Twins due to arrive any day

As my regular blog readers will know, my sister is having twins. Her babies are now due to arrive any day! Twins are induced at 38 weeks if they have not come before that, as it is not healthy for mother or babies if the pregnancy extends beyond that point. My sister is now 37 weeks. I have several prayer requests for the birth, in case any of you can spare Janelle a place on your prayer list! My sister is a midwife. She strongly prefers a natural birth, such as she had with her first child Esther. This is reflected in the prayer points.

* Please pray that Janelle will go into labour before she needs to be induced.

* Please pray that there will be no complications in the birth that would necessitate a caesarean.

* The first twin has its head down, but the second is breech. Please pray that the second turns well after the first comes out (it should have plenty of room!) so that Janelle does not have to have lots of pain killers while they turn it ( or a caesarean if they can't).

* Please pray that the many staff who will be attending this twin birth will be a blessing. It is not ideal to have so many (eight at last count) but my sister is going to a public hospital and does not have much choice in the matter.

I would have loved to post pictures of my sister, but unfortunately the compter where they are stored is refusing to allow me to connect to the internet! In two weeks, I should definitely be able to post pictures of two much loved babies!

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Learning from Titus

I love the book of Titus. It is packed with practical instructions for life. This means it is not a comfortable book. My personal life often does not reflect its commands. Many churches also do not emphasise or reflect its teaching. Yet the book of Titus also shows how far we have progressed. Titus 3:3: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” I identify with this description of what I once was! Likewise, many of my brothers and sisters once lived this way. Yet God miraculously intervened. He showed kindness and love (3:4). He saved us according to his mercy, “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” not due to our works (3:5). God gave us abundance through Christ (3:6). Now we have been justified through grace and have an eternal hope (3:7). What a contrast with our former situation! Jesus Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for our sins has liberated us to walk in life, hope, and freedom.

In the light of the facts about what He has done for us, God tells us to obey his commands. Titus 3:18 “This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.” We are not to be like those who profess to know God, but deny him through their disobedient works (1:16). Our liberation is not only a motivation to good works. It is also an event that reminds us of the power of God. If God is powerful enough to turn our lives around, he is surely able to help us complete the good works he requires. While as individuals and churches we do not yet put into action all the commands in this book, we have hope that God will bring it about.

I have been memorizing Titus 2:1-8. This segment of scripture gives instructions to Christians of various age groups. I hope this will help me to pray for others. I also want to obey verses 4 and 5. These verses teach that young women are to love their husbands, love their children, be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, and obedient to their husbands. As I have stated on my blog before, I believe these verses apply to all young women even if they are not yet married. If this is what God wants for us at a future date, it is worthwhile to begin preparing now! Obviously I can't yet love or obey my husband, but I can aim for some of the other goals. I often work on loving children, as I am with them nearly every day. As I memorized these verses, I realised that I did not even know what discreet meant! I consulted Macquarie's dictionary, and this is the definition it gave. Discreet: 1. wise or judicious in avoiding mistakes or faults; prudent; circumspect; cautious; not rash. 2. not given to careless talk; restrained. 3. not flamboyant; unobtrusive. I quickly realised I had a long way to go before I achieved that goal!

While I had the dictionary out, I was also inspired to look up the word homemaker. I love this definition: "one who creates and maintains a comfortable and welcoming ambience for the members of a household". This definition places the emphasis upon people, where it should be. God wants us to have confortable and happy homes. This would usually involve cleaning and cooking, or delegating it to someone else, but that is not the focus. The reason God wants women to be homemakers is that it blesses and serves others. It is possible to have a spotless yet unwelcoming home. All women can be homemakers no matter what their current work situation is. However, creating a welcoming home for our families and communities does take time and effort. This means that it is reasonable to conclude that at some times in our lives, particularly when there are young children at home, it will be necessary to cut back on paid work in order to fulfill this calling.

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5 weeks

Dave and I have now been officially unsingle for five weeks, so I thought it was time to post some more pictures of us!

The recent spate of anti-patriarchy comments on my blog prompted some rather tasteless jokes on my part. I do take the matter of Biblical roles and the task of defending scripture seriously, but sometimes I have to laugh or I'll cry! This photo was part of one of those jokes. This is supposed to be a dominating patriarchal pose, since Dave is standing, I am seated, and the child is the lowest of all :). However, a friend told me that the effect was not successful as we all look too happy! To be effective, Dave would need to look severe, I would need to look sad, and Esther should look cowed. No smiles please.


Esther spent her first ever night away from home the night before this picture was taken. She slept in my room, and gave me plenty of hugs in the early hours of the morning . . . but that is another story! I promised to take full responsibility for her overnight, and I am pleased to be able to say that I fulfilled my responsibilities!

The weekend before this, Dave came to visit me in Launceson. He brought me these beautiful roses . . .


I know Dave really does like me, because he not only drove 3 hours to see me, he also slept on a dreadful mattress that had to be placed in the dining room of the house where I board! Here we are . . .


We had a lovely weekend sight seeing, eating out, seeing my friends, talking, walking, reading praying, going to church . . . and generally enjoying each other's company. Dave is reading "The Hobbit" to me, which we both enjoy. We have also watched "Pride and Prejudice" (BBC version) together, during my school holidays. It will be Dave's turn to choose a movie next :)! He grew to like Pride and Prejudice, thankfully, as otherwise all those hours would have been torturous for him!

Two weeks ago when I was in Hobart, Dave helped me babysit my niece Esther. Esther likes Dave, although I don't think she quite knows how to give appropriate compliments yet. She told her mother she thought he was a "pretty boy". Here Dave is playing a game with her where she was rolled in a rug and then carried around.


On the same day, I tried to teach Esther to take pictures of us. This is one of the results . . .



It is not bad for a first effort!

I think that it is healthy that Dave and I spend a lot of time around other people, as well as time alone, and that we spend time in family contexts. This gives us a chance to get a more realistic picture of each other. Unfortunately Dave's family is far away in South Africa, so I have not yet met them. It is great that Dave enjoys spending time with my family.

I am grateful to God for five happy weeks, packed with lots of great memories.

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My Queensland family

Recently my mother and father went to Queensland to visit my brother and his family. I enjoyed seeing the many pictures that were sent back with them on a disk.

My brother's family . . .


The proud Grandma . . .

I was happy to see this picture of my sister-in-law with her daughter. I am glad my sister-in-law is able to enjoy clothing a baby in pink dresses after her two little boys!


My new niece, born in June, looks totally adorable. My parents said her behaviour is as good as her looks. I hope to meet her in the new year, whenever I have a chance to go to Queensland for a visit.

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Echidna encounter

At the end of September I was blessed to able to visit Platypus House with my friends Felicity and Dave. The platypus were difficult to photograph. However, at the same place there were some echidnas that were happy to sit still for us while they ate . . .



It was fun to watch their long tongues lap up their food!

We were able to touch the echidnas. I had never done this before.


Since my sitemeter tells me that many of my visitors come from the USA, I thought you would enjoy a glimpse of these Australian animals.

Baby echidnas and platypus are called "puggles". They hope to breed both at Platypus House.

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I'd rather live here

On my pink town post, Keziah provided a picture of a much nicer town painting idea in multicoloured hues. Keziah often uses great pictures on her blog. Thanks for posting the link to this site, Keziah. I still think the government should let people paint their properties whatever colour they like though! I am sure that most of my readers agree :)!

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Totally behind!

This week I have had very little Internet access. Most of my efforts to get online have been thwarted. Since I believe in providence, I trust this is all in the broader plan :). I have only read about two blog posts all week! Most of my limited internet time has been taken up with reading comments on my Strong women post. One respondant has been posting many long comments related to her beliefs about the roles of men and women, which are contrary to mine. I have had no time to give these a proper response. Later on I may be able to do some posts on the topics she has raised. However, I do not want to engage in long term debate. I have now put on comment moderation, as I do not like to have comments on my blog that teach falsely without having the time to reply. If any of you have time to reply to the comments that are already on this post, I would appreciate your input. I hope to have more time for blogging at some stage, but at the moment spending time with people in the offline world (such as Dave) is more important to me.

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