He Was Made to Leave

"Permit to us who pass from one state to another something of the 

pathos that is to be permitted to those that approach to death. 

We are happy to go into the country, but we are unhappy to leave the town."

~G. K. Chesterton

*****

Welcomed into this world, he hears your voice, and he knows you. You. You're his World. His eyes fix fast on you. You're his Center, and no one else will do. You comfort him, feed him, care for him, pray for him, correct him, teach him, and smother him with hugs and kisses.

And in return he gives you smiles and a joy unspeakable. He brings you flowers and weeds picked with dirty chubby fingers. He paints you pictures, and says, "I love you, Mommy," at least twenty times a day. He gives you dirt and bugs and slamming doors and empty glasses of chocolate milk and grace-filled prayers at the dinner table.

And you don't think much about the truth that he was made to leave.

He convinces you that couches are meant to be trampolines, Legos are meant to be stepped on, and everything his hands touch can be fashioned into a gun. He teaches you that milk and cookies are the way to a boy's heart, that and welcoming his rock collection and his pet lizards and excusing the prints he just made on your newly mopped floor.

And as he grows bigger, not only does he open your door, but he continues to open your eyes and your heart to good things, new music, new books, a different way of seeing the world, different, but still grounded in God's truth. You no longer tuck him in, but instead savor late night conversations and smile at his midnight pantry raids.

His pleas to tie his shoes or help put on his coat are long gone, and now he requests  his favorite soup and lets you know you should make pie more often, and "By the way, Mom, you should really read this book, and did you know...?"

It seems like just a moment ago you were scolding him for breaking a treasured tea cup, one you can't even remember well anymore, and you were fixing up a skinned knee and telling him Jesus loves him most of all and teaching him how to read, and now you see a man, and you get choked up because you can't stop thinking about the truth that he was made to leave.

You say it's because you love him so much that you want him to stay, but your heart knows the selfishness of that lie. It's not in holding on but in letting go that you honor what God has made him to do. No longer his Center, you feel a bit lost and wonder where to go, what to do, and you see your place over there, off-stage, to watch this new chapter in his life unfold, to cheer him on, to cover him in prayer.

So you step aside, your heart torn between rejoicing in the man God has made him and wanting just a few more moments of his boyhood (you'd gladly welcome plastic army men scattered everywhere and loud noises and entertain a million interruptions). You pray for wisdom, wisdom to not try to grasp what is no longer yours, wisdom to not try to shove your way back onto center stage, wisdom to repent, wisdom to know your place, wisdom to live out this new chapter for God's glory.

For your heart knows well that your boy, the boy who is now a man, was made to leave, and you love him best by letting go.

With love,
Trisha


***Kudos to the moms who have seamlessly made this transition, no repenting necessary, no struggles and wrestling. But maybe there's one other mom out there like I am. Here's a bit of self talk for us. :)

If The Lord Gave You Nothing But Troubles

If the Lord gave you nothing but troubles, then, I think, there might be some justification in dwelling so much upon them. But since there are so many mercies, would not it be wisdom to tell your friends, sometimes, all about those mercies with a sparkling eye and say, “They were manifold mercies. There was fold upon fold. See the goodness of the Lord in this thing. He sent that mercy just when I needed it—just when I most required it—and it came to me in such a beautiful way, too, and it was delivered to me by the very person that made it most acceptable. The way in which the gift was bestowed so sweetened it that I do not know how to praise the Lord enough for it.”

Oh, if only I heard Christians often saying one to another, “Have you heard what the Lord has done for me? Sit down a little while and let me fill your ears with the sweet tale of His loving kindnesses and His tender mercies.” Is not this justice? Bare justice? If you will harp on your sorrows, you should, in a better sense, harp on your joys and bring out the best harp with all its ten strings—and touch all those strings with praise to Him who has done so much for you!

~C. H. Spurgeon

Thanksgiving 2013~Do I Write This Boasting?

"Do I write this boastingly, brother? Nay, it is with tears of humble gratitude that I tell of the goodness of the Lord."
~Bapa Padmanji, quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Nothing perfect happening in our home today. But there was lots of God's goodness, an overwhelming amount of God's goodness. Oh, praise His name!

Happy Thanksgiving!

With love,
Trisha

A Month of Thanksgiving~A Nib for Your Pastor and Lots of Prayer

One year for Christmas, we gave our pastor a fountain pen nib with a pledge to faithfully pray for him, along with a note explaining the symbolism of the nib. The gift was inspired by this story told by Charles Spurgeon:

"There is a sermon by old Matthew Wilks about our being epistles of Christ, written not with ink, and not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart; and he said that ministers are the pens with which God writes on their hearts' hearts, and that pens need nibbing every now and then, and even when they are well nibbed they cannot write without ink--so he said that the best service that the people could render to the preachers was to pray the Lord to give them new nibs, and dip them in the ink afresh, that they might write better than before. Do so, dear friends, do not blot the page with your censures and unkind remarks, but help the preacher by pleading for him even as Christ prayed for Peter."
~Spurgeon, The Preparatory Prayers of Christ, emphasis mine

God has given us the privilege of interceding for those who shepherd us. How important this is, to pray for the Lord to keep them, to preserve them, to strengthen them! Not praying for our pastors is just one way of many of taking them for granted, of being ungrateful for this gift from the Lord.

Gardiner Spring puts it this way:

"Nothing gives a people so much interest in their minister, and interest of the best kind, as to pray for him. They love him more, they respect him more, the attend more cheerfully and profitably on his ministrations, the more they commend him to God in their prayers. They feel a deeper interest in his work the more they pray for him; and their children feel a deeper interest both in him and his preaching, when they habitually listen to supplications that affectionately commend him to the throne of the heavenly grace."
~A Plea to Pray for Pastors

Perhaps at the core of many a church's disillusionment with their pastor is their failure to consistently and fervently pray for him. When we find ourselves becoming increasingly critical of our shepherds, maybe the first thing we should ask ourselves is if we're praying for them. Truly, how often do we send our ministers into the pulpit without once having prayed for them during the week, and then we roast them over Sunday dinner and make of list of the many ways they displease us? Oh, God forgive us for neglecting this duty, this privilege.

Today is the perfect time to make a commitment to regularly pray for your pastor. And go one step further--let him know you're faithfully praying for him, be it by packaging up a lovely fountain pen nib or just sending a note. And what shall we pray?

Thomas Brooks, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, asks his congregation to pray in this way for him:

"That ye would pray for me, who am not worthy to be named among the saints, that I may be a precious instrument in the hand of Christ to bring in many souls unto Him, and to build up those that are brought in in their most holy faith; and 'that utterance will be given to me, that I may make known all the will of God' (Eph. 6:19); that I may be sincere, faithful, frequent, fervent, and constant in the work of the Lord, and that my labour be not in vain in the Lord; that my labours may be accepted in the Lord and his saints, and I may daily see the travail of my soul.

But, above all, pray for me, that I may more and more find the power and sweet of those things upon my own heart, that I give out to you and others; that my soul may be so visited with strength from on high, that I may live up fully and constantly to those truths that I hold forth to the world; and that I may be both in life and doctrine 'a burning and a shining light,' that so, when the Lord Jesus shall appear, 'I may receive a crown of glory which he shall give to me in that day, and not only to me, but to all that love his appearing.' (John 5:35 and 2 Tim. 1:8).

~Thomas Brooks

Of course, that's just a start. There are many prayers to pray for our pastors. The important thing is to just do it and do it faithfully.

Thanks be to God for our pastors and for the duty and privilege of interceding for them before the Lord!

With love,

Trisha

Life in Pictures~The Fourth

Eight Looks Good on Her and Other Reasons This Day is Bright

Happy 8th birthday to Ella! 8 looks good on you, darling daughter! And this birthday of hers reminds me of God's mercy as I recall that after Ella's birth I was so, so ill from Crohn's that I wasn't sure if I'd ever ever walk again without a cane or know another day without enduring extreme pain. He has given me what I don't deserve, and I stand in awe of His provision.

And it's a great day all around (I know it's only 9:00, but things look very promising.)

1) Ella is 8!

2) Ink's inbox is, for the first time EVER, bigger than mine. :)

3) Today's menu includes pancakes, FRIED chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, a chocolate chip cookie stack (if I pull that birthday dessert off, well...)

4) It's the first day of our summer break!

5) We have soft water.

6) Luke is teaching Ella how to make pancakes and starts with the words: "Now for a family our size, you must double the recipe."

7) God's fed me well with His words in Isaiah.

8) I get to be home with nine of the most fabulous children and hear them argue and laugh and sing and play. I get to discipline them and encourage them and pray for them and weep for them and clothe them and feed them and clean up after them and teach them...

The past few weeks have been hard, so I'm taking the mercies of this day, this bit of a breather that the Lord has given, and I'm running with it. It's gushing water in the midst of a season in the desert, and I'm grateful for the refreshment!

With love,
Trisha

6 Months

Six months old.

That's what Elijah is today.

He's not consistently rolling over, and the little man can't sit up by himself. In other words, he's not conforming to those milestone standards devised by childless pediatricians.

Now if he were my first baby, I would have already called the doctor and thumbed through baby books and searched the internet. I would have imagined one thousand reasons as to why he wasn't progressing like "normal."  Instead, I've only considered a few.

This chunky-hunk-of-love seems to be my easiest baby of all. He falls asleep on his own. He only cries when he's tired or hungry or, on rare occasions, when he wants to be held (rare because he's usually being held).

He eats well and sleeps well. He's happy.

So my first thought for his "delay" is simply that God is being kind to me, you know, stretching out what could be my final moments of this season of motherhood. When you're a brand new Mama, you can't wait to watch the show unfold before your eyes. But, when you've been there a few times, or you're keenly aware you might not be there again, you're delighted to take things slowly.

My Mom still hasn't held this little guy, but I'm hoping and praying that will change in April. In the meantime, I'm thankful for every grin and laugh and coo and diaper change and....

And I love that his siblings are still crazy about him.

Happy 6 months, Sarge!

The day after the birth (of my granddaughter) I was in the grocery store getting some vegetables and grains for the family. There were several mothers shopping up and down the aisles with young children in tow--many of them snarling and snapping at the over-lively, curiosity-filled, wildly energetic kids. I wanted to grab the mothers, embrace them, tell them, "Do you realize what you have done? You have given birth to a child, a child--this miracle, this wonder, this glory."
~Eugene Peterson


With love,
Trisha

Thanksgiving 2012

It doesn't matter how much time we spend giving thanks, it never feels like it's enough. And truly, it isn't. 

Thanks be to God for the many joys of yesterday.

The cooking ahead that made for a much more enjoyable and stress free day.

The help in the kitchen from my Mountain Man and all of our children.

The laughter around the table.

The many times of correction, the Holy Spirit's work in us, making us more like 

Christ.

A conversation with my sister whose husband is battling stage 4 colon cancer--to hear of God's provision, to hear her clinging to His truths. 

The joyful recounting of God's mercies throughout the year. How many there have been!!

Grandma's visiting and feasting with us.

The reading of His Word.

The abundance of delicious food and sweet fellowship.

The games and books and constant flow of creativity.

The beauty and coziness that abounds in tight spaces.

The wonder of photography.

The work of our hands that is because He is and gives us so graciously all things.

Waves of buttery potatoes, tender turkey, flaky rolls, sweet and crisp corn, roasted asparagus, southern-style sweet tea, Chariot wine, cranberry sauce, berry pie, and chocolate.

Grace to obey and walk in His ways when our flesh resists at every turn. 

Repentance. Forgiveness. 

We are the redeemed!