The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
C.S. Lewis

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#16-3: Valentine's Day, Lent, Proverbs 31 and Flame Vine

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#1 · February 13, 2013, 12:47 pm

Posted by: virginiaknowles <virginiaknowles@...>

Dear friends,

Welcome to the February 2013 edition of the Hope Chest e-magazine.  This issue marks the beginning of the 16th year of publishing the Hope Chest.  In this issue, I'm giving you the links to blog posts that I have written since I sent the last Hope Chest in early December, as well as a few of the full posts.

  

My grandsons 🙂  See Grandchildren are a Treasure from the Lord for more pictures

In family news, we're thick into birthday season this week.  One son turned 10 today, my youngest grandson (above right) turned a year old yesterday, and two of my daughters had birthdays (12th and 22nd) last week.  While we've been trying to celebrate with a special breakfast or dinner of their choice for each one on their own day, this Friday, we are finally gathering all together for one big family party with my married daughters, and their husbands and children.  I think we're planning a baked potato and salad buffet with all the toppings (a family favorite), as well as cheesecake with fresh strawberries and blueberries.  I'm drooling already.

As if birthdays don't bring enough sweets, it's Valentine's Day tomorrow and so today I need to hang up our 

Big Red Valentine Heart on the wall.  Take a peek at my Valentine's Day Unit Study that I wrote many years ago -- nothing complicated, just some quick and fun ideas.

I know many of you are preparing to send teens and young adults on mission trips soon, and I just want to encourage you on how life changing this can be.  My own life have never been the same since I went to Scotland and Israel as a teen. Three of my daughters have also had this amazing experience in Bolivia, Italy, and the Dominican Republic, staying for as long as three months.  My daughter Julia and her husband Alex are leading a mission team from their church to Entre Rios, Bolivia at the end of June.  This will be her fifth trip and his fourth.  I am so excited for them.  I had a blast taking part in their homeless outreach in downtown Orlando last month, and I appreciate all who donated clothes, bedding, toiletries and food for the 200 men, women and children who showed up.

I wish I had time to write more family news, but I've got to get back to... my family, of course!  My daughter just fixed her brother's birthday lunch and it smells so good -- Southern style chicken breast fillets and french fries from Aldi!  And then the birthday boy wants me to take him to the BrightLight used bookstore to spend some of his birthday money.  And oh, my teenage son just gave me a marvelous back massage to work out some of the sore spots.  Good stuff here today.

So here are three blog posts, and then all the links...  I'd love to see your comments, so leave one on a blog post or send me an e-mail!

Dry Souls, Muddy Wells, Living Water and Lent (Advocating for the Vulnerable #10)


A tray of dead radish sprouts, a science experiment abandoned on the back porch.

Beautiful, healthy trees in a park.



Big differences in many ways!

The biggest difference is that one is dead and the others alive.


The difference is water.


Scientists tell us we can live without food for a long time.

But not water.


It's easy to become seriously dehydrated, spiritually speaking.

Parched souls.


Many of the readers here at Watch the Shepherd have been wounded by churches,  Christian organizations and man-made religious systems.


Some Christian groups are like muddy wells, originally designed to nurture and refresh, but polluted now by pride and power.  This water makes you choke and wretch.  Better not to drink it at all.


And so we stop drinking there.  Our trust broken, maybe in more than one place, we even stop drinking at all.  And we shrivel up.


Instead, we need to go to Jesus and drink the living water of the Holy Spirit, clean and pure, straight from the source.  Scripture tells  us that he, the Messiah long foretold, grew up like a root out of dry ground.  From his own experience, he knows our need.  And he is ready to fill us.  Come.


He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him... After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  Isaiah 53:2


For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.  Isaiah 44:3


He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.  Psalm 1:2-3


“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." Jeremiah 2:13


For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Revelation 7:17


"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,streams of living water will flow from within him.”  John 7:38


With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  Isaiah 12:3


The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11


 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  John 4:13-14



~*~*~

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.


Traditionally, Christians throughout the centuries use the 40 days before Easter to examine themselves and set aside anything that is pulling them away from a deeper faith in Jesus.   Sometimes they give up something, like chocolate or video games.  It is not so much the giving up that renews us, but the turning back to the Lord with thirsty souls.


I want that.

But I want more, too.


Nish at The Deeper Story has written a post called 40 Days of Water.


During Lent, we can make a difference to those who have no clean physical water for their bodies.  Here's the big idea: drink nothing but water until Easter, and give the money you save on beverages (Starbucks, soda, wine, juice, etc.) to an organization like Blood:Water Mission that provides wells and clean water in Uganda.


25554-how-blood-water-mission-reached-1000-wells


You like that idea?  You better believe she does, too!

Blood-Water Mission



Listen, friends!  Let's make this large:


  • 3.4 million people around the world die each year from a lack of access to clean water. Nearly all of those deaths, about 99 percent, occur in the developing world.

  • Half of Africa’s population doesn’t have access to clean water.

  • Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.


Sobering, yes?

But we can make a difference.


The difference of life and death.

The difference of water.


Let's do this thing.


Drink up!
Virginia Knowles


P.S. This post is part of a series...

Advocating for Vulnerable Series


Proverbs 31 came to mind as I woke this morning.  Not that I had studied it recently, though I certainly should.

Our family is about to go through a major transition.  After a decade of working from home, my husband is hoping to start (if all goes well with the final technicalities) a full-time paid job internship next week. [Note: he started a week ago.  So far so good.]  During all these years of flexible schedule, he's been so helpful with fixing stuff around the house, cooking, laundry, dishes, yard work, taking care of the cars, paperwork, home schooling, chauffeuring kids, and so much more.  And now I need to step back up to the plate and take over more of these duties.  At least I don't have a house full of babies and preschoolers as I did back when he was last working full-time-and-then-some when I was out-to-here pregnant with our 9th baby.

Knowles family, with the new generation
But we've still got 8 of our 10 kids at home, though some of them are capable young adults with jobs and college classes to keep them busy. There is always much for me to do and I wonder how I will do more.  I look around my bedroom.   On my desk: a budget, a revised schedule with scritch-scratch changes to accommodate Daddy being away, plans for my daughter's birthday party, a pile of papers to be sorted, pictures of my sweet little grandsons, my weekly vitamin organizer (freshly filled this morning), my mending pile, folded laundry waiting to be put away, a bin of pictures to be hung, and a bunch of books I plan to read soon (for planning home school co-op English classes, for reading to my children, for dealing with family health/home/organization issues, and for my own spiritual nourishment).  My inbox is full. And that's just in my bedroom. I still have to wake up several of the kids up to get started with the day.  

All of it a bit much, I'd say.  Time to cut the fluff and make every moment count.  My ADD brain is having a hard time wrapping itself around that reality.  At least I've already started back with scheduling my mornings to spend an hour doing schoolwork with each of the three kids who need help with their lessons.  (That was a great practical encouragement from my logistically-gifted husband.)

And then there is my open Bible, with these words beaming their timeless encouragement up at me...
10 A wife of noble character who can find?

    She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her

    and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,

    all the days of her life.

13 She selects wool and flax

    and works with eager hands.

14 She is like the merchant ships,

    bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark;

    she provides food for her family

    and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;

    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;

    her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,

    and her lamp does not go out at night.

19 In her hand she holds the distaff

    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

20 She opens her arms to the poor

    and extends her hands to the needy.

21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;

    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for her bed;

    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,

    where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,

    and supplies the merchants with sashes.

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;

    she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,

    and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the affairs of her household

    and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;

    her husband also, and he praises her:

29 “Many women do noble things,

    but you surpass them all.”

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

31 Give her the reward she has earned,

    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.


Ah yes, the legendary Proverbs 31 woman.


Who is she?


Who am I?  


I'm not her, yet, though I've been told that this is a panoramic view of many seasons of her life, not just a snapshot of a single moment in time.


But it is clear: she is not a pampered princess, not a wilting wallflower, not a dependent  doormat.  There is no frilly fragility or prissy passivity about her.  I think she would embrace the belief that men and women are completely equal in Christ, that women are not second class citizens, that our lives go far beyond exclusive-and-perpetual domesticity.  She would not be cowed into idolatrous pseudo-submission by an Alpha Male who uses power to control rather than to serve alongside. She worships God - not her husband, or children, or home.  (Those are the ones she loves and serves out of the overflow of her full heart.)


She is capable, strong, wise, creative, diligent, intelligent, generous, resourceful, enterprising, versatile, confident, cheerful, firm, faithful, noble.


She can hold her own.


And I only hope I can hold mine.  I have a whole lot of growing up to do!  🙂


How about you?


Virginia Knowles

http://www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com


P.S. I wrote a related post that is more directly related to home schooling here -- and as a bonus, there are links to my free home school e-books!  Home School Day in the Life (2nd, 6th, 8th & 10th Grades)

You might also like to read these posts:


Flame Vine


"Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves 
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
   the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;    

my beautiful one, come with me.”

I see the flame vine on this fence 

nearly every time I drive out of our neighborhood.

I knew I would stop for photographs soon
as it only blooms a certain part of the year.

It is a chilly and gorgeous January day,
and though it had just been spitting rain,
the sky is now a bluest blue.

I had to park around the corner
and walk a bit to get my view up close.

It was worth it.

See the busy bee?
Most of our Florida agriculture 
depends on honey bee pollination. 


Look closely again!
Do you see the shadow 
of a curly tendril on the leaf?

It almost looks like a word in cursive writing, 

but not a word that I know.
No secret message for me this time!
Just a clear reminder of the Creator of Love.
Arise, come, my darling;    

my beautiful one, come with me.

And a long view again.
We need both up close and far away.

Different perspectives.
Same beauty.

Computer drawing by my 11 year old daughter

Note on February 13: The blooms are all gone now!  I'm glad I caught them while I could!





http://www.ComeWearyMoms.blogspot.com

 http://www.WatchTheShepherd.blogspot.com

http://www.ContinueWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com

http://www.FinishWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com

 

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