Memorial Day

My, how time has whizzed by like a whirlwind since my adult children with children have informed us, the grandparents, of our duty and obligation to the annual getaway of the adult only children. To put it in a nutshell, it means we, that is the grandparents, get the opportunity, as my adult children remind me often, to babysit. Well the youngest is three so that is not really babysitting, but then again when you are approaching sixty, almost touching sixty to be exact, three years old is really close to being a baby. And so as the annual trip goes, the adult children gather together and plan for a year their adventure trip, reminding the grandparents, us, of how much fun they will have on this gathering of the brothers and sisters and how I should appreciate how much they like each other, as though that makes their plans easier to encompass for the grandparents, us, to embrace. Ha! It just makes me wonder if I truly can survive another of their annual trips of the brotherhood and sisterhood, because it means we, that is the grandparents, us, get the opportunity, there is that word again, to babysit the adult children's offspring. Don't get me wrong I love those little ones. They are a blessing to me and to my heart. They are fun and full of life. These children of my adult children light up my life and remind me of my legacy. However, and that is a very big however, I know how fully tired I will be and ready, yes very ready, to give these little ones back to my adult children when they arrive four days later. Without any regret, I will close the door behind them when they leave and collapse on the couch, a bittersweet smile on my face that the annual trip is over and yet a good time well spent for everyone!

Women In Ministry

OK...it has been a while, well maybe a long while since I have blogged however I just read a blog by Felicity Dale, co-author of The Rabbit and the Elephant, about women in ministry and it sparked my need to comment. Since I am a woman and since I am in ministry and since I believe all women and for that matter all men are in ministry as Followers of Christ I want to clarify what being a woman in ministry really means. I believe we are all called to be available to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God. To me that is ministry and all living human beings are to do this. It was Jesus' last words on earth. However the kind of ministry I think Felicity was talking about is from a pulpit. While I am OK with a woman in the pulpit (I use this word to refer to the use of a platform which could represent a woman talking to a group)and I have had the opportunity many times myself and enjoy doing so, I believe there is a point that needs not to be missed. In the beginning, when man and woman were created and woman stepped up in leadership and led her husband into biting the apple, I believe at that time her man could have and should have covered her with something like this, "Now honey you know what God says about this. I am taking the leadership here and I am not going to eat the apple. I know you already have taken that bite, but because i love you so much and because the buck stops here as your leader, I am going to not participate in this. I love you very much however I am going to be firm in my leadership role and cover you. I know God will understand because He is a loving God." Now that is leadership magnified. I do believe as a side-note that Eve would have been covered by Adam's obedience...we will never know though will we? So with that said I think it is very important that women grab hold of the value of being an equal partner however also know the equally important value of being under the covering of their husbands. If a woman is not married God is her covering and in all things she must be diligent to seek God's counsel and the wise counsel of Godly people both men and women in her life. If a woman is married she must be under the counsel of her husband which does not matter if he is a believer or not which is a hard concept for a woman whose husband is not walking with Christ as his head. In this way all her ways will be blessed because she is not seeking the limelight for personal glory rather being in submission to God's authority as her ultimate head and then to her husband. I have more to say about this in my next post.