Complaining, Part Two

I recently blogged about David bringing his complaints before the Lord, and my thoughts about Christians and complaining. Susan referred me back to one of our favorite books, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, where Jeremiah Burroughs so eloquently speaks on the same topic. Here is a brief paragraph from the first chapter.

[A quiet heart] is not opposed to making in an orderly manner our moan and complaint to God, and to our friends. Though a Christian ought to be quiet under God's correcting hand, he may without any breach of Christian contentment complain to God. As one of the ancients says, Though not with a tumultuous clamour and shrieking out in a confused passion, yet in a quiet, still, submissive way he may unbosom his heart to God. Likewise he may communicate his sad condition to his Christian friends, showing them how God has dealt with him, and how heavy the affliction is upon him, that they may speak a word in season to his weary soul.
~Jeremiah Burroughs, 1648 (emphasis mine)

Satisfaction even in Singleness (and beyond!)

I recently stumbled across the book, Getting Serious About Getting Married. I was able to read the first few pages of it on Amazon, as well as a review of it on Boundless. But I have mixed thoughts concerning the author's points. Granted, I have not actually read the book, only the snippets I could find on Amazon, and the review, but while I was agreeing with the points I found that she made in the Table of Contents and throughout what I was able to read online, part of me also was rejecting them...

One argument she makes is against the oft-repeated phrase about "Jesus is enough for you, single friend"... but should it be challenged? Isn't it in Christ alone that we can ever find true satisfaction and contentment? Isn't it Christ who will not only give us the desire for marriage, but also cause us to be content when we need to be (since He commands us to be content in all places, times, and situations); and in His perfect time and way, according to His perfect will, provide just the perfect, sin-stained spouse we need? And isn't in Him that we will also always need to find our satisfaction after He grants us our desire for marriage?

We too easily set ourselves up for failure when we start thinking that if I only was married, then I'd be content. Then I'd never worry about anything. Then it would be easy to trust the Lord!But when we do so, we have wrongly shifted our view of the source of satisfaction from our Perfect, Eternal, Heavenly Bridegroom, to a fallen, temporary, earthly one.

I agree that God loves marriage, that God intends it for most of His people, that it is a good thing; but I also know (whether I remember to practice it is another story!) that I am to be content where God has me now, that He knows every dream of mine, and that He has all goodness and power to give me exactly what is good for me. I don't always, no, I never! know what is good for me. But He does. And He is controlling everything in my life. I can trust Him with every single one of my hopes and dreams, and know assuredly that He will fulfill every one that is good and pleasing to Him, and will even bless me more abundantly than what I know to ask for.

So I recognize that I have a longing for something that is good and godly; it is something that God is in the habit of giving to His people; and I even believe it to be His will for me at some point in my life. I have my hopes and plans and dreams- and timetable!- but God has His, and it's infinitely better than mine! He is the One "calling the shots" and I know He hears my prayers and will answer them in THE VERY BEST way.

Jesus really is enough. He will provide everything I need. Whether what I really need is what I think I need is up for debate-- but I know for certain that He will never fail me. Jesus is enough for me to find satisfaction in as a single lady, a married woman, and even a widow, as He wills. My contentment can't be in anyone else, not even the best man God has picked out for me.

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This post is inspired by a lengthy comment I left on Keziah's blog regarding a post on the book I referenced.

These hymns are coming to mind:
Satisfied
None But Christ Can Satisfy

satis= "enough," "sufficient"
My grace will satisfy thee.

Single Women at Home

Carolyn McCulley has written a very good article about single women, hospitality, and home-making. Please take a minute or two to read the whole thing, but here is my favorite part:

We shouldn’t wait until marriage is on the horizon to cultivate domesticity. In Titus 2:5, we find that older women are to train younger women to be “working at home.” This is one of Scripture’s commands to women. Period. Granted, this passage does assume that most women will be wives, but it also assumes that we need instruction to prepare for that role. We need training to love our husbands and love our children. We need to be taught how to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, and kind, as well as how to be submissive to our husbands. Single women are included in that training. We are to be trained in all aspects, even though we may not be called by God to fill those roles, immediately or ever. In that light, we’re no less exempt from the charge to be working at home than we are from the commands to be self-controlled, pure, or kind.

Merry Christmas!

From Jesse's Stock Up-Springing

From Jesse's stock up-springing,
On tender root has grown:
A rose by Prophet's singing,
To all the world made known.
The rose 'midst winter's cold,
A lovely blossom bearing,
In former days foretold.

This rose then of my story
Isaiah did proclaim.
What God ordained in glory
By blessed Mary came.
The Child the virgin bore,
The world's salvation bringing
Through Him for evermore.

The rosebud small and tender
Gives fragrance every day.
And by its brilliant splendor
Makes darkness pass away.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load.

Since all He comes to ransom,
By all be He adored;
The Infant born in Bethle'm,
The Saviour and the Lord.
Repeat the hymn again;
"To God on high be glory,
And peace on earth to men!"

This is my favorite Christmas hymn for three reasons. First, I love the imagery within the text. Second, the tune is beautiful, even if it is difficult to sing in parts. And thirdly, it is the hymn that my friend (also named Jessi- no "e") and I always would request in youth group carol-sings, because it had our name in it. : )

HT for tune: www.sermonaudio.com

Complaining

In Psalm 144, David prays for the Lord to prosper Israel so that there would be "no complaining in our streets."

But in Psalm 142, he says that he "poured out his complaint before the Lord," he "shewed before him" his trouble.

We are told to do all things without murmuring or disputing; complaining or arguring... so why does David admit to complaining to the Lord? Isn't complaining "wrong"?

Maybe the sin of complaining lies in to whom we are telling our complaints, and the attitude in which we speak. Do we go around chanting "nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows my sorrow," and live in a despondent mood? If so, that type of complaining is done out of rebellion to the Lord. We are not willing to acknowledge that "whatever our God ordains is right."

But David was complaining to the Lord out of trust and submission to Him. He knew that it was only the Lord Who was capable of changing his circumstances. He didn't go around complaining "in the streets" to everyone who would listen; he took his burden to the Lord and left it there.

Mother-Daughter Tea

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Here are some pictures from a Mother-Daughter Tea we had with our church friends on Saturday morning. We had a lovely time! I had never been to our local little tea room, but it was so cute! It was nicely decorated, and had a cute gift shop... And we got to try on hats and choose one to wear during the brunch! Don't you like the brown one my mom is wearing (Picture 2)?

#1. The entire group, outside the Tea Room. Sorry for the squinty eyes- but the sun was bright!

#2. Table No. 1: My mom (Angie), Sheilah M., Anna-Grace M., Hannah (my sister).

#3. Table No. 2: Katie (my sister), Erin K., Rebecca Y., me.

#4. Table No. 3: Mrs. Kimbro (pastor's wife), Ms. Debbie M., Keri K.

#5. Pastor's wife and two daughters... my friend Jessi couldn't come with us.

#6. My favorite picture of them all. Cute, isn't she!!

#7. Yours truly.

#8. Sheilah, my mom, and me, taken by my sister Hannah.

How it happened

The post you've all been waiting for!!

Are you ready to hear the story??

Drumroll, please?

*walks up to the stage, takes place at the microphone; crowds cheering*

"Thank you, thank you. Please... please, have a seat. Thank you all for coming out today. It means so much to me." *another round of applause* "No, really, you must sit down. Make yourselves comfortable!

"Thursday night my sister and I had just finished watching a movie with our family. It was after 11:00, and the two of us were sleepy and hyper. You know what that's like!"

*laughter*

"Katie was comparing her height to mine, and finding that she was inevitably doomed to spend the rest of her life being looked down upon by me, she began endeavoring to add a cubit to her stature... Not by taking thought, but by simultaneously pushing my shoulders down while boosting herself up off the ground.

"What she meant as a playful attempt to make herself taller than me, actually felt good to me. She was stretching my shoulder muscles by her weight on them. I told her that I liked it, and said she could do it again." (See where the "shoulders" thing comes in??)

*ooh, oh, we see...* *knowing nods amongst the audience*

"My stepdad, upon seeing our previous 'competition' remarked, 'Katie, I don't think you're ever going to be taller than Jessie. But I still think you could take her if it came down to it.'

"This statement prompted a swell of pride and hope in my sister's heart, and spurred on by the thought of it, quickly shifted her hands from being pressed on my shoulders, to snatching up my elbows and holding my arms behind my back before I knew what was happening.

"There is something you must know before I continue the story. It pains me to confess it... but I must for the sake of the narrative." *reluctant sigh* "I am incredibly ticklish."

*smiles and occasional "uh-oh!'s"*

"So as she grabbed my elbows and held my arms behind me, I was being tickled at the sides of my waist. Katie was not intending to tickle me, and didn't even know she was! But I felt tickled... and in the same way that when a skunk feels threatened, he sprays, when I feel tickled I squirm! I become rather violent when I am being tickled; but Katie had me trapped! My arms were stuck behind my back, and there was no way to escape!! I couldn't get away! My only option I could find in the confusion of the moment, was to jump and try to run and break free!

"However as I jumped, Katie's grip on me only strengthed! Insead of breaking loose as I had intended, my jump only caused me to double over, leaning forward with my feet off the ground! Katie was supporting my entire weight by holding my arms at my back, and my head was now nearer the ground than my feet were!"

*frightened sighs!* *a lady faints in the crowd!*

"Katie finally heard my desperate cries to 'let me get down! Put me down!' 'Stop!! You're still tickling me!' 'My feet are off the floor!' so she let go of my arms... But my feet still weren't on the ground, and my head was almost! Now I began to fall from her supporting hands, and being doubled over as I was, with my hands still behind me with no time to put them out to break my fall- I saw the floor coming nearer and nearer my face, when *bam!* my nose hit the carpet, followed by the rest of me."

*shocked exclamations!*

"After a slightly dazed second, I realized what had just happened! My sister had dropped me! I had fallen on my nose! Is it broken? bruised? Am I bleeding? Do I have carpet burn on my cheek?" (no to all of the above, btw.)

"But my nose! It's getting bigger by the minute!" (or not.)

"So there you have it. That's how my sister dropped me, and I fell on my nose."

*applause*

"Again, thank you, thank you" *curtsies* "Glad you could come out today! See you 'round!"

*more cheers* as I exit the stage, waving...

Neat-O

Thanks to Jonny for linking to such a fun site!

I've always wondered where all you blog readers of mine come from!

I'll leave this one for y'all to figure out:

Last night my sister (Katie) dropped me, and I fell on my nose.

Random Thoughts

If I ever have two male cats, their names will be Hobart and Gilbert.

But Gilbert has to be black and white.

And yes, that's Hobart as in Tasmania.

Shouldn't Americans spell it Tazmania? Like "legaliz(s)e", "materializ(s)e", etc? Just wondering.

I get this way when I'm tired.

Ooh, I just realized I can call them Bart and Bert.

You might love being a homemaker if:

• You count your bread machine (or bowl) among your best friends.
• You own more aprons than shirts.
• You think coupon-clipping should be an Olympic sport.
• You relax by reading cookbooks.
• You get excited when dusting supplies are on sale at the dollar store.
• You're asking for a yogurt maker or a grain mill for Christmas.
• Your favorite piece of exercise equipment is your vacuum cleaner.
• You think "window shopping" has to do with buying curtains.
• Your cooking utensils never get dusty in the crockery jar on the counter.

Any others you can think of?

Scrabble- Presbyterian Edition

"I am glad to tell you that Andrea and I are now working closely with Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble to develop an expanded version of our beloved game that will be known as Super Scrabble the Presbyterian Edition. The SSPE game will have a larger board that is 30 spaces wide, and a custom Presbyterian dictionary that other versions do not include. There will be a longer tile slate that will hold 20 tiles as opposed to the regular 7 tile slate. The regular one minute sand-timer has been replaced with a 3 minute timer for those deep thinking scholars and theologians that want to make epistemologically self-conscious choices regarding placement of their tiles and choice of words. There are of course more tiles to accomplish a healthy game of SSPE. While the regular edition of Scrabble only contains spaces devoted to triple letter scoring, the SSPE boasts 12 quintuplet letter score spaces, 10 quadruple letter score spaces, 8 triple letter score spaces and so forth. Hasbro has a project completion date set for next fall. Perhaps you will even see SSPE available for sale in Vision Forum's catalog next year if it passes product inspection and approval?!?!?!"

Click here to read the whole story- is a blast! Thanks, Kelly and Andrea, for sharing such a great idea!

While we're on the topic...

How Southern Are You?

This "test" doesn't score based on pronunciation so much as vocabulary. It's interesting anyway. I'm "97% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!"

How 'bout y'all?

My Voice

Well, here I am. Now that you've heard Susan's voice, now you can hear mine! Do I sound like you thought I would?