O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship;
narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and strife.
(Unknown said that.)
PS: You ought to read about Dorcas Smucker’s need for a new motherboard.
Dorcas Smucker
Like a Mother. (And a Father.)
Over at Life in the Shoe, Dorcas Smucker as a short-but-excellent post on Looking Like a Mom:
| Obviously the implication here is that looking like a mom is a bad thing. Maybe that’s because the popular perception is that looking like a mom is all physical, and all moms are sloppy and out of shape. At least that’s the impression I get when people meet me and insist that I can’t possibly have six children, which is flattering in its way, but I think the essence of a real mom shows up on her face and I hope that’s what people can see in me.
I am proud to be a mom, and I hope people can look at me and tell right off that if they have a problem they can tell me about it, that I’ve survived enough crises to know what to get upset about and what not to, that I’ll happily dispense advice, that I believe in better things for them, that I’ll drop everything to make them a cup of hot tea, that I’ll happily mother anyone who needs mothering. And if someone stops me in a store to ask what to buy for a ten-year-old, I’ll feel honored. |
Way to go, Dorcas!
While I do not wish to look like a mother (or a grandmother), I want to “feel” likewise honored in looking like a father or even a grandfather.
After all, that’s what I am.
Whether or not I look like one, let me be the best at both that I can be.
Long ago I wished for a father’s heart like the Father’s heart. My wish was sincere. And intense. And quite ignorant.
Ignorant because I didn’t know the breaking and restructuring the granting of such a wish would require.
Ignorant because I didn’t realize the fragility of such a heart. (No, that doesn’t make God fragile!)
Do I now have a heart like the Father’s? Not even close. But I’m far closer than I was before making that request of Him.
And I think I understand His heart better than I used to.
So — again — I ask: Let me look and love and lead and live like a father should.
And like the Father does.
Learn About Life in the Shoe
Except here they’re out of their shoe and in someone else’s.
And it doesn’t seem to have panned out too well.
But it does make for a funny read.
Here you have the outer edges of the sandwich:
| The Great Getaway
Paul and I like to take an overnight getaway in June before our marriage takes its annual battering during harvest in July and August. This time Paul went above-and-beyond and booked a lunch cruise tomorrow on a ship in Portland and a room at the Holiday Inn. Through Priceline of course. So we checked in this afternoon. The room was on the fourth floor, and beautiful. And cold. […] Just a few minutes ago he left again, saying something we couldn’t understand. I don’t know if the drain is fixed or not. He’ll probably be back soon with his toothbrush and pajamas and popcorn and a movie. Go visit your Holiday Inn for your next romantic getaway, the one with three curved sides, on NE 2nd just across from the Rose Garden. |
So there you are — a ringing undorsement of the kind I thought I had posted for the Super 8 in Tucson at West Starr Pass Blvd (but which I can’t find here now).
Paul and Dorcas, I hope today is better. And if that guy showed up again, I hope he brought his interpreter.
Mexico Trip
About 41 hours ago our family returned from a quick trip to “our” congregation’s mission in northwest Mexico. (We left home shortly after noon on Monday, April 21.)
I intended to post here at least a couple of times while we were gone. Since I didn’t, I’ll do some catching up over the next few days, I hope.
For now, four photos.
Our three children-still-at-home who went with us: Andrew, Michayla, and Dora.
Their parents: Ruby and Mark.
The dad giving the message during the Sunday evening (April 27) service at the Emmanuel church in Santa María, Sonora, Mexico. I didn’t know about the photo till I found it on the computer a few minutes ago. Judging by the angle and the knee on the left (and by the fact I don’t recall a flash flashing), I deduct it was a surreptitious shot.
Now for the final picture for this post, a book sighting!
I saw Dorcas Smucker’s book Ordinary Days. At various times I saw my wife and daughters reading it. I even heard (excerpts, laughs, chuckles) them sometimes. So for Dorcas’ sake, I shot her book, shown above on one of the “couches” in Margaret Miller’s living room. (Now click the book title, buy the book, and thus send a small commission my way. 🙄 )