Our heritage!

This is the heritage of the servants of JHWH whose righteousness is from Him:

We shall be far from oppression, not because it does not exist, but because we shall not fear it. God has created the spoiler to destroy, yet no weapon formed against God's people will prosper. This is listed in His covenant of peace in Isaiah 54.


Here is the infinite mercy of our Redeemer: "For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you . . . . For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed."

"O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by JHWH, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you..."

Eclipse

I left the dinner table, albeit a laid back affair of sandwiches and no mats; the silliness and noise were getting to me. Asked Cal in passing to assign clean up and I was leaving. I found an old biography of Queen Victoria, quite well-written I am finding, that my grandmother gave me on my fifteenth birthday out of my grandfather's library. I rediscovered it, not remembering ever to have had it, when I moved books last week. I shut the door, shutting out the laughter and foolishness of my kids (they're excited in having some out of town guests arrive for a week), and curled up on my bed to escape by reading until I fell asleep. And fall asleep I did. The biography was engaging, (I even got to page 101 before quitting last night) but I was so tired not even the noise and Cal's typing kept me awake. For once I would not manage the evening for the whole family. L'aissez faire.

Until Susan's piano exercises drilled me awake. I heard them, tried to ignore them, was pleased to realize I was not resenting them. But at last they won. I was fully awake. I lay there wondering what ever happened to blissful periods of hymn interpretation from her dreamier, less goal-oriented days? I prayed for her. Then I resumed my reading:

. . . When, after her first Council, she crossed the ante-room and found her mother waiting for her, she said, "And now, Mamma, am I really and truly Queen?" "You see, my dear, that it is so. " "Then, dear Mamma, I hope you will grant me the first request I make to you, as Queen. Let me be by myself for an hour." For an hour she remained in solitude. Then she reappeared, and gave a significant order: her bed was to be moved out of her mother's room. It was the doom of the Duchess of Kent. The long years of waiting were over at last; the moment of a lifetime had come; her daughter was Queen of England; and that very moment brought her own annihilation. She found herself, absolutely and irretrievably, shut off from every vestige of influence, of confidence, of power. . . .For eighteen years, she said, this child had been the sole object of her existence, of her thoughts, her hopes, and now--no! she would not be comforted, she had lost everything, she was to the last degree unhappy. Sailing, so gallantly and so pertinaciously, through the buffeting storms of life, the stately vessel, with sails still swelling and pennons flying, had put into harbour at last; to find there nothing--a land of bleak desolation.
Queen Victoria, by Lytton Strachey, New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1921

Now I hope there are many dissimilarities between my raising of my seven children for the glory of God and the Duchess of Kent raising the Princess Alexandrina Victoria for the throne of England, chief of them being our chief end. Guided by scripture, my children are not the sole object of my existence, of my thoughts, my hopes. Yeah, they take a lot of time. They are my life, my life's work right now. Like Victoria's mother, I have chosen to shelter my children from the influences of the world, filling their lives with goodness as I know it, and watching over their activities closely. But the Object of my existence is That which also drives my thoughts, and both are centered around my only Hope in this life and the next. I shall not be desolate when my children take up their God-appointed sceptres to rule the kingdoms He shall give them. I shall have more time to pray for them, more time to read good biographies, more time for painting (if my eyes last. Typing this post is a chore for what my grandmother used to call "bleariness"), more time to serve God in other ways. Nor do I expect my children to cut me off so abruptly from their lives, as I hope that my counsel will always be based on biblical wisdom. But now I am reaching...

I had been thinking about my children getting past my domain, eclipsing me, so to speak, last night while listening to Susan practicing. I went to her room to talk to her about my thoughts. I was comforted to hear her godly motivations. She is still on the right track. God keep her there. Always, my children, Satan is going to be working his deception to derail you. And I will be keeping a keen lookout as long as you are providentially in my purview. But pray for me to believe in God's infinite Goodness. Perhaps then I will be more joyful and less worried.

In pain you will bring forth children

Peter, AJ, and Grace are watching a Yankees game on Grandpa's tv which has been set up on the organ bench for the occasion. Susan, Kilby, and Becky are up at the seminary with Cal and will be fetching Nonnie from the airport on their way home. David is still at Cintas working. I am desperately tired, sleepy, eyes stinging, unable to focus tired. But I keep putting one foot in front of the other, a load of laundry here, helping Grace stain her new stool there, and now a few minutes of blog before I straighten Nonnie's bed where Becky slept a week ago when the house was all torn up for carpeting. All the while, all day I've thought: just take a day off. Just get in to bed and read till you sleep and then sleep again. When was the last time I did that? I don't think it would be physically possible, not to mention logistics. I wonder if God will grant me rest by putting me up for awhile. Last time I had thoughts like that I had the perimenopausal bleed that put my anemic body in bed to be waited upon for two weeks. I'd like the rest. I just don't want something that drastic to give it me. I think part of what I need rest from is all the unfinished stuff. The niche in Susan's room that I don't know how to tile, the bookshelves in my room that need to get out, the going to the upholsterer with Penny to pick out fabric for a chair, the stuff, the stuff, the stuff that needs to be reshuffled and reorganized. All of that in addition to the normal everyday life. And then there is the garage. I wonder why no one else can do this stuff. Well, plenty COULD. No one DOES. That's MY job. Not to DO it but to GET IT DONE. Driving home from Sam's Club this a.m. listening to another wonderful, excellent sermon by Pastor Skogen on Christ's service to the disciples I thought on why I need to tell my kids to serve at all. Why don't I just DO it and they'll wonderfully follow my humble example? Does it work that way? Well, I was taught to serve by precept as well as example. So I think I need to teach by precept and command as well as by example. And driving home ruminating about all this I believe I had an insight which I hope is holy: It is my God-given and holy JOB to train these kids. It is not EASY. It makes me feel like a nag. It leaves me tired. But it is my JOB. May I do it faithfully, even when I don't think I'm doing it well. God did help me just moments later. I came in to find the work I'd hoped finished not quite done, and the worker moving too slowly. Employing several others we got lunch on only 25 minutes late. Bell rang while I was whirling around the kitchen to clean it up. And while I was sweeping the floor, the kids were taking their places at the table, waiting for Cal. God gave me grace not to whine at them; but to call one child to come and clear the dish rack, then another child to wipe off a counter, yet another child to clean the spots off the floor. Soon there were four of them at work alongside me, and we had the kitchen clean before Cal came in. God help me not to whine and complain, but to act. SDG.