Branded or Beautiful?

   Blogging about beauty. There's a million and one thoughts already out there, and many circle around the same mall. But recently, I found a beauty guide in Isaiah. I met a truth about beauty that has gripped me.

The Lord says,
    “The women of Zion are haughty walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the Lord will make their scalps bald.” In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings,  the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

(Isaiah3:16-24)

      Women branded smacks me in the face. A night time splash of ice cold water on a retinoled face. I can't help but ask: Am I branded or beautiful? What logos do you and I wear across our bodies? We are all branded, but by what? Are you and I branded by the white hot love of God or by the world? Do the brands we advertise wares for exploit and reject women, both young and old? Do they exploit children? Do our bums bear the inscription of a company that sexualizes young women, selling and saying, they are nothing but a hunk of flesh to use and abuse? Or, do I bear the mark of the One who loves me? 

      Jen Wilkin wrote body truth and I thought about Isaiah's words once more. Then Kim Meeder's Fierce Beauty found its way into my hands. Searching the library for who knows what, there it was. I clicked "request" and can't stop reading. A impressionable young woman has been sitting on my lap soaking up Fierce Beauty. It's been awhile since she and I read a book together. I can't think of better cuddle time than reading about broken beauty and a God who defines true beauty. Powerfully convicting, Meeder writes:

      The day we called Jesus Christ "our Lord," we accepted His invitation to become a fledgling warrior of truth for Him. For too many of us, however, the young warrior within is not growing into a mighty force for our King. For thousands of Christian women, it isn't growing at all. Instead, the warrior we were meant to be is joining a nation of self-entitled princesses: "They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.... Such women are forever following new teachings, but they never understand the truth.... Their minds are depraved and their faith is counterfeit." (2 Timothy 3:4-5, 7-8)

     Ah, western beauty at its best. We have fallen for a lie. I think of two moms I spoke to recently who know girls who are fighting with everything in them for the truth about beauty. More than one God forsaken lie is trying to reign supreme in their lives. Praise God there is grace, healing, and truth and they will win. All I can do is share a bit of my own journey, recommend Chasing Silhouettes , pray, be angry, and fight back. Yes girls, we will have to fight being branded – with everything in us. 

      And in every western nation, eating disorders rage and run rampant and we are all starved - for truth. We have laid aside LOVE and have been led astray. Our Lord calls us to a table of feasting and fulfillment and we starve ourselves and think it is beautiful. The truth is without Jesus we will die purposeless having given away His vision for our lives. He knit us together perfectly in our mother's womb and instead we buy cheap lies about our worth. Am I in the Word finding the truth? Are you? How much time do you and I spend soaking up the Word vs. the world? The truth is I never come to the Word, or words, but by God. Am I cracking open the book that will save me from sinking?

     And the truth of eating disorders and the ugly lies behind them is you might well die young and alone. You might be giving up your gift to have children. You may well make decisions in your starved state that will impact you for the rest of your life. Your looking for love will always lead to loss if you are not looking to the Lord who loves. But, it is never too late to find true Love. It is never to late to be loved. Let go of the lies. There is a beautiful truth:

LOVE waits for you. LOVE wants you.

LOVE cherishes you. LOVE holds you.

LOVE gives you new hope, when you have no hope.

LOVE heals you. LOVE fills you.

LOVE has a future for you.

Live. Know LOVE.

This is LOVE...

      This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (I John 4: 9,10)

     The littles, who are not so little anymore, don't know I'm reading Isaiah (over and over) this month. I tried to tell them, but was interrupted. Yes, this is the way of things. We journey alone to the Word. We journey alone to LOVE. We journey alone to the One. Before we will ever meet Him in community, the soul needs to know God alone, alive, and personally.

     Isaiah calls me to the One. No one appreciates Isaiah, but he never minces words. He never messes with my mind or manipulates me. He states the truth. He dares us to step up to the plate of God. Will we feast or fast?

Goodbye Winter. Almost Spring.

 You just skated away! Quit taking my picture and get over here!

Is this good help or bad?

 

Homework, unfortunately, still has to be finished.

Come play. (Mom can still win a few games...for now.)

Cooking outdoors, whittling too.

Vacation is exhausting.

Pinecone liscious. All gone. Delicious.

Cold cabin, wind swept plain,

and icy rain greet us again.

Juniper fire burns long and sweet.

Doves cling to wind blown branches,

take flight, and flutter high.

Geese face wind, head strong.

Cows moo long and low....

haying time.

Reading and rest.

Tetherball and "Horse",

mom can still win a game.

Birthday party bowling.

A first.

Who knew? Strikes are cool!

In a heap, under warm woollens.

Ice skating: Absolute craziness on ice.

Washing dishes by hand,

scrubbing many a pan.

Read a book in one sitting, one setting.

Claw foot tub: "Who took all the hot water?"

Rain drops one day, snow the next.

"Storm warning," said me.

What if we can't get over the pass?" said she.

"We'll have to live by our wits!" said he.

Burgers and beer, friends quite dear.

Bookstore buy: Pranklopedia.

“Oh no.”

An apple fritter for Santiam Pass,

last winter snow run.

Spring rain has begun.

Snowed Inn

We are snowed inn, and loving it! We are quite pleased by the down time. It's lovely to be together and be still. Well, mostly still. We've enjoyed the fellowship of neighbors, our delicious go-to doughnut recipe, and boys who can stay in the snow all day. I'm fairly sure one of us is part Lapplander. Serious business this snow is. A reindeer and sledge would come in handy right about now.

Science goggles work great for snow.

This afternoon brings freezing rain, snow, and sleet. Tomorrow rain is forecast. Who knows, this may yet be a "power out" weekend. The boys vote for these often, but a hot shower and flushing toilets are always nice :-)

I like sledding, but I spend more time with my books.

The crock pot is simmering lamb stew and hand pies are in progress. Apple/blueberry they shall be. 

Books, Monopoly, and sledding compete for time and space. We haven't ever finished a game of Monopoly. Does anyone? We watched the original version of Yours, Mine, and Ours last night. Hysterical. There is more "adult" education in this movie than I remembered and it was made in 1968! Tonight, "Snowed Inn" is a write-night idea; We'll see if we get to that. Or maybe, we'll watch Frozen Planet. Which unfortunately, is overdue at the library. Yes, down time is good.

I know I smell something.

January has been a recovery month. I keeping hearing this sentiment and it resonates with me. The blog has been quiet. I'm processing last year, focused on a child who needs some extra encouragement right now, and writing elsewhere. I submitted an essay for this contest, and will be submitting a children's fiction book for this. 

The focus of my essay for The Faith and Culture Writer's Conference was listening to the Word within. Certainly, writing A Simple Scribe, I wrestled and wrestled with my words and the Word. Rewriting my essay up to four times, I was happy to see that one go. I turned it in with 3 hours to spare before the deadline, worked on those 500 words for probably 20 hours (embarrassing), and came away with a new appreciation of how God allows us to wrestle with Him to find the words and yes, the Word. Now, it's time to trust my submission to the Word within.

Help me find that mouse!

Valentine's is right around the corner. Time to pull out the Vintage Valentine's. But, sister and I are cooking up some good valentine's for her class. Details to come!

Read this weekend:

Nick and Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab (great series)

Lives of the President's
The Georges and the Jewels (Oak Ranch Series)
Pie in the Sky  (Oak Ranch series)
The Silver Donkey by Hartnett (sweet and sad)
Waluk

Little Ebony Girl, Gettysburg, and Martin Luther King Jr.

You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know. ~ William Wilberforce

Procrastination comes naturally. But this weekend, Osheta got me thinking it's time to put these words in the world. This morning, I stopped at the coffee shop and Griswold Tyng's Lincoln was staring at me from the wall. "Write," he said with his stare. "I worked hard over words, now it's your turn," Lincoln seemed to say. I share these words, while still struggling to find them and call them forth. Words often fall short, but still, it is a privilege to work them out.

You skipped up to old Abe.

An idea, he's not yet a person.
Once, he was flesh, blood, and bone.

Now he sits, a soul, resolute.
Did he know his fate?
Did he know what he'd give to lead?
With firm chin, he says, he'd do it all over again.

~ at Gettysburg September 2013

 

President Obama, left out the "under God" in his Fall 2013 reading of the Gettysburg Address. To be fair, he read one of five versions that did not include "under God." His omission causes me pause. How often do I step out from under God with my words and my actions? What choices do I make at the expense of others? Who might I look to in order to lead me in a better way? Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I wonder where is the man and woman who will live their life for others, and do I have that kind of courage?

While in Pennsylvania last fall, we visited Wheatland where President Buchanan made his home. Buchanan is often harshly judged for his lack of conviction while president. Maybe he did not so much lack conviction, as lack the heart Abraham Lincoln possessed. Buchanan used his head, not his heart, and his head told him to stay out of what would surely conflict his heart. He was a childless bachelor. He had no stake in the future except his own interests. Visiting Wheatland, one gets the sense that Buchanan's legacy is one of self protection and self preservation. Buchanan didn't have much to give, because he didn't invest much. Abraham Lincoln invested all of himself in his presidency and in our young nation. Lincoln's family suffered for his convictions and ultimately he did as well. Abe put his life on the line for his convictions, just as the soldiers at Gettysburg did.  

Today, where is our nation's heart? What are our convictions? Where is our desire to seek out the truth and live by it? C.S. Lewis said, "If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair."

This past fall, our nation also remembered JFK. We mourned a man who held great promise for our nation during turbulent times. Yet, how often do we truly mourn the men and women who lost their lives at Gettysburg? Might we ask if they've left us a legacy or a lesson? Do we talk about Gettysburg with our children? Do we talk about the cost of war around our tables? Maybe one of the most important things we can teach our children about Gettysburg is that war comes at a great cost. There is a reason so many visit Gettysburg. The number of lives lost at The Battle of Gettysburg is mind-numbing and the ground still cries out. How can we be a people of peace with so much violence in our past? The process that leads to peace is often painful, but the cost of war is far greater.

150 years after Gettysburg, I read Gather at the Table. I was struck in a new way that peace costs. Peace is expensive, and peace can be very painful. Yet, the path of peace is the only path if one hopes to have a future.

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/c_s_lewis.html#VxUmAA5WZ73zDYOk.99

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." ~ Gandhi

The path to transformative peace for communities first begins by transforming us, as well as our neighbor. Peace cannot be demanded, and lasting peace only survives when it is desired by both parties. When we hear the call to peace, let us walk in that way. Let us understand that peace is an ongoing process, and it will ever require vigilance to a narrow and harder way.

It has taken me 41 years to connect ideas about peace into a coherent way of thinking. Many years ago, God began a conversation in my heart and mind regarding race, slavery, oppression, and truth. This past year, I read three books that have been very influential to that conversation in my heart: My First White Friend, Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness, Inheriting the Trade, and Gather at the Table. All three books are powerfully thought provoking. Reading them, along with visiting Gettysburg, I came away with a renewed awareness that our nation was built on the backs of African Americans and the injustice done to our fellow human beings was long lasting, horrific, and needs to be addressed in every human heart. 

I live in a predominantly white community with a Ku Kluk Klan past. I live in a state that voted "no" to allow African Americans to come and settle. We are so open in the West to new ideas and change, but have we made peace with our past? Have we apologized for our past?

Slave Trade 

We rode your back to success. 

We rode you until we could ride you no more.

Yet, you rose out of the dust.

You called forth life.

You called us to live, and to let you live.

Forgive us.  

~ Kim fall 2013

Having lived rural North Carolina for five years, we looked on as outsiders do at the race dynamics in our small town. We bought a house in a new neighborhood. There was not one African American family in the development until the year before we moved back west. This family did not socialize with anyone in our neighborhood, and I don't think anyone socialized with them. If they were ever welcomed by anyone in the neighborhood, except us, I'm not aware of it. Visiting with them could be awkward. I look back now, and realize we were treading new ground and breaking up old patterns. We were breaking the rules. Certainly, they were breaking ground in their lives and the lives of others. They were plowing up a new hallowed ground for themselves. They were plowing up change in our lives. They were planting new seeds in us. Did their move into the neighborhood feel like a move up for them? Did we make them feel welcome? I don't know. I hope so.

Buchanan walked Wheatland in Lancaster, PA, but Lincoln worked his way in and through our hearts. He prevailed upon the hearts of all men. There were some great men who talked about the wrongs of slavery, but they were unwilling to make personal changes in their lifetimes. They were unwilling to stand against the lies and deceptions that made slavery possible. That Lincoln took a stand and stood firm is what makes Abraham Lincoln so singularly unique in character. While he had his own reasons and conflicts, he was able to look into the future and take a stand for justice - for all. He understood that a future worth living must be based on equality. He was willing to do whatever it took to walk slavery out of the dark and the enslaved into the light. He put the life of the nation on the line for it, and his life too. And I ask myself, "what in this world am I willing to live for? What I am willing to give up my life for?"

“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”~ William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce walked land across the Atlantic pond, while Lincoln walked western shores. Surely, Wilberforce's voice echoed across the pond while Lincoln was yet learning to walk. Born to fortune, Wilberforce used his life to free people. Lincoln, born to poverty, chose to represent a people with no voice when elected our president. They both found their life purpose and plan. They both acknowledged the Creator and knew they needed to live to give. They fulfilled their purpose in their generation. Will you and I fulfill our purpose in our generation?

 If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It it since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this (world). ~ C.S. Lewis

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/c_s_lewis.html#VxUmAA5WZ73zDYOk.99

Today, who will live with vision and purpose like Ghandi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Lincoln, and JFK? We need more people who say, "I have a dream", and are willing to put something behind those words. We are a people wandering in a wilderness. Let us look up. Yes, let us look within as well, but let us look up. Let us find God's vision and dream to live by. Let us fulfill our God given purpose within our generation. For," he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is: to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8 Living Translation)

Pumpkin Pie at School

Little girl with ebony skin,

like a black emerald, she shone.

Attentive she sat, at the end of the bench.

Does she believe that is her place?

Or, is she leaving room for escape?

The other children?

They had to be told once, twice, three times, how to make pumpkin pie in a bag.

Not you. You knew.

You listened.

Smart listening little girl.

Why do you listen so well?

Do you believe pale whites hold the key to your success in this pale town?

Do you listen out of fear, or out of love?

I pray we love you well.

I pray your path is paved with peace.

I pray that fear will never take hold of your heart.

I pray you will keep on listening.

For you already hold the key to unlock the door of life.

In listening well, you are entering your own life. 

Make pumpkin pie. 

Every day, craft a life for yourself.

Keeping crafting, growing, learning.

I hope not to let you down.
Indeed, may we live like sisters,
in our town.

~ Kim fall 2013

Read in 2013, and still pondering:

Inheriting the Trade by Thomas Dewolf

Gather at the Table by Sharon Morgan and Thomas DeWolf

My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness by Patricia Raybon

Praying into the New Year

Isaiah is calling me in the new year. He's a good travel companion on the God hunger road. 

 That’s how you led your people!
    That’s how you became so famous!
Look down from heaven, look at us!
    Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house!
Whatever happened to your passion,
    your famous mighty acts,
Your heartfelt pity, your compassion?
    Why are you holding back?
You are our Father.
    Abraham and Israel are long dead.
    They wouldn’t know us from Adam.
But you’re our living Father,
    our Redeemer, famous from eternity!
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
    Why did you make us cold and stubborn
    so that we no longer worshipped you in awe?
Turn back for the sake of your servants.
    You own us! We belong to you!
For a while your holy people had it good,
    but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place.
For a long time now, you’ve paid no attention to us.
    It’s like you never knew us.

 ~Isaiah 63:14-19 (Message Translation)

Quiet New Year Moments

The New Year rang in with stitches and a banged up tooth for brother. Thankfully, he's recovered. I'm hoping he's a bit more cautious about high speed tag when navigating a spider web of ropes underneath. 

Speaking of rope, he's making lots of knots with The Ashley Book of Knots. These skills should come in handy for the The Survival Birthday Party he will have in spring. A skilled Search and Rescue Coordinator will be coming to teach a bunch of boys (and a few girls) how to make fire, cook food, and build shelter. Bring it on!

Sister's really enjoying The Jane Austen Devotional. If you know a Jane Austen lover, this is a lovely gift. Highly recommended!  Gymnastics class has begun once more, and it's fun to watch her enjoyment and bravery.

We are quietly doing what needs to be done and enjoying moments of rest. Spring will soon arrive. Shoot, it's already time to prune the fruit trees!  I'm writing as I have time and God's been gracious with His encouragement. More details to come. Maybe :-) Currently, I'm working on a submission for The Faith and Culture Writer's Conference in March.

What Can I Believe?

 O God, I am so fragile: 

my dreams get broken, 

my relationships get broken, 

my heart gets broken,

my body gets broken.

What can I believe,

except that you will not despise a broken heart,

that old and broken people shall yet dream dreams,

and that the lame shall leap for joy,

the blind see,

the deaf hear.

What can I believe,

except what Jesus taught:

that only what is first broken, like bread,

can be shared:

that only what is broken

is open to your entry;

that old wineskins must be ripped open and replaced, 
if the new wine of life is to expand....

~ Ted Loder