Category Archives: Being a Wife

Time to Do What the Lord Wills

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Photo Print by Laura Evans on Etsy

Some encouraging -and convicting- words from the pen of Elisabeth Elliot on the Discipline of Time:

“My times are in thy hand…” has become a part of my life. When the Lord has left me in agony of waiting over some decision, these words have put me a rest. His timing is always perfect, though it seldom seems to me, for my temperament longs for previews of coming attractions.”

 

“There is always enough time to do the will of God. For that we can never say, “I don’t have time.” When we find ourselves frantic and frustrated, harried and harassed and “hassled,” it is a sign that we are running on our own schedule, not on God’s”

On our way too long to-do lists:

“But the lists must be reviewed daily with the Lord, asking Him to delete whatever is not on His list for us, so that before we go to bed it will be possible to say, “I have finished the work You gave me to do.””

Are you feeling frustrated and worried about your endless lists of things to accomplish and places to go? Maybe it will be a good idea to be reminded of these simple truths:

“Frustration is not the will of God. Of that we can be quite certain. There is time to do anything and everything that God wants us to do. Obedience fits smoothly into His given framework. One thing that most certainly will not fit into it is worry.”

 

“Direct your time and energy into worry, and you will be deficient in things like singing with grace in your heart, praying with thanksgiving, listening to a child’s account of his school day, inviting a lonely person to supper, sitting down to talk unhurriedly with wife or husband, writing a note to someone who needs it.”

 

“People wish they had more leisure time. The problem is not too little of it, but too much of it poorly spent.”

On our time spent with the Lord:

“Time management…begins for the Christian with time set aside for God. Other things cannot fall into a peaceful order if this is omitted.”

All these quotes come from the book, Discipline: The Glad Surrender.

Becky

A Family Prayer for the Lord’s Day Morning

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Matthew Henry wrote a family prayer for the Lord’s Day Morning   a beautiful and rich prayer that will sure bless your heart today. O what a blessing it is to prepare our hearts in prayer before we go come to the Lord’s house to worship Him among the saints!

Moms, let us wake up earlier,  with a happy heart and set, with our readiness, a peaceful tune in our home before we come Church. Let no bitterness or resentment, or selfishness take hold of us. Let us serve gladly our Lord this day by serving those we love the most.

 

@Katie Lloyd Photography

Because this is a lengthy prayer, I am only sharing here some excerpts* from it:

Most gracious God, and our Father in our Lord Jesus Christ; it is good for us to draw near to Thee; the nearer the better; and it will be best of all, when come to be nearest of all in the kingdom of glory.

 

We bless Thee for the return of the morning light, and that thou causest the day-spring to know its place and time. O let the day-spring from on high visit our dark souls, and the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing under his wings.

 

We bless thee that the light we see is the Lord’s: That this is the day which the Lord hath made, hath made for man, hath made for himself, we will rejoice and be glad in it. That thou hast revealed unto us thy holy sabbaths, and that we were betimes taught to put a difference between this day and other days, and that we live in a land in all parts of which God is publicly and solemnly worshiped on this day.

 

Now we bid this sabbath welcome: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest. O that we may be in the Spirit on this Lord’s Day; that this may be the sabbath of the Lord in our dwelling; in our hearts, a sabbath of rest from sin, and a sabbath of rest in God. Enable us, we pray thee, so to sanctify this sabbath, as that it may be sanctified to us and be a means of our sanctification; that by resting today from our worldly employments, our hearts may be more and more taken off from present things and prepared to leave them; and that by our employing our time today in the worship of God, we may be led into a more experimental acquaintance with the work of heaven, and be made more meet for that blessed world.

We confess we are utterly unworthy of the honour and unable for the work of communion with thee, but we come to thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is worthy, and depend upon the assistance of thy blessed Spirit to work all our works in us, and so ordain peace for us.

 

O Lord, we bless thee for thy holy word, which is a light to our feet and a lamp to our paths, and which was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope; that the scriptures are preserved pure and entire to us, and that we have them in a language that we understand. We beg that we may not receive the grace of God herein in vain. We bless thee that our eyes see the joyful light, and our ears hear the joyful sound of a Redeemer and a Saviour, and of redemption and salvation by him; that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. Glory be to God in the highest, for in and through Jesus Christ there is on earth peace and good-will towards men.

 

O that our hearts may be filled this day with pleasing thoughts of Christ and his love to us, that great love wherewith he loved us. O the admirable dimensions of that love; the height, the depth, and length, and breadth of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge! Let this love constrain us to love him and to live to him, who died for us and rose again. O that it may be a pleasure and mighty satisfaction to us to think that while we are here praying at the footstool of the throne of grace, our blessed Saviour is sitting at the right hand of the throne of glory, interceding for us. We earnestly beg that through him we may find favour with thee our God, and may be taken into covenant and communion with thee.

 

We humbly pray thee, for his sake, forgive all our sins, known and unknown, in thought, word, and deed: Through him let us be acquitted of guilt and accepted as righteous in thy sight; let us not come into condemnation, as we have deserved; let our iniquity be taken away and our sin covered; and let us be clothed with the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness, that the shame of our nakedness may not appear. O let there be no cloud of guilt to interpose between us and our God this day, and to intercept our comfortable communion with him; and let our lusts be mortified and subdued, that our corruptions may not be as a clog to us, to hinder the ascent of our souls heavenwards.

 

Let thy presence be in all assemblies of good Christians this day. Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; let grace be upon them all. In the chariot of the everlasting gospel, let the great Redeemer ride forth triumphantly, conquering and to conquer, and let every thought be brought into obedience to him. Let many be brought to believe the report of the gospel, and to many let the arm of the Lord be revealed. Let sinners be converted unto thee, and thy saints edified and built up in faith, holiness, and comfort, unto salvation. Complete the number of thine elect, and hasten thy kingdom.

 

Now the Lord of peace himself give us peace always by all means. The God of hope fill us with joy and peace in believing, for Christ Jesus’ sake, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, who hath taught us to pray, Our Father which art in heaven, etc.

Grace upon Grace,

Becky

*You can read Matthew Henry’s: A family Prayer for the Lord’s Day Morning in full here

Love and Respect Your Calling

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Because this is too important not to read….

“Love and respect are both very transformative. A loved woman becomes more and more lovely, and respected men become more and more respectable. We all know this at a foundational level. It is true all over the world that when someone bestows love on something or someone, change is visible. I am not talking simply of emotions here – I mean the action of loving, or the action of respecting. Emotions follow actions, and it is one of the great myths of our time that love is an uncontrollable force, coming and going in ways beyond human control.”  Read the rest over at Femina today.

Becky

>A Prayer for my Husband and a Giveaway

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He is my man, I love him and I praise God for giving me to him, and for giving him to me. His embrace is all I want, and being with him is a gift from the Lord.

Today I am specially grateful for my man, and for the privilege God has given me to intercede for him every day. He goes to the world every day,  and faces thorns and whistles and fights for us, while I wait in the quiet of our home, longing for his coming at night.

This is my prayer for my husband today. (adapted from Prayers of an Excellent Wife  -p.68- 69)

O thou Giving God,
Be gracious to my husband today, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up his soul.

Teach him Your way that he might walk in Your truth; unite his heart to fear Your Name. Turn to him and be gracious to him; give him strength, and save him.

O beloved, sing with me of the steadfast love of the LORD forever; with your mouth make know his faithfulness to all generations!

Glorious God,

Let your favor be upon my husband. Establish the work of his hands.

Be his dwelling place, Most High, and be his refuge, so that no evil shall be allowed to befall him. Command Your angels concerning him to guard him in all his ways. Because You hold fast to him in love, please deliver him; protect him because he knows Your Name.

When he calls to You answer him; be with him in trouble; rescue him and honor him. With long life satisfy him, and show him Your salvation. Satisfy him with your beauty.

In the name of my Lord and Mediator Jesus, whose name is above all other names,

Amen

I would love to bless you with a printed copy of this book, if you are interested in participating in this giveaway, just leave a comment (please be sure to leave some contact information). I would appreciate if you pass the voice around by sharing this on facebook or twitter. (only USA, Mexico and Canada addresses)

The winner will be drawn Saturday June 25.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

You can download for free this collection of Scriptural prayers here.
or buy the book here.

>The Sovereignty of God in Our Marriages -and my sin-

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>I enjoy the long conversations my sister and I have on Skype. She is a godly woman and  a great teacher to me. I am so grateful for her life.

I want to invite you to be part of a recent conversation we had about God’s Sovereignty in our marriages and our sin. Yes, it is Friday, so get a cup of coffee and join us.

We know God is Sovereign, if we don’t believe that, then we are in big trouble; because the True God is Sovereign indeed!

Now, why is it so hard at times to live our lives under the sun trusting that HE IS INDEED SOVEREIGN? If we believe that God is sovereign (and He is indeed) then He is sovereign over our marriage life too.

What does this mean? It means, dear sister, that all the struggles you and I have to face in our marriages are allowed by God. He is the one who is permitting them to happen.  I am blessed to have a godly husband, but that doesn’t mean that we never have struggles. We (my sister and I) have talked lately on how we often miss the mark when struggles and differences in our marriage come to our lives. Instead of seeing them as instruments of God to sanctify us, we stop seeing Him all Sovereign and start to fight on our own flesh. At this point we are already sinning.

If we are mature Christians we should start dealing with the difficulties in our marriages from a different perspective.

First, let us recognize that God is Sovereign and that all these struggles are allowed by God only to deal with us, to sanctify us, and that at the end they will be good for us. Isn’t He, our Heavenly Father, the one who knows what’s best  for His children?

Secondly, just think how different things would be if in the very moment a struggle arises, we would take a second  before we say any word to see God’s hand allowing it.  What if we would recognize that this struggle is just another opportunity God is giving US to deal with a sin in our own heart?  What if we would stop seeing our husband’s sin and start seeing our own sin in the middle of the struggle?  I am sure we’ll start growing more in His grace.

Any thoughts of yours?

>Out of the Land of Hurry – a Tale for Moms-

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Time runs incessantly by like a waterfall, violently. Clock and Watch seem to have the power over the days of men, they are such cruel rulers. The Sun and the Moon are no longer the Masters of the biological clock of the people in the Land of Hurry. Tic Toc; Tic Toc is the sound that can be heard all over the land, no time for listening to the birds’ song or watching squirrels, or kissing longer, or hugging tighter. Moms run from here and there, tirelessly, dragging feet and children. Dads go and go and go….

– But wait!

– Wait? Who dares to say THAT word in this Land of Hurry?

– It is me,  Quiet-Slow-Mom

– Are you talking to me? Sorry… I don’t have time to stay, I have to go. So many things in my list. I just can’t wait!

– Wait, please. Please, listen to me…

For some strange reason  Rushing-Busy-Mom always in a hurry stopped. For the first time in months she stopped and even felt her heart pumping blood through her body, and without even thinking stared for a moment at a few small beautiful flowers beside the road, and felt her little daughter’s hand holding hers.

Quiet-Slow-Mom said,

-I used to walk like you, enslaved by the cruel Clock and like you, I loved to be running all day. It made me feel… so… productive. Yes, I felt more important if I could handle more things than I wanted to do. I murmured a tiny prayer whenever I had time and sometimes  I read a Bible verse that had been on my fridge for years. Yes, I had the same endless excuses, the little ones, the laundry, the money, the husband, the Bible study, the bills, the gym, the so longed for “Time-For-Me”, who, by the way, is the most shrewd deceiver around Moms.  But one day I stopped… well actually , He made stop…

–He? I barely remember any of His Words… It has been so long…I hadn’t have time.

– Yes, He made me stop; the Owner of my Days; the One who fixed the Sun and Moon in place to give us a day to work and a night to rest. He spoke clearly to me, I remember well. It was one day when he opened my ears to hear my voice, my dialog. I was scared. The two words that my children were listening from me  all day long were terrifying: Hurry Up! 

Rushing-Busy-Mom had a lump on her throat and a tear made of minuscules particles of wasted time, rolled down from her cheek. 

Quiet-Slow-Mom kept on saying,

– When I realized how many times I had spoken those words I broke into pieces. I knew in that moment that those words I kept saying all day, all days were exactly the opposite of what my heart longed for… I did not want to rush the hours, I did not want to make the time pass by so quickly, I did not want to hurry the moments… O Beautiful Moments that were disappearing without no one noticing them, and I just let them go by while Clock and Watch observed, and they laughed at me.

Rushing-Busy-Mom sat on the grass, and held her baby girl in her arms who was now sleeping. She took her tiny hands and took a moment to see how much her hands had grown and how beautiful her hair was.  The rays of the Sun were particularly beautiful that day… or so they seemed. She looked at Quiet-Slow-Mom and whispered to her…

– Do you think it is possible, really possible, to stop living under the cruel, rude, and powerful dominion of Clock and Watch? Is there a way out of the Land of Hurry?


– Yes, there is a way out of the Land of Hurry. It is that tiny door over there; it is just like the Door to Paradise which is narrow; it is a door through which you must enter on your knees, face down, with a contrite spirit… slowly, very slowly. You must leave behind all that doesn’t matter and walk through it humbly. When you hear the Owner of Time, the One who holds the days of mankind in the palm of His hand calling you, do not hesitate and walk through it. He will teach  you to number your days; He will teach you to live wisely in the Land. He will help you to kiss longer and hug tighter, and slow down to play and read a book. He will renew your strength every day with the power of His Word; when You come to meet Him early in the mornings you will find out how to live in this frame of time, serving Him and not Clock or Watch. You will find rest under His shadow and peace under His wings. You will  soon find yourself loving more, smiling more, baking more, making love more… It is when we stop and deliberately seek Him that Time stops ruling our days and we start living, fully living under His sun and by His grace…