James
It has been hard, this winter, to find the time to form a coherant thought and type it in to this blog. Somehow, writing at night when it’s still light out is so much easier than writing at night when it has been dark since late afternoon. Today, it struck me. I have time to myself on Thursday afternoons, the only hour and fifteen minutes of every week where I have no obligations, and no one else is home. So why not designate this my time to tell you what I have learned? Why not indeed.
So. James. I read this book a while back now, while knitting socks for my Grandpa. It’s probably my favorite book. It starts out with the words Consider it pure joy, my brothers…
What a happy start, right? Well, it is. But it goes on. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. And you know what? It’s true. In the past few months, every time I teach something to my boys, or answer a question about God, Jesus or the Bible, I have a thought flash through my mind. That thought is, Do I really believe what I am telling them? And the answer is always yes. But the questioning leads to more questioning, doesn’t it. I always wind up by saying a quick and fervent prayer, Lord please help me to believe what I believe. But that perserverance is there, because I still say the prayer. I still teach them the things that the other side would have me forget to tell them. I have to. I can’t let my kids down. I can’t let my God down. Oh, I know that in my lifetime, I will disappoint them all, over and over. But I will keep trying not to.
This book is filled with amazing things. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (1:5) It’s that easy. I sure lack wisdom, don’t you? I have been trying to ask for wisdom even for small stuff. How do I teach this? How do I fix that? It helps to ask. It helps even more to be helped. Just the other day, I prayed and asked how I could go on with the routine we have had on school mornings, it has been too cold for Stick to walk to the door of the school to drop off his brother, and then back to the car. And then a wonderful woman offered to help me. She has played with him at our house the last few mornings so he could stay home where it’s warm, and yesterday especially, it was truly a blessing.
When Pistachio and I got to school the power was out. The school property backs on to the property of the Catholic french immersion school. They had power, and the portable at our school had power, but the main building didn’t. Apparently, half the city was out. Which is amazing because the lines are 98% underground. The city had told the school that the power would be back at 11. (It was 8:30 at this point) So they were collecting the entire school in the portable, and then they were going to walk over to the Catholic school and spend the morning in thier gym. I decided just to bring him home, so we went to find his teacher to tell her, and then headed back to the car. Just when we reached the car, the power came back on. So back we walked. All in all, it was 9am before I headed home. It was cold, about -24C. I am so thankful that Stick didn’t have to come. God provided care for him that day, for sure.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (1:16) Lots of comfort there, hey? Every good gift is from God. Every thing that makes us happy is from him. And since he doesn’t change, that will always be true. Therefor, all things that are not truly good and perfect gifts, those are not from him. Enough said.
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. (1:19-20. Read verse 21 as well, that is also full of perfect advice.) If there was a verse that I need to have tatooed permanently on my heart, this is it. If I am having a tough day, if I get mad at my kids in the blink of an eye, am I teaching them about the righteous life that God desires? Or am I distracting them from what is right by my own bad behaviour? I need to practice this more.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (1:22) And there is the key. There are a lot of wonderfull insights in this book, but I will trust you to read them yourself. Have a pen ready, or a highlighter, you will need it. But this verse right here, this says it all. If we read this book, the bible, like any other book, enjoying it while it’s in our hands, and forgetting it later, we might as well not even pick it up. But if we read it, mull it over, and chose to live it, that’s when it becomes alive. This is so blunt. Do what it says. That leaves no room for interpretation. No room for negotiation or procrastination. Do what it says.
What about you? I want to hear it. What verse in this book moves you? Which verse has made you sit up straighter and rethink? That happens to me every time I read this book. Several times. I need to knit this book again, some day.
Right now I am working on Song of Solomon. So far, I have been left with more questions than answers, but I have gone to an expert for help, and hopefully will have something for you about that book next Thursday. Until then, I will leave you with this, James 5:13
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
Simple as that.
And in other news…
I have two patterns available on Ravelry! First off, Sunny Side of the Street. I am very excited to announce that my humble sock knitting bag can be purchased here, at Three Irish Girls. I was blessed to be able to offer it to my friends in the Sock Yarnista club as the extra for October, and now any one who wants to can purchase it for $2.49US. Thank you Sharon.
And just today, I have added Don’t Be Mouthy to my Ravelry store. This scarf was created by Stick, our 3 year old knitwear designer, and knit by me. It’s a fun, playful, and quick knit, and the pattern is free. I hope you like it.
Hello, neglected blog
Hello, neglected blog. I bet that you have wondered where I am, what I have been up to, and when I will get around to posting my thoughts on the book of James.
The truth is, I haven’t been so busy that I couldn’t have made time for this. I just didn’t make time for this. I have been knitting, and knitting a lot, but I haven’t been knitting a lot of socks. Since the James socks, I haven’t knit any at all. I do have a lovely skein of Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennet in Forget me not, which is sitting beside my computer being all promising, but I have yet to cast on. I even know which pattern I will be using. I even instigated a knit along using this base, that started January 2. But I haven’t cast on.
My plan is to read a book of the bible to go with these upcoming socks, but I don’t know which one yet. I do plan to get that going soon, because I am feeling the void that was so filled by this project when I was more committed and consistent. I will return. I just need help. So prayers for my motivation would be appreciated. Suggestions of books that will go with beaded knee socks (and the book Pride and Prejudice, because the kal is also a read along) would also be appreciated. Thank you.
James
I love the book of James, because it always seems to speak directly to me. When I need a reminder of where I am weak, and some reassurance that I can do better, this is the right place to go.
I am knitting Rock-a-bye by Gina House for my grandpa. His name is James, and that is my tenuous link from the socks to the book. But they are both what I need to be working on right now. I will keep you posted about how they are coming.
It’s been a while
Hello! It’s been a while! Being the non-technologically minded person that I am, when my password for wordpress stopped working, I tried to reset it, and then was unable to log in until I took the time, a very long time, to get it working. But I am back.
I have been reading, and knitting, but over the summer, I didn’t make much progess on this project. But I have recently knit another pair of Bible socks, and here they are.
I will come back later to tell you about what I read while I made these socks, but here first is the story of what happened while I knit them. This is copied from my post on Ravelry.
It was nine o’clock at night, and I was ready to start my fish socks. I was in my sewing room, which is in our basement, winding the yarn. I love my ball winder, but once again, it stopped working. So I sat and wound the yarn by hand, off the swift. I was even enjoying the quiet time, the so soft Beckon sliding between my fingers as I sat, no one calling me, nothing else to do but play with string. And then I heard it. Scritch scritch scritch. The sound was coming from my treadmill. The undeniable sound of a mouse. Was it under the running platform? I sure hoped so. I got up to check, but before I folded up the machine, I put on my running shoes. Why? I don’t know. But there was nothing underneath. I layed it down, and resumed winding, thinking how on earth am I going to get that mouse out of the treadmill without taking it apart? What if it bites the wiring? I didn’t want to hurt the mouse, I just wanted it out of there. I finished winding the yarn, and came upstairs. But it quickly became clear that I didn’t have enough of my first choice for fish colour, so back I went to the yarn winding. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw a brown blur. It ran off a shelf (where my wedding album is) and into a waste paper basket. The sound of a crinkling paper bag made me jump, and it ran away. But is was back in no time. I grabbed a bucket, and fit it into the garbage can as a lid, trapping the mouse. I ran upstairs, and woke my boy up. Calling his name did nothing, but the words Come and see what I caught had him wide eyed and out of bed in no time. His brother was not at all interested in waking up. We took the “trap” outside, and this is what we found.
See that cat food? I believe that my boys mixed it in there with some water, and I forgot about it. It must have been there for months. The candy wrapper indicates that my husband was in the sewing room. We had a cat until a month or so ago, when we gave her away because of my son’s allergies. When the cat’s away…
I was proud of myself. I caught the mouse, and dealt with it, by letting it go in the park, without having to wait for my husband to be home. But when I bragged to him, he told me that he had heard scrabbling behind the tv. The morning after my mouse took off away from us. We bought a humaine trap. I set it up, checked it yesterday morning, and guess what? There were four mice in there. FOUR. They were smaller, thinner, and a bit scraggly. I think the first mouse was their mom. Poor little fellas. Our neighbours have a snake. Enough said. So far, there haven’t been any more in the trap. I hope that my mouse adventures are as done as my socks.
Socks Raveled here.
Again, I am amazed
Once again, I am amazed by the gentle promptings that I am getting. The Lord is clearing his throat, nudging me to my own realizations of what I do, how I act, and what I should do, and how I should act.
This evening, reading in Mark, I was reminded that in my family, I am not being first by putting myself last. I am not serving my family in the ways that I should. I should be serving by doing the things I would rather not, like the cleaning, and the proper cooking, even on days when I don’t feel well, or my man won’t be home for dinner. I need to fix this. Thank you God, for reminding me.
Esther
Switcheroo Socks
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Esther, both the reading and the knitting. Since it’s such a short book, I read it every night before bed, during the 6 day stretch that it took me to knit them. At first, I didn’t really get the underlying emotions in this book. It took me several days to see why King Xerxes would listen to his councillors, and depose the queen. I mean, all along I understood that her refusal to leave her banquet to go to the king at his would have been a big deal at the time. But finally I saw that it would be a big deal now. Reading between the lines, I figure that the king was a bit unsure of himself. He made no decisions without consulting his experts. This banquet he was giving was a big deal. In the third year of his reign, he invited all the nobles, officials, military leaders, and princes in his kingdom to celebrate with him. At the banquet in question, he also had all the people, from the least to the greatest, who were in the citadel of Susa. Esther 1:5. Here he was, showing his might as king, which was important, because I am sure with all the different cultures in his kingdom, many of them of conquered peoples, there must have been rumblings and plots to overthrow him. And his wife refused to come.
My husband is in no way powerful like Xerxes. But I respect him. I love him. I would not want to belittle him by refusing to show my face at an event this important to his career. The queen didn’t just say “Not tonight dear, I have a headache”, she showed how little she respected him, or cared for the outcome of this major political campaign. No wonder she had to go. In the next few paragraphs, the men agreed that if word got out, none of the women in the kingdom would listen to or respect thier husbands. As a girl raised to believe that I can do anything a man can do, I had to say, where is the problem here? Shouldn’t women respect men because they have earned that respect, not because traditionally they had no identity of their own? But then, as a married woman, I realized that if we are given permission to not care about our men, no, if we are led to not respect our men, what does that leave them? Would they respect us? Not a chance. And this was no heartless action. This was no easy decision. Chapter 2 starts out Later when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.(2:1) This anger, and most likely hurt, went on for a while. He didn’t look for a new queen right away. But when he did, all the eligible young maidens in the land were required to go to the palace. (Kind of reminds me of Cinderella.) They were to spend a year getting beauty treatments until thier chance to go to the king would come. They got one night. And if he didn’t ask for them after that, they would stay in the harem forever. What sacrifice. No chance of a home, husband or family of thier own. And Esther was chosen to be queen! A young orphan girl. Alone in the world but for her cousin Mordecai. To be brave enough to go through with the audition, let alone to accept the staring role, is more than I think most of us would do. I am sure that she felt a conviction in her heart that she was where God wanted her to be. I think that’s why this book speaks to me. I have felt that conviction before, I knew, without a doubt, that I was where God wanted me to be, and that I was doing what he wanted me to do, and there was no way I could go wrong with that reasurance in my soul. That is something I want again. I want to live my whole life with that sort of conviction.
I feel like I have already written almost as much as the original author of Esther did, so I will leave it at this. I can’t wait to start another pair of Bible socks. I am still working my way through Mathew, I have hit a few reading set backs, mostly through my own sloth, but I hope to get to another pair of socks after a few more New Testament books are under my belt. Thank you for reading.
Fit for a queen
Guess what? I have started a pair of Bible socks! I pulled out some beautiful Kells Sport in Megan, and thought at first it wanted to be Craic. But I quickly realized that while the colourway is light, and almost tone on tone, it would not due for that pattern. When I came across Switcheroo Socks from Knitting Socks with Handpainted yarns, I knew that Megan wanted to be those socks. As I started knitting, I thought of my good friend Megan, who I have been missing lately, as she is brewing up her 8th child, and has gone off the knitting for a while. The colourway is fresh, soft, and beautiful, just like Megan. And I realized that I was meditating on Meg’s favorite book of the bible as I knit. Esther. The yarn is perfect for that book, a lovely colourway, with depth and flashes of brightness, can I compare that to insight? The yarn base is a sport weight, soft, yet strong. I imagine that Queen Esther was all thes things as well. Chosen to marry a king she hardly knew, risking her life to save her people when he misguidedly agreed to a law that allowed anyone to kill Jews. And this pattern is so pretty, so delicate, but with the underlying strength of the yarn, it’s perfect. I am so excited to have started this. I will read the book of Esther until the socks are done, and then get back to Mathew, where I am currently reading. I have some catching up to do on the blog, for sure. I hope you are as excited as I am!
Jonah
I think that pretty much any one who will actually read this blog already knows the story of Jonah and the big fish. It’s a story that is in every one of the kids bible books we have. But they usually end with the whale spitting Jonah out. What happens after that?
Jonah went to Nineveh. He didn’t want to, he ran away, but he learned his lesson, and he went. When he got there, he proclaimed God’s message, and the people actually listened. Right away,
The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Jonah 3:5
It goes on to say that when the news reached the king, he did the same. I love that the people didn’t wait for instructions from the king. They did what was right, as soon as they recieved chastisement, and he followed suit. God saw what they did, and changed his mind about the punishment he had said was coming. And this made Jonah angry. He was upset that after all he had gone through to get to Nineveh, there was no punishment forthcoming. He didn’t rejoice in their salvation. God even asked him if he had any right to be angry. But still, after this, he went and found a place to watch from outside the city, to see what would happen. He trusted God enough to go to Ninevah, but he didn’t trust in God’s word of forgiveness. So God made a vine grow to give Jonah shade and shelter from the sun. Jonah was happy, and clearly felt that he deserved that shade. But then God made the vine wither and die, and Jonah again was angry with God. How often do we do the same thing? Treat blessings as our right, and losses as an insult? God again asked Jonah if he had any right to be angry. He pointed out to the man that the vine was just a plant, and that there were more than 120,000 people in Nineveh, and that they were much more deserving of concern than the vine was.
Our priorities are important, not just to us, but to God. He sees what is really in our hearts by what is important to us. These socks will have vines on them, to remind me to value what is important to God over what is temporary and not worth much.
