{7QT} -- Scruffy Yards, Culture of Death and the Voice of Truth

1. 

This post brought to you today courtesy of :

My kids are whizzes at setting the tent up and they will play for hours in it.  It's fantastic. :)

2.

Whether you can tell in the above pic or not, our yard is looking really scruffy.  We are a little rancher in a cul-de-sac of beautiful new houses and its a little daunting.  Yes, our grass stays mowed (thank you, Grandbob!), but not much else.  So we are the house with the outdoor toys vomited all over the front yard and we are the people who saunter out to our cars on the weekend, guiltily noticing the neighbors in straw hats and gardening gloves meticulously weeding and mulching their beds and pretending we didn't.  Anyways, I can't mulch, because Grandpa's Zinnias are sprouting!  I'm so glad!

 3.  

On Mother's Day we took a trip to see Azalea Hill at an arboretum in our area.  I don't like azalea bushes any other time of the year, but they are glorious in the springtime.

We collected Gypsy Moth caterpillars too.

4.

I really like Jenny's blog.  She is honest and witty and she's not afraid to speak out.  I saved this post on sex ed, especially for the following passage on what to say to your child about their sexuality.  As she says so truly, its not enough to say "No, no, don't touch that."  We must say something more, because there is SO much more.  I loved this:

Sex is holy. Your body, male or female, was designed with intention. The way you feel about the opposite sex is good – it’s meant to draw you into relationship with your husband or wife one day, and to bring forth new life, new souls. You are created with the capacity to create with God, within the relationship you’ll have with your spouse one day.

There are a lot of things you’re going to hear about sex as you get older, especially once your friends start dating. And it’s okay that you’re curious, that on the one hand, you don’t want to hear about their exploits and conquests, but on the other hand maybe you feel drawn to know what they’re experiencing. There is nothing wrong with being curious about sex. It is purposefully designed to be very, very attractive and very enjoyable.

What we’re going to help you understand and integrate is that sex is designed with a specific purpose: to bond you to your spouse for life, and to bring forth new life.

If you have a sexual thought or daydream, that’s okay. It’s not dirty to think about sex, and it doesn’t make you a creep. It’s not okay, however, or healthy, to dwell on the sexual thoughts and impulses you’re going to experience. That makes the practice of chastity – of rightly ordering your desires and behavior – more difficult. When you find yourself experiencing a sexual thought or a temptation, bring it to the Lord in prayer and tell Jesus, “thank you for making me this way, thank you for the gift of my body, teach me how to love as You love.”

You don’t have to be afraid of your body, or of the gift of your sexuality. You do, however, have to learn how to use it properly, how to integrate what we are going to teach you and what you will learn over your lifetime about chastity and love, for the sake of your soul and for the good of your husband or wife.

We love you. We’re glad you’re maturing and becoming an adult, and God has a plan for your sex life that is better than anything the world can offer. You can trust us. We will always be open and honest with you.

I hope that I can show my children this truth well!

5.

I visited a blog hop this week on Post-partum Depression and Anxiety.  It was thought-provoking and honest.  I have a little to say about it, as I experienced it to some degree after Rosebud and Sunshine.  I remember that I felt such frustration and guilt over not being able to enjoy my wonderful baby and my wonderful life when all I wanted to do was run away from everything or go to sleep "till Doomsday."  Having a little baby in your arms is such a special blessing and you are supposed to feel happy and blessed, so that makes it worse to know that you are in reality overwhelmed and sad.   I felt lonely and misunderstood, and afraid to admit these feelings to anyone for fear of being judged or pitied or  . . . maybe it was just the fear that giving voice to the depression would make its hold over me more real.   

6.

I have been thinking recently about what it means to women, in our daily lives, to live in this "culture of death."  Even if we are living our own openness to life and contraception, does that mean that we, in the deepest parts of our mother's hearts, are unaffected by the countless words of "no" around us?   No to being a mother, no to life, no to blessing that are said by so many women, perhaps within our own family members.  A pervading thought in my mind in my own postpartum depression was one that seemed like it was not my own: "I don't want this. I don't want to be a mother.  I'm a bad mother."  It's like it was this voice that was trying to sabotage me.  A voice of the culture of death.  I shouldn't believe it but a lot of times I did!  I wonder if all the mothers and women that experience this "voice" (all of us?) is part of this big cultural lie that surrounds all of us, this concentrated attack on motherhood.
21% of pregnancies end in abortion.  That's not counting those fertilized eggs (babies!) that die when they are stopped from implanting by contraceptives.  That's a lot of "I don't want to be a mother"s said.   We are swimming against the tide with our "yeses," but the womb is still a war zone.  Motherhood is a war zone.  

7.
This is a A Screwtape Letter for the Unappreciated Mom that my friend sent me recently.  Its really good and really true, I think.  The part about getting the mothers to believe that these "obnoxious little people are not really worth the sacrifice" resonated with me especially this month . . . (this lifetime?) 

Bonus!
Cuz I don't want to end the post on a bad note! :)
Back in December my family and I went to Casting Crowns concert

It was really amazing and inspiring.  My very favorite song of theirs (out of many good ones) is this one:

"I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth." 

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