I have an article at DG this morning. Here’s an excerpt and link.
“I survey the kitchen and living room, and my eyes are assaulted with messes. Mail, worksheets, art projects, toys, plates of food with a few bites left, an origami style army of paper tanks, counting blocks. The messes feel endless. And for a tired mom, the messes can feel like the enemy.
Of course, they’re not. They’re evidence of life and growth. They are the essence of learning, exploring, and doing. A home without messes is a home without people, without life. If I want my children to grow as people, I must invite them to make messes. To take part in learning requires physical stuff to be used, to be handled, changed, glorified.
Then I also must invite them to learn to pick up, put away, restore order, and turn their learning into more than mere mess. A messy kitchen ought not to be chaos only, but the evidence of raw materials being transformed into something tasty and warm and good to eat.
And as I study God’s word, I find the same to be true. His word is living and active, and the process of growth that happens as I seek to understand it, and live my life under its authority and protection, makes messes. Not the kind of messes that are atrophy and dust-collection, but the messes of life and growing and glorification.”
Just read your article on DG this morning. I woke up tired, frustrated and not ready to face the demands of the house and 4 littles this morning-I knew I needed some encouragement to fight the good fight and came across your article. Thank you for writing!! Thanks for encouraging another mom in the midst of chaos- what truth that He brings order to our chaos, and this especially, has encouraged my heart today; “Even, and perhaps especially when, the other messes in your life are piling up, give yourself to knowing God through the Book he’s given us”. Thank you Abigail!
-Abbey from OK
You are very welcome, Abbey from OK. 🙂
Hi Chompoo,
I’m glad you like it. You can follow her blog at hopeandstay.com . Hugs, Doreen >
Read your article today.,
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-beauty-of-womanhood
Well written but I find it lacking for me and other older single woman. I am a single 53 senior engineer in a National Lab. Complentaranism.. woman and men are different… I always wanted a family but its not to be. My place is not in the home, It is one of loneliness and a lack of belonging. It even effects my ability to reach out to other single professionals.. Yes.. you can be saved then spend a life of loneliness in the church. While I occasionally watch kids for friends it does not fill it either. So.. there is always the delimna to I climb the ladder and focus on career even when that is not what one wants.
Church and singles… a big gap…
thanks for the article.
Dear sdsugrad,
I’m sorry the article wasn’t helpful for you. I wish I could sit down and chat to hear more of what your experience has been and think about how the family of God could minister to you and how you can minister in the family of God as the unique woman God’s made you.
In my 20’s, I was mentored by a fifty-something woman who was and is single—has been her whole life and worked full-time until recently, as she retired. She was/is an incredible model to me of godly womanhood, esp BECAUSE of her singleness and how she still cultivated serving and loving others in her home through hospitality and the wisdom that is on her tongue. Some of the parenting advice she gave me as I was a new mom was the best advice I’d gotten. I share this hopefully as an encouragement that all women in the body of Christ are valuable to the rest of it. I’m praying you find joy and fruitfulness in your important role in God’s family.
Much love,
Abigail