illegal? (Thankfully, he did not.) Isn’t smuggling Bibles into communist countries that ban them illegal and against God’s admonishments to obey those in authority?  Thank you, Voice of the Martyrs, for reminders that we are to obey God’s laws when they conflict with man’s laws.  The first half of this post is based on an old The Voice of the Martyrs brochure by Tom White.  I’m paraphrasing some of their many facts.  There is no requirement for church registration

When I was growing up there was a book in our church library that I loved to check out called Richard Scarry’s A Story A Day.  It had 365 short stories and poems, and my favorite one was Lucky Mrs. Hen (page 77).  The story starts off with a dark rain storm.  Mrs. Hen decides to clean her house, while the neighbors just stare out the window and lament the rain, having wanted to work in the garden.   But little Mrs. Hen put on her apron and cleaned her house.  When every corner was spick and span, she did her baking, clucking happily to herself.  Then she made doughnuts.  Just as she was sprinkling them with sugar, the rain stopped and pop! out came the sun!    “Just in time,” clucked Mrs. Hen.  “I’ll wash windows.”  She did. And she cut her grass and planted her garden.  Then, since the day was so beautiful, she packed a picnic basket. Then I remember she asked all of her neighbors to go on a picnic, but each one said that the bright sunshine made

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT) Like many people, I took Yoga classes and used Yoga videos.  But one day when I was putting in my Yoga tape, I heard the still, small voice say, “Stop.”  Now I had just learned to recognize this voice, but I was still uncertain.  Did I really just hear that?  Or was it my imagination?  A few weeks before, that same small voice had told me to put my purse away – and I didn’t – and it was stolen.  I had been praying that I would begin to hear the Holy Spirit nudge me again, like when I was a child, and then, when He did, I had ignored Him.  I didn’t want to ignore Him again, but I also didn’t understand why He would say, “Stop.”  Stop what?  Stop stretching?  Stop exercising?  Do something else?  I put the t

Last year I read a very interesting book by Cassandra Aarssen called The Clutter Connection, How Your Personality Type Determines Why You Organize the Way You Do. The first time I took her test was on her website, Clutterbug.me , I came out as a “Butterfly.”  But when I read her mini online book detailing the four different organizing styles that are based on your personality, I thought I was a Bee who coveted being a Cricket!  (See her website for a quick explanation of the four Clutter Bugs.) I bought this book since it goes into depth on the four areas, with color pictures, and I wanted to know more.  I was skeptical of her test and felt that the questions weren’t clear enough, so I took the test several times on different days, and again after reading each of the four sections of her book. I felt that on many of the questions I could answer “Yes” to 3 out of the 4 scenarios.  So one time I did this on all the questions, and then added up my score that way. 

The book The Sacred Enneagram was requested as a Christmas present. I bought it and flipped through it and noticed the section entitled, The Contested History of the Enneagram .  Contested?  As in Questioned?  Challenged?  Disputed?  Yep.  So I did some research on this contested history and here are the parts that the author, Christopher Heuertz, left out: The enneagram first came into being from George Gurdjieff, an esoteric teacher. Scholars have verified this. He died on 10-29-1949. That means it isn’t ancient.  For decades there were no words attached to this design . He wrote that it was a diagram of “cosmic reality” – that you could see the universe in it because it had mystical meanings (nothing to do with personality tests or types). The second person to promote it was his mentee, P.D. Ouspensky.  Just the design.  These two made up meanings to go with the design during dinner parties.  Ouspensky wrote about Gurdjieff’s ideas (which he called The Fourth

Being home has an impact on our children.  It provides them with a feeling of stability and security.  We teach them manners, character, our Christian values, what the Bible says, and how to live and spend our time.  With the internet, they need more watching than ever before, at all ages.  Long hours of time at home teaches them to be content, gives them time to dream, and models for them how a Christian home functions differently than the rest of the world.  We teach them how to care for the family home by doing chores with them.  We teach them how to be cheerful, and to be content with what the Lord provides.  We teach them financial principles.  We teach them how to make the most of what we have.  We bake with them, and teach them how to cook.  We kiss them, and we play games with them.  We read to them, and pray with them.  We are needed at home. God called me to be a homemaker and I love to be at home.  Our house feels like a home.  Rooms are used and feel pleasant (thoug