Feathers in Our Nest

a blog about faith, family, food, & more written by a wife and stay at home mom of five

Spurgeon’s Story of the Gardener

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I came across this story on another blog recently, and found it encouraging!  May it encourage you today as well.

via

A child had a little garden in which she planted many flowers, but they never grew. She put them in, as she thought tenderly and carefully, but they would not live. She sowed seeds and they sprang up; but very soon they withered away.

So she ran to her father’s gardener, and when he came to look at it, he said, “I will make it a nice garden for you, that you may grow whatever you want.” He fetched a pick, and when the little child saw the terrible pick, she was afraid for her little garden. The gardener struck his tool into the ground and began to make the earth heave and shake for his pickaxe had caught the edge of a huge stone which underplayed almost all the little plot of ground.

All the little flowers were turned out of their places and the garden spoiled for a season so that the little maid wept much. He told her he would make it a fair garden yet, and so he did, for having removed that stone which had prevented all the plants from striking root he soon filled the ground with flowers which lived and flourished.

Just so, the Lord has come, and has turned up all the soil of your present comfort to get rid of some big stone that was at the bottom of all your spiritual prosperity, and would not let your soul flourish. Do not weep with the child, but be comforted by the blessed results and thank your Father’s tender hand!

Last Week at Bible Study…

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…we discussed lies women believe about marriage!  We had a great discussion of these lies and the corresponding truths.

If you’re new here, some ladies in our community have been going through Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  It has been a challenging and excellent study!

The lie: I have to have a husband to be happy.
The truth: Happiness is not found in (or out of marriage). There is no person who can meet my deepest needs. No one and nothing can make me truly happy apart from God. God has promised to provide everything I need. If He will receive more glory by my being married, then He will provide a husband for me. Those who wait on the Lord always get His best. Those who insist on getting what they want often end up with heartache.

The lie: It is my responsibility to change my mate.
The truth: A godly life and prayer are a wife’s two greatest means of influencing her husband’s life. It is far more effective for a woman to appeal to the Lord to change her husband than to try to exert pressure on him directly.

The lie: My husband is supposed to serve me.
The truth: If I expect to be served, I will often be disappointed. If I seek to serve others, without expecting anything in return, I will never be disappointed. God made the woman to be a helper to the man. We are never more like Jesus than when we are serving others.

The lie: If I submit to my husband, I’ll be miserable!
The truth: Submission places me under the covering and protection of God, who controls the “heart of the king.” When I step out from under authority, I become vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. My willingness to place myself under God-ordained authority is the greatest evidence of how big I believe God really is. Reverent submission is a wife’s greatest means of influencing a husband who is not walking with God. A wife’s response to her husband’s authority should demonstrate the way a church is to submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus.

The lie: If my husband is passive, I’ve got to take the initiative or nothing will get done.
The truth: God created the man to be an initiator and the woman to be a responder. If a woman takes the reins rather than waiting on God to move her husband, her husband is likely to be less motivated to fulfill his God-given responsibility.

The lie: Sometimes divorce is a better option than staying in a bad (unhappy) marriage.
The truth: Marriage is a lifelong covenant that is intended to reflect the covenant-keeping heart of God. As He is faithful to His covenant, so we must be faithful to keep our marriage covenant. There is no marriage God cannot heal. There is no person God cannot change. God uses the rough edges of each partner in a marriage to conform the other to the image of Christ. God’s grace is sufficient to enable you to be faithful to your mate and to love and forgive without limit.

Motherhood Is a Mission Field!

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Last week, I read an incredibly encouraging article about motherhood.  It is written by Rachel Jankovic, author of Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches (and boy, is she in the trenches, as she has five children age 5 and under!), which I briefly reviewed here.

Here’s one part of the article that I loved (emphasis mine):

If you are a Christian woman who loves the Lord, the gospel is important to you. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.
At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.
There are a number of ways in which mothers need to study their own roles, and begin to see them, not as boring and inconsequential, but as home, the headwaters of missions.

Isn’t that profound?  I just love the whole article, so definitely take the time to read it all here!

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