The Girlhood Gazette

One of the ladies at our church once shared a little piece of wisdom that she would tell her children when they were younger and were less than enthusiastic about doing a job. 

“You can do it happy, or you can do it sad. Either way you have to do it, so you may as well do it happy.”

This sounds like just a good piece of advice to give little ones – but it applies to “big kids” too, and I don’t think it exempts adults either. Much too often I find myself complaining or grumbling about a task I find disagreeable. I may not be outwardly “doing it sad” but in my thoughts I am thinking, “If only I didn’t have to do this. I would much rather be _________(fill in the blank).”

Two Sundays ago our elder challenged us all to really evaluate how much we complain and make it our goal that week not to do it. Did I? Welllll…..

Remember why you are doing those seemingly mundane tasks. Remember to do it as unto the Lord. After all, as the quote above explains, you have to do it whether or not you want to; so while you’re at it you may as well have a cheerful attitude.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

This is one of the most widely quoted verses in the entire Bible. If you’ve gone to Sunday School, you’ve heard this verse. You’ve probably learned it as one of your memory verses. It’s considered one of those verses that you read when you are witnessing to someone.

Generally the verse is read and you hear something like this, “See, God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for us.” But here’s the interesting thing – rarely is the verse quoted in context. With the context, it actually doesn’t mean that “God loved the world so much.”

With the surrounding verses, it reads:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:14-17)

The root word for “so” in verse 16 doesn’t mean “so much.” It means, “in this way,” or “in like manner.” So it might read, “For in this way God loved the world.”

I had always thought that it meant God loved the world so much, from everything I had learned and been told, until a year or two ago our elder at our church preached on this and pointed out the difference.

All too often I think we read a verse without the context and get a distorted view of what it means. Though even with this set of verses, I don’t know if I would have gotten the correct meaning if I didn’t know what the root word means. I know there are Bible programs out there that allow you to look up the actual Hebrew or Greek words and what they mean, which is very helpful for getting down to the true meaning of verses such as this one.

2009 is here! It does seem as though every passing year goes by faster than the last one, doesn’t it? Looking back on 2008 I see many blessings and a few hard times that we’ve gone through.

We celebrated living in our “new house” for one year in February. It’s been wonderful. We live on six lovely acres, 3 of which are beautifully landscaped (by the previous owners). This brings its joys and its sorrows since we have to try to keep it looking nice and have a LOT of trees that always seem to need trimming. We are surrounded on two sides by a golf course and in the winter season it’s beautiful because you can’t tell it’s a golf course. This year Dad bought us snow shoes so we have enjoyed snow shoeing out there.

Also in February my grandparents (on my mom’s side) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary – what a blessing! We see less and less of that these days. My grandparents are a wonderful example to us of a strong marriage. In May we had a grand party and it was great to see so many people get up and honor my Opa and Oma (grandpa & grandma in Dutch) for their commitment to each other. We love them dearly and look forward to seeing many more years of marriage for them!

Oh, let’s see… what else? I turned 16 in April and had the pleasure of being bombarded with questions about if I am driving yet. I am not – probably this year!

In 2007 my Nini (grandma in Chinese – Dad’s side) was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through a very trying series of events to get rid of it. This year we were so glad to see her recover and gain back strength. Praise the Lord!

Toward the fall we were saddened to lose Tara’s cat Scamper after a very long illness. We miss him a lot as our kitties are very dear to us. He was very sweet and lovable and we have many fun memories of him. Sweetest of all was that the night before we had to put him down, he climbed the stairs even though he could barely walk and climbed in bed with Tara for a snuggle, and did it again in the morning, though she had to pick him up because he couldn’t get up on the bed himself.

We enjoyed celebrating our nation’s independence with friends from church. Though our country is far from perfect, we are grateful for the liberties we enjoy.

In August I was immensely blessed by my friend, Raeanne. I have for a long time wanted to play the harp but I didn’t think it would happen for a while (if ever) due to the expense. Raeanne is from our church and has played harp for several years and a few years ago upgraded from a small, 27 string harp to a larger one. When we were over at her house one day she offered to let me borrow her old one, as it was just sitting in her closet. I accepted. I am so grateful for her generosity and for the opportunity to start learning much earlier than I would have if I had waited till I had saved enough to buy my own. Thank you, Raeanne!!

I’m sure there’s a LOT I am leaving out but this is getting rather long. I can’t forget to mention blessings such as, Dad still having a job when so many are losing theirs, blessings in our church – especially the babies that were born this year (including one born New Year’s Eve!), and homeschooling, etc.

I am looking forward to what God will do in 2009!

Before you think, “Where on earth did she get the idea to write on the temperance movement?” let me explain. My sister just celebrated her 15th birthday and for that special occasion she received a huge stack of Isabella Alden books. We love these books and between the two of us, we are already well on our way to finishing the whole lot of them.

Ok, so how does this tie into temperance? If you have read many of Isabella Alden’s books, you may know. Ms. Alden was very fond of incorporating this subject into her stories. It was something she was obviously passionate about. However, I find that I disagree with her stance on the topic, though she errs on the side of caution.

In reading Ms. Alden’s books you will find that many of her characters hold the view that all dancing, card games and drinking is a sin. There are no exceptions to the rule; in fact the reader gets the impression that anyone who does any of these three things is not a Christian. I do realize that dancing and card games back then were probably different than now – card games were played exclusively for money, for example – and therefore the characters have good reason to choose to not do them. Ironically, Ms. Alden’s Christian characters are very much in favor of women speaking and praying in prayer meeting; so it is interesting to note that while the Bible does not speak of dancing, card games or drinking (in moderation) as sin, it is very clear that women are not to speak in church!

The Bible clearly condemns drinking in excess.

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” (Prov. 20:1)

“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.” (Prov. 23:20-21)  (Winebibber = a habitual drinker of wine)

“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.” (Prov. 23:29-35)

“Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!” (Isaiah 5:11)

Yet it does not condemn the drinking of wine in moderation (with the exception of those in the role of priests, elders, etc.). In 1 Timothy 5, Timothy must have been prone to some illness, and Paul recommends that he take wine for it.

“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” (1 Tim. 5:23)

“[The Lord] causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.” (Psalm 104:14-15)

“Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.
And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.” (Deut. 14:22-23)

That said, there are those who do not believe you should drink wine and the Bible does not wish us to drink it if when we do it we cause another to stumble.

“For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” (Rom. 14:20-21)

Ok, so you get the point. Now we can get to the temperance movement. (Long intro, eh?)

The temperance movement actually began by advocating the moderate use of alcohol, rather than total abstinence. Later it changed to a complete rejection of alcohol, which is the stand that Isabella Alden takes. The temperance societies would hold large rallies with lectures on the evils of drink from all angles. They also endeavored to shut down as many saloons as possible. They saw the damage these businesses were doing to men’s health and family life as drunkeness was often the cause of abuse.

Now, all these things are good; it is good to get rid of saloons and it’s good to educate people about the effects of alcohol; but the problem with the temperance movement was that, though many churches and Christians were involved, they were so preoccupied with alcohol itself that they missed the root problem: sin.

If they had focused more on addressing the issue as sin instead of treating the surface problem by shutting down saloons, this and a host of other problems would have been resolved. If you simply treat the symptoms and not the root issue, you won’t get very far. Suppose they had succeeded in closing every saloon in the country and completely abolished the manufacturing of alcohol. The alcohol problem would have been “solved”; but sinful men who are addicted to something will not simply give up on their own. They would go and find something else equally as disastrous or more so.

So all this to say that though the intent of the temperance movement was good, I think they went about the business incorrectly. Signing the total abstinence pledge will not keep an addicted man (or woman for that matter) from drinking; only Jesus can!

(All that said, I still heartily recommend Isabella Alden’s books. Just be aware you will encounter this subject often in reading them!).

I hope you will forgive my rambling on so long about this – it just happens to be the topic that I’ve been thinking about the last couple days since reading the books!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a very random and by no means exhaustive list of the things for which I am thankful to God. They are not in order of importance, but just as I think of them.

I AM THANKFUL FOR:

• Salvation & Forgiveness of sin • A roof over my head • A dad who loves and protects me • Food to eat! • My sister who is always there for me • Warmth in cold weather • The beautiful land we live on • My wonderful mom • My wonderful extended family • BOOKS • The freedom to worship the one true God and read His word without fear • The fact that my dad has a job and provides for us • Chocolate (especially when it’s hazelnut flavored…) • All my fabulous friends • The United States Postal Service and those who send me letters through it • Coffee • Air to breathe and water to drink • The beautiful flowers, trees and plants God has created • And in light of that, for cameras • Cookie dough • Clothes to wear • My parents choice to homeschool us • The way God always provides • Libraries • My parents’ forcing me to keep playing piano when I was ready to quit • Music • Babies (and their moms who let me hold them) • Sewing and the ability to do it • Garlic • The harp that God graciously provided for me to learn on, through my sweet friend Raeanne • Quite appropriately, the smell of roasting turkey wafting through the house • My ability to write and all the other gifts God has given me • Creme brulee • Gardens in which we may grow our own food (and some weeds to boot…) • Vacations • History • My cat, Gavana • Mom’s cat, Basha • The memory of Tara’s cat, Scamper • And all other cats who have played a role in my life • Good bread •

I could sit here all day and just keep adding to this list… but I will refrain from doing so. This is probably already so long that you didn’t even read the whole thing. Oh, well… it was fun for me anyway!

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

 My dad is out of town on business, and when he is gone we girls usually watch movies more than we normally would. Yesterday we watched “Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.”

Though my sister and I are a little old for American Girl dolls now, several people we know had said the movie was good, so we thought we’d give it a shot since we love the Colonial time period, and we figured that since it was put out by American Girl and geared toward younger girls, it would be pretty clean (which it was).

On the whole, the movie was very well done, with much higher quality than I expected. There were some cute parts, notably the ones with Felicity’s little sister, Nan, who is just so cute you could eat her up. But we found some major problems with the story line.

In the very beginning, Felicity “falls in love” with a beautiful horse owned by a grouchy old man, Jiggy Nye who abuses her. So the horse is mistrustful of humans in general, but Felicity determines to tame her. So far so good. But then the problem comes – Felicity sneaks out at night and feeds an apple to Penny (as she calls the horse). She does this multiple times, once getting caught by Mr. Nye. Then one morning Felicity’s grandfather tells her that he saw her coming back to the house, and she pleads with him not to tell. He agrees, but admonishes her to not do it anymore because she is fooling with someone else’s property. Felicity says, “Yes, grandfather.” And I was thinking, “Phew, now she’ll stop this nonsense.”

Or not.

That night she goes AGAIN, despite her grandfather’s command. Oh, and meanwhile she takes her father’s apprentice’s Sunday breeches from the mending basket, and rides Penny at night. Then Ben (the apprentice) catches her putting on the breeches in the barn, and of course demands a reason for her taking them.  So she takes him to see Penny, and while they are there, Jiggy Nye comes out and they duck behind the fence. Mr. Nye is in a temper for some reason, and is about to beat Penny, when she rips the rope and gallops off. Mr. Nye is in a rage and yells, “Well, anyone who can ride ye can have ye! I hope ye never come back!” and stomps into the house.

Now Felicity thinks she has the right to own Penny, because she can ride her. So she goes off and finds her, takes her home, and of course Mr. Nye shows up and takes her back. Felicity flees to the barn in tears. Then her father comes in and is all sympathetic. Instead of punishing her for stealing a horse, he praises her for “helping” it! And he tells her, “You’ve done everything you can.”  She responds,”Not everything.”

Here I think she has to be done sneaking out there, but noooo…. off she goes again in the middle of the night, and frees Penny – without permission from anyone.

Later Penny is found by some horse sellers, and Felicity’s grandfather buys her for Felicity. That seems like it’s fine, and now Felicity lawfully owns her but it’s not. She let the horse go, not Jiggy Nye!

The other thing that had us disagreeing with the film was the whole spirit of independence that is promoted throughout the movie. I could call it feminism. When the subject of Patriots versus Loyalists comes up, Felicity’s family is Patriot, but her grandfather (and best friend) are Loyalists. In bed one night, Felicity asks her mother, “Mother, what should I be?” And – can you believe this – the mother says, oh so tenderly, “You’ll have to decide that for yourself.” Uh, beg your pardon? She’s TEN!

One other less noticeable, but still there problem was the dresses – Felicity’s gowns are VERY low cut. Of course, she’s ten, so it’s not showing anything, but still… There are also older ladies in the film who have low dresses and there is some cleavage.

And one last thing we noticed – though it is VERY subtle – is the fact that Felicity and her father’s apprentice Ben always “happen” to be thrown together – he escorts her to her lessons, and for the ball her father suddenly can’t escort her, so Ben goes with her, etc. And while it’s not that big of a part, you still get the impression that Felicity and Ben probably get married when they are grown up! And remember – she’s TEN.

After we finished watching it, my mom said, “And this is the girl that is being touted as someone little girls should look up to?” I mean, in an hour and a half they show her breaking the 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th (you might even say the 1st…) commandments, and imply that it’s okay! I wouldn’t have minded it if she got a good hard spankin’ after being found out, but instead she is praised!

Here’s some comments from others that I found on Amazon’s listing:

“…For [the] story’s sake, it might embellish on some truths such as little girls disobeying their parents without retribution (although I’m sure most of today’s youngsters will not follow Felicity’s lead in this).” Not sure where she gets that idea. Kids WILL follow examples, and there are many little girls out there who idolize Felicity.

“…I have been a costumes researcher for several period plays, and I can vouch that these costumes have been “modernized” (in terms of the low cut) as have the costumes worn by the actors in Williamsburg and most other historic sites. You can’t judge by such sites. I have to agree with the two previous reveiwers who mentioned it; the mother’s costumes in this piece are pretty far fetched, historically speaking. This point, btw, has got nothing to do with moralizing, but just being historically accurate. The upstanding mother of small children and the wife of a township store proprietor wouldn’t dress like a floozey and get away with it (the townspeople would have more reason to boycott his store than loyalist politics!!).” Preach it!

“…I have heard so many great things about this series, that I was really looking forward to sharing the movie with my kids. The sets and costumes were beautiful to look at, but I sat opened mouthed as I watched this little terror of a child in action. I don’t see anything heroic or daring or admirable about her sneaking out of the house night after night to get into a pen with a dangerous horse, that isn’t hers. She steals the horse, and when she is finally forced to return it, she lets it go. The consequence of her behavior? Her indulgent grandfather finds the horse and buys it for her. It just seemed like whoever wrote it was trying to fasten their ideas to historical characters, and it just sounded overtly preachy. I have a hard time believing a child in colonial times would have gone around sounding like a mini-Betty Friedan. Ultimately, Felicity ends up learning to do housework and drink tea, and gets all excited about getting dressed up to go to a ball…so I’m not even sure what message the movie was trying to get across, other that it is OK to steal from mean ugly people with Scottish accents.” Had to laugh over that one… but she’s right…

“FELICITY is a beautiful film and a loving recreation of an era which one doesn’t often see on the screen. The cast is great and the film is entertaining. BUT the main idea presented to kids via the main character is indeed ‘disobey your parents and all will turn out well’.”

So, I suppose it is needless to say that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this movie.

Now, please don’t just click out of the screen in disgust. I am not talking about dating vs. courtship or anything like that. What I mean is putting the date on things.
What kind of things? Well – anything. Journal entries. Drawings or paintings you do. The letters and cards you write. The linens you make for your hope chest. For those of you mothers reading this, the little pictures you save that your children give you when they are little. You can find an inconspicuous spot on nearly anything to put a date.
Why? For generations to come. Hundreds of years from now, things you have made and written may have survived. How disappointing it would be for one of your great-great-great grandchildren to find them and know that they are old, but don’t know HOW old! Beatrix Potter, for example, wrote many letters and dated most of them; but only two, written to her father, survive from her childhood and they are UNDATED. I love finding things that have the date written on them so that I know exactly how old it was. When looking at old books in antique stores, the first thing I almost always do is look at the publication year – the older it is, the more chance that I will buy it.
That said, I would also encourage you to write the full year. Instead of writing “September 6, 08″ write “September 6, 2008.” Why? Because in a couple hundred years, people may not know which “08″ it is! They may be able to guess based on the actual item, but it is only a guess. For instance, we have an antique woodstove dated Jan. 06. Well, it must have been from 1906 since it couldn’t possibly be from two years ago! But you see we use the same abbreviation for 2006 as 1906.

I hope this helps you to remember to take one more second to add the date. It’s important!

Do it today – send a letter or even a short note to someone you know. Letter writing is becoming a lost art in today’s world of fast, free email. It’s sad, because letters are such wonderful things, both for the sender and the recipient. Who doesn’t like getting “real” mail – something other than catalogs and bills? Sure, it costs 41¢ (and counting…); but think about it. You’re paying 41¢ for a relative miracle that will bring joy to someone else – I mean, really, isn’t it amazing that you can simply write a person’s name, and some more words that are represent where they live, and it will get there even if it’s somewhere on the other side of the world (most of the time…)?

So, that said, write a letter to someone. It can be a simple note card or a volume that’s bordering on breaking the world record. Just do it. When you mail it know that you are sending off a day-brightener – and it only cost you a little time and 41¢.

(End note: Rumor has it that letter writing can be a double blessing – if you send mail, you are more likely to receive it! Makes sense to me…)

“Some people complain that God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses on thorns.“

- Anonymous

Did you know that you can make even the simplest meal special by the way you serve it?

The secret is summed up in one word: presentation. My aunt was a caterer at one time and she lived with us a for a few years, and one of the things that she continually impressed upon us was that “it’s all in the presentation.” We kind of made a joke out of it at the time, but it’s true.

So, how can we dress up our meals to appear at their very best? Let’s look at a couple of ways to make the dishes we serve appealing.

1. Attractive Arrangement
Don’t just dump the food you have made on to a plate to serve it. Look for ways that you could tastefully arrange the food on the plate to make it more attractive. For instance, see what kind of garnishes you could put on the side to give it a little “oomph.” Just a little sprig of parsley or rosemary can change the whole look of the dish. For soups, they look amazingly more appetizing when you add a garnish. The type of garnish will of course depend on the soup (or dish), but I made baked potato soup, and garnished it with a sprinkling of cheese in the center and a little chopped green onion. There are lots of fun garnishing how-to books out there as well that can teach you more elaborate, creative garnishes. Another point is that it does matter what kind of dish you serve the food in! We have one dish that I love because it is very pretty and somehow always makes it look like there is a lot of food in it even if there isn’t! (It also fits asparagus perfectly ) Now, I realize that sometimes we just don’t have time and it’s all we can do to even get dinner on the table, let alone dress it up. That’s okay! But when we do have the time, we should try to make it a little fancy.

2. Dress Up the Table
Aside from the actual dishes, presentation includes your table. Put a tablecloth on, and maybe a couple of tall candles in the center. It’s amazing how this can transform the whole feel of your table – especially if you choose a richly colored tablecloth. If you don’t have time for attractively arranging your dishes, this takes mere seconds. Another fun thing that really adds presentation is creative napkin folding. There are some instructions for a few simple napkin folds here. This really impresses guests too!

So there are my thoughts on presentation… it’s the way to make the plainest meal delightful!