"The Excellent Wife" is a wonderful source of advice

In light of my post about giving and receiving advice I’d like to once again recommend Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife as a wonderful resource which is packed full of biblical advice. I would happily recommend this book to any woman preparing for marriage. Martha continually draws her readers to the word of God. Reading The Excellent Wife is one way to become equipped to pass on truly wise advice, when asked. It covers everything from homemaking to submission, speech to bitterness – all with a thorough biblical basis. It is easy to compare Martha’s advice to God’s advice, because she continually refers to the Bible. This means that readers can assess the basis for her comments. I am still working through the study guide, and I find it a great way to learn to love my husband better. Applying the word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit is the only way to effectively address the sins and problems I sometimes encounter as a new wife.

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Christmas pictures

I created these angels for our tree after seeing one at a local Christian book store. They are achievable for anyone who is confident with paper craft and is not a perfectionist. The angel I originally saw had a white head but I could only find brown ones, so I figured it would be good to have a multi-racial Christmas tree! Our tree is mainly decorated with angels and stars, as these symbolise aspects of the story of Christ's birth. If you would like to know how to make these angels, I can give instructions in the comments section of this post.


Dave cooked a turkey for Christmas day. Well done, Dave!


We had a lovely time with family.

It was our second Christmas at my parents' home, and our second with my sister's twins.

We also enjoyed relaxing together at home. It was a lovely first Christmas as a married couple.

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A new blog plan

This weekend I am a bridesmaid at the wedding of Christina and Peirce. You will be able to tell form the website that it is quite an elaborate affair! I do not anticipate being online again before Monday or Tuesday next week.

When I come back I am going to start on a new discipline with my blogging. I thought of this while praying about my blog last week. I have a little plan to help me keep on track with the goals of my blog, as set out in the welcome message. I have a monthly plan that goes like this . . .

Week 1: Creation Mandate

Week 2: Loving God (the first part of the Great Commandment)

Week 3: Loving others (the second part)

Week 4: The Great Commission (which I see as a sub-set of the Great Commandment)

I hope that this will help me to post more on each of these important areas. I will also continue to post about other things, but I will try to do at least one post on the topic that is allocated for that week.

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Apathy is the opposite of love

I once heard a preacher say that “Hate is not the opposite of love. Apathy is.” Since then I’ve often thought about this quote in relation to the problem of abortion. In the church in Australia, apathy is the most common reaction to abortion. This was illustrated when a group I am a part of arranged a launch of the work we have been doing toward a pregnancy crisis centre. Our group hopes to offer support to pregnant women, and to share with them the saving love of Christ. For our "launch" we planned presentations for guests to view, boards with information and prayer points, and even show bags for guests to take home. The secretary sent invitations to 41 churches in the Hobart area. Only five guests attended who were not either committee members or their relatives. Several of these were friends of the committee members.

At this time of year I remember what happened to me six years ago, when I attended an abortion debate at Parliament House. On that day, my heart was touched in relation to this issue. I wrote about this experience in my article Abortion broke into my heart. If God had not caused this to have such an impact upon me, I am sure that I would also be apathetic. Abortion is a very difficult topic to discuss and to try to do anything about. Just last week I was so discouraged with the whole thing, and so disappointed that what I try to do often turns out poorly, that I seriously thought about stopping this work. Shortly after that, God intervened again. I received a call from Bruce Coleman of Choices of Life. I have known Bruce for some years now, through his pro-life work, and our conversation reminded me that God is working with us. He does not give up, and neither can I. God calls Christians to love those who are caught up in this sin, and to love their children. They, too, are our neighbours.

Edit 26/12/07: Apologies for the fact that the links were not working on this post. I hope that the problem is now fixed.

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Why grow a veggie garden?

. . . fill the earth and subdue it . . .
Genesis 1:28

The original idea

For a long time now I've been meaning to post about our vegetable garden. We decided to grow a vegetable garden after discussing the potential environmental impact of having a larger than usual family. Obviously we don't have any children yet, but we do hope and pray that God will bless us children. During our engagement we discussed the wasteful nature of modern society, and agreed that we did not want to raise a clan of relentless consumers. The modern household is often solely a place of consumption, rather than a place of production. People come home to consume the pre-packaged meals they purchased at the supermarket or take away, and watch the TV shows and movies that someone has produced for them. We want to turn our household into a place of production.

The spiritual motivation

Our vegetable garden as one way we can fulfill the Creation Mandate to steward the earth. We moved into a home with raised beds that had already been put in place. All we had to do was dig the earth and plant. We are subduing the earth God has given us in our own yard, rather than draining agricultural land. We are making use of what we have been given to grow healthier food which is very convenient to use . . . just walk out the door and pluck a few leaves! God placed Adam and Eve in a garden, and I have a feeling that he always intended people to grow things. You can see this in the way that even city dwellers like to grow a plant or two. There is something in the way that we were created as God's image bearers that makes us wants to cultivate the earth and make it bring forth good things.

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Genesis 1:29

The results

We have been very pleased with the results of our vegetable garden. So far we have harvested snow peas, beetroot (Dave's favourite), lettuce, carrots, celery, zucchini, coriander, basil, silver beet, and baby spinach. The garden gives us a lot of pleasure, even though it is also hard work. We love to go out and look at how the plants are growing, and it is often the first place we head to in the morning - even before we eat! I busy myself working out how to use all that we grow.

More inspiration

I have gained inspiration from my mother's vegetable garden, which is filled with an abundance of good things. I had to laugh when I went around there yesterday and saw her rows of lettuce, silver beet, beetroot, and other vegetables . . . when there are only two living there now! My mother's vegetable garden allows her to be very generous in giving away food, which is a wonderful thing to be able to do. Mum's garden was the place that started our discussions about growing our own food.

The Girotti family also have an inspirational vegetable patch. It looks amazing! When I saw this, my thought was "I hope our garden looks like that someday".

The garden is a wonderful place to think about Jesus' parables of reaping and sowing. It is also a good place to think of the wonderful prayer "The Deeps" and of "roots of grace spreading far and wide".

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A favourite family picture

This picture was taken at my younger brother Aidan's wedding last month. It is fantastic to have all the brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews in the picture, all smiling, at once! Amazing!

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Will Zuma be the new South African President?

This morning Dave and I discussed South African politics in the light of the recent election of Jacob Zuma to the African National Congress (ANC) Presidency. The ANC has won every election since the end of apartheid, so he is very likely to be South Africa's next president.

The Australian published a profile about Mr Zuma, noting that he happily admits to being a polygamist. He is also an alleged rapist and has been confronted with charges of corruption.

In "Profile: Zuma charms wives and nation", The Australian notes that Mr Zuma has four official wives and several girlfriends.

He is undoubtedly a master politician, one of the few who can combine township militancy and traditional African values - one day punching the air at an ANC rally, the next dancing in a leopard-skin loincloth at a Zulu village ceremony.

To say the least, my husband is concerned about this situation in South Africa. This morning in our conversations we were reminded that we need to avoid worrying about tomorrow. Concerns about changes that will lead South Africa toward dictatorship may well be unfounded.

Michael Spicer, of Business Leadership in Africa, said: “It is more a question of style than substance. Zuma cannot possibly deliver all he has promised but he represents a desire for change. I don't think economic policy or government would in fact change very much.”

Whether or not Zuma will change the South African political landscape dramatically, one thing is certain. He is not a godly leader. Will you join with us in praying for godly government in South Africa?

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