I Gave You to God

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Stepping Heavenward and have gleaned so much wisdom from its pages!  I sincerely hope that I have become (and will continue to become) a more loving, patient, peaceful, heaven-focused wife and mother as a result of this book.

Here is one more quote from it before I set this book aside and pick up another one.

Katy is talking to her son about his plans to go to the mission field, despite his father's desire for him to become a doctor:

"Dear Raymond," I went on, "I gave you to God long before you gave yourself to Him.  If He can make you useful in your own or in other lands, I bless His name.  Whether I live to see you a man or not, I hope you will work in the Lord's vineyard wherever He calls.  I never asked anything for you but usefulness in all my prayers for you; never once."

I echo this prayer for my sons.  What Katy says is true:  I gave them to God long before they gave themselves to Him, and my earnest prayer is that each one of them will work faithfully in the Lord's vineyard wherever He calls.

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now I give him to the Lord.  For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.

~ 1 Samuel 1:27,28

Small Beginnings

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

Another Sunday and all at church except my darling Una, who keeps watch over her mother.  These Sundays, when I have had them each alone in turn, have been blessed days to them and to me.  Surely this is some compensation for what they lose in me of health and vigor.  I know the state of each soul, as far as it can be known, and have every reason to believe that my children all love my Savior and are trying to live for Him.  I have learned, at last, not to despise the day of small things, to cherish the tenderest blossom, and to expect my dear ones to be imperfect before they become perfect Christians.


Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
~ Zechariah 4:10


This verse has been one of my favorites in recent years.  It's such an encouragement at this stage of life!

Parenting and Marriage

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy.  As if it chanced that some parents have such children or chanced that some have not!  I am afraid it is only too true, as someone has remarked, that "this is the age of obedient parents!"  What then will be the future of their children?  How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority?  And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?


Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
~ Ephesians 6:1


...


My married life has been a beautiful one.  It is true that sin and folly and sickness and sorrow have marred its perfection, but it has been adorned by a love that has never faltered.  My faults have never alienated Ernest; his faults, for like other human beings he has them, have never overcome my love to him.  This has been the gift of God in answer to our constant prayer, that whatever other bereavement we might have to suffer, we might never be bereft of this benediction.  It has been the glad secret of a happy marriage, and I wish I could teach it to every human being who enters upon a state that must bring with it the depth of misery or life's most sacred and mysterious joy.


So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
~ Ephesians 5:33

Thoughts about Children

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss, some thoughts about children...

Katy remarks about the ease of life without an infant to care for:
...we have had a delightful summer, not one sick day nor one sick night.  With no baby to keep me awake, I sleep straight through, as Raymond says, and wake in the morning refreshed and cheerful.

Mrs. Brown, Katy's hostess in the countryside, tells of a conversation about children that she had with her husband:
"Well," says I, "supposing you had a pack of 'em, what have you got to give 'em?"  "Jest exactly what my father and mother gave me," says he; "two hands to earn their bread with and a welcome you could have heard from Dan to Beersheba."  [I LOVE that last line:  "a welcome you could have heard from Dan to Beersheba."  That's fantastic!]

Katy responds:
"I like to hear that!" I said.  "And I hope many such welcomes will resound in this house.  Suppose money does come in while little goes out; suppose you get possession of the whole farm; what then?  Who will enjoy it with you?  Who will you leave it to when you die?  And in your old age, who will care for you?"
"You seem awful earnest," she [Mrs. Brown] said.
"Yes, I am in earnest.  I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside.  I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come.  I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused."

Katy writes later:
Home again and full of the thousand cares that follow the summer and precede the winter.  But let mothers and wives fret as they will, they enjoy these labors of love and would feel lost without them.  For what amount of leisure, ease, and comfort would I exchange husband and children and this busy home?


A few months later, she writes this:
It is not always so easy to practice as it is to preach.  I can see in my wisdom forty reasons for having four children and no more.  The comfort of sleeping in peace, of having a little time to read, and to keep on with my music; strength with which to look after Ernest's poor people when they are sick; and, to tell the truth, strength to be bright and fresh and lovable to him--all these little joys have been growing very precious to me, and now I must give them up.  I want to do it cheerfully and without a frown.  But I find I love to have my own way, and that at that very moment I was asking God to appoint my work for me, I was secretly marking it out for myself.  It is mortifying to find my will less in harmony with His than I thought it was and that I want to prescribe to Him how I shall spend the time, and the health, and the strength that are His, not mine.  But I will not rest till this struggle is over, till I can say with a smile, "Not my will!  Not my will!  But Thine!"


The next summer, Katy and her family return to the countryside and stay with the Browns:
We got there this afternoon, bag and baggage.  I had not said a word to Mrs. Brown about the addition to our family circle, knowing she had plenty of room; and as we alighted from the carriage, I snatched my baby from his nurse's arms and ran gaily up the walk with him in mine.  "If this splendid fellow doesn't convert her, nothing will," I said to myself.  At that instant, what should I see but Mrs. Brown, running to meet me with a boy in her arms exactly like Mr. Brown, only not quite six feet long and not yet sunburnt.
"There!" I cried, holding up my little old man.
"There!" she said, holding up hers.
We laughed till we cried; she took my baby and I took hers; after looking at him, I liked mine better than ever; after looking at mine, she was perfectly satisfied with hers.
[This exchange reminds me of the joy I had last summer when not only were we blessed with a beautiful baby boy, but so were our next-door neighbors.  It was delightful to be pregnant at the same time as Wilma, and it's wonderful to now see two yearling boys around:  her Jason and my Shav.]

Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.


Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.


Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
~ Psalm 127:3-5

I Have Made Prayer Too Much of a Luxury

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

A conversation between Katy and her husband Ernest:

Ernest begins...

"Instead of fancying that our ordinary daily work was one thing and our religion quite another thing, we should transmute our drudgery into acts of worship. Instead of going to prayer meetings to get into a 'good frame,' we should live in a good frame from morning till night, from night till morning; and prayer and praise would be only another form for expressing the love and faith and obedience we had been exercising amid the pressure of business."

"I only wish I had understood this years ago," I said. "I have made prayer too much of a luxury and have often inwardly chafed and fretted when the care of my children, at times, made it utterly impossible to leave them for private devotion--when they have been sick, for instance, or in other like emergencies. I reasoned this way: 'Here is a special demand on my patience, and I am naturally impatient. I must have time to go away and entreat the Lord to equip me for this conflict.' But I see now that the simple act of cheerful acceptance of the duty imposed and the solace and support withdrawn would have united me more fully to Christ than the highest enjoyment of His presence in prayer could."

"Yes, every act of obedience is an act of worship," he said.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

~ 1 Corinthians 10:31

Happiness Is Not Dependent on...

I suppose to those who look on from outside we must appear like a most unhappy family, since we hardly get free from one trouble before another steps in. But I see more and more that happiness is not dependent on health or any other outside prosperity. We are at peace with each other and at peace with God; His dealings with us do not perplex or puzzle us, though we do not pretend to understand them.

~ Stepping Heavenward

by Elizabeth Prentiss

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare....

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

~ Isaiah 55:1,2,8,9

When My Pride Is Attacked

I am constantly praying that my pride may be humbled; and then when it is attacked, I shrink from the pain the blow causes and am angry with the hand that inflicts it.

~ Stepping Heavenward

by Elizabeth Prentiss

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

"God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble."

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

~ 1 Peter 5:5-6

This One Horrible Sin

More from Stepping Heavenward:

Katy...

There are no words in any language that mean enough to express the anguish I feel when I speak quick, impatient words to you, the one human being in the universe whom I love with all my heart and soul, and to my darling little children who are almost as dear! I pray and mourn over it day and night. God only knows how I hate myself on account of this one horrible sin!

Ernest...

It is a sin only as you deliberately and willfully fulfill the conditions that lead to such results. Now I am sure if you could once make up your mind in the fear of God never to undertake more work of any sort than you can carry on calmly, quietly, without hurry or flurry, and the instant you find yourself growing nervous and like one out of breath, would stop and take breath, you would find this simple, commonsense rule doing for you what no prayers or tears could ever accomplish.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:5-7

Every Link that Dropped Away

Recently, in the spare moments that come my way here and there throughout the day, I have really been enjoying reading Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss. So many golden nuggets in it! Like this conversation between Mrs. Campbell and Katy...

Mrs. Campbell says:

"I was bound to my God and Savior before I knew a sorrow, it is true. But it was by a chain of many links; and every link that dropped away brought me to Him till at last, having nothing left, I was shut up to Him and learned fully what I had only learned partially, how soul-satisfying He is."

"You think then," I said while my heart died within me, "that husband and children are obstacles in our way and hinder our getting near to Christ?"

"Oh, no!" she cried. "God never gives us hindrances. On the contrary, He means, in making us wives and mothers, to put us into the very conditions of holy living. But if we abuse His gifts by letting them take His place in our hearts, it is an act of love on His part to take them away or to destroy our pleasure in them. It is delightful," she added after a pause, "to know that there are some generous souls on earth who love their dear ones with all their hearts yet give those hearts unreservedly to Christ. Mine was not one of them."

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple...Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

~ Luke 14:26,27,33

One Must Stop Reading the Bible or...

Those few visits [to the sick and poor] used up the very time I usually spend in drawing. But on the whole I am glad I went with Mother because it has gratified her. Besides, one must either stop reading the Bible altogether or else leave off spending one's whole time in just doing easy, pleasant things one likes to do.

~ from Stepping Heavenward

by Elizabeth Prentiss

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

~ James 1:22

With Parental Fondness

If there is any one truth I would gladly impress on the mind of a young Christian, it is just this, that God notices the most trivial act, accepts the poorest, most threadbare little service, listens to the coldest, feeblest petition, and gathers up with parental fondness all our fragmentary desires and attempts at good works Oh, if we could only begin to conceive how He loves us, what different creatures we should be!

~ Mrs. Cabot (the minister's wife)

in Stepping Heavenward

by Elizabeth Prentiss

And the King will say, "I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

~ Matthew 25:40