Jo, Noah, and I started reading a book together in the evenings. We chose Very Good, Jeeves, a book by the British author Pelham Granville Wodehouse written in the 1920s, I believe. None of us have read anything by him before, but his name came up a couple times out of the blue within a short period, and a long time ago, I recall that Rachel Mae recommended his writing, so here we have it.

"Very good, sir."

"The rain continued to lash down with what you might call indescribable fury..."

"The Right Hon. was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say "When!" and the picture he conjured up, if you know what I mean, was rather pleasing."

New Friends and Old Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test—
Time and change—are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair may gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas! may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Cherish friendship in your breast—
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.

-by Joseph Parry, taken from The Best Loved Poems of the American People

I feel that this poem is rather appropriate for me at the moment, having just moved to Spokane, and being somewhat shy and unwilling to make new friends and also keenly missing old friends.

Let Me Be a Woman—

p. 172 - "You can't, of course, be constructive if you don't perceive weakness. But when you recognize a place where a little construction or reinforcement is needed, you can begin to build up, to encourage, to strengthen."

I am through the book now. It was excellent and very insightful. I recommend it, ladies.

The strains of My Fair Lady are floating through my head. It's past midnight. I've had a full day. The boys just went home, now that the movie is over. That movie is an interesting study in male/female interaction and relationships. For the most part, I think it disappoints, though I enjoyed watching it. "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?!"

Today we played tennis. We drove down to the park on Mission that has a bunch of courts, many of them rather badly cracked. I had a wonderful time! I payed a set with Jon and barely lost 3-2; played a doubles set with Jo, Ste, and Noah and won 3-2; played a set with Noah and lost 3-0; played a set with Jo and lost 3-0. How fun. :) Honestly, I'm glad the boys are so good. I can play as hard as I want and have a blast, and the boys still get their satisfaction of beating me. They are so funny. Then Jon took us to the Arctic Circle and got us dipped soft ice-cream cones. What fun. Driving around Spokane with my big brother, getting ice-cream, feeling like we're going too fast in Jon's little red sports car, feeling awkward wearing sunglasses, letting Jon convince me that it's not weird to wear sunglasses pushed up on my hair when I no longer need them, etc. "...what a Day..."—actually, I think it reflects that Day. Then we came home and had a wonderful supper in which Noah learned the Walters' way of eating baked potatoes. Then Noah and Jo were amazing on their guitars for us. Noah sang his "French song" and a song that Aunt Meredith taught them called "The Fox." Then the movie.

Let Me Be a Woman—

p. 151 - "You are, Valerie, by the grace of God, a woman. This means you have responsibilities. You are fully a woman, and this means you have privileges. You are only a woman, which means you have limitations. Walt is a man, he is fully a man, and he is only a man. Thank God for this, and live it to the hilt!"

Let Me Be a Woman—

p. 112 - To be a woman, to be what we were made to be, to belong just where we were made to fit... "The psalms are full of expressions of God's authority and control, of measurement, limitation, direction. Psalm 104, for example, speaks of it: 'Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken... The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst appoint for them. Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass... Thou hast made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun to know its time for setting... When Thou sendest forth Thy spirit they are created.'" I'm reminded of the Grand Canyon and all the marvelous landscape I have recently seen during our travels.

p. 118 - "...heirs together of the grace of life." I Peter 3:7

p. 120 - chap. 36 is excellent, but I won't copy it all out here :)

p. 129 - The story of the centurion with the sick servant... his faith... I love it.

p. 134 - "When He made Eve, it was because the Garden of Eden would have been a prison of loneliness for Adam without her. It was not good for him to be alone, and to release him from his prison and bring him freedom and joy He gave him a woman. Eve's freedom and joy was to be in being Adam's complement." This is something that comes to mind when thinking of the issue of polygamy. Does having a co-wife rob a woman of her place as her husband's complement and helper? She has now to share this position. It just doesn't seem like the best, ideal thing, does it? She is fully a wife, and yet can only be part of a complement or a complement part of the time, or something. There are some strange dynamics here.

Jo is here. The Jo. I'm extremely emotional right now. We all (Noah included) went and picked him up at the airport. Now that's the proper way to meet someone after a long separation. :) I just love the anticipation of waiting in an airport for someone dear. Jo! So we came home and visited a while, and then the three boys went home.

I've missed you SO MUCH! I think something in me died when you left over two years ago. It's incredible to see you again. Your hug—I haven't had anything like that in so long. I'm crying because I didn't realize just how much I missed you and how I've been living the last two years (though they were good). I'm crying because we probably won't ever be living together under the same roof longterm ever again. I'm crying because I'm afraid of this summer, the change, and everything happening at once. I'm crying because I've just been reminded of something very beautiful, and I'm keenly aware of longings that aren't fulfilled and probably won't be any time soon.

Let Me Be a Woman—

p. 55 - "...as a pillar is cut and shaped to fit into a particular place and carry a specific weight, it is by that cutting and shaping differentiated and limited. It is the very differentiation and limitation that that pillar has to offer. So with us.

p. 89 - Elisabeth Elliot, when she was proposed to a second time: "I told this man that I knew there were women waiting for him who could offer him many things I couldn't offer—things like beauty and money. But, said I, 'There's one thing I can give you that no woman on earth can outdo me in and that's appreciation.'"

In this longing, and in this pain, I hear a voice softly calling, a voice firmly speaking:

"...the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted [You want to do that, Lord?], to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD [I want that], that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they will repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations."
Isaiah 61:1b-4

Switching gears here... the Hammonds, whose house we are staying in, left two bookshelves full of books, and they have a bunch of books I'd like to read. I've started two of them: The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God and Let Me Be a Woman. The latter is a book that Elisabeth Elliot wrote to and for her daughter Valerie while Valerie was preparing to get married.


Let Me Be a Woman—

p. viii - a prayer by Betty Scott Stam: "Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, and my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."

p. 4 - "The question is, 'Whose am I?' not 'Who am I?' But people think that enough opinions will produce a unified truth. As Carlyle observed--'Vulpine knowingness sits ever at its hopeless task--from a world of knaves to deduce an honesty from their combined action."

p. 13 - Made for a man. It's a very curious thing, to think about what that means for me now. What about in eternity?

p. 36 - "My job is now over. You are a woman, God's woman, autonomous before Him. But His disciplining of you is far from finished. If you love Him, you'll do what he says. And there can be no question as to whether He means it if only you will look at His face, be silent long enough to hear what He says. 'He calls his own sheep by name.' It was when Mary heard her name that she knew her Master in the Garden after His resurrection. 'Master!' she cried in recognition of His lordship over her."

p. 34 and 37 -

Drop Thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease.
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

I have a hard time with those lines, because, while in a sense, yes, we have peace in Him and somewhat ordered lives, we are always straining, always striving, always dealing with things, always longing for something. "The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in your personal appearance, the things you spend your money on all speak loudly about what you believe. 'The beauty of Thy peace' shines forth in an ordered life. A disordered life speaks loudly of the order of disorder in the soul." How can she say that? People differ. Perhaps for certain personalities, yes, but all disorderly people have disorderly souls?? Speaks loudly??