Archive for July, 2005
People Who Have Been Destroyed By Amateurs
Dawn has a great post listing various people who have been taught by "amateurs." I remember thinking how COOL it was when my homeschooled son learned about Thomas Edison...who was also homeschooled.
And I also found it rather cool that Benjamin Franklin was something like the 10th son in his family. Boy, I sure am glad his parents didn't think, "2 kids is really all we can handle."
But that's probably another post for another time.....
Feast Fifty-Seven
Appetizer
Name 3 people whom you admire for their intelligence.
Well...I really don't admire people for their INTELLIGENCE. I might admire them for their WISDOM or CHARACTER, however.But my hubby is a pretty smart guy. Like I tell him often, "They don't call you 'Dr.' for nuthin'!"
Soup
What's the last food you tried that you really didn't care for.
Man, these are hard questions this week!!! The only thing I can think of is this chocolate ice cream that evidently had some "issues." I think it may have been thawed and then refrozen because it seemed sort of freezer-burned, and it just had a weird texture on the outer parts. UGH, how could they DO that to chocolate ice cream?????Salad
If you could rename the street that you live on, what would you want it to be called?
Sheesh! LOL!
I dunno...Freedom Lane? For many reasons - I am free because of Jesus' death. I am free because I live in America. I'd LIKE to be free from debt. LOL!Main Course
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised?
When I found a ZUCCHINI on my zucchini plant!!!!!!! (It's the little things in life, I tell ya!)Dessert
Share a household tip.
The Grocery Game
SpunkyHomeSchool: Created to be His Help Meet - Part 4
Here is Spunky's Part 4 in her review of CTBHHM. She is doing FANTASTIC job.
Created To Be His Help Meet - Chapter 14
Mrs. Pearl continues her discussion on reverence in Chapter 14, "Kings and Kingdoms."
Page 136:
God created Adam and commissioned him to take the position of leadership. Since then, every son of Adam has received the same mandate. Man was created to rule. It is his nature. But the only place most men will ever rule is their own little kingdom called home. At the least, every man's destiny is to be the leader of his household. To deny him this birthright is contrary to his nature and God's will. When a man is not in command of his little kingdom and is not shown the deference and reverence that goes with that position, his kingdom will not be ruled correctly, and the subjects of that kingdom will not experience the benevolence of a king who truly loves and cherishes them.
Mrs. Pearl compares a husband with the President of the United States. When he goes to speak somewhere, he gets treated with respect. (Usually LOL!) Not because of who he is as a man or what his policies are, but because of the office that he fills.
God made your husband the "president" of your family.
When I first read these statements, I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with them. I knew they were "off," but I couldn't figure out just how. So I asked my hubby.
And he said, "Well, she is using the wrong analogy. The Bible doesn't compare a husband leading his family with the way a government is set up."A ha!!!
Ephesians 5:21-33:
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord.
For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body.
As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,
That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless].
Even so husbands should love their wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,
Because we are members (parts) of His body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church.
However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly].The Bible compares the relationship between a husband and wife to the relationship between Christ and His Church. And that is vastly different from the relationship between a President and his constituents. Mrs. Pearl's analogy is simply not Biblical.
Her statement that "Man was created to rule" is Biblical when taken just as that sentence. However, when we take it in context of her chapter, it is unbiblical. Mankind was created to rule over creation, but men were not created to rule over women.
Genesis 1:26-28:
God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.
So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.
And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth.Genesis 3:16b:
Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
Note that the husband ruling over the wife occurs AFTER the fall. Prior to the fall, God gave men and women the job of ruling (subduing, having dominion over, etc.) the rest of creation.
Mrs. Pearl shares an example of the "opposite of reverence." A man named "Charles" was sitting in a meeting with his wife.
Charles leaned back and draped his arm around his wife's shoulder. She immediately reacted with obvious irritation, shaking his hand off her shoulder, and leaning forward as if to get away from his embrace. Then she carefully fixed her hair where his arm had disturbed it.
What Mrs. Pearl says about it:
Her act was testimony to the state of her heart. She thought more of her hairdo than her husband's honor. She was rebelling against God in not reverencing her husband.
I seriously doubt that that was this woman's main problem. She sounds like she had selfishness issues PERIOD. If I were a betting woman, I'd bet she acted this way toward ANYONE, not just her husband. Though a lack of reverence toward her husband was involved, that was not how she was "rebelling against God." MAJOR stretch on Mrs. Pearl's part, I'm afraid.
I'm NOT saying that this wife's response was acceptable. It was just plain old RUDE. But Mrs. Pearl is using this as an example of a wife "not reverencing her husband," as though that were the only thing wrong with this picture, and that is where the stretch lies.
Page 139:
You cannot command your husband to love you, and you have no right to expect him to love you when you are unlovely. But God has provided a way for a woman to cause her husband to love and cherish her. God gave us ladies some keys to the avenues of a man's heart. God made it so that we can actually manipulate him into fulfilling his God-ordained duty.
::::eyes bugging out and jaw hitting the floor::::Yes, Mrs. Pearl is saying that if we just reverence our husbands enough, we can manipulate them into loving us. For one thing...MANIPULATE????????
For another thing...it is not a given, as she makes it out to be. I have known far too many women who have done exactly as Mrs. Pearl says to do, and their husband have either treated them harshly or they have just flat out left them.
Mrs. Pearl "proves" her points by sharing some examples of couples she has seen while people-watching. In couples in which the women were not touching their men, they weren't smiling either. But there were three women (THREE!!!) who were smiling and touching their men, and their men were just delighted in their women. Mrs. Pearl was quick to point out how ugly these women were as well, so obviously the men were not attracted to them for their beauty but for the way that they "reverenced" them.
A man will allow his woman many, many faults, as long as he knows that she thinks he is great. If she will just look into his face with adoration, if she is thankful to him for loving her, he will adore her. She can dress awful, be grossly overweight, have terrible hair, not cook so well, be a little lazy and dumb, and not be one bit pretty, but if she will just think and show that he is wonderful he will love her.
So not only is Mrs. Pearl basing her conclusions in part on these three couples, she is saying that if we just fawn over our men, they will love us.
She goes even further by saying
My husband tells young men looking for wives that there is really only one absolutely necessary trait that the girl they marry must possess - a grateful heart. He tells them that the girl they choose must be joyful and thankful that you love her. "The more she belives that she is fortunate that you chose her over others, the better the foundation for the true marriage of two souls. If she feels that YOU are lucky to get HER, then you had better run, because that woman is looking for her own help meet, and she thinks you are the one to fill the job. She will spend the rest of her life trying to change you."
*snip*
[To reverence a husband] is to believe that you are blessed for being loved by this wonderful man.
I honestly don't even know how to word my thoughts about that....
To be fair, this chapter did have some good in it. This sentence on page 137:
Reverence is not just how you act; it is how you feel and how you respond with words and with your body language.
But that's about it.
Tying Strings
Check out Allison's latest blog post. It seems the busier I get, the less often I do things to tie strings with my children. I need to make more of an effort!
Looking for money?
This post of Perri's reminds me....
Go to the website of any state you've ever lived in, and find their "unclaimed property" section. Look for your name. You never know what you might find! I found over $700 waiting for me, from my employer that I worked for before my first child was born! Typically they aren't that high, but you never know!!!
SpunkyHomeSchool: Created to Be His Help Meet - Part 3
Check out SpunkyHomeSchool's Part 3 of CTBHHM. We actually blogged about the same chapter!
I’ve been tagged again
Allison tagged me. I've never answered these questions, so this should be interesting....
What Were You Doing 10 Years Ago Today?
Let's see. We were living in Baton Rouge and had been married for a little over a year. (No children yet.) I was doing temp work, and I had a long-term assignment at an environmental testing laboratory. I did filing and copying work, and I'd assemble the reports to mail to the lab's clients.What Were You Doing 5 Years Ago Today?
I had a 17-day-old baby (and a 3.25yo and an almost 2yo). We were living in Lacey, Washington, at the time. I can't remember if my mom had come to visit us at that point or not, but it was right around that time that she did, since L was around 3 weeks old I believe.What Were You Doing 1 year Ago Today?
Most likely sweltering in the heat and my 7 months along pregnant body LOL! Dh was out of town, training for his new job that brought us up here 2 months prior.What Were You Doing Yesterday?
In the morning we did school. Around 12:45 we left for L's 5-year check-up. We were going to drive to the airport to meet dh after that, but he called my cell phone and said that his plane had problems, so his flight was delayed. So we went to Albertson's and bought some pull-ups, sugar, and a couple other things, and then came home. Dh got home around 7. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I met him at his car door, and when the kids started running out there, I yelled, "NO I GET HIM FIRST, HE'S MINE, I'M THE MOM!!!" LOLOL!!!What Are You Doing Today?
Mostly I've been looking for curriculum bargains on e-bay and vegsource.What Are You Doing Tomorrow?
Going to church and later on the grocery store.5 Snacks I Enjoy
Only 5?????
1. Hot Tamales candy
2. brownies
3. ice cream
4. pie
5. cake5 Bands/Singers I know the Lyrics to most of their Songs
Oh boy that's a toughie...hmmmmmm....
1. John Denver
2. Beach Boys
3. Abba
4. FFH
5. Carman
(I think????)Things I Would Do with $1,000,000,000
1. Give most of it away
2. Pay the taxes I'd owe on it
3. Pay off our mucho debt
4. Set up college funds for our children
5. Buy a farm for my husband
6. Build a house that actually fits us both size-wise and feature-wise
7. Finish college
8. Invest some
9. Give gifts like vans, etc. to families who need them
10. Get real furniture rather than the junky stuff we have LOL
11. Save the rest for things that come up.5 Locations You Would Run Away To
1. Northeast Oklahoma
2. Northwest Arkansas
3. If it didn't involve dying, heaven LOL
4. Someplace with low humidity, lots of sunshine, yet some good, ol' thunderstorms that rattle the windows (can you tell we don't GET thunderstorms here????)
5. Anywhere with my hubby5 Bad Habits You Have
1. Biting my nails (ugh)
2. Drinking cokes
3. Being lazy
4. Procrastinating when it comes to cleaning
5. Bringing S to bed with me when she wakes at night instead of just dealing with it already LOL5 Things You Like
1. My husband
2. My kids (usually *grin* )
3. Thunderstorms
4. Manual transmissions
5. Laughing so hard my cheeks and stomach hurt5 Things You'd Never Wear in Public
1. My birthday suit
2. A bikini
3. Short skirt/shorts
4. Orange
5. Skin-tight clothing5 Movies You Like
1. Anne of Green Gables (and the sequel, but not the 3rd one LOL)
2. Princess Bride
3. A Walk in the Clouds
4. all 3 Lord of the Rings movies
5. Singing in the Rain5 Famous People You'd Like to Meet
1. Laura Bush
2. George W. Bush
3. Michelle Duggar
4. Mike Huckabee
5. Paul (and he's the most likely one I'll get to meet LOL)5 Biggest Joys
1. marrying my husband
2. having my children
3. moving away from where we moved here from
4. laughing
5. Jesus saving meI'm going to tag Dawn, Perri, Heather, Kelli, and Barbara.
Created To Be His Help Meet - Chapter 13
Y'all may want to sit down for this one.
Overall, I liked this chapter.
Yes, you're reading Keer "Unplugged." LOL!!!!
Chapter 13 is about reverence. On page 124 Mrs. Pearl opens with:
A wise woman understands that her husband's need to be honored is not based on his performance, but on his nature and his God-ordained position.
She quotes from Ephesians 5:32-33:
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church...and the wife see that she reverence her husband"
And I love how the Amplified Version expands on verse 33:
...her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]
Page 125:
Reverence: to revere, to be in awe; fear mingled with respect and esteem.
1. Obedience is doing what you know the other person wants you to do.
2. Submission is your heart giving over to the other person's will.
3. Reverence is more than just doing what a man expects or demands. It is an act of the woman's will to treat him with a high degree of regard and awe.
Obedience, submission, and reverence are all acts of the will and are not based on feelings. Showing deference toward one's husband is an act of reverence toward the God who placed you in that role.Mrs. Pearl shares a couple of examples of women who reverence their husbands even though they most definitely do NOT deserve it. The first woman, Judy, reverences a man who began seeing prostitutes shortly after they married. She has convinced their young son that his daddy is #1 by the things that she does to reverence him. Page 127:
I have to confess that as I typed Judy's letter into my book, I wept. Judy has turned her heart to God, for only God could have done such a work of grace in a woman. She is reverencing a man who does not deserve it, and in so doing she is reverencing God.Do you understand that concept by now? She is reverencing God by reverencing her husband, not because her husband is a fit representative of Christ, and not because he is a worthy substitute, but because God placed her in subjection to her husband. And, when it gets humanly ridiculous to obey that lousy man, and when he gives her every reason to not respect him, there is only one controlling factor left - God. This woman is obeying and reverencing God, and no one else. That creep of a husband is the fortunate recipient of honor being given to God. Her faith sees beyond the sinning man to the God who created us all and "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son..." (John 3:16).
If her faithfulness is never rewarded with a new birth change in her husband, her commitment will not be wasted, for the grace that God is working in her heart is making her supremely fitted to be the bride of Christ. It is an eternal work taking place in her soul. Her obedience to God, and her willingness to go beyond the extra mile, prevents her husband's sin from damaging their son. She has covered a multitude of sins with her love and forgiveness (I Peter 4:8).
Now, I do want to make clear that there are situations in which church discipline may be in order, or that the wife at the very least needs to say something to her husband about whatever he is doing (like in Judy's case - she does need to speak up about the prostitution at some point, even if it's just to protect herself from disease). But many of us aren't dealing with "major" things like that. Many of us are dealing with husbands who aren't leading family devotions or who won't wash a dish/change a diaper/fold a towel to save their lives or who haven't spent money very wisely. Men do some pretty dumb things...and God commands their wives to reverence them ANYWAY. (We women do some pretty dumb things too!
) If women like Judy can go beyond the extra mile and reverence their husbands, so can I, even when my husband is acting like a goober. (Which is about as often as I act like a goober too. )A section titled "Play It Again, Sue" begins on page 128. I know all too well what Mrs. Pearl is talking about.
In our own strength, we women tend to have minds like old LP records that are scratched. We take our husband's faults and replay them in our thoughts over and over again, "he's insensitive...he's insensitive...he's insensitive...he's insensitive...." We get worked up over the smallest offense until our agitation sours into bitterness. He will forget to feed the dog three days in a row. We will look at the empty dog bowl and attribute all kinds of evil motives to him. He will leave us waiting in the car for an extra ten minutes, and we convince ourselves that his lack of consideration is just the tip of the cold iceberg of his heart. Since we are "Christian" ladies, and the kids are watching, we don't rant and rave; we just give him the stone-cold, silent treatment. He must know how much he hurts us, and the best way to retaliate is to hurt him back by depriving him of what he wants most - respect, honor, and love.
Page 128:
The difference between a good marriage and a lousy one is not found in good husbands and good wives versus bad husbands and bad wives, for all marriages are made up of two sinners with lots of faults.A good marriage is good because one or both of them have learned to overlook the other's faults, to love the other as he or she is and to not attempt to change the other or bring him or her to repentance. A bad marriage is not one that contains more faults between the two of them; it is a marriage where one or both of them gets worked up over issues that good marriage partners let slide and cover up with love and forgiveness.
Um....sort of. I can see what she is trying to say here, but that's most likely because I'm approaching it from a pretty good marriage. We have our "issues," but I don't have to worry about him bugging my e-mail, getting mad if I drip water on the bathmat, or not coming home at night. (Those are all true examples from assorted friends of mine.) Many times, yes, women get all up in arms over STUPID STUFF like leaving the toilet seat up or not wringing out the washcloth or not cleaning out the garage. But for SERIOUS ISSUES (like abuse, infidelity, etc.), the wife can overlook, forgive, etc. all she wants, and it won't necessarily turn their marriage into a "good" one.
So as I said, I see what she's trying to get at, but it's not a given that if you forgive your husband when he's a jerk to you, you'll have a good marriage.
Now THIS I agree with (continuing in that paragraph):
When a woman gets it in her mind that she must change her husband before she will allow him to relax in the security of her honor and respect, she will never see so much as the bottom side of a good marriage, except when she is kissing hers good-bye.
I've known too many women like that. They treat their husbands like jerks and expect them to change before they treat them kindly. And if they are Christian women, many times they'll demand that the husband love them like Christ loved the church! GROAN!!!!!
Next is a section entitled, "Eve Has Many Sisters," and the basic premise is found in the first sentence:
Where men struggle with fleshly imaginations, we women give ourselves over to emotional imaginations and create a world of hurt for ourselves and those around us.
Overall I'd say that's a pretty true statement. Women tend to LOVE pity parties and "Oh let me tell you how mean my husband is being to me...."
Mrs. Pearl discusses how that's how Satan went about tempting Eve:
Eve was deceived through her runaway imaginations. The root of her sin was doubting God's goodwill toward her. Eve, today, has many sisters. We still doubt the one in authority over us and imagine that he does not intend good for us. Like Eve, we imagine that we can disobey the authority of God's Word and of our husband's word because we "imagine" that we have a higher purpose - to be more spiritual.We have been tricked into believing that our husbands have committed offenses against us, all the while thinking that we are more spiritual because of the insights we have. We all agree that any man who lives in a lustful daydream is a godless man. And I say to you readers, that any woman who lives on the edge, expecting to be offended and believing ill will on every hand, that woman is living in vain imaginations and is a godless woman. It is time to get yourself under God-ordained authority. Believe God, believe the best of your husband, your neighbors, your church, your family, etc., and get on with the blessings and joy of life and marriage.
For women who are truly imagining things, then yes, they need to get on with the blessings and joy of life and marriage. But let's face it. Some women AREN'T just imagining things. Some women have husbands who won't shower, and then when the wife washes sheets a little more often for sanitary reasons, the husband yells at her for THAT. Some women are in lose-lose situations and NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO, they cannot please their husbands, no matter how hard they try. So a woman in a situation like that...it's not that she is doubting God's good will for her...she just knows that her husband AIN'T LISTENING TO GOD.
But as I said, I know that many women do tend to imagine the worst when their husbands do/don't do something. "He did that on purpose, just to make me mad," "He doesn't care one iota that I'm stuck here with a sick child, and he's galavanting all over town," etc. We need to GET OVER it, quit imagining the worst, and believe that our husband ISN'T the insensitive jerk we think he is.
And here Mrs. Pearl comes back to Judy, the wife of the "#1 Daddy."
Not one of us honestly thinks Judy's husband deserved her reverence, or her love for that matter. He is a first-class jerk and deserves to sleep alone in an alley under a cardboard box. But God has called us to a higher plane. It is on this higher plane that we discover the wonder of life, of love, and of forgiveness. And it is the place where we will come to be cherished. Few men are able to continue being angry, lustful, and selfish in the face of such a strong force as being reverenced.
IN GENERAL I'm sure she's right. If someone strikes us on the cheek we are to offer them the other one. Judy's story is a very inspiring one. Would I go so far to say that she has a "good marriage" though? I'm not sure. I hope that her husband was able to see past the end of his nose and see what she was doing for him. I can't say that her response was necessarily the one that ALL WOMEN EVERYWHERE need to have when faced with similar situations. Begging God for direction and wisdom in how to proceed is the key. Some women He might lead to leave, so that HE can break their husbands. But others He very well could lead to bend over backwards to please their husbands. Only He knows what is going on in the husbands' hearts, and only He knows what will break the husbands' will so that they will come to repentance.
Page 131:
When a woman does not provide for her husband a comfortable nest and a reverent attitude, she has to rely on his goodness to "keep him" faithful. She is a fool to expect him to be a good husband when she is not being the help meet God has created her to be.*snip*
Women take it for granted that a man will be faithful because it is his Christian duty to be faithful (and it is). It is also a woman's Christian duty to be a help meet: honoring, obeying, serving, and reverencing.
*snip*
Counselors agree that in almost all marriage conflicts both husband and wife share the blame almost equally. A man's guilt is usually easy to see. A woman's guilt is less obvious but just as destructive and just as evil. God ordained a woman to be a help meet. She is to provide a haven of rest and satisfaction, and to be a delight to her husband. When she fails to obey God, there is often "hell to pay." when she obeys God, even if she is married to a "lost" man, she will usually reap heavenly results.
*sigh* These could have been such super paragraphs if it weren't for her faulty definition of "help meet" overshadowing everything.
While it IS a husband's responsibility to remain faithful despite what his wife does, his wife should make it easy to remain faithful. And I know what she is talking about when she says that the woman's guilt is often less obvious. Especially in today's society, where women are bombarded with the "need" to "stand up for their rights" and the "need" for equality and the "advancement" of femininism, blah blah blah. All too often women are told they need to expect (and sometimes demand!) more out of their husbands when it comes to doing things around the house, with the family, etc. And then these women get up on their self-righteous high-horses about it and point fingers when their marriages fall apart. They feel they are "victims."
Now, I HAVE known situations in which the women truly ARE the victims. Their husbands were/are abusive (and I don't use that term lightly). I'm not talking about them.
But then we come back to my *sigh*. Being a help meet is so much MORE than what Mrs. Pearl makes it out to be (keeping the house clean, taking care of the children, cooking good food, keeping the husband happy in bed, etc.) A wise woman I know put it this way, "Debi describes a 'yes man'... not a real helper. A real helper isn't there to just soak up all her dh's errors, misjudgments, flaws, etc. God wouldn't have GIVEN him a helper if he didn't NEED a helper."
Well, at least Mrs. Pearl wrote that usually the woman will reap heavenly results rather than hint at a guarantee as she does in the rest of the book....
Mrs. Pearl then writes about a girl named Sunny who married a man who turned out to be a violent, alcoholic wife-beater. This girl chose to stay with her husband and to obviously reverence him. Instead of speaking ill of him to others, she ONLY spoke good things. She honored him even though he didn't deserve it by ANY means.
Again, this is an inspiring story, and one I think we all can learn from. Most of us don't have to deal with physically abusive husbands or anything even CLOSE to that. Yet we don't think twice to say something negative about our husbands to other people, and if we don't do that, often we simply don't say anything. Many times we certainly don't PRAISE our husbands to other people! I've been trying to make more of a conscious effort to do so, and while I respected my husband before, I'm finding that I respect him even more, even though he hasn't really done a whole lot differently.
I also try to tell HIM how proud I am of him. It's funny...I can almost see him grow an inch from standing just a little taller when I say things like that. (Yet I make sure it's not just flattery!)HOWEVER, I cannot support Mrs. Pearl's statement on page 133:
I spent hours in prayer and counseling with Sunny that evening. I asked her to make a decision, either to leave Ahmed once and for all and put the pieces of her life back together, or to stay with him and begin a campaign of winning his heart and saving their life together. I fully expected her to leave him that night, but I discovered something amazing about her: Sunny really wanted God's will in her life. She had grasped an eternal vision about life, and she now believed God could save her man.
I do not disagree one bit that God could save her husband. What I disagree with is the insinuation that leaving a physically abusive situation is contrary to God's will. It is simply not for us to decide that. I'm glad that things turned out well for Sunny, but it is more of a testimony of God's faithfulness than Sunny's "obedience" by staying with an abusive husband. Mrs. Pearl is putting the emphasis on the wrong person in this story. This was a story about a miracle worked in this man's heart, NOT about how Sunny "obeyed" and won her husband.
Now, obviously this is what the Lord wanted SUNNY to do, but does he call EVERY SINGLE WOMAN in a similar situation to do the same??? No. But I fear for the women who read this book and think that by physically removing themselves and their children from their husband's presence, that they will be disobeying the Lord.
In the "Time to Consider" section at the end of the chapter, Mrs. Pearl again reminds us how important it is that we wives reverence our husbands. She lists "Traits of a Good Help Meet" that are very true:
She acknowledges the "good traits" in her man.
She speaks of her husband with esteem.
She defers to him.
She never responds to him with scorn or ridicule.These would be very good habits for all wives to practice.
Feast Fifty-Six
From Friday's Feast:
Appetizer
What kind of car do you drive? If you could make an even trade for any other car, what would you want to drive?
I personally drive a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan. I don't think they make what I actually would like: a manual transmission, non-mini-van vehicle that seats 8+ people. Well, maybe they do - an old school bus. LOL! But I don't want that! If the Lord blesses us with another baby, I have NO IDEA what we'll get - I'm not real crazy about 12-passenger vans, but we're running out of options.Soup
Take your phone number and add each number together separately (example: 8+6+7+5+3+0+9=38) - what's the total?
34Salad
When were you last outside, and what were you doing?
About an hour ago - I was coming in from the van after coming home from L's check-up.Main Course
What is your favorite restaurant, and what do you usually order there?
Hmmmmmmmmm that's a toughie. I like so many places!!! Probably one of my favorite restaurants is Cracker Barrel, but I don't get to eat there anymore because there isn't one anywhere near here. I love all sorts of things from there - salads, chicken fried steak, breakfast, you name it. 
Dessert
Name 3 things in which you occasionally indulge.
candy bars
ice cream
sleeping in (which means till 8-9 am LOL)
SpunkyHomeschool’s Part 2
SpunkyHomeschool posted her review of Part 2 of Created To Be His Help Meet. Awesome job.
To Do
Boy, do I have a lot to clean. I'd like to have the following done by the time dh gets home Friday afternoon, but I DEFINITELY have to have it done by the time my in-laws arrive on Wednesday morning:
sort ALL toys
put away outgrown clothing
clear off surfaces in dining room
clear off kitchen bar
clean master bedroom
clean out boys' closet
clean out girls' closet
clear off baker's rack
clean off bookshelf by the green chair
clear off table by the computer(My dh will be so proud - he calls this my "rat's nest" LOL!)
clear off chair by the computer
put printer & scanner in garage sale pile
put away outgrown shoes
clean bathrooms
clean tops of washer & dryer
fold and put away clean clothes
deep clean kitchen
mop main floor and bathrooms
vacuum all carpet
clean windows and patio doorIt's gonna be a busy couple of days!!! Oh how I loathe cleaning....
