One Quiet Life

One step on the path of intentional living , and I was confronted with soul-searching questions . I have not yet made it past the first set. How do I support, protect, and help my husband? The conundrum burrows deeper into my spirit as I read Ephesians 5:22-24, and  these words from Claire Smith: The husband is to promote his wife's godliness and sanctification, sparing no effort in advancing the work of Christ in her life. He is to help her prepare for the future marriage of Christ and the church. ( God's Good Design , p.119) The command to submit rings in my ears. Not because I don't want to submit to my husband, although there have been times when this has been the case. Not because it's unfair or antiquated, as the women's liberation movement decries. No, I keep mulling this command over and over in light of Genesis 2:18, and my role as my husband's helper. Aimee gives me something to consider: As a helper, we always need to remember that we repres...

I make my daughter's bed.   Yes, the daughter who's 15.  Yes, she's perfectly capable of making her own bed.  Yes, perhaps she should.  But while some may accuse me of babying her too much and enabling her to be lazy, I disagree. She has weekly chores and responsibilities. Many nights, she helps me prepare dinner. I make her bed because I want to be intentional at home . When she was small, I made her bed. Somewhere along the way, I taught her how to do it. I expected her to do it each morning before school. After all, how hard is it to pull up a comforter and fluff a pillow? Some mornings she complied, but many mornings she ran out of time. I knew arguments would make our already tense, hurried mornings worse. Besides, her dad worked swing shift and my own bed remained unmade much of the time because of his unusual sleep schedule. How could I expect something from her that I wasn't doing myself? At some point I decided that she was old enough to assume the...

If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. The grammar of this old Southern bit of wisdom makes me cringe, but the older I get the more I understand - and am convicted by - the truth it contains: my attitude, countenance, words, mood, and actions set the tone in our home. As I begin this journey toward intentional living , I have found exhortation in Aimee 's wise words in Chapter One , We must certainly show forth our Lord God's beauty in this awesome task [being a helper to our husbands]. And for us to do this properly, it is imperative that we are functioning appropriately in our role. (p. 22) I see these very words lived out in the life of Sarah Edwards .  As Noel Piper says, Sarah Edwards was a supporter, protector and homebuilder for her husband, a godly mother and example for her children, and a hostess, comforter and encourager to guests. While she uniformly paid a becoming deference to her husband and treated him with entire respect, she spared no pain...

During the months preceding my December social media hiatus I spent considerable time contemplating the quiet life and how best to cultivate it. As I thought about changes I've made and still more that need to be made, I concluded that it's not just a quiet life that I want, but a more intentional one. There are several areas of my life in which I want to be more intentional, however in this quiet place I will share but two.  Intentional Reading . My past reading plans have set me up for failure. I've tried to read too many books, gotten sidetracked by the latest "must read", and generally been overwhelmed so that, at times, reading has been a chore. No more! I have developed a reading plan that allows me to immerse myself in certain topics. This year I will be leading a monthly study of Aimee Byrd's Housewife Theologian: How the Gospel Interrupts the Ordinary . In order to give this study the attention it deserves, all of my reading - including fiction - ...

With the Holy Spirit's prompting - and the grace of God abounding - I gave up Facebook and Twitter during December so that I could focus on the Incarnation and prepare my heart for Christmas. I didn't think I devoted an inordinate amount of time to social media; however, when I announced my intention to my girl and her response was something akin to "Good. You need to given them up.", I knew I needed the break more than I cared to admit. I had already stopped posting anything in this little spot for the final months of 2013. Limited blogging at Out of the Ordinary, permanently paring down my feed reader to precious few, and saying no to Facebook and Twitter has taught me some valuable lessons. ~ Absence does not necessarily make the heart grow fonder. While there may have been a few who felt my absence, I imagine that I was, for the most part, forgotten. Not that I blame anyone; it's the nature of the social media beast. ~ Social media friends aren't alwa...