Smash Books & Upcycling

Reusing became renewing became recycling became repurposing became upcycling.  Sort of.

Actually, each of these are simply names for doing something new or different with something old or used or originally designed for another use.   Each are probably unique in application, though.  I smugly threw them all together but I know there’s a difference between reusing and recycling for example.  I can’t think of an example right off the top of my head, but I’m confident there’s a difference.  This is only possible because I’ve seen art.  And I’ve seen Art.  I’ve heard music… and I’ve heard…

So, Amelia came in to ask if we could go and purchase a Smash Book. I wondered what this product might be — no, I really wondered what this product might cost!  I think, Don’t jump to conclusions about this item… it’s probably not what it sounds like.  And then Sara reminded me she’d gotten one for her sister.  Hmmm, again I think, it really must not be anything at all what I’m imagining. So I thought I’d look up just what a Smash Book is.  And then I see a new word I’m not familiar with:  Upcycling.  Trying to give respect, I think, there must be a reason they’re not saying “recycling” or “repurposing.”  So… Wiki.  Yes, that’s where I often turn when I hear or read something unfamiliar.  Or forgotten.  In this case, unfamiliar.

I’m not even so last year on this on.  Apparently, there is a 1999 book,  Upcycling. According to Wikipedia:

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

The first recorded use of the term upcycling was by Reiner Pilz of Pilz GmbH in an interview by Thornton Kay of Salvo in 1994.[1]

We talked about the impending EU Demolition Waste Streams directive. “Recycling,” he said, “I call it downcycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything. What we need is upcycling where old products are given more value not less.” He despairs of the German situation and recalls the supply of a large quantity of reclaimed woodblock from an English supplier for a contract in Nuremberg while just down the road a load of similar blocks was scrapped. In the road outside his premises, was the result of the Germans’ demolition waste recycling. It was a pinky looking aggregate with pieces of handmade brick, old tiles and discernible parts of useful old items mixed with crushed concrete. Is this the future for Europe?

So, reusing old or other materials and give them greater value.   As I read this I think to myself, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and value is in the hand of the buyer. And then my imagination sort of went on a journey… and began to think of the gazillion possibilities.  Well, at least hundreds!  It’s a scrapbook, it’s a journal, it’s a collage, it’s a collection… it’s a Smash Book.  Or whatever other name you’ll assign to the creation.  I mean, there are often dual purposes for words.  Just consider the word smash!


 

Here are some more Smash book ideas and instructions:
Altered Fantasy’s Upcycling blog-posts in this series.

Part 1 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-1/

Part 2 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-2/

Part 3 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-3/

Part 4 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-4/

Part 5 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-5/

Part 6 http://alteredfantasy.wordpress.com-part-6/

 

May you always be blessed. ♥ ps

IndoctriNation – the movie

Below is the content of an email letter I just received…

Next weekend (March 16-18) is the nationwide premiere of IndoctriNation through National Movie Night.  Please consider hosting a movie night for this special weekend promotion to share IndoctriNation, which we are honored to have been chosen as the Best Documentary at the 2012 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival last month.
National Movie Night is a project of Freedom Film Distributors, and is designed to harness grassroots energy to promote independently produced films like IndoctriNation in local communities around the country and the world.
It’s simple!  Hosts are provided with a Movie Night Host Guide to help them plan and run their movie night, along with promotional tools and support.  The IndoctriNation National Movie Night is scheduled for the weekend of March 16-18, so please consider signing up to host a screening of IndoctriNation in your home, church, or other community venue.  Go to nationalmovienight.com for more information, to sign up as a host, and to get host discounts for IndoctriNation and other great films.
For more information about other Gunn Productions movies visit us here.

“Every Christian parent with a child in a government school should see this [movie] and be forced to confront their unwillingness to do what Scripture requires for the children on loan to them by God. A mass exodus from government schools is the only way to preserve the souls and minds of our children.”

Cal Thomas (America’s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist)

“This is the most important issue facing the Body of Christ, an issue that must be addressed and put to rest forever. IndoctriNation is an extremely important movie. Every church in America should show IndoctriNation. Every Christian should show IndoctriNation to their friends.”

Ted Baehr  MovieGuide


How can you help us stop the indoctrination?

There are various sponsorship opportunities available. Please visit the IndoctriNation website for contact info and benefits.

 

The Quilter’s Apprentice

Quilts.  Old quilts meticulously stitched by great grandmothers… store bought, machine pieced quilts and ones made by different friends.  I love to look at them — studying the patterns and pieces, but I didn’t know I’d come to love them in the way I have.  I’ve always loved the kinship of customers and clerks in a fabric store, but I didn’t really understand the incredible and instant camaraderie that nowhere else seems to be experienced quite like what you’ll find in a quilt shoppe.   The instant “sisterhood” is unique.

As I walked with my friend,  I began to develop a love and appreciation for quilting I’d never known previously — actually, as each day passed, I became more and more intrigued by quilters themselves.  Quilting is not just the stitching of complimentary fabrics and pieces — it’s much more than that.

It seemed that the sheer anticipation alone of spending time in a quilt shoppe seemed to propel my friend and me to walk further and faster — her love for the craft was infectious. And I’m the grateful recipient of her understanding.

Imagine the shocked amazement of the ladies in the quilt shoppe when they discovered that not only were we from out of town with their shoppe as one of our primary destinations, but that we’d also just walked literally ten miles to get there!  Now, mind you, we didn’t originally set out knowing that it would be ten miles or that it would take us hours and would include traversing  through questionable or shady neighbourhoods.

Our husband’s were working on a job in a distant state and we were invited to come along for the week.  It would be one of the most delightful weeks we’ve ever spent anywhere — and for reasons I couldn’t have ever imagined.   Each day we’d set out on an adventure to find a quilt shoppe… my friend had a list of shoppes to visit. Along the way we came to several points — street names with which we were familiar, having seen them on “Mapquest” earlier in the morning in our hotel room.

Though we weren’t in the hotel room ninety seconds before I flushed my cellphone down the toilet, the rest of the trip was nothing but delightful.  I even began to enjoy the gentle ribbing I’d get from time to time — both from our friends, my own self and from some of the hotel employees who didn’t fail to greet me with a snicker… at first, with comments or questions such as,  Are you the one who flushed the cellphone down the toilet?!?  Later in the week some would greet me with a chuckle… and some comment that had to do with ringing pipes or someone leaving me an indistinguishable gurgling message.

But the most endearing things to me now are the reflections, instructions and memories I have from that week in Wichita.  Having never been to Kansas before, I had a great deal to learn about the land, the people and the notoriety of Wichita.  To that point, I only had an inkling of the depth and breadth of the aerospace industry there — and that, only because of one of the Northwest’s biggest employers: the Boeing Company.   Some years back, the Boeing Company decided to move part of its manufacturing operation to Wichita.  Other than that, I knew very little of the vast number of companies based there.

But even with all that and all that our husbands were doing there, my friend and I weren’t all that phased by the local economy or industry.  It was quilts — or quilt shoppes, rather, that we were interested in.   I’m not a quilter.  I don’t know quilts, I don’t know fabrics and I don’t know many quilters even.  But I do have an appreciation for sewing, crafting, creativity and now, for quilts.

My friend seemed to move effortlessly through the different areas in each quilt shoppe — she knew the names of the fabrics, the designer’s names, the types of quilts and techniques.  She easily connected with the shopkeepers and customers… and that’s when that revelation hit me regarding the “sisterhood” of quilters.  There seemed to be no competition — only praise for accomplishments and fabric choices and piecing.  In fact, in each shoppe we visited, there were groups of women gathered around a table working on quilts — individual quilts, group project quilts or assembling fabrics to place in kits for future quilts.

I was humbled and amazed… actually, I guess I might’ve even been envious at the fellowship they were obviously experiencing.  My friend, taking my arm, would continually guide me to another area to see some more patterns, more fabrics, different styles of quilts.  All the while I enjoyed our conversations and felt as though I had a walking wealth of information — my instructor and friend — as I made my way through the aisles touching bolt after bolt of fabric with deep appreciation for the groupings of patterns, textures and hues — my friend’s obvious love for whole process and product of quilting made me fall in love with them, too.

♥ May you always be blessed.

 

Quilt Designs

Country Cupboard Quilt Design Blocks:

  • The Churn Dash quilt block is a traditional design that hearkens back to days on the farm and the pleasure of some of the old domestic chores.
  • The Heart Can quilt block portrays freshly picked flowers in an old coffeepot. Picture it sitting on your windowsill.
  • The Apple Pie quilt block is so appetizing it actually looks like it would smell good. It’s perfect for a country- or kitchen-themed design.
  • The Rooster quilt block portrays a puffed up, proud rooster full of personality. He’ll add attitude to your design.
  • The Hourglass quilt block has a lovely, intricate design of triangles and squares that creates a sense of movement and depth.
  • The City Streets quilt block has an urban feeling with its intricate design of perpendicular, intersecting rectangles.
  • The Apple Cider quilt block has a simple, attractive design showing a big jug of cider next to a freshly picked apple.
  • The Teapot quilt block sings of kitchen coziness and warmth with its simple, traditional design.
  • The Watermelon quilt block looks good enough to eat, showing a slice of watermelon framed with an attractive border.

♥ Gleanings

This morning I’m reading in 1 Chronicles 21 & 22.   There King David, yielding to the Lord’s chastening, chooses his punishment:  “…let me fall now into the hand of the LORD: for very great are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” (21.13)   For his sin of numbering the people, it’s interesting that David would choose not three years of famine, nor three months being chased by his enemies, but three days, the sword of the LORD — choosing to place himself at the mercy of the Living God.  He emerged from that time repentant, humbled and beseeching the LORD — and having just been chastened by the LORD, David found Him to be only faithful, only merciful, only just.  It was God’s great mercy David sought and found; he found the LORD to be not only merciful but worthy of all worship.

So, in an act of worship — of love, in an act of remorseful obedience, he set out to build an alter — an alter of offering: repentance, adoration, peace.  His recognition of self and His recognition of God compelled him to fall before the Living God in repentance and adoration.   It is only when we see ourselves as we are — and see God — that He is just in His dealings, that He is just in His chastening and He is the epitome of  love and mercy.  We can come to such a conclusion when we have a right view of Him and a right view of ourselves — for, surely, He has not dealt with us according to our sin or our past deeds — even according to our feeble works of “righteousness.”  He has dealt with us mercifully and graciously.  For this, we can take the cup of Salvation and say: Thank You.  Thank You, Thank you, LORD — for You alone have saved me, not given me as I have deserved but according to your mercy, You have saved me.  Thank You.

“Return at my reproof; behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.”
–Proverbs 1.23

And isn’t this what we want so desperately — the Spirit of the Lord and His words?   We reject reproofs and we reject chastening — but it is the mercy of the LORD to reprove us, to chasten us.

We can learn a great deal from Kind David — there he erred, there he acted foolishly (admitting this himself, 21.8) and, in addition, he would seemingly lose a great deal.  In his zeal, he sought to construct an alter for the LORD as a burnt offering, as a peace offering.  But for his sin, he would not be the man to build the house of the LORD.  This would seem such a heavy burden to bear — but, again, we do see the mercy of the LORD: for He gave David the heart and mind to gather the materials his son, Solomon, would need for the construction of the house.  How merciful of the LORD!

I believe the great blessing of this whole event was was not simply God’s mercy on David, but God’s great mercy on Solomon — according to God’s great plan for blessing Solomon’s life with peace and quietness in Israel all his days.  It is from such Scriptures that we can glean that God does much more in and through the trials and tragedies we face than we could ever begin to ask or imagine.  We have much to glean from what David learned and from how he blessed and admonished his son, Solomon.   I believe we’ve been given a glimpse of the potential each life — a glimpse of how God might use us or our children, how He might redeem our failures and how He might work for our good and His glory.

Let us glean from the Word, let us be mothers who seek the Lord, mothers who don’t faint in the day of adversity or fail to carry out the great calling on our lives.   Let us glean from this and be mothers who seek His will for our children.  Consider and glean from the many blessings in what David said to his son, Solomon.

11  Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee.
12  Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
13  Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
19  Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God…”  1Chronicles 22.11-13, 19

What prayers we can glean from this portion.   I’m ever more thankful that the Lord has given His living, timely, instructive Word.  I don’t know what I would do as a mother without the ever present Hand and witness of the Lord, without His Word, without His Holy Spirit or without the gift of Faith.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2Timothy 3.16

May you always be blessed. ♥

Quintessential Motherhood

Throughout that week I wondered what the LORD would have me to write for that week’s letter.  And so, in an attempt to prepare a letter, I sat down to write.  Distractions, buzzers, timers, calls, the dryer’s beep-beep-beep, and the knocking at the back door… distractions.  And then I thought: distractions?  No: life.  Life is what’s happening when we’re waiting and planning for something else to happen.  And then I thought on this further and wondered: is this the story of my motherhood experience?  Has it all happened while I was waiting for something else to happen?  Have the days passed by while I was looking for a brighter tomorrow and a better way of doing things?   While hurry-scurrying around, gathering, sorting, washing, folding, packing… suddenly the time comes for a departure.

Suddenly the time-clock runs out and this game is over or the hour comes.  This is quintessential motherhood.

I came inside from the chilly porch where I hugged one of our sons and waved him good-bye-for-now.  As he drove away, the darkness giving way to light and the early morning sun casting a pink glow on the snow, tears flooded my eyes and instantly, all the compelling rush was completely forgotten in the haze of the exhaust and the taillights slowly dimming in the distance. I stood there in the cold-still waving… the asl sign for i-love-you… and found myself wondering—questioning what significant thing had I contributed to that remarkable boy’s life?  Was there anything noteworthy?  All at once  I thought of many things I’d forgotten to remember—things I suddenly realized I meant to say.  Memories instantly flooded my mind — sort of like those endearing slideshows you see at weddings — the emotionally gripping photos that chronicle lives and bring tears and laughter simultaneously one frame after another.

Part of the calling of motherhood is that there will be suffering.  There will be days of joy and sorrow.  Sort of that paradoxical truth that in every adversity there is triumph and in every joy there is an inextricable mix of delight and sorrow.  The sorrow part is the part we didn’t read in the fine print.  The sorrow part is one of the consequences of endearment –one of the consequences I didn’t perhaps expect when I first received the confirmation call from the doctor’s office or when we first saw the indicator lines in the home-pregnancy test kit.  No, in those days, we had no idea what lay ahead, what tears we’d shed or how many sleepless nights we’d spend waiting and walking.  Waiting for a child to return home or walking a crying baby from one end of the living room to the other: round and round.

No, in the early days, we had no idea what lay in store a few years down the road.  We had no grasp of where those first baby-steps would take those feet.  We had no concept that snow-tires would eventually replace those training wheels.  Even now, I probably have no real grasp of what the consequences of motherhood are.  Just as I can’t fathom the exhilaration of tremendous joy, I can’t fathom the plummeting sorrow—both are those inexplicable consequences of endearment and motherhood.

I’ve often said I wasn’t prepared for these years—the gripping anguish of regret and disappointment, the overwhelming joy proud moments bring and the unstoppable ticking of the clock and the turning of the calendar pages.  It seems new calendars are purchased more frequently now.  But in reality, nothing and everything prepared me for these days. The LORD has been with me, guiding, abiding and upholding me —preparing me for each of the next days He’d bring.  The preparation has been in the living. Bidding farewell to passing seasons and ushering in new ones prepares us for these goodbyes.

It’s quintessential motherhood: fully experiencing of all the seasons over and over. Experience, history… photographs and memories all prepare us for these goodbyes. As I look out at the morning glow on the snow… and then at the leafless, frost covered branches of my weeping willow tree, there’s sort of a melancholy hopeful looking forward to what this day will bring and how I’ll one day look back on this day.

I smile as I realize that with every good bye… there’s a welcome home.  In the end, the true joy is looking to the ultimate welcome home.

May you always be blessed.

Facing and ‘fessing

I’ve been thinking of you and am praying that God is blessing you in your home today.   I’m sure I’m not alone in the busyness of life or that there’s been more day than the day can hold sometimes.  So I’m [still!]  wondering how to do more in less time or how to make sure that each day I do what counts the most.  And, I’ve had to face up and fess up to the fact that some days it’s not so much that there’s so much to do but that I’ve been focusing on the wrong things — allowing the unnecessary to override the necessary and allowing the frivolous to obscure the imperatives.

So, what are the imperatives?  What things must I focus on each day or to what must I strive to attend to and what things have I been sacrificing in the squandering of the days?  These are hard questions – or maybe the questions aren’t hard, but the conviction is hard to face and fess up to.  Maybe you have things you need to face and fess up.  This “fessing-up” is quite a freeing exercise.  In fact, it’s so freeing, it’s a wonder we don’t delight in doing it more often.  But, while it’s freeing, it’s also sometimes painful –painful because we will likely have discomfort as we make changes, painful because we’ll likely be embarrassed over our behaviour, and painful because of what’s lost and can never be retrieved.  O, this doesn’t negate the marvelous work and redemption the LORD can bring to a situation or even a life, but in reality, time squandered is still time lost.

When we discover there’s a problem in our home and we want to get to the bottom of it, we might ask one or more of the children: what did you do?  We might ask: who did this?  Invariably, no one wants to fess up to the wrongdoing.  None of us want to admit that we’ve either done or been wrong.  But the incredible thing is that when we do fess up, there is a freedom –a sweet peace washes over us and we’re clean before the LORD.  Our children experience this same freedom when they “fess-up” to the transgression—even if they face a discipline for it.  Whether or not there is restitution made or a consequence to be paid, the freedom is sweet and the restored confidence is precious when they face and fess up to a transgression.  It’s that way for us, too, before the LORD.

I’ve had to “fess-up” to squandering time, to wasting the gifts and talents the LORD has given me, to giving my attention to those things that are only temporal and have little eternal value or worth.  I’ve had to ask myself again:  What would I think if I walked in (as a stranger who heard that the mother in this home was an aspiring Titus 2 woman) and browsed through this home unattended?”  Or, “Would my husband’s customers be satisfied with his work were he to work in the same manner that I do in our home?”
I keep these questions sort of simmering on the back burner to keep myself in check.
Probably the most difficult areas for me regard necessary sleep and computer time.  These, along with food preparation are areas that can’t be avoided, put off or ignored.  Since they’re needful or are beneficial, they can also be neglected or “abused.”   In the examples I’ve given, discipline is required and I fall into that abyss of often doing what I want rather than what I ought to do.  To rise early requires an earlier retiring at night – to be refreshed requires adequate sleep.  My flesh fights against that.  In addition, losing weight requires no snacking.  My flesh fights against that.  Limiting computer time means less browsing, less reading, less “justa minute’s” and less entertainment.  My flesh fights against that.  Instead of yielding to the truth of what I know is right, I find ways to justify what I want to do rather than what I ought to do.  So I have to set and live within boundaries… the boundaries that come from times of facing and ‘fessing up.  These are disciplines and though we may not want disciplines in our lives, it is through discipline that we put aside the things of the flesh and yield to the things of the Spirit.
These thoughts come from spending a bit of time in Romans 6 and 7.  I would encourage the reading of these chapters and then ask the LORD to reveal to you areas that you, too, might face and fess up to.  Maybe you have some areas of your life that need facing and ‘fessing up.  I pray that as you do, you will see that the LORD is already there and you have all you need.   He is your all in all.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1John 1.9
May you always be blessed.

 

Love.

Love.
From the books of 1st  & 2nd  John

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  –3.11
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.  — 3.23
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. –4.17
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. –5.3
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.  –2 1.6

I made that “graphic” several years ago for a valentine greeting… O, that it would be our prayer, intent and action today.

O God, that You would work in and through us today that we would, truly, walk in love as You would have us to live and move and have our being.

And… Love to the many today who grieve the losses of children, little rose buds — yet to blossom, and roses in bloom, sweet and fragrant: drawn up by the Lord in His love and wisdom.  May the Lord bless you and carry you through as you think of days gone by, babies you held in the womb, young boys and girls who only played for a season, young men and women whose lives have shaped your own.

May the Lord be your strength and may the God of all comfort abide with you as you ponder days gone by… some have passed from this life, some only from the family home… the babies you once tenderly kissed and wrapped in blankets, now grown, you hold only in prayer.  The Lord God be with you and fill you today.


May you always be blessed. ♥

Moonless Trust

There are times when nothing soothes or encourages me quite like the writings of women who’ve journeyed with the Lord a long while and have traveled paths paved by those who’ve forsaken all and have followed Christ to “the ends of the earth” literally or when they’ve come to the end of themselves and pressed on in faith.

This devotional was a great blessing to me as I consider the living sacrifice or both women’s lives — Elisabeth Elliot’s and Amy Carmichael’s.  So, it is with great respect and gratitude to the Lord that I share this piece with you.

Moonless Trust – by Elisabeth Elliot

Some of you are perhaps feeling that you are voyaging just now on a moonless sea. Uncertainty surrounds you. There seem to be no signs to follow. Perhaps you feel about to be engulfed by loneliness. There is no one to whom you can speak of your need.

Amy Carmichael wrote of such a feeling when, as a missionary of twenty-six, she had to leave Japan because of poor health, then travel to China for recuperation, but then realized God was telling her to go to Ceylon. (All this preceded her going to India, where she stayed for fifty-three years.) I have on my desk her original handwritten letter of August 25, 1894, as she was en route to Colombo. “All along, let us remember, we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey…. On July 28, Saturday, I sailed. We had to come on board on Friday night, and just as the tender (a small boat) where were the dear friends who had come to say goodbye was moving off, and the chill of loneliness shivered through me, like a warm love-clasp came the long-loved lines–‘And only Heaven is better than to walk with Christ at midnight, over moonless seas.’ I couldn’t feel frightened then. Praise Him for the moonless seas–all the better the opportunity for proving Him to be indeed the El Shaddai, ‘the God who is Enough.”‘

Let me add my own word of witness to hers and to that of the tens of thousands who have learned that He is indeed Enough. He is not all we would ask for (if we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can clearly perceive His all-sufficiency. It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light.”

May you always be blessed.

 

What’s a mother to do?

Dear Sister,
First, I want to thank you for writing — for it is in acknowledging our condition and in seeing our need that we can best affirm and apply, by the grace of God, the help or teaching we receive.

Second, though this may not be helpful, you’re not alone and your situation or your  “dilemma”  is not unusual.   The devil may attempt to tell you otherwise, but what you’ve written is common to women who both come home from the “work-force” *and* who’ve been trained otherwise.  The “trained otherwise” is the main problem — not the new daily routine of being home and not out of the home.  That will be the easy part once you accept the calling and seek to define and live it.  You will define it as you go — and you will live it as you define it.

The “it” is the high calling of being a keeper at home… the main tree of motherhood.  Incidentally, motherhood doesn’t relegate a woman to never leaving the home or never having “outside” work — there are likely seasons where one or both of these will happen — but it is my understanding that the season of child birthing, nurturing and training necessitates that mothers stay home to heed the calling the Lord has placed on her life and carry out and do these things.  Radical feminists will argue the point.  But I will continue to defend the Scriptures that call a mother to be a keeper at home, to love her husband and her children, to be discreet, sober, good, chaste, obedient to her husband — seeking all of these — that the Word of God be not blasphemed.

Psalm 113.9  He maketh the barren woman to keep house,
and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

As to the question of not knowing what to do.  Here’s an exercise that might be helpful for you.  It will take you some time, so you might print this off so you can address it when time allows.  Here is the exercise:

  • List all the outcomes you desire (so far as it depends on you) for your life?
  • What kind woman do you want to be remembered as being?
  • As for your walk with the Lord, how do you see that worked out in your daily life?
  • How can you work these attributes into your daily life?  What do you need to implement?
  • As for your behaviour and character what specific qualities to you most highly value?
  • As a wife?  As a mother?  As a companion?
  • What sort of atmosphere do you seek as a description of your home?
  • The appearance of your home?  The flow and routine of your homelife?

You may never have had the instruction to be a “godly woman” or a “keeper at home” or a “homemaker” or a “mother.”  But I think you might agree that you do have an idea what this looks like or a dream of what it might be like.  That’s what I’m asking you to consider — that’s what I’m asking you to ponder as you go through the days ahead.  Yes, you may not know what to do – exactly – today, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any idea.  You may not know the paints, the colours, the hues, the brushes and blades used in painting a portrait, but you’ve seen the portrait or, at least, you’ve imagined it.

Yes, you may have been “instructed otherwise ” and, therefore, you need to spend some time reevaluating, rethinking, reorganizing your thoughts about motherhood and keeping a home — that’s what that “exercise” above is meant to address.  You may be mourning the loss of time — the robbing of your time and purpose as a wife and mother.  Don’t let the devil deceive you that it’s too late.  If you’re still living, it’s not too late.  Don’t ever forget that.  The devil will deceive you to believe otherwise.

That crafty devil’s playbook is very thin — he doesn’t possess many tools or ideas — so he plays them over and over and over again.  The longer you live, the more you’ll see this.

May you always be blessed.