May is Mothers Month / Elisabeth Elliot / Prayers for Children

For the month of May I'll be blogging about motherhood and children primarily, as well as daily life in our family of four.  I'll also be discussing and pointing out highlights from one of Elisabeth Elliot's books Let Me Be A Woman, reading two chapters (about 4 pages) each day.  Also included each day will be a scripture prayer to pray for your children generally taken from another mom's Christian blog called  Inspired to Action.

Next Sunday, May 9, is Mothers Day.  Typically quite commercial, it nevertheless is a special day to show love and honor to women who have been blessed in their lifetime to have children--adopted or biological.  Some women have stood in the gap for children who have not had moms or had one that was an unfit mom.  Those women should be honored at some point as well.  We are the caregivers, the nurturers, the lovers, the counselors...so many different roles...in our families.  Once a woman has a child of her own, her life is never, ever the same.  I've been told it is a lifetime of happiness and joy but also of sorrow and grief as you sometimes have to watch your children make choices that you can see are not in their best interest but that they have not developed the wisdom quite yet to recognize.  

I have two sons, one in college who is almost 21 and the other is 15, going into 11th grade this fall.  I was never a motherly type and really did not enjoy or appreciate other people's children until I had one of my own.  Since I was adopted as an infant, there has never been anyone in my family who looked like me.  When our first son was born I was ecstatic that he looked just like me! And the same thing happened when our second son was born as well!  A double blessing for me.  :)   Of course, now as they have grown into  young men, you can tell that we are related (still an amazing thing for me) but not the extreme resemblance when they were babies.  Through all the stages of life--many I will cover in this series--I will be their mom and as the familiar children's  book says "I'll Love You Forever".  Today is a special day of joy for me since our older son informed us last night that he is moving back home for the summer and will start moving things in on Sunday afternoon.  One moment in time, one that is happily burned into my heart--those words, I'm coming home. Although I have generally adjusted to him not seeing him every single day,  I have missed him  but am so thankful he did not go to college in Ohio!  :)  His dad and brother will be glad he's home, too. :)

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LET ME BE A WOMAN

by Elisabeth Elliot (1976)

There are several more modern looking covers to this book. This looks like the copy that I have.   Elisabeth (I'll call her by her first name throughout this series) wrote this book during the year preceding her daughter's marriage. They would only be together a few weeks out of that year and as a gift to Valerie, she summed up her thoughts on being a woman through various stages of life and roles.   I first heard of Elisabeth Elliot in the early 80's. A friend took me to a luncheon of about 100 people where she was the guest speaker.  At the time I did not realize how fortunate I was to attend such a small group of women where we could actually TALK to her.   She is an amazing woman and one of my favorite Christian women authors.  I have two of her other books on my bookshelf:  Discipline The Glad Surrender, Passion and Purity.

Chapter 1:   The God Who Is In Charge

This is a short one-page  note about the sovereignty of God.  We are not for one moment of our lives at the mercy of chance.  Romans 8:28

Chapter 2:  Not Who Am I? but Whose Am I?

She asks the question:  Is being a woman fundamentally different from being a man?  There are countless books on this topic, some say yes, some say no.  Just a quick Google search turned up several books such as

Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps, The Book of Men and Women, Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus, Are Men Necessary?      I  haven't read any of these but just the titles show how much of our culture thinks.  My opinion:  We are absolutely different.  

I love Elisabeth's "bottom line" on this:  There is no doubt, a superficial sort of consolation and reassurance to be gained from sitting around telling how you feel about things...In order to learn what it means to be a woman we must start with the One Who made her.

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TODAY'S PRAYER FOR YOUR CHILDREN: Their Salvation

Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.  Isaiah 45:8, 2Timothy 2:1.