Tuesday

Anyone remember the children's illustrated book, "Tuesday"?? No words. The kind of book where you make up what is going on in the pictures. A book to let your imagination soar. I think of that when I title a post: Tuesday.

It is still dark. I have some plans. I have a few errands to run---the cleaners and get the oil changed on the Plymouth. But, the day is a blank slate. I have such freedom. Lots and lots of free time. Something I longed for as a mom of three boys. When they were all small, it just was not worth it to drag them all to the store. Ben would have a meltdown, and I would have to say no a hundred times to every enticingly packaged item. And as a mom, I was too tired, or too lazy to turn it into an adventure or even a teachable moment.

My mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom. She gave us her all when we were little. As we got older, and were at school most of the day, she started doing the books for my Dad's father's Culligan business. I can remember Poppy coming by with receipts and her huge bookkeeping books. I loved getting to see my Poppy. I was very blessed with wonderful grandparents on both sides. Grandmothers that stayed home and made their families their work. Full gardens, canning, laundry on the line---their work was back breaking. And never ending. There was always something to do. And generations to care for. Both my grandmothers' own mothers were still alive until I was in high school. So, they cared for their own moms, their husbands, their children, and were ready at a moments notice to even feed grandchildren that dropped in. Food was central. I remember shopping with my grandmothers. I can still hear my Mom's Mom, the farmer's wife, clucking over the high price of store bought chickens. She raised her own most of her life. Staying at her house meant always having a bath before bed, and slipping between clean, smooth sheets, and being loved and cared for. Staying with my Dad's Mother meant lots of modern conveniences, and staying up late to watch TV and eat snacks. But, her house, too, was clean and orderly. She enjoyed shopping at farms for the rich cream that came in quart jars to make ice cream, or fix dried corn. And I have stood in her kitchen when that dried corn was being prepared---corn off the cob, blanched, and carefully dried in the oven, and stored away in huge gallon jars. I am sure the recipe called for lots of butter, and fresh cream.

It became fashionable in the sixties and seventies for women to go back to work, and keeping house, being a housewife---I hate that term, as if you are married to the house---fell out of fashion. The women's lib revolution thought they knew better, and pushed their propaganda that daycare could raise the next generation better, that a woman needed fulfillment outside the home. Thankfully, I got to stay home with my boys. And I loved it. Nothing sweeter than a baby, and how they slow down time itself. Their pace taught me to stop and smell the roses and be in the moment. And yet they grew up so fast. And so many teens when my boys were teens were addicted to drugs, and being home, being always aware of what they were doing, and being there was the best drug prevention. And while I worked in the school lunchroom, and volunteered with the PTA for years and years, raising our boys was something Bob encouraged and praised even as I watched as I became the ONLY one at home on my block. Yes, there were lonely moments. I remember looking out the kitchen window longing for a friend. Someone to share the joys and frustrations. That was way before the internet, and cell phone. I used to write lots and lots of long letters to say in contact with friends and relatives, but it make others feel guilty in that they felt they "owed" me a letter.

I journaled. And marveled at each age and its challenges. And now they are all launched. Firstborn has a family all his own. And James plans to marry in September. And Ben moved out when he was eighteen---the clingiest baby, the most independent. Ben likes to figure things out for himself. I miss him more than he will ever miss me. And that is how it should be.

I realize some women have to work. I realize some bought the lie that staying home is a waste of your life. And sadly, because of the high rate of divorce and single motherhood---women who don't even bother to marry, so many women have to work to survive.

Staying home with your children is still in vogue with Christian moms. And moms good at math. As Barbara Bush said, no one looks back at their life and wishes they spent more time at the office. It is the investment of time and love and energy put into the next generation that lasts.

My heart goes out to the moms this week who got word that their sons died in Iraq. A car bomb took four soldiers, and a helicopter crash took a husband and dad---a mother's son. Did those women waste their time raising heros?? No. Never.

Yes, I had it easy. And now my days are wide open for study, for blogging, for reading. And it is time to turn and encourage the next generation of women to examine their priorities, do their jobs as Mom as unto the Lord. Look to Him for your direction, purpose, and help to be the teacher and nurse and example to the generation they bear. Life is so precious, and if moms do not stay home and highlight that gift, more and more will be discarded. Ann Coulter points out in her book that the 99 percent filling our prisons were from single moms. We have been given these stats, these warnings, and we need to wake up as a nation and value marriage, a mom and a dad raising the next generation in an intact home.

Our granchild drives the parents crazy constantly asking about the other. When my son calls after picking the grandchild up from daycare, the grandchild keeps chirping, "mom" "mom" "mom" wanting to know where is mom, are we going home to mom, and wanting that completeness. And when the grandchild is with mom, and my son is out of town, I have been told that the grandchild drives mom crazy asking where is dad. A child needs a mom AND a dad.

I am so sorry we don't live closer so that our grandchild goes to daycare. My friend, Mary, gets to keep her grandchildren so that her daughter can teach school, and her daughter-in-law can get a break. Her grandchildren always know they are loved by relatives. Family. As God intended. I cringe every time I hear stories of daycare children abandoned in hot vans, or even abandoned and forgotten in cribs at the daycare. There was a story in the news recently of a mom who showed up at a closed daycare, and she could hear her baby crying inside.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the gift of getting to stay home with my sons. I pray that You guide and direct women today to look to You for what is best for their families. Your will be done. I pray that You help me to be encouraging, not critical. A help, not hurtful. Life is so short. But, when I was a mom with children sick, hurt, or needing watched 24/7, there were times I was lonely. And there were times I felt unappreciated. Poor. Restricted. Tired. But, there were also wonderful times of peace, adventures, fun, marvel, and looking back, it all went by so quickly. No one wants to listen to an old, gray haired, fat lady. And our rooms stand empty. Dust collects on the toys. Please comfort the moms who lost their sons to a car bomb in Iraq, and a helicotper crash and please help the moms who are still busy helping disabled sons. Sons scarred by war. Your will be done. Only You, Lord, can turn our country around and protect the institutions You invented to protect and preserve the human race---especially family, and marriage. In Jesus name. Amen.

Gotta Blog

Gotta Blog. Gotta Blog, Gotta Blog, Gotta Blog.

I am a mom. A stay-at-home mom. Except when I need groceries, and to mail a package. Then I venture out. I drive slowly. I notice the blooming trees. I drive carefully, trying not to tick off the rest of the population who are all obviously going to a fire. I watch out for those who mumble to themselves while driving, yakking on a cell phone.

I don't usually use the other post office, but it was on the way to the grocery store du jour. My package was all stamped and ready to go. I turned right on the street to the post office and glanced ahead to the drive of the post office and drive up boxes, and noticed a man in a dualie struggling to turn it around and exit the drive I was approaching. Those double-wide huge pick up trucks with two back wheels on each side, and a long, long frame---he needed a huge turning ratio. So, I slowed. I hung back and gave him a healthy, respectful distance. The driver was doing his best to back and quickly swing it around. I don't know if he just is not used to courtesy or what, but, (and I am still blown away by what he did next) HE BLEW ME A KISS !!!!!!!!

WoW. In this world where most folks will flip you their middle finger, or frown or sneer or shake their head at my pokey driving, this gentleman in baseball cap and so busy he had not been by the barber in a while---this gentleman BLEW ME A KISS !!! How awesome is that??!! How often does that happen in this day of gloom and doom, and strangers, and suspicious persons, and recession, and high gas prices, and chin hairs?? It made my day. Made my heart soar. I wanted to burst out crying. But, I dutifully waved, and pushed my package into the box, and drove on down the road to Tom Thumb, where the folks are friendly, and the checker seems to care that I found everything. And where I have somehow made some magic list so that I don't have to pull out my drivers license and give a blood sample.

He blew me a kiss. The kind I give my boys, and my husband as they drive away. The kind I give my nephews, and niece. His momma raised him right. Wow.

How often do my sons blow someone a kiss in traffic?? Not in sarcasm nor criticism of their driving, nor in flirting---but just to make someones day. Did I raise my sons right? To be thoughtful and kind to some old gray-haired lady who once drove a tractor on a farm, and knows to give big vehicles a wide berth.

Bless him, Lord. Thank you for that wonderful gesture that we need more of these days. I would not have been out and about if it had not been for my son wanting to feed his buddies for lunch today before they practice and drill at the park. I am so glad my son wants to invite his Army buddies home for lunch. These days are numbered. My son's orders read May 18th. Mother's Day this year means a college graduate, and newly commissioned Army second lieutenant, and much celebration with friends and family. But Mother's Day also brings this year an empty nest.

Motherhood and My Faith

I was saved when I was ten years old. We lived in Rochester, Illinois at the time, and my Dad had had a dramatic conversion after an encounter with a tract-giving Christian on a corner in Springfield, Illinois. My Dad was fetching medicine for my little brother. He came home and threw away the keg of beer in the frig. He told us about talking with this man on a street corner in Springfield, and how the man helped him look up a church and when my Dad took us by the little Baptist church to talk to the pastor, the pastor's wife explained The Gospel to me and my sister. She explained how Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, and by trusting in Jesus, I could receive eternal life and spend eternity in heaven forever.

I believed. Jesus did all the work of salvation on the cross, and The Gospel is that good news, and a free gift.

Even as a small child on a trike, I had had that bad dream of hell fire on the other side of a fence, and the very real fear of that fire. I did not want to go to Hell. And I knew I was a sinner. My Dad's dad had had to point out to me often not to be mean to my sister. And my momma had to tell me often not to be sassy.

Our family started attending that little Baptist church and I started a life-long adventure of learning about God from His Precious Word, the Bible. Throughout the rest of my childhood and teenage years, our family moved every few years, but we always found a church that taught the Bible. During one move to a little town called Monticello in Illinois my freshman year of high school, we had trouble with the emphasis at the two churches in Monticello. And my Dad started listening to the tapes from a church in Houston. We visited that church and moved to Houston my sophomore year, and there is where I met my husband. While my husband and I did not write and date very long before getting married, because we had that foundation of having learned the Bible and how important it was to not just eat nutritious food every day, but feed on God's Word everyday, we had the wonderful foundation for a good and long marriage.

When our pastor encouraged us to love God, there was a time when I was newly married, that I listened and learned, but fell short in the loving God part. I was angry at God. Angry that God allowed evil and injustice, and suffering. And as a new mom, it made no sense to me that God could not get his creatures to get along better, as a mom that controls her toddlers. Why couldn't God reach down and prevent calamities between people, and natural disasters?? And when it came time to teach my sons a love of God and a love of learning His Word, I discovered I could not teach what I did not have.

With much soul searching, and prayer, and journaling and good counsel from my patient husband, and mostly admitting to God that I was mad at Him, and how stupid was that, would He please remove my pride and anger and give me His supernatural love?? God answers that prayer daily. Whenever I ask.

Sometimes I am slow to realize I am angry. Sometimes when dear husband points it out, I am still slow to let go and ask God for help. I can't remove it on my own. And the anger becomes a plug that blocks all peace and contentment and thankfulness. When I cannot sing--sometimes that is a sign.

So, I think God used motherhood to bring me back. And help me grow as a person. God created motherhood. And helps me do this life-long job.

I can't wait to learn in heaven-home just how moms throughout the ages have done this job. Starting with Eve, and to the end of the book of Revelation, the profession of mom is how God designed order, stability, and the protection of children. God gave us this gift of mothering which includes nurturing, teaching, training, watching over, and encouraging a baby into toddlerhood and small child into adulthood. As we release our hold, and present grown productive citizens into society, as we teach and encourage younger moms to love their husbands and love their children, our jobs never end. We get to love and persevere until the end.

Thank You, God for the gift and job of motherhood.

The List

Eve
Cain's wife
Enoch's wife
Irad's wife
Methushael's wife
Adah
Zillah
Jabal'swife
Haamah
Tubal-Cain's wife

The first moms. Cain's line. Cain's wife was also Eve's daughter. Why aren't we given her name??

Eve's replacement son after Cain killed Abel: Seth's line:

Seth's wife
Enosh's wife
Kenan's wife
Mahalalel's wife
Jared's wife
Enoch's wife
Methuselah's wife
Lamech's wife
Noah's wife

These are all significant women, moms all, but we are not given their names.

At the Flood, the numbers will telescope down to eight people: Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives. Eight people.

So, the pre-Noah women of the Bible could have been a hundred or a thousand or a million. Genesis chapters 2-5 only infer twenty. Twenty significant moms. How many children did they have?? What was their daily life like? Did they live almost a thousand years each just like their husbands? Did they see a thousand springtimes and harvests? What sort of shelter did they live in? Did they roam about with herds? The Bible is mostly silent about this group between Adam and Eve and Noah. Some call on the name of the Lord. Some are corrupted in the Genesis chapter six and are so evil, that God floods the earth to start over.

How many women are in the Bible? I count 98 named in the Old Testament. But, 549 significant women that we know only as Mrs. Noah, for example. Solomon throws the number up a thousand with his one thousand wives and concubines, but we only know a few of their names. Thirty women in the New Testament do not include the wives of the four and five thousand fed where the headcount was only done by the men.

To do a word search to find them all, plug in these words in a Quickverse wordsearch: wife, wives, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, nieces, aunt, harlot, concubine, midwives, female servants, queen, widows, girl, virgin, prophetess, nurse, cook, seamstress, dancer, and the plural of each. Some were rich women, some were poor. All were witnesses of the Greatest Story Every Told.

How many of the women of the Bible can you name? Who are your favorites? If you were compiling a list, how would you go about doing it? Why is it important to count the women of the Bible??

Little girls identify with the women and girls in a story. Little girls are fascinated with the daughters of kings, called princesses. Little girls can be taught science and can be shown the possibilities of working on the space station when shown women who pilot the shuttle and space station. Little girls need to be rescued from the present day feminist lies by the stories of women in the Bible. The warriors, and strong women who used what was at hand, like the story of Jael.

To one extreme, for every man mentioned, we know he had a mom. Every man except Adam, that is. But, I think God gives us the names of women in the Bible for a reason. And for some reason, it is a fascinating study to me---to find them all. And ponder why we are given the names of some really bad girls, but not the name of a woman an angel appears to, Samson's mother?? The angel appears to her twice, and gives her specific instructions. I call her, Mrs. Manoah, for lists and counting purposes. Her story needs telling.

I want to encourage women to know their Bible. Never tire of studying it. The five women of the kingly line of Jesus Christ have always fascinated me. And the heroines of Hebrews chapter 11. The role of mom means the training of the next generation, the continuation of all we hold dear. Moms train by word and example. All these women in the Bible are given to us to study, and learn what God would have us know by their example, good and bad. And unless we teach the next generation that being a mom is a worthwhile and necessary profession, the next generation may see nothing wrong with aborting children as inconvenient. The Bible teaches again and again to favor children, to honor the elderly, and take care of the widow and orphan. The Bible teaches life as valuable, God-given, God breathed, in the image of God, and His perfect, beautiful design. Blessed by God is the life He gives. God breathed life into Adam and Eve. Think about breathing life as in CPR. It is very hands on.

So, start a list. I am sure I missed a few. But, I can't wait to interview these women in heaven and learn about their lives.