The Sorority of Maternity, has its own initiations.

We seemed to take it upon ourselves in the matter of course. It was like a blooming garden as the bellies which were once the youthful feminine shape became distorted and went from oval to round and sometimes several times. It is beautiful to observe, from the outside, now. The beauty that God has placed in the human reproductive cycles. Even that was directed, by "Mr. Conductor", so to speak. You families are waiting and waiting, he said one day to us all. Look at dear Carol Hoffmaier, who is now providentially hindered from having any more children. Will you wait, till your bodies can't have anymore? We shuddered to think of this. We were waiting until...the nests were just so. They could or couldn't be just so for long. We learned to trust the Lord and God used our dear Elders there at Trinity to guide us through the fecundity of our precious childbearing years.
Blest Be the Tie that Binds...Our hearts in Christian Love.

So we sat as yearning Ewe Lambs...

Looking to our undershepherd for direction for our youthful lives. What do we do, now that we are young Christian wives? I will tell you what my mother did, was the answer Pastor Martin gave us. She prayed on the floor for the salvation of this soul. She gave hospitality to strangers and my wife did also. We were yearning to be that kind of woman. Fellowship and right service to husband and the church were the longing of our hearts. We committed that we would make his preaching come alive in our homes. So, we respected our husbands. All of our training had taught us to be self assured and determined feminists.
I still remember the message about the woman with the alabaster box of ointment. I was sitting in the back of the church and I felt the Lord call us to go outside of our comfort zone again. We couldn't live in Christian huddle, it was time to envision and live to God's glory where we were planted, as hard as this was. It was time to leave Trinity.
Laboring to anoint the feet of Jesus was the motivation. Laboring to give service in an uncomfortable set of circumstances. Englewood was where we lived and we would lend our praise and prayers there.

I have had occasion to remember the breaths of motivation that got us to this point.

I do remember, with fondness the slights of influence that were inspirational to us, when we were in our early married days. We had elders in our lives, who were positively directive to help us hone our desires in marriage into one. What we want to be as individuals did not eclipse what we wanted to be as a family. What is a family that fears the Lord? What are the investments of time and attention to look like? First thing, praying and seeking the Lord to help you to love and care for eachother. Second preparing to care for children and the aging parents that God has given you. You will want to be ready to care for them when they get older. That is why you want the woman to be at home, so that she can be that care taker to children and the elderly in a humane way.
Pastor Martin did this, by telling stories of the struggles of he and his wife in the care of their parents. The struggles of having different scruples than the older generation. He laid out the conflicts of carrying children and parents on his family's back and we yearned to be that kind of a family to our siblings and parents.
What should you be yearning for, young praying women? You should want to be godly and growing in grace and wisdom, so that your fruitfulness will be useful to God. Yearn to use your beauty in hospitality. Yearn to use your knowledge to serve the brethren. Yearn to see the prayers of your hearts enfleshed in the world around you. Yearn to pour out yourselves for the education of the next generation and the comforts of the older generation. We followed like little lambs and we loved to do this. For her (the church) our tears were spent. For her our hearts were enlivened and enlightened. He directed our loves and our lights. I see you lighting up, my daughters. Let the word of God direct that light.
It is not by accident, that we were homeschooling and trying to direct the generation after us. We were instructed and directed to do this. We had calculating elders send us out, as it were, two by two.

There were wolves and they vanquished the flock in their self-serving. Took and did not give. Wow, what gullible sheep, you are?
God knows!
He knows our hearts and he knows the people who are self serving and ate of the flock.

God allowed us to care some for parents.
Anyway, it is the older generation to make the beds of the future generations. We are the ones who teach them to pray and to serve in this nation. We are the ones who make them desire to serve Him, or not, as the case may be. Thank God for the elders at Trinity, who gave us a sight for past our own noses.

So Blessed to learn to cast my care...

I do imagine the devil going to God daily, carrying our complaints before God. As it shows him in the book of Job. God says to the devil, where have you been. He answers the Lord. I just imagine, he brings up to God the complainers. This person is accusing You of this and that and Your goodness is questioned in this or that way. I haven't heard that Job was among the complainers, it seems to illude to, in the passage. Almost, as though that is the measure of godliness on earth. Jesus carries our griefs and pleads on our behalf before the Father, but the devil is pleading against us.
How many of us are among the people that God hears murmering and complaining, though we are blessed with sooo much? It is good to give thanks to the Lord on high. We make elaborate excuses, why this or that kind of expression of praise is not to our liking and I am a very picky musical listener.
I know what it is to complain about a sour note or a mis-hit note in a song. Far worse than a sour note, is complaining. AHHHHHHH! Do, re, mi!
God is merciful and he listens to every petition, but, murmuring is accusing God of unjustness, in His providences. Too often we are the ones who the devil is carrying the gossip, to God to tell on our murmuring. Jesus paid for these sins too. But, how sad to grieve our good God's heart, by our unbelief. Unbelief, wrought from griefs and sins and sour complaining, is ugly and blinding. God's Word has the remedies and we can grow in faith to look to the God of His Word, when our hearts condemn and accuse the good God, who has cared so well for His people.
God seemed to say, I never hear you accuse Job of unbelief. He is careful to praise me. How many people on the earth were richer or poorer than Job, but one man was on the earth at that time whose praise to God had made him a monument of righteous love of God. The ungrateful rest of the world. Shameful that we are accepting the gifts of God and complaining about them with the breath that He lends. God help us to glorify God in our bodies.