St. Patrick was a gentleman
Who through strategy and stealth
Drove all the snakes from Ireland.
Here’s toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good St. Patrick
And see all those snakes again.
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
Photograph by Beth Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)Today is Palm Sunday – A day to remember Christ’s Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. It is the day that starts Holy Week and the firsts of many events that leads directly to the cross. It has always seemed like an odd day to me – like a day of fake victory. Jesus enters Jerusalem humbly riding a donkey and yet exalted by all the people. “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, Hosanna.” Waving palm branches and making a path of coats and palms for him to walk on they praise him, and rightly worship him. But, why? Why is it the Triumphant Entry? There hasn’t been any real victory, any real triumph yet. That doesn’t come till Sunday and when it does come they don’t recognize it – they praise the small triumphs of little miracles, but ignore the larger triumph of Victory over Death! How petty, how small, how short sighted! They rejoice and praise him as Messiah and then just days later cry out for his crucifixion. How fickle, how erratic, how inconsistent! ….. And how very like ME.
Lord, forgive me for my shortsightedness, forgive me for inconsistency. Forgive me for praising you as Messiah one day and crucifying you the next. Lord, in many ways Jerusalem was praising you in for what THEY expected you to be and do – in many ways they weren’t praising you, but their perception of you. Lord, I know I do that. Forgive me. Lord, show me who you are that I might praise you rightly – that I might in truth and honesty from my deep heart say to you, Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Rejoicing in the journey –
Beth Stedman
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A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend and she turned to me and said that she really liked reading my blog and then she told me I was a pastor – that reading my blog she saw this pastor side of me coming out. I smiled – beamed is probably more like it actually, and I sort of wanted to cry. It was a quick passing comment but it really meant a lot to me.
When I was younger I wanted to be a pastor. In fact in junior high when I was bored and had nothing to do I would write sermons. Then I was told that women shouldn’t be pastors. I struggled with it, but everyone I knew believed that women shouldn’t be in leadership in the church and I didn’t even really realize that there were good God fearing Christians out there that didn’t agree. I accepted it as an unquestionable truth – women shouldn’t lead. I didn’t like it, something in my heart fought against it, but I believed it. I still sort of do believe it – it’s hard to change beliefs like that.
I think all of that is sort of why I like blogging so much – it’s an acceptable way for me as a women to express my thoughts, to preach and teach and encourage and share and be me. I don’t often feel comfortable being me – I get scared a lot, I struggle with insecurities a lot. But when I blog I feel safe to express myself, to question things, to be creative, to preach. I have often felt like I didn’t know what my place is, what my role should be in life, in my marriage, in the church. I often feel like I don’t know who I am – or at least like who I am deep down doesn’t really fit with things people think I am or think I should be. I have often wished I was someone else; there have even been times in my life when I wished I wasn’t a woman.
Today is International Women’s Day… I spent pretty much all day with women today. I hosted a wedding shower for a good friend of mine – I never liked showers much, they always felt really uncomfortable for me. Today’s shower went well and I was really glad to be able to do it and in many ways I enjoyed it but it was still not really any different – it still felt sort of uncomfortable. After the shower I had an opportunity to go out with a few girl friends and just talk and laugh and swap stories of our lives and our marriages. It was so nice to hear the stories of these other women – it reminded me that I’m not alone. It was a pretty good way to spend a day that is supposed to be dedicated to honoring women.
Tonight I find a lot of questions bouncing around in my head. What does it really mean to be a woman? What does a woman of God REALLY look like – not just what does the church “say” a woman of God should look like… but really what should we look like as female followers of Christ? How can I freely express myself and be myself as a women of God in the community I find myself in? It’s easy for me to be authentic online when blogging, but how can I be freed up to be an authentic, powerful, graceful, beautiful, insightful women in every area of my life, the chosen and the not chosen?
I’m tired…
Rejoicing in the journey –
Beth Stedman
Photograph by Beth Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)So, I’ve had a blog in some form or another for something like 6 years now and for most of those Valentine’s Day’s I have written an entry to share a number of quotes about love and marriage. I was going back and forth as to whether or not to do this quote collection this year and finally decided to go for it. I hope you all enjoy these quotes on love and marriage this Valentine’s Day J
“I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness…Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our own happiness…we shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it” – C.S. Lewis
“All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest–never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.” – Ann Landers
“Every marriage moves either toward enhancing one another’s glory or toward degrading each other.” – Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” – Mark Twain
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.” – Tom Mullen
“Allow your marriage relationship to stretch your love and to enlarge your capacity for love – to teach you to be a Christian. Use marriage as a practice court, where you learn to accept another person and serve him or her. And please don’t limit this ‘love’ to ‘spiritual’ things like praying, preaching and exhorting. Part of the experience of love is delighting each other in very ‘earthy’ ways. This, too, is a biblical truth.” – Gary Thomas
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.” – Amy Bloom
“Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” – Barnett Brickner
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” – Ruth Bell Graham“
The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.” – Robert C. Dodds
“Once we enter the marriage relationship, we cannot love God without loving our spouse as well.” – Gary Thomas
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
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If you like this post please consider buying me a cup of tea (Suggested: $3 a cup)Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Today I have been thanking God for my wonderful husband, Bryan! LOTS! I feel so grateful to have such an amazing man beside me on this journey. Here’s a little Valentine’s video I made with some pictures from the last 2.5 years since we got married. It makes me happy to look back on these pictures (especially the wedding pictures) and think about the man that I get to spend my life with and it makes me excited for all the many more years together that are yet to come.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HvoVKIQxKE&rel=1]
Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman
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Beth Stedman. wife. mommy. daughter. friend. homemaker. sinner. believer. writer. cook. dreamer. artist. yogi. photographer. more.
