Running with Flippers

 Running With Flippers    by Emma Machowski

Imagine that you are in a race, and the race takes place over land
and water. No one in this race is running the same route. Some
people never haft to swim; others are in the water almost immediately.
Before the start of the race everyone puts on their running shoes,
and they are given a pair of flippers for when they reach the water.
Now the race begins, you are running steady and well in your running
shoes.

Not long into the race a few people decide to try and run
wearing their flippers. You think nothing of it, but as the race
progresses more and more people begin to take off their running shoes
and put on their flippers. Then theses people begin to tell you that
it is much more thrilling and exciting for you to wear the flippers,
“why wait till you come to water?” they ask. They also remind you
that you might not ever come to water, “what if your race is one of
the ones that is on dry land the entire time? Then you would never get
to wear you flippers". You begin to think about it and as you are
pondering whether or not to put the flippers on you hear a voice
behind you say, “why don’t you let me hold the flippers?” You look up
and see the creator of the race and track is coming toward you. He
offers to take the flippers again. You are hesitant because you feel
as though giving him the flippers would be like giving away the hope
that you will ever come to water. You explain this to the man. He
smiles and says “I know exactly what your race track looks like,
remember I planned this race for you. Nothing you do can alter the
course of this track. If I planned for you to come to water you will.
And if you do I promise I will be waiting for you with your flippers.
If instead you choose to keep these flippers, you will try running in
them. You will be able to run, but not very well and you will fall
down numerous times. Your flippers will become banged up, so then if
you do reach water, your flippers wonk work as well as they could
have. If you trust me and give me the flippers I promise the whole
race will be easier. For it is easier to run on dry ground in running
shoes, and swim in the water using undamaged flippers. Will you
trust me?

Quiet Submission

In our culture women are encouraged to think for themselves, step out on their own, and make their own decisions. Although this may not be a bad thing, we need to remember that God has given us parents and teachers for a reason. They are there to protect us, to teach us, and to help us in making tough decisions.

We are constantly told that women are just as able as men to protect themselves. But is this really true? And even if it is true, should we seek to prove our strength? Should we venture out on our own just because we can? The culture tells us that we should get out from under our fathers and get out of the house. We need to get a career and become strong women in the work force. But our parents, particularly our fathers, are in our lives to protect us. Your father desires only the best for you. I can say that I am so thankful to have my father in my life. I know that any man that wants to pursue me will be questioned thoroughly and often by my father! This is just one way that I am thankful for my dad's involvement in my life. Sometimes it can seem as though we are being to protected, and this is when we are called to submit. Just like our Heavenly father, your dad has no reason to withhold any good thing from you. We may not think that what we want to do is bad, and if this is the case we can humbly appeal. But we must learn to respect and submit to our parent's decisions.

Your mom in particular is given to you as a teacher. With her advice you can avoid costly mistakes. We can often feel that our parents need to “get with the times”, but we need to not forget that our parents have made some stupid mistakes and they are willing to show us the way around those mistakes. All it takes is for us to listen and submit. Your mom has a wealth of information, and you can learn from the choices you see her making. Please, if God has given you the gift of a wise mother, don’t let this gift go to waste!

Along the same lines as teaching us, our parents are here to help us make tough decisions like where to go to school, whether or not to get a degree, and many more of life’s biggest challenges. We as women have the blessing of never needing to be really all on our own. We have fathers and brothers and one day we will have a husband. These men are God's blessings to us! When we submit to our parents and humbly come to them with our bid decisions we can find joy in their help.

Let's be looking in the future for ways to honor our parents by submitting to their rules. Let's rejoice in there protection of us, there willingness to teach, and there love in helping us with tough decisions. We are so blessed! Why don’t you take some time to thank God for your parents and then come up with one way that you are going to try submitting this week.

An Apology.

I am going to take this time to apologize for not really explaining the last post. I was feeling overwhelmed at the fact that I had just started a blog with Katie and people would be expecting consistent posts! The reason I posted something about spending time in the word is because I believe that this is a vital part of our quest to becoming biblically feminine woman. Femininity has a lot to do with your heart. When you are close to the Lord, then you will desire to obey him and follow his commands, and the way that he desires us as omen to live becomes much clearer. So with that said, Katie and I will not always be connecting our posts to the Jane Austen era. In the long run, however, everything that we talk about will reveal more and more about our hearts and draw us closer to the Lord and his design for us as women!

It is very important for young women to spend time in the morning with the Lord. Sadly we tend to push this important need aside hit the snooze button, roll over and catch a few more minuets of sleep. So what will we get out of five minuets of time with the Lord? Well I can tell you from experience that even the smallest amount of time spent with the Lord can impact your day greatly. Even taking the time to read one proverb and then applying that particular verse into your life can be such a benefit. Deuteronomy 11:18 says, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads”. Why do you think the Lord is telling us to do this? Well if you skip down a few verses you will see. Deuteronomy 11:20-21, “Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” As you can see there is a great blessing for those who take the time to read the bible and feed off of it. Now I can speak from experience that it is so hard to get up in the morning. I am not a morning person. You might be surprised to hear that my dad consistently has all of us children wake up at six thirty in the morning. By seven we are all sitting in my living room for family devotions, after that is done all the children head back to their rooms to do their private devotions. We have until eight to do this, but I normally take that time to catch up on my sleep (I mean come on six thirty). Some of you, in fact most of you, will have to find your own time in the morning to do devotions. But even if you have an assigned time it is very easy to fall into the sin of sloth. But if you take time every morning for the Lord you will find that that will be one of the best parts of your day. One thing I have done is going outside on summer mornings (in the morning the sun isn’t fully up so its normally the perfect temperature) I will sit on our back porch, read the bible and pray. I told you this because you might find that praying of reading your bible in your bed can very easily distract you form the Lord. It might be nice to find a comfortable, quiet place other than your bed to spend time with the Lord. Overcoming the sin of sloth is a battle that you must continually fight, but remember that the lord will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

2 Corinthians 9:8

Welcome!

Dear readers,

As Katie and I were thinking about what we wanted to write on this
blog, I began to think about the Jane Austin’s books and that time
period.  I love that time in history and what was portrayed as far as
masculinity and femininity go.  This era was wonderful but not without
its faults.  One of the things that I like most about that time was
the way in which men and women related.  There was an obvious
difference between men and women. It was a time when being a gentleman
was held in highest esteem, and being ladylike meant having class.
Being gracious, kind and caring, were all things to be sought after.
But the were also weaknesses during this era.  Women were mistreated
and used as if they were no better than slaves.  Well today in this
time we have succeeded in fixing most of the problems we had back
then, but something else has happened.  We have traded the good of
femininity for the good of rights.  So now women are counted as equal
with the men, but we have lost every bit of grace and poise that
age-old characters in Austin’s novels possessed. Where did it all go?
We have become so obsessed with proving our equality that we are
willing to trade some of the most precious gifts God has given us.  We
fail to recognize and encourage gentlemanly behavior.  And we try
harder and harder to prove that we are as good as the men. There must
be a middle ground in between being ruled by men in femininity and
being like men in masculinity.  There must be a way to weed out both
the bad in each situation. How can we as women in this culture shine
with the ladylikeness that the Jane Austen characters had.  And still
delight in the privileges that we as women experience in this age?
These questions and many others started to roll through my mind.
Katie and I are going to unpack this in our blog.  We hope that you
join us on this adventure.

Emma Rose.