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Call upon His name:
make known His deeds among the people. Psalm 105:1
Psalm 105:1
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Elizabeth writes a weekly devotional that can be delivered to your inbox. To view a sample, click here!
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 Footprints in History, continued
Someone
would have to cook three meals a day with only a fireplace for heat and
no
refrigerator. There would be marketing, cleaning, mending and a garden
to tend.
Bread had to be homemade and milk came from the cow in the back yard.
And since
the Wesley family was continually in debt, hiring a cook was out of the
question.
In
addition to these mundane, daily chores, Susanna home schooled six hours a
day
preparing lessons that covered the needs of her children from beginning
readers
to graduate students and since no curriculum was available, she wrote
her own.
Successfully covering such diverse subjects as Latin, Theology, History
and
English, Susanna taught her daughters as well as her sons.
Her
pastor husband was also absent from the family much of the time leaving
Susanna
alone to rear the children, face the bill collectors and find some way
to make
the coins stretch from payday to payday.
Over
a span of twenty years, she gave birth to nineteen children and buried
nine of
them. She moved three times and twice her home burned. The second fire
doing so
much damage that her children had to be split among family and neighbors
for
almost a year while repairs were made.
Anxious
to have her family together again, she returned to the home while
repairs were
still incomplete and the only furniture they owned were castoffs from
others. It
was then that she made the decision for which she is most famous.
During
the year that her children lived with others, they had developed habits
and
manners that deeply bothered their mother. She longed to restore
discipline to
the previous level but a harsh attitude and demands were not the tools
she
chose for the task. Instead, Susanna gave her children (all ten of
them!)
individualized, personal time.
Sitting
aside an hour each day she took one or two children in turn and simply
visited.
She found out about their concerns and dreams. She listened as they
talked and
freely shared her own faith, good advice and dreams for their futures.
Every
week each child received one hour of their mother's undivided attention.
Of
course, that hour had to be carved out by prioritizing tasks, working
hard and
letting some things go.
Susanna's
choice to spend time with her children appears to have been a wise one.
When we
follow the histories of these children, they were not all what we might
term "successful"
but all demonstrated a strength of character that in the end made their
mother
glad.
Hetty
stumbled when she ran away with a lawyer only to return to the family
broken
hearted, unmarried and five months pregnant. It took a lot of time for
that
wound to heal. Emilia married after years of teaching school, but her
husband
stole her savings leaving her with his debts and a sickly, dying baby.
John
went on to become a famous preacher who along with his brother Charles
founded
what was later known as the Methodist Church.
At
the end of her life, with the fame of her sons growing and her
relationship
with each of her daughters deep and real, Susanna could say, "I am
content to
fill a little space if God be glorified."
It
was a "little space" that left an example of godly dedication for
generations of
women to come.
[1] Proverbs 31:18
My Path, continued
However, now that I am older the idea of blooming late sounds pretty good! I just hope the Lord doesn't make it too much later because I haven't got that much time to spare!
I have been a writer for about thirty-five years. My first book was written with my youngest daughter sitting on my lap pushing back the carriage on an old Royal typewriter every time the bell rang. Now, her kids are entering their teen years. I doubt they know that typewriters ring a bell when they get to the end of a line. Come to think of it, they might not know what a "typewriter" is.
That first book sold more than anything else I have written and I received a couple of awards. Even though eight other books have followed (if you count my doctoral dissertation), none have been as successful as The Happy Housewife. Yet, I am just now taking a step that most writers take before they publish their first word: I'm attending a writer's conference.
Next week I leave for the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference in Denver, an event I am looking forward to with a mixture of anticipation and fear. I feel like a grown up about to enter third grade. My only hope is that all those early predictions about being a "late bloomer" might actually be true. Who knows? Maybe the best is yet to come not only spiritually but career wise as well.
For the uninitiated, writer's conferences are where the nuts and bolts of professional writing takes place. There are classes and seminars and think-tanks. Writers meet editors, agents look for new clients, book contracts are discussed and the latest needs, trends and innovations in the field are brought to light. Certainly one of the topics everyone will be talking about is how electronic readers such as Kendal and Nook are going to impact the market. Many, many bookstores have closed in the past two years and some are predicting the demise of brick and mortar storefronts as Internet downloads replace the printed page. Frankly, I doubt that, but no one can doubt that trends are changing. Fast.
Personally, I'm going to the conference loaded for bear. I'm not sure what will happen, but I'm taking two new proposals for non-fiction titles as well as my first novel. I've even made an appointment with an agent who specializes in screen plays to take a look at an old movie I wrote twenty years ago. Who knows? Maybe The Proud Mary can be a late bloomer, too!
So, friends, if the Lord should bring me to your mind from the 12th through the 16th, offer up a prayer. I could use them. Blooming late is a tantalizing thought, but it can be a scary one, too.
If you have a comment, click here. I would
love to hear from you!
Footprints Today, continued
The main reason is probably that from earliest childhood I was
taught not to waste food because, "the children in China are
starving." I'm sure that was true, but I was an adult before I felt the
freedom to question how what I ate could affect the Chinese children.
And old
habits die hard!
Motherhood brought new responsibilities. It seemed like part of my job
assignment was to eat the brown pieces cut out of the bananas given to
my
children. Their generation invented the word "Yukky!" and refused to
eat the dark parts of anything while my early training made it next to
impossible to waste even the brown spots!
Standing in my kitchen that sunny June morning, I had a life-changing
moment
when I faced the realization that I hate brown bananas. And, life is too
short
to ever eat another one!
Wow! What an exciting prospect! I'm never going to have that mushy
feeling in
my mouth and I won't miss that nasty taste! Life is going to be better
than
ever!
Then a new thought came. Life is full of brown bananas! Negative things
happen
all the time that are not my fault or any else's. They are just part of
life
on this earth. A company decides to reduce expenses, so a good man like
my
husband loses his job. Illness comes, storms rage and disappointments
happen.
They are all just "brown bananas." How helpful it is now to be able
to use that phrase. I can accept the situation and make it better if I
can, but
then go on! I don't have to keep chewing brown bananas!
Father God, please remind me that I don't have to eat the brown bananas
of
life. I can choose not to internalize the negatives, not to chew on them
and
make them part of me. Help me recognize them for what they are, and then
go
on to focus on all the positives and blessings You provide!
And Lord,
please remind
me not to dish out brown bananas to others, but to offer positive
affirmations
and to encourage and inspire those in my little corner of the world.
Judy is a grandmother living in Plano, Texas
Back to Footprints Today
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