Rockin' and Readin'

First off....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my nephew, Collin!!

And now for the daily reading.

For nearly one and a half hours each and every day, I sit in a rocking recliner and rock our little JN to sleep.

The special time doubles as my reading time. I love it.

Everything in me wishes that I had taken the time to rock Addie and Will to sleep for a while after we brought them home. Why didn't I? It's so fun. Most times anyway.

Sometimes he's flailing too wildly for me to enjoy reading a book, but usually he snuggles down in and in about 1/2 an hour he's snoring.

It's a very special time.

Not only is it a special time, but it's super good for my devotional life. I get in a rut. We get up early around here. The whole family, children and parents alike, are up and out of bed no later than 6:15. If I were a disciplined person, I would get up an hour earlier to spend my quiet time with the Lord.

However, I am not as well disciplined as I would like. I'm working on it, but I feel that I need sleep as well.

Anyway. The first time that I rock JN to sleep, I also lay Addie and Will down to rest. At 10:30 each morning, I finally have some quiet time.

For the past week I've been reading a book by Elizabeth George, "A Woman's High Calling". I know next to nothing about Elizabeth George, but I do know that I love her writing. She's so blunt. She's so practical. She writes on my level...which isn't overly deep, yet not overly shallow.

It's a super good book. There are so many good points. If I were a person who highlighted phrases in books, there would be yellow marks on every page. But I'm not a highlighting person. I love to re-read books, and if there are yellow splashes here and there I tend to only read those and never pick up new things.

"Beloved, this is how you and I are to live our lives as women with a high calling. You see, our calling is to godly behavior, to sacred behavior, to holy behavior. Our conduct must complement our high calling in Christ. It must match our calling to be engaged in sacred things, the things of the Lord. We are to walk through the minutes and the hours, the days and the decades, of our life as a priestess would walk through and serve in a temple. We must live our lives as if all of life were a sacred assembly. We must apply to all of daily life the reverent demeanor, the sacred conduct, and the holy behavior of a priestess in a temple. That, dear one, is our high calling from God, a calling to godliness."

Wow. What a calling.

She goes on with what I will call "The Eight P's to Becoming a Godly Woman".
1. Pray - Prayer wil most definitely affect our behavior.
2. Purpose - to be more aware of God's presence.
3. Praise the Lord!
4. And Praise the Lord some more!
5. Pick - a point for meditation
6. Prize - your high calling to reverent behavior.
7. Plan - to act in ways that attract attention to the Lord rather than to yourself.
8. Ponder - your behavior and your choices, for by them you tell on yourself.

(These were all taken directly from the book, pages 19-21.)

She ends this first chapter with a poem. She doesn't say if she wrote it or where it came from, but I love it.

YOU TELL ON YOURSELF
You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which you burdens bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph.

You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By them manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf:
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.

Ouch.

That's all I have to say about that.

It's a book that I have read over and over, and every time something new strikes me. It's a book that is written in a way that I feel as if I am sitting at her kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee (which would be great if I liked coffee) while she is kindly, yet gently pointing out all the areas that need help in my life. It's a book that expounds on Titus 2.

So that's what I've been up to.

Reading and rocking.

And just a few hours later, you'll find me reading and rocking.

And come bedtime, you'll find me reading and rocking.

It's such a special time.

I hope he doesn't mind rocking til he's, oh, 15 or so.