Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sunday, February 24, 2008

You Can!

Enjoy this inspirational short clip about an amazing young man and his equally inspiring father. Make sure you have a box of tissues ready.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Creativity

I am on a sewing rampage for the first time in several years. I'm not a confident sewer, have a hard time following patterns and an obstinate old sewing machine with a tension which is never consistent so...I rarely sew. At Christmas a friend passed on to my six year old the most amazing canopy to hang in her room (it is now over her bed). Green, with faux flowers and ferns all around the crown of the canopy, it inspired me to look the room she shares with her toddler brother in a new way.

I went to the fabric store and was delighted to discover a beautiful fabric that looks like a nature print of birds, ferns, and flowers and (oh joy!) it has the Biblical verse from Matthew woven in among the flora and fauna, "Consider the birds of the air...they neither toil nor spin..". It is simply beautiful fabric and works for a girl or a boy.

I can sew straight lines so I whipped up simple curtains. After hanging them up I realized that certain vibrant colors did not stand out as much from across the room. I bought some yellow ribbon and trimmed the curtains with it and they were transformed! ...which led me to sew up plain yellow curtains for the closet without a door....and to trim those with a green ribbon which coordinated with the original canopy which started this whole project!..which also led me to make a little ruffly curtain to put on a spring rod across their bookcase to hide toys....(as you can tell my seamstressy confidence has grown by leaps and bounds!).

The Springy colors delighted my youngest children and ministered to my soul as I battle the Winter doldrums in a big way at this time of the year :).

I began to look around at other rooms with a new inspired gleam in my eye. I have blue-checked curtains in my room (bought at a thrift store two years ago) and they have needed to be shortened since I bought them. I have a red and blue school house wall quit and a red and blue patchwork quilt on the bed so I got some cheery red ribbon and trimmed those curtains! (No, I will not trim every curtain in the house with ribbon but, by golly, it really worked for these two rooms!)....which led me to sewing up some plump decorative pillows and ....

This post is beginning to sound like the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin! Ha!

With all these unusual forays to the fabric store I have had the opportunity to think about the joys of creativity. Apparently, I am not alone in my surge of January crafting because the cashiers at the store said it has been very busy after Christmas. As I waited my turn to get my fabric measured and cut I looked at the other ladies in line and how they smiled with anticipation as they watched their choice of fabric and ribbon being measured. Many of us chatted with each other about what we planned to do with our purchases and the atmosphere was one of friendly comaradarie.

We all could have gone out and bought something instead of sewing it-maybe for less money (like my thrift store curtains) but we wanted to create. We needed to create, perhaps because of this dark, wintry time of year.

The same creativity oozes from the homemaker as she flips through cookbooks to choose a new cookie recipe or scans decorating magazines before she starts rearranging furniture. It delights the soul to create in even a small way. It changes us and develops our soul.

PEACE

I often seek peacefulness in my surroundings; quiet, candlelit solitary times which revive me physically and mentally. Some people say that the way to tell if you are an introvert or an extrovert is how you feel around lots of people; an introvert may genuinely enjoy people but is revitalized by being alone but an extrovert is energized by lots of company.
I am an introvert. Even after many years of practicing hospitality, having and raising many children and, in short, mingling with quite a number of human beings, I still find myself seeking that oh-so-important time alone. I love it! But I struggle with feeling like there is something wrong with me because I am still "this way" after all these years. Somehow, I think I should be more "broken in" and relaxed about noise and chaos and crowds by now! What is my problem?

After "contemplating" this (versus finding someone to talk to about it :), I realize that I am created this way for a purpose. God has made everyone different and this, too, is His will and plan. Although I must battle the natural inclination to be selfish with my time God made me like this and He said, "It is good"! And I find great peace in knowing that.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Generational Women

The name of my blog is Generational Womanhood so I wanted to ramble a bit about what this means to me. Thinking generationally is something that all Christians are called to do. We are to live our lives remembering that our time on earth is short and that we will leave footprints behind in the lives of others. Believing and knowing that we do influence one another, we must strive to live intentionally; joyfully looking toward a better place and soberly looking back at the generation who will be left behind.

This Christmas our family was blessed to be invited to several wonderful Christian weddings. A toast that was given at one of the weddings I found to be especially meaningful. The brother of the groom gave a wonderful speech exhorting the couple to seek God's blessing of children as they delighted in each other. He spoke about how the Lord uses children to mold us into His image and to change the world...and that believers are to be different than non-believers in that we are to carefully consider those in the younger generation as we live our lives.

I have mulled over his words and realized in a special way that one great dividing line between those of the faith and those outside it really is the way we view the younger generation. Do we have a responsibility toward them? Even if we have no children does it matter how we live today or tomorrow? Should we seek to grow into wise older people in order to impart our wisdom to our youth? Should we pass on material wealth as well as teaching the next generation how to manage it and steward it for God? Are we just supposed to get our kids raised to the age of eighteen and breathe a sigh of relief that "at least they still go to church"?

I am the wife of a busy, multi-talented man and the mother of eight children of all ages and stages of life. I spend a lot of time cooking meals, doing laundry, changing diapers (although the end is in sight:) and meeting lots of needs. Having a vision of something greater than dirty floors gives me a sense of destiny, a vision of the eternal, a hope of something glorious. That vision keeps me at my station and doing my duty when the sorrows of life press in or the temptations of the world call out. I want to cry out with Nehemiah, "I am doing too great a work and I cannot come down!" Too great a work? Yes, I am tending souls for the kingdom, however poor my effort may be. Too great a work? Yes, I am trusting Christ to be the strength in my weakness and through these eight Farris' change the world in His name.

Dear women. We have been given the unique ability to influence others. May the Lord grant us all the ability to perservere victoriously! May 2008 be a vision-building year for us all as we spend time in God's word and joyously do our duty. May we joyously grow into generational women.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

"homly and necessarie offices"

Our family is enjoying the first snowfall this week...ushering us into our week of giving thanks! Our front hall is a merry mess of soggy gloves and dripping snowsuits and our tea kettle is in constant use for steaming mugs of hot chocolate. It is a delightful time of year and such a treat to see the joy on my children's faces as they enjoy these simple pleasures.

We are reading aloud The Landing of The Pilgrims by James Daugherty. We're packing in quite a few chapters each day because the month snuck up on me and I want to finish it on Thursday (Thanksgiving) even though we started it on Monday!

It's important to me that our family read the account of the Pilgrims who fled from England to Holland (selling land and goods) in order (as William Bradford wrote)

"To keep a good conscience and walk in such Way as God has prescribed in his Word, is a thing which I must prefer before you all, and above life itself."

After fleeing to Holland and living there for twelve years they left for the New World; facing illness in that first winter in which over half of their number died. Can you read the following account(Old English and all!) without emotion?

"There was but 6 or 7 sound persons, so to their great comendations be it spoken, spared no pains, night or day, but with abundance of toyle and hazard of their owne health, fetched them woode, made them fires, drest them meat, made their beads, washed their lothsome cloaths, cloathed and uncloathed them; in a word did all ye homly and necessarie offices for them which dainty and quesy stomacks can not endure to be named; and all this willing and cherfully, without any grudging in ye least, shewing herein their true love unto their friends and brethern."

This Thanksgiving our family has much to be thankful for. As I add the gargantuan bowl of mashed potatoes to our loaded table I will think of these brothers and sisters and their example of love and godliness.

Happy Thanksgiving!