Exquisite Joy

Hello blog.

It's been awhile.

I know you've missed me.

But I've been busy.

My New Year's goals included walking 45 minutes a day for 4 - 5 days a week and also reading through my Bible in a year. They both eat into my free time (so actually there wasn't that much "free time" to begin with) and you just didn't make it on the priority list.

But last weekend I went to a women's retreat and have some needtoknow information.

So here I am.

At the retreat we watched videos from the True Woman '08 Conference. I must say, they were challenging. Some of them changed my whole view of marriage and my view of feminism. My favorite was the one from John Piper.

You can see it HERE. Go and watch it. It is 45 minutes long and will be worth your time. I promise. He talks about the Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood.

I must admit, I thought it was a little curious that they were having a MAN talk about true WOMANHOOD.

But he did a more than a complete job. I was challenged, humbled, amazed, and excited once he was done speaking.

His first big statement was "Wimpy theology make wimpy women".

"Wimpy theology does not give a woman a god big enough, strong enough, wise enough, good enough to handle the realities of life in a way that enables her to magnify Him and His Son all the time. He's not big enough. "

"Wimpy theology doesn't have a granite foundation of God's sovereignty underneath. It doesn't have the steel structure of a great God-centered purpose for all of human existence, including the worst of it."

Yeah, just go ahead and chew on those statements for a little bit.

So what was the granite foundation of the purpose of the Universe?

" To display the glory of God's grace in its highest expression as the Son of God dies to make a rebellious people His bride. "

I've had to watch it a couple time and re-read all my notes to fully digest all that John Piper said and all it's implications.

It gets better. He talks about how manhood and womanhood belong at the center of God's ultimate purpose.

"True womanhood is a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of His Son in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood. "

I was a little confused at this point but really curious to know how the glory of God is displayed through womanhood.

He went on to define the roles of men and women in marriage.

"Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christ-like servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home. "

"Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband's leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts."

"The point is that these two, headship and submission, correspond to true manhood and true womanhood in marriage. They're not the same, and these differences are absolutely essential, by God's design, so that marriage will display more fully the glory of the sacrificial love of Christ for His bride and the beauty of the lavished reverence and admiration of the bride for her Husband."

At which point I felt like I had been gut-punched. Not that I have ever been gut-punched. But if I had, this is that feeling I would imagine to have had. Ugh. I have never heard marriage defined in this way before. So essentially, my role as a wife is to reflect how the church should love Christ by how I reverence and admire my husband. Eeish!

And then he brought it all home for me with this.

"your true womanhood ultimately means that your distinctive role in marriage is meant to magnify the glory of God's grace supremely expressed in the covenant-keeping love between Christ and His church"

"It's not a small thing to believe that true womanhood is meant to display the glory of God's grace in the sacrifice of the Son of God in the purchase and purification of His bride who then lives her everlasting life in exquisite joy in His presence, standing in awe of Him, and reverencing Him and honoring Him. "

I really feel like I do a decent job (yet again) with my relationship with Christ. But I don't know that I would use these exact words to describe how my relationship with my husband displays that glory of God's grace.

So that statement right there totally restructured my marriage scale. In general I feel like on a scale of 1 to 10 in loving and honoring my husband, I usually am between a 7 to 9. But this statement totally changes that. I can't say that I have been loving and honoring him in exquisite joy.

But that is something that I want to do.

I want to live my everlasting life in exquisite joy honoring and loving and reverencing my husband.

My desire is that my marriage and my realtionship to my husband will reflect what the relationship of the church should be to Christ.

So, I committed last weekend that I was going to do just that. In fact, I came home and told my husband I was going to do just that. He was so curious about what John Piper had to say that we watched it online together on Sunday. We are also going to order the dvd.

I'm telling you, these are life-changing ideas, marriage-changing ideas and I'm excited to see how God is going to work in our lives and our marriages as we strive to submit more fully to his plan for true manhood and womanhood.

Even though you just got the Lori-recap, go ahead and watch it.

It's that good!

He Reminds Me In The Little Things

So, there are really just days that I wonder if God has forgotten about little ole me here in Georgia. I'm concerned that He might have forgotten that my husband is working in Texas and that we only see him on weekends. And that this has been going on for 5 months. That He forgot that we really need someone to buy our house so we can move to Texas or we need a job available here in Georgia so he can come back home.

And then He reminds me in the little things that He still cares.

We had some new neighbors move in last week and as I typically do... I made them a cake. A wonderfully delicious Chocolate Mocha Cake.

Because a cake just isn't worth making if it's not wonderfully delicious.

And chocolate.

So as I went to add the pecans to the scrumptious cake, I hesitated. I don't know why. Every time I have made this cake, I have added pecans. But this time I didn't.

So I delivered the cake and chatted with my new neighbor. In the course of the conversation she casually mentioned that her whole family had nut allergies.

Nut allergies.

God knew they had nut allergies. He knew the cake would not have been eaten by them had I made it as usual.

And He cared.

And it was just encouraging. Because if He cares enough to make sure that my cake for the new neighbors was just perfect, then I know He continues to care for me and my family. He has not forgotten us. And I know that His plans are bigger than my plans or my vision.

And so I am reminded by Him in the little things that He is in control of all things.

He is Risen!

I think it is so easy for me to get caught up in the celebration of Easter and not soak in the meaning. I am such a Martha that I focus on things... like the menu, the traditions, the new outfits.... and if I don't stop for a moment, I will completely pass over the entire meaning of the holiday.

This week, I truly made the effort with my kids to focus on the reason for Easter. We read all the books in the house about Easter. We made Popsicle stick crosses and stuck them in clay. We made an Easter tree and cut out and drew all the different things that reminded us about Jesus and his Crucifixion and then hung them on our tree.

And in the midst of all this, my heart has been so full of love for a Savior who loved ME so much that He died on the cross for my sins. He was beaten, stripped, mocked, spit upon, struck in the head again and again and then forced to carry His own cross to be crucified on. There was no dignity in His death.

My heart is overwhelmed. This is a story we hear every year and I think it would be easy to become numb to it. I never want to forget what Jesus has done for me. The sacrifice He made. And now that I have children I am so much more thankful for the sacrifice God made. He sent His ONLY son to die on a cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life.

God loves us so much that he would do that for us. Even though we are human. Even though we fail Him time and time again. He still loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. That is why Jesus died.

For us.

I am so grateful.

Friends

I read this last night and thought it was really good.

Danger: Traveling Alone

God created us to all be part of His body.

We function together.

Fellowship is a precious gift the Lord gives His children.

To neglect fellowship or refuse to draw near

those who can make our journey all that it should

be is to make ourselves vulnerable to compromise.

Anytime we withdraw from wise friends who will

hold us accountable, we seek our own desires.

We become resistant to "all sound wisdom" (Prov. 18:1)

- and that is a precarious place to be. If we

are committed to travel toward the heart of God , then

we need to move toward the wise

friend, of any age, who can help us stay on the journey.

by Cynthia Heald, A Woman's journey to the Heart of God

It just reminded me again of the importance of surrounding myself with women who desire God's will for their lives and who push me to be a better wife, mom and most importantly, child of the King.

When I allow myself to be vulnerable and completely honest with a friend who I know has my best interests at heart, it helps keep me accountable and focused on living my life for Christ.

Times when my heart is not right with God, I really do want to seclude myself from everyone else. I don't want others to know what a sinner I really am. I don't want people to see my failures or know that I fail God time and time again.

And that is when I really need a wise and faithful friend around who loves me unconditionally and has the freedom to encourage me, admonish me or even give me a swift kick to turn me back from the dark side of the force. :)

Thank you to all my wise and faithful friends!