book blog

I have been reading an interesting book titled, Created to Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl. I began reading this book 6 years ago but around the 3th or 4th page I ran into a section that I disagreed with. Unable to find anyone suitable to help me understand what she was saying, I put the book down because I did not want to be naive and listen to false doctrine. But I kept the book because a dear friend had sent it to me. Fast forward to about 2 months ago and I once again picked up the book and ran into the same passage that caused me to put it down earlier. This time I decided to tackle it and find out any information I could as well as seek godly council. The text in question was how she translated the word helper into help meet and the uses of meet in the New Testament. I finally decided that I should just disagree with her and not throw out the baby with the bath water. I had no idea what a journey this would send me on.

I wish now that I would have been blogging after each chapter. There are still things that I do not necessarily agree with but there is so much more that has struck a chord in me that it is near impossible to explain it all here. What I have discovered is that despite my theological differences with Mrs. Pearl, she is a voice in the wilderness for today's Christian woman. We as a church have lost our way in how we train up the next generation. A majority of older women do not step up and teach the younger women how to be wives. So now we have a host of young women who do not know how to properly love their husbands, keep a house, train their children, to be discreet and sober... and I would count my self as one of those young women. (Although I am not that young anymore!) The sad part is that the young women I am referring to are the 30-40 year olds who should be grasping the mantle of teaching alongside the older women for the young marrieds. We are too busy not wanting to intrude or get too personal. And that has left a generation of women reaching for what the world would call femininity.

And so I am learning a new way of doing things. I am learning to revere my husband. I am learning to defer to him and respect him.... and there has come over my heart a peace like no other as I have learned to submit in a godly manner. I don't even notice if my husband has noticed but it has made a huge impact in my heart. I am hoping to blog about the rest of the chapters I have left but there is no telling what will happen since I am limiting my online sessions. You can check out further information about this book and others at www.nogreaterjoy.com

Unplug

Several weeks ago our pastor was commenting that maybe we don't hear God because we have so much noise around us. Car radios, TV's, iPods, etc... constant background noise. It just so happen that the week prior to that sermon we had our cable shut off. the price had gone up and there is nothing but junk on it anyway plus we found ourselves yelling at news reports so we needed to just cut it out of our lives. Who couldn't use $77 extra a month anyways, right? At least we still had our computer so we are not completely shut off from the world.

Two days later, our year old computer crashed. PANIC!! No Facebook? No email? No iTunes? Since we had just shelled out most of our savings for the car, we knew we could not afford to fix the computer. We took it into the shop and decided to save up the money to fix it. It was difficult at first but you know what? My pastor was right. No TV, no computer and there was a lot more time to talk with God and listen. It became rather enjoyable not to have those things.

One night we decided to watch a movie and as we were I commented that all we need now is for the DVD player to break. Within 10 seconds of saying that, the thing died. Literally just died. Dustin quipped, "I think God is trying to tell us something."

We both had a hearty laugh and played some cards instead.