"The memory of my mother, and my mother's mother, and her mother's mother's mother are all mine... They were set aside for me, my heritage, for me to reclaim when I awoke... The memories of a hundred lifetimes are mine." So speaks the dragon in Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb. By God's grace, so speaks every daughter of mine upon being given a Classical education. I'm raising dragons.

I have been working through one injury after another this season. It’s like being knocked down by an opponent who just keeps coming. It feels like I’ve got blood on my hands and knees and my face is in the dirt. I am pretty sure my rib is broken. (Really, doc says it’s an abdominal muscle tear this time.) When I catch my breath, I ask, “God! What are you doing?!” “I know how to build a champion,” He says. “Trust me.” He whispers to my heart. So I get back up. And I’ll get back up, because He says I will.

I think I’ll put a few of Portia’s and Calphurnia’s choicest quotes to memory, so I can use them at timely moments in conversations with my husband. “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure?” and “Alas, my lord. Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.” are too good not to use again. Dwayne probably deserves better, but I only have one husband, so he will have to endure.

When This Kindness is Through

When this kindness is through, who will I be? 

His grace at work as yeast, kneaded as dough,

My flesh baked in His breath, blessed, broken, passed,

Enjoyed in joy, consumed by Him, a part 

Of Him, now whole. A stone within a Stone, 

In hand, He tumbles me. Held fast, I am 

Shaped a living stone, quickened, possessed. 

Obsessed He be to bear the image forth. 

Such art as this a fearful thing 

To give my God such leave. Love bears so much 

away from me. But such a love it is! 

So I'll press myself into His press. Changes 

Will come quick indeed. To make is His, 

To be made is mine. So be still, my soul, to see.  

-Veronica Boulden

These are good, but they are not You.

The Lord may give us everything we want, but it is likely to break our hearts. Not because what we want isn’t good, but because what we want isn’t good enough. Even His best gifts are no substitute for Himself. So He breaks my heart with His gifts. In His love, I find Him heaping good upon me, faithfully schooling me over and over in that same old Truth, until again I can see and say by heart, “These are good, but they are not You.”

"To Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever"

Me: "Lord, I love your world! I enjoy so many things!"

God: "You were made for it all."

Me: "There isn't enough time for it all."

God: "You were made for me."

Me: "You are Infinite."

God: "Yes. Exactly."

Me: "There is plenty of time then."

God: "Yes. Eternity."

Fear not, little wren

Fear not, little wren.

Your nest is in mine

And I am in God, you see.

For He brooded first,

Now we do the same,

And over our songs He sings.