Wednesday Five | Vol. 22

 

A Quote

'Which blow breaks the stone?' he asked.  Then, pointing with his whip, he said 'Thee must never say, thee must never even let thyself think, "I won that soul for Christ."  It is the first blow, and the last, and every one in between.'

-The "Dear Old Man", to Amy Carmichael; A Chance To Die

A Book

At the risk of being redundant, I'm going to mention the same book from which I took today's quote, A Chance To Die by Elisabeth Elliot, a biography of Amy Carmichael.  This has been a fascinating book to read because I didn't know that many details of Carmichael's life.  I also didn't realize how great of a writer Elisabeth Elliot was - this is the first book of hers I've read.  It has given me so much to think about, and I imagine it will be mentioned in many upcoming posts, so I won't go into it too much here.  But if you want to sharpen your own focus on Christ, this book holds so much inspiration.

A Bit Of Nature

It has snowed once every week or two in January, which is ideal in my book.  There is always a bit of snow on the ground right now, and I enjoy that so much.  Winter isn't nearly as beautiful without long-lasting snow.  Every morning, as the sun comes up over the mountains in front of our house, it shines this bright golden lights, and it glints off the crystals of snow and frost that are clinging to the trees.  It's like a little glimpse of Heaven to start the day.

A Recommendation

Today I'm going to recommend Kay Arthur's Precepts Bible studies.  If you ever get a chance to do one of these studies, jump at it!  One of my friends at church leads a Precepts study each year, and I decided to try to work it into my schedule for this spring.  We are doing the study on Colossians and Philemon, and we have only done the first week of lessons so far - our meeting yesterday was cancelled due to a snowstorm, so I haven't even seen the videos that go along with the study.  But just this one week of study has been so rich and meaningful so far.  What I love about the study is how the entire thing is focused on getting you deep into the text of the book, guiding you through the observation process - there is no fluff here.  Many women's Bible studies end up being surface level, but this one is a deep dive, and I'm loving it.  It's the Bible study guide I've always wanted.

A Moment Of Happiness

I find that when I think back to "moments of happiness", my mind always goes to quiet moments at home, and we have unfortunately had few of those in the opening weeks of 2022.  I don't have a specific moment that stands out to me this time, just snatches of family life that are flashing into my brain - hearing Gwen singing a hymn from her room upstairs; catching Georgie asleep on the floor next to my bed in the morning and picking her up to snuggle under the covers for minute; watching the Clarice play an elaborate "cops and robbers" game on her "bouncy car", dressed up in a police uniform and all; wondering wear the boys are, and then opening their bedroom door to see them deeply focused on building Legos; picking up bits of popcorn that fall between the couch cushions while Derek and I watch a movie while the fire crackers in the woodstove.  We've been out of the house too much this month, and it's made me realize again how valuable our home moments are.