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| Via Desiring God. Design by Jennifer Knight |
Do not grow weary, my friend, pray for your children at all times.
Becky
O Woman, Pray for Your Children
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Author Archives: Becky Pliego
From My Reading Corner: Saving Leonardo
One of the several reasons this blog has not being updated on a daily basis, is that I had so many good books to read, books that were not only in a wish list, but were already sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. Every time I passed by I could feel them staring at me with that reproach look that only a mad book knows how to give. I could not stand the thought, “What if all those letters decide to come out from the pages and hunt me one night…” Too risky. So I decided to follow one of Wilson’s advice and try start reading about two books a week. So far, so good. And I am very happy. No more books staring at me anymore. I now walk pass by the shelves, and give those books that look and can almost see them smiling at me.
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| Monergism Books |
This weekend I finished reading an amazing book, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meanings by Nancy Pearcey. This is a book that if it were a concert, I would have raised to my feet at the end of it to give an ovation to the author. I totally recommend it for every Christian who loves arts but also for those who doesn’t understand the arts. It is a book for thinkers who love the Word of God and live, like the rest of us, in a fallen world where world-views must be discerned. Yes, in short, this is a book for all Christians.
Today I just want to share one quote that I absolutely loved:
“For God’s truth is indeed beautiful -a drama so exciting and intense that we can hardly bear to consider it directly, just as we cannot look at the sun directly. Dorothy Sayers once said, ‘The dogma is the drama.’ That is, biblical doctrine is itself the gripping plot line of universal history. ‘We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine -‘dull dogma,’ as people call it. The fact is precise the opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man.’ No other religion teaches that the highest divinity, the one who created the universe, entered the human condition, shared its sufferings, and was condemned by his own creatures. ‘The man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God… is an astonishing drama indeed.’ Sayers writes. ‘Any journalist, hearing of it for the first time, would recognize it as news; those who did hear it for the first time actually called it news, and good news at that.’
Even more astonishingly, we ourselves have the opportunity to participate in that drama through our own lives. The Bible’s doctrines are inseparably rooted in the history of ordinary human beings… The implication is that every one of us, though we too are ordinary people, can lead lives imbued with the same world-revolutionary significance as we participate in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.
The Church’s artists and writers are those specifically gifted to convey the drama and excitement of the gospel. They should not be tamed or exploited, but nurtured and supported in their vital mission. Through their ministry, they help everyone recognize the beauty and cosmic purpose of their own lives.”
Isn’t this exciting to read?
Isn’t it exciting to know that we are part of God’s story?
Becky
Praying the Psalms -Psalm 23: 4- A Prayer for Moms in Pain-
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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,for you are with me;your rod and your staff,they comfort me.
Lord, my Good Shepherd,
Help me remember that all those
Terrible and fearsome shadows
That hunt us in our Christian walk,
Are only shadows.
Help me remember that
Even death is a shadow,
Death has been conquered
Through Jesus’ death and
Resurrection.
Death doesn’t have the last word.
You do.
And you have promised Life,
eternal Life and the resurrection of the death.
Father, I pray you comfort today,
With your rod and staff,
All those moms who have
Lost a dearest child,
Or are barren.
Father help your daughters
Walk in light,
And not fear the shadows of this world.
Let them be comforted in the shadows,
Let your Word strengthen their hope,
Let your Word be a lamp to their feet.
May your Spirit comfort them today.
Thank you for your promise,
The promise that He will come to
be with us and not leave us.
We believe it.
Let your light, O God,
Shine through the darkness,
Through the shadows.
Help us fix our eyes on
What is to come.
Strengthen our faith,
our knees, our heart.
That we won’t lose hope.
Amen
Becky
The Greatest Temptation in the Wilderness
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| Jan Havicksz c.1660 |
These are some reflections I gleaned this morning while reading Psalm 78 (especially verses 18-24 ).
We are just like Israel, whose greatest temptation in the desert land was to test God. We are like them when we are led by the Spirit to the wilderness and found ourselves starting to demand from Him food, pleasures, and the same kind of satisfactions that the world, in which we were once enslaved, offers us. It is that longing in our heart, deep within, that rebels in the quiet, and speaks against God saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” that reveals our sin.
See what is there? We doubt God’s goodness, His sovereignty, His promises. We start craving for the world because the satisfaction it offers is immediate. We forget that even in the wilderness He sustains his own. We forget that He has said that we are engraved in the palm of His hand, and that we are the apple of His eye.
How can we forget that He has already provided Jesus, the Living Water, so that we won’t thirst anymore? Our Lord Jesus was struck on the cross just as the rock in the desert and life, living water, gushed out and streams overflowed. Why do we long to drink water from broken cisterns, from poisoned rivers?
How can we forget that Jesus himself said that He is the Bread of Life? How can we long for something else? Only He has words of eternal life. Only when we come to Him and eat at his table is that we will be truly satisfied. Only and only then.
How easily it is for us to stop believing in God and in His saving power. He will never, never, never let His people die in the wilderness. Never.
The Lord is our Shepherd,
we shall not want.
The Lord is our Father,
we shall never be abandoned.
The Lord is our Life,
we shall not die.
The Lord is our Hope,
we shall not despair.
The Lord is our Refuge,
we shall not fear.
Come to the table, grab your bible, read it, mediate on it, pray over it. It is food to your soul, medicine to your bones. Goodness and life. It is Living Water, come drink, my friend, and thirst no more.
Becky
Pray, Eat, Love: Three Things Needed in Motherhood
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| ©Annie Pliego Photgraphy |
Today, May 10th, is Mother’s Day in Mexico and I am looking forward to spending the day with my Beloved, my children (all but my oldest who is in his finals week in another country), and my mom and dad. I will try a new steak recipe for our meal with roasted spiced carrots, and bake an apple cake.
I love having special days to celebrate different things, events, or people through the year, and I love that because you are somehow forced to think about them. You stop and can take time to reflect on the role you play in life, or the role those people you celebrate have played in your own life.
I have not read the book Eat, Pray, Love, but I love the title (one day, I guess, I will have to read the book***). But today as I reflect on my role in life as a mom I was thinking how these three words are seriously needed in our everyday life as moms. The order, however, must be slightly different: Pray, Eat, Love.
On Praying:
Prayer comes first. Prayer should be the breathing of a mother. That is the way we start in the labor room, breathing. I was told not to lose the rhythm in my breathing or I would be in great pain. My husband was there. Breathing with me. Prayer in the life of a mother should be like that, it should be the rhythm of our days. Through the pain, through the hard moments, through the uncertainty, through joyous times, through tears: in and out, a rhythm of prayers.
If we stop praying, our labor will not be easy or enjoyable. I remember that clearly. If I would lose the rhythm of my breathing in that labor room, I would, all of a sudden, feel extremely nervous and fearful until I was able to catch it again. Our labor has not ceased, and if we lose the rhythm of our prayer life we will soon live in discontent, anxiety, fear, pain.
Pray all day, at all times. Intercede for your children. Let your breathing be a life of prayer.
On Eating:
I am sure you remember how hungry you get during the time you nurse your children. Everyone tells you how important it is to be well nourished during this time, so you gladly heed their advice. It is clear, if you are not well fed you will feel very tired and weak, and your baby won’t be taking all the nutrients he needs from your milk.
So it is today. My children are not babies anymore, and yet I need to be well fed to be able to give and give and give to them. I must eat daily from the Scriptures. God’s Word must be my daily food, day and night. My mid-day snack, my craving, my joy. If I don’t feed my Spirit with God’s Word I will soon feel very tired and weak. If I stop eating from God’s Word on a daily basis, I will soon start murmuring and complaining. I will soon hear myself asking silly questions and demanding attention as if I were a queen. There is no way around. How can I possible give and give and give if I am not well nourished? If my soul is not well fed? If I never come to feast at the Word of God? How can I possible be a mom, a full time mom if I have not made God’s Word my refuge, my strength, my life?
On Loving:
Aren’t moms supposed to love and love *perfectly*? Isn’t a mother’s love always used as a picture of resignation and unselfishness? Well, I have to admit that my love is not like that. It is not perfect. Love always seems to be an easy thing until it demands something hard from us. But we know we just can’t hide our sins behind our weaknesses. That would be just too easy to do and will make our lives and the life of those around us miserable. If we are to love the children God has entrusted in our hands, we must start working hard in loving them the way God wants us to love. Yes, I said it was not easy. Love, true love, is much more about dying to self than enjoying oneself.
Love is a verb, we have heard that, so how does this verb looks in your life around your children? How do we walk in love at breakfast and when all is a mess and we are late? How do we walk in love when lies come? How do we walk in love when we see in our children what we never thought we would? How do we walk in love when they don’t think the same way we do? How do we live loving?
Happy Mother’s Day to all my friends! Sharing this calling with you is a privilege. Thank you for all you have taught me in the kitchen, or over coffee, on Skype through the distance, on an email or on your blog. You know who you are. I love you!
Becky
P.S. Today my daughter Annie published a photo-shoot in which I feel loved and honored. You can see it here.
©Annie Pliego Photography
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*** DISCLAIMER: Whoa! Really? I never thought I would have to clarify this… but here I go. I do not agree with any kind of Hinduism, neither am I promoting it. I just used these three words as a “prompt” to my blog entry today. Please, please, see things the way they are. If I ever read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book is not because I am planning on including Hindu practices in my life. not.at.all. If I ever read it, is because many dear friends of mine who doesn’t know the Truth have read it and I would love to know what is that they found so fascinating about it.I want to know what is going through their hearts and minds.
Now I hope you won’t accuse me of not reading only Christian literature, because if that is the case, then I am guilty.
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A Wrinkle in Time – A Few Thoughts-
My 8 yo daughter and I finished yesterday, A Wrinkle in Time, the first book in a series by Madeleine L’Engle. As I mentioned in Goodreads, Sci-Fi is definitely not my favorite genre -and this story has its good share of it- because I find it hard to get immersed in the story, to get lost with the characters, to believe I am in it. However, this was the first time my daughter read this genre and was immediately caught up by the story. As I read aloud to her I could see her full of excitement as if she were traveling through time, from planet to planet along with the characters. She was not looking from afar but felt as if she were part of the story. At the end I can say that we had a great time reading it, and we were able to find many important places to just stop and talk about the truths this story contains, the lessons we must learn and the pitfalls we must try to avoid in life.
Madeleine L’Engle said once, “You have to write the book that wants to be written, and if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” I guess she is right. I wish I were more childlike at times.
If you are not familiar with the story, here is an excerpt from the book description:
“Everyone in town thinks Meg is volatile and dull-witted and that her younger brother Charles Wallace is dumb. People are also saying that their father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors, Meg and Charles Wallace, along with their new friend Calvin, embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time… A classic since 1962, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is sophisticated in concept yet warm in tone, with mystery and love coursing through its pages. Meg’s shattering yet ultimately freeing discovery that her father is not omnipotent provides a satisfying coming-of-age element. Readers will feel a sense of power as they travel with these three children, challenging concepts of time, space, and the power of good over evil. (Ages 9 to 12)”
Now if you have read the story you can keep on reading (there are some spoilers ahead).
As I was reading I found a resemblance between the planet Camazotz, (a planet in which you may recall all was peace, equality and order, but in which individuality was lost and everyone’s will was subject to IT, a greater power that controlled all the inhabitants of the planet), and the world in which we live today. Many today have stopped thinking and have bowed down to the god of Tolerance in order to achieve some kind of peace, equality and order. IT had control over people in Camazotz, just as Tolerance has taken control over the thinking faculties of people in our day. “Tolerance” has become, in a sense, the IT in our planet. Tolerance is the god many are serving blindly.
The saddest thing is that this god Tolerance has found a niche in the heart of many Christians. They cannot see, they are frozen, they think just as Charles Wallace reasoned, that they can come inside IT and be part of it and not be absorbed into it. We cannot compromise; if we tolerate sin we will soon be absorbed by it. We have not been called to seek “peace, equality and order,” but to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. We, as children of God, have been called to hold fast to the Word of God, to fight the good fight. We must resist. Mr. Murry and Meg won over IT because they fought it thinking differently. As Christians, we know we don’t win the spiritual battles with our minds, but in a sense we do. What we think is what we believe. And we know that what we believe is what we act. Just look at how many times Paul in his epistles calls us to have the mind of Christ, to think, to reason. He urges us not be conformed in our minds to this world, but to be transformed in our thinking. Christians must start thinking accordingly to the Word of God at all times, in all circumstances. If we don’t, we will soon be absorbed into the world. There must be a clear, distinctive difference in how we see things and how the world sees them. We have the Bible as our standard, they don’t.
At the end, in L’Engle’s story, love wins. But it doesn’t win the heart and mind of all that have been enslaved in Camazotz. I liked that. Love wins the heart of the one special person that, from the beginning we knew had to be rescued. Love always finds its way through the deepest darkness into the hardened hearts of men.
Now I must to go, my little one wants to start reading the second book in the series, A Wind in the Door, so here we go.
Happy reading, my friends!
Becky
Daily On My Way to Heaven 