It seems that God's true heart toward women has been distorted by our society in horrible ways. I love what John and Stasi Eldridge have to say about how God truly sees women. I hope this helps you see the true beauty that you are and how much the world needs you!
God has a beauty to unveil. There’s a reason that a man is captivated by a woman. Eve is the crown of creation. If you follow the Genesis narrative carefully, you’ll see that each new stage of creation is better than the one before. First, all is formless, empty and dark. God begins to fashion the raw materials, like an artist working with a rough sketch or a lump of clay. Light and dark, land and sea, earth and sky—it’s beginning to take shape. With a word, the whole floral kingdom adorns the earth. Sun, moon, and stars fill the sky. Surely and certainly, his work expresses greater detail and definition. Next come fish and fowl, porpoises and red-tailed hawks. The wild animals are next, all those amazing creatures. A trout is a wonderful creature, but a horse is truly magnificent. Can you hear the crescendo starting to swell, like a great symphony building and surging higher and higher? Then comes Adam, the triumph of God’s handiwork. It is not to any member of the animal kingdom that God says, “You are my very image, the icon of my likeness.” Adam bears the likeness of God in his fierce, wild, and passionate heart. And yet, there is one more finishing touch. There is Eve. Creation comes to its high point, its climax with her. She is God’s finishing touch. And all Adam can say is, “Wow.” Eve embodies the beauty and the mystery and the tender vulnerability of God. As the poet William Blake said, “The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.” (Wild at Heart , 36–37)
The story of Eve holds such rich treasures for us to discover. The essence and purpose of a woman are unveiled here in the story of her creation. These profound, eternal, mythic themes are written not just here in the coming of Eve, but in the soul of every woman after. Woman is the crown of creation—the most intricate, dazzling creature on earth. She has a crucial role to play, a destiny of her own. And she, too, bears the image of God. But in a way that only the feminine can speak. What can we learn from her? God wanted to reveal something about himself, so he gave us Eve. When you are with a woman, ask yourself, What is she telling me about God? It will open up wonders for you. First, you’ll discover that God is relational to his core, that he has a heart for romance. Second, that he longs to share adventures with us—adventures we cannot accomplish without him. And finally, that God has a beauty to unveil. A beauty that is captivating and powerfully redemptive. (Captivating , 26)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Betsy's Playdate
Betsy had a fun playdate this morning with Lauren (and Mommy had a nice visit with Lauren's sweet Mommy, Andrea). We had a great time getting to know our new friends!
Monday, July 09, 2007
Little vacation
We had a nice little family reunion at a state park near Toledo this weekend with the Detweilers. It was a nice, warm, sunny day and it was so nice to see everyone...we haven't seen most of them since Christmas.
Betsy and her new best friends, cousins Hannah, Rachel and Katie.
Cousin Andrew (who just graduated from high school!), Grandma Ruth, Cousin Michael, and Donna's mom Pat Schaefer.
Uncle Linford trying out cousin Jonny's iPod.
Betsy's first swimsuit!
Betsy LOVES her big girl cousins (although she's not showing very well here as she points a stick in Katie's face!)
Grandpa John, Cousin Jonny, Auntie Grace and Cousin Maria chatting.
Sweet Auntie Donna visiting all the way from Seattle.
Cutie Auntie Karin
Grandma Ruth and Aunt Karin getting ready for some food.
Betsy's just one of the gang now...hanging out with her cousins Rachel, Hannah, Jesse and David.
Talking with Katie, Rachel and Hannah
Uncle Conrad manning the grill
Grandpa John and Uncle Jon fixing some smoked salmon hors d'oeurves from fish that Uncle Jon caught. He's quite the fisherman!
Friday, July 06, 2007
Princess Ponytail
This stayed in for all of about 10 minutes, but it was cute while it lasted.
You look mah-va-lous, dah-ling!
You look mah-va-lous, dah-ling!
Our funny girl
Here's a run-down of Betsy's funny sayings and doings for the past couple months. This is mostly for Grandma Karen and Grandpa John since I don't know if anyone else is interested enough to read all of this!
Watching Signing Time—the kids on the show were waiting for the school bus and when it arrived Betsy declared “All Aboard!”
She had an entire cup of yogurt with added strawberries and when I was wiping her off she asked, “More yogurt?” I said, “You just ate a whole thing of yogurt!” She answered, “Oh my!”
She was throwing a fit because she was tired and didn’t want to leave the park and so I gave her a little swat and told her that she needed to listen and that she wasn’t being nice to Mommy. She immediately threw her arms around my neck, turned my face toward hers and kissed me on the lips and said, “I yuv oo, Mommy.”
She saw a baby on tv and reached out her arms to it and said, “Want some?” which is what she says when she wants something. Then she said, “jus piture.” (I’ve explained to her when she wants something in a picture in a book that she can’t hold it because it’s just a picture.)
June 28, 2007
Eating supper tonight Betsy piped up and said, “It’s delicious!” and “It tastes good!” and “Yum-yum-yum delicioso!” It was chicken, stuffing and peas.
July 3, 2007
She just started praising herself. After she names something correctly or does something right she exclaims, “Good job, Betsy!”
When we walk the trail through the woods with Gideon she says that we are walking in the “jungle.” She’ll look at me with big eyes, like she’s listening and say, “I hear som-fun. What animal is dat?” Then she puts her finger to head and says “I fink it’s a….” until I name an animal and then she does that animal sound. She made up this game all on her own!
Last week when she was in the bathtub I accidentally knocked some of her toy animals off the edge into the tub and she exclaimed with a smile, “Oh, crap!” Oops...Mommy needs to watch her mouth!
Sometimes I’ll hear her sitting by herself saying “Poor mother, poor me. Asleep.” From the Jack and the Beanstalk story when Jack goes to sleep hungry and that’s what he says.
There is a farmer in one of her books that talks about grown-up’s jobs so recently she’s been saying that she’s a farmer…especially when she’s outside. She’ll dig in the dirt or water the plants and say she’s a farmer.
July 6, 2007
Last evening we were outside and Betsy found a leaf on the ground. She put it on my head and said, “A hat. You a princess.” We haven’t been talking about princesses lately so I don’t even know where she got that. It was really cute!
June 17, 2007
Myron and I were sitting close on the couch and Betsy climbed up and pushed our heads together and said, “A picture!” (she thought that would make a good picture). She even started looking around for the camera. Then we kissed and she kept pushing our heads together so we would kiss again.
She laid on the floor, covered herself with a blanket and started calling, “Dad! Dad! I can’t sleep!” She was imitating a little sketch on Sesame Street where a little girl couldn’t sleep. Then she would start singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because the dad on the show sang that to the little girl.
Watching Signing Time—the kids on the show were waiting for the school bus and when it arrived Betsy declared “All Aboard!”
She had an entire cup of yogurt with added strawberries and when I was wiping her off she asked, “More yogurt?” I said, “You just ate a whole thing of yogurt!” She answered, “Oh my!”
She was throwing a fit because she was tired and didn’t want to leave the park and so I gave her a little swat and told her that she needed to listen and that she wasn’t being nice to Mommy. She immediately threw her arms around my neck, turned my face toward hers and kissed me on the lips and said, “I yuv oo, Mommy.”
She saw a baby on tv and reached out her arms to it and said, “Want some?” which is what she says when she wants something. Then she said, “jus piture.” (I’ve explained to her when she wants something in a picture in a book that she can’t hold it because it’s just a picture.)
June 28, 2007
Eating supper tonight Betsy piped up and said, “It’s delicious!” and “It tastes good!” and “Yum-yum-yum delicioso!” It was chicken, stuffing and peas.
July 3, 2007
She just started praising herself. After she names something correctly or does something right she exclaims, “Good job, Betsy!”
When we walk the trail through the woods with Gideon she says that we are walking in the “jungle.” She’ll look at me with big eyes, like she’s listening and say, “I hear som-fun. What animal is dat?” Then she puts her finger to head and says “I fink it’s a….” until I name an animal and then she does that animal sound. She made up this game all on her own!
Last week when she was in the bathtub I accidentally knocked some of her toy animals off the edge into the tub and she exclaimed with a smile, “Oh, crap!” Oops...Mommy needs to watch her mouth!
Sometimes I’ll hear her sitting by herself saying “Poor mother, poor me. Asleep.” From the Jack and the Beanstalk story when Jack goes to sleep hungry and that’s what he says.
There is a farmer in one of her books that talks about grown-up’s jobs so recently she’s been saying that she’s a farmer…especially when she’s outside. She’ll dig in the dirt or water the plants and say she’s a farmer.
July 6, 2007
Last evening we were outside and Betsy found a leaf on the ground. She put it on my head and said, “A hat. You a princess.” We haven’t been talking about princesses lately so I don’t even know where she got that. It was really cute!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Day at the Zoo
We had a lovely family outing to the zoo last week...
Checking out the spider monkeys
Meeting a new friend. This little girl was almost three...she and Betsy are the same size! It's so sweet how little kids will hug each other as soon as they meet. I love the openness and trust of little ones.
Not sure she's all that excited about sitting on the metal bear statue.
The best part of the whole day for Betsy...the wooden train playground (until a little one-year-old gave her a little push and she decided to put her whole 35 pounds behind a push of her own and sent the little guy tumbling down onto his face. Fun time on the train came to an abrupt stop).
Checking out the spider monkeys
Meeting a new friend. This little girl was almost three...she and Betsy are the same size! It's so sweet how little kids will hug each other as soon as they meet. I love the openness and trust of little ones.
Not sure she's all that excited about sitting on the metal bear statue.
The best part of the whole day for Betsy...the wooden train playground (until a little one-year-old gave her a little push and she decided to put her whole 35 pounds behind a push of her own and sent the little guy tumbling down onto his face. Fun time on the train came to an abrupt stop).
Happy July Fourth
We had a lovely July Fourth evening at Reed's Lake with Wendy and Joel!
Here are the cute parents-to-be...only 9 weeks until Baby Jake makes his debut!
Betsy enjoying the pre-fireworks snacks.
And still more snacks...
Time to put on my shades...
This isn't a great picture but I thought it was funny because it sort of looks like one of those action shots where some brave fireman rescues the cute baby. In this case it was the brave Daddy rescuing someone else's stuff from our roaming toddler.
Waiting
Dancing to the community orchestra.
Look Uncle Joel, pops! (We were afraid that Betsy would be scared of the loudness of the fireworks. She loved it...she called them "pops" and kept saying, "Here come more!")
Major breakthrough...sitting on Uncle Joel's lap and not freaking out! For some reason Betsy is afraid of her very nice uncle. We're working on it. By the end of the evening she was warming up to him quite nicely.
Betsy really warmed up to Aunt Wendy...she sat on her lap for most of the fireworks! Here they are all oo-ing and ahh-ing together. :)
Getting a better view on Daddy's shoulders.
Boo-boos
My poor baby girl looks like she's been in battle. Tuesday evening she fell and skinned both knees and yesterday morning she fell face first off the back steps and scratched her nose all up. Daddy is proud...she's his rough and tumble gal. Mommy just feels sad that her sweet little baby is covered in scabs!
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