Do Moms Really Vacation?

We went on vacation to Gatlinburg in the middle of July with my parents, but I hesitate to call it a vacation. It took us four hours to make the two and a half hour trip after several bathroom stops, including ones for Elisha saying he needed to potty, which meant he pooped his pants.

Being a mom of three, you basically have the same work to do at home as you do when you are vacationing: meals, naps, snacks, baths...and the list goes on. The only difference is you have to add preparing for excursions and dealing with skipped naps. The first few days Rusty stayed back so that he could preach, but my parents were there to help me. The only bad part was that their condo was about a half mile away and several flights of stairs.

We went to Dollywood twice. The first time we set out in the rain. We went on in at Rusty's urging (against my better judgment). The kids rode one ride, and the solid downpour set in. We attempted to watch a show, but after waiting thirty minutes, they cancelled it. Rusty, being the good and brave dad he is, then headed off to take Caleigh down the log flume. He hiked the mountain only for them to close it when he got to the top. I was forced to leave that area of the part due to lightning, which meant pushing Elisha and Josiah through torrential rain. We were soaked to the bone, and finally, wisely, we decided to leave the park, only to go in for nap and turn around and go back.

We spent another day at Cades Cove. My stepdad thought it was only a few minutes from downtown Gatlinburg. Not so. We were in the car for several hours with me sitting in the floorboard. We saw about four deer and a snake and some horses and turkeys. We assume there were some bears because of the line of traffic we got stuck behind, but we didn't see any. Thankfully, the kids were pretty good, and we got to enjoy a nice picnic in the woods.

The last day we returned to Dollywood, and even though I started the day in a pretty bad mood, we really had a nice time. My parents and grandparents kept baby Josiah, and he was really sweet for them. Uncle Cole hung out with us a bunch. He was such a good uncle. He rode the kiddie rides with the kids, and I teased him that I was going to post pictures of him in a the duck for his friends to see. All went well except when Elisha cried himself to sleep because his daddy went to do a ride and then woke up screaming so hard he threw up since Rusty hadn't returned.

All I can say is I'm still wondering when I'm going to get a vacation....If your answer is in 18 years, please don't respond.

At a cabin in Cades Cove

Caleigh posing....after a whining episode

Rusty and Elisha in the creek. Caleigh refused to get in the water after seeing some fish, even though she had played in it an hour a few days before.

Using the 3 dollars Geez-Paw sent for the dryer.

Leaving Dollywood after the flood. Not a thing on us was dry. (Taking kids to an amusement park while it was raining...against my better judgment)

Josiah in the pool with Granna...I think we may need to buy stock in sunscreen with this one.

Josiah playing with Co-Co after many hours crammed in the van at Cades Cove.

Downtown Gatlinburg

DottieWood Again!

Back Shot!

4 and 27 instead of 24/7

Happy Fourth of July with the Collums! We waited a long time for the fireworks to start. Every year I wonder if it is worth the wait, but we enjoyed the fellowship with our new friends as we tried to keep our children from being plowed over by moving traffic.

Josiah: Red, White, and Blue

The girls

A kiss from a sick brother to a sick brother

Happy 27th Birthday to me! My sweet parents made lasanga and brought it to my house. The lady at their church couldn't make an Italian Creme Cake, so we settled for the Bi-Lo one. It wasn't nearly as good.

June's End

Josiah learned to sit up by himself

He likes to play with his toes, too!

Happy Father's Day, Poppa!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Josiah's first trip swimming

TWM: Man! I Feel Like a Woman...Really???

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"

I'm going out tonight-I'm feelin' alright

Gonna let it all hang out

Wanna make some noise-really raise my voice

Yeah, I wanna scream and shout

No inhibitions-make no conditions (no self control)

Get a little outta line

I ain't gonna act politically correct

I only wanna have a good time (typical hedonistic attitude of our era)

The best thing about being a woman

Is the prerogative to have a little fun (fun, fun)

Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy-forget I'm a lady (no need to be proper

Men's shirts-short skirts

(Be as powerful as men; possess sexual freedom)

Oh, oh, oh, really go wild-yeah, doin' it in style

Oh, oh, oh, get in the action-feel the attraction

Color my hair-do what I dare (I-define-myself mentality)

Oh, oh, oh, I wanna be free-yeah, to feel the way I feel

(freedom from any societal norms, but also freedom from God's beautiful design)

Man! I feel like a woman!

Read the lyrics to that song, and if you're discerning and biblical wise, you can't help but see how the feminist movement has warped our view of womanhood. What can I say? I heard that song on the radio tonight and almost didn't realize what I was singing and had sung along to many times. But, when I stopped and thought, I realized I was supporting the downfall of biblical womanhood.

In "You've Become a Long Way, Baby" in VotTWM, Mary Kassian provides an educated overview of the development of feminism. Let me summarize her history lesson. Basically the Feminist Revolution began in the late 1950s as Betty Friedan started to question the happiness and freedom as wives and mothers. She found many women to be dissatisfied in those roles based on the discoveries she published in The Feminine Mystique, calling women to trust on other authority than their "own personal truth" and overturn the male dictated image of womanhood. Thus women had to reject Judeo-Christian beliefs regarding truth and gender.

As the Feminist Movement gained momentum, women renamed/redefined themselves, and with this came "1) full self-determination, 2) freedom from biological distinctions, 3) economic independence, 4) total and equal integration not the workforce, and 5) sexual freedom" (VTWM, 61). The movement gained support through "conscious raising" - bringing women together to share their frustions with in hopes of breeding a collective bitterness that would lead to political activism. This bitterness spread through the country, which resulted in the mentality that women were actually better than men. Societally everything changed as women's studies programs popped up and the doctrines of the Feminist Movement trickled down from the higher institutions of learning to the kindergarten classrooms. They also questioned the identity of God. THey couldn't accept the God of the Bible because He is male, so they began to say they were to the ones to define God--making themselves gods.

How ridiculous this all seems to me now. Ten years ago I was, "I am woman. Hear me roar." I was convinced I was just as good as any man and could do anything I wanted to do. I may have even believed a girl could do anything better than a boy. I was ready to make my way in the world. I didn't realize I was contradicting myself as I stood in my cheerleading uniform waiting for whichever boy I happened to be dating to pick me up. I wanted the power of the feminist movement at the same time I wanted the love and protection of a patriarchal society (though my desire for this love and protection was also perverted).

As women, we don't realize how we have bought into the lies of the Feminist Movement. We believe a joy, freedom from children, and

sexual freedom will bring us happiness. But look around...Are women happier with these things than they were before? No! They're torn. They hate being left to work and care for a home - two full-time jobs. THey hate men who want provide or abandon their families. Most women have what they want when it comes to being equal with a man, but still they are dissatisfied... just like the women Betty Friedan interviewed.

They are dissatisfied because they don't have Jesus. We all have areas where we fill unfulfilled due to sin. I am single, so I want a man. I am married, so I wish I were single. I don't have a baby, so I want a baby. I have children, so I wish I had waited longer to have children. That is why we have to accept God's design though we live in a sinful world. He created us male and female, and He did this to teach us about the Trinity and about Christ and the Church. Kassian points out Romans 9:20-21: "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"

We shouldn't question our Maker. If you believe God is all-wise and all-good, you won't reject the beauty of true womanhood. Man, you can feel like a woman, a woman who is pleased by her Maker and in turn is desiring to please her Maker, not please herself.

TWM: How Inscrutable!

I feel bad (because I have sinful guilt issues) that I have not blogged about the second chapter of VofTWM, but it just hasn't happened with vacation and VBS and my husband, who left the computer at church the one night I set aside time. So, let me start with, How inscrutable are the ways of the Lord.

In the second chapter of the book, DeMoss doesn't start where you think she would start in a book about women, yet she starts in the best place -who God is. She walks through Romans 11:33-36:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

By looking at who God is, and then believing He is who He says He is, we are able to yield to His plan for our lives instead of doing what we want to do, as my daughter says. God is rich. He possesses everything. He has given us everything we have, and He can give us anything as He chooses. He knows everything, which means He knows everything about me, my past, my fears, my sins, my desires. His ways are inscrutable, and this is the thing that blows us away.

We ask how a good God who possesses all things and knows all things can do something that seems ridiculous or wrong to us. If our financial situation doesn't allow us to go on an exotic vacation or put back a large sum of money for our children's education or pay for a needed surgery, we ask why a God who possesses everything can't provide for us. If we have to deal with the most inconsiderate husband or struggle with ongoing depression, we can ask why a God who knows everything won't make everything better. I assume based on my own experience we all ask these questions of God, but I know when I ask them I am forgetting that I serve a God whose ways are inscrutable.

Knowing who God is doesn't negate our hardships. It only helps us to deals with our hardships in a biblical manner. DeMoss lists several examples from the Bible in which the women involved didn't understand God's sovereign plan, but from our point of view in story of redemption, we see that God was working for His good as well as their good: Ruth, widowed and parted from her people; Hannah, suffering infertility; and Mary, facing a teenage pregnancy and watching her Son die on the cross). Like these women, we have to continue obey the Word when life doesn't seem fair and things don't go our way.

"For from him and through him and to him are all things." All things...it is hard to grasp, isn't it? Any time I grumble and complain about my circumstances it is directed toward God. Why didn't my kids take a nap? Why didn't anyone help me clean up after supper? Why didn't she invite me to go with them to lunch? All these questions reveal the state of my heart, the passions at war within me - mainly selfishness. I am craving something other than God, and in turn, I'm angry with God for not giving me what I want. Thus, we must remember God orchestrates everything, gives us the strength to endure anything, and receives the glory for all things.

DeMoss concludes with three things a woman must do if she is going to ascribe to this marvelous view of God. She must have a God-centered life, she must trust God, and she must say, "Yes, Lord." Oh, how I how struggle to do each of these. I am a me-focused person. I enjoy worrying more about what needs to be fixed in my house than I enjoy thinking about a God who fixed the universe. I don't trust that God will bring good in my situation. What good will come of sleepless nights, disappointing turnouts at a church function, or seasons of spiritual dullness? And, I don't say, "Yes, Lord." I usually say, "But...,Lord?" If you really love me, you'll make my baby sleep, so I don't have to wrestle him all night; you'll help me be more patient right now, so I don't speak harshly with my children; and you'll help my children better receive instruction today, so I don't see like the horrible, crazy parent who can't control her kids. But, instead, I must recall over and over again, "the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"

The lyrics to "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" by William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.