The Truth #18

Truth #18 from Lies Women Believe is Personal holiness is more important than temporal happiness. My happiness is not the highest good, nor is it my right. God did not save us to make us happy or so that we can live for ourselves or our own pleasure. He saved us so that we can be free to live for Him. We were created for His pleasure. Holiness requires sacrifices of our own personal comfort and convenience. But any sacrifice we make cannot be compared with the joy and fulfillment we will gain in eternity.

Ephesians 5:26-27 "...to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

I think this is one of the areas our current culture has been terribly deceived about. Everyone thinks that the goal of life is to be happy. And people are willing to do anything that they think will bring them more happiness. More money, bigger house, new car, different spouse, better job, on and on it goes in the search for "happiness". None of those things will ever make you happy. You'll drive yourself crazy if all you do is frantically search for happiness. That longing in your soul for "happiness" can only be filled by God. And it's not really an ache for happiness, but for holiness.

The first time I really started to understand this was after reading Sacred Marriage. The basis of the book is that God uses marriage to make you holy, not happy. That very much goes against most people's reasoning for getting (or staying) married. But as I grow in my marriage, I am learning how true that really is. And marriage is just one example. Really, all experiences and relationships here on earth are designed for the purpose of glorifying God and drawing you closer to Him.

The Truth #17

Truth #17 from Lies Women Believe is that In the will of God, there is no higher and holier calling than to be a wife and mother. True joy comes from discovering why God made us and embracing his purpose and design. God made women to be a helper to her husband and a bearer and nurturer of life. To make a home, to be united with one man in glorifying God, to nurture and tend the lives of children and grandchildren, to deny oneself and lay down one's life on behalf of others--there is no higher calling and no greater joy.

Titus 2:4-5 "Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." This is actually the passage of Scripture our new Mentor Mom study is based on. I think it's very interesting that the reason a woman is to do all of the things listed is in order to glorify God and point people to the gospel.

Some of my other favorite wife verses come from Proverbs 31 "A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life...She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed, her husband also and he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

It is my prayer of thankfulness that God has given me Jay, Catherine, and Will to care for. It is my joy to be Jay's wife and Catherine and Will's mom. There is nothing in this world I would rather do.

This Time Last Year

This time last year, I was very, very pregnant and sooooo ready to have a baby! I was already 3cm dilated (even though my official due date wasn't until Oct 9) and was rather uncomfortable. It had been a very long pregnancy and I was ready to meet this little baby. We still didn't know if we would be welcoming baby Will or baby Claire to our family. But we still had 2 more weeks to wait.....

Union Birthdays, Part 2

On Sunday, we celebrated Mama Belk's 82nd birthday. We are all just so glad that she was having a birthday to celebrate and that she has recovered so well from her stroke in July. Praise the Lord!

Here's the birthday girl. I still think she looks much younger than 82!

The whole family went out to lunch on Sunday after church. Here are Catherine and Will with their cousins. From L to R: Riley (my sister Kelly's stepdaughter, 8 years old) holding Will, Brooklynn (my sister Amanda's middle daughter, 2 1/2 years old), Catherine, Maddyson (Amanda's oldest daughter, 6 years old) holding Kennedy (Amanda's youngest, 8 months old)

My mom and Brooklynn at lunch

After lunch, we spent the afternoon at my mom's house. Catherine loves to play with the baby dolls there and we went for a walk down Main Street. We had a great weekend in Union.

Union Birthdays, Part 1

We were in Union this weekend for Kay's birthday (my stepmom) and Mama Belk's birthday (my grandmother). Here are a few photos from Kay's Surprise 50th Birthday party on Saturday night:

Blowing out the candles, with lots of help from all of the grandaughters:

Kay, my dad, Logan (Kay's son) and the grandgirls (Will had already gone to bed)

The birthday cake had very lovely black 50th birthday icing on it. It was quite a hit with Catherine and Brooklynn. They got that icing everywhere.

Catherine was having a great time eating cake. Right before cake time, she also drank a Mellow Yellow. I'll just say that I learned my lesson. At 3am when I was still saying, "Catherine, please go to sleep" and she was saying "Can we get up and eat bacon?", I realized that a 2 year old shouldn't have caffeine and birthday cake at 8pm!

My Personality ID

I just did a quick Personality ID profile. I think it described me pretty accurately as a "deep thinker" who is analytical, logical, organized, and precise. I laughed when I read about my communication style, "You tend to communicate impersonally through the logical presentation of well-thought-out ideas and facts. Often, the explanations of your thought processes go far deeper than others wish to explore." It made me think of my 12 page birth control paper. That would be a pretty deep thought process that most people wouldn't care to explore!

If you want to look at my results or make a Personality profile for yourself, just click on the link below:

View my Career Direct personality profile

The Truth #16

Truth #16 from Lies Women Believe is that the greatest freedom I can experience is found through submission to God-ordained authority. When we don't submit to authority, we become more vulnerable to Satan's attacks. When we are under God's authority, we are granted his protective covering, we show the world His beauty of created order, and we cooperate with God in establishing His kingdom.

Ephesians 5: 21-24 tells us "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."

The word "submission" immediately brings negative connotations to many people's minds. They think that it puts you in bondage or slavery. But really, it's the opposite. By submitting, I am trusting God by trusting the authority He has placed me under. It takes the pressure away from me trying to do everything myself. It frees me to do the work God has given me to do and not to try and do things I wasn't created for.

Once I finally caught a glimpse of how God wants this to work in marriage, it made me love and respect Jay so much more. Never have I felt enslaved or in bondage. Submitting to any authority on earth is really a test of submission to God himself. If you can't submit to your husband, for example, then you probably aren't submitting to God either.