Heritage

I've been reading recently in the book of Joshua, and this past week the story of Rahab caught my attention. It's a familiar story... of how the harlot Rahab protected the Israelite spies and then was spared when the city of Jericho was destroyed. She went on to become a respected member of Israelite society, marrying a man named Salmon. We know she ended up being a great-grandmother (several generations back) of Jesus, and she is mentioned in the "Faith Hall of Fame" chapter of Hebrews 11. What a transformation in her life to go from being a harlot to these prestigious honors!

But something else struck me this time, as well. I had never considered before what kind of mother Rahab must have been. She was the mother of Boaz in the book of Ruth. Remember what an honorable man of integrity he was? He was so gracious and kind to Ruth and Naomi. Then, of course, Boaz and Ruth were parents to Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David, who was "a man after God's own heart."

Genealogies are fascinating to me, particularly when you can trace the influence of a godly heritage from one generation to the next. When it comes right down to it, though, genealogy is just an interesting hobby. It doesn't matter to God who my ancestors were, but rather what I have done with the opportunities He has given me.

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
--Steve Green

When I Grow Up...

Since Mother's Day is this weekend, for my Show & Tell I wanted to show you something I "inherited" from my mother...

As Mother was unpacking her luggage when she and Dad were here in March, she handed me this 40-some-year-old stationery box.
"Oh, Mother!" I said somewhat reverently as she placed it in my hands. "You found it! Do I get to keep it?"

She seemed a little surprised. "Do you even know what it is?"

"I know exactly what it is!" I told her. "It's our wedding veil! I don't think I've seen it since my wedding. I thought it was lost!"

"Well, I thought you had it all these years, but I came across it the other day. And, yes, you may keep it, since the other girls didn't wear it."
You see, it was actually her wedding veil from 1965. But I wore it for my wedding in 1985 as "something old" and "something borrowed". Mother didn't give it to me then because she didn't know if either of my sisters might want to wear it for their weddings, too. And since it turns out they didn't, she passed it on to me!
Ever since I was a very little girl I've loved Mother's veil. She designed and made it herself from alencon lace, seed pearls, and tulle. She had a tradition in the early years of putting on her wedding gown and veil every year on her anniversary. Here is a picture from 1968 where she let me try on the lovely veil:
I'm sure she's holding my hands so I wouldn't try to mess with it and tear it up! I felt like a fairy princess or something to get to try on something so beautiful. I wanted to be just like my mother when I grew up.

The years have come and gone. Now I'm middle-aged and my mother is a "senior citizen"... but that still seems to be my ultimate goal in life: to be just like Mother when I grow up. I'm still learning and growing... and trying my best to pattern my life after hers. She has always been the example of a perfect lady, a gracious pastor's wife, and a devoted wife and mother. Her mother before her was the same way... and even my great-grandmother was. I have a precious heritage because my "fore-mothers" followed Jesus. Ultimately, that's who my life will be patterned after if I follow in their steps.

I love you, Mother!
Happy Mother's Day!

Vintage Thingy Thursday

For today's Vintage Thingy Thursday I decided to show you some of the string art my husband made when he was a teen. Although, I dunno. Is late 1970s/early 1980s considered "vintage"? Or is that just "retro"? Or do they mean the same thing?

When we moved into this house with the knotty-pine walls in the downstairs family room, I immediately decided that would be a perfect place to display the string art. I've never had the right place to display it all together like this before, mostly because the colors are so retro. Not exactly colors I've decorated with... and pieces are quite large. I do like looking at them, though, so I am happy to finally have them grouped together like this.

Each piece is actually a wooden board covered with black fabric. Lyle hammered in precise rows of tiny nails to form the frame-work of the patterns, and then used colored string to complete them. Most of the pieces he did were abstract, like the 3 larger ones. He made the owl for his mother, who collected owls. Last time she was in our home she gave it to me, but only if I promised to display it and enjoy it as much as she had! (So there ya go, Mom!)

We used to have another piece he did that was of a garden room with house plants. That was my favorite one, but unfortunately it was damaged beyond repair sometime along the way. He also did another one for his sister-in-law (a pianist) that was the first few bars of Beethoven's 5th.

Backyard Living

After a very long and snowy winter, spring seems to have arrived at last! I've seen daffodils and tulips around town nodding their pretty heads in the gentle breeze. We are having more sunny days than cloudy... and the temperatures are finally warm enough to enjoy being outside.

I've been in the notion to work in the yard lately. Wanna help me?

(The azalea bush was a housewarming gift from dear friends.)

Summer weather here in north Idaho is very conducive to outdoor living. Days can be hot during July and August, but it doesn't get terribly humid and the temperatures cool off in the evenings, so we love to sit outside and watch the sun set and the stars come out.

Remember, this is a new house for us, so what landscaping there is was done by the previous owners (or tenants--who knows?). I've been poring over gardening pictures trying to get an idea of how to make this somewhat boring backyard into a cozy extension of our living space. But on a shoestring. With low maintenance options. I know... I don't ask for much, do I? I have lots of ideas, but not a lot of money... or spare time.

We decided to start with the existing deck for this year. Of course, I'd rather have a real porch... or a gazebo, at the very least... but we work with what we have. The deck was in pretty good shape, but hadn't been maintained in several years. The ground had settled under it, so it bounced as you walked across it. Lyle's first project was to reinforce it. He took up several boards evenly spaced across the width of it, and put in concrete blocks underneath, and then put the boards back on. He's a pretty handy guy to have around! Next he plans to stain and seal the wood.

In the meantime, I wanted to create a place for weekend picnics, early morning coffee, and twilight stargazing. We already had the nice yard swing with a canopy, but we didn't have a table. We thought that a round table-for-four with an umbrella would be a good fit, since the deck is not covered, nor are there any shade trees. We shopped around a bit but hadn't yet saved up enough money to get what we wanted, when I found this set at Goodwill one weekend!

(Please ignore the scraggly grass and the fast-food cups.
But feel free to admire the cute doggy!)

It only came with 3 chairs and no umbrella. We have other chairs and we could buy an umbrella (and we will, eventually)... but rather than spending the money for that right now, I came up with the "brilliant" idea of using our camping canopy to serve the purpose for this season. After Lyle got the deck put back together, he helped me arrange the furniture.

It's a start anyway. I'm trying to figure out if it would look stupid to hang some sort of curtain on the front side of the canopy as a shade from the evening sun. Maybe something white and gauzy to tie back on the sides when we don't need it? What do you think?

Well... it's still pretty boring, but at least we now have a place to sit. I plan to add more flower pots with bright flowers this weekend... and I've got my eye out for for a tiny bistro table with 2 stools for the corner of the upper deck. (We can't see the mountains from the lower deck!) And we need to figure out something prettier for under the upper deck. I'm open to suggestions! On a shoestring, of course.

Marriage Monday - "The Crazy Way We Met"

Not too long ago my mother and I were talking about the new trend toward “courtship” among some of the more conservative Christian and/or homeschooling families. Mother had heard a program about it on Focus on the Family and she was telling me that even though we didn’t call it “courting” that was pretty much what we practiced in our family back in the 1980s. Our parents didn’t say we couldn’t “date” in high school, but they did impress on us that having a serious relationship with someone of the opposite sex was serious business and best not entered into until we were old enough to begin considering marriage. That’s why I did not have a serious “boyfriend” until I was in college. It came about like this:

Once upon a time...

During my senior year of high school (in Ohio) my plans were to go to Bible college in Indiana the following year. Rachel (my aunt) had graduated the year before and was already there. She had already connected with her future husband and so she was scoping out the other guys for me! At Christmas time the college choir went on tour. She was in the choir and when they came to our church, she told me, “Karla, I think you ought to like Lyle.” He was also in the choir and beyond knowing who he was, I didn’t know anything about him… and for sure, he didn’t know who I was… but she expected me to just start “liking” him! We had been reading Romeo and Juliet in English class, so I quoted to her one of Juliet’s lines: “I’ll look to like if looking liking moves!”

Of course they weren’t there long enough for me to do much “looking”… but I thought about it all the next spring.

In May the college hosted an all-day open house for prospective students, so my family went. And, I “looked” some more! But from a distance. I did not have the nerve to approach Lyle to strike up a conversation. I didn’t think that would be very ladylike anyway. I was impressed with what I saw, but I was pretty sure that Lyle still had no idea who I was. So Rachel decided to help things along!

The college PR team was scheduled to be at our church in a couple of weeks. Rachel was in the "ladies trio", and Lyle was the sound technician for the team. During their tour Rachel recruited the help of the other girls in the trio and they started telling him about me. Rachel showed him my senior picture… and by the time they came to our church he was interested in getting to know me.

The funniest part is that my sisters (twins) are only 18 months younger than I am, and at that time we looked a good bit alike. So when the PR group came into the parsonage (our home) after the service, Lyle had to ask someone which one I was! We have laughed about that since then, because while we may have looked alike, my personality is totally different than either one of my sisters.

At the end of the evening Lyle asked if he could write to me. He was going home to California for the summer, but we would both be at Bible college in the fall. I was happy to give him my address. (And I have all those wonderful hand-written letters as a treasured keepsake because, of course, that was before the days of email!)

That was the beginning of our friendship. As we got to know each other that summer and fall we discovered that we really were a perfect fit... and that God meant us for each other.

It’s hard to believe that was 25 years ago! Time truly does fly when you’re having fun!

And we lived happily ever after!

Naturally there were quite a few more details between "Once upon a time..." and "...happily ever after", but the assignment for this month was to write about "the crazy way we met" so I'll save the other details for another time.

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