Good Morning. I am writing early morning and it is raining outside. Just in back of me in the dining room is my outside door. I have an old black screen door … it looks as old as the hills. But I love it and it has been the original door, probably, for at least 50 years. It has another screen that goes over the middle. Someone probably put it there, as the children would push it and break out the main screen. So in the bigger safety screen, I have dried roses. It’s at the top and has a branched arch of old fashioned leaves and tiny roses. The door doesn’t latch, as it is just a door with a little silver hook that I hook to keep it shut.

Right outside beyond this is my plum tree. This area is a play area for Baby Rose. Under the tree, I have the sandbox and a baby swimming pool.

To the left side of my door are two huge rose hip bushes. The roses have bloomed and now the hips are forming. Further to the left is my herb garden and then a little sidewalk to the front yard. My hops plant is so huge that you can hardly get through to the front yard.

To the right and around the corner of my old door is my kitchen garden. Then out in the back is Jim’s bigger garden. Also, just out my door and to the border of my side yard, Papa planted more roses. They are just lovely. This is the first year for them, and one is dark pink and the other a deep red.

Oh, Papa and I have lived here now since 1973. Before that, we had been living in an apartment and I was pregnant. I was so depressed and despondent, I couldn’t get out of bed. And God came to me and told me to go buy a house and that my husband was coming home. I got up out of bed and acted on the word and began to prepare for my husband to come home. To make a long story short, he did come home and we bought this house for 150 bucks down and 135 bucks a month house payment. This payment paid for the taxes and house insurance. We didn’t have a car to move. So we just walked boxes of household items to this house six blocks away. I was 7 months pregnant and strong and carried a lot of the boxes myself. I remember Jim saying to me as we walked, “Connie, you are just like an old pioneer woman.” I will never forget him saying that.

Well, then I was to bring 5 more children here to live in this house. As we went, we repaired the house. God has been faithful to me and my family. Now I stand broken in heart again and waiting upon the Lord. And yet, I can look back and see that God has never forsaken me in the past and He won’t now.

Last night, I found out some hurtful things about my boys. Nothing major but I didn’t bring ‘em up that way to act that way. And Papa is so … well? “Papa.” He invites the kids over for a cookout. I didn’t want to see the rascals Papa treats his kids as I treated him when he was wayward. I walked with him through the valley of the shadows. And Papa tells me, “Connie, they will grow out of it … they will be ok.” It’s as though Papa reaches down to them in their fires of afflictions and grabs their hands and pulls them out with his love. Mama is broken and discouraged. And yet I know the Lord has never forsaken me.

Sometimes I feel like a scared rabbit, thrown out into a field of wolves. Yet this morning, as I listen to the rain upon my old door, I feel the voice of Wisdom. She is saying, “Connie, pull in and hold on … fall under His shadows and watch the glory of the Lord come forth.”

Psalm 91:7 tells us that many shall fall but we will be protected. 8 says that only with our eyes will we see the rewards of the wicked. But because the Lord is our refuge, we will not experience the wicked. Verse 10, No evil shall befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling.

Sometimes we stand and fight the enemy and sometimes we must hide away unto Him.

Well, I see Aunt Toot was kidding me on the email last night about all the crazy things that have happened in our home when she came to visit.

One time, she had just come in the door with her new baby boy. I offered her a chair and, as she sat there a few minutes, the chair fell completely apart. It was a wooden chair and the seat fell to the floor. It was as though someone had swung an ax under the chair and all four legs fell off and flew in different directions. The Lord kept Toot and the baby. (Thank the Lord.) Of course, I have kidded her for years about ruining my best chair … and that she would have to pay me for it.

Another time, Toot had come to the door with a beautiful new mint green outfit on that her husband had just bought for her. And Johnny squirted her right in the chest with invisible ink. I mean, we were all poor folks, and a new store bought outfit was no small deal. Oh, poor Aunt Toot almost had a heart attack. Of course, I am screaming, “It’s invisible ink! It’s invisible ink! It will disappear in a minute.” And I am yelling at Johnny, “It will disappear — right, Johnny?”

Aunt Toot is screamin’, “This was a new outfit and that ink better disappear!” I thought she was gonna cry, and she would have, but the ink did disappear. Toot was screamin’ that her husband Luther was gonna kill us.

And I know my boys never got a whoopee cushion under Toot, as she was always watching where she sat after her chair had exploded, but I know they tried.

Thank God all those boys grew up and won’t be at the baby shower coming up.

And if it wasn’t my boys tormenting Aunt Toot, it was my cat. Our cat would knock at the door and, when Toot went to answer it, the cat would run away. Poor Aunt Toot thought I had ghosts. But I told her it was just the cat. Aunt Toot’s eyes would get as big as saucers when things would happen like that.

And for example (this never happened) … but a whole room in my house could fall in while Aunt Toot was drinking her very questionable coffee, and she would say, “Connie, did you see that?”

And I would say, “Oh, that ain’t nothin’.” Actually, I would be dyin’ inside but would try to stay calm.

See, Aunt Toot had mostly girls out of her 7 children and I had mostly boys out of my 6. And I have to tell ya … a home run with mostly boys can be a real riot. A mother with a lot of boys and a husband who is well … a bit wild and crazy himself? I mean, either the mother will have to toughen up a bit or just run away. A home with a lot of boys is a challenge, to say the least.

Aunt Toot just told you all the tip of the story on the email. She is saving the worst stories for another day.

Well, I am up a bit early this morning. To get a good writing, I should have been up about an hour ago.

The preparations for Mary’s baby shower are moving right along. Oh, wow, Jim has been off work and helping me so, of course, I couldn’t write much on the email. I have gotten so crazy concerning the preparations, etc. My family, the jokers that they are, keep inviting more and more people, and I am running to keep up with it all. As they have more people, then I, of course, need more cake. This party reminds me of the show Father of the Bride. Except I act like the father in that movie, and the rest of my family are free as birds.

And as I have hurried along as if lightening out of heaven is chasing me, the Lord keeps speaking to me. He keeps telling me that it is the anointing that breaks the yoke. That above all, and in everything, we are to be witnesses for Christ.

And I can have everything perfect, but what good is that? So many have needs that only Jesus can answer. To run ahead of my husband and give my strength to women, and to forget him in the midst of it all? No, I don’t want to act this out … it has no power to win women to Christ. My life in submission to my husband is a life committed to Christ and His anointing.

Our power in the Spirit lies in our holy position of living under the shadow of our husbands’ wings. We must look to our husbands and never give our strength to women. If we love the women around us, then we owe it to them to walk in an example of holiness.

I was watching the Waltons the other day on TV. And, like the show “Little House on the Prairie,” the mother of the home is in love with her husband. Of course, the Jezebel is present in both shows. But what draws us to it is that the wives are one-man women. The wives both put husband first. And as they do, they become the best friend of the women around them. These wives are safe as they pivot from their submission to their husbands. They have words of wisdom as they live out of the covering of their husbands. The other women chide them but, when they need a friend, they know they can count on the submissive wife.

The submissive wife is faithful to her husband and to her friends. She has a heart of courage and she is not afraid.

A wife with no courage can’t submit to her husband. A selfish, fearful woman can never submit to a husband. She is too afraid … too self centered. She MUST have her way, as she sees it. She can’t gently trust when things don’t go as she had planned it would.

A woman of courage and wisdom will stand strong when her world is falling down at her feet. For courage is not courage as you fight and don’t give up concerning your own way. The courage from God that wins souls is a courage that gets back up when your whole life has laid shattered before you. And yet you have enough guts to get back up and go at it again.

It takes a lot of guts to fight when all you have seen is a hell on earth. It takes a lot of courage and stouthearted wisdom to keep on keepin’ on when the devil has proven to you that God doesn’t care. Of course, God does care, but sometimes our spirits are so full of holes that we think we have no way out, and we must just lay down and let satan take our territory that we have fought for.

Sometimes the devil does convince you that life is not worth all the fight. But if, at this time of utter hopelessness, you get back up, then Jesus will meet you on that cutting edge. Maybe with just a bit of water for the hour to cool your tongue. Or maybe it will be the day of days when the final victory comes.

Sometimes it is that last call for help that bridges that gap between heaven and earth. That midnight hour when you thought God had forsaken you — yet you cried out again in courage and faith — is often the time the final hour of VICTORY comes. You thought you were too late but, in Him, you were right on time.

Dear Mothers,

Oh, wow, we are so busy with this baby shower for Mary. Trying to have Baby Rose along with all of this is an absolute riot.

Yesterday, Baby took her soapy water out of her dish water in her play sink and washed her hair. The soap was thick at the bottom of the play sink and I just add about a half cup of water to it. So the soap was thick and Baby don’t have much hair? So when she washed her hair, it was just thick with soap and dry, sorta?

Well, she had a good time and then I had to get the soap out of her hair, which took me a good long time and she screamed her head off. And I was barely putting stuff away in the bathroom and Baby ran in and did it again? And there was more bubbles the second time.

I didn’t get it all out — just dried it, as she was in no mood to go through all that again. And my ears were sore from the screaming. So I left part of the soap in and let it dry. So her Baby hair was spiked … so she is stylin’. Well, her Mama will get it out during her bath time.

Anyway, no more soap for Baby … not for a while, anyway. Usually, she just does her dishes and scrubs the house with her little 1-inch square sponge.

Love,
Grandma

I marinated my beef ribs last night to have today for Father’s Day. I just put the ribs in a plastic sack with about a half bottle of the Italian vinegar and oil dressing poured in the zip lock sack, and they sat in the fridge overnight. I cooked the ribs a little before I did that so I could drain them.

Anyway, they are in the oven now on about 300 degrees. After they have baked a few hours, I will put the homemade BBQ sauce on them and let ‘em bake a few more hours. I just make the BBQ Sauce like this. Just take a bowl and put in a can of tomato soup, or a few cans of tomato sauce … something tomato, in other words? Then add some mustard (about a tablespoon) and some brown sugar (about a cup or 2). Stir this up with salt and pepper. Then cut up some onions to go in, and some green peppers. The sauce should all be thick … like pancake batter.

Then, when the beef is almost done, put this sauce on it and let it bake on a low temp, about 300 degrees. I make a lot of sauce, as I like to be very generous with the sauce. I don’t just spread a bit on — I spread a lot on — and I let the meat all soak in the sauce. And I get the country style beef ribs without the bone in them. They were on sale at our meat market for just $1.75 a pound. I have about 4 pounds. About the last half hour or so, I take the lid off the meat and let it all get sort of dry and crisp and brown. So the sauce has cooked up on ‘em pretty good by then, and it is thick and reddish brown.

Of course, Papa is an onion and green pepper hater. So I just lay big slices of onions and green peppers on the top, so he can see them and not eat one. He likes the meat baked in the onions and peppers, but he don’t want to eat any onions and green peppers. And his dang kids are the same way. (Well, most of em are.)

But the main thing is to get those things tender and good, and sort of crispy and tangy and sweet … with a good bite. I will sneak in some garlic, too, and some other spices if I can get away with it. I would love to put some of my homemade horseradish in the meat, but getting hung on Father’s Day would not be “a good thing.” (Sorry, Martha.)

I am also fixing potato salad and baked beans. But, as I think of it, baked beans won’t be good with this. I will make a corn casserole, instead. I have a big pot on the stove right now with about 4 pounds of potatoes with the skins on. Also, I have a pot of eggs to hard boil. When the potatoes are done and cooled, I will make the potato salad. I will just peel them and cut them up and add the cut up, peeled hard boiled eggs. To this, I will add mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish (and don’t I wish — horseradish.) Well, horseradish is good in potato salad. But, again, I better not … YIKES. So, anyway, add some salt and pepper, and you could add celery, too. Make sure you make the potato salad well in advance, so that the salad is cold when ya serve it.

I will make a rhubarb dessert, too. We all love rhubarb.

Our grown kids in our area will be here, and my mom. Then the out of town kids will just call Jim to wish him a “Happy Father’s Day!!!”

Well I am gonna go rest and read my Bible and wait for the potatoes to get done and cooled. I will have a big day today.

I wish all of you fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day.

I was thinkin’ last night … when I was a new believer? We Christians used to talk about practicing the presence of Christ. We tried to just think of the Lord being in the same room with us. Or we would see Him at our family table. Often, when two of my children would be in a room with me, I would say to them, “Children how many guardian angels are in the room right now?”

Of course, they would tell me, “Three, Mom — one for you and one for each of us.”

In our home, I tried to speak to the children often of the presence of Christ and His helpers, the angels. “We can’t see them, right?” I would tell them, “But they are here.”

Lately, as I have prayed, the Lord has spoken to me about Wisdom being in the room with me. Wisdom is like the older Titus Mother and she is with us. If I get befuddled or get kinda down, the Lord will tell me, “Connie, just imagine Ruby coming to your house in a few hours for a visit and what would you do?”

Yesterday, Jim was off work and he was working on our house. He is replacing some of the siding and painting. Often he would call to me from his ladder to come hand him the hammer he dropped or “Honey, how does this look?” The day wasn’t very quiet and I wasn’t able to really get into my homemaking. I had a lot to do, but just didn’t know where to begin. Not that I minded helping Jim, as he needed me. But then, when he comes in to rest for lunch, I don’t have anything much done. So the whole day went like that until after supper. So I got out some paper and sat on the couch and wrote my prayers to the Lord. And the Lord had me plan for Wisdom to come at 8:00 pm. So I got about the Lord’s business and planned for Wisdom to come at 8:00.

Who is she and what is she like? She is an older Titus Mother, an encourager. I think she would be like Dixie used to be when she would come to visit with her girl, Emily. When the children were young and we were poor, Dixie would come to the door with presents for them, or a ham, or some hamburger. One time, she came and we were without much food. And she said, “Well, I have a turkey in the freezer and I will go home and get it.”

Often, I would say, “Oh, no, I don’t want you to do that.”

And Dixie would say, “Connie, don’t embarrass me.” She was such a giver and would find a way to give ya something, no matter what. Or she would come to the door and say, “The Lord told me you needed this.” And she would hand me something I did really need. But, see, Wisdom is a great encourager and she brings JOY.

So many of us are used to the older woman being nasty and hard to get along with. She says, “Why do you have all those kids and you will never be able to take care of them?” But Wisdom is not like that. Wisdom is our helper like the Holy Spirit … she is a counselor.

And the other day I said to the Lord, “What does Wisdom look like?”

And He said, “Well, she looks like an older woman.” If she speaks, as she is described to do in Proverbs, then she has a mouth and a face and she is real. Jesus came to the earth to give us a picture of God. He was God in the flesh. I think Wisdom would look like a Mennonite woman, in a way. But often, I see her with her hair flyin’, and she is busy about the home, and her spirit is musical. In my mind’s eye right now, I see her so full of childlike imagination and faith. She has energy from the Lord that works like electricity. She has the power of Christ. He is her electricity. She is a spirit that submits to Christ, like the angels do.

Often in my prayers, if I cant find the move of the Holy Spirit, then I go to Wisdom first and she often points me to Christ. Sometimes I write her a letter. And after the first paragraph, I seem to enter His temple.

A few nights ago, I was prayin’ at night in bed silently. Jim was asleep beside me. The Lord told me, “Oh, Connie, ya know, back in the old days, up in the hills where Wisdom lived, folks saw so many supernatural miracles.”

Ya know, Wild Man and me haven’t had health insurance since 1988. And we have seen so many miracle healings. And ya know, the Lord was tellin’ me the other night about how the housewives during the Depression era didn’t have the money for doctors, etc. And they saw many miracles in their homes. God gave these women a supernatural wisdom to know how to raise their families when they had nothing. But, of course, we don’t hear about these miracles, as many of these mothers couldn’t read very well or write. They read their Bibles the best they could and they believed what they read. They didn’t have a TV to watch and to get fouled up with. They just had the Bible and they believed it.

I have read some of the stories in the Foxfire books. And it tells about how the midwives would throw a newborn baby in the air and then catch it if it was a stillborn baby. And how the baby would come alive. These Mothers had faith and never heard of doing anything any other way. Many healing gifts floated around the mountains … they needed the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Lord gave them to them. The women found their power in wisdom. Their husbands were the undisputed heads of the house.

A few years back, Jim was moving our piano around several times a day as he was painting. He would move it out to paint and then back. But he moved it a lot as to not get paint on it. Well, that evening after several days of this, he comes to bed with, “Connie, my hernia is seriously hanging out and I can hardly walk.” He had an operation for double hernias years ago, but the doctor botched it up and he had a lot of trouble with it. But after the piano moving, he had A LOT of trouble. He had a girdle, but the hernia was too bad and that didn’t work … so he comes to bed barely able to move.

I said, “Oh, Honey, I will stay up all night and pray and the Lord will heal you.” See, by this time, we didn’t have any hospital insurance … so, as usual, we were up a creek without a paddle. Anyway, I laid my hand on the hernia in our bed and planned to pray all night until I saw the glory of God. Well, instantly, as I laid hands on Jim, the bed shook and Jim’s leg flew in the air and he heard a POP!!! I said, “What happened?”

And Jim said, “You didn’t hear that POP?”

I said, “No, I didn’t.”

He said, “I was healed. The Lord healed me.” And the bed just shook with the power of God.

Once, I prayed for Jim in the living room, as he had a bad headache, and the power of God came down and it hit Mary, our daughter, in the bathroom. But this is not strange to me, as we live like this. And my tooth that was badly abscessed last month is now healed and has a permanent filling in it. And I haven’t been able to eat with that tooth in 16 years. But I am starting, barely, to eat with it now. I never went to a dentist.

But, see, I love Wisdom with all my heart. I could go out and work like anyone else and get health insurance for Jim and me. Papa, of course, works but has no health insurance. But, ya know, I have chosen to follow the Wisdom of God. Why should my Baby Rose have to be taken to a daycare when I have a roof over my head and plenty to eat? Why would I want to do that so I can follow the world?

To know Wisdom is the deepest desire of my heart. I have no other desire as deep as this. And God will not give you the wisdom of God until you want it as Solomon did. He wanted Wisdom more than money or the life of his enemies. He wanted it more than he wanted a good reputation.

As women, some of you won’t find wisdom, as your enemy is your husband. You want him to suffer more than you want the wisdom God has to offer you. You will run out and get a divorce and forsake the wise woman. Pride wants to guide you and Wisdom wants to bless you.

I was raised in a nice home and Dad always had a good factory job. But money never made me joyful like wisdom does. Wisdom has called me to a humble home and a place where I have to use my faith like money.

And, ya know, after I have been with a bunch of church women, they get me so confused. They love to talk about psychology and being balanced in our Christian life. Balanced?? What kind of idiot talk is that? Christ dying on an old rugged cross, after being beat to death, is not what I would call balanced.

The Christians are so worried about their reputations and they would die for ‘em. Some will go to hell for ‘em.

Jesus Christ and His followers were not running around spouting doctrine and staying under the guidelines of the Baptist church. Trust me!!! Christ’s followers were mavericks and rebels who rebelled against the Pharisees. They never did one balanced thing in their lives. They lived in the supernatural and outside of their comfort zones. They glorified God and not themselves and their jobs or new house. Jesus Christ was a radical revolutionist. And He gave His life for what he believed.

His mother was the same way. Can’t ya just see the church ladies laughin’ at her supernatural birth? They whispered behind her back, “She thinks she is pregnant with the Son of God. She needs to go before the elders and have them pray for her and counsel her.” Well, Mary knew they would say that. Talk about unbalanced!!!

I don’t know about you all, but I am gonna chase the wisdom of God with my whole heart and soul. And hopefully, I can be a radical and be called “unbalanced.”

In the old days, Dixie would tell me when I was in a tight spot (which was often, by the way), “Connie, are you into your homemaking?”

I hated it when she said that to me, as I was thinkin’, “How does she think all this stuff gets done if I wasn’t doin’ it?” But she meant creative homemaking, not just picking up messes.

She would tell me, “Connie, the homemaking spirit will break the power over Satan. It will break his back.” And, ya know, yes, we have to pray and give the night to prayer as Jesus did. But then, the next day, we do the works of righteousness.

We sleep at night when we can. We go in and out of sleep as we pray and read the word. But then the next day, we get up to do the works of God. We must be about our Father’s business.

We as Mothers must be duty bound and able to maintain a pattern of good works in our work places — our homes. Maybe ya don’t feel like fixin’ supper but ya better get at it. The family needs you and it’s a blessing for you to get in your kitchen and to do your homemaking.

Faith without works is dead. We must put legs onto our faith and prayers. We have to do more than pray and seek the Lord — we must cook and clean and tend to the business of our homes.

I just stopped here to make some banana bread and some “Wash Day” Soup. I had a half a small beef roast in the freezer. And, as I remember, that meat was as tough as a shoe. So I am boiling it with some tomatoes and onions and a package of gravy mix, salt and pepper. When it’s half done, I will cut it in cubes and cook it some more with some potatoes and other veggies. Papa will love it.

Also, I thought I had a recipe for banana bread but didn’t. Well I don’t know where it is. So I just threw in a big bowl some self rising flour and the last of the biscuit mix with some shortening, some bananas, spices, brown sugar, milk and eggs. It’s in the oven now and I should rock and roll and get myself dressed and a bath taken while all that is bakin’ and simmering on the stove.

The house smells good. All is well.

Dear Mothers, don’t look at the world. Don’t listen to the strange voices. Listen to the voice of wisdom.

Get out your rolling pins and pie plates and light your scented candles. Let your spices of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg bring joy to your baking and to your home.

Picture Ruby standing there with you as you fight the good fight of faith.

Clear off your table and light your lanterns. Make sure you have plenty of lamp oil, as it is a symbol of the oil of the Holy Spirit.

Oh, dear Mothers, I know how hard it is to fight the good fight of faith and to fight against the feminism. But virtue is moral character and it comes only as the Jezebel comes to taunt us. We gird our loins with truth only as we are attacked from the spirit of the strange woman. She is as a hill to climb or a dragon to run from. And as we run, and as we climb, God creates in us arms of strength and loins of truth. We press on and God gives us virtue and makes us virtuous women of God.

Oh, we hate the tests, as we are tossed about and we lose our walk with God. We feel lost and forsaken as Jezebel condemns us and our children and our families. But without her strange smoke and fire in our homes, we cannot learn to be virtuous women. Our moral courage cannot be developed. Our spiritual muscles cannot be made strong.

Oh, we hate the attacks and we cry out to God. But, yes, the tests of our faith must come. And we feel so lost and forsaken and so in the dark when we lose our homemaking spirit. But Wisdom waits for us in the darkness and God trusts us to keep on and not give up. And as we press on against the strange woman’s comments and the Jezebel spirit of feminism, we are rewarded with the spirit of virtue and wisdom.

We must press on, ever seeking the wisdom of God as Keepers at Home.

Virtue means power and it takes a powerful woman of God to fight the foolish women, especially in this sinful society. In the Bible, the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of His garment and was healed. What healed her? It was the spirit of virtue. And this is the healing for all of us women in God who hope to please Him. Virtue is the answer for a healed marriage and for a barren womb.

We must cry out to God for virtue and become women of moral excellence. And how does virtue work? Proverbs 31 gives us a picture of the spirit of virtue. The virtuous woman is a woman of courage, strength and dignity. She will not be moved, as she is a woman who has developed spiritual muscles and bears much holy fruit for God.

God knows His stuff and knows what we need in order to be developed spiritually and to see healed marriages and fruitful wombs. Our answers to prayer come as we follow the spirit of wisdom and virtue. As we run after Christ and we touch the hem of His garment, virtue will be pulled out of Him and we will be healed. Virtue heals any female problem and makes us like the Proverbs 31 woman. As we chase Him and we bust our way through the herds of feminists, we, too, will be healed. But we must fight the good fight of faith in order to win the prize and to touch the hem of His garment. We are saved on earth through childbearing and through our works as keepers at home.

Virtue is our spiritual map and the Proverbs 31 woman is to be our guide.

We walk by faith and not by sight. We see the Lord’s miracles in our hearts, and our visions must be crisp and clear. For reality is God and His plans, as they will last forever. The things we see with our eyes on this earth are temporary and subject to change. But God’s eternal plans will last forever and are more real than anything we see now on this earth in the flesh.

We must forsake the world and the things that are evil in the world. We should put our time and energy into our dreams for God and His kingdom. We must yield our minds and our thoughts to His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We must yield our hands to righteousness. As keepers at home, our dreams must be surrounded by God’s Word.

Ok, here is an example. Say your husband is wayward and you aren’t sure he will be home this evening for supper. Right now, as you pray, just put feet on your prayers. Start this morning and clean the house and plan a wonderful supper for your husband to come home to. Dress up and really put on the dog to go all out. Let the Lord know that you believe Him and are ready to see your prayers answered. In Joy and gladness, turn your ship around from depression and a sullen mood to Joy and gladness.

One time, as I as raising my children and we had little food? I was up writing in the night and asking the Lord about what to feed my children. The Lord says, “Well, where will you put all the food I am going to give you?” And He told me to make a place for all the food. To clean out my cupboards and to make a place for a lot of food.

This is when the Lord opened up the idea for me to start buying the leftover fruits and veggies from the stores for a few bucks a box. It was stuff the store couldn’t sell. Every few weeks, I bought many boxes of stuff. Sometimes it would be just a few boxes but, sometimes, it was like 30 boxes. Of course, the whole neighborhood got blessed, as we gave away a lot of stuff. Like I could get 3 boxes of lettuce. Well, it had to be used up and so everyone I knew got a head of lettuce, whether they needed it or not. Then other things, I froze. Some of it was just garbage and I put this on my compost pile. But most of the stuff was good but needed to be used. With the lemons and grape fruit and oranges that were not going to last long, we made gallons of fresh juice. Some of the citrus fruits we could keep to eat fresh for the next coming week.

So my table went from being very scant to a table loaded with fruits and vegetables. Jim gave me 50 bucks a week for groceries, as this is all he had to give me. So this had to last me. I had 5 children still at home and Jimmy, our oldest, was in the Navy. And I wanted to stay home and care for my children. And this meant workin’ like a dog to do it. (I also had my own garden.) We would get, like, a whole box of grapes and we would pick through them and throw out the rotten ones. And then I would freeze the grapes. I made many delicious grape pies.

One time, we got boxes of bananas. We just stuffed bananas everywhere in the car that we could. Down in the seats and in the back window. On the dash board of the car … just everywhere to get them home. Well, of course bananas don’t last very long. But the neighborhood had a great time eating bananas.

It was always a surprise as to what you would get in those boxes, so we just tried to be ready for anything. Boy, was I a busy mother back in those days! But ya know? You can be busy in righteousness or unrighteousness.

Today yield yourselves to God … resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yield yourself to the Holy winds of God and walk from the inside out. God is on your side and wants for you to have a healed home and a husband walking with Jesus. Speak and act out the things of God.

So our faith can be like a ship lost out in the ocean, or it can lean to Jesus and His holy miracle winds. We can flounder around today and not yield ourselves to Him. We can get mad and yield ourselves to wicked unbelief. We can get up in the morning and get on the horn and tell everyone our families are nuts. Or we can make a home for the miracles of God to explode in.

Which way will we go?

Who will we serve today, the devil or the Lord?

Which way will we go by faith?

Will we listen to the voice of fear and the whispers of the enemy? Or will we lean and pull our bodies to the voice of God and to the faith winds?

We will be servants of God, or the destroyer of our families, Satan. Every day is a day to serve the Lord. No day is wasted or forgotten. Each day you are either digging your own family’s grave or you are making a temple of righteousness by faith. Every day counts, either for evil or for good.

Choose you this day whom you will serve. Will it be a day to lead your family to eternal life or eternal damnation?

I am up and about, getting ready for the day with Baby Rose. Yesterday we were to have her but David didn’t have to work, so I didn’t have her, after all.

Jim and I went to the garden shop and I found some feverfew. That is an herb and, if you have a headache, it is supposed to help you. You are supposed to chew the leaves. When I had it before, I chewed the leaves in with some spearmint gum. It is a perennial and looks like daises. I hope to get a good patch of it goin’ in my herb garden.

I also got some more lavender. It was almost 90 here in Iowa yesterday. I didn’t get anything done in the garden — it was just toooo hot. But it has to get real hot for tomatoes to grow. So the tomatoes were happy, but no one else was.

All yesterday morning, I was thinkin’ about the writing Kelly sent in about the old time mothers. Man, I forgot what it all said now. But I was thinking about the old time housewives. And yesterday, in the afternoon, I was doing some reading. I have this old pioneer book. It has poems and stories. One was written by a pioneer woman. And it was about how she needed so many things to run her homestead. But what she prayed for the most each day was courage.

Oh, God Bless America! Don’t we need courage as Mothers for this day and age? This society is so corrupt. It just makes ya wanna roll over and play dead, huh? But I think this is how it has been in many troubled times in the past, too. Of course, the Depression era was filled with hard times … I think like now somewhat. But, ya know, if we have homes and a roof over our heads, and kitchens to cook in, and beds for our children, then we should praise the Lord.

Ya know, in the old days the farm mothers got up around 4:00 in the morning to start their work. And, ya know, they didn’t even have fans for this hot weather. But they cooked and baked bread, cakes and pies nearly every day. They did their cooking in the cool of the day. Often, they had a makeshift shed out back that they made into a summer kitchen. This way, the wood stove didn’t heat up the main house. They had a big noon meal, usually, and got their cooking out of the way as the day got hotter. Then, for supper, they had the leftovers from the noon meal. Many of the men were farmers and home for lunch. But the old time mother did most of their summer work in the mornings.

Then, in the afternoon, they rested and the children napped. When I would go to my aunt’s farm to stay a few weeks in the summer, this is how the farm women did it. My Gram lived in a little house in the back yard of my aunt’s house. And Gram would help with the garden or the cooking, whatever. But the hot summer afternoons were quiet, as the Mothers rested.

I think it is important to work hard but to rest, too … we need time as mothers to be refreshed. To talk to God and to regroup as the children nap. Then, after naps, it is time to prepare the house for the evening meal. The rest of the day is sorta to prepare to wind down for the evening. It’s a time for work but a time to get ready for the evening. So you fix supper and then later, it’s time to make sure the children have their baths and get their rooms ready for them to go to bed. Get the dishes done and the supper food put in the icebox. It’s time to read a story to the children and a time for prayers.

After the children are in bed, you, Mother, may want to have another time to read the word and pray. But Mother goes to bed pretty early herself, as she has another big day to tend to the next morning.

I remember when I was raised in the 50s. My brother and I thought my mother never slept. If we were to go in her bedroom at night, she would be laying there with eyes shut. And she would hear us and say, “Don’t step on my glasses.” Mom always kept her glasses right on the floor next to her bed, so she could find them in an instant if us kids needed something in the night.

When my mom and dad and we children would go to my uncle’s farm in the summer, we thought my aunt Jean never slept. All of the cousins at night slept on the living room floor on quilts. Late in the night, I would wake up and see a light in aunt Jean’s kitchen. I would hear my aunt Jean making cold sandwiches for the next day.

The old time Mothers never seemed to sleep. They were up in the night and always up early the next morning. Of course, they rested in the afternoon and this was their salvation. These Mothers were like firemen — they were always ready to care for the children, even in the middle of the night.

I never wore “see through” stuff to bed, as I had to be up in a flash many nights. Of course, June Cleaver on “Leave it to Beaver” would put her robe on quickly in the night if she had to get up. But I was never that organized. I am still that way — going out to give my flowers a drink in the mornings with whatever on I wore to bed last night. I throw left over tea or coffee on my flowers out front and I have to be free to do that at anytime. So I have to have something on that isn’t see through. Dan calls ‘em muumuus. But, heck, my dog used to get loose in the night and I had to chase her all over. Can’t ya just see me, runnin’ under the street light in a sexy negligee?

COURAGE

But, Oh Lord God, please give me courage … as the old time mothers prayed for many things, what they prayed for most was courage.

Yesterday I had some how sprained my ankle. I told the Lord, “Lord, I feel like an old barn. If I don’t move around too much, I will probably last another 20 years. But if too many big winds come up, I probably will fall apart a little bit at a time.” Well, I am there now. I feel like I am fallin’ apart a day at a time. My tooth was healed and I am ok with that. But now it is my foot. Gosh, if I could only walk!!! Well, it isn’t that bad and I am believin’ the Lord.

But yesterday, as I laid on my bed in the quiet afternoon, I prayed for courage to go on. Most of my prayer was, “Yes, Lord, I will do Your will … whatever it takes, I will do it, Lord. Yes, Lord, I will go on. Yes, Lord, I hear Your voice … I will not give up. I will go on, Lord, I will not quit.” I prayed for at least an hour. And most of my prayer was “Yes, Lord, yes, I hear You. I will go on. I am not giving up. I will not disappoint You. I will go on.”

I feel in my body that I somehow began to shut down with grief when my last Baby married and left home. And now it is as though I have been awakened from a long sleep. And now the Lord is speaking to my dry bones, “Awaken, it’s time to get up. There is work to do. Your night is over … it is time to work.”

And I am sayin’ to the Lord, “Lord, do you know how old I am?” And, of course, the Lord never calls the woman by her age. He calls her by her willingness to do His will. And, boy, yesterday I thought about Sarah in the Bible. Wow! Now there was a woman!!! Ya know, I think of Jim’s seeds and how they are still strong. I think of how most men never lose their ability to father children … it is the woman’s strength that leaves her body and she is not strong enough to conceive a seed. But I thought of the scriptures yesterday, about Sarah, who by faith received strength to conceive a seed, even in her old age. Wow, and this woman had been barren all of her life. But she was still beautiful and gave her husband pleasure, even in her old age. Man alive, what a woman of courage. And I want to be like her … even if I feel like an old barn.

I am depending on the balm of Gilead to salve my sore body and make a Sarah out of me. By golly, I want to be a rose in the desert to bloom in dry land. And with God, all things are possible and I plan on provin’ this, one way or the other. And if I die tryin’ … what a way to go. To die believin’ the Lord is the best way to go to heaven.

Oh, that spirit of virtue is what we women need to be mothers of courage. Virtue is a power and a strength that comes as we flex our spiritual muscles. We cannot be strong in ourselves.

And what keeps us from goin’ on in God? It is fear. We have to cast down the fear and pick up the faith and let God be God and every man a liar. He has called me to be a Sarah and I am goin’ to be a Sarah if it kills me. I am not afraid.

We as Mothers must take on COURAGE. We must have spines of steel and fire in our bones. Oh, a Holy supernatural fire that burns HOT. We must be brave and strong. And our strength must come from the HOLY SPIRIT. And we must cry out to God, “Yes, Lord … Yes, Lord, whatever You call me to do, I will do it, Lord. I will not fall back into unbelief and weakness.”

Ya know, we as mothers fight spiritual battles on every front. Some of you live with men who are seemingly just murdering your spirits. You are called as wives to live out a life that is hard by any standard. But go on in God … don’t give up.

Our country will never turn around without women who will not give up. So many half women who were Jezebels have ruined our country. But we, as the godly women of the day, are called to beat these women out with our obedience to God. We stand for God, the greater power. And through our obedience to Him, we will show the world a way out of their sins.