"Rachel was to become a very good schoolteacher and then to marry George Paden who would become an official in the Union National Bank of Pittsburgh . . . Great Aunt Racher started a 'Dame's School' for primary education, to which not only [Edith Schaeffer's] father would go, but also some of his brother and sisters, Aunt Rachel's own daughter Marion Paden, and later some of the grandchildren of the family, as well as 'outside children.' In this school Rachel must have given a fantastically good foundation for the children she taught were later to be higest in their classes in university, and still later, leading doctors and missionaries as well as leaders in other professions . . . Aunt Rachel gave her own daughter a good foundation in her Dame's School, and as language was one of her best subjects, it is not surprising that she went on to be extremely good in Arabic, speaking as well as reading the language. Cousin Marion went to Egypt under the United Presbyterian Board, and continued in girl's school teaching for forty years. . . . If you think Rachel was 'downtrodden' because her brilliance was limited to offering a very thorough education to a small number of children whom she gave a foundation that is rare in this day -- then, as grandmother would say, 'You have another think coming.' Certainly there have been things worth fighting for, and limitation have been unfair for women, but it is not all 'black and white.' If there were women for whom life was 'hell' in those days of many children, there are also women for whom life is 'hell' today in their places of 'freedom,' as they walk in and out of marriages with multiple divorces, and as they face untold disappointments and discouragements in offices and careers of a diversity of kinds. I'm not saying all women aren't supposed to have careers; Cousin Marion had a very satisfying and fulfilling career in her forty years of outstanding work in Alexandria, Egypt. But, the diversity of the career that the artwork of raising children and creating a continuity of family holds forth, is something that musn't be forgotten as we look at the The Tapestry of history" (Schaeffer 70-72). 
___________
Schaeffer, Edith. The Tapestry: The Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. World Books, 1984. 

fidelity

I am reading Pilgrim's Progress for the first time this summer.
I read this picture book version many times as a child, but this is my first time encountering the original text as I prepare to teach my students about the text this fall.

In the first few pages, I have already been struck by the intensity of the allegory.
"Now he had not run far from his own door, but his Wife and Children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on crying, Life! Life! Eternal Life! So he looked not behind him . . ." (Bunyan 15). 

I am currently dating a wonderful gentleman, and we are both looking excitedly towards spending the rest of our lives together.

I want to be a wife and a mother.
These are not bad desires. At least one of them has the very real possibility of coming true in the somewhat near future.

But, these desires have consumed me before and I fear they are beginning to do so again.

Christian ran from his spouse and children.
He ran with his fingers in his ears from the relationships for which I deeply long.
He let nothing, not even beautiful human relationships, stand between him and his relentless pursuit of his Savior.

Oh, how often I let people stand between me and the LORD.
Oh, how often I let my ideas about the future stand between me and the LORD.

That's the possibly greater problem.
I don't even have these relationships yet.
This husband, these children - they don't exist, yet; and already I am already more faithful to them than I should be.

My fidelity to the ideas in my head is far too great.

The more faithful I am to my own head, the less able I am to be present in the reality the LORD has put before me in this exact moment.

"Jesus sums up common-sense carefulness in a disciple as infidelity" (Chambers, commenting on Matthew 6:25). 

I am so guilty of common-sense preparation for the future.

Oh, LORD, may my fidelity be always anchored in You and never in my own head.
Oh, LORD, may I run hard toward the Celestial City always.

------------------------------------------------
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2005. Print.

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost For His Highest. Ohio: Barbour Publishing, 1963. Print. 

note on life

It is a sad day when Microsoft Word doesn't recognize the correct spelling of Sylvie Guillem's name :( 

note on life

When your university's Campus Ministry quotes Walt Disney . . . 

. . . and you have just one more reason to justify your lack of direct involvement within the "ministry". 

note on life

You know your locker has been emptied when the floor by you desk looks like this:

note on life

When Kathryn and Rachel become overwhelmed with life, they play Set and sing the Wonder Pets theme song. That is all.

note on life

Today in modern I learned that, if you can get past the gross factor, watching grubs is actually good for understanding "shape flow".

note on life

You know your roommate is thinking a little too far into the future when she says,

"One day we can write our memoirs. Yours will be called Ponderings from a Puritan Princess and mine will be called Confessions from a Catholic Countess.
We can sell them as a box set."

note on life

You know there is no sense of "normalcy" left in your relationship with your roommate when she looks at you and says the following in the same voice she would use to dramatically read a fortune cookie, 

"You appear to be a faun, but inside you have the temper of a lion". 

note on life

Discovering that CVS has one of the few detergents that doesn't break your skin out or give you headaches on sale for buy-one-get-one-free is wonderful :)

Walking home in wind that feels strong enough to blow you over with twice as much detergent as you had planned on carrying is not so wonderful.