Category Archives: Conversation

Retro-Blogging (1st Time I do a Meme on my Blog)

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I miss blogging and I miss you, my dear readers (especially those who are not on FB). But it is OK, your life -and mine- has continued to go on happily with out any of my posts, and that is good. There is so much to read now, right?

But here I am, prompted by my friend Lisa and her idea to go back to the good ol’ days of blogging in which there were no big rules on what to write and what not to write. And, Oh, especially to go back and re-build the community we had. Blogging “just because we enjoy the give-and-take, the community, the conversation” that is a good enough reason to open this space again.  So hopefully, and with no big aspirations at all, and no numbers (like Trisha said) to keep track of, but instead, keeping in mind all the good things and the good friends that come around in this, my little blogging world, I am back. Welcome again, my Friends!

So for the fun of it, and because it is Friday, and because I feel we need an ice-breaker, I will join Lisa in this Meme:

Here’s 7 things you may not know about me:

1. I generally don’t like memes. I remember thinking to myself -more than once- that I would never do one on my blog (or FB).

2. I still have trouble deciding if I should use “in” or “on.” See #1, I changed that “on”  before “my blog” three times. I am still unsure if I made the right choice (I am hoping that you one of the things you already know about me is that English is my second language).

3. The more I travel, the more I wish I could avoid planes and airports. I like window seats so that I can close the window and pretend that I am not flying.

4. I dream with having my own little Café shop-with a wonderful atmosphere, of course- in which I would serve the best breakfast in town (which of course would not be in Mexico City, because you all know we would love to move to some other place….).

5. I am an extrovert and sometimes I wish I would be an introvert. Maybe that is the reason why I LOVE to have introvert friends. I learn so much from them!

6. I don’t have a favorite color, or restaurant, or kind of food, or book, or anything! My little one (9yo) has learned to ask me, “Mom, what is your favorite color *today*?”

7. I love Ann Voskamp and I apologized to her for the words I spoke -and wrote- that were harsh and graceless. There, I said it. So if you see me linking to her blog now and then, please don’t think that I have abandoned the Reformed faith 🙂 As with the rest of my fellow brothers and sisters, Ann and I don’t always agree, but we continually sharpen and encourage each other to live a holy life before God, and that is a blessing.

So, here you go, this was fun and I am happy to be back.

Thanks, Lisa!

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky

Five Links -On Justification by Faith, Titus 2 Women, and Bible Apps- and Two Questions

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This is my new favorite breakfast recipe: Raspberry Ricotta Scones!

This week I came across some great articles that I thought you might enjoy and benefit from as well.

We talk about being justified by faith alone, but maybe you are not really sure what it is meant by that phrase. Well, our friend Christina Langella has a guest post at Theology for Girls which is worth reading (please don’t even try to skim through it, read it carefully. You will not regret it. 😉 ).

“Whether you have been serving God for a little while or a long while, it doesn’t matter. The whole of your Christian faith is grounded in this one doctrine.It is the truth of God’s grace in Christ towards sinners, and it will not only deliver you from the darkness but it will also keep you on solid ground.”

My dear friend Trisha Poff wrote an excellent and timely article on the need of becoming Titus 2 Women.

“I’m watching women dismiss our home-centered calling as they insist on blurring the distinctive roles God has given men and women, sometimes in the name of being “Gospel-focused,” as though biblical womanhood is void of the Gospel dwelling in us richly.”

On the same line, The Gospel Coalition has an article (from February 28, 2013) for women in need of a mentor: How to Be Mentored Without a Mentor that is very practical and encouraging.

“You may be longing for a formal mentor, someone who can sit down and speak into your life each week. Pray and ask God for that tremendous gift. He may grant it. But if he doesn’t, or until he does, seek out resources already available to you in order to be mentored—even at a distance—by other Christians. I often challenge young, busy moms to read one chapter of a good book each day. You can work your way through a number of books that way. And you’re giving your soul something nourishing.”

Lastly (from the archives at Desiring God -2011-) an excellent encouragement to become “addicted” to God’s Word: Man Shall not Live by Facebook Alone

“Let the Bible bring you back to reality over and over during the day.”

My favorite, favorite, app that has helped me do this and also has helped me with my memorization projects is Fighter Verses, also by Desiring God. I love it!

Now the questions:

Considering that two of my links this week have to do with becoming a Titus 2 Woman I thought maybe we could share some about that here.

1. Who have been the most influential mentors -in your vocation as a Christian wife/mother- in your life (women you know personally and/or authors)?

2. Are you purposely mentoring younger women?

My Answers:

1. In my life, I can quickly point to my sister and Nancy Wilson (I am not mentioning men authors, since this is a question about Titus 2 women). I think also of a friend who reminds me (even the way she speaks!) of Elisabeth Elliot. Elisabeth Elliot, by the way, is becoming a mentor to me in this stage of my life. I have also learned (and still learn!) a lot from different godly friends: there is one who always listens attentively while looking you at the eye with her apron on and a “beautiful tomato” on her hand; another whose mouth is full of the Word of God and with whom sometimes I talk on the phone for hours -she is my life editor of the sort-. There is one who prays without ceasing and cooks the best carrot soufflé ever! Others whose example of love and dedication to their children (biological and adopted) and their perseverance in prayer for them -and even hard physical work- have always been a silent challenge that speaks loudly to my life.

2. Yes. But not enough. I am now almost solely focused on my daughters, especially on my oldest who is leaving for college next fall! So much to talk and pray about, so many hugs to give and laughs to share.

Blessings to you and thank you for stopping by,

Becky

Stories of Endless Grace

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It is when I see my sisters in Christ
who have lost a child,
a husband,
a dream.
Sisters who have been betrayed,
abandoned.
Who have heard many times
that they have the “right” to be mad
to be bitter,
to be anger.
But by God’s Grace
are still clinging hard to
God’s Word,
to His Perfect love,
to the Cross,
That I learn the most
about trusting God.

These women, these sisters,
Who have lost the most precious gifts,
Are the ones who have their hands
And hearts full.
Their cup is overflowing.
God has filled their emptiness
With His prescence.
They now know Him as the God
who satisfies all of our needs.
They have walked with Him
through valleys
and shadows and
have embraced the blessed gift of
His Peace which surpasses all
understanding.

These women don’t name and claim promises.
These women bow down and
Glorify God in the abyss.
When silence is everywhere,
and no answers are found,
they cling to the Word of God,
and hide under the Shadow of the Almighty.

The lessons learned in the furnace,
in the missionary field,
in the trials,
in the hospitals,
in the cemetery,
in the court,
in the office,
in the kitchen,
in the prayer closet,
are all invaluable,
all of them rich.
All appointed by God,
to draw them closer to Him.

How they stood firm through each battle,
how they have persevered,
how they have glorified and thanked God
when they could have cursed Him.
Oh! It is only through Grace…
Grace that flows from the Cross,
Grace that knows the power of the Resurrection.
Grace that calls each one of us by name.
Grace that doesn’t let us go
or die,
or despair.

And we all know this,
the school of sanctification is not easy.
And we fail at times -many times-
but we persevere,
we have not been chosen to perish.
It is not about us,
about will-power,
about our own capacities,
or strength,
or godliness.
It is neither about our sin,
how big it is,
how low we have been.
It is all about His Saving Grace,
Grace that saves,
Grace that helps us fight,
Grace that brings us all the way to the finish line.

And I have heard my sisters say,
“I never thought I could possibly live through such a trial…
      and yet God’s grace sustained me through it all.”

I close my eyes and try to swallow hard.
Isn’t this the testimony that we need to hear?
The Doctrines of Grace,
The Catechism,
Our Creeds,
Worn as our daily robe?

As one man said,
“Stories are catechisms 
                 with flesh on.”
I believe it.
I have heard the stories my sisters have lived.
I have seen them being sustained by
the faith that is found in the marrow of their bones.
Their scars are real.
But so their smiles.
So their joy.

All is Grace and
each story hides in it many mercies.
And each one draws us near to our Father.
Beautiful stories of unending Grace.
mercies adorning their days.
Day after day…
New mercies which never fail to come.

God’s blessed joy has come in the morning,
His peace has guarded their hearts,
their minds.

And I look at each one of them,
how beautiful they are!
How strong
and meek they are.
How much like Jesus they have become.

And I give thanks for each one of them,
And always remember them in my prayers,

Becky

Life Together by Bonhoeffer -Borrowed Words-

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I have read these words over and over again these past days. Lots to think about, to pray, to consider, to discern.

“By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.”

“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”

“Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification.”

“Where Christ bids me to maintain fellowship for the sake of love, I will maintain it. Where his truth enjoins me to dissolve a fellowship for love’s sake, there I will dissolve it, despite all the protests of my human love. Because spiritual love does not desire but rather serves, it loves the enemy as a brother. It originates neither in the brother nor in the enemy but in Christ and His Word.”

“Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by Christ himself. This means that I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love. The other person needs to retain his independence of me; to be loved for what he is , as one for whom Christ became man, died and rose again, for whom Christ bought forgiveness of sins and eternal life.”

” [Spiritual love] will rather meet the other person with the clear Word of God and be ready to leave him alone with this Word for a long time, willing to release him again in order that Christ may deal with him.”

“Thus this spiritual love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ and the love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth of Christ.”

“Human love lives by uncontrolled and uncontrollable dark desires; spiritual love lives in the clear light of service ordered by the truth. Human love produces human subjection, dependence, constarint; spiritual love creates freedom of the brethren under the Word.”

“Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs.”

“The Psalter is great school of prayer.”

“The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich our prayers will become.”

“It is not our heart that determines our course, but God’s Word.”

“Prayer should not be hindered by work, but neither should work be hindered by prayer.”

“The prayer of the morning will determine the day. Wasted time, which we are ashamed of, temptations that beset us, weakness and listlessness in our work, disorder and indiscipline in our thinking and in our relations with other people very frequently have their cause in neglect of the morning prayer. The organization and distribution of our time will be better for having been rooted in prayer, The temptations which the working day brings with it will be overcome by this break-through to God…”

“Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness… If we have learned to be silenced before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day.”

“The Scripture meditation leads to prayer.”

“Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day.”

“We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.”

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”

“Our brother’s ways are not in our hands; we cannot hold together what is breaking; we cannot keep life in what is determined to die. But God binds elements together in the breaking, creates community in the separation, grants grace through judgment. He has put his Word in our mouth. He wants it to be spoken through us…”

“Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart.”

“The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is…”

In need of His Grace,

Becky

How to Be Persuasive with our Words

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Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
The wise of heart is called discerning,
and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it,
but the instruction of fools is folly.
The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Proverbs 16: 20-24

Not one harsh word, not raising my voice, not many words…. Help me, Lord.

Becky

What Good is a Story?

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Today I may be found at  Elizabeth’s place, my friend and mentor in so many ways.

ISN’T OUR LIFE LIKE A SERIES of short stories? Many events, many seasons, many characters. Some we love and some we don’t. Some characters remain in our lives forever, and some are gone before we had ever wished them to leave.

We plan our lives just like Barbara Kingsolver, just like our neighbor, our friend; just like those who seek God and those who are always running away from Him. We “put a tidy plan on our calendars,” and without a warning we all are hit by the unexpected. The squares on our wall calendar seem to fall down as pieces from a puzzle and we feel like we don’t know how to live our days anymore. And through it all, and as best we can, we keep trying to read the stories within the story. 

Please, join me as we discuss What Good is a Story? by Barbara Kingsolver at Finding The Motherlode…


Becky