Priceless

 

We have an island in front of the house which is full of weeds and various herbs, and was in need of work...I kept thinking I would get to it next day and rasor it all down, but it did not happen. Finally last weekend friends came over to supper and one of them said: You do not know what precious things you have in this island, somebody did put extra care times ago to have a medicinal garden here. Really? I was going to chopp it all down!

Now I am glad I waited, and my friend will teach me how to recognize weeds and medicinal herbs. The above jars are full of herbs already and have some in good oil for medicinal purposes, it is really interesting to see an infection go away over night with homemade remedies: beets, rattlesnake or bread and milk poultices work wonders!

It happens to us sometimes also, we see our lives and our days and we feel worthless, useless...no wonder it is so, since " our good deeds are like filthy rags to the Lord". Yet as long as God can use us for His purposes, then our lives are made priceless, because they have the worth of the Creator. And just like my weedy island which was at first a nuisance that needed to be cut off, and became without any effort of my own, a precious medicinal garden that just needed to be taken care of, so are our lives nothing with our efforts, filthy rags; but when we let God take over them He allows the pruning and healing works of his Son to make them priceless. We are just left to take care of them, to know God's will and to obey.

We do not want to be under the category of religious prisoners, which follow the rules and try hard to avoid sin by putting their souls into a cage, their souls are never cleansed but their lives are miserable trying to do good and doing nothing but good. It is on the other hand a God that brings freedom our God, He changes our souls as we love Him, and the more we do the more our souls are made bright and unto His liking. I know because I have been many times a day a prisoner.I know because God has also made me free many times a day. God forgive my filthy rags, and make me your priceless tool.

The Art of Conversation

In the Goethe’s fairy tale, “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”:The green snake is questioned by the king: “How did you get here?” he asks her, and she replies, “Out of the clefts where the gold dwells.” The question is posed: “What is more glorious than gold?” and the answer is “Light.” Then they ask her, “What is more quickening than light?” and she answers, “Conversation.”

In the past I viewed this statement and kept pondering about its truth. I did not understand it. Maybe I will not claim i understand it now, yet another appreciation of it is available. I can see all around that truly conversation is more precious than gold, or even light. Why is that so, if light is so much the giver of life? well because conversation in its true form it is much more giver of life in the same way that the material depends on the spiritual to exist.

In the farm we had many times wandered to our neighbor's dwellings, it is so much interesting to be there and work with them than at any other place including our own. Our children have also wandered away, and even our guests sense the pulling force of the neighbors, and prefer to be around them. Why is this so? Is it because their farm is better? No. is it because their faith?No. is it because their work? No, it is because of Conversation. they have mastered the art of putting away self and really listening to the other, they continually work through their daily chores with this in mind and open their lifes to what is around them. As one of our guests says: " Well, they are just more optimistic." Now how can you be for ever optimistic?, that is with God in your heart and your neighbor in your heart as well. That is with trained speech, that is with the art of Conversation. always using to encourage one another in one's Christian path.

The children do not mind working alongside us for three hours at a time, if they have our attention, that is our conversation. but the minute we start thinking about ourselves, about our agenda, or our troubles, just our natural mind...then they get tired. It happens the same to me too, and to all of us, working together practicing the art of Conversation is what keeps things alive, and children then learn how it is to be trained in love, and not to be idle, or not to work in fear or compulsion, but to work out of love, the love that God pours in our hearts as spouses and parents. We love going to our neighbor's house, because they know how to love, and I would like to see more examples around of families that share this way of life, that give a priority to the Art of Conversation.

Finally regarding our schedule discussion, we are still in the midst of it. It seems that it carries ramifications to all the other areas of our lifes. Is the husband to lead the raising up of the household, or is the wife? Lately I had been looking at two couples that are very dear and close to me. Both of them had a wife that had to step up to the directing of jobs and directing money matters, one was because of lack of concern and physical inabilty of the husband, and the other was because of the husband's gambling problems and other differences in views. Well, both marriages were also in the same area and with the same culture background, but the difference in them was astonishing! as much as blue and red are different, as much as fire and ice are different. The first home was a welcoming home, you could see the warmth, and the amicability of their inhabitants. Love abounded and was poured out to us too. The other home was cold, sharp, and there was animosity in the air any way you looked at.

The point I discovered recently with these two examples is that it may not matter so much what you do, but how and why you do it. I can wake up early and direct the household waiting for my husband to wake up, in a spirit of servanthood and love, or I could wake up early and lead in a resentful way. God give me the strength to follow your commandments and love my neighbor as myself.

Pious Living

This year has been full of good reading, i enjoy sitting with the children and reading aloud, though now my audience is getting smaller, since most of them are over 7 years old and reading themselves....but here and there they also join in the coach and share the rest time after dinner. We started the year with the Laura Ingalls series, such a beautiful way to start the year as we follow the family and Laura in their learning. When spring was approaching we read Tom Sawyer and also the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,  two classics of Mark Twain that remind us of something we all long for, a Home. Finally we have been enjoying Rudyard Kipling and his Jungle Book. Now that in Wisconsin it seems summer is short and fading away, I am considering reading aloud again Heidi, every chapter brings tears to my eyes and my heart gets filled with compassion, a good idea to break the hardness of the hot season.

One of the things of good books is that you can apply its lessons to your everyday life. For example, in the Jungle Book, the second chapter when Mowgli is captured by the Monkey People, has been giving me ideas on how Christians and Heathen alike are under the same circumstances, yet they respond so differently. the Jungle people, law abiding people can be liken to the Christian, whereas the monkey people to the Heathen. How is my life daily in these terms, am i responding to human nature and circumstances here on earth as heathen or as christian?

I am still looking into how the schedule is going to work, to adapt to my husband I thought I should wake up later, and not lead the household in the first hours of the day, but alas, then i observe my spiritual life also sinking backwards and unclean thoughts coming loudly....Somebody told me: Early rising is a virtue, do not abandon it, yet in the Bible it also says: Those who lose their life will gain it. It will take time to define our lives together as a family, a family such as God intended. I am patiently waiting for the next step to take.

Lately i have found these beautiful: Rules for a Godly Life, which consist of 20 pages of rules for pious living.

The first part consists on training your thought life. One example is : Keep free from wicked, idle, or unclean thoughts. Prov 4:23. For as your thoughts are so is your speech, your conduct, and your entire way of life.

The second part dwells in our words. One example is: Seek to avoid therefore, all non-edifying talk; let your words be thoughtful, few and true.

The last part focus on works. One example is : Stand firm, with all your strenght , against your bosom sins, those which your personal nature, more than any other sin, has a tendency to commit.

 I am so grateful to have found them, I wish I had somebody to be accountable for each other. Perhaps my husband. I am aware of these rules for monastic order and other religious, yet in the lay people i haven't found them, why is so? is it because the serving of each other in Godly marriage brings sanctity enough? Perhaps. But as I look around and at myself I see the need of more, more training to be walking the path of Jesus.